Scarpha jumped from tree to tree, her movements silent as the wind that blew. It was early morning, The sun was just high enough to provide enough light for the flowers to open up. She looked behind her, there was a sizable invasionary force that she gathered. It consisted of some of the older swarmlings and some of the younger newer bred strains. They walked approximately one hundred strong. Scarpha hissed, she could’ve been there and back if she didn’t have to wait for them to keep up. She climbed to another branch and another and another until she came to the break between the forest and the village. Looking behind her was the rest of the swarm, thanks to her swift movements she was ahead by a margin of a few minutes, she snarled and went ahead even further. She’d have a little food to herself before the swarm came in to devolve things into a massacre.

She jumped down and crossed the field into the field, emerging at the south side of the village. Using her natural ability in stealth, she scouted for what was going on. The town was large, close to being as large as Beka. And she knows very well about their retreat at Beka. She scaled the side of a building and noticed two elves, she leaned closer to the wooden structure and observed.

The two elves were of opposite genders, The male with the common trait of wood elves, pointed ears, and silvery hair wore a series of a chest piece of blackened leather with a set of feathers adorned on the side. Apparently, he was some kind of soldier. The female also with the common elf traits, she was a substantially less armored. She at best had a leather belt that went around her cloth dress. She appeared to be holding a child, no more than a year old. Scarpha mouth opened up the dripping drool. The amount of magic circulating from just the three of them was intoxicating. She closed her mouth to avoid heavy breathing and alerting the trio. She watched the two kiss before the man walked off leaving the two. Scarpha remained motionless, she could have attacked right away, but this was a prime chance to make the invasion go even more smooth.

She watched the child and mother. Apparently, they had walked a few yards from their house. Once she confirmed the location of where they lived, she retreated to command the horde that should have arrived by now. Out of the hundreds she took five of the more stealthier ones making the rest stay. She retraced the path back to the elf mother’s house. It was larger than most of the homes around, standing around three floors high, a first floor, second and attic. Bigger only meant it was easier to infiltrate. One by one the six of them slipped in through the windows. The inside looked pretty extravagant. For living in the forest, the houses were on par with those built in Beka. The floor was made with hard stones, the walls were apparently made of wood as it was a plentiful resource. No space was Scarpha gave them no other commands when they got in, rampancy ensued, they smashed things gnawed on random objects anything they could, needless to say, they were noisy. Scarpha scaled the side of the wall, digging her claws in wherever she could, she began following the scent of one magic trail, turns out the other one was outside on the other side of the house. Scarpha followed the smell ending up in a small room with an infant in a crib.

The elven female entered the house after hearing the commotion. She shrieked upon seeing five winged insectoids turning to her presence, being as hungry as they were they fought to get the first bite. She was paralyzed with fear, that was until she heard her child cry.

“Olven!” She cried out, she managed to get enough courage to rush past the mass of claws and chitin pulling on each other like a bucket of crabs. If it hadn’t been for the sounds of her baby crying she probably wouldn’t have been able to move from that spot.

“Olven!” She said once more once she got to the room. But it had been too late, Scarpha had ripped the Olven’s arm off and sliced open his chest. Scarpha made direct eye contact, tears streamed down the woman’s face. Scarpha dropped the appendage and got down on all fours attempting a pounce leaping high in the air.

The elf, fortunately, knew how to operate magic, she caused the air to be a blanket around Scarpha making her overshoot her jump landing onto the first floor knocking down one of the swarmlings that managed to break away. The lady screamed for them to “get out” or “go away” as she ran to another room.

Of course, such words are lost on creatures that are there for only one thing, and that was food, they followed closely behind Scarpha, climbing the walls, the stairs whatever it took. That was until the elf was standing in the hallway waiting for them, holding onto an object that was a mixture of metal and wood. She gave them one last warning, which of course was ignored. She pulled the trigger. The sound was thunderous, and the smoke was plentiful. Scarpha stopped her advance as it spooked her, behind her, however, the swarmling had a small hole in its chest. The creature slumped to the ground revealing an even more massive exit wound on the back. She looked back to the elf carrying a mysterious weapon. Her plan just became a whole lot more difficult.

~^~

Amalia woke up breathing heavy, She felt around her chest and her stomach. Her insides hurt but they weren’t in the indescribable pain that she was once in.

The village elder jumped from the sudden actions of Amalia. “Take it easy, lady Amalia.” She put her arms on Amalia trying to set her back down on the bed.

Amalia was not so weak-willed that she would go back to rest when there was so much more that could be done. “The venom?” She questioned.

“The venom was taken care of,” Mateo said moving into view from the door frame.

“It was much like the mire. I was able to treat it but…” She paused looking down.

“Just say it already and stop wasting time.”

“The venom was too potent. I could only heal so much.”

“Milady, She means that you won’t be able to cast magic anymore...or live to forty.”

Amalia looked indifferent. Her resolve was quite the same, she threw the sheets off and went to stand. She stumbled only to be caught by the elder and Mateo. “Easy, Milady. You’ve been out for a couple of hours.”

She looked to Mateo. “Did you do what I asked?”

He was silent for a moment, “Yeah, this way.” His face soured like he remembered something unpleasant. He took on more of her weight having her hang onto his other shoulder. As he took her down flights of stairs, she looked around. Nothing seemed familiar most of the structure looked like it was crumbling. The walk was far, but they came to a metal door secured with a pull bolt. He let Amalia lean on the wall while he undid the rusted locks. He pulled the pin and let the door swing open. On the floor there was a little girl sitting with her arms raised above her head around her wrists were heavy chains keeping her attached to the wall. Amalia pushed off from the wall, the first steps were shaky, but she managed to get to her balance. She came halfway to the room and stopped. Rinae stayed motionless only moving with her eyes.

“I know you have intelligence. I want you to give me answers.” Amalia stood in the center of the room. Rinae didn’t say anything to respond to confirm whether or not this was true. “I’ve seen you with others that look like you, why did you fight this one?”

Rinae moved forward a little revealing more of her face from the darkness. In her usual raspy voice, she spoke. “You smell empty.” Then sunk back into the darkness.

“Then you have no reason to attack.” Rinae only responded with pulling on the chains lightly.

“Once again, Who was that.” She spoke slightly more annoyed.

Rinae looked at her unwavering. Amalia looked to Mateo and held out her hand, he nodded and tossed her his sword. She unsheathed the blade, the tip at Rinae’s throat. “Answer me.”

“Pure filth,” she responded, however, the response wasn’t from fear.

“Good.” Amalia dug the sword into the ground to support her. “I can understand that you want revenge.”

Rinae looked to her, eyes still as strongly filled with the normal anger she felt from the presence of other beings.

“I’ll give you one chance if you don’t agree. I’ll leave you here to rot.”

Rinae cocked her head to the side.

“If you give me your word that you’ll kill her, I’ll give you access to a lot of magic.”

Rinae stood up slowly bringing her wrists outward to be released.

“Good.” Amalia walked forward and swung the blade down, severing the metal in half. Amalia turned her back to Rinae, leaving Mateo behind. Rinae stared at him, assessing him.

“Uhh, Amalia.” He took off right behind her, not forgetting to close the door. Rinae stood in the darkness.