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Description
Jo

They would not make it in time. The Dwarves were filling their boats with useless junk: chairs, extra clothes, a few books. This was going to be a battle, not a picnic.

"Korcal, this isn't working."

The Fairy sorcerer was deep in conversation with her sister, Lapis, and paid him no attention. Jo shook his head in annoyance. They were fooling themselves into believing that there was some sort of hope, that there was some possible way to defeat this army of humans, and it was his fault. He was the one who had thought up such a crazy scheme and convinced Korcal that it would work, and now...

Jo grew restless watching the boats journey back and forth across the dark lake from Gummaka to the entrance of Angalee, so he slipped through the crowd into the forest and followed the path up from the waterfront.

Despite all the rush and worry about the coming battle, Jo felt peaceful in the Dwarfish city. Gummaka was a beautiful place, more like a camp than a town, and it was difficult to believe that any danger could come to you here.

Jo followed the path up to a wide clearing in front of the kitchens. Here, in the light of a bonfire, Rupert, Birch, and Hemlock were attempting to teach a huge crowd of dwarves and fairies how to fight. Most of the members of this collection (that optimists alone called an army) had fought against the Union about three years before, but had no other real experience. In an actual battle, people would fight simply out of fear to stay alive, but that would not help them for long.

These 'soldiers' had paired off to practice fighting against each other. Jo strolled among them looking for those who stood out as superiors, or, as in Ivy's case, a danger to themselves. She held her sword perpendicular to the ground like a shield and swung it from side to side, all the while murmuring the delicate notes of a strange song beneath her breath, trying to enchant her partner, a girl dwarf about the same age but just half her height. The girl appeared to know what Ivy was doing, and her brow furrowed with concentration as she struggled to maintain control of her mind.

"Get her!" Jo called to the dwarf. "She wants to kill you, get her first!"

The girl glanced his way and her dark eyes sucked him in. She knew. She knew everything about him, about his life, his ability to change, Willow, and, worst of all, she knew about Lor. Jo shuddered and took a step away. The dwarf looked back at her opponent.

"Enough," she said, and she reached forward, knocked the sword out of Ivy's hand, and thrust her own blade up into the fairy's face.

"Hey!" Ivy shrieked, raising her hand above her head as though she intended to rip apart the dwarf's skin with her nails.

"Ivy!" Jo reached out and grabbed her hand before she could swipe it across the girl's face and steal her soul. Her face whipped toward his and she smirked when she saw who it was.

"Why hello Jo, I was just thinking about you."

"I'm sure you were."

"I'm just curious...if I were fighting and you saw me in peril, would you save me or leave me to die?"

Jo changed his hand just a little, to give him more strength, and he squeezed Ivy's wrist so hard that she cried out in pain. He relaxed his grip slowly, giving her time to think of what he could have done before he released her.

"Only if the situation presents itself will you find out the answer. Which means you'll never know as you won't be allowed out to fight unless we are down to the last hundred people."

"So you're with the optimists and idiots about this battle? You think we won't be that desperate?"

Jo stared at her for a few seconds, then he leaned forward and whispered in her ear.

"No. I think that we're all going to die except for you. I think that they'll let you live, just so they can-" and he told her all the terrible things that were in his mind. It was a relief to be voicing them, no matter who it was who heard.

Ivy gasped and pushed him away. Her eyes were wide.

"I'd rather die!" she said.

"Good, because that's what will happen, whether they take time or just kill you outright like the rest of us."

Ivy's eyes grew even wider. She pushed Jo aside and hurried away. He watched her retreating back for a moment before he turned his attention back to the dwarf.

"You shouldn't have done that," she told him. "She may not have understood what was about to happen here, but she was happier that way."

"All I told her was the truth."

"Oh? And how do you know the future? I thought your Gift was changing."

"How did you know that?"

"You just changed your hand. It's a little hard not to notice."

"Oh." She had not mentioned the strange connection that had passed between them, so Jo prayed that he had just imagined it.

The dwarf held out her hand. "I'm Alexandrite."

Jo nodded and shook her hand. "I'm Jo. You fight a lot better than most people."

