The next five days went by quickly and on the sixth day, four priests arrived to help. Ethan brought Lyria with him to meet the other priest.
"You sent for us general." An older priest said as he greeted Ethan.
"Yes, are all of you nature priests?"
"Yes as you asked for."
"Good. This is Lyria. I asked you to come to help assist her."
The four priests looked at the female who was covered from head to toe.
"I'm Lyria nice to meet you now please come with me." She turned and walked away. Surprisingly the priests followed.
"It will be easier to show you first and then explain." They continued to walk till they got to the spot where Lyria sat to connect with nature.
"Please one at a time." She extended her hand to the ground and the same priest that was speaking earlier went and sat down first.
"Impossible. How is this possible." He looked at Lyria bewildered and amazed.
"I believe the snakes are digging a tunnel underground. I'm trying to set up a perimeter that goes deep underground, all the way around Blackmist Forest but it will take too much time to do it myself. Please, brothers of nature, help me." Each one took turns to see what she had started and each one was astounded to see what she accomplished.
"We can't do anything like this how can we help you?"
"If you shared your energy with me like how you would with nature to heal it, then I could make the perimeter faster."
"I will gladly help you, when should we begin? And please call me Emit." The older Priest said.
"Are you well rested? This is going to be very exhausting."
They all nod their head. With that, Lyria sat in her spot and the other four priests surrounded her, each placing a hand on her arm. She connected to nature and the others gave her their energy connecting all of them making an even greater life source.
Everyone around them watched as the priest made the ground shake with their power. The beastmen were amazed that simple priests could be so powerful.
Everything went still after a couple of hours. Each one of the priests collapsed in exhaustion from the constant draining of their life.
"Get the priest into beds to rest. They'll be asleep for a while." Ethan went to Lyria and picked her up. She was asleep. She had done too much at one time. He gently carried her back to the tent and laid her in bed.
"I could've carried her too, Ethan." Noah crossed his arms and pouted. He was waiting with Ethan for Lyria to finish.
"You didn't move fast enough, Noah."
"What happened to not wanting her?"
Ethan smiled down at the young beauty. "There's something about her. She's so much more to her than I ever thought possible. Even if she only wants to keep me around as her protector, I want to be with her."
"Well I met her first so I get to mate with her before you do." Noah childishly said.
"Lyria plans to rescue the females after this. We'll have to prepare for immediate transportation as well as battle. I already sent word to King City for reinforcements. We'll be busy preparing for it. You ready for this?"
"No not really but I want to increase my strength. I want to be someone Lyria can look to protect her."
"It's good to have a goal. Keep it with you always; it'll help you overcome the tough times. I'll take the first watch." Ethan patted Noah's shoulder.
The next day the four priests woke up around dinner time but Lyria didn't. Ethan went to the older priest to see if he would know why she was the only one not awake yet.
"This was a first for us. We know nothing about this kind of power. Has she told you anything?" Emit sat up thinking hard about what just happened.
"Only that she needs rest. But she still needs food and we're barely able to get water into her now."
"She worked as quickly and safely as she could but she made it all the way around. What we did was absolutely amazing. She kept asking if we were okay and even though we were technically dying we were all willing to push it a little more to just to feel her power rush through us."
"What do you mean it's like your dying?"
"Nature has to have a balance. You can't just make something grow from nothing. Priests with a connection to nature have a stronger life force than the others. When we tend to plants, we give a little of our life force mixed with nature's energy. Thanks to the marking we get it makes it easier to use both and it gets replenished quicker. If we're wounded, we heal faster too. With Lyria she became the main source. She had to manage her life force and ours while using nature's energy to build the perimeter, all at an incredible speed. It was better than getting to mate for the first time. That connection itself was amazing but what we did with Lyria was even better. I'm sure becoming her mate will be intense but also very deep."
"What do you mean?"
"As you know a mate bond is a connection through each partner's soul, you mix in her power to that connection, there's no telling how deep of a bond her mates will have with her. But to keep the balance there will be equal consequences."
"I understand." Ethan was still confused but didn't want to ask for further explanation.
"Is she the priestess that went missing over two years ago?" Emit asked out of nowhere.
"I'm not sure. She doesn't talk about her past that much."
"Give her three days. Her body can stay in that state that long. If she doesn't wake up by then, then worry."
"Are you able to send food through a tunnel Lyria created to feed the females?"
"Possibly. I can give it a try."
"That would be great if you could."
Ethan left the priest and went to handle his warriors. If he kept busy maybe he wouldn't think about the unconscious female.