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The elven response was fast, a dozen archers were suddenly on the ground, bows drawn.

Tense seconds passed.

A new elf dropped from the trees above, landing with his back to us just before his compatriots. "What are you doing Elarial? You were told to greet them and ask if they would bring the your priestess to the temple, not to begin armed conflict with them!" He began yelling, "Lower your damn weapons now, these are peaceful lands and I want no elf to start a war, particularly with a clan known for having some of the most destructive fighters in the world!"

The elven archers, to a man, lowered their weapons.

The newcomer turned, "Be at ease, this is a mistake, things were not meant to get this heated." He pleaded with us.

"One of my people noticed your escorts trying to put THIS on Brianna. I am sorry if our bluntness offends but free will is not something we are willing to negotiate." I kicked the offending, and somewhat cooled, loop of metal to the elf, who bending down gasped in astonishment.

"Elarial! You would bring such things within our borders? Be gone from here, the High Priestess will hear of this." The dismissed man and his two cronies left. "Now I can see why you were so hostile, these, are considered to be an abomination, a relic from a past we had hoped to see left long behind us. On behalf of all my kind, I offer the most sincere apologies.". The elf had a silver tongue, that was for sure.

"I gather he does not represent a significant portion of your people then?" I questioned, I still hadn't given the order for the troops to lower their weapons, and they were still tracking targets in a very businesslike manner.

"They most certainly do not, if you would be so kind as to follow me to the temple, we can clear this matter up and resolve things to everyone's mutual satisfaction." He oozed calm and friendliness. The guy was practically a politician.

"Ok then, that would be a good start. Sergeant, have the men fall in, maintain readiness but keep the guns down unless we are threatened again." I leaned on the last word. The Sergeant of course knew exactly what I wanted, a powerful, if short range, telepath, he could take the orders I gave without me having uttered a single word.

"Rest assured, you will not have a single bow pointed at you again whilst you remain in these lands." The elf soothed. I could even taste the lie this time, he was saying whatever he could to get us to that temple. A little worrying, but our ace-in-the-hole would be even more effective in a closed environment.

The temple, when we arrived, was a huge tree that had split about a hundred meters up from the ground and radiated into a huge root system around the one point. Light filtered into it through breaks in the roots above. The ground was a pungent loam for the most part, except around the huge alter and statue at the far end, currently surrounded by figures praying.

One figure detached from the rest and made its way toward us, it was a female elf, dressed in an amazing combination of animal hides that had been skinned so thin they were almost transparent, never the less, no part of her but her head and hands were visible, the skin-robe hinted but never showed anything.

"Welcome warriors and be at peace in this house." She intoned and made a gesture in the air.

~"Ryst says that gesture wasn't magical, it might have just been religious."~ Lyl's mind-voice conveyed.

I relaxed a fraction, at least this wasn't going to start with a fight... again.

Before our escort could begin another painfully flowery deceleration I pushed forward with my own words, "Dear lady, forgive our ignorance of your ways and speech patterns, but I believe such matters as what have been presented require blunt solutions. In short the ward of my people, Brianna here" I gestured to Bri, "is not interested in joining with your people, despite her current form. She came of her own free will to ensure there would be no misunderstanding in regards to her opinion. I must point out, as her current guardian, I will not allow anyone to interfere with her exercising her free will in any way, shape or form." I pushed on, unable to read the faces of the female elf in front of me. "Furthermore I would have to demand the release of the party we sent here to aid you in matters of combat, they are being held against their will and we will want them back as soon as possible."

The woman looked at me, narrowing her eyes a little, "I will have to warn you, for the first and only time, you are currently addressing the High Priestess of Graiea, as such you may make no such demands, you may only do what we say. Is that clear? Good." I was dumbfounded, was she this far removed from reality? She continued though, "Our Goddess' wishes are that her new priestess join us here, immediately, you will leave, your force already here will remain and be used by us, to defend our realm. That is all, you may leave."

She began to turn.

~"Sir, is it time for C?"~ Both Lyl and Cope said together.

"Time for C" I confirmed aloud.

One of the people with us, dressed in full combat gear, carrying an unloaded gun, stepped up beside me, accompanied by Lylianna. "Ok hun, it will be just like we planned, ok?" She said to the soldier, who lifted her head, tipping back her head to reveal the part-avian head of the Siren, she began to sing.

Her voice was mute to me, however, this was as we had planned. Sweat beaded and ran down the girls beak, the effort to keep some from hearing her song straining her more than we would have thought, but one by one, the elves wandered up to her, curling up comfortably at her feet and fell asleep.

