Kali could honestly say that she was enjoying herself quite a bit even though she hadn't managed to catch anything since she started sneaking through the endless maze of branches a few hours ago.
She's observed one of those mangy brown feline predators as it stalked its prey which turned out to be a snow-white owl that was taking a nap inside a small crevice on a trunk.
The feline blended in perfectly with the dark bark of the trees and its claws gave it a steady hold on them even if they were wet and slippery but aside from that she couldn't see any other capability that stood out. The animal didn't look capable of magic but many magical animals didn't, even plants could use magic sometimes but those were passive uses of it most of the time.
There was supposed to be a flower that threw lightning at anything with a pulse that dared come close to it but thankfully those didn't live on this mountain range.
After she watched the cat get its daily intake of meat she observed a few other animals while telling herself that it was so she could prepare herself.
Yes, I'm gathering information about my enemy, most certainly.
Owls, cats, squirrels, rats, hares and she even spied a few large predators stalking below her on the ground. She would have scoffed at them as the ground-walking peasants they were, were they not also either three times her size or on the 'Don't fight it and Run!' list of the Monster Manual's tips for new adventurers.
However, she didn't need it to tell her when a lynx which was shining a bright golden color strode through the sparse undergrowth. Its fur was also golden-colored, making it utterly incapable of hiding or camouflaging its presence.
Even her shut-in self knew that brightly colored animals were dangerous and ones that glowed had so much mana that they wasted it on visual effect instinctually. The lynx was daring everybody in the forest to attack it and it had probably done so for a long time. Yet it was still here, strutting like a pompous nobleman.
Kali entered her semi-hibernation instead of attempting to sneak away, she wasn't that confident in her stealth capabilities and if she could hear her own steps if just barely this glowing cat might also be able to. She wasn't going to risk it.
When she came out of her muddled state the feline was gone and she still had all of her insides well inside so she counted that as a win.
That state calmed her core and held it in a sort of stasis that made detecting her through it impossible, it would be imperceptible in that state and according to Zadkiel it did more than that but he just smiled mysteriously when she asked what. Annoying old man.
It seemed to work and combined with the illusion it was a nice stealth toolkit she had already. She might just survive this forest.
After that encounter, she was much more careful and attentive to her hearing which was her best tool in this situation.
At this moment she had been stalking her chosen prey for the last half an hour and she was getting bored of the wait so it'd soon be the time she first fought.
She hoped the knee-height flightless bird wouldn't be too much of a fight though, she didn't want to alert any of the dangerous predators so she would have to make it quick and silent. The bird looked like one of those large flightless birds that lived in savannahs where they could run around but this one somehow evolved its legs for tree-climbing and managed to shrink down to the size of a turkey.
It was peeking its dumb-looking head into the small hole probably leading to the lair of some small bird or a squirrel so it had no chance of dodging her attack.
She couldn't use her knife, which was a bit too small for killing the animal fast enough, it probably wouldn't even reach its head if she wasn't perfect in the stab so she opted for magic instead. Totally not because she could finally make use of it after only sitting on it for fifteen years since she learned her first spell.
Now she only had to decide which one she would use, that should be easy right? She didn't know too many spells after all so it should be quick and easy right?
Water Blade could work but that's annoying to cast as it collects the water from the surroundings, Kinetic Strike could work if I manage to snap its neck with it but if I don't then I'm just blasting it away, fire spells are too loud and I still want to have meat to eat afterward not charred bones, Air isn't too good at attacking either and that wraps up all my current attack spells.
It was said that every mage starts as an Elementalist and Kali was no different, using the base Runes of the five elements as the foundations of the Spells made casting them much easier and put less of a burden on the caster. No need to bother with using versatile Runes to transform mana into a different energy, just give a bunch to the Fire Rune and you have a bunch of fire now to do with as you wish.
In the end, she decided on using Water Blade, even if it was a bit slow to cast it was a great fit for her situation. She held out her palm, facing directly toward the dumb bird with its head still inside the tree.
Water Gathering, Condense, Blade, Hold, Launch, Overcharge.
The Runes were crafted well on her first try but she had to fix them up a bit to make sure she would have any problems, Zadkiel had given her more backlash horror stories than she ever wanted to her so she made sure that her Runes were always pristine and perfect.
Once she was sure they were good she filled them up with mana in a gentle trickle, giving too much to a Rune other than the Overcharge was asking for backlash.
