Birds chirping where all over and the sounds of animals and insects could be heard giving the forest its melody.
It was dark when she opened her eyes. She panicked as it seemed to was already day. Her hands flew up to her face when she remembered she was blindfolded.
Her hands wasted no time nor did she want to remember why it got tied or how she landed in the cave she freed herself from the temporary darkness.
The bright light pierced her eyes making her shut it, Slowly opening each eye her eyes adjusted to the light.
She checked her body for injuries but it seems they were only scratch marks no missing piece of meat.
What was before her was the entrance of the cave. They were so close to the cave entrance. She felt it by sheer luck they survived any dangerous animal could have had them for dinner and they would not know.
Shaking off the image of herself on a dinner plated served with vegetables. June's eyes darted around as she looked for Aliza.
A little farther from her was Aliza and she did not seem to be in a good shape. Her head was stained with dry blood so where her ears. 'She definitely did not have a good time. ' June thought.
June looked at her limbs closely to be sure there was not one missing. Counting all her fingers made her feel reassured.
" Aliza Aliza....Aliza " She began to shake the girl awake.
" Aliza " Seeing her so unresponsive she felt a chill in her bones a scary thought rang through her ears.
' What if she was dead '
Shaking her head like to get the thoughts out she used her magic to feel the girls pulse.
" Phew..."
She felt a pulse and it was not a dying one. She began to shake the girls harder.
Aliza's eyes snapped open. The first person she saw was June putting her mind at rest except June was dead and so was she that means they were fine.
"cough....cough" She cleared her throat.
" How are you " She immediately inquired about June's health.
" Great you in the other hand need a bath or just wash your face you look like a mess. " June replied.
Pulling out a mirror from her space ring she looked at her reflection.
Staring back at her was a girl who had gone pale with blood on one side of her head and ears filled with dried blood. Her hair was a complete mess, bruises on the side of her face.
' Terrible ' That was how she looked.
She replaced the mirror with a healing salve and began to coat her injuries.
Soon she could feel a sharp sting on the areas of her injuries.
It was probably healing.
" So what do we do now. " June asked.
" Go forward let's keep tracking I doubt it is far from here. "
Turning back was definitely not an option for if it was June would have never ventured into the Berserk lands in the forest.
And after finally surviving it going back like a coward was not an option.
In new clothes and even more confidence. They set out to find beast.
It never occurred to Aliza to look for Emma and Jake. She figured they would get to them one way or the other after all they had the tenacity of a cockroach.
Walking seemed to take forever and constantly wearing down whatever confidence they had built up before these and it did not help that neither June nor Aliza started a conversation with each other and despite their not so obvious coordination they looked like people on different teams.
Flashes of light could be seen from the trace stone in their hand.
They ventured forward.
The smell of iced strawberry grew stronger. The Woody smell mixed in it reminded people it was not ice cream.
A slight spark of intoxication flashed in Aliza's eyes. It disappeared so fast that June who had turned to look at her failed to notice it.
" Do you know what this is . " June asked ; a slight chill as she thought of what they had to face in the Berserk lands. She did not want to face such anymore.
" Pure colour crystals from the Colour beast. It has sharp twisted horns made up of pure crystals it's horns grows even 2 weeks. It must be shedding and regrowing. Which brings about the sweet smell. "
Aliza explained.
" So it would not mind if we took it's waste not like it needs the shed parts. ". June suggested ; She was actually trying to find out exactly what Aliza needed from the beast. It wasn't until now that she heard the beast name.
Aliza understood what June was trying to do but it really did not matter to her. She was fine with anyone has a teammate except the annoying ones she had.
Her so called friend it kind of hurt thinking about it.
"The colour beast has four horns, The most important horn are the ones that don't shed until every full moon. The new horns grow immediately after the old ones fall off."
"Those are the ones we need just one horn is okay " She explained.
