Seyl-to-ren.
Okay, bai. =3
They were walking for about an hour now, with no signs of them ever being closer to the orc campsite. They were rather disappointed to know that the village itself had no horses to sell, in fact, they hardly had any livestock to feed them all, which made the others feel pity for the poor villagers, and it pained Fendrel to know that they can't help them. Their supplies are meager enough as it is.
Well, everyone felt pity except for the Nightwalker himself....
They were walking on a field that could've reached miles around, and it was a weirdly devoid of life for a field full of such lush plant life. But they really didn't care. More things went on inside their thoughts.
The memory of that woman, that saeltoren, and then that ligvus, that tree abomination, it was still running amok in their minds, and everytime they heard her screams echo again, they shivered at this visage. She was a forest guardian, Fendrel had described, and up until now, the old man was explaining their existence to his companions.
"Why are they so vicious?" Katelyn asked, raising an eyebrow. They were all still tired from that saeltoren, and their travels only worsened it. Already, sweat coated their bodies, and their breaths were becoming labored as they struggled so much. Alianor was asleep, and Fendrel had taken the liberty of carrying her, which to the old man, was a daunting task, considering her weight.
"They normally aren't," Fendrel replied, heaving Alianor up. "In fact, they are, in very rare occasions, known to help lost travellers, but once you wound their trees, you would have to contend with an enraged woman that controls the forest to her will.
"Is there only one sa..sel..sael..?" Justin stuttered out, unable to pronounce the words correctly, which elicited a short chuckle from both Katelyn and Fendrel.
"Saeltoren? And no, many more dominate just one cluster of trees." Came Fendrel's answer. He sighed, and if he hadn'y remembered the weight on his arms, he might have stretched it outwards. "Let's camp here, I don't care if it's out in the open. I'm so tired, and I'm not doubting even for one second that all of you feel the same."
The Nightwalker that was Seere opened his mouth, as if to say something, and the old man anticipated the words about to come out. "Except for Seere, that is."
Seere closed his mouth, and Fendrel chuckled again.
He gently sat on the soft earth, laying Alianor's head on his lap, stroking her growing hair. He sighed.
Finally, my legs can have a well-deserved rest.
"I'm not complaining," Katelyn remarked, sitting down on the ground, stretching her legs and arms out as she sighed.
"Me too," Justin commented, setting down their supplies on the grass. He sat, pulling his knees closer to him. He dared to ask again, his pronunciation still flawed,"Why didn't you just kill the saeltoren?"
"I've--we've--been wondering the same thing, old man. She was but one woman, and that thing was alone, we could've killed them."
Fendrel shook his head. "The things, the ligvus, are faster than you account them for, and the saeltoren herself is very dangerous."
Before Katelyn had the chance to offer a rebuttal, Fendrel continued, striking all of their attention in one swoop. "And they probably have the best defense mechanism on this plane."
"And that is?" The Nightwalker Seere asked, raising an ebony eyebrow. "Even if such entities are skillful in matters of battle, one could not hope to stand against a demon, a disciple of Merec, and two assassins."
"They can only be killed by destroying their "homes." Their homes are the trees they live in. Any wound inflicted directly on them would just heal."
Katelyn snorted, replying,"That's not too bad, old man."
Fendrel made a 'tsk tsk' noise. "You fail to grasp the entirety of it. You are in a forest, surrounded by trees that could potentially house a saeltoren, and striking the wrong tree angers another saeltoren. You probably won't want a horde of forest spirits on your heels, now would you?"
"You're saying...?" Justin did not continue, as Fendrel had already finished his sentence.
"Yes. To properly kill a saeltoren and its ligvus, the right trees must be killed. And there are normally more than five trees the saeltoren make their home. The superstitious humans call them the spirit of greed, because of the amount of homes they live in. One wrong move, and you're probably dead already."
"It's quite amusing how you say humans, old mortal, when you are one yourself," Seere said, crossing his arms on his broad chest.
