It took some time but after a wile my wing was healed enough to fly again. I stretched it a few times to check if it really was healed. "I'm going to inform the others that we are coming. Please keep moving."
With that I kicked off the ground and took to the skies. the gazes of the humans on the ground followed me until I was no longer visible to them.
Behind the forest on the opposite side of the lake which the village was built on, was a green valley with a streak of blue water coming from the mountains, cutting the landscape in half.
It was hard to believe that it was nearly winter. But I knew that soon snow would cover the entire landscape like a white blanket, with no green left to be seen.
Since I didn't have to follow the narrow path through the forests, I soon couth up to the group of humans that had decided to fight the monsters. They all smelled of blood. their own, that of the monsters and that of their fallen comrades.
They weren't moving very fast. They had already lost most of their energy when the had ran away from the other demon and the wounds inflicted on them did not help. The elf, who was with them was slightly better of than the humans, but even he had to bear a few wounds.
I landed in a tree that stood near the path they were walking on. The branches let out a dangerous creaking sound in protest of the weight that had landed on them.
The group reached for their weapons and looked to where the sound came from. Some of them relaxed a little when they saw that it was me while others remained on high alert.
"I advise you to halt for a short while. There is a group of nuns heading your way along with some more survivors. When you have rested enough resume to follow the tracks of the carriages."
A glimpse of hope could be seen in the eyes of some of the villagers. The news that not all of their lost friends pleased them.
I grinned and sprung out of the tree only to spread my wings and fly up again.
From so high up in the sky, it was really easy to spot the ones who escaped. But it would take a fair while to reach them.
With some quick flaps with my wings I flew higher and higher into the air. Then I halted and made myself drop while keeping my wings slightly spread out. This resulted at me gliding through the air.
The icy wind screamed in my ears and I often had to flap my wings to heighten my speed even further. But this was much faster than regular flying.
I repeated this a few times before I reached the carriages. However, I had miscalculated my speed and couldn't slowdown in time.
I crashed in the busses next to the road. I crawled up while ruching some of the dirt off me.
Some of the horses tried to run away in fear when they saw a red creature crashing near them. It took the ones driving the horses a lot of effort to prevent them from running away. Soon after carriages halted, and people jumped out to see what had caused the noise that had startled the horses. They were all carrying the holy items I had presented them with.
When they saw me the strengthened their grasp on the items but didn't move closer.
Suddenly, Allenya came out of the crowd that had formed around me. She tackled me with a hug. Her sudden action slightly confused me.
"Is everything fine?! Where are the others? And what happened with your arms?"
Yohan and Alex also erupted from the crowd and looked at me with a hint of concern in their eyes.
"I'm fine now. I have no idea why I have these spikes now, and the others are on their way, though there were some casualties. Sadly enough, we couldn't receive their bodies. I'm sorry."
"No, no you shouldn't be. It was because of you that all these people could escape." Allenya said. though I could hear a hint of sadness in her voice.
Yohan put his hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure you did everything you could."
"But still, it wasn't enough. The village is destroyed because I couldn't keep all the monsters out. And people died because I couldn't safe them."
"You can't just blame everything on yourself. It wasn't your fault that those monsters attacked."
I shook my head. I didn't know what to say. I still felt like it was my fault that those people died, but I didn't know how I could have done it differently.
I took a deep breath to organise my thoughts. "Now, the real reason why I'm here right now. the survivors as well as the nuns from the monastery on the hill close to the village, are trying to join you. So, could you please wait for them?"
"Sure. No problem." Allenya smiled when she realised that she would see Gwen again.
"Wait. Does this mean that all the monsters are gone?" Alex asked.
"Yea. I guess so. But I don't know for sure. It could be that some escaped, so please stay alert."
"you can go get them. We will be fine." Allenya said when she crossed her arms and tried to look as tough as possible.
"I will be counting on you then." With that I flew up again to go back to the survivors.