The Axol-Lights pt.2

"I can't help but notice there's only seventeen of you," she said. As the entire village gathered at Bertram's call, the tiniest of them all came up to him and greeted him with a hug.

`Madam, allow me to welcome you to our village. Recently, I have also become its chief and strongest warrior,'' Bree didn't immediately reply as she counted the number of small tent-like buildings inside the wooden fence of about a foot and a half in height.

"Your numbers don't match your house numbers," She decided. "Even if all seventeen of you slept in your own individual homes, there are still eight extra houses, and disaster or plague are the only reasons I can conceive of for a village of seventeen to have twenty-five homes in it," 

Bree looked down at them, unable to get to their level, as her floating was the only thing keeping her from destroying their homes.

"Y...yes, we have recently been through many losses," Bertram confirmed with a sigh. As the eldest and strongest amongst the survivors, the roles of Chief and head Hunter-gatherer fell on me," Bree looked at him, then the rest of the villagers.

"May I ask how old you are and how long Axol-lights typically live?"

"I am 23, and our last chief was 79 before she was…" Bertram cut off for a moment. Bree's suspicion only grew. "...before she was lost," Bertram looked up at Bree, who said nothing about the fact that Bertram was hiding something and instead went to her business.

"Anyway, I was promised your aid in mapping the area," Bertram turned to one of his fellow Axol-lights. She nodded before hurriedly making her way to a hut. After a few moments of waiting, she returned with a paper roll. She handed it to Bertram, who, in turn, gave it to Bree.

"This is our largest map," He informed her. "I'm not sure how much help it can be to someone of your size, but our previous chief dedicated her youth to mapping out the original copy, so it should at least cover a fair amount of land for you,"

Bree looked at the small map and pointed at it with her magic ring, "Maximize Size," The Map turned into white light and grew until it was the perfect size for Bree to use. Bree looked at it and chuckled before increasing the height of her flight. She looked at a large rock a little over a Kilometer away that made up the right corner of the map.

With the Axol-light village being in the map's center, she quickly determined that the map covered two Kilometers from corner to corner, not altogether massive, but in the end, far larger than she thought she would obtain from such small creatures. She decreased her height and returned to floating just above the village.

"I give you my thanks," she decided. In return, I would like to repay you. Mind telling me what's been killing your people?" Bertram didn't say anything immediately. He just looked sadly at his peers and then at the small one who was clinging onto him as though she was afraid he was going to be taken away.

"There is nothing you can do," Bertram decided. "Even if I told you, you would either die trying or simply leave,"

"You'd be surprised what I'm willing to go through to pay someone back, and while one large fish might seem plenty to you, to me it's not" Bree replied simply, "so please do tell me," Bertam simply sighed.

"Humans," he said simply, "Your own kind has been killing us." Bertram clearly expected a certain reaction, but Bree laughing clearly was not it.

"My kind?" she asked as she held up one of her hands and pulled on one of her pointed ears. I understand Elves and Humans look alike, but I was kind of hoping the ears were a dead give-away." As Bree laughed at them, the Axol-lights all backed away from her in shock and awe. Bertram's eyes looked as though they were going to pop out of his head as he looked at her ears and heard her decree of being an Elf.

"Are elves real?" he demanded. "I thought they were fantasy, simple fairy tales told by the Demon Lords of old to scare humans away from their Nations!"

"Oh, who knows, maybe they are fake in this world, But I've only just arrived in this world, so there's no way for me to know for sure," Bree chuckled as the Axol-lights continued their panic over her mere existence. "Settle down now, It seems I have a story to tell,"

The Axol-light's attitude towards her had changed from that of a visitor bringing a fish to that of a Goddess offering her protection. They began working themselves half to death, trying to please her every need as she told her story, even going so far as to manually lower part of their little wall so she could sit and talk to them more easily.

 She decided to skip the part of her story that involved her being a human sucked into a Video game and instead played up her part of being a powerful warrior from a now-dead land.

"-and then I found you and thought it would be nice to meet some of the locals of this world," Bree smiled as she took a cup that barely fit in her hand and used her Maximize Size spell to make it big enough for her to enjoy, The Drink was plain water. Still, it had been painstakingly cleaned for healthy consumption and stored underground to keep it cool, so she appreciated that they had willingly given her their hard-earned drinking water more so than the water itself.

"Amazing," Bertram said, the small Axol-light, who Bree now knew to be Bertram's only remaining relative, his younger sister Vivian, still clung onto him with all her might.

"Now then, I've told you my story. Tell me why these Humans have been killing your people,"