"My father is the Chief of the Guard for all the protection a place like Gummaka needs on most days. He trained me and my brothers early on and I fought at Domicallia."

"You did?"

She nodded. "I saw Willow and I saw her. I wish I could say that she was beautiful, but that would be lying. She was..." Alexandrite cocked her head to one side, and Jo thought that he could feel her sorting through his thoughts. In his mind, he saw a scene in the center of Domicallia that he had hoped to forget. "Well, you know what she was better than I do, that's for sure."

Jo was speechless. "How dare you!" he spluttered.

Alexandrite smiled apologetically. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

Jo said nothing, but turned on his heel and stomped away.

~~~

The first round of returning fairies came in well past dawn and it was all the fairy healers could do to fix up the wounded and send them to the caves along with everyone else before the next group arrived.

The boat loading was still taking to long. No one wanted to be uncomfortable or, it seemed, reasonable. Jo grew short tempered and yelled at an older dwarf who was trying to bring a thick book of history with him.

"Can't you just try to live to remember everything?" he bellowed as the man cowered below him.

"Jo!" Korcal scolded, rushing to the old man's assistance. "Why don't you go find somewhere else where you can help?"

So once again he stomped away from the waterfront and up to the clearing. The soldiers had finished practicing and were now waiting for boats to ferry them over to the waterfall where the battle would take place and the advantage would be on their side. The clearing was empty except for one lone, kneeling figure near the remains of the fire. Jo walked over.

It was a dwarf woman, one of the oldest people Jo had ever seen. She was leaning forward on her hands and knees, panting and gasping for air.

"Ma'am?" She continued to choke. "What's wrong?"

She did not answer but fell face forward into the dirt. Jo rolled her onto her back and saw that her face had changed from dwarf white to pale purple. She coughed and managed to raise her hand and grab the front of his shirt.

"You – listen here – my boy," she wheezed. "You – bury me. They can chase – me out of Gratalid – but they can't – chase me out of – Gummaka. Remember that – and my name – Amber. Tell – tell Lapis-"

Her speech was interrupted by more coughs, then she choked one last time and lay still. Jo stared at her face as he untangled her limp fingers from his shirt and, unable to bear the look of death, he tore his eyes away and glanced at the ground. A foot away from Amber's head was an empty paper packet. He leaned forward to pick it up, and though he could see no markings, he was sure that this woman had poisoned herself. His mouth felt dry and he tossed the packet into the ashes of the fire.

A twig snapped in the trees overhead. Jo glanced up. Hundreds of birds were lowering a battered-looking fairy to the ground. He collapsed as soon as they released him.

Jo ran to the fairy's side. "Hawk! What happened?"

Hawk struggled to his feet. "More are coming behind, but none of the plant fairies. They killed them all. Jo, the army is huge! We can't fight them!"

"Stop it!" Jo slapped Hawk to silence him. "It doesn't matter anymore! Follow that path down to the waterfront; I'll wait around for the others."

Hawk nodded and stumbled off down the trail. Jo turned back to the woman. What was he going to do? There was not enough time to bury her. The sound of more flapping wings came from above and two more fairies landed, one holding on with all her might to a wounded friend. Their eyes grew wide when they saw the dead woman.

"Jo! What did you do?"

"She did it herself. She said she didn't want to be chased out of her home. Give me a hand so we can take her down to Korcal."

The other fairy, Jay, came over and picked up her thin body with ease.

"Are any more coming?" asked Jo.

Jay shook his head. "We had to leave the cover of the trees to fly away and they shot at us. Overall I'd say we killed well over a hundred of them and lost twenty. At least you didn't assign us larger groups, or it would have been much worse."

Jo led the way down to the waterfront where Korcal and Lapis were waiting.

"Where have you been? We finished sending over the general population and we were about to send the others ahead. The humans have to cross the desert yet, but-" Korcal stopped mid-sentence. Jay lowered the dead woman to the ground and Lapis hurried forward to kneel beside her.

"Oh, Amber, why did you do this?" she moaned. Jo looked away as the sorcerer's tears fell onto the woman's face. Korcal stepped forward and laid a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"Lapis...we don't have time to delay."

"I know," she said. There was a flash of blue light and Jo turned around in time to see the earth open up and swallow the dwarf whole. A rock bobbed to the surface like a cork floating in water and came to a rest over the grave. Something that looked like a blue snake squeezed out of a crack in the rock and arranged itself into a single word, the dwarf's name.

Lapis showed no sign of leaving. Korcal gave her a gentle nudge toward the boats.

"Lapis, come on, we have to go."

She pulled her sister to her feet and they headed toward the water. Two boats of the Elves, humans, and selected fairies pushed off, leaving Jo, the newly arrived fairies and the Sorcerers alone at the waterfront.

As they climbed into the last remaining boat, Jo glanced back at the forest. The humans might tear it all down when they arrived. His eyes fell onto the new grave of the first dwarf to die as a result of this war. No, it was not a war. The humans would win too easily and when they did, they would be the last race on Earth.

