Kalla smelled blood. A lot of it. It wasn't exactly a surprising smell, living in a forest where the strong literally eats the weak. But what was different, and bothersome about this time was the smell is thick. Very thick. This meant that not only has blood has been spilled nearby, but there is a lot of it. Picking up her large basket covered with strange markings, and full of a large variety of herbs, Kalla pulled out a talisman from her pocket, whispered a few intangible words, and then tied it around her wrist before setting off. She had to go quickly. She couldn't leave her baby girls alone for too long, even if she left Gula there to protect them, but if there was a threat to her baby's nearby she had to deal without now rather than leave it up to chance.
The smell of blood wouldn't be much of a surprise usually as she is deep in the Forests of Dread; A rather unfitting name if one were to just look at it. A lush, green forest with vibrantly colored plants and plenty of wildlife. But those same colored plants were likely ingredients used in poisons, aphrodisiacs, and other horrid concoctions. The wildlife was full of beings that fought gruesomely to survive or hunted for fun. This alone was not the reason for its name, however. The Forest of Dread had a history of providing shelter for outcasted magi-scientists, necromancers, and more people who had committed acts of treason or evil. They usually died soon after however. The forest was actually somewhat safe for when it came to beasts, but it wasn't certain whether one would run upon a group of bandits or leftover undead from a necromancer's fallen army. It has a sort of humorous quality. The forest was deemed dangerous and infamous because of what came from outside the forest, and not from within. Not that the forest wasn't dangerous on its own that is.
Arachnids the size of small children, a few small feral goblin bands who were either too stupid or too savage to become civilized, treants who dislike unnatural or non-eco-friendly presences in the forest, lullaby rats, and many other beasts that roam the forest.
Not to mention the apex predators of the forest like the venomous drake that took a cave and a few mile radii around it as its home near the mountains at the intersection of the mountain range, forest, and the plains surrounding the forest, a water snail capable of using ice magic that lives in the freshwater lake/waterfall falling from the mountains ice deposits, and a small tribe of kobolds that prowled the edges of the forest for weak bands of prey going by or into the forest, but not into the forest itself.
With such danger and history, it was obvious that most dared not enter. The forest of Dread was a place that new adventurers heard tales of the constant barrage of dangers, from the poisonous plants that had a chance of being sentient, or as some jokers liked to call them, poisonous or venomous, and the variety of magical beasts and equally dangerous non-magical beasts. The only ones who dared to try and travel deep into the forests were large groups or those that had honest confidence in their survival. The exceptions only ever being fools. But this forest had taken enough fools to ward off most of the rest of them.
Gazing back to Kalla as she waded to through the forest with ease. A little too easy in fact. From an outside perspective; the stretching branches and unearthed roots seemed to make way for her passage magically. Giving the illusion that she is walking in a forest without making a sound. Stranger yet was that whenever she did make a mistake and stepped on a stick, or a particularly crunchy leaf, a small talisman on her wrist gave off a soft glow, and the sound from the twig or leaf comes out muffled and quiet to even a trained ear.
As Kalla drew closer to the source of the smell, she noticed multiple predators following the smell like her. Some even attempted to attack her, leaping out of the bushes thinking that she was easy prey. They were terribly mistaken. Kalla only moved on when all that was left of those predators foolish enough to try, were ashes, and oddly shaped bone husks bearing no resemblance to the species that it once was.
Upon arriving at the source of the smell, she frowns in confusion. The smell was coming from dead elves. Around a few dozen of them lay in their own blood of the forest's floor. Now if they were adventurers, it would just be an odd surprise to see so many elven adventurers dead in one place, but most of the corpses were civilians. Including young, old, and a few infantile, which just broke Kalla's heart when she felt her motherly instincts rise at the sight of them.
Looking through the bodies, it was just these plain civilians with only a few armed or trained-looking individuals among the dead. Their cause of death wasn't beasts it seems, the druid among the bodies, easily spotted by the tribal-like tattoos and a funny-looking hat that some druids chose to wear, was likely protecting them from any magical monster or feral beast nearby. Instead of bites and claw marks, there were broken arrows and wounds from weapons. Either sword, ax, or something else, Kalla couldn't tell.
These must have been some of the last elves in the forest who hadn't left upon the constant arrival of brigands and criminals. They seemed to be coming from the middle of the forest.
