Explaining to the citizens of the village that the dragoness was not a threat was a much harder ordeal than Margarette had imagined, but after extensive talk and signs of benevolence from Rose the tension had finally begun to settle.
"Your hand is still like that?" Asked Moriyana, still bothered by Rose's bandaged arm.
"We can talk about that later," ignoring her question, Rose kept following Laura as she walked them away from the committee of elders.
Having just finished discussing everything with them, Rose was allowed to stay for now, but then she'd have to leave the village along with her friends. Content with the ruling, nobody opposed the offer.
"So why are you here? I thought you were going to spend some time with your family," Margarette asked as they reached the stump of the tree with Laura's house.
"I am spending time with them, but Fay contacted me so I asked my son to teleport me to you guys and then I ended up here," Rose replied, watching them all taking the stairs one after the other.
At first, she was confused as to why they didn't just use their wings as demons, but then remembering that they were trying to keep their identity a secret, she waited at the bottom until they all got to the branch with the house. Then, flying up, she landed on the same branch.
"You entering my house won't burn it down, right?" Worried that Rose's presence would burn her furniture like the arrows that were shot at her, Laura stopped by the door just to make sure.
"Not unless I want it to," Rose gave a troubling response, unaware of what she'd done.
Regardless, Laura just pushed the door open before inviting everyone in again. Getting in one after the other, the group dispersed inside to have enough space for everyone. Given the small scale of the interior, it was easily cramped despite only a small crowd gathering inside. Once settled on chairs and the couch, Rose stood in the middle and began explaining why she had taken the trip here.
"Apparently Shin-" Taking a pause to look at Laura, Rose faked a cough before correcting herself. "Freya couldn't get in touch with you guys. So, I was contacted to see if you're all doing okay."
Looking around at everyone, she tried to spot hints of any battle that might've forced them to take refuge inside the elven village. However, noticing not even a scratch, she couldn't be certain if their wounds were healed already or if they came here for some other reason.
"My son teleported me as close to you as he could, but I have no clue what you all are doing here. Weren't you supposed to be meeting her somewhere by now?" With that said, Rose was met with tired glances as if she'd reminded them of something they didn't want to remember.
Taking charge, Margarette got off her chair and began explaining everything that had happened to them so far. But while she explained to her the reason for them being here, something much more sinister was transpiring in the forest outside the village.
"What are they doing?" Damien whispered, hiding in a pair of bushes looking right in the direction of the cave.
"How do we know?" Said the twins together.
Watching a holy priest leading a multitude of mercenaries' parties toward the cave, none of them had any clues about how they were found despite being in such a discreet location in the forest. And to make matters worse for the elves keeping watch on the mercenaries, the only entrance to the village was now being swarmed with mercenaries, which deterred them from warning the unsuspecting elves inside.
"What do we do?" Sweating profusely, Damien tried to gulp down his fear, but with the numerous burly men before him carrying giant axes, long swords, and even elusive knives on their belts, he didn't have the heart to plunge himself to his own death.
"We should distract them, r-right?" Even stuttering at the same words, the twins reached for the quivers with their hands shaking like a withered twig against the wind.
"Here, inside, I can feel the presence of demons being here!" Pointing directly at the cave, the holy priest brought huge smiles to the men's faces.
"I thought we were wasting gold on a holy priest, but I guess it paid off!" Announcing to the others, one of the mercenaries began cackling out loud. The other followed suit and began laughing out loud, dreaming of riches they'd receive once they captured the demons be they dead or alive.
'What to do?! What to do?!' Racing his mind, Damien was trying to come up with a way to get in and warn the others. 'None of the villagers can fight, except for maybe the elder, but they're too old to defend us all!'
Freaking out of his mind, Damien noticed the mercenaries sending off a small group back toward the city. Now, whether that was for reinforcement or to alert the guard, he had no idea, but what he did know was that this was his last opportunity to grab everyone's attention so the twins could sneak past them and warn the villagers.
"I'm gonna grab one of those messengers, you two sneak in while I distract them all!" Before the twins could even comprehend what he'd just said, Damien used wind magic to propel himself towards the tiny group heading towards the city.
"Nature's might!" Using his ability, he managed to constrict one of the men from the group of three. "Stop there!"
Drawing his sword, and shield from his hips, he used wind magic again to shoot above the man so nobody could see him rushing towards them directly. In this short frame of time, everyone was alerted about a threat, but only seeing a single of their men constricted with veins without a clear enemy, nobody had a clue about what was happening.
"Hyaaahhhh!" Jumping right on top of the messenger, Damien hit him in the head with the lower edge of his shield.
That single hit from such a great height was enough to make the man fall unconscious from the pain. As the man fell to the ground, Damien placed the blade of his sword right over his chin. Looking up and around, he noticed every single one of the mercenaries looking right at him. And that very exact moment, with their backs, turned to the cave, he saw the twins sneaking storming into the cave behind everyone's back.
"Come closer or step a foot in the cave and I'll kill this man!" He yelled out in a threatening voice.
A moment of silence followed his threat, but then the mercenaries burst out laughing. Even the group of messengers that was heading to the city with the man, kept moving forward with their hands around their bellies. That was when Damien realized that when it came to human greed, especially that of human mercenaries, even the life of their companions was treated as nothing.
'Shit!' He thought, and that was to be the last of him.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