"It's because unlike most of my kind, I don't get frightened when milk turns sour, or the stupidity of the idea that women are inferior to men," Fendrel said, glaring at the demon.
Katelyn laughed loudly. "Really? They believe that complete ignorance?"
Fendrel scoffed. "You don't know half the things most of our kind believe in."
Katelyn's eyes darted from Seere, then back to Fendrel again, which did not go unnoticed to the former Shadow Master.
"Well, dusk is coming, and I don't know about any of you, but I'm exhausted, so I'm going to bed! Seere can watch over us." Her words dissolved into unintelligible mutterings as she grabbed her sleeping bag, laying down. Fendrel was becoming more suspicious of this woman, but of course, with her being guarded by a demon who's prowess in battle is currently unmatched, he wouldn't be stupid enough to do it.
"Me too," Justin agreed, repeating the same thing he said earlier.
Fendrel sighed, looking at the vigilant Nightwalker, and glared slightly for a second, then fixed his own things to a neat pile, and laid his own sleeping back beside him, tucking Alianor in, while he rested on the grass, thoughts still raging in his mind.
Foremost among them, was his fear of betrayal.
The old man woke up to a loud noise being repeatedly done, and he rose out of the fields of grass, annoyed as the others were. It didn't take him a single second to realize that it was night, for it was cold, and he couldn't see what was in front of him, if he was being honest.
"What is that noise?" Katelyn asked, speaking loudly of the single thought running through their minds. She was glaring wildly, breathing out, probably because she was torn out of her sleep at such an ungodly fashion.
"I don't know," Justin answered for her, looking vexed as well.
"Eldrih," Fendrel muttered, and a ball of fire formed in his hand, illuminating their location in a bright orange light, as well as potentially giving their position away.
Fendrel felt the continuous drain on his energy, but he kept it alive as long as he can. He called out,"Who's there?"
The noise that was occurring grew ever louder, and to his surprise, he noticed something rather different.
"Is that coming from..." Seere's words were trampled by the old man's own.
"I think it's coming from the air," He said, not noticing the Nightwalker's venomous glare towards him.
The noise that Fendrel had thought was the sound drums make grew even louder now, and he looked up just in time to see large flying thing come up directly above them. It slowly landed, moving away slightly, as if it already noticed them beforehand.
"A dragon!?" Katelyn exclaimed, and Fendrel harshly shushed the sun-haired woman of green eyes, who proceeded to glare at him with lidded eyes. He gestured to the sleeping toddler beside him, and Katelyn's lips formed an "o" as her annoyance faded away.
"Yes, it's a dragon, haven't you ever seen Miasmador before?" Fendrel killed the fire. It was now seeping every last drop, and there wasn't much more that he can handle to be lost.
Katelyn rolled her eyes. "Either this is him, because dragons don't just drop down to say hello, or it's another dragon that's hoping for a midnight snack."
"I'd wager it's him," Justin remarked.
"We'll see," Fendrel whispered as the dragon finally landed, and lo and behold, Miasmador was before them, growling, but once he noticed them, he stopped.
At his back, was Althalos, as apathetic as ever, and then there was Astarte, who Fendrel thought that she either enjoyed riding on Miasmador, or she repulsed such experience, whatever it is, she got down, and proceeded to talk to the other Nightwalker that was Seere in a language that was still foreign to him. He saw Katelyn also listening intently to her speech.
"Tell me the details later," Fendrel told Miasmador and Althalos. He really didn't care if they told him or not, what matters is he wanted to get his rest.
But still, that didn't mean he was very happy and very pleased that they were reunited once more. A broken apart group, now fixed again.
"Well hello to you too, I think?" Miasmador told him in his rugged voice as the old man, the former Shadow Master, finally went to the land of dreams.
Well, went to the land of dreams once more.
Author's Note (Read) :
Hai again.
A little spoiler for you, there's a rather interesting thing that's going to happen very soon.
Okay.
Bai =3