Kalla looked around once more for the culprits of this slaughter, but there was nobody left. Upon closer examination, however, there were drag marks and sloppily shoved aside branches leading away from the scene.
While Kalla never was a particularly compassionate person, she would never associate herself with being an uncaring individual. Just wise enough to know that not everyone could be saved.
So when she looked among the scene of carnage, she couldn't help but feel a sense of righteous indignation at these innocent folks' slaughter. Hence, she stepped over and waded through the body to follow the tracks of her newfound prey.
***
It may have been luck on her part or the stupidity of whom she followed but it only took a few minutes of following the tracks to find the elven murderers. A rather small group of humans. Kalla frowned at this. She seemed to have run into a group of human supremacists. Or a hired band of mercenaries/bandits, in that case, it was still possible they were hired by human supremacists.
Kalla doesn't like humans as well. Kalla's experience with humans was one of the reasons for her self-seclusion in the forest. That and she was wanted for manslaughter charges but, "tomaeto, tomato".
Another testament to humanity's nature was laying dead right in front of her. All of the remaining 14 survivors of the massacre, humans with armor fit for bandits or mercenaries, or soldiers under the authority of a racist noble. But of the remaining survivors, three were undressing one of the prettier she-elves. Although she is dead, her throat having been slit open, the other 10 were unbothered by this, two were even watching in anticipation.
Kalla's face scrunched up as if she ate something extremely sour when she saw this, "You can't let her soul rest easily even after you've killed her, and her kind eh?" she muttered quietly to herself as she reaches into a pouch tied at her waist, and grabs a large handful of a grey powder; tossing it into the air in front of her. The powder didn't fall however, it hovers in the air as Kalla speaks under her breath, before it separates into 14 groups, each group flying towards one of the 14 humans, piercing into the lungs of the humans through their mouths and noses.
This went completely unnoticed by the humans. They only realized that something was amiss when their limbs felt numb and started to grow stiff; before each one froze; incapable of movement. Even if one of these soldiers were stronger than her in strength or magical ability, they were incapable of defending against a potent poison they had no idea they ingested. Kalla then walked out from behind the bushes, she took a closer look at the 14, immobile humans. "11 men and even 3 women. It seems some human women possess the pettiness of their men," spoke Kalla, her lips forming a slight frown in disgust.
Taking a look around once more, Kalla pauses for a moment before walking very quickly up to one of the dead elven folk. One of the reasons that Kalla could find the group was the drag marks they left behind. Probably grabbing the wealthiest looking ones to see if they were important. The women were no different from the other elves despite the few rings and jeweled necklace she wore, but that's not what had caught Kalla's attention. There is a much weaker life force she could sense buried underneath the woman's several layers of dress, likely to protect whatever Kalla sensed from any harm while the women ran. Drawing closer to the elf, Kalla unceremoniously pulls her onto her back and fully disrobes her to find the anomaly.
As she expected, it was a baby; a boy, should be a year old by the look of it. The mother was most likely trying to protect her son, in a last-ditch effort using her own body as a shield. It did save the baby from the bandit attack, but she had left it drowning in her blood. Kalla picks up the boy before pressing her palm against his back. Her hand is enveloped in a soft glow as any blood from the mother's body was pushed from the baby's lungs, and any injury was repaired.
After healing the boy, Kalla noticed something moving, tickling her hands. A little more than a bit freaked out by the feeling, thinking it was a bug of some kind. She turned the boy over. What she saw was quite a surprise. Wings, to be more specific, Fairy wings. A pair of wings colored in dark green. Fairy wings were usually barely the size of the fairy itself in adulthood and came out in its adolescent years. Though in rare cases, Fairy's were born with them. At least from what she heard, the current leader of the fairy's was born with their wings. She wondered if that meant it was just rare or if it meant they were special compared to other fairy's.
These wings were quite possibly the true reason, if not one of them, for the elves' deaths. Or a lucky coincidence for the humans.
She had thought that fairy's had more color on their wings though. As rumors and tales told that the Fairy King's or Queen's Wings would have several colors on their wings. But maybe they appeared as they grew older?
