The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 133

Part 19

Eventually Alilia stood and stretched, then surveyed the silently concentrating group. "We all need a break." she decided. "I'm inviting you to go flying with me among the great trees of Heartwood, capitol city of The People of Life and my home for most of my life. It's a beautiful place to fly, night or day, and I miss it. I'd like to stop in at my home there too."

"Sure, that sounds like fun." Mark agreed with a grin as he stood and Sent the scroll he was reading back to his desk in the cottage.

"It sure does!" Val agreed as she flew up a few meters while stretching and pirouetting.

"I think it's unanimous!" Povon agreed. "Though I think we three dragons had better assume smaller Simulacrums, if we're going to be chasing elves through a forest without wrecking the place. I think about a two meter wingspan... There."

"All right, we're ready." Kragorram stated as he and Karz did the same.

"Then follow me!" Alilia laughed, and Translocated.

PART 20

They appeared around her a moment later, over a hundred meters in the air. Mid-afternoon sunlight dappled the leaves of the great trees all around them.

"Ah, home." Alilia grinned as she slowly spun in the air and surveyed the busy city around her. "It's hard to believe I was here less than two weeks ago in real time."

Elves and a few from other races, mostly humans, strolled or ran along the many narrow paths and broad thoroughfares that were suspended from the trees all around them, and almost as many flew among the many birds. The homes and businesses in the trees all around them bustled with activity. As always, the incredibly vibrant life-force of the world's lushest forest seemed almost palpable in the air. "I feel that, a bit." Val smiled. "The feeling that this is home, that is."

"Of course you do, my sweet!" Alilia laughed as she flew over and gave her daughter a spinning hug. "It's in our blood!"

"Hmm. It's funny I didn't really feel that in The Nine Valleys when we went there to charge up." Six commented.

"I never spent much time in Laylas Valley, and even less a kilometer above it." Talia thoughtfully stated as they all took in the sights around them. "And it was night, which makes things seem different. I'm sure when we visit First Valley you'll get the same feeling. Though I think it more likely that the emotion is induced in you through us. It may be inherently psionic, or just transferred by normal empathy from parent to child, but I doubt it's carried in the blood."

"I definitely got that feeling in The Lair in Serminak." Karz noted.

"And all three of you should get it if we ever go to Shinosa Valley, where I grew up." Mark told his children with a smile. "Though of course I'm sure it's pretty different now from when I last saw it."

There was a pause, then Alilia said; "Well, we're halfway between Sweettower, Mark and Talia's place here, and my place. You can just see Sweettower from here, that big maple over there, though it's a lot easier to spot from higher up. My place is in that big walnut tree over there.

"Where would you like to go first?"

"Show us the sights!" Mark laughed. "You can be our tour guide! I've only been here once before, and we only had time to see what we could see from Sweettower. One thing I would like to see is our new hospital."

"All right." Alilia grinned as she released her daughter and tied her hair back with a black ribbon she'd Summoned. "I suggest some very deep, very soft Shielding, in case we collide with anything. There are a lot of birds, branches, and other flyers in the air here, so it's best to be safe. And besides, we'll take some time to appreciate the sights when we get to them, but between attractions I intend to have some sport Do try to keep up!"

And with that, she was off like a bolt fired from a marksman's crossbow.

The rest chased after her, but there was obviously no catching her unless she let them. Heartwood was a vast aerial obstacle course, and Alilia knew it all perfectly, as well as being the second-best flyer in the group after Povon. Though the spaces between the great trees and between branches were large, they seemed far smaller at high speeds, and many were congested with flyers. More than once their deep sof Shields deflected a likely collision.

Of course they'd been recognized almost as soon as they arrived, and soon there was a huge crowd of elves following them around; keeping a polite distance when they stopped, and usually failing to keep up when they flew. As elves are wont to do around celebrities, the entire crowd acted as though they just happened to be going the same way by chance, and made no attempt to speak with them without invitation.

There were sights aplenty to see. Along with the beauty and majesty of the great trees, Heartwood featured great works of architecture; beautiful residences, businesses, government facilities, stadiums, and amphitheatres, all grown from the branches and trunks of the great trees themselves, often suspended from dozens of great thick vines that were as hard and stiff as the wood of any tree. Wildlife was profuse throughout the city and on the ground beneath it, where the undergrowth was as extensive as a normal healthy forest in the human lands.

There was also a mountain near the center of the city. Though most of it was overgrown by the forest, occasionally a jagged sheer face of bare dark-gray stone was visible, and the steams and rivers flowing down its flanks often formed beautiful waterfalls and misty pools as they made their way to its base and joined the mighty River of Life, which flowed through the city and the nation from west to east. The final attraction that Alilia showed them was The Heartwood Flight Racing Course.

There was no need for her to describe it; she just slowed to a stop in mid-air as they came to a good vantage point from which to view it. It was deep twilight in the magic forest, and the labyrinthine course was easily visible as a semi-transparent glowing blue tube over twenty meters wide. Numerous glowing orange signs floated in the air around it, naming the course in Elvish. A few dozen elves were visible in the course from Alilia's vantage, all racing along it as fast as they could fly.

"Wow! This is great!" Fire enthused as they all stopped around Alilia, read the sign, and surveyed the track.

"It was obviously modeled on a pan of worms." Mark chuckled.

"Look there, the track actually spirals around that spruce tree right from the ground to the tip!" Karz pointed out. "Twenty-eight wraps from bottom to top! Whoever designed this is an insane genius!" "That's not the half of it!" Alilia laughed. "It changes every hour, and it's never the same twice! That way no one has an advantage from knowing the course. It's always arranged within the course volume, which is a rough cylinder about half a kilometer wide from the ground to the top of the tallest tree here, it's always exactly five kilometers in length from start to finish along the center of the course, and there's always about the same number of turns and twists and bends. And it's spelled to keep birds, spectators and insects out of the track.

"The beginning is always in the same place, on the ground over there at the west compass point of the course space, but where it finishes is different every time the track changes.

"Shall we?" she finished with a grin.

"Oh we most definitely, absolutely shall!" Six enthused, and then the rest were chasing him around the course volume to the starting point.

Povon insisted on paying the small fee for each of them, claiming that it was her right as the wealthiest among them. They were each registered by the course officials and given a small round red stone on a string, which they were instructed to wear on their persons, and to not move its location on their bodies during a race. It allowed the officials to constantly track the exact location and speed of every flyer, and to register exactly every racer's elapsed time from start to finish. That information was also used by officials who supplied public commentary during important races.[0

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