𝕾𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖈𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌 || ℌ𝔬𝔱𝔇 𝔵 ℑ𝔫𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔦𝔱𝔞𝔫𝔠𝔢

ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔗𝔥𝔦𝔯𝔱𝔶 𝔗𝔴𝔬

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Allara winced when a claw like mind tried to scratch its way into her own making her and her two companions huddle their minds together to keep it at bay until Angela placed a firm hand on the young woman's shoulder and shook her head, indicating with it that it was Solembum. And so Allara calmed down the two dragons and slowly opened her mind to the large cat.

"Hello there Allara, Drogos, Embar" a smooth voice greeted them "It is a pleasure to meet you. As you might now know that I am Solembum. I simply wanted to meet you"

"Hello Solembum. It is a pleasure to meet you properly as well" Allara bowed her head.

"I would not go into that town alone" the cat hissed lowly, making everyone else turn their attention to him "I smelt something from a few days ago that smelled weird"

The three two legs and the two dragons lifted their heads to stare at the town found downhill. Drogos and Embar flicked their tongues out, their wings spreading slightly in front of the group in a protective barrier as they growled from the smell of something dark in the air.

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And so the Allara asked the two dragons, despite themselves, to stay back with the younger one unless she called for them. They had grumbled the entire time she had been leaving with the others and had even asked her several times if she was wearing her sword.

Indeed, Allara already had her hand on top of Ânogar's hilt pommel, as was Vanir. Angela looked calm but Allara could see that her hand sometimes slipped into the waistband pocket, reaching for the sun knife she had shown her on the dragon.

The guards that were supposed to be at the gates were no longer there, and when they entered the small town, it appeared empty. The group stayed close to each other just in case.

"It looks like the town is empty" Angela said.

"Let's just make this quick" Allara said, a shudder going up her back "This town is giving me goosebumps"

While they walked around trying to find anyone or some food for the trip, Allara kept getting the feeling they were being watched.

"Look" Angela called out softly in a whisper.

She pointed to the main building and the three of them slowly made their way to that place in spite off Allara's head telling her to back off.

She didn't want to be that white girl in a horror movie.

The building was dark and Allara was thankful that Vanir was there with them as he had proven many times that elves had sharper eyesight, so she grabbed onto the edge of his shirt despite herself.

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Vanir looked back at the feeling of someone gently grabbing the back of his shirt. When he saw it was Allara he smiled slightly and kept going at the front of the group since he would lead them forward better.

"Now that I think about it, why are we doing this?" Allara muttered out.

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The other two paused when they realised the same thing and they quickly left the building. Right as Allara was going to leave, she felt the back of her ankle getting grabbed by someone. She looked down to see a hand that connected to a body and instead of shouting like it would have been her first reaction, she leaned down and gasped when she saw the face of a young woman looking up at her.

"Angela! Vanir!" she called for the other two and slipped her arms under the woman's back and legs to pick her up after helping her release Allara's ankle.

The other two helped her place the woman on an empty cart there was outside. Angela unsheathed a knife from one of her many pockets and sliced the woman's dress off, being careful to still cover her chest. Allara gasped when she saw the deep burns all over the girl's back, which was why the fabric of her clothing was harder to take off and a few strips stayed on her skin.

"Can you guys help me remove as much of the clothing from her wounds as you can" Allara told them as the girl begun to cough up bits of blood "Come on!"

When they did nothing, Allara stared at them, now panicking.

"It is no use Allara" Angela put her hand on the woman's shoulder softly "She's had Seithr Oil used on her. It is a deadly and extremely corrosive oil-like poison. None that have been touched by it have survived past the first weeks, and that in extreme agony"

"What? is there nothing we can do?" Allara cried out as the young girl in her arms continued to writhe in her arms.

"We could put her out of her misery, nothing more" the older woman said sadly.

Allara nodded, now realising it was necessary fo it. She held the young woman up as Angela took out a dagger from one of her many pockets and stuck the short blade into the jugular, so when she pulled it out the blo0od followed almost instantly. Bleeding out, a painless death.

The three of them watched as the young girl continued to breath out the last living breath of her lungs and then go limp, her eyes open staring at the sky.

"We have to be careful" Vanir stood from his crouched position "Seithr Oil is an extremely rare substance and it is known to be used by the Ra'zac. That must mean that the queen's suspicions and the information received from all over Alagaësia was correct and the remaining Ra'zac eggs were found"

"Are...are you sure?" Allara asked them. She remembered her dream with the creature in it and felt the cold hand of fear crawl up her throat.

"I agree with the elf" Angela said as she wiped the girls blood from her neck and placed her thin hair as nicely as she could on her pale face, closing her eyes with two fingers.

"Should we look to see if anyone else was here?" Allara asked them.

They all moved the girl's body over to a cart so they could bury it after and then they slip up even though it wasn't really the best decision to do so. Allara held back a gasp when she came up to an alley where children's bodies littered all across the street, all with matching burns to the previous girl.

Allara pursed her lips and whistled loudly, the shrill noise echoing through the rest of the town. As she waited for the other two to come to her and she tried to check if anyone else was alive, she looked down at her arm where goosebumps were raising on her skin and her hair was lifting.

As discretely as she could with the weight of the young boy's body on her arm, she reached over to her sword on her hip. When she heard the familiar hiss from her dream she swung her sword back, catching a small black figure and slicing right through its middle.

At the same time as she shouted in surprise, Vanir and Angela reached her. The sound of beating wings in the air getting closer when Drogos and Embar also came down from the forest.

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