Her self questioning was because much of what was known about fairies were truth or rumors mixed in with the truth. Fairies were, while not uncommon, a very secluded race that lived in the depths of forests or deep within elven lands. They didn't associate much with other races besides elves as they highly preferred the quiet nature compared to the bustling city's. However, fairy's weren't just valuable because they were rare, fairy's were valuable because if a wizard could kill one and trap its magic, it could immensely raise the quality of their magic and therefore their mana capacity as well. Not only that, if one were to put this energy into a person born without magic, or crippled to be incapable of using it, it would grant them the ability to cast magic as well as an above-average magical talent. It would even become hereditary! The only reason it wasn't done extremely often was that it was a very risky procedure as the Fairy's energy would violently resist the entire way. So unless you were a hopeless case or just crazy it was just better to put more effort into teaching or to find a better/easier way to become powerful.
Turning the child back over, she rocked the baby as she faced her dilemma. As an already great mage, she didn't need his mana for herself or her children. So what was she gonna do with the boy? Its mother, if it even was his mother as fairy reproduction was a mystery to outsiders, was dead. His father's whereabouts unknown, but probably also dead, and the nearest town she knew of certainly wouldn't try its best to take care of a Fairy baby. Even if on the off chance they did, any cruel, opportunistic, and greedy person or just an outsider could take the child forcefully or stealthily.
Kalla was pulled out of her train of thought when the baby starts crying in her arms, likely insulted by the smell of blood in his nose. Taking no heed of his screams, as the talisman on her wrist glowed once more, Kalla gently pets the fairy child crooning softly, before saying a few mysterious words.
The boy suddenly stops crying, opening his eyes, and looking at Kalla. She gasped softly as she stared into his eyes. Even at such a young age, the boys' eyes glow with a clear, crystal pink light. It reminded her of the Pink Diamond on the Desert's Princess Tiara except more potent in color. As Kalla was mesmerized by the boys' eyes, he suddenly smiles, giggling at Kalla before gripping the thumb on her right hand, which she had rested on his chest, with both of his small, chubby hands. Kalla's eyes softened considerably as she looked down at the boy warmly.
"Maybe I could take care of him? With my magic, and my plant farm, plus the surrounding wildlife. I could easily feed the boy. Besides, with just my daughters and me, it will get lonely out in this damned forest. I also don't need them to be curious about boys when they first meet one. And I'm not getting any older, so I might as well take on three apprentice's rather than just one." Kalla mumbled to herself out loud. Growing more, and more excited at the idea of finally having a son, fulfilling just one of her not so tiny wishes.
Finally convincing herself to adopt the boy, Kalla cast a spell to clean all the dirt and bodily fluids off the boy and rest him on top of the herbs in her basket, before setting off to a large hole she dug out with magic and overlayed the floor, ceiling, and walls with layers of wood she got from of the stronger breed of trees in the forest.
'Maybe I could explore the middle of the forest. Given that the elves no longer live there, I might be able to use what's left as a home for our family.'
She paid no heed to the corpses or the paralyzed humans. Elves were relatively okay with entering the natural order of things by becoming food for the animals, and fertilizer for mother nature. So their burial was unnecessary. The humans, however, had been dosed with a very potent paralysis powder. The humans would be absolutely incapable of moving for up to 8 hours. More than enough time for the local wildlife to find them, and eat them alive. They would feel it too, the powder has absolutely no effect on any of the five senses. It only makes the victim immobile. Therefore, Kalla walks off with a light heart, as the bandits see several animals that had been smart enough to only watch Kalla, draw near, with their teeth bared.
As she walks away from the bloodbath ensuing behind her, she begins to think of a name for her adopted son. This was easy as when she was pregnant with her daughters she had come up with several boy names, and so she decided his first name will be Nicholas, Nick for its shortness and simplicity. As for his surname, well, as she obviously isn't able to ask his parents; though she wished she knew his family's surname in case he had something to lead to a relative or at least that will give a hint to which elven forest his people came from, so she decided to make his last name a play on words from his race, this way, if there was an off chance he had family left, he could easily shed the last name. But a middle name to tie him to the family perhaps?
'Hmmm. How about Vesta? The God of Family and such from a fallen kingdom. God I am terrible with names.' Henceforth, the young fairy was known as Nicholas Vesta Le Fay (Nicholas The Fairy.).