Mary and I made it out of the cave alive, and one of the first things to greet us was a person. Well, it was sort of a person. It was a woman living in the woods, except the top half of her body was the woman, and the bottom half of her body was a deer.
I blinked my eyes several tis, making sure that I wasn’t just imagining things.
The girl stared at us as if we were the odd ones. She raised her eyebrows, and her deer-like ears twitched in confusion.
She spoke with a high pitched, almost whimsical voice. “Did you two co from the mountain? Was it frozen?”
I tilted my head because she had what sounded like a Scottish accent. “We did co from the mountain, but the chill died down a bit.”
“How did the both of you cross? You climbed over it? During that storm?”
“Well, we sort of took care of the storm ourselves,” I said proudly.
The cervitaur giggled and smacked her hooves against the ground, seemingly impressed by my acting skills. “You make good jokes, lady. Were you hoping to find refuge on this side? We’re not too far from the closest settlent.”
I raised my eyebrow, and looked at her brown, furry body. “Uh…”
The woman chuckled. “Don’t worry. They don’t all look like , nor do they bite. You co from Candlewax?”
Mary decided that my acting skills weren’t up to par and took over the conversation. “We did. Don’t mind Eerie, she’s a bit clumsy. I am Mary, by the way.”
The cervitaur nodded and extended her hand to Mary. “I’m Faelina, and you can consider a bit of a rarity around here.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“Well, not many of my kind make up the Snuffle Empire anymore. Many of us went into hiding. We’re not like the other folk around here. While they’re beast, beastman, or sothing in between, we’re considered closer to faeries.”
“Cool! I never t a fairy before. Nice to et you.”
The girl laughed and pointed a small wand she held towards a part of the forest. “I was about ready to head back into the town. If you want, you can follow . The lord there will not have a problem if you’re both with .” She looked around and behind us, trying to find sothing with her eyes. “Did you both not carry any gear?”
Mary sighed. “Eerie here is really good at magic, and she just stores all of our belongings with her.”
“Oh! I love magic. Can you do magic, too?”
Mary nodded. “I’ve got so spells in my arsenal, but don’t expect to be even half as good as this witch. In fact, don’t expect anyone to be as good as this witch.”
The cervitaur’s pink eyes sparkled to life, and she looked at in a new light. “I’m very eager to see what kind of magic you can do.”
I lowered my hat, so that it covered one of my eyes, and made myself as nacing as possible before performing an evil pose. “There are certain things in this world that you’d never want to learn. You cannot even fathom the depth of my unlimited power.”
The deer lady gulped. “Are you really that powerful?”
“Let put it this way, if there was an entire set of actors, I’d be the best one on the stage. Once those lights co on, they all flock to their seats to witness my greatness, and they all throw roses after every performance. And this isn’t just being flowery. This is the real deal!”
Her mouth opened wide. “Ooh, I never t a world famous witch before. I’m glad I found you both when I did.”
Mary elbowed in the arm before turning back to the cervitaur. “We’re glad to have t you, too. Now, it would be best if we can get to the town. Also, just to let you know, there’s a dungeon over there.”
Faelina followed where Mary pointed. “You found Faelina’s secret place by yourselves? Did you already take all of the treasures?”
“No, we only took a bit of the crystals, but you stumbled upon it?”
“Yes, I was being cautious in case monsters spawned, but the only thing that spawned from there was you two. Is that how you made it through the mountain?”
“Yep,” Mary said, pointing towards the mountaintop. “There is an exit all the way up there as well. Though, I’m not entirely sure where it is, since we were both teleported.”
“A teleportation circle?” The cervitaur quickly shook her head. “I’m sorry. I keep holding you here!” She started trotting away before stopping abruptly. “I almost forgot! Promise that you won’t tell anyone in the town about that place! Faelina just wants to gather enough that she can afford a ho!”
“We promise. After all, we’re both really good at keeping secrets. Mary even kept her na a secret for a while, but she never fooled .”
The cervitaur smiled. “Then it’s a promise! Co, this way, now!”
Without any warning, the deer took off into a full blown trot. I summoned my broom, allowing Mary to take the seat behind before taking to the air. I was surprised by the speed of the cervitaur. She weaved cleanly between trees and jumped over boulders. Even when she turned to look back at us, she didn’t run into anything in front of her.
She stared back at us with wide eyes. “You even know flying magic! I wish I knew that, too!”
“Look out!” I shouted, pointing at a large gap ahead.
However, Faelina just tilted her head in confusion and bounded on her little hooves. She leapt further than I’d ever seen a deer leap.
I’d never really seen many deers leaping around, but I imagined that they didn’t leap an easy 30 ters from flat ground.
With her pace, it didn’t take long for the town to co into view.
Reviews
All reviews (0)