Chapter 36 - Pests: Part One

Evanna jumped to the edge of the hole, pressing her back against the dirt, keeping as far from the monster as possible. Its legs kept crawling forwards; she lost count of how many there were. The click-clacking sound they made caused her to shiver as her face turned to one of distaste. Looking to her left, into the dark tunnel from which it came from, she could finally see the other end of the long monster; shaking her head, she forced herself to move. It would be attacking the others if she did nothing.

Evanna made a quick assessment of her situation. If she attacked it in the hole, she could be worse off from the small space. Putting her swords back into her scabbards on her back, she took a deep breath and made a gamble. Evanna ran forwards, grimacing as she got closer to the legs but leapt over them and landed gently on the top of the monster.

The surface was hard and smooth. At every pair of legs on each side, the top part had a rectangular segment. Looking back up, Evanna checked to see that it was unaware of her standing on it. She quickly started running up it as it continued to move forwards. With its body sloped, she ran up it efficiently.

The cool air from outside the hole hit her face; bracing herself, she neared the top of the beast she was on. Luckily, Evanna had outstanding balance because it started to move side to side, and its body twisted as though it was looking at its surroundings. Grabbing her swords, she ran and jumped towards the head, bringing both blades down into the top of it. The creature screeched in pain.

Evanna gritted her teeth at how hard the surface was but used all her might to push deeper into its head. The pair of antennae moved side to side until the whole thing collapsed down. She jumped off it, forwards-somersaulting herself out of the way and landing gracefully to the side as it landed heavily on the ground. 

Evanna walked back to the creature, making sure it was dead. On closer inspection, she realised it was a gigantic centipede type monster. The only difference was that its face, if that is what you could call it, mainly had a huge round mouth, filled with rows and rows of jagged teeth along with four mandibles and six eyes circled around it. How revolting. The mandibles suddenly clasped shut, making her jump and step backwards, and watched as its eyes glazed over, showing it was dead.

However, this did not stop her from seeing the chaos around her. As she spun on her heel, she saw enormous bug type creatures everywhere; each person was fighting one-off. Even Nesrin used her powers to create vines to wrap around the flying insects that came towards them, stopping them mid-air to crash into the ground. Suddenly, a shiver went down Evanna's spine. She gripped her swords and spun around, swiping them both towards a creature in front of her, sticking both ends into it in a swift motion, taking it by surprise.

As she brought her blades back out of the body, leaving it to drop to the ground, her body once again felt like it was being pulled forwards, but she stayed rooted to the ground. She sensed something watching them. Her head raised up and looked into the distance, knowing the exact location of whatever it was. Still, she could not see anything; another shiver went through her as she continued to stare. Yet, Evanna needed to focus on the insect type creatures around them, so she forced herself to look back to the next monster that came towards her. 

** 

In the far distance, there was a small group of elves standing in the trees. The branches were wide enough to stand easily, as they all looked across at the scene shown before them. A white-haired elf stood at the front; his piercing blue eyes watched as the huge insects they were chasing made their way to a small group of humans. His blank expression did not leave his face once. Even as he watched a gigantic centipede monster burst through the ground, he knew with that thing, the humans would be dead soon. It did not matter. It saved them from doing the deed themselves; however, they still needed to get rid of these pests. They caused too many problems over the past weeks.

"* Fools, *" The white-haired elf muttered as he watched a man shooting a few of the flying insects. He did not understand why humans wandered this far into the forest; they either died by their hands, the creatures of the forest or the elements killed them.

"* How should we proceed? *" His second in command, Garrett asked.

He narrowed his eyes as he calculated what the best thing to do was, weighing the odds in his head. Leave the humans to their fate, or help them as the more men, the easier it would be for them to get rid of the damn creatures. Decisions, decisions. He watched quite an enormous man fall to the ground with a bug on top of him.

"* Leave them. They have already trespassed. We can come back for the creatures later. I am quite hungry, so let us go hunt first,*" He said nonchalantly while he looked at his nails before turning around.

"* Wait, there are women, *" Garret spoke from behind him, causing him to stop his steps and frown.

His stiff posture abruptly turned around and looked back at the scene in front of them, taking more interest. He did not realise there was a red-haired female in a tree, who was fighting off a flying creature with a stinger, he turned his head, searching for the others, but he could not see them. As he continued to look, he suddenly saw a figure running up the centipede and stabbing it in the head before somersaulting off to the side, his eyes zoned in on the figure. He could not place them; he swore he recognised them. Their face was half-covered with a mask, but their eyes were bright green, with thick eyelashes and dark hair kept in a plait. 

