Creatures in the Woods (Crystal Platinumsound)

Raiaera / Red Forest
Morning / Clear Skies
https://i.imgur.com/wsC8lY9.jpg

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Usually Ogedai wouldn't be taking a job like this, to go hunt a creature in the woods. That was the job of a hunter or beast slayer, not an artist working on a side hustle. His targets were people in cities with someone who wanted them dead, simple as that. But his client was rather adamant about this creature, though he couldn't explain whether it was a person or an animal. Regardless, the money would help the orphanage and he wanted to explore the Red Forest anyway, might as well get paid to do that and get some exercise in.

He set out from a nearby inn at daybreak, with an old cloak to keep him warm and obscured as he ventured into the ancient, historical forest of Raiaera. He didn't have much in the way of information, merely a rough description of what he was looking for, a location, and the opportunity to see what became of the few victims that managed to survive an attack. That already raised some concerns, because all of them were hunters and trappers of some kind. This was their kind of job, and they couldn't accomplish it. What on Althanas made them think that he could?

The other question came from a lack of answers he was looking for when he spoke to the hunters. But that question could only be answered when he finally tracked down his target. At least that was covered in great detail.

They were confident that the creature was in the area of an old ruin from the myriad of battles fought long ago. With the Old Terrors dealt with, the forest began to take back what belonged to it, though the dark magic still lingered in the forest. Ogedai could care less, seeing a historic ruin like this would be nothing short of unforgettable, the kill itself might just even be secondary if it matched his expectations.

After a long hike through the forest, he finally arrived at the ancient ruin. Whether it was a temple or a fortress, he wasn't sure about, but the forest was working hard to reclaim it. His attention was, however, drawn to a few bodies strewn around. Hunters as well. "Curiosity killed the cat, huh?" He muttered with a smirk as he knelt down to inspect them. "Cat's killed recently too..." No way were they from the previous party he talked to, they were taken out recently. The assassin slipped a hand into his cloak to grip a dagger as he rose and looked around.

"I miss my flames."

Crystal could sense Solga's frustration and impatience as she sat crossed legged, watching the meat cook. She was also able to experience his memories of summoning fire whenever he wanted with just a twirl of his fingers.

Now he's stuck making a bonfire like a common mortal. All because of Crystal.

"And I miss Salvar's cold embrace." Crystal answered Solga's thoughts out loud; there was nobody around to hear her talk to thin air anyway.

The heat from the flames was by no means unbearable for Crystal but she still found herself flapping her wings to keep the air around her circulating. It helped to cool her down and keep the flames alive.

Forrest was the next to speak up. "I wish you would choose a less dangerous creature to hunt. Preferably one that didn’t look like a tree?" he said.

"Are you seriously sympathizing for a wolf based on its outward appearance?" Crystal had fought off a whole pack of Dur'Taigen just so they would have something to eat, yet Forrest's main priority seemed to be the choice of prey. "This is the Red Forest; we don't exactly have a lot of options here."

"Yes, I know. It would be preferable though."

With a shake of her head and a sigh, Crystal stood up, kicked up wind with her wings and lifted herself into the air with a mighty flap, extinguishing the flames. She landed on her feet and cooled the meat with her ice breath before retrieving it from the ashes.

Crystal sighed once more before sitting down once again and biting into the meat. It was still fairly tough and so she dug her claws into the flesh and jerked her head back to rip a piece off.

"Back home in Dheathain…" said Luna. "There are fish called kissing carp. They're painfully common in food, but I always loved it."

"Especially fried!" Solga chirped.

"Ooh, yes!"

The twins' back and forth prompted Crystal to take more savage bites into the wolf flesh. Back in her own native land, her fellow Winter Fae would often work together to ruthlessly slaughter any of the ferocious beasts they encountered for sustenance.

They rarely ate fish as they almost never ventured to the southern most parts of the region, and even if they did, fish were often considered "boring" or even "frustrating". The hunt isn’t as fun if your prey can't put up a good fight or always somehow manages to slip away.

But as the saying goes, "variety is the spice of life", and having Dur'Taigen every day was starting to get stale. Unfortunately, the behemoths known as Mauls were far too much hassle without the support of her kind, and Omhym, while on the larger end of most spiders, are rare and still too small to be worth trying to find anyway.

At this point, some boring and frustrating fish sounds pretty good right about now. Or maybe Solga and Luna's nostalgia is affecting her cravings.

Setting the meat down, Crystal conjured up a fairly large icicle for herself to chew on. She'd rather do this than light the bonfire again just to melt the ice until it runs.

As Crystal crushed the ice between her jaws, something brought a twitch to her left wing. Something she thought she had already dealt with.

"Now what?" Crystal sighed as she stood up a second time. She gently rubbed her fingers against the parts of her arms and face that were exposed to the blood earlier.

The blisters had since went down, but some burns still remained. If only mortal blood didn’t contain iron.

Crystal stretched out her ten limbs, decided not to cast her Glamour just yet and made her way to the front of the ruins. About two or three rooms from the entrance however, she decided to hide herself behind the walls and peer out through the fissures.

From here, Crystal could hear whoever it was that found their way here. And see exactly who she would be dealing with this time.