It seemed like she would stumble, I stepped quickly, letting her lean on my raised arm. She was so light, there was nothing to her. I smiled down to her, her eyes were bright, I thought to her ~"Your doing great, wonderful work."~

Her eyes rekindled with more determination and she raised herself, with the support of my arm and now Lyl on her other side, even taller, her beak going wide. I almost longed to hear that song, it was so beautiful the first time. I shook my head a little to free it of that thought.

Soon there were well over a hundred elves laying down, sleeping quietly. The Siren girl slowly let her beak close and slumped down into my strong, waiting arms.

"There there, its fine, you did great." I murmured to the simple girl. Since her captivity, she had lost a lot of her higher function, but kindness and love was one thing she was brimming with. She cooed softly, closing her eyes and slipping into an exhausted slumber.

Passing her to Private Johansen, I turned back to the Lyl. "Lyl, can you find the captive soldiers?"

"Yeah, I can feel them, they are in a cell behind this tree." She replied, slipping partially into mind-speech, must be working her arse off too to have done that. She was usually very careful about how she spoke.

"Ok, Ryst? Where's... ahh crap." I looked down at his peaceful form, asleep just beside where the Siren had performed. "Never mind, lets get this done fast and get out of here. Johansen, get this guy back to the truck, we are leaving no one behind." The field medic nodded, since all this had started and he had been the expert on animal nutrition, we had one of the doctors teach him the basics of field medicine, thankfully he was a quick learner.

We ran double-time around the tree, to find the truck and bushmaster from the missing squad, along with the soldiers themselves, locked in a cage. Some were passed out at the base of the cage, others were looking at us as we advanced, grins wide on their faces.

"Good to see you Sir!" Lieutenant Jessup called from the cage.

"How you doing in their Lieutenant? Hang on, stand back from the bars..." I let the beast fill me, let it reach out to every pore of my being, it fought for control, 'MY PACK IS HERE, WE WILL FIGHT FOR THEM!' it yelled into my mind. I let it fill me, bringing it into my awareness. The whole world looked, smelled and sounded different, this was no place for me or mine.

Reaching out to the bars of the cage I heated them with a flash of high voltage and tore several loose. Reaching down to gather up a pair of sleeping soldiers, we hurried them to the trucks. "Lets get the fuck out of dodge" I told their drivers before they climbed in and the big motors rumbled to life.

We ran back to our trucks, ran a quick head-count, confirming all were present when a huge sound boomed behind us.

"Captain, you had best come back and look at this Sir!" The private in the gunner's seat yelled.

I peered out the back closed back door, a huge, easily forty feet tall, semi-transparent elf was marching from the direction of the temple. I growled and punched the door release.

"Sss, Sir?" Ryst's voice came, still a little groggy, "That's the elven Goddess, Graiea. Sir, if you ask me, she looks pissed."

I grinned, "Yeah, she does and you know what, I am an atheist son." I started to climb out the back of the truck, letting the wolf inside me have more and more control. I yelled, "These are my pack! Return! We did yours no harm!"

"Mortal! Do not presume to order a god!" She gestured lightly and I felt a weight pour onto me, forcing me down, trying to make me kneel and lay down before her, the human part of my mind was weak to its power, and would have given in, but there was little human left in my mind at the moment.

Suddenly the weight too disappeared and I was wreathed in a dark purple glow, turning my head I saw Ryst leaning against the truck, arms weaving, chanting, pouring his power around me. I nodded to him, seeing his eyes alight with strain and effort.

I called the clouds, I called the storm, the most primal of forces. I am not sure how or why, but something else answered that call and I saw a being step down from the gathering thunderheads in front of me.

"It has been a long time since a Thane has called upon this power, let alone so strongly. And to see one doing so, standing tall against a god, with nothing more than a boy keeping her magics from him, it makes this old beings bones sing with battle again. Return with your pack my son, take them and leave this ones demesne, I grant you that time. But do not wait too long to summon me again, I will come, have no fear. We must talk about your pack and about a little shrine or two. Its been too long since I had a shrine..."

The huge, hammer wielding, God trailed off, his power was boiling in the air, I wanted so much to fight at his side, to join with him in a battle against this elven diety. But his words struck into me, letting the logical part return briefly. I turned helping the stunned Ryst into the truck.

"Drive for the love of Thorista drive!" I shouted, so loudly that even the other truck driver would have heard. Then it dawned on me, without even knowing how I knew, I called the Gods name.

The driver wasted no time, propelling the vehicle to its maximum speed and pushing it further still, we shot out of there quicker than a missile, leaving the raging gods to their fight.

"Ok, Sir. I have to ask. What the fuck just happened back there?" Brianna was beside me, and apparently the first to regain her senses.

"I, I don't know. But I think I want to find out..." I replied, echoing the thought that was in my mind.