~~~

Sitting with his back to the wall of the river tunnel, Jo wrapped his fingers around the hilt of his sword. How many more hours now until he would be forced to use it? How long would the humans wait before they attacked?

In his mind, Jo ran over the events of the last few hours. The children were in the caves where they would be out of the way, and the old had taken up the task of tending wounded fighters. Everyone who had the strength to fight had been provided with weapons and were now resting and preparing for the battle.

Someone sat down next to Jo. He turned his head and saw Birch, dressed in his armor and carrying a sword two inches too long for him.

"I thought Korcal said you weren't supposed to fight," Jo muttered.

"She did," Birch shot back. He pulled a smooth, round stone out of his pocket and set about sharpening his already sharp blade. After a few moments, he glanced up and smiled.

"What?" asked Jo.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop looking like my twin brother," he said.

"Oh." Jo looked away and imagined the face he had seen when he had looked at his reflection in the lake water, the face that was supposed to be his. He felt his features change, felt his skin stretching as it covered the bones of an almost seven-foot tall fairy instead of a five-foot elf.

"Better?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry. Sometimes if I'm not thinking about anything, I just change whether I mean to or not."

"So are you a boy or a girl?" asked Birch, failing to hide his curiosity.

"Well, no one can remember, but I'd rather be a boy."

Birch grinned. "Ah, so you've got your eyes on a girl, don't you?"

Jo winced as though the question pained him. "No."

