John Ringo - There Will Be Dragons

“What? Why?” Rachel said.

“He hurt your mother,” Bast said as if that settled it. “You are my friend. And he hurt the lover of my best human friend, Edmund Talbot. For that, I shall mount his balls on my trophy wall!” She paused and frowned. “If I can ever get back to my apartment in Elfheim.”

“Apartment?”

“Close enough for human words,” Bast said. “More of a closet, really, but with a very fine view of the next tree and if you lean way over,” she added, suiting actions to words, “you can see a stream. A small one. More of a run-off creek, really. Intermittent anyway. Elfheim is… rather crowded. We’re immortal. Even with not having babies very often, hardly at all, really, it’s gotten… crowded.”

“I’m surprised more of you don’t live in the World,” Rachel said, wide-eyed. Her image of the elves had never included them living shoulder to shoulder.

“Me too,” Bast admitted. “But in Elfheim, most of them live in the Dream of the Woods, rather than in the real woods. In some ways, the Dream is better, more intense, than the reality. But I like to touch the woods, to see the trees grow, to watch the petal open in reality, even if it is less… beautiful than Dream.”

“And so you’re caught out here,” Rachel said.

“Yes, severed from the Dream,” Bast sighed. “Some day the Lady will relent and we exiles will return. Until the Dream palls upon me and I must walk the world of Men once more. To see the buds open in the sicamauga tree and to watch the trout leaping in the streams. To see each day anew, less perfect than Dream but oh so much more real .”

“And as if the last few days haven’t been really bad enough,” Daneh said from the door to the kitchen. “Hello Bast.”

“Daneh! My friend, how are you?” the elf asked.

“Better than I was,” she replied. “Did I hear you two talking about Elfheim?”

“A bit, I like your daughter. She has grown much. You humans grow so quickly!”

“And die just as quickly,” Daneh sighed, coming over to the table and sitting down. “How have you been?”

“I have been much,” Bast said. “I have traveled much this time out. Always before I was in Norau, and eastern Norau at that. The woods are so lovely now, I have watched them grow and grow. But this time I took a trip to the jungles in the south. They are much more rich than the woods, especially the parts that missed the Great Killing, but… I missed my woods. And there were too many things in the south that made me itchy.” She paused and looked past Daneh. “Daneh, stay still. You are being stalked.”

“That’s just Azure,” Rachel said. She walked over and opened up the cold stove and took from it some more of the meat she had had the night before. “Here Azure.”

The cat took it and sniffed at it then held it down with one paw to tear at the meat. He didn’t seem particularly hungry, though, because after taking a bite or two he started to toss the piece around like a squeaky-toy.

“That is a white leopard if ever I saw one,” Bast said warily. “They seem friendly, sure. But I had one leap on me in the mountains once. What a fight!”

“When was that?” Daneh asked, getting her own bowl of mush.

“When I lived with the yetis that this youngster says are a myth,” Bast replied. “They lived in high mountains, far from here. I had heard of them and wanted to know the truth so I stayed with them and took a man among them. I bore his child and then when the child aged and the man was long dead I left, lest I see the child age and die as well.” For just a moment she looked sad but then she brightened. “Hey, there are probably some long-lived yetis these days, ey?”

“You lived with…” Daneh said. “You had… I don’t believe it!”

“Tell me I lie,” Bast said with a chuckle. “Go there and find out.”

“How did you, I mean…”

“Everyone’s the same height lying down!” Bast said.

“Not something I want to think about right now,” Daneh said.

“So I was told,” Bast replied, looking sad again. “Are humans long lived enough to forget?”

“Forget, never,” Daneh said. “Repair? Rebuild? I don’t know. Ask me some other time.”

“Nothing gets better if you pick at it,” Bast said. “You are too good to be always in hurt. Someday, get back on the horse. Well, maybe not horse…”

“Bast!” Rachel snapped.

“You can’t quell her,” Daneh said, shaking her head. “She’s been like this for as long as I’ve known her and longer.”

“Life is too short to cry,” Bast said. “Even for an elf. Horse, it’s gonna buck and you’re not going to like the ride at first, but you’ll get past it. You’re strong. Hey, Rachel, let’s go out and see what mischief we can wreak!”

“Bast…” Daneh said.

“Always so serious,” the elf replied soberly, reaching out to stroke her cheek. “I won’t get your child in trouble, Daneh Ghorbani-Talbot. On my honor as a wood elf. Right now, you have enough problems.”

“It’s just Ghorbani, Bast.”

“So, if not horse you get back on…”

“Enough!”

“Right, we’re out of here,” she said, grabbing Rachel by the shoulder again.

Rachel found herself being dragged to the door. “Bye Mom. We’ll talk later!”

“Try to keep her out of trouble,” Daneh said.

“Me?”

“You have sense.”

Azure watched them wander out, then looked over at Daneh.

“I don’t know,” the woman grumbled. “You think I can keep an eye on her?”

The cat seemed to shrug then, with one more look at the woman, turned in the other direction and nudged open the back door.

“And don’t you stay out too late, either!” Daneh called after him.

Sheida sat up in her bed and stretched, rubbing at her temples in an attempt to quell the myriad voices that seemed to be running around in her head. Managing the avatars was turning out to be harder than she had ever imagined. Each of them was an almost perfect replica of her, just as sentient, just as “alive” and just as capable of making decisions. But she was the final repository and judge, so every day, sometimes every hour, they sent her gestalts of their actions. The gestalts tended to have their own personality attached and since the avatars were “her” there would be emotional content included. It was the best way to manage the massive number of interactions necessary to maintain some order in the chaos following the Fall, but it was beginning to drive her just a little bit crazy.

She crawled across the bed and stuck her feet into slippers, padding across the empty room to a table at the side.

“Tea, raspberry,” she said, sitting down on the float-chair and taking the tea as it appeared in the air. She sipped the bitter-sweet concoction and considered the situation that her avatars had reported. So far, the loss of life in Norau had been low, considering the conditions. People were responding to the emergency much better than she had dreamed was possible. Communities were opening up their limited stores and trying to get people back on their feet. In the central plains area it was easier than in the others since food, for the time being, was in abundance. It would be nice if there was some way to move it outward, but so far none of the plans for that had worked.

She shook her head and realized that she had to start worrying long term rather than short. Right now things were stabilizing. But Paul was continuing his assault on every power plant available to the Coalition and he’d managed to take two down. Furthermore, he was beginning ground attacks against settlements that were in support of the Coalition. There had to be some way to counterattack, but everything they had tried had failed.