The Next Few Days.

I headed back to the house come early morning before any of the hill residents woke. Truthfully I hadn't slept much with the knowledge that prince Warwick might be in the city along with his witch friend. Twice now I had encountered them and both times barley surviving the encounter. I wish I had killed him when I had the chance and end whatever he was up to. I made it home just as day broke. The sun panting everything in warm light. I went inside to see an elven woman coming down the stairs.

"Hello." She smiled warmly as if we knew one another.

"Um, who are you?"

"It does not recognize us? Sorry we forget. A gift from the the one you call Queen." She said touching a necklace she wore. "It feels so strange for us to have skin." I sudden;y recgnozied the face. I just wasn't used to seeing it covered in in flesh and not wood.

"I imagine so. So this isn't an illusion?" I said touching her arm.

"Somewhat. We are human on the outside but still us underneath." She replied. I could feel what she meant tough her skin was as soft as any humans.

"Neat trick."

"Now we can get close to humans." She smiled.

"Lets not rush it." I shook my head. "I assume they put the seed up your."

"Oh yes. Rose was quit..." She began to say.

"Stop..." I put my hand up. "Stuff like that is personal. We humans do not openly discuss things about sex. Least not all humans."

"Really. It is very enjoyable experience." She gave me a puzzled look.

"I am sure it was but to humans sex is a secret moment that is typically kept between two people." Sometimes more but I wanted to keep it simple.

"We think we understand. So we shouldn't have told them about you and us." She gave me a look

"Can't change that now." I shook my head.

"So what all do you need to carry the seed. Anything I need to get you?"

"No, we require only a portion of the day under the sun in a spot near where the seed will be planted and water though I did find the tea from yesterday very enjoyable. If you have more." She smiled.

"I will make sure we get more." I nodded.

"Thank you. I should strip down now and go get some sun." She said slipping out of her dress.

"Okay. That is a very complete spell and you are very naked." I grinned. She looked one hundred percent like a nude elf.

"Yes. I must be naked to soak in the sunlight." She replied.

"Let's take off the necklace before getting undressed next time." I said.

"If you wish." She smiled and took the necklace off returning to her normal state as her body turned into wood and her hair into leaves. I showed her outback to the lake where she took root and then froze into place as her skin seemed to harden more. Except for the human form one might mistake her for a tree as I had the first time.

After the girls awoke I went to the fort were every man, soldier or worker, ended up helping build up the wall on the south flank as more stone arrived cutting a weeks worth of work into half a day. The catfolk masons moved as fast as they could as men passed stones from one to another and set them in place. We went as far south as we could go until we ran out. We went up the hill and got small boulders and rolled them and capped off the end with as much as we could stack and shoved spears into the spaces and filled it with mortar. When the next shipment came we would work on the other side. Until then the company of soldier camped there would have to do.

At noon me and the hunters put several of the men through the paces testing the archers. There was a deference between shooting a bow in war and hunting. It was a lot easier to hit one man in a group of a hundred then it was to shoot a deer surrounded by a hundred trees. There were some good archers in the group. Some even with a little hunting experience. I paired them up with the regular hunters who now would also serve as scouts. The rest would need more training though some showed potential and only lacked the experience with the bow.

The Captain put the archers who didn't make the cut as scouts on arrow duty to replenish our stock and increase it. We came up with the idea to store them in barrels so we could place them by the hundreds on the battlements when needed giving every archer quick access to more when they ran out. Small cask could be used for the crossbowmen.

The captain started testing the infantry units on crossbows which he was far better at then me. They were simple to use but lacked the range and power of a bow. If we got into another fight with the dark elves we wanted every man we could to be able to shoot.

Afterwards I headed down to scout the area Lars had talked about. He was right about it being dried up. Many of the houses I came across were rotted out from water damage. The fields overrun with plants but they looked fertile from how fast the vegetation had taken over. I rode up to the bend in the river and followed it from what I remembered on the map. It didn't take me long to find the right spot where the river was the closes though it was a good distance. The north section was on higher ground so a trench straight across would send the water in the direction I wanted.

I rode to the castle and meet with the queen . She introduced me to the steward in charge of land management. He seemed happy to hear that the land was livable again. Even more happy that someone wanted to buy it so he didn't have to deal with it. He had had to manage the refuges situation during the goblin war. Finding places for hundreds of thousands of people to live. The tent cities were the best he had been able to do for many. Some people were moving back north now but it was slow going with so many men dead or off fighting in the war. I went back to see Selena that afternoon who wanted to try it with just her and Nisha. I was happy to let them have at it. That and I didn't want Raven to come hunt me down. Virgins were fun but Rose, Aurora, and Felicia were more experienced.

The next day I recruited the girls. They helped me plot out a few acres of land in a row and then several more across what I pictured as a street leading south towards the road that led back to. We marked them off with string and sticks.

We already knew people from the tent cities who were more then eager to move onto a piece of land so they could farm. Plus their wasn't much privacy in a tent when your neighbor could hear everything you said. They would still be living in a tents but now they had land they could work and build on and would have a little more privacy.

The week flew by and the valley began to quickly filled up. I had to hire a few men to mark out property and help dig out the new path for the river and block the old one. Whatever dirt we dug up was went into building a hill along the river to keep it on course so the small valley hopefully wouldn't flood again. Least not in anyway we didn't want to. My old cat friend was eager to offer some suggestions on making a reservoir down the hill that could be filled by the river for irrigation as needed during the dry seasons and as a means of stopping flooding during the wetter seasons. He had even finally given up on Felicia though I saw her talking to one of the younger cat folk.

