The druids weren’t all fighters, not all of them were attuned to the wild nature of the wilderness. As a clan who lived outside of civilization, they endured a harsh primitive lifestyle. Hunting, farming, and living in small camps made of wood and dirt.
The oldest of them held power and the youngest learned from them. Their communities were called circles, with each of them worshiping a part of nature. The circle of the moon focused on the aspect of wildlife, animals who were now slowly overtaken by the monstrosities.
The member of the Moon circle boasted the ability to talk to animals, control them and transform into beasts. This didn’t mean they lacked the other spells of druids, they still had an arsenal of nature magic.
They had lived for the past years in Ourals forest after the last Morena and Zaleria fight burned their homeland. Today, Morena came to their new homeland injured. She then started massacring their people so they ran away. They didn’t even know why, she just appeared bloodied and went on a rampage.
…
Zaleria approached Sofia and the others when they finished the fight. “That was a nice display, you even made sure to keep a one-on-one fight!” She said happily approaching them. Alaric’s eyes opened wide when he saw Sofia, his mind quickly tied the knots. The similarity he had felt from her before now made sense, his face paled as he had already shown animosity against Zaleria’s granddaughter.
“Wait, it’s you!” Sofia growled as her flame erupted, a clear shift that Zaleria didn’t miss. “You know him?” She asked.
“Wait it’s a misunderstanding…” A flash of fire gazed at the side of his face, exploding into the distance in a massive flower of inferno, [Flash fire] “Shut your mouth!” Zaleria wasn’t joking around, he wasn’t even allowed to defend himself.
“A few days ago he attacked our home to steal a dungeon core, he caused a lot of injuries but I and Cain managed to force him to retreat.” With Sofia’s words, the druid’s fate was sealed.
The druid immediately saw their fate when they felt Zaleria’s magic flutter, and the snow around them melted as multiple balls of crimson flames appeared in the sky. [Fireball: War-rain] a unique version of fireball developed for battlefield uses, it consume a lot of MP but easily generate many fireballs to kill scattered troupes.
“Run!” Alaric Screamed as he turned around swinging his staff. Time seemed too slow for him, ‘I have to transform, into a big form, an elephant to take the hits.’ He thought, looking at his skin slowly turn grey, ‘I won’t make it in time, a bit of shape takes too long!’
CLAP! A flash of lightning zapped from the forest and jumped from each fireball to the other erasing them. [Thunder step] [Counter spell]. Cain landed between Zaleria and Alaric with lightning crackling from his body.
“Calm down!” Cain said keeping his eyes locked on Zaleria.
Zaleria had never seen someone stand in her way like this, especially someone who knew she was a dragon. “Don’t interfere!” She growled, as her magic started to swell up again.
“No, you calm down. I don’t know what problem you have but back down for now!” Alaric was shivering as he saw Cain and Zaleria about to clash, he did fight can a few days ago and he was sure the kid had no chance against her. ‘Is this courage or ignorance of a fool?’ As the thought passed by his head he screamed, “Don’t do that kid, you have no chance against her!”
Cain turned toward him with a smile, “I know but she isn’t that bad of a person!” No one here knew Zaleria as Cain did, right now she looked furious but Cain knew she was laughing inside. She knew Cain was approaching yet she used a slow spell, if she was really angry they would have been dead long ago.
“What is your excuse?” Zaleria growled as she flung a fireball at Cain. CLANK! Cain easily deflected it with a fire sword conjured by [Elemental weapon] To Cain such a feat was easy, all he needed to do was enchant the fire sword to deflect fire with [Enchanting]. What the druid saw was a kid deflecting a fireball like it was nothing.
“Well, I see they are in a bad situation so I might be able to get a few things from them in exchange for helping them,” Cain said stroking his chin.
“Like what?” Zaleria’s temper seemed to fade a bit as the pulsating of her magic slowed down.
“There are some flowers and saps that I would find helpful to create the Ink!” Cain said as his eyes scanned the druids. “I bet none of them would refuse, isn’t that right?” He stared at Alaric.
“We will do anything, please calm your anger!” Alaric said taking it that Cain was trying to just find a reason for her to not kill them.
“Wait a moment, I didn’t say to kill them!” Sofia rushed toward her realizing that they almost got killed because of her. “She is right, don’t just them without listening to their side!” Alice also butted in.
Zaleria looked at them and then shifted her eyes toward Gracie, she was always fond of the calm girl who didn’t seem to flinch in her presence. “What do you say?”
“Master said to stop so you should obey.” Straightforward as always, Gracie gave her no say and made it Cain’s decision.
“Well if you say so, they have to pay me thought. A monster carcass no less than a horse each week. This is your living tax to me, start paying from next week.”Zaleria turned around and Cain gave her a strange look, ‘You only wanted to have them hunt for you!’ He thought. As long as Sofia wasn’t physically hurt, Zaleria wouldn’t snap that easily, she is merely amused by them panicking around.
“This is enough for today, let’s head back so we can get Leon’s opinion on this matter!” Cain said putting his sword back in its sheath.
“Thank you, I don’t know what to say…” Alaric approached him slowly with two elderly men. “Such valor, to stand in front of the inferno witch like that!” One of the old men gasped.
“No need to thank me, I don’t why you’re here or what happened but from the look of it…” Cain looked behind them to where the rest were gathering, “I think you need our help, and I need yours!” It was a chance for Cain to decrease his workload, he wouldn’t have to go gather the herbs or buy them at inflated prices, all he needs is to have the druids gather them for him!
“We will provide all we could, are you sure we’re allowed to settle here?” Alaric asked, even if Zaleria said this was her land, the local lord was still a problem.
“Alice, what do you think?” Cain turned and asked, she nodded, “There won’t be a problem, and if there was a problem, I could deal with it. “Thanks, you heard her,” Cain replied to them after thanking Alice.
As they were heading back slowly, Alaric took the time to tell Cain what happened. The ghastly news came as a surprise, Morena’s action seemed unreasonable even for her. What was she thinking attacking such vital people?
Alaric on the other side was surprised to learn that Cain was getting married to Zaleria’s alleged granddaughter. He also didn’t believe that Alice was the lord’s daughter. He cursed the lord of Ourals for tasking him with such a dangerous task without providing any information. He also immediately recognized Selena as a black jaguar, their clan was widely known by the druids.
The guards were alarmed when they saw a bunch of people approach, but they quickly dropped their heads in exhaustion as they saw Cain and Alice walking in front. “Ma lady, who are those?” A guard approached Alice and asked her. “Talk to Cain, he will explain!”
As soon as Cain explained to the guards that they were druids who wanted to live in the city’s forest they got thrilled. For a simple guard, nothing beat a healing potion when injured. With the druids here providing herbs, the potions are going to get a lot cheaper.
“Get them to rest in the barracks, provide a private hall for the women and make sure they lack nothing!” The head guard screamed, “Share ration with them if the stocks aren’t enough!”
All the guards sprung into action with wide smiles, they would gladly eat half the food if it meant having easier access to healing potions!
“We will definitely get the lord to approve, we have lady Alice on our side after all!” The head guard shook Alaric’s hand passionately.
From the side, Cain laughed as the scene resembled a coup d’etat with half the city militia gathering around Alice.
From the side lines, Leon who was overseeing the management of the battlements approached them on horseback.