The origin of the beast's attack was still a mystery to everyone. It all happened suddenly, and in no time, all the elven villages got attacked by all different beasts!
Damian was also surprised to see it happen, and could not help but think someone was behind it. But there was no time to think about that, and the thing Damian concentrated his efforts on was to help deal with the beasts!
"Ahhh!" an elven guard yelled as he saw a black panther pounce toward him.
In his mind, there was nothing he could do about it to prevent the outcome, so he closed his eyes and accepted the fate, yet nothing happened.
He remained there for a few seconds, waiting to feel an immense pain and then die, yet it did not happen. Once the elf opened up his eyes, the black panther was floating, unable to move.
"What?"
A youth appeared out of nowhere with his palm aimed at the panther.
"Are you okay?" Damian asked.
For a moment, the elf didn't care if Damian was another elf, or a human. He was glad someone saved him, and in his eyes, the human outsider was his savior.
"I-I am fine. Thank you!" the elf said, almost bowing.
"No need for that. Let's work together to guide everyone to safety."
It was a simple sentence and act, but as Damian went flying around the battlefield, saving all the elves and killing all the beasts he could, everyone saw him as their own.
"Hurry, our carriages are ready!"
The guards — Damian included — were fending off the beasts while the civilians gathered the important stuff, prepared the carriages, and got ready to leave.
Once that was done, the guards ran toward the carriages — there were 6 carriages in total — and flew away!
Yes, flew away. Damian was quite shocked to see the griffins in front of the carriages pulling them up toward the sky! It looked magical, and a decent way of transportation.
'It would be almost impossible for us to evacuate everyone through the forest. Too many obstacles and more beasts.'
Damian was about to enter one of the common carriages when Siora appeared, and call him out to her own carriage, which was the smallest one — it was meant only for her, so there was no way the size would compare to the rest who held many elves.
If it was before the fight, people wouldn't react well to have an outsider alone with the queen, but after everything Damian did to help them in a critical moment, they did not mind.
"Siora, what's happening? Have any idea?" Damian asked the moment he stepped inside.
Siora was sitting on a couch inside the carriage, and the insides of it looked like a small bedroom.
"I don't know yet… but I bet Ailred has something to do with this. Fuck."
She punched the couch to venture her anger.
"But we are safe now, right? I mean, the commander said all the elves will evacuate to a city or something."
That was what Damian heard from the commander, but he did not know if it was true or not, and now that he thought about it, if the elves had a city like that, why did they live in villages, scattered throughout the forest?
"That's the problem. We cannot enter the city… Well, at least the beast horde will not get to us there, I hope."
"What do you mean, we cannot enter the city?"
"One of our kind, a long time ago, did things that infuriated our mother spirit, the tree of life, and for that reason, we are banished to enter the city,"
"But the mother spirit left, like most gods or powerful beings, but it had been so long that other powerful beasts had taken our city as their home. We do not have the strength to go there and fight them."
It was not what Damian was expecting, yet was worse. Where would the elves go if not their home city? The beast horde killed many of them, and their villages were gone! Even if they returned to rebuild it, the beasts would attack again and again, until their strength was over, and they all perished.
"Maybe I can help you with that? Of course, I wouldn't do it for free," Damian said, staring deeply into Siora's eyes.
He liked Siora, but doing something dangerous like that without a reward? No way. Damian did enough already by helping the elves evacuate, and that was enough of his kindness for quite some time.
Siora saw how well Damian handled the beasts during the prior battle, and that undeniable meant he had powers the other elves did not. So, stood there, thinking for a while.
"I can give you information, all the things we elves know. We have a library within the city that you can access."
"There are many treasures inside the city too, so you can have anything you want, but please don't take everything from us."
"And… there's something else, but you will have to be worthy to get it, so I cannot promise you that or share more information about it for now."
Damian listened to everything, and after a while he nodded, "Fine, that's a decent reward, but if the situation inside the city is something I cannot handle, then there's nothing we can do about it."
"I know."
Siora counted that Damian would have the means to reclaim their city, and she would do anything to help him, but if he turned out to cannot succeed, then Siora had to accept the elven race of fate.
After talking about the terms of their agreement, Damian sit on the couch, closing his eyes to rest. According to Siora, it would take them three hours to reach their destination.
'This forest is bigger than I thought!'
The griffins flew faster than Damian, yet it would take them three hours of constant flying to reach the place where the city was.
~~~~
Damian looked through the carriage's window and could not believe what he was seeing! A massive tree, so high that it reached the clouds!
"Is this the city?" he asked.
Siora was also looking through it right beside him. "Yes. The city is at the top, above the clouds. I think it is safe inside the base of the tree, but how's the city we do not know?"
The carriages flew toward the tree, stopping at the base. It was so big inside that it could fit all the carriages, and the elves could live inside!
Not only the elves from the tribe where Siora lived, but all the other survivors. Soon, other carriages arrived at the tree, and all the surviving elves met.
Damian noticed that the number of survivors from the other tribes wasn't as high as the one he was in.
'The difference I made is huge.'
Every single elf that arrived went to meet queen Siora. Some were crying, others happy to be alive, but all of them still had a lingering doubt: how would they conquer their city back?
They were relieved to arrive there with their life, but despite solving one problem, another one was at their door. It was hard not to feel discouraged, but Siora tried her best to ease their minds, speaking about Damian. Who would help them?
"A human outsider?" one elf said.
The elves from other villages were ready to speak bad things about Damian and Frederic, but the elves Damian helped came to speak for him, sharing the good deeds he did during the attack.
It did not make the other elves completely happy with him there — Damian would have to get their trust just like he did with Siora's village — but it was enough to make them feel comfortable near him.
"Are we going to an unknown city, just the two of us, to probably fight against many beasts?" Frederic said.
Damian and Frederic were alone, looking toward the top of the tree.
"Yes, correct. Let's go."
A portal was inside the tree in a separated room. Some guards were standing before it to avoid any outsiders or elves to use it. It was not safe until the problems within the city were over.
"Are you the human who will conquer the city back to us?"
"Yes."
"Best of luck to you, and if you succeed, then my thoughts regarding you will change. But be careful there," the guard said, opening the door for Damian to go inside.
Frederic was not feeling like going inside the portal — he was a dragon, but a scared one who rarely went into combat — but Damian was there to push him.
"Let's go, old dragon. We will be okay."
There was nothing that would save Frederic. Not a single excuse to make him stay, so in the end, he accepted his fate and went inside the portal with Damian.
In one moment, they were at the tree's base, and in the other, near the top. It was a place devoid of light, and in the darkness, Damian could see many red eyes staring at him.