Whispers of Winter's Flight - [ 20 ] (Patreon)

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Her life had been rather hard as of late, the snowy peaks weren't the most abundant in game to hunt and even less so in natural bounties to subsist off but she still made do.

She was the big sister after all and her little brother was her responsibility ever since mother left them, even if he was a rash and annoying little rut.

This day started just like all others, she awoke before her brother and went out for a hunt with the intention of waking her little brother with a meal if she could manage and also hone her instincts. She knew she was different from all the other inhabitants of the forest, they needed to kill other beings with Cores and eat those to grow in power but it was much different for her.

She inherited more than enough Essence from her parents at birth to grow beyond even the third milestone but she still had to hone herself if she didn't want to be a bumbling idiot by the time she reached those heights. She just passed the first milestone while her brother was just a bit under it so she imagined she could hunt something more filling now.

Patience was the key, her future was bright as was her brother's, all they had to do was wait as the inherited Essence slowly reinforced their Core and body and soon enough very few could threaten them.

There was a spring in her steps as she dashed through the snowy landscape, her icy blue eyes questing for prey worthy of her time. Her nostrils flared and she stopped, her white-furred body laid itself onto the snowy ground to hide her as her snout moved around to catch the trail of that intriguing prey.

The trail wasn't that fresh but it wasn't too old either, a day old at most. She was confused for a bit, she knew what kind of prey left this trail just from that ethereal scent of snowcapped mountains and musky pine trees that invaded her nostrils.

Elf.

She snarled, Elves were dangerous but she could tell from the scent that this one was young, very young. And alone.

This elf will make for the perfect present for my brother when he crosses the milestone.

With that thought in mind, she started following the trail, she dashed without either a sound or much of her form being revealed. She always favored a more stealthy approach than her brother who was more standoffish, he just loved staring into the eyes of his prey as they fought and see the terror in them as he won and their lives were forfeit.

She had to admit it was sort of endearing, that ferocious side of his was very masculine and would surely lure all the females from this peak and the other ten to him in droves when he matures some more.

She was fast but she could tell that the Elf she was following was no slouch either, she must have run for hours and she only started to smell a fresher scent not long ago. She wouldn't be getting back before her little brother awoke for sure, she just prayed to the Great Mother that he wasn't dumb enough to go out to hunt by himself, he always wanted to hunt more dangerous prey than he could handle and outside of her supervision but her help saved his furry ass more times than she could count.

The trail dampened for a while as she rushed alongside a river and then she noticed it, trees have fallen over, snow busted up, blood, ash and the scent of burning flesh.

Her form stiffened as she took in a breath.

Brother....

She jumped over the river easily and rushed up the slight slope along the trails of destruction wrought by a short but devastating duel.

She smelled the Elf, her terror was evident in her leftover scent but she couldn't care for that now.

She arrived at the site of the final confrontation at the base of a large tree, she could see claw marks on its trunk and she absently noted that those looked just like her brother's. No, they were her brother's.

She felt all four of her knees grow weak as she slumped to the ground next to a pile of ash and blackened bone fragments. They were the remains of an adolescent Frost Wolf just out of his childhood.

Brother....

She sobbed uncontrollably as grief overtook her, she failed as a sister, what would mother think of her? She was a failure, she'd been entrusted with caring for her brother and now he was...dead.

Murdered.

An uncontrollable vindictive fury enveloped her mind as she growled, the trees shook and the fresh snow cascaded through the air, covering the remains of her brother.

Just as she was about to give in, to let her fury control her she stopped.

I am not like that...Elf....your death will come without warning and last until a new moon comes...I swear that on the Great Mother.

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Kali eagerly stepped through the natural gateway, her gaze flickering from one place to the next as a giddiness at the novelty of it all. She was entering a secret village hidden under the protection of a mystical tree and most likely meet an Eladrin, she could barely stop herself from grinning but she still bounced on her ankles as she walked ahead with the others following along a few steps behind her.

Alexis ran up to her and latched onto her hand but the little girl was no less curious than Kali, her eyes lingered on the unusual trees, the strange fences seemingly grown from roots and so on once she felt secure with her hand nested inside Kali's.

