Stillwater says "Alright, but how do you plan to sneak into the fort? You are fairly easy to spot!"

"I won't go in looking like this. I have an ability that allows me to shapeshift."

Stillwater says "How useful! Alright, while you are gone we will begin preparing to leave."

"Where exactly is the human fort?"

Stillwater says "Well, if you go across the mountains, it is pretty much straight west of here. However, I would suggest going around the mountains, since it is faster!"

"I will just fly due west then!"

Stillwater says "Wait, you can fly too?!"

"Yes." I take my wings out to show him.

Stillwater says "Well, that was unexpected! You are full of surprises! I will wait for your successful return."

With a nod to Stillwater I leave his hut, take off, and start heading west towards the mountains. It is already dark out, but that doesn't really bother me, I can still see just fine. As I fly I start thinking about how to approach the humans, I can't just walk up to the gate.

All the humans arrive by boat, so they will be suspicious of anyone that doesn't arrive that way. While I could fly out to meet a boat, it would be hard to come up with a believable story. So a story that will get me past the gate, a shipwreck is probably the best place to start.

Now, north or south of the fort, there is nothing south of the fort as far as I know. North of the fort would mean coming through the orc's lands meaning I can't claim to be a sailor. That is probably for the best, sailors tend to talk differently from normal people.

So for it to be believable it needs to be someone who can fight, a mercenary is probably best. That way I can gloss over the fact that I don't know the kingdoms or cities on the mainland. Of course, first I need to verify that I can shapeshift into a human, so I land to test it out.

Finding a nice quiet looking clearing I land and start building a mental image of a human. Without even thinking about it the image takes on my features from my first life. I leave that as it is, but the body is in much better shape than I ever was.

Shapeshift form added: Human!

Taking a look at myself I am glad that for once it didn't change into something else. My skin is normal color and taking a look at my reflection in a mirror freaks me out a little. Seeing my old face is definitely going to take some getting used to.

Even moving around as a human feels super weird, like my skin doesn't fit properly. At least with this form I don't have to worry about any strange side effects. Now that I know it works I drop the shapeshift and decide to rest until dawn.

It ends up being several hours after dawn when I wake up, but it has been a few days since I slept. After some breakfast I continue flying west towards the human fort. I plan to take a look at it from the air before I finalize my plan to infiltrate.

Once I cross the mountains I land again, just long enough to shapeshift into eagle form. After all, the humans are bound to notice a humanoid flying over their fort. Besides, the eagle's eyesight is still stronger than mine, perfect for scouting.

As I take off again I find myself enjoying flying, it is much harder to fly in my normal form. With the eagle form it is much easier and I have a lot more fun, tail feathers make a huge difference. It only takes about an hour to reach the fort, the eagle form is also faster in flight.

What catches my attention first is actually just north of the fort, it is a defensive line. A long wall with trenches full of spikes in front of it, this must be where they are fighting the orcs. It is all quiet right now, but I can still see about a thousand humans manning the wall.

Next I turn my eyes to the docks, where there are currently seven ships. They are all small two-masters, they are called either sloops or caravals, I can't remember. What is important is that they are all too small for my needs, I would need at least two of them.

Two would barely handle the elves I have right now, if we rescue more we would need another one. I am not even confident of managing one ship, let alone a small fleet. So it looks like I am going to be building a ship, which means the fort can get wiped out.

The harbor only has docks, there are no shipyards or drydocks, so there is no reason for me to protect it. Just as I am about to turn and fly away I spot a group of elven slaves. They are in chains and are currently moving crates, doing manual labor.

So I stay above the fort and circle as I watch to see where the slaves are kept. From what I can see there seem to be about fifty slaves and they are being kept in the fort. This complicates things, I need to plan out a way to save them during the orc attack.

The elves are being kept at the end of the fort closest to the docks, making it easier to make them work. Since that is the case I am thinking that the easiest way to save them would be to move them onto a ship. I would need to clear the ship out first, but that shouldn't be too hard.

Then the elves will be safe on the ship until the battle is over, hopefully. Besides, I want to get whatever charts the ship might have, otherwise we will be sailing blind. Not that I know how to read sea charts, but I can at least give it a try.

Having seen everything I can from the sky I turn north and fly along the coast. Now I am looking for a believable place to have come ashore after being shipwrecked. I plan to walk back once I find a good spot so that it is more believable and so I can kill some orcs.

When I come across a rocky beach with debris and corpses all over it I know I am lucky. As I move in to land I can tell there has been an actual shipwreck sometime recently. Once I land I drop the shapeshift and start looking through all the debris.

The name of the ship that went down is the Argunte and from the looks of things it was headed to the fort. I get really lucky and find some clothes in a crate, so I don't need to rob a corpse. Now that I have everything I shapeshift into my human form and get changed.

My tabard and my angel armor go into my pouch along with Blitz, though I keep the new sword out. Since I took it from an orc it shouldn't draw too much attention from the humans. In fact, it is fairly recognizable, it may end up helping to validate my story.

After changing into the clothes I found, I walk inland for a bit before turning south. It only took me a few hours to fly this far but I expect it to take days to go back on foot. That is all part of the plan, this will help my disguise look authentic.