"So let's kill the beast and get on with it. " June unsheathed her sword in haste to finish the battle that had not yet start.
" Relax, If we kill it the horn becomes useless. The beast horn must be taken while it is alive. Its blood must not even be shed. " Aliza sighed ; If she could have killed the beast then she would not have to waste her time planning.
" That seems complicated, how about a magic spell. "
" Only light magic works."Aliza drove a quick knife into such nice thoughts.
June hand went limp as she slowly sheathed her sword.
' How could such a mission even come to be.'She thought
A snarky remark escaped her lips before she could hold it back. " Guess that's why you are the chosen one, the mission must be easy for you. ' Light magic' . "
Aliza brows furrowed as she did not understand why the chosen one had anything to do with light magic.
" I don't have magic " She sharply retorted; though what she wanted to say was she did not practice light magic.
An uncomfortable silence filled the air like smoke it suffocated June.
'Stupid' She thought of her herself. It was no longer news that Aliza the chosen one was unable to practice magic.
She could use basic spells or runes. Her usage of these were second the none.
Their was a bubbling growth of doubt and disappointment growing in the Academy. It was probably what contributed to the lack of respect her teammates gave her.
Before she could muster the courage to apologise.
The hurried footsteps of what seemed to be their teammates broke the suffocating silence.
Aliza's face tensed up as she was irritated by their appearance. While June question on light magic made her uncomfortable. Emma and Jake made her want to punch something.
" Ali " Emma called excitingly. She seemed to have forgotten who a few days ago reeked with anger.
" Aliza, It's good you are fine. " Jake said. He had noticed Aliza was still as cold as before.
" Why did something happen " June asked.
Observing it seemed they did not experience much problems. " There seem to be more dangerous beast in the forest than expected. "
" How dangerous. "
Aliza and June spoke.
The only danger they faced was in the Berserk lands and as far as they knew no animal or human could leave the Berserk land. except forced out.
" We never saw it. Its growls were hair raising. "
Considering the fact the beast in the Berserk land could appear on the side of the forest it meant the dangers of the forest had probably risen up a notch.
It made Aliza reconsider the dangers of the mission but it did not matter anymore.
A blast soon came from the direction of the cave of the colour beast.
" The colour beast should not be killed. So Jake and Emma both of you are to use restriction spells June would act as the distraction to keep the beast under control.
Emma who had fuming at side could not resist to retort. " And you would do nothing as usual. " The mean flame in her eyes spring up brighter than ever.
She was tired of listening to Aliza act like she was important when she wasn't.
She waited and waited but for what seems like a while in her head. No one replied.
Her rage soon reached the roof as they were all busy planning their attack leaving her out of the team. ' Aliza ' She thought; Once more she was giving out instructions but she was ignored like a nobody.
Emma brain completely ignored the fact that she was the one who did not want to be ordered around.
Unfortunately no matter how badly she raged no one seemed to pay any attention to her.
The cave was ever more obvious. The nice smell was stronger than ever.
A blast of intoxication surged in Aliza eyes before fading the process was so slow but her teams was to concentrated on the dangers to notice.
June turned back to call her but her eyes and become clear.
The inside of the cave dark. The walls were branded with markings and hole drills. Dark green vines forming a web. With Emma and June leading They slowly passed the walls without touching and moved into the more narrow passage.
Bones of what seemed human littered at the side of the passage. Crushed colours crystals. Smeared the sides of the vines.
The human could only be recognised die to its clothes. It's skull was smashed and a hole could be seen on the wall behind it.
As the foot to the entrance of the Colour beast cave. June cast a blind spell.
A bright light shone through the cave illuminating the colour beast.
Standing on all fours, alert, hair raised was the beast. It's horns ever so obvious the crystal nature reflecting light.
The beast was ready to attack, The light shone brighter as Jake and Emma cast bind and constrict spells on the vines that decorated its cave walls.
The light was one of the beast weakness.
In the few seconds that the spells had been cast.
