21 The Beginning of Delays

As soon as they saw that red light, they headed for it. It was some distance though and before they reached, Dawn could see other flickering red light that looked more like fire than the odd object the sorcerer had made.

When they approached, what they saw was not exactly what the queen had been expecting. An angry owlbear was shaking a tree as flaming arrows rained down at it. The little flames flickering along the body of the large creature seemed to make it even more irate.

She was about to tell the fighters to engage when she heard maniacal laughter, "My time has come! HAHAHA!"

Her head turned to the laughing sorcerer as he raised his hands. Aldresh's eyes were glowing faintly red as an incantation left his lips. He continued laughing as the flames on the creature in front of them grew bigger, traveling all over it till it was entirely on flames.

As it knocked into the tree, causing it to catch on flames, a sigh traveled on the wind, "Thanks a lot. Now we are dealing with a flaming owlbear instead of one that is just really mad." Dawn could barely see the ranger as he stood up from where he had been crouching and hauled up the girl behind him. The half-elf moved along the branch they were on carefully and then jumped to a nearby one, being careful not to drop the girl he seemed to be supporting.

As this was happening both Aklane and Kion moved in tangent to attack the beast, caring not for their own safety. Typical knights. Dawn drew her own blade, though she was not sure she wanted to go close to a creature dripping in fire.

Zyph seemed antsy at the flames and Raven was focusing on calming him down. For a moment Dawn could not help but stare at just how good Raven was with the griffon. Griffons did not just like anyone. Shaking her head she turned back to the beast that was currently trying to rip open Kion as he expertly weaved away. Dawn moved to help them.

As they fought, the maniacal laughter of the pyromaniac who had set the thing on flames weaved around them making the whole thing seem a little unreal. The two clerics were frantically trying to keep the forest from being burnt down.

After they finally managed to down the creature(and put it out), everyone turned and looked at the maniac who had set it ablaze. He was now frowning, "You put it out…"

"What were you thinking!? You could have burned the whole forest down!" It was Askar who said what everyone was thinking, placing his hands on his hips.

"So?" The sorcerer sighed, "I thought that coming along would allow me to let my flames blaze high to the sky…."

Lowks jumped down from the tree he was in and shook his head at the young man, "Not in a forest, youngling. Use your head. You were given it for a reason."

Vixen went to jump down as well and nearly crumpled before Lowks caught her and slung her arm around his shoulder. He started scolding her, turning his attention away from the person who had no common sense when it came to flames and forests and how large fires did not mix well with a lot of trees.

"What's wrong with her?" Miria wandered over and helped Lowks lower the girl down.

"Idiot got her leg broken." Lowks shook his head. "I would suggest you leave it so she learns something but that would only slow us down."

"Hey!" Vixen protested, frowning, "I'm lucky it's only my leg. That thing was strong."

There was a childish quality to her voice that Dawn honestly liked better than her normal flirtatious attitude. It was her way of talking to other women and Lowks. It was no wonder Lowks was the only man in the group who could actually hold a conversation with the youngish woman without being utterly terrified of her. Vixen was not too bad if there were no males around and was at times actually cute. She was also rather attached to Tira, and had tried to chatter to her all night at first before they had told her to go to sleep.

Miria set the young lady's leg and then poured some healing power over it so that the fracture mended together. "Thanks, Miria!" She gave Lowks a disgruntled look though as if upset by what he had said.

About then Tira returned, a bit short of breath. She glanced around and noticing that her friend had been hurt walked over to tussle her hair in a comforting manner. Her eyebrow raised at the sight of the burnt corpse, "What happened here? Sorry that it took me awhile to get here, I was further afield than I thought."

"It's fine, did you see anything interesting?" Dawn looked at the serious woman with a smile on her face. She actually rather liked the pretty half-elf.

Tira shook her head, "Nothing but wilderness and tracks of wild animals."

They ended up stopping for the day so that Vixen could rest her leg for a night before walking on it. She ended up being supported to the place they decided to set up camp by the two siblings who seemed to view her as their charge.