19 Druid (16)

"Well…Well…Well…, what do we have here"

The creature looked at me with his blood red eyes. His tail wiggled around him, the flurry of movements from it might suggest a rush of excitement. While he had wings, he didn't bother to use it to levitate off the ground. He preferred to look at me while standing straight, legs tightly closed and his hands were behind him. As if he was judging me.

"Two poor souls who ventured too deep for their own good…" His demonic voice was enough to make any animal flee in sight. He smiled. "Surrender yourself, and I may just spare you…"

"Cut the chase, demon!" I said, while I took off my small hunting knife that I brought with me. Strumnir was too inconvenient to be carried for a hunting trip.

He chuckled, his tails wiggled with excitement. "Seems one of you has not noticed the situation you're in…" He revealed his hands, which were equipped with shape nails that could pierce even metal. "I just need to show you…"

A gust of air brushed my face as a second later he was rushing me, claws pointed to my face. My instincts flared up and told me to take a step back, doing so, I ruined his momentum and he missed my face with only a couple of inches left. The force behind the claws were devastating as another brush of winds passed me like a strong cyclone for a second the moment he struck me with it.

He wasn't dumb however, because he anticipated this. He followed up by his other hand as his body was flying at this point trying to reach me. But this was reckless of him, I leaned backwards and shot my legs directly to him, this time, with him rushing to me, there's no way it won't hit.

The impact was felt by both of us, my legs were on fire trying to combat the increasing force behind his dash, but it was also what bit him in the end. My kick managed to push him several steps, and he coughed up some of his blood. It was red, dark red. It burned when it reached the ground.

What I didn't foresee was the half a dozen tree vines crawling behind me. They immediately reacted by trying to tangle me on them, as if helping the demon himself.

He could control nature?

Thankfully, the vines weren't tough, a single cut from my hunting knife was enough to snap it. It wiggled as if feeling the pain as and more and more vines kept approaching me. Now, there were no less than 20 of them.

I tried cutting them again, and and again while continuing to dodge the demon's strike. The first couple moments were intense as he tried to wound me again and again with his claws, yet I dodge. The vines he controlled were crawling to me, now in droves, several dozens of them.

It wouldn't be too long until I would be trapped between the demon and his legion of vines, I had to find a way to defeat him in haste.

Thinking quickly, I realized to end this situation, I need to kill that demon. But, my hunting knife won't cut it. I read once that demons have a special layer of chitin armor under their skin that was tough to crack. The only weak points, as was detailed in many Alarian accounts of battle, were the armpits, and the area near them.

With this knowledge, I had to stun him first, before going in for the kill. I wouldn't come out uninjured if I just struck him directly, without first making him unconscious. Our hands had the same length, generally, and that meant when I reached his body, he was also in reach of mine.

Knowing this, I stood several paces in front of him, then I gestured my hands, taunting him. He smiled, widely, accepting it. His sharp claws were hungry for my flesh. The wind surged in speed, he was rushing to me, both wings flapped with increased speed. This time, I resisted my instinct to dodge. I raised my hands to meet his.

When he swung them to me, I quickly grabbed both of them in the wrist, locking them with mine, crushing them under the force of my herculean strength.

"AAAAARRRGGHHH….." His scream was louder than even Sera's when she was trapped. It felt more like a screech.

I felt his bones snapping for a second, he was stunned, but this was temporary. To make him unconscious, I did what he never expected. A headbutt.

'BAM!'

Our foreheads met, but it was his who was crushed under mine. He staggered, yet still wasn't unconscious. So, I followed up with a one-two right to the face and closed it off with another kick to the stomach.

Suddenly, the vines retreated, some just fell out of the ground, as if life was taken away from them. The demon in front of me, fell to the ground unconscious.

"Bloody hell! My eyes were barely catching up!" Sera said, grunting afterwards as the trap was still active.

I ignored her comment and carefully took up my knife. Then, I sat on top of him and was ready to insert the sharp objects into his armpits, but then I heard fast paced steps coming from the trees.

Thinking quickly, I stood up and was ready to meet another opponent. Knife ready on my right hand and my first clenched on the left.

What I didn't expect however, were the myriad of vines slowly coming back to life and slithered around me. This was different from the demon's. This one was much stronger.

They were so strong that my strength had completely depleted from trying to break free. Thinking hopelessly, I saw a feminine figure slowly walk towards me, muttering about something.

My body was slowly being crushed, bones broken down and air came out of my body, depleting it of any. Consciousness slowly faded away and vision became blurry. I could feel the vines slowly blocking my eyes and covering my face.

But then, the vines retreated and I saw the figure panicking as if shocked at what she had done. However, my consciousness had slipped away and fell unconscious not a moment sooner.

===============================

When I woke up, I saw Sera sitting down next to my lying body. She was sleeping, while sitting on the chair. Next to her, I saw someone familiar.

She was covered with nothing other than nature's branches. Her revealing clothes only covered her chest and her bottoms, her hands were covered in symbols with green tints, and it extended all the way across her entire body. It was a sign of a druid.

We were in her house, a place made out of tree branches covered up by a thick layer of clothes and thatch. I see sunlight coming from the gaps in the roof, was it morning already?

A sharp pain came to me as my senses switched back to life.

"Argh…" it twisted on my back, before slowly creeping up to attack my chest.

