The bright red ruby eyes of the golden tipped eekron locked onto Amber's violet purple eyes. They stared each other down, neither of them flinching.
The eekron's eyes gleamed as it fluffed out it's sharp tipped wings and let out a deep caw. It was waiting for her to bow her head in submission, but this she would not do. She had plans here and wasn't going to allow an oversized chicken to get in her way. Regardless of the creature standing three times as tall as she was. It's sharp silver beak dripped with blood as it turned it's head to get a better look at Amber.
Amber felt a shiver travel up her back and flashes of heat pulse inside her. Her heart picked up speed and she felt a dizziness take over her, as her eyes glowed bright purple, and an aura full of condensed mana exploded out from her. Translucent purple in different shades danced in the air, like an aurora. Darker purple lines of light shot out from her chest and swirled around into the air, mixing in with the other translucent ones.
[Amber? What's going on? Amber? Are you alright?] Said Arabella. Her words sounded strange, like Amber was hearing them from the other side of water in a tunnel.
Amber closed her eyes and collapsed onto the forest floor.
"Lotus...Lotus. Are you paying attention?"
Amber blinked her eyes and found herself sitting in a desk, in the back of a classroom. Twenty children seated at clear oval desks turned their heads back towards her. Various shades of purple eyes met her own. All of the children were little girls. She sat in the back of the classroom, while the teacher at the front of the class wrote onto the air with a large black marker. Her movements stilled while she looked at Amber with a frown on her face. Her chin length, wavy black hair framed her light purple eyes in shocking contrast. She wore a simple light purple wrap dress with a lotus emblem on its front pocket. Every one of the children wore a matching dress, just as the teacher wore. The children's expressions ranged from boredom, to curiosity, to mockery as they stared back at Amber. Amber looked around the room in confusion. This didn't seem right. Was she here all along?
She frowned down at the little hands in front of her and experimentally moved them. They were the hands of a child, no more than eight to ten years old. Her left hand was holding a black pen with a white lotus flower on the top of it. The black part of the pen was gently glowing black and the flower on top was softly glowing white. In front of her was a clear desk with black writing made out of smoke and mist, condensed and squeezed into shapes that became recognizable words. On the right edge of the oval desk, was a small round red button that read the word 'Submit' on the top of it.
"Submit. Submit?" The words were nothing that she had seen before. Made up of squiggles, twists, and turns that should mean nothing to her, but still she could read them clearly.
"Are you ready to submit?" Said the teacher.
"I am not," came out a smooth childlike voice from Amber's lips.
Amber felt her head pound and her heart threaten to beat out of her chest as the world spun and she felt herself retching onto the forest floor. She gripped the grass underneath her tightly, as if she could hold the ground still through brute force. She pulled in a shaky breath as beads of sweat trickled down her face and the world stopped twisting so violently.
What was that? You said that you would behave yourself better. Said Amber into her mind.
[That wasn't me. I've never seen that place before. It felt like it was your memory. All of those people with purple eyes, and that strong magical aura; who are you?] Said Arabella.
That had nothing to do with me, Amber said while sitting up and coming face to face with the golden tipped eekron. He had his head down low, bowing to Amber in submission.
[Are you sure?] Said Arabella.
Once the giant birds moved out of Amber's way, it became easy for her to get to work. Unfortunately, the first thing that she had to do was move scattered body parts onto the biggest pile of dead corpses. She wasn't exactly a fan of being covered in decaying juices.
Amber pointed her fingers towards the ground and tons of bits of metal started slipping up through the soil. Her palms glowed silver while the metal floated through the air upwards, as if gravity had been reversed. She turned her fingers this way and that, and the liquid metal turned according to her will. Then above her hand, the liquid settled into a shape. It solidified into the form of a pair of giant tongs, as long as Amber's legs. Amber's eyes sparkled and a deranged sounding laugh came out from her lips, as she grabbed the handles of the tongs.
[This isn't a salad bar, you know!] Yelled Arabella into Amber's mind.
Potato, potato.
[What do you even mean by that?] Said Arabella in a high pitched squeak.
Amber ignored Arabella while she happily moved the handles of the tongs. She loudly clapped the scoops at the ends together. while her eyes gleamed excitedly.
"Yes, this will do nicely," said Amber.
[For what? Please tell me you are not going to pick up that..]
Arabella watched through the internal window as Amber used the pair of tongs to pick up a severed arm.
[I have no words.] Said Arabella.
Amber happily laughed and flung the arm upwards, allowing it to flip through the air, on top of the largest pile.
"That worked incredibly well! I am very pleased," Amber said while moving onto the next scattered body part.
After a little while of doing this, the flock of eekon realized what Amber wanted and started helping her move the bodies, using their beaks. The leader of the flock kept close to Amber while she worked, glancing around the area every once in a while. He acted as if he were concerned about something that Amber couldn't see.
Soon the bodies were piled. Amber looked at her new tongs with a pout on her face. She had wanted to play with them longer. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. So Amber quickly sanitized her new toy and shoved it into her space bag.
Then she pulled a giant jug of refined mana water out from the opening of her tiny space storage bag.
Oberon and Alina stared at this whole scene quietly from the shade of a nearby tree. They never took their eyes off of Amber, but neither did they say anything. It was anyone's guess what they were thinking.
Amber walked over to the heaping pile of dead bodies and poured the refined mana water all over it. She acted like it was some sort of high quality salad dressing.
Some of the eekron squawked in excitement, their mouths watering from the entrancing scent. Then the golden eekron made a strange high pitched sound, like hissing. Immediately the other birds in the flock sat down on the forest floor. They no longer moved forward or paid Amber's concoction any mind. Looking downwards, they seemed properly chastised.
"Don't worry my little lovely's. I won't need to keep the bodies. As soon as I'm done here, I'll allow you to eat them," Amber said to the flock of giant birds.
They instantly perked up. The flock kept close eyes on what Amber was doing, their curiosities piqued.
Shortly after dousing the pile with refined mana water, Amber sprinkled pixie dust all over the top of it. As soon as the dust made contact with the morbid pile, a small amount of red smoke floated off of the top. The tiny stream of smoke slowly increased into larger puffs of smoke. Then a dark red light glowed from within the pile, dim at first, and then blindingly bright.
Amber turned her attention towards the golden tipped eekron. "Could you carefully push some of those dead bodies aside for me? I'm looking for an egg, so you need to be careful."
The giant bird bowed its head once again and gently nudged his giant blood stained beak into the mass of bodies. He nudged bits here and there while the light shone ever brighter. Until the red light was nearly blinding. There nestled in a bed of corpses, was an egg. It was small enough that it could have easily been cupped in Amber's hand. It had a shell as hard as a rock and glowed dark red. Amber reached down and lifted the little egg up, looking at it. The egg felt oddly warm as Amber held the egg in her palm. She rinsed off the egg with some refined mana water and then slipped it into the pocket of her dress.
Alina, who had been trying to pretend that none of this mattered, glared at the pocket where Amber had put the egg. That was her pocket. Not that gross, blood pixie's pocket.
[My pocket!] said Alina.