Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty

Talasher, who straddled Mu Miao, led the crowd through the Moon Forest with ease.The jingling of the bells of his saddle made people feel happy when they heard it.Innovindi and the dwarf brothers followed.The sky was gray, and the atmosphere was depressing and hot, but the elves were in a good mood; as for Pike, who was curious about the scenery on the winding mountain route, he must be in the same mood.When they came to a dead end, Talasher, who knew the westward journey of the Moon Forest better than others, only needed to adjust the direction slightly, and a new path would immediately appear in front of them, waiting for everyone to enter.It looked as if Tarrasher had borrowed a way from the tree, and the tree had agreed.

Pike loves this kind of thing. Among the four, only Ivanla has a long face.The dwarf didn't sleep well the night before, and was always woken up by the singing of the elves.In fact, Ivan was very happy to sing songs of toasts and hymns of dwarf gods (they are the same thing), and the songs of legendary heroes, lost and found and lost treasures; It's crying and mourning, always thinking of the stars and the moon. In fact, in the past few days, Ivan had almost had enough of the elves, he just wanted to go back to the road leading to Mithril Hall, the yellow-bearded dwarf, who was never known for his deep thinking, pushed the generation of this emotion to him again and again. Tarrasher and Innoventi.

The four moved from the main elf territory of the Moon Forest to the west and north, where the terrain was higher, and they might be able to see the winding Sebrin River.The dwarves can use the river as a signpost to Mithril Hall in the south. Tarasher said that they still have to travel for about ten days. If they can find something like a raft to float on the river and continue to float along the river at night, This time can be shortened. Pike and Innovindi talked endlessly along the way, sharing their knowledge and observations of various animals and plants along the way.Once or twice Pike called a bird down from a tree and whispered something to it.The little bird evidently understood, and it flew away bringing more birds, who surrounded them with branches and chirped and sang.Innovindi clapped her hands and smiled at Pike.Even Tarasher, the far more serious of the two elves, seemed to be infected.Ivan still didn't see anything, just stamped his feet and muttered his "silly girl".

That, of course, only made the elf happier—especially when Pike made the bird bomb with precision and astonishment over his brother's head. "Can you lend me your longbow?" Ivan asked Tarasher annoyed, and then he looked up at the branches and said, "I can get us some supper." Tarasher responded with a blank smile, and Pike's "hee hee hee" made him laugh too. "We will not accompany you to Mithril Hall," Tarasher said. "Who asked you this?" Ivan complained, but when the two elves stared at him with somewhat surprised and sad eyes, the dwarf made some concessions, "Bah, but why do you want to stay with a bunch of dwarves?" ?Of course you can, if you really intend to; and my brother and I will make sure you are treated as we are treated in your stinky… dense forest."

"Your flattery is as smooth as a frozen river, Ivan Stoneshoulder." Innoventi said in a tone that pretended to accept the flattery. She gave Tarasher and Pike a wink, and the latter giggled. "Yes." Ivan said, obviously missing the point. He smirked and glared at the elf. "However, we and King Bruenor also have a lot of things to talk about," Tarasher took the conversation and brought back the subject of the conversation, "Maybe you need to persuade him to send an envoy to the Moon Forest, Drizzt Do'Urden A popular choice." "The dark elf?" said Ivan hesitantly. "You elves have personally let me invite a drow into your homeland these months? You'd better be careful, Tarasher. You're so mean to dwarves and drow." Passionate 'reputation' doesn't necessarily make your clan proud of you."

"It's not true of all dark elves, I warn you," the elf corrected, "and it was with that dark elf. We welcomed Drizzt Do'Urden but didn't call him a friend . We got some information, and the revelation was that we were as important to him as he was to us." "For example?" "There is only so much I can say in my free time today," replied Tarasher, "and I don't want to trouble you to bring such a long and trivial story to King Bruenor. situation, we don’t yet know how to communicate it properly.” "The choice of us to sit and wait for the envoy of King Bruno has indeed aroused your suspicion," Innoventi immediately added as Ivan frowned, "We must abide by some kind of agreement. The message I am asking you to convey is very important. With full confidence, you will not only bring the message, but also express the sense of urgency in our hearts."

