Simon: Ultimatum (part 4)

A Party Of Four

The western lowlands of Netherstead were home to the wizard who went by the name Nadav, he was an imposing gorilla with gunmetal gray fur that held a brownish tint if the light hit him just right. He lived by himself in a massive redwood tree house which lay deep within a forest, the house consisted of a series of sturdy bridges which connected it to multiple nearby trees. The largest chamber of the treehouse which was also located within the center of the complex housed a gantry of wizardly teachings in the form of books. Nadav used this knowledge to gain the ability to manipulate fire from an incredibly young age and now, he was nearly a master of taming the nearly uncontrollable blazes. Leaving the redwood forest was an extremely rare occurrence for him but he never ventured outwards without purpose. Around five years ago, he had trekked into a nearby village to visit the local blacksmith for a set of bronze armor, he chose bronze due to it being extremely resistant to electricity. He awoke from his dreamless slumber to the sound of turgulls chirping as per the norm, he was already completely covered with his armor as he only removed it to bathe which he rarely took part in to begin with. He gracefully slid down the trunk of the massive redwood tree as if it were a steel ladder and set off towards the river to tend to his crop of sugarcane, beets, watermelon, potato and carrots. The gently flowing river was only thirty paces from the base of the redwood tree, the river's rich, nutrient filled water was a translucent bluish green and it gave Nadav's crops a much needed surplus of energy which was essential to their growth. He liked to save the watermelons for supper as they were his favorite of the five crops, his favorite food was cougar meat but they were hard to come by so he stuck with the melons.

The farmland spanned a sixty meter radius on both sides of the river with a towering sturdily constructed clay wall keeping wild animals from stealing his harvest. He wolfed down six fully grown carrots, devoured eight fresh beets, slurped three sweet sugarcanes and replanted the crops in an orderly fashion. "A full breakfast, as they all should be" Nadav said to himself as he wiped the beet juice from the fur below his chin, just then, he noticed a turquoise avian lizard with a pale yellow belly soaring over the redwood treetops. She was headed towards the village and out of curiosity, Nadav followed. When Nadav emerged from the dense redwood forest, he saw the lizard conversing with the duke of Netherstead just outside the town hall. The lizard had a two layer wide array of white spiked plates on its back nearly identical to that of a stegosaurus, Nadav had never seen a creature quite like this one in his lifetime so he approached with relative caution in an animalistic fashion. His armor reflected the light of the sun in such a way that made it appear as though there were 10 million fireflies trapped within, as Nadav made his steady approach, the lizard noticed him in her peripheral vision and swifty jerked her head to the right to meet his gaze. Her eyes had little reflectiveness in them, similar to that of a fish out of water, however her retinas were a dark shade of electric purple which were nearly as reflective as Nadav's armor. Nadav lightly saluted at the lizard, this was his signature greeting to newcomers of Netherstead "what's your problem?" the lizard asked inquiringly.

"Problem? I have no problem, I just saw you fly over my house and got curious is all" Nadav replied as he reared onto his hind legs to show a level of respect.

"Everyone's got a problem junebug, my name is Hallbera and there are people out to get me who need taking care of, that's my problem" Hallbera said. Nadav thought to himself for a second, what did she want from him? Why were people trying to kill her? Was she a fugitive? "Well...winter is around the corner, I'm short on crops and...hey holup, why are people hunting you down? Are you dangerous?" Nadav interrupted his own train of thought with a question that he immediately regretted asking "they want to harvest my scales as a trophy, if you can take care of them, i'll give ya enough crops to last a year, win win" Hallbera explained. Her scales were a shade of turquoise which was nearly the same shade as the sky with the exception of the scales on her belly which were a pale shade of meringue yellow. Nadav could see why the hunters wanted Hallbera's scales, they could make even the lowliest of peasants look fashionable "You have yourself a deal Hallbera, just give me the deets and their fate is sealed" Nadav said as he used his wizardry to light his fists ablaze to show his true power. "They are a party of four, Simon is a master of two handed weapons as well as an intermediate wizard much like yourself. Arnkatla is Simon's daughter, she is a witch who likes to use harmful potions. Sadra and Taraji are alchemists Sadra wields a staff while Tam has wands built into her titanium gauntlets. They will arrive in a massive spruce wooden ship with two three story masts. The sails are stark white with a coat of arms which makes them easy to spot especially since they will have to pass through the forest in which you reside" Hallbera elaborated.

"They sound hard to kill but the good always overcomes the evil, I am certain that I will prevail over these scale-poachers, I need not take crops from you Hallbera, I'm certain that if I defeat these marauding cretins the gods will repay me greatly!" Nadav said with great vigor. Hallbera stood 6 meters tall with her neck fully extended and Nadav had to tilt his head back just to meet her gaze, it didn't take long for his neck to finally give in and let his chin become parallel with the ground "why so glum?" Hallbera inquired as she gently tapped Nadav's flat gorilla nose with her incredibly sharp claw, her hands were built into her wings which made her stance almost bat-like. "Nothing's awry, just tired is all" Nadav replied with a shrug of his shoulders "i shall return to my home in the redwoods to get some rest" he added as he trudged back into the forest on all fours. When he encountered the four hunters, there would be hell to pay and skulls to crack.

Arnkatla squirmed restlessly in her wool sheeted bed, she was suspecting they would arrive on the shores of Netherstead late tonight or in the early morning which meant she could finally set foot on solid ground once more. The massive wooden ship on which she spent most of her daylight hours was beginning to slowly drive her up the wall. Simon and the others seemed to be unphased by this sudden change in lifestyle and Sadra had announced that everyone should find ways to keep themselves busy which was much easier said than done. Finally, Arnkatla's 12 year old brain succumbed to the boredom, she steadily arose from her bed and took the oak staircase to the poop deck above. She emerged from the staircase to find that they were in the midst of a gentle rain which was almost unnoticeable to an untrained eye, the stars shone bright through the nearly microscopic droplets of rain. Netherstead was clearly visible on the horizon, its coastline was engulfed in dense, lush forests in which a gantry of wildlife resided. Unlike Afriland, Netherstad's skyline was relatively flat aside from the humongous mountain in the dead center which looked almost out of place when compared to the rest of the landscape. The horizon was vaguely orange as the sun was just beginning to rise, Arnkatla strode back down the staircase to alert Simon so that he could smoothly dock the massive ship. She would do it herself had it not been for the fog making it difficult to judge distance. 

Netherstead is actually a real place but it's nowhere near as big as a country (no gorillas there), it's a lodge in Scotland. Still counts it as a typo even when it's  spelled correctly but I'm not shocked or mad at that, I know it had to happen.

That's a western lowlands gorilla, the same species of gorilla as Donkey Kong! I didn't want Nadav to be a silverback gorilla since I wanted his bronze armour to somewhat blend in with his fur (they look lighter depending on the light).