Once she was done and felt each rune vibrate with power in her mind she ran a last check before flexing her will and Activating them, the runes condensed into a familiar Spell Matrix that was still at her beck and call. She guided it towards her palm and checked her aim, it was a bit off to the left so she fixed that and with a deep breath, she pushed the matrix through her skin just in the centre of her palm.
The slightly glowing blue orb rapidly started draining water from its surroundings, pulling on the snow and drying up the nearby branches in a two-meter radius. Next, it condensed into a firm orb that could go for a rock based on its toughness after which it lengthened into a crescent shape with a sharp edge. Most of the remaining mana bled into it and reinforced it, making sure it held its shape until it served its purpose finally the sequence got to the last two Runes.
The Launch Rune was responsible for giving the blade its momentum and the Overcharge took all the mana freely given to it to safely enhance said momentum, like this she could shoot the blade much faster than the original spell. This was one of her personal additions and she was quite proud of it even if she knew it was an obvious addition to the spell.
The blue crescent shot off without a sound and the only thing she heard was it slicing cleanly through the neck of the bird before impacting a trunk some twenty meters behind it with a splash. Seems like the Hold rune could only hold it together for maybe a dozen meters after it cut through her prey.
Very much satisfied with the result Kali jumped over to the other branch where she caught her meal before it could stumble off to the ground.
With it held firmly in her arm she opted to leave the place quickly in case some animal was attracted to either the sound or the blood. The blood could be a pain, she didn't know any wards, and ones that could keep scents in or out should be higher levels even among those.
She'd just have to be quick about it and hope for the best.
The blood dripping from the dead bird did make her a bit uncomfortable but after the fight she saw a few days ago it was only that, discomfort. She wasn't close with any of her guards so she wasn't too shaken about losing any of them but the knowledge that all those people died for her or because she was there left behind a sour feeling.
The only one whose name she even knew was Mythral and even he was only the replacement for her original guard. Kali smiled a bit at the memory of her gullible companion, that was probably why he wasn't the one accompanying her plus they'd gotten rather close over the years.
She didn't know where that guy ended up by now but she hoped he was well.
She made her way back to her previous shelter with little trouble, unlike her sister who could somehow get lost in the Winter Castle after living there for more than a century, she wasn't directionally challenged. The endless lookalike trees would probably be a nightmare for her sister but she memorized the distinct sounds some trees made and a few notable landmarks on her way so she managed just fine.
Her thoughts drifted from there and arrived at the source of all of her troubles, her father and the remains of her family.
He was uncompromising and ruthless even with his own family, her mother's exile and her siblings' pleas for reconsidering her 'marriage' falling on deaf ears were evidence of it. Elves were supposed to be a family-centric people, relying on their tight-knit communities to survive this savage world but you couldn't guess that while looking at her family.
An absent mother, a cold and distant father, a constantly annoyed and irritable elder brother and a loving but demure elder sister. At times the Princess found herself hating all of them, her brother Rhy'Lanor always looked like he ate something sour when he looked at her and her sister Ly'Riel who while sought to help her wherever she could, never disobeyed their father.
She knew they both loved her but she couldn't help herself, they weren't the ones on their way to a damned desert to get married to a human ruler over there. She sometimes wished she stayed five years old forever when her mother was still there and her father still seemed like a father rather than the cruel king he acted like since then.
She was barely 30 years old, Gods damn it all.
Elves her age wouldn't count as adults for another 20 years and yet she would have arrived in barely a month at the doorstep of her fiance whom she never even laid eyes on before.
No...., just no...
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When she got back she decided to set up the illusion of the small opening after making it a bit larger with her knife, despite it being small the thing was so sharp that it cut through the bark like it was butter so she managed to enlarge it with little trouble. Now she could slip through the illusion quickly while it would still keep out beasts larger than her.
She would have to cook the bird outside so the smoke wouldn't gather inside her shelter.
She followed the descriptions about how to dress slaughtered birds from the 'Beginner Adventurer's Guide', first she plucked out the feathers meticulously, it was a bit gross but not as much as what came after. Next, she had to remove the internal organs carefully, hopefully, she wouldn't mess up and give herself some sort of food poisoning. Finally, after that, she thoroughly cleaned it with water collected with a Water Gathering Rune, it also managed to dry out a bunch of small twigs and branches laying on the ground so those would make good firewood.
After cutting off the unneeded parts like its clawed feet and such, next would be the spicing but unfortunately, she didn't put those into her ring, it was always just her secret little storage where she hid her personal stuff and snacks. It didn't stop time as some of the better ones but it was rather large so she only stored cookies and stuff like that.