"Oh!" Pike said, throwing his fist into the air. Tarasher tried to support her, but his words stopped and his expression became more serious.He looked around, then at Innovindi, then at his two longwinged mounts. "What did he see?" Ivan asked. Yinuowendi and Talasher looked at each other, her expression was calm. Talasher motioned for Ivan to keep his voice down, then quietly bowed to the side of the road, poking his head out as if listening.Ivan wanted to say something just now, but Talasher held out a hand to stop him. "Oh..." Pike looked around alertly.

Ivan jumped up and down, seeing nothing but his three aware companions. "Find what?" he asked Tarasher, and the brooding elf gave him no answer. Ivan rushed to Pike and asked, "What did you find?" Pike frowned and squeezed his nose. "Orcs?" Ivan called. "Yup." With a swish, Ivan pulled the ax out from behind.He spread his legs apart, settled down and lowered his ax to protect his body, and squinted his eyes to check every shadow. "Okay, blast them out. Anyway, I'm ready to kill a boring bloody road!" "I feel them too," Innovindi said later.

"At Larry," Pike said, pointing north. The two elves looked in the direction of his finger, looked back at him and nodded. "Our frontiers have been recently invaded by Orcs," said Innovindi, "this one and others will be driven back. Don't waste your time with these guys, you guys are going southeast and do it fast.We will watch over those beasts that dare to defile the Moonwood. " "Aha." Pike crossed his strong, hairy arms across his chest in protest. "Bah!" Ivan snorted, "You just don't want us to enjoy the fun at the beginning! Do you think it is the behavior of a competent master to let the poor orcs drive us away!"

The two elves looked at each other and were frightened. "Yes, I know, I disagree. Now I don't like you," said Ivan, "but I hate your enemies, so it's a good thing. Now you're going to make friends with the dwarves and let him chop Orcs; or drive us away, and expect us to remember the news you told us to bring to King Bruenor?" The two elves still exchanged questioning glances, and then Inovindi shrugged slightly, leaving Talasher to make the decision. "Do it then," said the elf to the brothers, "before calling upon my people to fight the crisis, let me see what we can learn."

