Last but not least, due to an imbecile biological defense instinct, her keeled scales stiffened, unwittingly letting the enemy take shelter in the roots of the scales.
What rattled Eliana's cage even more was these scales operated just like involuntary muscles. They were under the full control of the autonomic nervous system, meaning her desire had absolutely zero influence on them.
Stopping three meters before the forest fence, Eliana shape-shifted into a snow-white pegacorn with the highest coat hair density of any of its hybrid kind.
Moonlight glinted off the single gold horn on its forehead, and silver mane just like kans grass that graced its neck floated in the air.
Eliana, adapting to the form of a glamorous winged unicorn, galloped along the snow-carperted forest for half a kilometer, before spreading her magnificent wings and taking off in the air.
These wings, wide enough to cast shadows of nearly twenty-eight feet on the ground, had around fifty feathers tightly packed and sunk into per square inch of skin—relatively larger and slightly bluish feathers at the edges.
In short, the feathers and thick fur worked as a protective layer against frost bites: also, their color blended well with the forest, not to arouse any alarms from the spy instilled in the unknown with her eye-catching green body.
The total five hours Eliana spent in Venomblood—two hours in the palace and another three in the territory started taking toll on her, for her energy was evaporating out of her body the way dry sand would slip through the fingers.
Bitter truth it might be on her lips, but serpents' speed wasn't on the same par with the winged creatures. Within ten minutes into the flight, the forest began thinning.
After going a dozen of miles further over the cobblestone road, Eliana reached a junction, where two more dry mud paths stemmed from the main road. She turned to the left, and flew over the frozen spring.
It would have been hard to maneuver through the forest so smoothly, so would the flying, had the forest been in its previous state.
This 'Black Forest' wasn't named by the Venombloooders randomly, rather the forest forever mantled in the darkest shade of green screamed its name itself.
The gloominess this forest would adorn itself with used to speak truth about the dangers lurking in it. Totally different from the current white version of it, which caused all the non-shifting animals to become extinct from it.
All the trees were still there, except they had been, as well, stripped off their honor with no greeneries on their body.
Eliana, aka the pegacorn, suddenly stopped flying, suspending itself in the air. Apparently, she saw something move in the twigs of trees at the outer edge, near the border.
His gaze, snapping into focus, traveled the length of two hundred feet, and zoomed in at the branches; as naked as the twigs were, they could help least to conceal the inhabitants from her sight.
Just as recognition sank in, the calm green eyes of the pegacorn were ablaze with fire. The flames alternately took turns with the reflection of a group of traitors in her golden orbs.
Eagles! Serpent's archenemy!
"How dare of a two cents' creatures attack the Venomblood Empire on a repeated note over the last century until it has been reduced to a post-apocalypse empire?!" Agony tore through Eliana.
Obviously, none of the eagles saw her yet. But, would she take this opportunity and escape from there? Absolutely not!
The compressed anger in her eyes that wanted to explode, got the perfect vessel to be vented!
Eliana picked up her speed and flew directly to the enemy's den, for the piping hot revenge racing in her veins wanted to burst out and sliced all the stinkards' throats!
On the basis of her goddess aspects, she both as Elena Ashford and Eliana Winxx was born with visual acuity sharper than any of her kind.
Ceaseless training and magic potion honed it further enabling her to see anything from two hundred feet away what a shape-shifting eagle could do from seventy feet away.
Since the very initial days of history, eagles had been known for their acute sight; even the run-of-the-mill eagles in the mortal realm, without the shape-shifting ability topped the pyramid of eyesight there--not to mention the ones in the heaven realm.
Perhaps, only to balance this out, the universe cut back on eagles' magic power. Only the eagles begeted in the blue moon, that too from the very pure bloodline, could come out into existence with a magic shard.
Nonetheless, till that date, none from the eagle clan fell on the ground with any high-grade magic shard let alone twin or triplet.
Wiping Greedland's low-born existence wouldn't be anything knotty, had those bastards not been milking their septemviral serpent gems and holding them as knives against the serpents' throats!
Eliana stopped right at the center of all the trees that nestled her enemies temporarily. She could feel the air around her stiffened, and rustling of the branches got muted just as she entered within their long-distance sight.
Right under the enemies' wary gazes, she changed into her half-form: in a way, she had the body of a snake with the head and chest of a mature woman.
"If your guts have accompanied you in the journey to Venomblood, then descende to the ground already! Or else, I will haul that cowardly guts of yours with my bare hands!" Eliana's voice carried the dark note, marked by fullness, strength, and clarity of sound.
Immediately, thirty eagles poured from the twigs and surrounded her. Apart from a little confusion, their eyes glinted with full killing intent.
In their humanoid figure, each one varied from another in appearance wise, yet what tied them together in brotherhood was the stinky avarice dripping off their mouths.
"Who are you?" Asked the one, who seemed to be the leader with medium build and average height. His upper body was bare, and lower half was covered in black dhoti: similar pants were worn by his team members as well.
He shot a glance towards the second-in-command, then snapped his fingers, following which all of them started orbiting around Eliana with a six feet radius.
"With all the fraudness that runs in your blood, I won't be surprised if you were to fake all the praises related to your so-called intelligence!"
Eliana spat out, a corner of her lips lifting upward in a mocking smirk. "What happened? After a century of not meeting anyone from the serpent clan, have you guys forgotten serpents' basic look?"
"Stop playing cat and mouse with us! We saw you flying here as a pegacorn, and now, you are a Naga! First, pegacorns are magical beasts without shape-shifting ability. Second, how can you be a serpent, on the basis that their entire race has been wiped out with only the statues left?!" The second-in-command barked.
He pulled his navel in toward his spine, kicked the ground with the breasts of his rear feet sole, then positioned his muscular arms in the air like wings, before shifting into his eagle form.
"Let's play snake and eagle then," Eliana lifted her long tail, and struck the second-in-command, who just hovered over her head, sending him flying thirty feet away.
"AHH!" An ear-splitting shriek cut through the air penetrating the thick snow-falling.