章 3: East Jura Aliance

{POV: Naga / A few days earlier}

As we slithered away from the clearing, our lady's aura was once again fully released. While my companions were still shivering like they were part of some warm blooded race and it was winter, I didn't have time to be scared, for I had to gather and hold a conference with all the village heads to properly explain our situation.

If Lady Charybdis's words are to be believed, and I somehow feel we can trust her, she has claimed the east Jura forest, and in doing so, also gave us, the residents, her protection. I'll still try to come up with a way to miraculously defend from the west's 3 to 1 number advantage, but I don't think it will be needed.

As the last of the pale family, I am ashamed of how our race has been almost extinguished in the past 250 years of war. Currently we number 20, spread thin over the dozens of villages of Goblins, the rabid humanoid hyenas, the Gnolls, the puny little bearded Gnomes and the giant foxes, the Volpins.

We all had no choice but to work with one another for the survival of the east Jura species. We, the serpentfolk, were appointed as the alliance leaders, for being the most powerful and reasonably long lived. The gnomes did live longer, but no other species would tolerate being ruled by the little guys.

The war started when the colorful horned humans, the orcs, wanted to expand their territories over the river, so they employed the help of the lizards, the lizardmen and enslaved countless goblin tribes and direwolves to attack us. The only reason we managed to survive all these years despite our number difference is the 'neutral' third party. The fish men, the merfolk, lived and protected the Great Ameld River, and therefore, made it much more difficult to invade our side of the forest.

Finally arriving at our village, entering through the wooden gate that made an opening in the spiky wooden palisade, I assembled the whole village to make an announcement. I looked at the hopeful faces of everyone from the different races that represented east Jura.

The black furred hyenas just looked hungry, with their tongues hanging out and dripping saliva. The small gnomes just looked at me attentively, as if their lives depended on whatever came out of my mouth.

Knowing that, in combat, all they could do was support magic, their concerns might just be valid. The bright orange foxes lay on the ground, their long pointy ears unflinching as they waited for the sound of my voice. I smiled, cleared my throat and started my speech.

"As all of you remember, earlier today we all felt a terrifying aura wash over the forest. When it didn't disappear, I felt it was my responsibility to investigate the appearance of such a powerful being, so close to our settlements. So, I gathered a team of our strongest warriors and we slithered our way to the origin of the aura."

I paused for a second. "Now, before I continue, I assume all present know who Charybdis is correct?".

Everyone in the crowd gave a tense nod at the same time. It was kind of humorous how in synchrony it was. "We believed that the Child of Veldora was a mindless monster, incapable of anything but destruction, reviving at least every couple hundred years to continue enacting her wrath. We even experienced it ourselves just a couple of days ago, even if, for some reason, she only attacked in retaliation to our attacks and seemed more preoccupied in arriving quickly at a different target. I would assume we are not powerful enough to be worth her effort." I paused to give a dramatic effect.

"The monster we found was from a species I've never seen or read about before. Her form was humanoid, she only had one big blue eye, and had a shark tail on her back. While it should have been obvious who was in front of me, considering her physical features, I would never have guessed who she was, had she not called herself Charybdis."

Almost every jaw in the crowd figuratively smashed the floor and wide eyes, almost as big as the singular eye of my lady, stared at me disbelievingly. Before they could recover from their shock, I continued in a strong voice.

"But never fear my friends, for lady Charybdis has claimed the Jura forest, east of the Great Ameld river where we live and granted us, insignificant, lesser monsters her protection. Not only that, but she has also gifted me with the highest of honors for a monster.", I smiled proudly.

"From today forth, you shall refer to me by my name and not only by my position as the last of the pale family, the leader of the East Jura Alliance and head of this village. My name is 'Naga' and we shall no longer struggle against the unrelenting assault of the west!" A loud cheer echoed through the settlement as I slid down from the small wooden podium I used to speak to the villagers.

Before going inside my house to prepare my tribute, I called for two of the fastest of our messenger units, consisting of rare light blue volpin twins carrying some gnome riders. They were so fast, they could deliver a message all the way to the north or southmost areas occupied by us, along the coast of the Ameld river in around two and a half days.

I ordered them to deliver an urgent message to all other alliance village chiefs to unite here in the 'capital' village, in seven days for the most important meeting since the conception of the EJA. Each fox departed immediately, in opposite directions, one to the north and the other to the south. I turned around and slithered to the building I slept in.

Like almost all other buildings in the village, my home was constructed with wood, and even though it was sturdier than the others, given my station, it was not saying much.

The only thing of value inside, except the whip-sword left to me by my father, hanging from where my waist would be if I was human, and the ruby necklace around my 'neck', was the single bookshelf, filled with books detailing our ancestors history and knowledge left by my great-grandfather who worked for the dwarven king Guran Dwargo around 500 years ago.

Those used to be useless to us, as I couldn't understand the complicated language detailing the intricacies of runes and runetech. Now though, since lady Charybdis has shown such interest in the subject, they might just be the most valuable thing our village owns.