"Whoa! Whoa! Easy, your highness…you've just woken up…" She said, while holding my body, urging it to stay on the bed. I resisted, the result of which was me being sat half-awake with my head spinning around.

Then, I addressed her, the guardian of Silveril forest. "Master Rana…, why…are….you…here?"

The druid looked at me, before shying away, scratching her head. "I…uhm..accidentally suffocated you, your highness"

"So…you're the figure I saw…" my thoughts were too jumbled to form any cohesive thoughts, atleast at this temporary stage.

"I…thought you were someone else, I saw you were fighting against Zephyrus and I thought you were going to kill him"

"Zephyrus?"

"Yeah, he's lying next to you"

I looked at the person who was sleeping next to me on the bed. What I saw alerted me to the point of dispelling my headache. I stood up abruptly, my legs made contact with the chair Sera was sleeping on and startled her awake. I looked closely to see the man who Rana called 'Zephyrus'.

"Master Rana! That's a DEMO-" Before I could finish, she quickly covered my mouth up.

"Quiet down! You're gonna make him awake!" She whispered in a quiet tone.

"Gee Eli, what a way to wake me up…"

Sera was surprisingly fine being near the demon who had trapped her. She stretched her limbs and yawned mutely.

"I didn't know vampires sleep"

"We don't, but it sure does feel great waking up from one"

…

"So…Master Rana, mind telling me why you have a demon sleeping in your house?"

She was startled, and couldn't look directly at me. It wasn't that I was being intimidating, at least not intentionally, but rather, it was because of her introverted personality. That's what you get by being alone in this forest for several decades.

"Well, let's just say I found him in a nearby reeds…" she poked her two index fingers against each other. "And I didn't dare leave a baby without any care, I mean he could die! If I didn't take him"

"Oh goddess…" I could only pinch my nose when she said that. "Were you unaware of his true race?"

"Oh! Nononono! I'm not! He did not! Until he was 7 winters old with me…"

"You are aware that demons have severe destructive inherent traits right?" I glared back at the man, he was sleeping soundly, like a child. "That was the entire reason why Alaria went to war against the entire demons on earth and banished them to back to their realms"

"Please, your highness! I beg you! Don't judge him with superstition! I assure you that I have been teaching him the ways of nature! Of love!"

"I'm not sure trapping my friend here and wanting to murder me is what you call…love"

She sighed. "I know…it was my mistake…I didn't foresee his inner demonic nature would flare up like that…and the fact that you wondered out this far"

"Far? What do you mean Rana? This place is east of Silveril right?" I remembered Zani told me about Druid Master Rana's place, she said that the druid lived a hermit life northeast of the fortress.

"Your majesty…we're in the northern edge of Silveril, near the border with Yalder League"

"WHA-". Sera quickly gestured her index finger in front of her mouth, telling me to speak quietly. I sighed, but quickly complied. The next thing I didn't want was the demon awoken from his slumber. "I swear I was familiar with the layout of the forest near the place Sera was trapped!"

"Oh…you were probably influenced by my spell. It was an area spell I put near Northern Silveril, it could cause unwanted travelers to perceive the place as something they were familiar with, but in reality, they were being misled."

Huh..so that's why I thought I was going in circles.

"Is it right to assume that you were the one who put that trap rune that Sera fell into?"

"Oh that? No, that was Zephyrus' creation, he's great at drawing runes, and that was his first experiment on using it as a way to trap animals for food"

"Huh…no wonder why it smells so interesting," Sera commented, licking her lips afterwards.

"Yep, that was the entire point after all. Maybe I should praise him for being able to create such a rune that it attracted a vampire!" Rana chuckled for a few moments before I glared back at her with annoyance.

"Anyway…I assume you are fully responsible for raising a demon alone? I hope you're not planning on taking him where there are other people. Based on his encounter with us, you could probably guess what happens if he met people not as strong as me…"

"Yes! Please, your highness! Give him a chance! Let me show you how nature could change even a demon's heart! This place changed mine, so it should be possible to change him!" She was practically begging me at this point. She had taken the role of a mother so seriously, reminds me of a certain romance novel maniac.

"Fine…I won't report this to Zani, but if I heard reports of demons sightings here…then I had no other choice…Master Rana"

She looked at me with her head slightly tilting down. "Of course your highness, thank you for the reminder"

I nodded back. "Anyway, I think we should get back to the fortress…our little hunting trip had been long past its scheduled time at this point. Master Zani would kill both of us"

"Oh! Don't worry your highness, I had already contacted her last night and told her that you were staying with me!"

She looked behind her, revealing a tree branch, covered with several runes. It was a method druids use to communicate, via the hums of nature, to send messages to others.

But then, suddenly, the branch hummed louder. It was receiving a message back.

"Oh! A new message!"

Rana stood up from her chair and walked near it. Then the branch automatically slithered around her right arm, which she extended so that the branch could cover a wider area.

She was silent for a couple of seconds. I couldn't see her expression during the process but when she looked back, her eyes were wide open. Her expression turned dark, darker than when I had just warned her about the danger of the demon, darker than any face I had ever seen from the lonely introverted druid hermit.

"Y-your M-majesty…"

She stumbled, her eyes looked up as if trying to look at her own mind, trying to find the correct word to say.

"Master Zani has this sent to me…."

"Yes?"

"She said that…" she gulped, then she took another breath to say the final words that would start chaos

"Your father, he is dead"