Birch realized that he had touched a delicate subject, so he said nothing after that, just continued to run the stone from the hilt of the sword to the tip, then bring his hand back to the hilt and do it again. For almost an hour, this sound accompanied that of the rushing water, the soft patter of feet on the mossy floor, and the whispers of the soldiers in the passages. Sun rose higher in the sky, filling the river tunnel with shadows, and soon, despite how nervous he felt about the coming battle, Jo slipped into something like sleep.

~~~

"Jo! Wake up! They're here!"

"Huh? Who's here?"

Birch punched Jo's arm. "The humans!"

"Oh!"

Jo scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could over the moss-covered stone to Korcal's side at the mouth of the tunnel, where he could get a view of the clearing below.

The humans had cut down all the trees between the lake and the waterfall and filled the space with soldiers. Jo was about to laugh – they had been so worked up over such a small army – when he glanced across the lake and saw that Gummaka's waterfront was also packed with humans, all scrambling to get on boats.

"Jo, listen to me now." Korcal pulled Jo close to her and whispered her last idea into his ear. "Understood?" Jo nodded. "Good! If we cannot win, we may as well cause a lot of trouble. Now get down there and get ready."

Jo obeyed immediately. He elbowed his way through the crowd on the stairs that led to the space behind the waterfall and pushed his way through the throng of soldiers and lines of archers who would shoot through the water before jumping out to fight.

"Hey!" one of the dwarves yelled at him over the sound of crashing water. "We're not supposed to go yet! We have to wait for the sorcerers' signal!"

"Korcal's orders!" Jo hollered back. "I'm to go out first."

He pushed his way into the clearing between the archers and the water and crouched down to give himself room. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the one person he wanted to change into, someone he had only imagined in his worst nightmares, who could cause pain and misery with ease, but most importantly, someone who could not die. He took a deep breath and began to change...into Core.

Description
Jo

They would not make it in time. The Dwarves were filling their boats with useless junk: chairs, extra clothes, a few books. This was going to be a battle, not a picnic.

"Korcal, this isn't working."

The Fairy sorcerer was deep in conversation with her sister, Lapis, and paid him no attention. Jo shook his head in annoyance. They were fooling themselves into believing that there was some sort of hope, that there was some possible way to defeat this army of humans, and it was his fault. He was the one who had thought up such a crazy scheme and convinced Korcal that it would work, and now...

Jo grew restless watching the boats journey back and forth across the dark lake from Gummaka to the entrance of Angalee, so he slipped through the crowd into the forest and followed the path up from the waterfront.

Despite all the rush and worry about the coming battle, Jo felt peaceful in the Dwarfish city. Gummaka was a beautiful place, more like a camp than a town, and it was difficult to believe that any danger could come to you here.

Jo followed the path up to a wide clearing in front of the kitchens. Here, in the light of a bonfire, Rupert, Birch, and Hemlock were attempting to teach a huge crowd of dwarves and fairies how to fight. Most of the members of this collection (that optimists alone called an army) had fought against the Union about three years before, but had no other real experience. In an actual battle, people would fight simply out of fear to stay alive, but that would not help them for long.

These 'soldiers' had paired off to practice fighting against each other. Jo strolled among them looking for those who stood out as superiors, or, as in Ivy's case, a danger to themselves. She held her sword perpendicular to the ground like a shield and swung it from side to side, all the while murmuring the delicate notes of a strange song beneath her breath, trying to enchant her partner, a girl dwarf about the same age but just half her height. The girl appeared to know what Ivy was doing, and her brow furrowed with concentration as she struggled to maintain control of her mind.

"Get her!" Jo called to the dwarf. "She wants to kill you, get her first!"

The girl glanced his way and her dark eyes sucked him in. She knew. She knew everything about him, about his life, his ability to change, Willow, and, worst of all, she knew about Lor. Jo shuddered and took a step away. The dwarf looked back at her opponent.

"Enough," she said, and she reached forward, knocked the sword out of Ivy's hand, and thrust her own blade up into the fairy's face.

"Hey!" Ivy shrieked, raising her hand above her head as though she intended to rip apart the dwarf's skin with her nails.

"Ivy!" Jo reached out and grabbed her hand before she could swipe it across the girl's face and steal her soul. Her face whipped toward his and she smirked when she saw who it was.

"Why hello Jo, I was just thinking about you."

"I'm sure you were."

"I'm just curious...if I were fighting and you saw me in peril, would you save me or leave me to die?"

Jo changed his hand just a little, to give him more strength, and he squeezed Ivy's wrist so hard that she cried out in pain. He relaxed his grip slowly, giving her time to think of what he could have done before he released her.

"Only if the situation presents itself will you find out the answer. Which means you'll never know as you won't be allowed out to fight unless we are down to the last hundred people."

"So you're with the optimists and idiots about this battle? You think we won't be that desperate?"

Jo stared at her for a few seconds, then he leaned forward and whispered in her ear.

"No. I think that we're all going to die except for you. I think that they'll let you live, just so they can-" and he told her all the terrible things that were in his mind. It was a relief to be voicing them, no matter who it was who heard.

Ivy gasped and pushed him away. Her eyes were wide.

"I'd rather die!" she said.

"Good, because that's what will happen, whether they take time or just kill you outright like the rest of us."

Ivy's eyes grew even wider. She pushed Jo aside and hurried away. He watched her retreating back for a moment before he turned his attention back to the dwarf.

"You shouldn't have done that," she told him. "She may not have understood what was about to happen here, but she was happier that way."

"All I told her was the truth."

"Oh? And how do you know the future? I thought your Gift was changing."

"How did you know that?"

"You just changed your hand. It's a little hard not to notice."

"Oh." She had not mentioned the strange connection that had passed between them, so Jo prayed that he had just imagined it.

The dwarf held out her hand. "I'm Alexandrite."

Jo nodded and shook her hand. "I'm Jo. You fight a lot better than most people."

"My father is the Chief of the Guard for all the protection a place like Gummaka needs on most days. He trained me and my brothers early on and I fought at Domicallia."

"You did?"

She nodded. "I saw Willow and I saw her. I wish I could say that she was beautiful, but that would be lying. She was..." Alexandrite cocked her head to one side, and Jo thought that he could feel her sorting through his thoughts. In his mind, he saw a scene in the center of Domicallia that he had hoped to forget. "Well, you know what she was better than I do, that's for sure."

Jo was speechless. "How dare you!" he spluttered.

Alexandrite smiled apologetically. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

Jo said nothing, but turned on his heel and stomped away.

