Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
I keep flying up the gulch. We really don’t want them getting past Ireforge. The next zone will give them flying mounts, and the idea of a human horde who can take to the skies with magical weaponry is absolutely terrifying.
Should have stopped them here. Should have mounted a massive defense in one of the narrow spots and wiped them out. Not that I want anyone to die, but I’d rather they died than exterminated an entire realm of existence because they don’t get that consequences have actions. Or is it actions have consequences? The air is too thin up here. Thinking is challenging.
The gulch opens up into a red sand biome, where dust storms rage across distant deserts. This is truly a beautiful realm, and I wish that I was not disobeying the orders of my mate in order to see it. I wonder if he’s noticed me missing by now. Probably.
Ornix
The sun has risen, the day is reaching its zenith, and my mate is missing. Again. This human is going to live the rest of her life in the damn dungeon when I find her. Nobody seems to have seen her. I wonder if Nox somehow opened a portal and dragged her through.
I do not know what the world is anymore. Everything I thought I understood about my power seems to be shifting of late. My nephew has gone from a disappointment to a danger. My ability to walk between worlds has been destroyed. And my mate, who should be quietly gestating my firstborn, is yet again on some adventure of her own making.
One of my generals, Azure, waylays me as I storm through the castle looking for Melissa.
“Sire, the humans are massing outside Ireforge. Alarin Forgefist has requested our aid.”
“Of course, send a contingent. Erase the little bugs from the face of the earth,” I respond immediately, but in a somewhat distracted way. I am aware that the human infestation is being regarded with a more or less universal horror, but I am more worried about where my mate is than where all the other little beasts are.
“Yes, sire. Would you like to accompany us?”
“I need to find my mate.”
I am becoming tired of saying those words. I sound like an elderly, forgetful human who cannot find their keys.
“Is it not possible that she is at the battle already, sire?”
I look at Azure, my jaw dropping for a brief moment, as I realize that yes, yes, it is possible she is already at the battle.
“I would suggest, sire, it may be worth accompanying us. If she is not there, your aid would certainly ensure total victory. The humans cannot be allowed to spread. What if they were to start to breed? There could already be small pockets in hidden areas. We need to rout them from the realm.”
“With the exception of my mate, of course.”
“Yes, sire, naturally. With the exception of the royal mate.”
Melissa
As I fly out of the gulch, I spot the party immediately. There’s at least thirty of them, and I bet there’s more because I bet some of them are out farming for materials or just fucking around.
They’re preparing to push on Ireforge. Just as I suspected. They’re so fucking predictable. Not an original thought in their heads.
Thwip! An arrow sails past me.
Fuck. They’re going to kill me before I have the chance to talk to them at this rate.
These fucking arrows are dangerous. There’s something about the way human hunters act that indicates they have no fucking brains whatsoever.
I land behind a very large rock and start shouting. If they kill me for trying to help them, that’s going to suck a lot, but what can you do?
“Stop it! I’m human!”
“You’ve got wings!” someone yells back.
“It’s not my fault!”
They start arguing with each other now. “A human with wings? A harpy! She’s probably rare. We need an elite!”
“I’m not an elite, I’m a business graduate,” I shout out.
“What? Where from?”
“UCLA.”
“UCLA?”
“Yeah.”
“Not Berkeley?”
“No. Does it matter? If I come out, are you going to kill me?”
“Come out anyway. We have more than enough people to flank and surround you. Better to let us have a clear shot than risk getting winged. Get it?”
“Stop being a psycho, Tony,” someone says. “Come out. We won’t hurt you.”
I come out to face a group of people of all ages, genders, hair color, and attire. They haven’t been able to do any dungeons like they would in the game, because there are none here, which is good because they’d be even more leveled than they already are.
“I’m Melissa,” I say. “I got brought through a portal a while ago.”
“You must be one of the testers,” someone says. The crowd speaks with dozens of voices all at the same time.
It’s hard to differentiate everybody. The leader of the group is a middle-aged man who is balding and looking absolutely at home in Gulch Plat armor.