13

On the fifth morning, the trio finally left their camp. They traveled on from there ready to encounter whatever on their journey. When they were in sight of the mammoth trees of the Mottled Forest, they paused to take the scenery in. Alavara put her finger to her lip, pointing in front of them. There was another group of traveling companions. These included a human man, two human women, three she-elves and a few horses. 

"An odd menagerie." Sontar whispered.

"So are we." Gelderel laughed softly. "There are elves there, do you think they're going to see the same mage?"

Alavara shrugged. "Could be, it's best to let them disappear before we head in."

As they watched, the new travelers made their way into the wall of trunks that made the edge of that great forest.

"Perhaps we should join them? The Mottled Forest is known to be dangerous." Gelderel frowned.

"Unknown traveling companions are dangerous, too." Alavara rubbed her belly through her dress. She had no shoes on her feet as all of them made the journey on their bare feet. Sontar hardly wears shoes in the first place unless he has too, like he did during the count's dinner. "They won't be of much help to us anyway, if anything they may become a burden to us." 

"What do you mean Alavara?" Gelderel questioned. 

"We may end up protecting them more than us working together. My wife you aren't able to tell, but that group only has 2 mages. The human male and one of the she-elves, they may have, unfortunately their magical power is weak. It'd be no surprise if either of them become drained after using only one or two strong spells.  Unsurprisingly the she-elf is the one with the stronger magic of the two." Sontar explained. 

His mother taught him how to sense and judge a person's magical power long ago. 

"I see, well whatever you two believe it's best." Gelderel nodded. 

Sontar wrapped her in his strong embrace. "Do not worry, neither I or mother will let any harm come to you. I love you Gelderel, my perfect deputy-wife." He leaned down and kissed her deeply.

Gelderel kissed him back, accepting his love and responding back with her own love for him. She reached up and cupped his face as their tongues wrestled. 

"I love you too, my husband." Gelderel said in a happy tone.

Sontar kissed her one more time before separating and stepping over to his mother. He used his two hands to lift her up in the air by her ass and kiss her as well.

Alavara wrapped her legs around her lover, returning his kiss with equal fervor.

Pulling away, Sontar said. "I love you, mother. My perfect prime-wife." He had to restrain his desires for her.

"I love you more my emerald jewel." She leaned in to share another kiss with him. 

Eventually he put her down, Gelderel and Alavara stood next to him, each gripping his side. Looking out into the forest, the other travelers had vanished into its shadows. 

"Come now." Alavara smiled. "Let us see what new adventures await us."

~~~~~~~~~~

"How long will it take us to reach this mage?" Gelderel asked.

The three of them have been walking through the Mottled Forest for several hours now. Lucky they haven't encountered any dangerous beasts so far.

"I would say 5 days at our current pace." Alavara was keeping her senses on high alert.

"5 days? This forest is bigger than I assumed if it'll take that long." Gelderel said.

Alavara nodded. "Yes, it is ranked as one of the top 15 largest forests in the world. If you're not prepared or have prior experience, it's quite easy for lots of people to get lost and never come out. Even us elves, who are highly attuned to nature, can have bad experiences here."

"Ah, well it's a good thing you covered me in a layer of magic for protection against insects." Gelderel replied. 

It's better to be safe than sorry, especially since Gelderel is not a mage. 

Sontar was going to say something, but his attention was brought elsewhere as he noticed they were being surrounded.

"Mother…." 

"I'm aware." Alavara said.

"Trouble?" Gelderel figured something was going on.

"Yes, we are being surrounded." Sontar answered.

Shortly after he said this, the ones who were targeting them made themselves known. It was a group of 10 goblins and 2 hobgoblins. The goblins were normal sized goblins, hobgoblins were smaller than trolls and Sontar. 

"Well, well, it seems we were lucky enough to come across a pair of she-elves." One hobgoblin said.

"They should be perfect for breeding like all she-elves. What should we do with the green one? He has green skin like us but is clearly not a goblin or hobgoblin." The other hobgoblin wondered.

"Doesn't matter, let's kill him and take the she-elves as trophies to have our way with." The first hobgoblin gripped its weapon. 

"May I, mother ?" Sontar felt anger from the vile words of the hobgoblins, they dare say they are going to use his wives as trophies? His orc blood boiled at the mere thought.

Alavara was a bit surprised by the anger she can sense emerging from her son. He's not one to get angry over some meaningless words. She suspects his behavior is related to him embracing his orc side. She's not worried considering either she or Sontar can easily wipe their enemies out in one move. "You don't have to ask, my love." 

Sontar smirked, with a wave of his hand he instantly set all of the 10 goblins ablaze. The ugly goblins only had three seconds to scream before they were turned to ashes. 

The hobgoblins were too shaken by what just happened, they were too slow to react to Sontar appearing in front of one of them. He unsheathed his dagger and plunged it into the hobgoblin's heart. Then he moved faster than the last hobgoblin could react and punched its head off its shoulders. 

As much as he wanted to, Sontar restrained himself from unleashing a roar to declare his victory. He did not need to draw unnecessary attention to their group.

What happened next shocked everybody, the moment Sontar sheathed his dagger. A giant shadow from above covered his form, suddenly something of massive size fell from above onto Sontar. The impact resulted in a loud crack, a wide crater and a large cloud of dust that covered the area.

"SONTAR!!!" Both Alavara and Gelderel shouted in worry as they shielded themselves from the dust cloud. 

Although Alavara wasn't having it, she unleashed a giant gush of wind from her body to clear up the dust. 

They quickly ran toward the crater, the two she-elves saw in the crater was a big mammoth. Under the mammoth was their shared husband, who was outlined in a white magical glow holding up the mammoth in his hands.

A bit of sweat was on her forehead from the suddenness of the situation, he instinctively activated reinforcement magic to help protect himself. Sontar is physically powerful on his own, he probably can lift the mammoth without reinforcing himself. Still, he's eternally grateful for the harsh training he received from his mother over the years. 

Alavara and Gelderel sighed in relief, seeing that Sontar was not harmed. His mother even mentally praised him for his quick reaction to using reinforcement magic to protect himself. 

Sontar tossed the mammoth to the side, together he and Alavara summoned bolts of lightning from their palms to kill it.