4 Chapter 4

Sera woke long before the rising sun as she did every day. She was one of Setrhyn Villages few rangers and she felt great pride in that achievement. It was the rangers job not only to protect the village but also to deter any would be threats.

In the Forsaken Lands there was no shortage of threats, centuries of countless invasions from other worlds have filled this land with the remnants of broken armies left with no way to return to their worlds.

Sera didn't need to take such a dangerous job, her father was a Necromancer which was the highest achievement for the Fae'Laran tribe since their banishment to the Forsaken Lands. One couldn't simply raise a skeleton and claim to be a necromancer in Fae'Laran culture.

Necromancers are true sages, ones you can turn to for answers to most questions. They are chosen from a young age and taught a myriad of skills alongside necromancy in the capital, so that the Fae'Laran could survive the wilds of the forsaken lands.

It's no wonder that each of the five villages outside of Tyres Gate hired a necromancer from the capital. They were in charge of everything from apothecary to commanding their undead to help build houses or walls. They were also in charge of defending the village if it ever faced a threat the rangers couldn't handle alone and in return they were provided with everything they might want, living a lifestyle similar to human nobles.

Sera wasn't born with the ability to harness mana outside her body that would allow her to walk the path of a mage like her father, greatly disappointing him. Still, her father was a loving and doting man despite that fact. She could have lived a comfortable life without ever working a day in her life.

She chose to become a ranger because she loved the freedom and sense of adventure she got from being out in the wild forests of the Forsaken Lands. She was an elf after all, even if her skin was a shade of gray, her long pointy ears weren't just for show.

Yawning as she got out bed, she was still groggy and sluggish as she made her way to the wash basin. Once finished washing she began her morning stretches before getting dressed in her neatly arranged ranger uniform. The uniform consisted of plain leather armor and a pine green cloak embroidered with a white world tree that was the crest for all the Fae'Laran.

Making her way downstairs she grabbed a handful of berries from a bowl on the kitchen shelf. She could see candle light flickering beneath the door of her father's laboratory. Opening the door she saw a man with a scruffy and unkempt face hunched over a stack of papers on his work desk.

The man was her father and his long white hair was tied up in a ponytail with free falling locks on either side of his face. His hair wasn't white because he was old, it's just that the Fae'Laran only came in two hair colors, white and black.

"Did you stay up all night again?" Sera asked with a concerned expression on her face.

"Ah.. Mil saeri, it's you.. Is it morning already?" He asked without looking up from the papers on the table.

"Yes father, it's morning. You need rest or else you'll die long before you get the chance to become a lich."

"It's that damned demon Neraxus's fault, he was purposefully cryptic when he taught Sage Tyres the secrets of necromancy all those centuries ago. Now i'm stuck with a copy of a copy of that damn demons cryptic words. They should have locked him up and beat the damned imp for clear and concise words instead of letting him go free..."

"I know father. Get some rest i have to go, Jeren is probably waiting for me at the front gate." She kissed her fathers messy hair and turned to leave.

"Ok mil saeri, be careful." The elf only now looked up at his daughter, smiling as she left.

Grabbing her long sword, bow, and quiver she left the house and began walking towards the east gate all the while eating her berries. Once she arrived at her destination she leaned against the thick cold walls of Setrhyn village and watched the murky morning clouds flow over the Delos mountain range.

It had become a ritual for her to show up early so she could enjoy the view and collect her thoughts before heading out into the Forsaken Lands. She thought back to what Master Ferlin had told her yesterday about the recent sightings of campfires in the woods to the south of the village.

Most of the races in the Forsaken Lands have some form of unspoken truce and won't trespass into each others lands without reason lest they start a war, which means that more than likely it's slavers from the one of the human kingdoms.

'Slavers...' The thought angered Sera. 'First they banish us, curse us, and now they come to enslave us.'

Her thoughts were interrupted by Jeren's appearance. He looked half asleep and disheveled which matched his usual laid back attitude.

"Yawn… Where to today?" He asked with his eyes still closed.

"South, there have been signs of slavers setting up camp close to the village. If they're there, Master Ferlin said we'll need to get rid of them." The anger still apparent on her face but it wasn't like the easygoing Jeren would notice or care.

"... Slavers huh? Ok let's get going."

The pair took off on foot, they moved as if they were in a light jog but the nimble elven rangers were moving at an incredible speed towards the dark forest.

They arrived at the reported area around midday, it was a small clearing near the Delos Minor river. There was a campfire concealed under dirt that looked to be more than a day old.

"It's slavers, the other Forsaken races wouldn't come so close unless they were looking for a fight and even then they wouldn't care to hide their tracks like this." Sera proclaimed while looking around the area for tracks.

"Yeah probably, they seem to know how to hide. They left nothing behind and i can see at least six different tracks heading in different directions. Maybe they're the ones who were kidnapping children from Lyr village a few months back?" Jeren was leaning nonchalantly against a tree watching Sera work while fiddling with his bow.

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"Can you tell which tra--"

"AWOOOOOO!" The loud howl echoed through the forest interrupting their conversation.

"Was that a barghest?" Jeren asked on alert, a confused expression upon his face.

"Sounded like it, but what is it doing this far north? There hasn't been a sighting this close to the villages in over a decade. The brexil cats normally keep them from coming this way."

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"It's getting closer and fast. If were killing it decide now." Jeren began to prepare for battle not waiting on Sera's response.