She sharpened a few sticks and pulled small parts of meat onto them, next she would need to light the fire.
Oh wasn't there, like a specific way to build the fire?
Unfortunately, that part was rather foggy in her memory so she just put the smaller twigs below the larger branches that she snapped so they were the right size. Next, she made a simple sign with her right hand which caused a candle flame to burst into existence at the tip of her index finger.
For small things like this somatic gestures were more convenient, after all the Runes they created were in her palm and not in her head or throat like with mental images or chanting so they were much quicker to cast.
Once the fire got going she held one of the spikes in each hand over it, turning them around so every piece of meat got nice and crispy. With the small pieces she cut them into, she thought they were done in a dozen minutes or so but when she bit into one the center was still bloody so she went back to cooking them.
In another few minutes when she retried them, even though the outside got a bit too crusty the rest was fine so she devoured the meat and then got back into cooking the rest. Other than these two spikes she had another four more to cook.
She spent the next two hours next to the fire and eating every piece of eatable meat the bird had on it. The lack of spices was a bit jarring but she was ravenous so she enjoyed it more than some of the meals she got back in the castle.
She doused the fireplace in water after she was done and sent most of the smell far away from her hopefully with a few Gust spells. She also cleaned herself thoroughly with the enchantment in her clothes so she hoped nothing would be lured here.
Now that she thought about it she should get going from here, the further she got from the place of the fight the better. The snowstorm and the treacherous terrain should throw off most of her pursuers for a while or at least make their lives harder which she was more than happy to do even if they were her father's men.
That made her effort in shoving the smell away meaningless, but ah whatever. She still had most of her reserves so she didn't need to take time to replenish them, one Water Blade spell took maybe 6% of her mana and that was one of the more mana-intensive spells.
She didn't use earth spells for that reason too, they were so damn costly and slow. If she wanted heavy impact spells she also had Kinetic spells so earth spells were useless in her opinion but any architect or miner would probably strangle her for that opinion.
She canceled the illusion and headed for the stream she noticed yesterday, she would follow that downriver to help her navigate through the forest. If she couldn't have gotten too far away on her mad dash so she should have arrived at the base of the mountain range in a few days, maybe a week of travel if she kept her speed up.
She wasn't sure how far they'd gotten with the convoy so she wasn't sure where she would end up but away was her goal for now. The stream turned out to be a small creek that traveled through the forest, largely uncaring for the many roots it had unearthed in its wake, only going around larger rocks or massive roots.
Kali opted for climbing a nearby tree and following along the water on the lower branches, keeping her away from the ground and the water source that many animals would visit for a drink. She was keeping track of each small noise around her in a few hundred-meter radius so she wouldn't get jumped on and kept herself silent as she skulked along, keeping close to the creek.
Her choice of clothing or rather its color wasn't the best for blending in here with the dark brown bark and bushes of green as the backdrop but she couldn't do much about that. Minor Illusion was a rather limited spell that was mostly useful for hiding openings or doors as it couldn't be moved or altered after it had been put in place and making it interface with the mind of the mage for a mental image would need much more complicated Runes.
Though since it was a gift from the old man she wouldn't put it past him to downplay its potency just so she would be surprised when she finds out about its kinks later. The ring still sat on her finger, she liked its aesthetics and Silverite went well with her choice of clothing, it looked like two serpents intertwining with each other but without the heads or tails.
She knew there was another Spell imbued into it but Zadkiel only told her it was called Alter Ego, that she thought it was some sort of illusion that would make her look different but she couldn't make it to work. Something was missing and she wasn't sure what, so she couldn't use that despite it probably being able to solve her problem.
She was torn between the curiosity driving her to discover the ring's secrets and annoyance at the eccentric old man who didn't even teach her how to use his gift but he also knew she would enjoy the puzzle. It was infuriating. Both how well he knew her and that he was right.
She followed along the gently running water for the next couple of hours, she wasn't as fast as she could have been down on the ground as the wet branches had her making each jump carefully and she slipped a few times even like that. Thankfully she could grab hold of another branch or steady herself before she fell but she slowed her speed even further afterwards.
She could probably survive a 10-meter fall, Elves were built like that but it would hurt and that's not talking about the near heart attacks she got each time she slipped, her heartbeat thundered in her throat for a good few minutes afterward.
She felt a bit weird for enjoying it though, she got better with time and the adrenalin-induced thrill was great. If only she could use magic to make it even better.