Wind hummed in thought, looking at Alex atop a tree, which was right in front of him. There was one thing that she had found that was quite common amongst the vast majority of people: They didn’t look up.

“Warn me if anyone approaches him, all right?” Wind asked seemingly to the air.

A normal person would think she was crazy, but she felt the spirits of the forest answering. As soon as they did, she moved, jumping from tree to tree with inhuman speed, while somehow at the same time not making any noise. Her perks were convenient like that.

Wind knew that Sky would be pissed they knew that she had ditched their trainee, but her duty always came first.

The spirits of the forest had warned her that something or someone was intruding in the forest, which meant either powerful monsters or adventurers.

She really hoped it was the former.

A few seconds passed, the spirits guiding her as she went towards the intruder, slowing down to make sure that she wasn’t seen. Whatever it was, she was sure that it was powerful due to the spirit’s reaction.

It took only a minute for her to find her target. To most, it would seem to be a blur running through the forest, to her; however, it was obvious what it was. Giving a resigned sigh, she followed it.

Her eyesight allowed her to easily tell what It was: A human male, an high ranked one at that. From what she could tell, he was probably weaker than her.

She slowly started to make her presence more obvious, and soon one thing was apparent: He didn’t have a whole lot of detection skills or perks.

That only made Wind worry more. For someone to reach a high rank like that, he either was stupidly lucky, or was part of a team.

She kept following him for a minute, gauging his strength and magic as she did so. He was a warrior, adamantine armor and sword, both heavily enchanted. She figured that he was likely middling prestige 2.

Satisfied with her intelligence, she acted. With a quick use of wind magic, she shot forwards and stood on top of a smaller tree, then, with a burst of magic and aid of the spirits, she waited. As soon as he approached, roots shot from the ground all around him, creating a cage around him.

“Why have you trespassed on elven lands?”

Using a bit of wind magic, she made the voice seem as if it came from all around the person.

“The guardian, I presume?”

The man did not seem particularly surprised by her presence, nor did he seem worried by the fact that he was trapped. Wind wondered if he was overconfident or knew something that she didn’t.

“True guardian. I will repeat myself only once more, why have you trespassed on elven lands?”

“We have received information that a criminal is currently being housed in here, I, and some compatriots, have come here to capture him.”

“I won’t bother to mince words: Provide evidence or leave. Otherwise, you will be executed.”

As a bit of a demonstrations, Wind made the roots move around him, tightening the prison around him.

The man didn’t seem worried, he reached to a bag in his back, and grabbed two things, an wanted poster and a letter.

With an effort of will, a burst of wind sent both of them towards her, she quickly reading them.

It worried her quite a bit.

“I can’t help but notice that it doesn’t say anywhere what crime he committed.”

“I think it is wise to trust the words of the gods.”

She was seriously considering making an example of him when she felt something poking at the back of her mind. The spirits were warning her someone. Without bothering to say anything else, she bolted towards Alex.

Wind did everything she could to move as quickly as possible, using the wind to boost her steps, asking the spirits to help and guide her path and pushing her body as far as it could go. Each step that she took sounded like thunder, and that did exactly what she wanted: Scare whoever was after Alex.

It took a little over a second to reach him.

She quickly looked around in search of whomever had been here, but by then, it was too late, they were already leaving and so was the warrior. She briefly considered going after them anyway, but that would breach the treaty. On top of that, it would leave Alex vulnerable, they wouldn’t need to defeat her, only stall long enough to allow them to kill him.

She sighed in annoyance. They really were dedicated to killing Alex.

As she thought about the subject, she stared at Alex, her thoughts drifting towards him. He seemed to be currently in the middle of a panic, looking wildly.

He seemed to be a nice enough person, and was seemingly dedicated towards being an adventurer…but she couldn’t help but wonder if all the trouble that he would bring would be worth it.

She was no stranger of sacrifices for the greater good. But was it worth it going both against her duty and against an friend? Face a god, or go against what she believed in? Neither were good choices.

She shook her head, deciding that both were thoughts for later. For now, she decided that she could have a bit of fun at his expense.

For the past few minutes, Alex had been wandering around the forest trying to figure where the hell the village was. Unfortunately, he felt like he was walking in circles.

As he walked, he froze as he heard a noise that sounded like an hundred lighting strikes at once, the sound fading just as suddenly as it began.

“The fuck!?”

He panicked, wondering what the hell he should do, looking around in search of what the hell that had been. The clouds were clear, so it probably wasn’t actual lighting. After a minute, he gave up in searching, not finding anything, he was still very much scared, however.

Slowly, he went back to walking towards what he figured was…probably the path back. Hoping that he hadn’t somehow pissed someone.

“You dare trespass this forest, human?”

A booming voice came from all around him, making him jump and look around very confused and very afraid as he looked around, once again not finding anyone nearby.

“I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean” Alex gave a panicky reply.

He was cut-off mid-sentence by the voice.

“You shall suffer the punishment of trespassing this land.” The voice declared, becoming louder and louder.

“I-im sorry, I didn’t know I just…” Alex stuttered in fear as his very livid imagination thought about what was about to happen.

He was interrupted by someone appearing in front of him.

“Getting pranked.” Wind said, with a wide grin in her face.

Alex froze, his mind slowly coming to terms with what happened. Then, as he slowly felt back in control of his body, he shot her an murderous glare.

“That…was fucking terrifying.” Alex said, slowly. “What was that?”

“Just a bit of clever wind magic.”

As Wind said that, she snapped her fingers, half of her sentence coming from behind Alex.

“I’m…pretty sure neither wind nor sound work that way.”

“It’s magic, it works the way it wants to work.”

Alex nodded, that…kind of made him even more interested on the subject, unfortunately, Wind had said that she would only begin to teach him the basics once his soul recovered enough.

“Anyway, coming back to today’s training…you actually are kind of in the right track.”

“Yeah, I did the best I could to follow my tracks, but…I’m not really good at it”

“I figured as much. Now, let’s get back.”

Alex nodded, still glaring at her. “I almost forgot…what were that loud noises that I heard earlier? Was that you too?”

“Yes.”

“Did you really have to scare the crap out of me?”

“Yes.”

Alex gave a resigned sigh, then followed after Wind back towards the village.