Leony was still understandably scared, and she only slowly climbed back out of the river. She quickly dried herself off and then had no choice but to trust Johanna, so she woke the sleeping Johanna up and mounted her. Once Leony mounted Johanna, she stood up, making Leony shiver in fear. Then she slowly began picking up speed to take off. Johanna ran through the forest at a scary speed, taking a high level of concentration to not crash into any trees, and then finally, after flapping her wings a few times, she took off into the sky. Johanna could feel how scared Leony was since she pulled hard against her mane, but it was understandable because flying in general is probably new to nearly every human in this world.
But after cowering in fear on Johanna's back for a while, Leony peeked over Johanna's shoulder; her initial fear gave way to a sense of awe. Despite the darkness surrounding them, the world revealed its hidden beauty in a way she had never seen before. The moon hung low in the sky, casting a soft, silver glow upon the landscape. Its gentle light illuminated a distant lake, turning its waters into a mirror that reflected the heavens above. Looking up, she could see the stars looking like diamonds, illuminating the already beautiful night sky. Leony couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder as she took in the scene before her. It was as if the world had paused for a moment of quiet beauty, inviting her to join in its silent celebration.
But as Leony and Johanna watched the beautiful night sky, Johanna noticed that they were already getting closer to their destination, making her slowly descend out of the sky. Leony also noticed this and looked down to see where they were landing. To her surprise, she spotted Johanna's house in the middle of the forest, looking more than out of place. It looked quite peaceful, a stark contrast to the rest of the forest. All this made Leony realise how beautiful even the most scary-looking things can be.
Johanna landed with a silent thump and shapeshifted back into her human form, making Leony fall, but Johanna caught her midair. After letting her down, Johanna walked in the front door, offering Leony to follow her, but just as Johanna opened the door, she was greeted by a group of teenagers who had all equipped their armour and weapons. Both the group of teenagers and Johanna were equally surprised, but what surprised them even more was the fact that their master was standing there, the master that they were just about to rescue from the orcs.
"Master, what the fuck are you doing here!?!?"
"Pshht, keep quiet, or you'll wake up the kids."
"Sorry, but master, how did you get here?"
But instead of Leony showing how happy she was about being reunited with her pupils, she had to act mad since they were planning on rescuing her, which would have been a death sentence for the boys and even worse for the girls.
"What were you planning on doing?!?"
"We planned on rescuing you from the orcs."
Now the group was timidly looking at the ground, just like when Johanna asked about their master the day before. Johanna turned back to Leony, pointed her in a direction where she could scold them without waking up everybody in the house, and walked back into the house so that she could finally sleep and recover all of her lost magical power. Johanna walked silently through the kitchen and into her and Basil's bedroom, where Basil was surprisingly still awake and waiting for her.
"Why are you still up, honey?"
"Well, I could say the romantical answer that I was worried about you and all that, but to be honest, these kids "sneaking" out of here woke me up; they made so unbelievably much noise that I was about to go over there to beat them up so I could finally sleep, but I decided against it, but I did decide that if they truly left, I would stop them and leave, but anyway, whos that woman you brought with you?"
"That's the mentor of the kids that I told you about. I felt bad for her and the kids, and since I know how orcs treat their female captives, I knew that she was still alive, so I decided to rescue her from her suffering."
"Oh, so that's where you went, but where did they go now?"
"She has to scold them for their rescue attempt."
"Hahahah, those idiots couldn't have chosen a better time."
Johanna simply nodded, undressed, and got into bed with Basil so that she could finally sleep, but unluckily for her, Basil had other plans, which she soon realised after feeling a bulge in his pants after she snuggled up to him.