We stop at the fork on the road to give the horses some water and rest while we decided to go right to the settlement Jonstein was headed towards this morning or go left to the furthest settlement in the northern forest.
"If we go Left we can loop around by heading up to Jila Settlement and thru Pinecone," we stare at the map as Zelena tells us her plan under Helias fire balls.
"Okay but what if go to Yoski settlement and its fine. Then looping us all around would lose us a day of riding when we know Embrosa is covered in webs," Helia points out.
"Because we've been out here for a day and if the spiders were in this area we would have run into them by now. Unless they returned the way they came the nearest place to find food would be another settlement. And Yoshi is the one with the most direct route from here," Zelena speaks calmly.
Her words sink in and I realize we truly know nothing about how these spiders operate, I sigh, "so Yoshi."
"Yoshi," Helia agrees and we munch down on our snacks before rushing off to Yoshi. Hopefully we get there by daybreak.
"Bare with us, darlings," I pet my horse as we rush of into the forest.
"Anyone else find it strange we haven't come across any wild animals?" I question after a few hours of riding in the the moonlight and silence.
"Have you notice our horses hooves are the only noise in this forest?" Helia counters and I nod.
I did notice when the crickets stopped, I find it most unusual, I don't like nature this calm. Nothing is moving, nothing is breathing.
We make our way down to the docks so we can cross the river, deciding instead of heading straight to Embrosa first we'd loop around to Rivi Village first and make our way thru the settlements till we arrive to Embrosa.
We get the horses onto the boats and head up stream. We get to the dock an the left embankment before continuing on to the village since all the settlements are on this side of the river it should be easier to travel now.
"I sense active magic being used up ahead!" Zelena informs us so Helia and I do our own sensing.
"A group of humans and I think monsters from the low body heat in the clearing east of the village," Helia fills in.
I close my eyes and tune into my sister magic so I can get a full image, "the spiders are trying to attack but they won't cross the water and the Mages in the village have managed to disable their web," I watch in awe as they hold back the giant spiders.
"They're using ice on the webs for some reason," we need to hurry they're trying to destroy a bridge to keep the spiders from crossing!"
"You mean the same bridge we wanna use to enter the village?" Zelena asks as I return to my senses.
"Yes."
As we get closer the shouting becomes clearer, "hey question if we're on this side aren't we on the same side as the spiders?" Zelena asks as the village comes into view.
"Yes we will attack directly, at least get them pushed back away from this village," Helia says as we come across the river banks with spiders hurling web at the humans.
Zelena uses a gust of wind to blow the spiders up into a small twister and Zelena and I take them out, once the area is clear we make it across the water to speak to the villagers.
"Thank you for your help ladies? Please tell me reinforcements are coming?! Those things will be back!" An older gentleman meets us half way.
"There isn't any reinforcements. You see no one knows there is anything wrong. The hunch of a messenger and a good hearted noble who sent us to investigate is why we are out here. We have no idea what is going on," Helia speaks loud enough for them to all hear.
"What?! What are we going to do?! They eat anything alive! We are all doomed!" Another shouts. I turn away and place my hands onto the earth.
I search for the spiders, and find a hoard they were heading back to the village deeper in the forest.
"They're running back east. We have some time but we need to deal with them. There's webs covering the entire forest a few feet into the forest," I explain the situation as far as I can see.
"I see cocoons of webs but I can't tell what is inside. Helia, Zelena. If you two help we can investigate what is going on. I need your help to identify what's inside," they joins me on the floor and begin concentrating on sync our magic.
With Helia and Zelena we can astro project to the locations I want and have Thermal vision on our surroundings.
I raise a wall around it then Zelena creates an air bubble above then slices the caccon in half, baby spiders rush out of the caccon and into the air bubble. Helia boils them alive before I make a hole to bury them.
"Oh my goodness. They were inside a human body," I follow Helias line of sight and notice the remains of a man.
"They were growing in his chest and stomach. Did they eat him or did they just need a fleshy, warm and wet cavity to grow?"
"There's hundred of caccons if we scale over the whole area I'm sure we'll find more." I point out and we begin searching for the areas affected with the webs. Four settlements have been covertaken by webs and there's caccons everywhere.
"If each of theses holds a nest we are in for hell," Zelena points out.
We end the spell to inform the others of the situation
"How are we going to carol them? Much less kill them all?" One of the villagers questions us.
I ask how many Earth Mages they have, "we have twelve but no one here has much experience killing monsters," he replies.
"You don't need to. I thinking maybe we can cage them in. Fusion spells are far more effective than individual spells and I have the ability to long range cast. We can create a wall big enough and the others can kill them," I offer to everyone.
"The way would be big enough they can't scale or web out of. Is that even possible? The rest of us can shoot them down as they try to escape, so we'd have to be on top of the wall," Helia speaks freely and I nod.
"You all can sit on the way as it goes up, if you all use fusion magic too maybe you can create a hail storm to freeze them to death," I say creativity.
"Or burn them to a crisp," Helia offers with a smile.
"How about we don't destroy a chuck of forest for spiders. I know we're women but we don't have to be that dramatic," Zelena speaks up calmly.
I thank Zelena for her reason and we continue planning our moves, as soon as we are ready I and the other Earth Mages begin carving the fusion magic circle onto the ground.
"I should warn you all my magic might cause your magic to begin acting up. You might see and increase in ability you might not. Also since we are using a fusion spell on a Sacred Element I don't know what effects it will produce to us once we connect to the forest. We might case a chuck of nature to get destroyed please know the side effects are unknown," I tell them and they pass silent looks at eachother.
"Maybe but we know the consequences of doing nothing. We will not die today, so we accept what comes after," finally a young man speaks up for them and I thank them as we get into places.
"Okay I will need you all to focus your magic on the circle, imaging powering a magic crystal at your feet. I will be that crystal," I explain where the spiders are and where the barrier must go up to keep the spiders from escaping and creating more nests.