The village itself was still a bit further away but the dirt trail from before turned into a well-kept gravel walkway with the before-mentioned fences on either side of it. Bushes grew on either side, their branches weighted down by abundant berries just like the branches of the trees above, apples, oranges, lemons and so many other fruits grew next to each other.

Kali grew more and more astonished as her mind quickly searched the relevant information and in what conditions did these plants thrive. Normally, none of these plants would bear even half as many fruits under these conditions and some of them would most likely die out.

Lemon and Orange trees preferred Mediterranean climates while apples were more accustomed to temperate climates, neither was usually found at the edge of a jungle but here they were.

"Can we?" Kali looked back at Virendel uncertainly, half of these fruits were only familiar to her from descriptions or illustrations in books. She ate some of them but they were few and far between as to get fresh fruits up to the high mountaintops they needed to be kept under advanced preservation enchantments and even her father wouldn't waste those on transporting snacks.

"Sure," the man said with a slight smile tugging at his mouth, "they are meant to be eaten, enjoy yourselves."

"Thanks," said Kali as her hand already snatched a peculiar fruit from a low-hanging branch above her, it was a deep shade of red and if her book knowledge held true its insides were a delicious combination of sweet and sour, just like she liked it.

"T-thanks," muttered Lexy as she looked longingly at the faraway fruits.

"Which one do you want?" The fruit can wait a few seconds.

"Uhm," Lexi blinked, then she looked around hastily before pointing at a lemon uncertainly.

"That's a lemon," Selene said from the side as she watched the little girl with a smile, "it's very sour...I admit even I can't eat it."

Lexy's finger quickly moved and pointed at a small yellow fruit which Kali assumed was some sort of apple, just to be sure she sent an inquisitive look to the elven woman and received a nod in return.

Kali cranked up the range on her spatial hearing for a moment, just enough to reach the targeted fruit. Calculations flew through her mind as Runes manifested in her head one after the other, her aim wasn't to inflict the maximum damage with her spell for once but the opposite.

As an Air Blade formed in her palm she finished the last calculation and with the bare minimum mana, she activated the spell. The invisible blade of condensed air no larger than her pinky finger dashed up with only a swish as a sign of its existence and a slight breeze.

Kali tracked the Spell as it zigzagged between branches, never leaving as much as a scar on the barks or a gash on the leaves before it reached its target. It didn't target the yellow fruit but the stem connecting it to the branch, easily cutting through it before it once again started dashing between branches up until it ran out of mana.

The yellow fruit landed safely in Kali's outstretched hand and nothing aside from the targeted stem was damaged in the process. She felt a swell of pride sprout in her breast, this was an amount of fine control she didn't have months before and she never would have thought of it had she not experienced what she did.

As she handed the fruit to an awed Lexy after conjuring a fistful of water to wash it off she wondered how else she had changed since that disastrous carriage ride. Before then she only ever imagined herself throwing around giant fireballs and wrestling Trolls, the first was a bit more realistic if she was being honest with herself but she had dreams back them.

Now she had goals. She could learn to throw around giant fireballs but now she knew that those wouldn't make any difference if she didn't also manage to hit her targets. Who would have thought that in some scenarios she'd have to show restraint like right now? Not that I ever imagined using a battle spell to get a fruit.

"I'd have chastised you for using a dangerous Spell for that but your control is quite masterful," Virendel noted as he started caressing his non-existent beard.

"Like you'd chastise the girl who saved our hides," Selene rolled her eyes.

"That and endangering Master's grove is another thing," he cut back with a slight glare.

"Could you introduce me to him?" Kali interrupted intent on preventing having to listen to another hour-long quarrel.

"Her," Virendel said, seemingly out of reflex, "and yes, I'm sure she'd have wanted to meet you anyway, not many mages around here and even fewer that are...respectful."

"So your master is the reason all these plants from all around Aetheriea can thrive here?"

"Indeed, she was an Archdruid before the advent of Magic and unlike many other druids she learned the ways of mana to compliment her knowledge and abilities."

"Really?" Damn, she must be old, maybe even older than Master... no that's impossible.