"Bah! If we're too quiet, the orcs might wander off elsewhere, so what's the good?" They had moved a short distance before Tarasher told them to stop and wait, and he sprinted toward Twilight on foot, climbed onto her back, and lifted off cautiously under the cover of the trees, heading north. He came back almost immediately and landed in front of the three of them, making a "follow quietly" movement.A few steps uphill to the north, the elf led them to a ridge.From the vantage point, Ivan discovered that his partner with the mysterious "human-tree synaesthesia" ability was not leading the wrong way. There, in a clearing of their own, a party of Orcs gathered.At least a dozen, maybe twenty, were stalking in the shadows of the trees.They carried great axes, perfect for chopping trees, and more importantly and out of the ordinary (which explains why Talasher and Twilight came back so soon), they each carried a strong bow. "I spotted them from afar," Tarasher explained to the three in a low voice after crouching down on the ridge, "I don't think they can see me." "We must notify the clansmen," said Innovindi. Tarasher looked around in bewilderment.They had been traveling for days, and he felt that his people would act sooner than the orc invaders upon hearing the dreadful news, and he did not think that even without a pair of dwarves holding them back. Hurry back to Moon Forest in time to intercept those orcs. "You can't let them escape." The elf said solemnly.The image of the last team retreating into the mountains still haunted his mind. "Then we'll chop them up," Ivan said. "Three against one," commented Innovindi, "maybe five against one." "It'll be over soon," Ivan said. He picked up the big axe, and Pike on the side took out an iron pan from the package and put it on his head, and seconded, "Hey!" The elves looked at each other in bewilderment and amazement. "Hey!" Pike said again. Tarasher looked at Innovindi, asking for her opinion. "It's been a long time since I touched my dick last time." She replied with a smile, raising the corners of her mouth. "It's only a dozen—you'll have to wait a little longer to get into a real battle." Ivan said coldly, and the elf didn't seem to hear him. Tarasher said to Ivan, "Where do you want to start?" "I think, among them," replied the Dwarf, pointing to the Orc in the distance, "that I am thinking that my ax would be a good fit between their eyes." That seemed easy enough, so Tarasher and Innovindi turned to Pike, who just grinned. "Don't be dissatisfied with my brother," Ivan said, "he'll find his place. I don't know how he'll do it—usually after the fight's over, and I don't know how—but he can , he will." "That's all right," said Tarasher. "Let's find the best spot to strike." He walked towards Mu Miao, whispered a few words to Pegasus, and then he and Mu Miao parted in opposite directions.Innovindi walked away next, as silent as her elf companion.Ivan and Pike followed, hitting dry leaves and crisp grass sticks with their feet. "Favourable location," Ivan bluffed to his brother: "Go in, say hello, and let's kill!" "Hee hee hee," Pike said. Yinuo Wendi also smiled when she heard it, but trembling somewhat.Faith is one thing, carelessness is another. Despite the dwarf's constant noise, under the guidance of the elf, the four came to the edge of a rocky field.Across the road, the orcs were busy, some were cutting down trees hard, and some commanded their subordinates to tie knots with ropes on high tree branches. "We attack when they are resting," Tarasher whispered. "They won't last long when the sun is up." Pike's face tightened, and he shook his head. "He didn't come to see the orcs cut trees." Ivan explained, and the elves looked at each other puzzled. Pike opened a small pocket and took out a piece of cranberry, his face became very serious and calm.After solemnly nodding to the other three, he walked to an oak tree and rested his forehead on the thick trunk.He closed his eyes and began to chant a spell under his breath. He stepped into the trunk, the spell still uninterrupted, when he was completely gone. "Yes, I know what you think," Ivan whispered to the two elves, who stood there dumbfounded, dumbfounded, "he always does this." Ivan's attention moved to the upper branch, he pointed there and said, "It's there." Pike, about twenty feet off the ground, grew out of the branch and came to stand on a branch that hung over the clearing. "Your brother is queer enough," said Innovindi. "He has a lot of tricks." "You'll need them," Tarasher went on. He looked puzzled at the two dozen or more orcs, all with longbows on their backs or close at hand.Looking at Ivan above, he felt that no matter what he said, the dwarf would not be able to endure for too long, so he arched his body and began to survey the battlefield, and then gestured to Innovindi to let her disperse. Ivan moved between the two of them, holding the ax and creaking the tree trunks, to the edge of the clearing. "You can't hit anything that moves, can you?" he taunted the orc loudly. The felling stopped immediately.All noises on the other side of the clearing were lost, and the orcs turned in unison, their bloodshot yellow eyes wide open. "What's the matter?" Ivan shouted to them, "Haven't you seen Death?" The orcs didn't