On closer inspection, he realised this was the other female; from the features he could see, they were too feminine to be male. As she pulled her blades out of another bug, she turned and stared in their direction. His brows drew together from her unwavering gaze; he felt mesmerised by those eyes, those green eyes he knew he had seen before. They were too otherworldly to forget. 

She abruptly turned around, making him blink and snap out from the spell she put him under. He felt annoyed; he wanted to see those eyes again. Though he was irritated, his expression was still blank as he stood there rooted, watching the unknown female, almost in a trance as she elegantly killed from creature to creature with her two swords. He unknowingly took a step forward while watching a beetle fly towards her rapidly as she was finishing another bug off. 

The girl abruptly fell forwards to her knees and skidded across the ground, keeping her body flung back as she went underneath it before turning around and stabbing it. The raven-haired female then turned around, revealing her face after her mask fell down to her neck; his eyes widened after recognising her. She was the girl he saved in The Snake Pitt Inn. He suddenly felt angry. What the fuck was she doing here? 

"What a strange company," Another one of his men spoke from behind him. He turned his head in his direction, questioningly, "They have a fae, a shifter and a she-elf". He frowned at the statement before looking back. There, in fact, was a fae in another tree keeping some of the flying insects at bay, the red-haired female at this point was showing her true nature with her extended claws and cat eyes, but when he looked at the dark-haired beauty, he knew she was not an elf.

"* Why do you think she is an elf? *" He questioned, although he already knew the answer. Not only were her features breathtaking, but the way she fought was so elegant and skilled, people would confuse her with his kind.

"* She fights like us *", His man responded.

He nodded his head in response, "* True, but she is not an elf. Her ears are those of a human.*"

"* Maybe she was taught by an elf *", Garrett spoke by his side.

He shook his head, "* Not with the rules set in place by the agreement.*" 

Garrett gave him a pointed look. They both knew he did not stick to the rules, so why would a bunch of nobody's stick to them. He glanced back at the scene before them; the girl was now taking on two creatures at a time, dodging and turning as she swiped her swords at both of them.

"Raven! Watch out!"

He narrowed his eyes at the man who shouted. The girl looked in his direction before finishing the two creatures off. He realised there was a slimy creature making its way from behind her. Without thinking, his body went into autopilot mode as he ran and jumped down to a lower branch, his feet sliding down the declining stem as he reached for his bow and arrow. He stopped in place as he pulled the arrow towards him, aiming at the bug. Although they were at quite a distance, he was very skilled with a bow and never missed a shot.

"* Fools *", He muttered again, his lips brushed the bowstring slightly, but before he could release it, she ran forwards, up the tree in front of her, leaping up and flipped backwards, over the bug, landing behind it. Before she could make a move, though, an arrow was shot into its head, but instead of dying, it only made it screech in anger, so she finished it off with a swipe of her sword, causing the head to fall to the earth. 

He released his breath and relaxed his bow, placing them behind his back once again. He narrowed his eyes again, his jaw ticked while he watched the archer grab her by the arm, and they stared at one another for a brief moment before parting.

Garrett, by now, was next to him, his own bow and arrow out, ready, "* What shall we do? *" 

"*Nothing.*" 

His friend looked at him, taken back, especially after the stunt he nearly pulled. The prince's face hardened, and he gave him an icy stare in return,

"* They are solving our pest problem. *" 

Garrett put his weapon back in place as he continued to watch the prince; his attention was on the humans again. The only sign the prince was interested in them was from his eyes that had taken on an intensity he did not expect to see.

After feeling Garrett's eyes on his face, he turned away from the girl called Raven. His men would think he was becoming soft if he stood there any longer, "* Have a few guards to keep an eye on them. I am sure they will not wander much further after this. If they do, then they are imbeciles. *" 

"* If they wander further, should we kill them? *" Garrett asked. He knew if there were no creatures with the humans right now, then they would already be dead by their own hands, but he was not sure after the little emotion the prince had shown just moments ago, well, emotion other than his fury or the desire to kill things.

"* That is our protocol, is it not? *" He replied coldly; Garrett bowed at his command before barking orders to a few men.