Alaric opened and closed his mouth like a fish gasping for air, they have run from one evil to fall into another. Zaleria was known to have a hotter temper than her sister, trespassing on her territory might be even more disastrous. She had shown them mercy once in the past but that didn’t mean a witch will retain the same kind heart.
“Are you the inferno witch?” An old man walked to face her, in her eyes he was just a toothpick and a cup of blood. “Was it my sister who did this?” Zaleria asked in a tense manner, they could sense a shred of anger in her voice.
“It is indeed as you say, we’re fleeing from her. Two days before she came back badly wounded and in sore mode. She suddenly started thrashing and going on a rampage.” The old man’s eyes sunk deep into his skull as he remembered his family being melted into a pile of go and turned into zombies by the necromancy witch.
“That was probably me, she attacked someone close to me so I gave her a beating. You should have never gotten even close to her.” Zaleria replied as she ran her hand over Alaric’s wife’s hair. The woman didn’t dare move as she know who was standing by her side.
“Wait!” Alaric screamed as he saw his wife’s pale face, she was already chanting her last words. “Let’s talk it over, no need to rush!” He said in a scared voice, there was no reason for Zaleria to not burn them right there. They have aligned with her scorned sister and had now trespassed onto her land.
“What was your circle name again? Ah, the Moon.” Zaleria took her hand from his wife’s head and started walking, the snow around them started to melt quickly as the temperature rose. Alaric prepared his magic, it was a fight to the death ‘I shall buy my kin enough time to flee!’ He steeled his resolve.
“Human children are weak, this should be better,” Zaleria said turning around to the freezing children hiding behind the elderly and women, she completely ignored the magic Alaric was emitting as if it was nothing.
“I’m in a good mood these days. I have found my lost grandchild and I don’t want anyone else to lose theirs. Unless you want to fight.” She glared back at him, he immediately dropped his staff and canceled his magic. If she wasn’t about to fight there is no point in taking the risk of enraging her.
“Very well, you can use this forest as a home for now. I bet half of you can sense my magic so don’t you dare go out of my surveillance.” Zaleria told them with a smile. Witches usually leave a trace of their Mana around their bog, Druids who live in the forest have their ways of detecting those traces and avoiding them so they won’t spark unnecessary conflicts with a witch. Now they have sure to stay under Zaleria’s aura to get her protection.
Of course, they knew nothing of her being a dragon nor of her sister. To them, she was just an absurdly strong witch.
“Let’s head to the forest edge, my grandchild in there with someone that might be able to help with your wounds!” Zaleria said guiding the group back to where Sofia and Alice were, thinking that she might be able to heal some of the wounded.
Looking around they were over seventy people, so providing food and shelter for them will be harder than it seems. “She might as well be able to give you some food and relief so make sure to treat her with respect.” Zaleria was talking about Alice, she knew she was the lord’s daughter and she might have enough power to help.
Having druids always proved to be beneficial for any city, mainly because they keep their forests in check, decrease monsters and provide a steady supply of medicinal herbs and spices to the market. If any lord had the chance to have a relation with some they will take it. Alice being the lord’s daughter might find helping them to be a good investment in both her and the city’s future.
As they were passing by the forest they found a trail of blood and monster corpses, Zaleria looked at them drooling as they looked like a waste of good food. “By the great oak, what beast could leave such carnage?” Alaric said with an open mouth, all the monsters were no less than C-rank and each of them was killed differently.
“I came with some people to hunt monsters, this might be them. Yeah, it’s them!” Said Zaleria after smelling one of the corpses and picking Selena’s scent. What surprised her more is that Cain’s Mana was almost undetectable, fighting with magic and leaving almost no trace was as hard as leaving no footsteps when treading the snow.
As they walked and walked, they finally reached the Crimson cobra’s corpse. The head being cut clean-off scared the hell out of the druids. Such a monster would have caused them to band up, a disaster to their circular yet someone sliced its head like this? One of the elders inspected the corpse briefly and said with a pale face, “I see no other wounds, the monster was taken out without a fight.” His words only meant one thing, the monster didn’t stand a chance against whoever Zaleria brought here with her.
They didn’t ask Zaleria who that person was, with this power they saw him as no less dangerous than her. With how the cut looked, he was a skilled swordsman. Some of the women imagined a big beefy fighter carrying a greatsword and standing beside Zaleria, the image seemed too realistic they made up their minds. “It’s her husband!” They whispered to each other.
As they kept walking, some of the druids felt a strong presence rushing toward them and they got ready for a fight. As it toppled down the trees, the massive bear appeared growling in pain.
For a moment, as they all were about to engage in the fight. Their blood stopped moving from fear, and a large pulse of fire magic radiated from Zaleria as she stood in front of the bear.
“It’s you!” Zaleria growled as she opened her mouth, a blast of fire exploded directly in the bear’s chest blasting its body into hundreds of small pieces. He was the same giant bear who attacked Sofia and the others, she had no will to let a monster like him live.
Witnessing her power and quickly changing temper, the druids got reminded about what kind of monster she was. A single wrong word and one of them will end like that bear.
As she noticed them staring at her, she said with a loud snore “He laid his hand on my grandchild, It was the mercy of me to kill him quickly.”
Hearing the reason for her sudden outburst they all made a mental note to never mess with her grandchild.
They eventually got to the outskirts where could hear the sound of fighting, Alice, Sofia, and Gracie were fighting a group of dire wolves. Zaleria stopped a bit far away from the druids to wait for the fight to end, this was precious training for Sofia and she didn’t intend to interfere.
“They seem to be still training, we better not interfere. The other two should be coming here as well by now.” Zaleria said turning her head toward the forest where she felt Cain and Selena approach them at a terrifying speed.
They all looked at her with scared faces, they didn’t know what was awaiting them but they should be fine, isn’t that right?