"So she is an Arch-druid, Mage, Alchemis?" I guess if you are as old as Master and not as single-minded towards magic it's more than possible.

"Please avoid calling her a Mage," Virendel said with a shudder, "She is an Arch-druid that used Magic to compliment her druidic knowledge and definitely not a Mage."

"A-alright," thought a bit weirded out, Kali nodded in assent as she was the guest in their village and even if she did not have much respect for her father, in Elven society elders, in general, were to be respected.

"Don't even elude to it," Selene added with a shiver of her oven and a faraway look in her eyes but she shook herself out of it a moment later, "you can ignore the other oldies yapping, and they will be yapping with you being a Winter Elf and Vorgy back there being a human.... damn they are going to be livid."

Kali pulled her face into a tight frown, she tried to keep her mouth in a straight line but couldn't help it from curving upwards at the look Vorgnar gave the elf at his new nickname. Though the smirk the redhead threw the Daemon almost made her squeal in glee, she might be sheltered but she was a teenage girl for years locked in a Castle and well... one of the few things she could do in the Castle was...play around.

As a young Princess customs dictated that all of her guards and maids be at most five years older than her, with teenage hormones rampaging around in her body everyone with even a pea-sized brain would realize what'd happen.

Of course, she was always stopped when she started losing clothes — such as one of the downsides of having a near-omnipotent father, at least inside his castle — but she was far from new to romance and certain looks.

From the looks of it, Vorgnar could also recognize it but for some reason he was dumbfounded. Kali wanted to giggle.

"In a few seconds we will reach the village," Virendel said from the front, pulling Kali's and the rest's attention.

Alexis seemed reinvigorated, for the last minute she'd been confusedly eating her apple but now she was once again brimming with excitement at seeing the elven village and Kali shared the feeling.

The Trees thinned out, there were still trees and some large ones at that but between and around them were built master-crafted wooden houses. There were no large roads or multi-story buildings here, every house was small enough to fit between two trees with some even using them as their edges.

Then there were the people, they were familiar to the runaway princess and not at the same time. They had the same long ears, graceful features and jewel-like eyes but their skin tone was warmer and their hair colors were more varied for one, there were Blonde, Ginger, Pink, and Levander heads turning in their direction with only a few of the last two.

Then there was the bearing, Kali was used to elegant elves dressed in fine clothing with their head held high and radiating with a tangible self-importance but these elves were...meek. Not in form, they were much more muscular than Kali's kin, especially in the legs but they didn't hold themselves the same, they were wary of their group, scared even when they noticed her or Vorgnar.

Eyes were averted instead of meeting her gaze, doors and windows were shut and children were ushered inside.

Kali felt Lexy's grasp tighten on her hand and despite her own sour feelings at this experience, she gave the girl a reassuring squeeze. Kali wasn't used to being looked at with fear, it was a novel experience for sure but not one she wanted, on the other hand, Lexy must have experienced far too many fearful gazes from the humans.

"This...is not what I expected," she vocalized her feelings, a frown on her face as she looked at the few elves still outside, they were mostly dressed in leather clothing and gave off similar feelings to Selene.

"I have to apologize for your...welcome," Virendel said shamefully, "it has been long since we had positive interactions with outsiders."

"It's alright," Vorgnar said as he stepped up behind Kali and cast his gaze around all the armed elves whose hands were inching towards their weapons.

"THESE PEOPLE SAVED MY AND MY SISTER'S LIVES," Virendel shouted, his voice still steady as ever but the sudden loudness gave a slight scare to Kali but the effect seemed much greater on the other villagers, "YOU WOULD DO WELL TO SHOW THEM PROPER RESPECT."

With his line done, he huffed and patted his clothes down, nodding as he saw the few rangers look away in embarrassment.

"I have invited you into our home," he continued, now talking to the three of them without looking back, "I will not be having my people attacking you or even disrespecting you when I only live because of your help."

Kali just smiled awkwardly while Vorgnar nodded stiffly, still looking over her and Alexis' shoulders for any sign of the elves being stupid. Because that's what attacking them would be, though they wouldn't come out without some downsides either, for example, if Virendel's master survived that long she must have a way of dealing with belligerent people.