The beast snapped out of its daze. Its fierce eyes fell on the intruders and like every animal it needed them gone.
It's dark brown coat shimmered as it's eyes blazed with anger. The horns on its head soon shot out a blast.
The walls of the cave collapsed, rocks tumbling down. The debris was small as the power of the blast practically disintegrated it.
It charged forward, ramming it's horns in the direction of Aliza.
Hastily dodging the beast missed and it fell towards the wall. It's roars vibrated through the cave as it struggled to pull out it's horns.
Aliza looked at Emma and Jake who seemed frozen in place. Their eyes met Aliza's not understanding her gaze they remained frozen in place.
Freeing itself, the beast rammed onto Aliza again this time not missing.
Aliza grabbed the horn tossing her self over the beast shoulders, she fell heavily to the ground.
" Now "
Vines lunged from both sides grabbing binding the limbs of the beast. The vines twisted into a web falling on the body of the beast constricting it's movement as it hits more tangled as it moved.
" Grrrraaa "
It let out a growl of anger and panic as it struggled even more. June took the opportunity to cast another blind spell.
Stunning it in place Aliza jumped on its head and sliced of the smaller horn.
" Go" She voiced.
The colour beast anger grew as it's growl caused the cave to vibrate. It had just registered what they had done to it.
'Snap.....snap' The vines begun to snap.
With each snap their speed increased.
June leading in front had the most pressure had she had to run fast enough to prevent delaying the others " Speed " She spelled the people behind her.
Freeing it self from it's binds, The beast rushed towards the narrow passage.
It's body slammed into the wall causing the caves to vibrate.
" Boom"
A huge blast that from the beast horns lead to a hail of rocks. Dust rose blurring their sight.
" Boom " Another blast
The longer they lingered I'm the cave the easier they would die. Heavier rocks fell loose, falling on their paths and raising dust.
With their visibility clouded and the colour beast on their tail their none existence escape plan became harder.
Emma turned back and without care cast a shell spell. The spell blocked all falling rocks but she forgot to include Aliza in it.
If the smirk on her eyes were to be considered a misjudgements based on the bad lighting.
Unsheathing her sword she began to cut down the rocks rolling towards her.
" Boom"
More rocks began to fall at a faster rate and the speed at which she cut the rocks could no longer keep up with the rate the ran into her.
Smashed by rocks so many times, she was beginning to feel weak and tired. Her breath grew heavier as she ran.
June who was in the front was oblivious to all the trouble Aliza faced. She had reached the caves entrance.
Jumping out she immediately cast another speed spell unto the rest of the team.
The spell hit Aliza at a critical time as she narrowly escaped the closing in colour beast.
Falling out of the cave, Her eyes blurred by the sight of blinding sunlight. Each bone on her body felt broken. Her head throbbed, arms frozen to her sides. She laid on the floor unmoving.
June's eyes fell on everyone inspecting they were fine, Emma and Jake seemed to have little to no injuries which was surprising.
Soon her eyes fell on Aliza who was bloody with a deep gash across her forehead.
Her blood chilled as she wondered how Aliza got that's injured and they remained fine.
" Are you alright " She asked.
" The grade 3 healing salve" Aliza whispered.
June immediately understood she needed her to remove the healing salve from her ring.
Helping her remove the salve, her thoughts were swept to the trust she put in her while she knew if Aliza was probably to chose between a wild beast and her best friend and boyfriend Jake and Emma she would pick the wild beast.
Her heart was still overwhelmed with the trust even though it was expected.
" I will help you out of here " June carried Aliza out if the cave.
Behind them was the raging beast who could not leave its cave. it was strange but Aliza was to injured to ponder why a beast whose most precious item was stolen would remain in a place.
It's occasionally growl and blast could be heard but it never came out of the cave.
With the cave heavily damaged the beast returned with sore spots. Laying on the ground it slowly sulked and licked its wounds.