The sun had already been replaced by the moon in the sky, so I decided to take a book titled 'The Remote Synchronization of Mana Frequencies in Runes of Different Natures' from the bookshelf and laid in my long bed.

Just trying to understand the title almost gave me a headache, but reading the odd words from the book made me sleepier and sleepier. In a few minutes, my fleeting conscience abandoned my body as I fell asleep with a heavy book on my face.

<Individual's physical constitution will be rebuilt>

The light rays that seeped through the seams on the walls hit my face and woke me up, this time not blocked by a book, like in the day after my evolution. It's been seven days since then, and I'm incredibly thankful to my lady Charybdis for giving me such power.

My body changed a lot. My upper half is now humanoid, I grew long light purple hair that reaches to the wide hips that my body now has. I still had slitted red eyes, and a long forked tongue, except they now rested in a face resembling that of the human or demi-human races. My new ears were straight on the top, round under and ended in two pointy ends.

In my chest were two big lumps of meat that are seemingly useless. I believe they are used in child rearing for mammals, like the orcs of the west, and I've seen it's a part of the body they always cover, even when wearing minimal armor or clothing. Must be a particularly fragile body part, so when I noticed them I immediately covered them with a white piece of cloth, tightening it around my body with rope.

My serpent body now started at the hips and had grown two more meters from what it was before. My scales were still a shiny white and the smooth underside was a slightly hotter shade of purple than the lilac it was before, the same shade of my hair.

I was also much stronger and faster now. Using [slithering] before, I could quickly change directions while moving, but now it's almost instantaneous and completely disregards previous momentum.

I can now use [Charm] to control very weak beings and alter their memories. I haven't tested it yet, but apparently, I can regenerate even lost limbs with [Self-Regeneration].

I am even able to manipulate water and create streams from my hands. I finally have something to combat the strange fire affinity some orcs demonstrate on the front lines, that killed so many of my kin.

But the most important skill I received is lady Charybdis's famous [Magic Jamming] that gave so much trouble to mages trying to fight against her. While it's true that it is also an intrinsic skill to harpies, they don't use it to its fullest extent. They mostly use it to negate the flying ability of their enemies, while the most excellent Charybdis becomes almost invulnerable to magic attacks.

The various leaders of the alliance have gathered in our village, and in a few minutes, we are going to hold a conference to explain the next course of action regarding the war, and the tributes we have to pay to lady Charybdis.

Unlike what one would expect from such a powerful monster, the tributes she requires aren't sacrifices, or some kind of torture for her entertainment. She expects something much more civilized and refined, like knowledge.

Even the ungrateful villages who won't or can't share knowledge, can just research and develop new ones, like she asked. We just have to put our blacksmiths to work. There's no excuse for those who don't deliver and inevitably get eaten in the end. They might benefit more as 'sustenance' to Charybdis than as dead weights consuming the forest's resources.

Sliding out of my house, I saw all the EJA heads in a circle, discussing something, as the two new arrivals looked at me with wide eyes, in surprise. The same reaction had been occurring for a few days, as the representatives from the other fortress villages arrived.

I just shrugged and promised to explain everything in the meeting. Just as everyone was preparing to enter the circular reunion building, the strong aura that had been a constant in the distance, shifted, and everyone froze as it got closer and closer. In the sky, there was the majestic form of Charybdis, in her full draconic glory, flying southwest.

Everyone in the village wore an expression of horror, as if waiting for their eradication, that would soon befall them. Except we were all ignored, as I knew we would be, and after a few minutes, the sounds of massive explosions echoed across the forest as the west of the river was completely obliterated by great Charybdis' [Wicked Light Ray].

All of us watched in awe as the villages housing the enemies we had been fighting for hundreds of years were mostly destroyed. Apparently, her goal was not total destruction, but sending the message that the east was now claimed and they should stop their invasion or risk annihilation. After the display of might, she landed and disappeared from our sight. We all stayed silent for a moment.

"Our meeting today relates to lady Charybdis and the end of our war with the west. If you would please follow me inside to start the meeting." I finally said, and after a few confused stares, everyone followed me inside and sat at the round table.

There were seven, including me. One for each major fortress village participating in the war. One old goblin, one taller than average gnome, two gnolls, both heavily scarred, but the shorter one sported a huge scar across his closed right eye and three serpentfolk, me, now a lamia, a friend of mine that had a black and orange coloration, her dark gray eyes sparkled at me with curiosity, and a fully green snake.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we gather for the 34th, and hopefully the last east-west Jura War meeting. For the sake of brevity, I will start immediately with the version of events I told the subjects of this village…".

They all listened attentively, disbelieving expressions on their faces, except for the gnome, who simply held a focused, pensive expression with a hand holding his chin, covering his mouth.

When I finished, the gnome asked in a sagely voice. "If you felt the need to differentiate between a version you would tell your people, and one held private, then that must mean that the public account of events is either wrong or missing some important information.".

