"Oh, orcs and dwarves have been at war in living memory, is pretty much it. Most people don't sit around and wait for me to loudly declare I hate the orcs' current leaders."

"Maybe not quite as far as the gates, then."

She laughs. "As far as the road to the gates, then."

"Your understanding is appreciated."

"I try to be reasonable."

"Shall we set off, then?"

"If you two are uninjured, sure."

"We're fine."

El is, anyway. Which means they both are.

She glances at Bellona, but nods. "Road's a bit farther down the mountain. Come on." She sets off.

Down the mountain. More walking, yay.

El quietly turns her fingers back to normal and tugs the glove on again.

"I'm curious about those abilities you two displayed," she says, idly.

"Do you not have alchemy?"

"Nope. Haven't heard of it."

"The short version is that alchemy is the process by which one uses energy to effect changes on an object or material's gross properties or to catalyze a chemical reaction. The long version is considerably longer, and best accompanied by diagrams."

"Interesting. There's magic weapons, and wizards and the like can use magic of course, but none of it sounds - regular, like that. Certainly can't get a definition of magic out of an elf."

"We're not wizards or elves."

"You don't seem to be, no. Not dragons, either."

"Did the lack of scales give that one away?"

She laughs. "I've heard rumors that one can change shape, actually. But I haven't heard that about any of the others, and you're probably not her."

Shape-changing dragons, now. Add that to the orcs, elves, dwarves, and humans and this world's a veritable menagerie.

"I am, alas, as human as I appear."

"And I'm sadly a mere orc."

"That's comforting."

She laughs. "I doubt I'd be good at being anything else. Of course, I'm bad at being an orc, too."

"How so?"

"Don't do what I'm told, don't follow marching orders, defy whichever petty jerk people are bending knee to lately..."