We got more stone for the fort for the other side and quickly filled it in though left all the spikes for anyone who managed to go over the top would fall into what was essentially a moat without water. If they made it pass that they would have to deal with the infantry on the hill. We added a few stone cutters to the construction team who could get stone from Widowshill its self in spots which gave the fort a slow but steady supply of stone. The places they carved along the west end slowly made it sheer surface.

On the south side along the wall wood workers had built several simple raised platform that could be stood on to fire over the wall by crossbow men. The general even got a catapult that was positioned on the north end to fire at the southern road. I admit I enjoyed testing it out as we fired a few old barrels filled with water to get the trajectory right. During the next attack it would fire something much more flammable then water. Hell. I kind of wished they would attack now.

"Care to take a ride with me?" The general asked though it felt a little more like an order.

"Where are we going?" I replied.

"You will see." She nodded. I got my horse and we road south along the river. The area was sparsely covered in small groves but no real forest. What it did have was hills which I couldn't help but notice. Both roads and rivers weaved around many of them.

"Shouldn't there be a town or fort..." I began to say then looked ahead noticing a slight shimmer in the air ahead. "Or that invisible barrier hiding said fort or town."

"Very good. Very few people until now knew of this place." She smiled and we road toward the barrier and crossed to see a fort like at Hunters Rest though bigger.

"I can see why." The queen said they had started building two of the forts before the king died. This had to be one of them built encase of war with the dark elves but kept secret until now.

"Welcome to raven hill. It's not as defend-able as Hunters Rest so it has only has had a small detachment until now." She said. It was fully enclosed but other then that it sat on a hill it would be easy to encircle the fort in minutes but reinforcements from the city could be here in minutes compared to the hours or days it would require to take the fort. What it did have though from the upper towers was a good view of the area. As we road up I couldn't help but notice all of the horses. The General didn't arrive with many horses and now I knew why. All of the cavlary units were here.

"You plan on using it as base for attacking the dark elves?" I asked.

"If needed as well as a place to counter attack any army that tries crossing the border again." She said. I was sure she saw how effective Willow's riders at hit and run tactics by now and possibly learned a thing or two from them. They could quickly attack any enemy **** then fall back and vanish here.

"Do you need me to train hunters here as well?"

"No but you will have to find replacements for a couple of your men I am sending here for now. Two of them caught a dark elf crossing the border. She for some reason is asking for you personally by name." The general said. We headed down into the dungeon which I felt a little jealous that we didn't have one. I saw a woman tied to a chair. They pulled a hood off of her head and I saw a dark elf .

"You know her?" The general asked.

"Not by name but we have meet." I nodded. Several times. She had gave me quit the ass kicking in Darkwater.

"Took you long enough." She smirked.

"What are you doing here?"

"Following orders. The Magistrate told me to come find you at Hunters Rest. Unfortunately she insisted I not kill your men if I got caught. I asked for you personally to deliver a message." She looked at the others.

"And what message is that?" The general asked. The dark elf rolled her eyes and looked at me and I nodded. It was clear she would talk only to me for some reason.

"Prince Warwick and his general are building an army of orc slaves in the empire." She replied.

"How many?"

"At least a thousand so far that he has bought and paid for generously." She shrugged.

"How can he afford so many?" The General asked.

"We don't know yet but he arrived in Dark Water with a ship full of gold. We don't know how the duke came by so much or how his son got past your armada neither unless he sailed far south before crossing west then back north." She shook her head.

"And how do you know all of this?" Diana crossed her arms.

"She is the Magistrates inside woman in the syndicate." I replied. She is the reason they had taken down the Syndicate down in Darkwater.

"Figured that one out did you?" She smiled up at me. "Of course I can't go back to the empire empty handed."

"What do you want?"

"Any information that you would care to share about your war preparations." She shrugged.

"You think we will just hand you information on the war." Diana said stepping closer.

"Would something as simple as a courier report requesting four-thousand horseshoes for the cavalry stationed at Hunters Rest do?" I replied. It was horse shit of course. We didn't have a thousand horses at Hunters Rest.

"I am sure information like that would suffice. I know they have no interest of trying to take the fort again given the ass kicking they experienced the first time. They never intended to take the city itself with so few men. They just wanted to ransack Hunterrest, Riversend, and Fairhaven to kill as many people as possible while the army fell back to guard the city. Their main goal was to pull human and elf forces away from the war. A letter like that could assure they don't try again though it should be written by the general for authenticity."

"You know who I am?" Diana gave her a surprised look.

"We have been on opposite sides in battle a few times now. Sadly I never got close enough to get the fifty gold bounty on your head."

"Only fifty. I feel insulted." Diana gave a snicker under her breath.

"I am sure the Duke would pay me more." She smiled at Diana.

"What is your name?" I grinned. I had meet her three times now and didn't even know her name.

"Shadow." She said as the ropes behind her dropped and she moved her hands to the front with a knife in her hand. The guards drew their swords. Diana had her left hand on her blade but kept her cool. Shadow smiled and flipped the knife in hand holding it out for me to take. She was showing off to get a rise out of the others.

"That's your real name?" I grinned taking the knife.

"No, its the one people gave me when I was a kid growing up on the streets as a thief." She smiled. "Once I am free I will give you the name of an informant who has been selling information to the empire in exchange. If he is neutralized I have no reason to ever come back. Least no time soon."

"How do we know you will keep your word?" The General Asked.

"You don't." She smiled slyly.