"We have to, we can't let a barghest run wild this close to the village. Get ready..."

"KWEE!" "KWEE!"

"Brexil Cats too?!" Sera looked dumbfoundedly towards Jeren.

"That's impossible, were over fifty kilometers away from brexil cat territory and they don't leave their spawning grounds even when chasing prey."

The pair shook off their shock, climbed the nearby trees, and readied their bows for battle. The beasts could already be seen from the small clearing. Sera looked closely and saw six tiny purple flames dashing towards them.

She learned about barghests and brexil cats in her ranger training under Master Ferlin and knew they weren't supposed to have purple eyes, nor were they supposed to travel together unless one was chasing the other which clearly wasn't the case here.

"Somethings wrong, they aren't attacking each other… and their eyes are wrong." Sera said quietly.

The beasts had finally made it to the clearing before stopping. Sera saw a man in tattered brown clothes being held in the mouth of the barghest. The two brexil cats on the other hand were carrying a peculiar looking spear with each of their mouths holding an end of the shaft only making the situation even more odd.

The barghest put the man down in the clearing and peered at Sera meaningfully for a moment before licking the mans face and backing up to the edge of the clearing. The unlikely trio made no moves to attack, only watching Sera as if they were statues made of stone. The man opened his unfocused eyes and began moving his cracked lips.

"..He..lp… Please.." The man spoke in a barely audible tone but Sera and Jeren's elven ears easily picked up the pained words.

"..Plea..se" The man pleaded once more.

Sera looked at him before gazing at the beasts nearly a dozen meters away from the man. The entire situation was impossibly odd. Either beasts that are sworn enemies traveled together for over a fifty kilometers just to use this man as a trap to lure out prey or the man had somehow tamed a barghest and two bexil cats, gotten into some trouble and had them bring him here for help.

Both of these thoughts were laughably impossible, barghest and bexil cats are demonic beasts that can't be tamed by anything besides a demon. She took a closer look at the man, his face was caked in dirt and blood but he definitely didn't have horns or a tail and her gut was telling her that these beasts weren't hostile.

"I'm going down, watch the beasts. If they make a move shoot them and i'll flee back to the trees."

"I won't stop you but he's a human, even if he wasn't surrounded by demonic beasts we have no reason to help him. Let's ju-" Sera was already leaping down before Jeren could finish his words ending the conversation. She landed beside the bloodied man and kept her eyes locked onto the beasts, cautiously watching to see if they made any move.

"What happened to you?" She asked him.

He lifted his arm weakly pointed to Rin and Ren.

"..Scra..tched." As his pained response came out he pointed to his legs.

"That brexil cat scratch you?"

"..No..those...fri.ends…..oth..er..scratch."

"Ok, don't speak anymore. Jeren, run ahead and tell my father i'm bringing in a human that's been attacked by brexil cats. Make sure he has the antidote by the time I arrive... Also notify Master Ferlin."

"Alright, but are his demonic friends going to allow you to take him?" Jeren said snarkily.

"Just go Jeren, we need to hurry!" Sera snapped back at him.

She picked up the man and put him on her back before rushing back to Setrhyn Village. The beasts with purple eyes kept pace with her all along the way, carefully keeping their distance to ensure her safety.

"Than..k.. You.." The man whispered.

"...Your beasts won't be allowed inside the village walls what will you do?" She asked him nervously. Not because she was afraid of the beasts, they were hardly a match for a ranger but because the man seemed to care for them. She would feel responsible if they were killed trying to enter the village.

"Ror..ik..Ren...Rin..stay...outs.ide..walls" He painfully groaned out losing consciousness once more.

Sera let out a sigh of relief and continued on her way until she made it to the eastern gate. Her father was already waiting and the man stared at the beasts in amazement which was quickly replaced with shock followed by giddy excitement.

"Sera what did this man say to you?!" Her father asked frantically as they walked to their home.

"He said he was scratched by a brexil cat. Jeren should hav-"

"NO, about the beasts! The beasts, mil saeri!"

"He could barely speak father. All he said was that they were his friends. Why?" Sera asked as she was now curious about what had her father so agitated.

"They have souls!" He yelled, unable to hold back his excitement.

"And? What are you so excited about?"

"They're undead, mil saeri! Undead with souls! The only undead that have souls are Lich! Yet somehow those 3 beasts have souls... It shouldn't be possible... but-" The man spoke energetically barely breathing throughout his barrage of words.

"Ok father, you can ask him about it later. If he dies you won't ever get the chance to ask him anything."

They reached Sera's house and rushed the man into her father's lab laying him upon the freshly cleaned work table. Sera's father pushed her aside and poured a bright yellow liquid down the man's throat before quickly shutting his mouth and holding it closed as the man began to convulse. Once the convulsions stopped he stripped the man naked to get a better look at his wounds.

There was a large infected wound on his shoulder, a deep cut on each of his calves, one deep cut that severed his right achilles tendon, the rest of his body was covered in cuts and bruises both deep and shallow.

"These wounds aren't from one battle, his body should have already shut down from the Brexil Cat venom alone. It's fascinating he's even still breathing." He said observing the man's beaten body.

"Will he live?" Sera asked as her father grabbed another vial of liquid and poured it into the mans mouth once more.

"He will now, but he'll need rest, we'll put him in a spare room until he wakes."