rush over from the road, they deliberately started to move slowly, and several orcs roared a series of orders. "They're in charge," Ivan whispered to the hidden elf. "Fire." The orcs did not blink, nor did they take their eyes off the dwarves who were within twenty feet of them, while they drew their bows slowly, stringed their arrows, and prepared to shoot. The leader was still talking to other orcs, obviously they were shouting the order to prepare for salvo, telling those who had already prepared to wait a little longer. The elves struck first, and several arrows shot out through the air and flew to the opposite side of the road. Talasher blocked an orc overseer's throat with one arrow, and Innovindi shot the other in the lower abdomen, causing it to roll on the ground. At the same moment, the orcs also fired arrows, and the air in front of Ivan seemed to ripple, covering the entire small open space. The arrows they shoot are all crooked, like the twigs of willows, and their flight trajectories are straight and strange. The only exception was the one that flew from the woods to Ivan. The dwarf saw it just in time, and yanked the ax across, lucky enough to block the arrow.It hit the blade of the ax and hit his shoulder armor, causing the dwarf to tilt sideways, but under the protection of the armor, it did no real damage. "Don't slip through the net, you fool!" Ivan scolded his brother.The man was sniggering at the tree branch above his head. Across the way, the orcs looked at their bows as if deceived, and found that most were bent by the waves of druid spells.Then they dropped their bows, pulled out their long swords and spears, and rushed over frantically. Two of them were knocked down by the elf's arrows as soon as they got up. Ivan Stone Shoulder restrained the urge to rush over, and also restrained the urge to raise his head to confirm that his brother, who was not paying attention, was still paying attention to the battle situation. The other two arrows of the two elves shot out, and then Talasher and Innovindi jumped to Ivan's side, both holding a thin sword in one hand and a long dagger in the other. The orcs hurried over the rocks, roaring their guttural battle cries as they approached. A small handful of cranberries skimmed over the heads of Ivan and the elf, and exploded when they hit the target.Dozens of smaller explosions enveloped the charging orcs.The damage caused by the enchanted bomb was not high, but it caused chaos on a large scale. This was an opportunity that neither the elf nor Ivan wanted to miss. Ivan drew a hatchet from his belt, embedded it in the face of the closest orc, and drew a second, chopping an orc aside.He roared and rushed out, the big ax immediately hit the chest of a stumbled orc, stopping it from charging, and then Ivan swung the ax forcefully, bullying the orc, and slashed at the back of its neck as hard as possible. However, it was not the vicious Ivan who made Pike on the tree exhale "Hmm", but the actions of the two elves. Talasher and Innovindi stood side by side, their weapons crossed flexibly in front of their chests, raised to their eyes, and they would attack when either side needed it, so Talasher's right arm was in line with Innovindi's. Wendy's left arms intersect.When they faced the charge, their arms overlapped, and they moved like a whole: Talasher circled behind Innovindi, and turned to her right side, overlapping her right arm with her right arm. Buckle right foot, toes touch heel. An orc, unaware of the horrors of this union, ran to Tarasher's exposed back, only to find Innovinti's blade waiting for it, and it shoved the spear away with ease.Innovindi didn't go any further, however, and retreated to an orc still affected by the pike bomb.The elf's sword deflected, easily piercing its defenseless rib the moment it staggered past.She didn't have to kill him either, because Tarasher knew everything about her parry as thoroughly as he did it himself. He reversed the hilt with his left hand, and while blocking the orc blade who was fighting him with his sword, he stabbed the dagger backwards, hitting the spear-wielding orc's chest. With a smooth movement, Talasher drew out the dagger and threw it into the air, then twisted the tip of the dagger with his hand, and raised his arm towards an orc in front of him, as if to throw himself. The orc hurriedly hid, but Tarashe turned to get out of the way. Innovindi rushed forward, her sword slashing the throat of the bewildered orc. Tallasher stood still, his sword-wielding hand swung around the waist of his still-spinning companion, and lifted her off the ground with a strong lift, leaning against his hips, causing her to swing in front of him.Innovindi stretched out her feet and kicked down the orcs who were rushing towards Tarasher. She didn't follow up on the orc--she didn't mean to--instead, she swung her feet to lure the orc into repeated futile strikes with its short hooked sword. As Inovendi passed around Talasher, Tarasher reached out her left hand, she hooked it with her right arm, and then he stopped spinning completely, except for the one that made Innovendy spin into his left arm. Immediately, as soon as she cleared the obstacle, the male elf's right hand holding the sword stabbed out, and the poor orc who was still