* Young wyvern, I will give you five minutes to convince your father that there can be a better way forward for all the races involved. Today you have a chance to communicate with the two-footed farming races through a divine beast who can speak to both you and them. This chance may never come again. You stole their food beasts because you did not know it was an offense. This was because you could not speak to them. They attacked you because they must protect their food beasts or starve. They did not know you thought you were merely hunting instead of stealing. When they saw you attack them for revenge, they fought back to defend themselves. This was because they could not speak to you. I find it tragic that either intelligent race must die because you can't talk to one another. I will return in five minutes. Your fate is now in your hands or wings or talons, or whatever. *

I turned on my heels and walked over to where the round ear soldiers had set up camp chairs for the Prince, Duke, Hobgoblin Colonel, and Cat Rider. I got down on all fours and put my head on the ground because I found my conversation with the wyverns tiring.

* My theory is correct. They are quite intelligent. They see any four-footed livestock as prey to hunt. They did not understand that farmers will fight to protect their flocks. When people defend their flocks, they interpreted that as an attack for no reason and attacked back. If they can understand the concept of livestock, you and they can live in peace if they refrain from hunting your farm animals. *

"So what now?" Cat asked.

* The father is stubborn and insists on revenge or death. The adolescent, who I think is a he, is open to negotiation. I have given the adolescent wyvern five minutes to change his father's 'we-die-or-you-die' attitude. If he succeeds, we negotiate. If he fails, we kill the father and negotiate. *

In the back of my mind, I could hear the father and son arguing. The father was stubborn and the son was desperate and pleading. It was depressing. I tried my best to block it out.

"It's been five minutes, Fuzzy," my boy said.

* Come with me. If the father chooses to die, I'd like to ask you to do the spell. Otherwise, the round ears will spear him to death, which I find cruel since we have a painless alternative. *

"Why not you, Fuzz? I cast the last one. It is your turn, isn't it?"

* Because unless we can rustle up some trolls, I'm the only one the wyverns can talk to. Maybe you could apply that magical genius brain of yours to craft a spell allowing a non-magical creature to speak with a magical beast like a wyvern. *

"Hmmm," Cat got up. We walked together at his pace through Willam's troopers, who had both wyverns surrounded with three-yard spears. I heard the argument between father and son stop when Cat and I stopped near the father's head.

* Who is this? * the father demanded of me.

* This is my partner, who is a mage like me. If you choose death, then he will cast a spell, and you die instantly with no pain. *

* These two-footed soldiers will not stab me to death? Then why are they here? *

* As a precaution. You are both so much larger and stronger than any of us, being prepared is prudent in case you were trying to trick us. *

The father wyvern was silent in thought. Then he studied me. * Spells take a toll upon the caster, and this boy is not strong. Mages are rare and precious, and soldiers are cheap. Why use a spell when you have soldiers? *

* Because we do not wish to be cruel. *

* I do not understand. Explain this. *

* We could have avoided all this death and destruction if we understood each other. By your standards of living, you did nothing wrong. Because you chose death rather than finding a way to live with us, we choose to make that death as painless and quick as possible. Making you suffer would be wrong. It would cause us more distress. *

* More distress? *

* It is distressing that you would choose to die rather than try to work with us. My partner and I abide by the elven principle of mutual coexistence for the sapient races. *

* This is goblin territory, that boy smells like a human, and you are no elf. * It was the first thing he had said to me that wasn't cast in hostile feelings.

I was amused. * Yes, I did notice several years ago that I was indeed not an elf. My partner was born human, but he is the adopted son of the King of the Green Elves. We have lived with the elves for many years. In our party of adventurers, we have the blood son and daughter of the Elven King, another adopted son of the King, and the King's cousin. I'm sure you can see the folks sitting and watching us. The hobgoblin is the colonel of the army forces sent to protect the goblins of the local villages and towns from your family. The two humans are a Prince and a Duke of the human kingdom to the east. We are all working together to address the problem presented by your family. *

* How is it possible for elves, goblins, and humans to work together? None of you get along. *

* But we do and we have. It is not always easy and, indeed, we often fight. But most of the two-footed races agree that peace between us is always better. At times like this, we can indeed overlook our differences and work together. *

* Then, I would be a fool not to do what you suggested, trying to live together. My son was wiser than I was. I will heed his advice since the worst is that we would die anyway, but the best would mean a new home among beings willing to work with us. *

* Father! * a happy adolescent wyvern shouted.

* Peace, my son. Divine beast, we have an immediate problem. We are hungry and have eaten hardly anything for several days. All the animals we were hunting have disappeared. I think now that maybe they were this livestock you mentioned. We also can not leave this place. We have an injured daughter in our nest and must hunt for her since she can't fly. If her wing does not get better, then she will die eventually because she can not hunt for herself. *

* If you will work with us, * I told him, * we can arrange food for your family, and my partner and I will help you with healing spells. * Oh dear, I think I just made a whole lot of work for myself. I bumped my boy's good leg to get his attention, * we really need a spell so these folks can talk to our folks. You need to start working on that. *

"What?" He looked from me to the wyverns and back. "They will work with us? We don't have to kill one or both? What a relief!" He smiled at the father wyvern, waved, and went back to sit down and convey the news to the others.

* I do not understand the gestures he just made, * the father wyvern remarked.

* He is happy that he did not need to kill you. He waved as he left because that is polite, especially since you can't understand his speech. *

* I see we have much to learn about two-footed life. Now, can I get this net off of me? I need to find some food for my daughter. *