William follows the soldiers steadily but keeps a distance as even he doesn't believe the riftwalkers were easily killed. Sounds of gunshots ripple trough the forest. "Fire!" A soldier screams as the roots entangle him and he goes silent. Many follow the same fate.

  The guns are aimed at a group of Large, man sized feline Beasts with Elves on top of them.

  The beasts don't seem as feral as the one did which almost killed William, unreasonably tame.

  a few of the elves get shot and fall off. On the other side the soldiers are barraged with arrows and most of them succumb to their injuries. The ones that don't, they are taken care of by the beasts.

  The last soldier pulls out a communication device and screams "Send a riftwalker!"

  The last 5 elves get off their mounts and silence the soldier with a bone crushing stomp.

  "Ilrenair, should be we worried? The riftwalkers are those who killed my family, right?" one of them says his voice filled with suppressed anger. He looks young, even among elves who all look the same.

  His foot is lifted again and he stomps on the soldiers already destroyed head.

  3 of them have already climbed back up to their mount

  Ilrenair speaks slowly "Yes, most likely they did it. Lets go back and report to the Queen after that. "

  The aggressive elf shrugs it off and climbs back to his mount and rides off into the distance.

  Ilrenair looks around for a second as if he detected something. "It must have been the wind" He lazily approaches and glances back at the corpses lying around. He doesn't notice anything out of ordinary, so he leaves as well. However he does all of it hesitantly.

  William approaches the field after he waited it out. Among the corpses a gurgling sound comes out. He runs towards it and sees that one of the dead elves were actually alive.

  The elf's vision is hazy and his eyes are dull. Her eyes are snapping around trying to see where the footsteps are coming from.

  "I-is that you Ilrenair?" she coughs and wiggles her hand around a little bit but she cant lift it up.

  Although Her body is completely covered in blood and she probably wont survive for long the injuries seem more limiting than deadly.

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  "No" A cold answer comes from above

  "Human.... end me."

  William slowly pulls his sword out, but then something runs trough his mind. "I need your help."

  "My.... help?" The elf passes out for a few seconds from blood loss. She opens her eyes again "There is a liquid in my left..." her mouth stops moving but her breathing doesn't.

  Williams hand runs trough her clothing and pulls out a small red vial. about a deciliter of blood? magic huh

  He pulls the cork and it comes off with a pop then he hovers it above the woman's mouth. He twists his wrist and watches intently as it pours inside.

  The muscles start to knit together and the protruding bones snap back to their place.

  She exhales loudly after her blood vessels requires oxygen to transport to her muscles.

  after long moments She sits up , limping. "You saved me... I am grateful, but may I ask why?" Her voice stammers as she pushes out the words her vocal chords are weak.

  "I am not with them and I need help. Before you say anything, First I have a question. What happened to the riftwalkers that came here?"

  She slowly stands up keeping her distance slightly "What are those?"

  "People with powers, you have them too, no? That Elf , Ilrenair, he is definitely one."

  "You mean the Awakened?" She asks her voice weak. After adjusting to the scene her eyes widen "Wait you weren't fighting... Is Ilrenair Dead?" She asks worriedly.

  William places his blade back in its sheath and turns back to the elven woman. "No, the remaining 5 left."

  William puts his hand on the woman's shoulder lightly "I think the soldiers will be back. Its better if we leave"

  She nods and seems lost in thought for a second "You should go back while you still can, if they see that you helped me that would be betrayal, right? I don't want to get you in trouble I owe you my life" She flails her arms around to get Williams attention.

  "I don't think I want to go back and as I said I am not with them" The answer leaves no place for further argument. Confusion is etched across the elves face

  A while later she had lead William deeper into the forest and the vegetation is extremely overgrown and gigantic. The smallest flower is half as big as a human.

  The sun casts a red hue on the sky as it slowly disappears on the horizon.

  "Oh yeah right... So H-how can I help you kind human?" She asks as she sits down on a not so comfortable but certainly big rock.

  "Just call me William. From a scale to 1-10 what are the chances your people will let me join?"

  She sighs "2..." her facial expression resembles hopelessness.