trying to chase Innovindi didn't even have time to glance at the origin of the sword. Innovindi landed lightly, her momentum putting her in the path of another orc, one of her two blades slashed high and the other stabbed low. In the blink of an eye, the elves had killed five orcs on the spot. "Hmm." Pike muttered, and then looked down at the cranberry in his hand in puzzlement. Immediately, he caught a glimpse of two orcs jumping out of the bushes nearby, and raised their bows. He tossed the cranberries before they could, and two dozen small explosions left the orcs pained and blinded as they jumped and ducked. Pike stretched out his arm there, twitching his fingers, and cast a spell at the orc in the bushes.Vines wrapped themselves around both of them, and a third, Ivan, giggled at the discovery, and a fish that escaped was pinned down by its trapped mate, protesting. Ivan does not have the grace and coordination of elf warriors, indeed, their dance of death impresses the dwarves.Funny and memorable. What the yellow-bearded dwarf lacks in elegance, it makes up for in sheer rage.Rushing past the orc he had cut down, he met the charge, and after resisting the impact of the shield, he planted his legs on the ground and remained motionless.The orc with the shield also exerted his strength again. Ivan struck hard at the hand that held the shield, and his ax split the shield, and even dug into the arm that was attached to the shield. Immediately he drew his weapon, causing the orc to tip over and had to regain his balance again.The dwarf struck again, and this time the ax pierced the shield and caught the orc in the shoulder. The wounded creature staggered back, but one orc slammed into its side and a third slammed into its back. Ivan had already started to move. He took a step back and lowered his body, grabbed a rock, stood up straight and threw it hard, hitting the closest orc in the chest, knocking it wobbly.When his companion came from the left, Ivan ran from the right.His ax sank into the dazed orc's belly, sending it flying in the air and landing on its back. The second orc stopped, tried to turn - but got Ivan's ax in the chest. Ivan, who was being pursued by the orc, knocked the sloppy orc over with a punch when he stopped halfway to pick up his axe.He continued to run to a large rock nearby, jumped up and turned over to the other side, and put his back on the rock. The orcs scattered around the stone and continued to pursue, thinking that Ivan had escaped from the other side. His ax knocked down the first orc coming from the left, and then he rushed to the right to do the same on the lead orc. After a backhand blow, Ivan jumped out and prepared to fight face to face, but he found that his work was done, and the elf sword still dripping with blood had long since ended up with pursuers. Those who greeted Ivan from both sides of the boulder were Talasher and Innovindi.The glances between the three conveyed so much in that moment: a mutual respect that none of them could have imagined. Ivan was the first to break the blank stare and began to look around. He noticed that there were only dead and dying orcs around.He heard the clatter of living creatures fleeing into the distant woods. "Count me to kill eight," Ivan declared. He glanced at the blunt edge of the axe, and hit the prostrate orc with his backhand. It was badly wounded, dazed, and trying to get up.Before the dwarf could do anything to him, Tarasher's sword slit its throat. The dwarf shrugged and said, "Seven and a half." "Also, I have to say, the one who achieved the least among us played a big part in our easy victory," Inovinti said. She looked up at the place where Pike was resting in the tree, and the movement on one side made her, Ivan, and Talasher all turn their heads. They saw Pike holding a blood-stained stick and grinning emerging from a tangle of kudzu vines. "Sha-la-la," said the dwarf, holding forward the enchanted stick, and held up three fingers. "Three," he said. There was movement behind him again, Pike's smile disappeared, and the dwarf turned around, slamming the stick down. The three people on the other side of the road couldn't help shrinking their heads when they heard the sound of bones breaking, but after a while Pike came over again, and his smile appeared again. "Not fast enough?" Ivan teased bluntly. "Three!" Pike said with enthusiasm, and raised those three fingers in the air. When a group of four came to the northwest corner of the Moon Forest, the weather was sunny and warm.From the high point on the back of the mountain, Tallasher pointed out the clear Surbrin River, which meanders along the foot of the Spine of the World, flowing from north to west upstream to south downstream. "That would take you to the east gate of Mithril Hall," Tarrasher said, "at least near the east gate. I doubt you will find the entrance to the Dwarf Hall easily." "And we believe that you will send a message to King Bruenor and the dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden." Innovindi added. "Yeah," Pike said. "We'll tell them," Ivan said. The two elves looked at each other without any suspicion.They parted as friends with respect for each other, and especially between Ivan and Tarasher they found a respect they hadn't expected for each other.