The first thought that crossed Vin’s mind as he, Shia, and Reginald wandered into the small, well-guarded village was that these people really seed to only have two primary moods.
Overly-cautious, or party animal.
Barely five minutes after he and Shia had reported the news of the Red Dawn having been permanently dealt with, the elves had broken out a half-dozen kegs and started the party. Drums were beaten, warriors were dancing, and sohow a large table had been brought out and filled up entirely with food in what felt like the blink of an eye. Vin stood there in shock as the elf with the scar on his face thrust a tankard of what slled rather heavily of alcohol into his chest, grinning as he took a large swig of his own drink.
“Forgive us for the sudden festivities, but my people have been warring with the deranged ones ever since The Renewal! Many lives have been lost, our own as well as our guardians, but in the end, we managed to hold out and were victorious!”
“If only by default!” the elf woman with the bone earrings added, laughing as she drank from her tankard.
“These people really like to let loose,” Shia muttered in her native tongue, before her eyes landed on what looked like a large tray of ribs slathered in sauce. “And I’m all for it!” she added, making a beeline straight for the food, weaving in and out of dancing elves and beating drums in order to reach it. While she may have felt more comfortable being surrounded by elves once again, even if these ones didn’t share her sa serrated teeth, Vin was a tad more hesitant about letting down his guard. The two elves both seed to notice this, as the one with the scar chuckled and shook his head.
“Not what you expected to find after fighting through all those monsters to find us, eh?”
“No, definitely not,” Vin admitted, wincing at the reminder that they’d scythed their way through what had probably been close to a hundred trained monsters. “Sorry about that by the way. I hope we didn’t cause you too much trouble killing so many of your monsters.”
“Bah, monsters are as plentiful as the stars in the sky,” the elf said, waving a hand dismissively. “And at our level, taming new ones barely takes any ti at all. I’m Huark, by the way, the one with the ravishing piercings is Urluna.”
“Sweet talk all you want, Huark, you’re still not getting into my tent tonight,” Urluna grinned, getting a laugh out of the male elf before she turned toward Vin. “We’re both Tars, along with a good quarter of our village. The rest are a mixture of Hunters and Gatherers, with a few oddballs here and there who go against the grain.”
“I’m Vin, an Explorer. The elf currently making her way through what looks like her second rack of ribs over there is Shia, a Druid,” he said, before gesturing down to his front pocket. “And this here is Reginald, animal companion of a friend of mine.”
Reginald poked his head out, squeaking a greeting and waving a tiny paw at the two elves.
“It is good to et the three of you,” Huark said, raising his tankard in greeting. “We could sense you were good people the mont we laid eyes on you, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.”
“You could?” Vin asked, curious what he ant. “So sort of passive?”
“Empathic Gaze,” Urluna explained, tapping at her temple. “Any Tar worth their salt takes it early on in their career. Let’s you know just from a look how well the taming process is going, whether it be with a beast or a monster. It’s how we knew from day one the deranged ones were bad news, and how we knew you were nothing like them.”
“That makes sense,” Vin said, wondering if Dennis had a similar passive. If anything, now that Vin had t a village chock full of Tars, he really needed to hunt down Dennis just to let the man know more of his kind existed. Maybe they could exchange taming tips or trade materials. “So you guys haven’t really ventured out much then I take it? Assuming you didn’t want to run into the Red Dawn.”
“We’ve poked our heads into the adjacent fragnts here and there, but no, none of us wanted to go too far and risk getting caught away from the others,” Huark nodded. “Even with our trusty Morouk, venturing beyond our known land often wasn’t worth the risk. Though with the fall of the deranged ones, that is no longer the case.”
“The Morouk?” Vin asked, thinking back to the large deer-like creature they’d seen. “Is that like a horse?”
“I’m unfamiliar with the term, but the Morouk are our primary thod of transportation,” Huark said, pointing off toward what Vin now recognized as a large stable. “Our village is ho to about three hundred people, and the Morouk are powerful beasts that don’t ta easily. Only a dozen of us are strong enough to keep them in line.”
“Interesting…” A large, powerful creature that can be ridden, huh?
One of the very first missing Earthers Vin had rescued from the fifth wave of Earthers to co to Edregon had been a muscular woman with a whole host of tattoos covering her body. She’d told him she’d picked up the Rider class of all things, which had seed like a bit of a waste, what with the lack of motorcycles on Edregon. But if these Morouk could be tad and ridden…
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His thoughts were interrupted by a flash of powerful green light, and Vin flinched, dropping into a combat stance without even realizing it. His golem arm glowed a dangerous, bright blue, and Huark and Urluna both let out identical noises of approval at his reflexes before laughing.
“Don’t worry, it is just Shuvo, the village Shaman,” Urluna explained, clapping him on the back and getting him to relax once more. “He has a flare for the dramatics anyti the drinks start flowing.”