As always, despite being a part of the weakest race among us, except for their supportive skills and magic, he always was one of the wisest ones between us. I smirked at him before giving him my answer.

"Everything I said to them was the truth. I simply withheld information on the tributes she requires from us…". The table shook, as a loud thud echoed the walls of the building, interrupting me. The one eyed gnoll had smashed his fist on the table and was now yelling.

"So we are finally free from this oppressive war and become enslaved to some mindless beast? I will not stand for this. We must fight and slay this beast before we starve to death, dancing on its strings…". He stopped squealing, pathetically shrinking on his chair as my anger boiled over and my restrained aura came out, engulfing everyone inside. The goblin shivered slightly but he was not even in my vision, as I tunnel visioned on the gnoll in front of me.

"You will not insult our savior and protector you pathetic weakling.", I said in a voice so cold, that it felt as if the room's temperature had decreased several degrees. Restraining my aura, I continued in a slightly warmer tone of voice.

"To clarify, Charybdis is not a mindless beast, as was believed before. She is also not requesting sacrifice, killings or torture. All she wants is any and all knowledge in runes, magic, or its associated devices or artifacts. If you don't have any of those, you can research and develop, and for that I'm willing to let some of our runesmiths teach some of your artisans the basics."

In a disappointed tone of voice I continued. "Unfortunately, we can't yet create new devices, so we simply maintain the currently crafted ones, left to us by our ancestors, like the [Snake's Right Hand]. If nothing comes out of it, there's still gold that she can be appeased with, but in case your village cannot pay, in her own words, she will 'put you to use in a different way'." They all shuddered, as they should, and the graying goblin opened his mouth and spoke in a shaky voice.

"Urmm… The gnomes have their magic, support it may be, but magic nonetheless. The snakefolk and now plus a powerful lamia, have the runes left from previous generations, and the gnolls, although lacking in the previous requirements, are physically strong, so I'm sure our lady would find a productive use for them. But what about us, the goblins? We are not special in any way! How are we to survive?" His voice became gradually more panicked the more he spoke.

The black-orange serpent to my left smiled and spoke to the old goblin. "Why do you think the goblins are the dominant species, numerically, in the forest? You adapt to your environment. You are flexible and can endure a lot in order to survive. Obviously, your species' continued existence also has to do with your lightning fast reproduction cycle, but you are old enough to realize that survival is indeed possible.".

The goblin seemed almost confused at the statement of fact that the snake uttered, so I picked up the conversation to end the meeting.

"The way I am going to handle the teaching situation, is to gather my subjects, and ask for those who wish to learn the art of runes. Those who answer affirmatively, will be put under our smiths to be taught, and those who are not interested will be removed from their intensive wartime warrior training and be moved to more important activities like hunting or gathering. I suggest you do the same and then send the eager to learn to one of the three serpent-dominated villages.".

All nodded or made sounds of agreement. "Any other ideas before I finish the meeting?" I asked, not expecting an actual answer, more of a polite way to end it. My question was answered, however, by the wise voice of the little man at the opposite end of the table from me.

"I would also suggest employing the gnomes as magic teachers. While it's support magic, it is magic, and even though most like to dismiss it, I believe it is incredibly useful. Anyways, if some of the subjects would prefer to learn magic instead of runes, we would welcome them at any gnome-dominated village.".

It wasn't a bad suggestion. I can remember quite a few times where their support gave us the strength to win some apparently unwinnable battles. Now to end the meeting.

"I acknowledge your suggestion, and will incorporate magic into my questionnaire. Now, to end things, please gather your tributes in the central village…", this one, "... because it is the closest to 'Charybdis Grotto' as I've named her cave. I will report to her when she comes back and hand her the offerings. I will also ask how often she requires our contributions, but I believe it will be either once a month, or a year.", I said with a tone of finality and ended the meeting.

"You should start organizing everything we spoke about as quickly as possible. Thank you for being present for the 34th east-west Jura War meeting, and also the last. You are all dismissed" I hit the small hammer on the table twice and we all left the building.

"You know, I noticed that, though the goblin looked uncomfortable, even after my encouragement, the ones who really came out worse out of this meeting were the gnolls. The only thing they are good at is fighting with their absurd physical strength. That's also how they managed to get two of the seven seats. They were useful in the war. However, I can't really see them learning this kind of precise arts, like runes or magic. What do you think will happen to them?" Said the dark serpent in private, having followed me to my house, after all other five alliance seats left the village on their mounts.

I thought for a moment. "...If I'm being perfectly honest, I've never much liked the gnolls. Most of them are bloodthirsty fools who revel in war. I think if it wasn't so one sided, they would have loved to fight eternally.".

I looked outside through a window at all the people from the six different races, celebrating the end of the war. "As for what will happen to them, should they refuse to adapt, only lady Charybdis knows."

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Edited 26/07/2024: Smaller Paragraphs

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