The Wind swept across the valley, exiting over a plateau near the northern edge of the Gods Mountain Range. Small rivers and creeks could be seen from above, she stayed calm, ate her berries and flew upon the leaf of the world tree. She had flown for four weeks, never touching the ground, a formation on the leaf and minor spellwork kept her in the air. 'Husband, the needle turns sharply, soon.' Khan Ni cleared the hair from her face while staring at the Compass. Erinle had stayed quiet, his feat of heights kept him from coming out during the flight.
As the rivers started to converge, a lake pooled, its great swirling fed an underground cavern. The roof of the cavern had caved in long ago, trees could be seen hundreds of feet down in the crevasse. Rope ladders were draped from the cliff sides and a small city of strange looking people swarmed the walls.
It was a colony of Ursinians, their bear like bodies kept them very warm in the northern jungle valley. It was separated from the rest of the world in a way, very little came from the outside. The terrarium at its base was filled with elder creatures and ancient stoneworks. Signs of civilization long since past. Khan Ni could see the needle change directions again. It shifted back and forth a few times and then spun to point the opposite direction. Leaning hard, she turned the great leaf, the draft was ending. The leaf's spellwork was simple to manipulate its height, it followed her movements and came gliding to the floor of the great hole.
Waterfalls above scattered and became rain, Khan Ni couldn't lose something as sacred as the first leaf to be shed from the world tree, she stored it away and washed her face in one of the pools in the jungle. 'He has to be around here.' "Erinle, which way?" Khan Ni asked.
"Turn more to your left, its stronger that way." Erinle didn't bother to come out during the flight but insisted on staying out once he realized they had landed. "I will keep my eyes open."
"If you want to walk, walk. We need to be quiet, I can feel great energies nearby." Khan Ni kept her voice down, her whispers told Erinle a hard truth.
"Sorry. Its been a while since I've been on a mission." Erinle twiddled his thumbs and looked around.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
A Nightwisher was doing battle with long drake like creature, its serpent body and venomous fangs marked it as snake but the head was all wrong. It spit the venom and coated its body, sharp needles, frozen, licking with frost poked from its body. It was coiling around the Nightwisher, the Nightwisher broke an arm trying to escape but found itself under the effects of the poisons and fell limp. It was about to be devoured and a large shadow passed overhead.
Moving shadows meant someone was nearby, the creature searched its surroundings and saw something it didn't expect during its journey.
"Husband," Khan Ni held her hands together, worried. From a distance she could see his struggle, Zhan's form was a dragon and viper hybrid. His elongated body was covered in barbs, each looked like it could kill. He had cuts and scrapes across his body, his injuries were superficial.
Quickly making sense of the situation, Zhan's body rattled and shook itself free of the Ice Barbs. Rising up a little, his wings expanded and he used his arms to move forward. "It is not safe for you here. There are more."
Flipping over his hand, an axe appeared. "There is little time, come." Zhan knelt down and pulled her to his shoulder. Dodging trees as they ascended into the sky, Khan Ni saw the walls that surrounded them. It was a big bowl with an overhanging curtain of rock.
"Why are we running!?" Khan Ni asked as they zipped across the canopy.
"Because there are more of them, stop talking, you're giving away our position." Zhan turned, charged a large burst of energy and blast behind him. It took out one of the nightwishers following close behind.
Khan Ni wanted details but Zhan had told her to be quiet. She pulled a bow from her storage and started to charge a magical arrow. A golden light came out, it was blinding and a distraction to Zhan. He lost his momentum, but Khan Ni fired. The charged burst split into five and flew to their intended targets. A White light with bands of gold; Glowflower rods and golden essence courtesy of the World Tree. The shots were dead on, the remaining nightwishers collapsed into ashes.
"I was trying to say, Why are we running at all? I use to adventure with your brother, ambushes don't scare me. You know this, so why are we running." Khan Ni started to have a foul expression on her face, she didn't feel very welcome for her arrival.
"I was in the middle of battle, I panicked. I'm sorry, I have to do what I came here for. Wait here." Zhan stretched out his wings and flew off.
'WHY!?' Khan Ni huffed about being left on the cliff side but she watched from a distance.
Zhan flashed between the trees in the distance, occasionally bursts of energy and screams could be heard from the thicket.
About fifteen minutes past, Khan Ni stared patiently. Zhan returned and coiled to seated position. Khan Ni came up and brushed his head. "Please tell me what is going on." Sending her spiritual sense into his body, she could feel a second presence.
It was dark, cautious.
-{"She's quite beautiful, you lucky dog. Elves mate for life."} Ferser decided to break the silence and started spouting off flirtations.
-{"I am Ferser, don't be alarmed."} After introducing himself, Zhan started to explain.
He told her everything and then pointed to where he was headed.
She pulled out the Compass. It shifted, spun and pointed in the same direction. "We will find her, then we can figure out the rest." Khan Ni kissed Zhan. With his rigid face held in her hands, he forced a nod.
There were many more Nightwisher corpses that needed to be disposed of, after tending to the battlefield they left and rushed toward the next encampment.