“Shaman?” Vin repeated, suddenly growing much more interested in the village than he had been before. “What kind of magic does he specialize in?”
“There are different kinds?” Huark asked, draining the rest of his drink before grunting at his now-empty tankard. “You’d have to ask him! I’m off to find so more booze, and perhaps soone else willing to co to my tent tonight!”
“Where are you going, Huark, the stables are that direction!” Urluna called after him, howling with laughter before clapping Vin on the back yet again and chasing after the other Tar. Suddenly left to his own devices in the middle of a dancing crowd of elves while the beat of a dozen drums thrumd through his bones, Vin carefully put his untouched tankard down, making his own beeline through the crowd.
But not toward the kegs.
Even if he hadn’t been in the middle of throwing handfuls of powder into a roaring bonfire, causing the flas to turn bright green and flare outward each ti, Shuvo wouldn’t have been hard to find. While most of the elves wore heavy furs to help fight off the cold, the Shaman took things a step farther. One of the large, powerful Morouk had been skinned and turned into a too-big robe which draped off the scrawny Shaman’s fra. The head of the beast with antlers still attached sat atop of his own, really selling the whole Shaman look, in Vin’s opinion. As the elf hurled another handful of powder into the flas to the roaring approval of the dancing elves by the fire, Vin stepped up and cleared his throat.
“Excuse !” he said, trying to make sure he could be heard above the drums. This close to the center of the party, the noise was far louder. “You’re Shuvo, right? The Shaman?”
“Indeed I am!” the elf laughed, and Vin blinked as he realized the Shaman was far younger than he expected. It wasn’t as though Shuvo was a child, but in his head, he tended to think of Shamans as older people. The grizzled elders of a tribe. Instead, Shuvo looked to be about Vin’s age, or maybe even a year or two younger. “Do you require assistance from the Gods? I can offer you magical marvels, for a price!”
“I’m actually a mage as well!” Vin explained, earning a look of surprise, and what looked strangely like fear from the young Shaman. “I was hoping we could maybe exchange spells? I’m always trying to find new ones!”
“You dare think yourself worthy of my magic?” Shuvo shouted, so of the nearby drums and dancers faltering a tad as the celebrating elves realized soone was shouting in a tone that in no way sounded like rrint. “My magic is bestowed upon by the Gods themselves! You, a learned mage, could never hope to compete!”
“But divine classes aren’t a thing on Edregon,” Vin said, his brow furrowing as he tried to figure out what he was missing. “The Gods aren’t able to directly interfere with people anymore. It’s what led to the collapse of the old universe in the first place.”
By this point, half of the elves had stopped partying, and the rest were slowing down as well. Even Shia, who had what looked like half of an entire roast bird cramd into her mouth, had looked up from the table of ats, blinking as she tried to figure out what was going on. Urluna was quickly making her way over to him, an odd look of concern on her face as she pushed through the watching elves.
Shuvo looked half stunned by Vin’s declaration, and he sputtered for a mont before standing up straighter and narrowing his eyes at him. Thrusting a finger toward Vin, the Shaman tilted his head so far back the Morouk head balanced atop his own nearly tumbled off.
“Unless you wish for a demonstration of my most powerful magics, I suggest you leave this village and never return! This is your one and only warning!”
“…I want to see your magic,” Vin said, his confusion quickly being replaced with excitent as he smiled at the still-stuttering elf. “The more powerful the better!”
“Vin!” Urluna called out, muttering sothing that sounded a lot like a curse as she started running. But before she could reach him, Shuvo collected himself, pulling his hands within the sleeves of his robe as he barked out a deep, powerful laugh.
“Alright, don’t say I didn’t warn you!”
Without warning, the Shaman flung his hands outward, shouting sothing unintelligible up at the sky as he hurled two handfuls of green powder directly toward Vin. Caught off-guard in more ways than one, Vin reflexively cast Stone Wall, blocking the powder with a thick sheet of stone that rapidly began lting before his very eyes as the powder landed on it. Before he could say anything, Shuvo continued, grabbing a flaming branch from the bonfire and hurling it at him, following it with another handful of powder imdiately after, this one distinctly red.
“Extinguish,” Vin cast, easily catching the now-cold stick free of fla and frowning as the elf’s handful of red powder struck him in the chest, doing a whole lot of nothing without the flas it was intended to interact with. At this point, Vin had pieced together what was going on, but he didn’t understand why Shuvo was doing what he was doing. He wasn’t about to out the elf in front of his entire village, but before Vin could apologize and walk away, or Shuvo could pull so other trick out from within his sleeves, Shia managed to swallow her far-too large mouthful of food, calling out across the now silent clearing.
“Vin, why are you fighting with the guy pretending to know magic?! If you get us kicked out of here before I finish eating, you’re going to wake up with leaves in your hair for the next month!”
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