~~~

The first round of returning fairies came in well past dawn and it was all the fairy healers could do to fix up the wounded and send them to the caves along with everyone else before the next group arrived.

The boat loading was still taking to long. No one wanted to be uncomfortable or, it seemed, reasonable. Jo grew short tempered and yelled at an older dwarf who was trying to bring a thick book of history with him.

"Can't you just try to live to remember everything?" he bellowed as the man cowered below him.

"Jo!" Korcal scolded, rushing to the old man's assistance. "Why don't you go find somewhere else where you can help?"

So once again he stomped away from the waterfront and up to the clearing. The soldiers had finished practicing and were now waiting for boats to ferry them over to the waterfall where the battle would take place and the advantage would be on their side. The clearing was empty except for one lone, kneeling figure near the remains of the fire. Jo walked over.

It was a dwarf woman, one of the oldest people Jo had ever seen. She was leaning forward on her hands and knees, panting and gasping for air.

"Ma'am?" She continued to choke. "What's wrong?"

She did not answer but fell face forward into the dirt. Jo rolled her onto her back and saw that her face had changed from dwarf white to pale purple. She coughed and managed to raise her hand and grab the front of his shirt.

"You – listen here – my boy," she wheezed. "You – bury me. They can chase – me out of Gratalid – but they can't – chase me out of – Gummaka. Remember that – and my name – Amber. Tell – tell Lapis-"

Her speech was interrupted by more coughs, then she choked one last time and lay still. Jo stared at her face as he untangled her limp fingers from his shirt and, unable to bear the look of death, he tore his eyes away and glanced at the ground. A foot away from Amber's head was an empty paper packet. He leaned forward to pick it up, and though he could see no markings, he was sure that this woman had poisoned herself. His mouth felt dry and he tossed the packet into the ashes of the fire.

A twig snapped in the trees overhead. Jo glanced up. Hundreds of birds were lowering a battered-looking fairy to the ground. He collapsed as soon as they released him.

Jo ran to the fairy's side. "Hawk! What happened?"

Hawk struggled to his feet. "More are coming behind, but none of the plant fairies. They killed them all. Jo, the army is huge! We can't fight them!"

"Stop it!" Jo slapped Hawk to silence him. "It doesn't matter anymore! Follow that path down to the waterfront; I'll wait around for the others."

Hawk nodded and stumbled off down the trail. Jo turned back to the woman. What was he going to do? There was not enough time to bury her. The sound of more flapping wings came from above and two more fairies landed, one holding on with all her might to a wounded friend. Their eyes grew wide when they saw the dead woman.

"Jo! What did you do?"

"She did it herself. She said she didn't want to be chased out of her home. Give me a hand so we can take her down to Korcal."

The other fairy, Jay, came over and picked up her thin body with ease.

"Are any more coming?" asked Jo.

Jay shook his head. "We had to leave the cover of the trees to fly away and they shot at us. Overall I'd say we killed well over a hundred of them and lost twenty. At least you didn't assign us larger groups, or it would have been much worse."

Jo led the way down to the waterfront where Korcal and Lapis were waiting.

"Where have you been? We finished sending over the general population and we were about to send the others ahead. The humans have to cross the desert yet, but-" Korcal stopped mid-sentence. Jay lowered the dead woman to the ground and Lapis hurried forward to kneel beside her.

"Oh, Amber, why did you do this?" she moaned. Jo looked away as the sorcerer's tears fell onto the woman's face. Korcal stepped forward and laid a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"Lapis...we don't have time to delay."

