The four looked at each other, and grins formed as they looked at Ethan. Their courage returned to them. The man who looked like the leader had a sword strapped to his side and a staff in his hands. He grinned as he spoke, looking up at Ethan.
"There is an elf girl who belongs to us. Do you have any friends that are hiding in the forest?"
The four scanned the trees around them, and he saw they had realised he was alone. Ethan could feel the hair on the back of his neck rise. This man was not ordinary. He had something that he had never sensed before.
"Alas, the girl now belongs to me. Leave in peace. We do not need to quarrel with each other."
"Your speech is strange, giant. That girl and her charms will be ours, and we will partake of her before we sell her."
The elf girl stirred behind him. The man's eyes focused on her briefly and then back on him.
"Hail, stranger, be careful; he is a magus."
"Alas, what is a magus girl."
The men looked shocked for a second or two, and then the man with the staff grinned. He looked like a rat to Ethan.
The staff started to glow, and the man slowly unsheathed his sword. The breeze carried the aroma of bread.
The girl and the men stank of sweat and filth.
A branch snapped as a man stepped forward.
The magus disappeared suddenly.
A diverting slap and a thunderous crack as a tree burst, wood chips and bark exploding outwards.
A thrust of a sword, a slap to the wrist, the sound of bones breaking, a knife thrown deflected to the left—the meaty thud of it lodging in a chest. There were grunts of effort as swords flashed, and then the bodies exploded backwards into trees, bones breaking and heads splitting.
The scent of blood, piss and shit filled the air.
The elf girl took a step back as Ethan walked towards her.
"Alas, tell me about this magus. His staff glowed he must have been a sorcerer."
"Hail, stranger, you did not use your sword at all. How?"
"Alas, they were weak like children."
The girl folded her legs to the side on the terrain, arms held protectively over her body. Ethan noticed her fear and started to rifle through the corpses. The magus had become part of a big tree, his broken body lodged inches deep. He chose two money pouches and handed the girl one, with the silver divided between the two pouches.
She took it with a strange, amused look, like an unbeliever.
"Hail, stranger, you're not going to defile my body and put your seed in me?"
Ethan turned beet red as he looked at her, his eyes wide. His eyes roamed her body. His lower regions responded in kind. Her eyes widened as well, and her jaw dropped.
Ethan took a few steps back, shocked at his body's unruly behaviour. He has seen many high-elf women naked before.
Why now, of all places?
His bottle green traditional Hanfu robes with gold and silver leaves and flowers embroidered into the material. The sterling silver and gold threads could not be manufactured in this realm. He could not hide his arousal at this young high elf's beauty.
"Alas, let us go to the village and get clothes for thee and food. I could eat a bull."
Ethan beckoned for her to follow him as he walked towards the direction of the delicious smell of bread. His erection took a while to subside, the girl's presence a constant behind him. He dared not look back for the sway of her hips, or her breasts might cause his body to respond in kind.
They stopped near the wall. It would be easy to get over it.
A field of flowers between the wall and the forest stretched to the right and left as far as the eye could see.
"Alas, girl, my name is Ethan, and yours, seeing that we are companions for now."
She looked at him like he was mad in the head, explaining that no human would ally themselves with a demi-human unless they were their slave. The culture in this world did not treat demi-humans as equals; only dwarfs got some respect because of their strength. Her name was Wendy, and she was born in this world.
Her parents had come through hunting a group of killers a thousand years ago, and they had passed away recently from old age, leaving her destitute. They lived in the forest nearby, never going into the villages or near humans for fear of capture and enslavement.
The village had security cameras at the edge of the low wall. Now and again, a motor vehicle would drive by on the road behind the village.
A supermarket sign could be seen above the houses on the edge. A woman took clothes from a line, and someone called her into the house. Ethan jumped the wall in one smooth motion.
As he looked back, Wendy followed him.
Ethan focused as he jumped the low fence, pulled a blouse and skirt from the line, and threw a silver coin in the basket with dry clothes.
Wendy grabbed a pair of undergarments from the basket. He ran towards the forest again. Wendy was on his heels, jumping the wall again. The white blouse and skirt had red and yellow flowers.
Ethan appreciated the feminine look of the clothing that Wendy would wear.
"Alas, let us clean ourselves with soap and water and find food to eat."
Wendy turned red in the face and walked behind a tree, and he could hear her moving rocks and branches, preparing a place to wash.
Ethan took his water skin and poured water into a pot he had taken from his bag. He also filled the other pot with water. Wendy thought he was a magus, but he explained that the water skin was technology that pulled moisture from the air. The two stones were tech as well, using hydrogen as fuel.
Wendy talked about her parents and how they had told her stories of their home realm. She admitted she didn't believe them, thinking it was a myth. He had given her soap and a washcloth.
Wendy took the two buckets and walked behind a tree to wash. Wendy placed the buckets by Ethan's feet. Ethan took the bucket and disappeared behind the tree to wash as well. The clothes were a tad big for her skeletal body. She looked gorgeous once she was cleaned and dressed. Her ears moved as she spoke, her smile adding to her beauty.
She recommended him that as a human, he should join a guild hall, and there, he would find work to do for coin. There were inns, but she said they were expensive. He had enough for a few meals and a room for a few nights.
"Alas, you mean a room for us and a meal we can share. Do you think I will leave you to fend for yourself?"
Ethan looked to the side, his cheeks red. Wendy looked at him, suspiciously covering her breasts with her hands. She closed her legs tightly and wanted to say something when Ethan interrupted her.
"Alas, I do not know how to read. How do these coins work? We have no money system in the Divine Nexus."
Wendy's face lit up. Ethan could see what she was thinking as she looked at him. She was in a bind, with her parents gone in this hostile realm. Ethan wanted to track the Skinwalker as soon as possible. But he could not leave a girl in need; he knew how it felt to be weak. He thought, where would he be now if the orphanage did not look after him? The answer was clear to him: six feet under.
Wendy grinned before she looked up at Ethan.
"Hail, my mother said that you share essence with your subordinates. May I see, please."