Draig and Lia spent months training together, the Feratu managing to grasp some more of his Vampire heritage while the young Forest Guardian had grown stronger by leaps and bounds. However Draig found himself growing bored with the meek little city of Elves, he had grasped everything he wanted except for the one thing that had held his attention since the day he arrived.
"Teacher your distracted" laughed Lia trying for a leg sweep that ended with Draig jumping over it and snapping a kick towards the girls torso that became wrapped in plant life like armor softening the hit.
"Perhaps my being distracted was in itself a distraction" chuckled Draig when the girl religiously wrote his words down in her own little pocket book.
She had adopted the habit after seeing Draig do it on a few occasions, when questioned he had told her he records things he finds interesting or noteworthy.
Since then she has always mimicked the action and scribbled anything she thought was interesting or clever.
Shaking his head he motioned for the girl to follow him, by now the duo had become a beloved scene in the city. It was to see a girl with a father for the first time, a sight none of them had bore witness to.
Lia seemed to have grown very close to the one she called Teacher unfortunately she would soon have him ripped away but not without him giving one more gift to her that would forever guarantee her gratitude to her teacher.
"Lia go to my office and rest for the evening" suggested Draig already knowing the answer.
"Yes Teacher" nodded the girl with a dazzling smile.
"Good girl Dahlia" laughed Draig
With that Draig wasted no time and immediately sought out the figure in the tree, it was a surprise to him that on this particular night there were no guards. It made him wary but he continued though far more agilely than before.
Eventually he made it to the tree and could actually see the figure inside, it was an Elf like woman though she seemed to be one with nature at the same time. At least that is what he could see through the use of appraise however to the outside viewer it would just be a deformity in the tree.
Draig pulled his trusted flying Knife and urged it to pierce the figure which it did without fail and deposited and rather viscous looking fluid that didn't seem like blood at all.
Smelling the substance there was a touch of that familiar scent of iron but it was concealed well amidst the scents of nature. Chuckling as he could finally complete satiate his curiosity, Draig dropped that odd fluid into his tome causing a dramatic change as it began shifting crazily as if the cover had come to life. However not long after a golden glow started to shoot from the pages of the Tome gathering the attention of the Elves.
Cursing Draig tried his best to conceal it delaying the search for the source by a bit, running quickly he appeared in his office and wrapped his tome tightly to suppress the light pouring from its pages.
He waited for awhile before a troop came and knocked down the doors to his office but he was in the middle of writing something when they arrived causing them to obviously deflate.
Draig having gotten everything he was after no longer saw the need to be nice to any of these Elves, casting a cold glance their way Draig glared cruelly.
"It would be well for you to remember I have a child sleeping here, and it wouldn't do well for your health if she woke up" stated Draig causing the Guards to freeze on the spot and quietly apologize before explaining the odd happening and asking if he had seen anything.
Draig denied seeing anything or having any knowledge of the situation, nodding when they left Draig revealed his tome which had stopped its odd transformation.
The cover looked somewhat melted all around but the pages gilded in gold making for a bizarre but beautiful sight.
'See what changes have come of this' mused Draig as he flicked through the pages before widening his eyes.
Categorized.
The tome had been categorized into it's different contents based on classes and type, it looked more like a catalogue now than a tome but somehow that thought brought a pleased smile to the Vampire's face.
It was as he was looking through it that he found a category for Blessings.
'Blessings' thought Draig as he opened the page and saw a single thing written there in green as compared to the normal red of blood.
'Nature's Child' read Draig mentally realizing why the tree allowed these Elves to procreate without need for men and it also explained a few of the Abilities of what he now knew to be wood Elves.
Draig was certain the figure in the tree would die from his strike as they were barely holding on in the form of that tree however he couldn't care less as he now had everything he needed except for one more piece of insurance.
The paper he had been writing was a detailed account of how he had been betrayed and chased out of the city by the Queen in the form of assassinating the Elder Tree. He also explained he couldn't let anyone see this letter and that the gem inside would keep her safe and replace the need for the Elder Tree. He explained a few other things while leaving some training tips for her.
"Remember Lia, Teacher will come back for you one day" chuckled the Feratu as he left the letter and Blood Gem under the girl's pillow before slipping into the night alerting no one to his deeds.
'My journey has only just begun and I have already seen this much and gained even more, I'm ready for what's next' thought Draig with a smile and a trace of excitement.