"I know," she said. There was a flash of blue light and Jo turned around in time to see the earth open up and swallow the dwarf whole. A rock bobbed to the surface like a cork floating in water and came to a rest over the grave. Something that looked like a blue snake squeezed out of a crack in the rock and arranged itself into a single word, the dwarf's name.

Lapis showed no sign of leaving. Korcal gave her a gentle nudge toward the boats.

"Lapis, come on, we have to go."

She pulled her sister to her feet and they headed toward the water. Two boats of the Elves, humans, and selected fairies pushed off, leaving Jo, the newly arrived fairies and the Sorcerers alone at the waterfront.

As they climbed into the last remaining boat, Jo glanced back at the forest. The humans might tear it all down when they arrived. His eyes fell onto the new grave of the first dwarf to die as a result of this war. No, it was not a war. The humans would win too easily and when they did, they would be the last race on Earth.

~~~

Sitting with his back to the wall of the river tunnel, Jo wrapped his fingers around the hilt of his sword. How many more hours now until he would be forced to use it? How long would the humans wait before they attacked?

In his mind, Jo ran over the events of the last few hours. The children were in the caves where they would be out of the way, and the old had taken up the task of tending wounded fighters. Everyone who had the strength to fight had been provided with weapons and were now resting and preparing for the battle.

Someone sat down next to Jo. He turned his head and saw Birch, dressed in his armor and carrying a sword two inches too long for him.

"I thought Korcal said you weren't supposed to fight," Jo muttered.

"She did," Birch shot back. He pulled a smooth, round stone out of his pocket and set about sharpening his already sharp blade. After a few moments, he glanced up and smiled.

"What?" asked Jo.

"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop looking like my twin brother," he said.

"Oh." Jo looked away and imagined the face he had seen when he had looked at his reflection in the lake water, the face that was supposed to be his. He felt his features change, felt his skin stretching as it covered the bones of an almost seven-foot tall fairy instead of a five-foot elf.

"Better?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I'm sorry. Sometimes if I'm not thinking about anything, I just change whether I mean to or not."

"So are you a boy or a girl?" asked Birch, failing to hide his curiosity.

"Well, no one can remember, but I'd rather be a boy."

Birch grinned. "Ah, so you've got your eyes on a girl, don't you?"

Jo winced as though the question pained him. "No."

Birch realized that he had touched a delicate subject, so he said nothing after that, just continued to run the stone from the hilt of the sword to the tip, then bring his hand back to the hilt and do it again. For almost an hour, this sound accompanied that of the rushing water, the soft patter of feet on the mossy floor, and the whispers of the soldiers in the passages. Sun rose higher in the sky, filling the river tunnel with shadows, and soon, despite how nervous he felt about the coming battle, Jo slipped into something like sleep.

~~~

"Jo! Wake up! They're here!"

"Huh? Who's here?"

Birch punched Jo's arm. "The humans!"

"Oh!"

Jo scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could over the moss-covered stone to Korcal's side at the mouth of the tunnel, where he could get a view of the clearing below.

The humans had cut down all the trees between the lake and the waterfall and filled the space with soldiers. Jo was about to laugh – they had been so worked up over such a small army – when he glanced across the lake and saw that Gummaka's waterfront was also packed with humans, all scrambling to get on boats.

"Jo, listen to me now." Korcal pulled Jo close to her and whispered her last idea into his ear. "Understood?" Jo nodded. "Good! If we cannot win, we may as well cause a lot of trouble. Now get down there and get ready."

Jo obeyed immediately. He elbowed his way through the crowd on the stairs that led to the space behind the waterfall and pushed his way through the throng of soldiers and lines of archers who would shoot through the water before jumping out to fight.

"Hey!" one of the dwarves yelled at him over the sound of crashing water. "We're not supposed to go yet! We have to wait for the sorcerers' signal!"

"Korcal's orders!" Jo hollered back. "I'm to go out first."

He pushed his way into the clearing between the archers and the water and crouched down to give himself room. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the one person he wanted to change into, someone he had only imagined in his worst nightmares, who could cause pain and misery with ease, but most importantly, someone who could not die. He took a deep breath and began to change...into Core.