"Well," started Selene, stopping for a second as she stepped away from their group, "I'm sure we will meet before you leave but thank you for saving our lives."

With that she was off, disappearing behind a house not a few seconds later. It wasn't like Kali expected to be handsomely rewarded for her efforts but she couldn't help but feel ditched...

"Would you want to sleep or meet master first?" Virendel asked with a glance over his shoulder as he guided them through the mazelike walkways of the village.

"Is she expecting us?" Vorgnar asked before Kali could come up with an answer.

"No...I don't think so but she has a way of knowing things before they happen so I can't be sure," he shrugged helplessly.

"Well," Vorgnar frowned, "I would certainly like a bath and a night in a bed before an important meeting."

"It's not-...I understand," he said as he stopped and reoriented himself, "We have a few abandoned houses in the village which are still perfectly maintained should any children decide to start a family, I think using those as guesthouses for a few days would be the best."

"Why don't you just build them when you need them?" asked Kali curiously.

"The few artisans we have can get rather twitchy if they can't do anything besides carving spoons," Virendel said with a slight smile, "and some of the houses are ones whose owners can't make use of them anymore."

"Oh," Kali nodded as she bit her lips a bit, what could it be like to be locked inside under a magical barrier with lethal beasts roaming the forests beyond it with even more lethal and malicious humans always looking for lone elves?

"Aha," Virendel stopped before a cozy-looking house, "This one should have a double bed, I assume young Alexis would want to stay with you?"

"Mhmm," Lexy nodded eagerly as she squeezed Kali's hand. Awwww, how can someone be so cuteeeee??

"Yep," Kali said with a smile.

"The one there," he next pointed at a bit smaller house which seemingly wrapped itself around a larger tree that grew out of its cylindrical roof, "should be another free one, would that suffice for you?"

"Yes," Vorgnar nodded, casting a few glances at the two rangers who peaked at their group from a few houses back like mischievous children, not that there weren't a few small heads peaking out from windows and cracked open doors.

"Well then," Kali turned to the two men, "we have a bed and a bath waiting for us so good night to you two."

"Good night," Virendel smiled slightly, "I'll come around tomorrow morning and guide you to master around noon so you have ample time to rest, good night."

"Good night," said Vorgnar, "If there is anything you'll find me in that one."

With that, the two headed off in different directions and Kali sighed, it had been a while since she's been without a bunch of eyes on her. Well, she still had a good dozen if she counted right but only a single pair would remain once they were inside.

"Let's go," she said as she quickly pulled the little elf attached to her hand inside and kicked the door shut behind them.

"Okay," Kali closed her eyes and relaxed for the first time in months, this might be an unfamiliar village but it was an Elven one, if she couldn't trust her distant cousins from the jungles to not put a knife into her neck while she slept, she might as well resign herself to her fate, "Bath, food, bed?"

"Food?" Kali was met with a pair of pleading sky-blue eyes.

"Food, bath, bed?" she corrected.

"Mhmm!"

After a quick meal of fruits and nuts where Kali finally had the time to savor the red fruit she got her hands on before, Kali conjured up enough water to fill the wooden bathtub, curiously looking over the mythical battle engraved into its side. She wasn't sure what exactly the people were fighting but the carvings looked extremely old-school, like the ones she'd see on ancient murals.

Once that was done she heated the water with a quick Heat Rune, a light fog started filling the small house soon after and Kali didn't waste much more time as she threw her clothes into a pile and sank into the hot water.

"Ahhhhh~~" There was being clean as a result of a self-cleaning enchantment, there was feeling clean after a nice bath and there was the bliss Kali felt at the moment.

It took a few minutes after Kali jumped inside but she managed to coax the pink-haired elf to join her, Lexy's face quickly flushed red from the warm water and she started dozing off so unfortunately Kali had to cut her relaxation short but she swore she'd make up for it in the coming days.

She carefully carried Lexy into the separate but tiny bedroom and put her down on the left side of the bed before crawling onto it next to the by-now-sleeping girl. She pulled a blanket over themselves before cuddling up to the tiny elf and quickly following her into blissful sleep.