Without thinking twice, Alta jumped down off the watchtower and into the forest.

Her body rapidly shifted to not only mitigate the fall but accelerate her airborne state. Her skin transformed, growing bigger as her bone and muscle biomass decreased. Pouches of skin clashed against the wind, slowing her fall and allowing her to maintain her airtime for longer. She had learned this tactic from a group of brown critters in the forest during her job.

The Blossomflame wings also fluttered vigorously, though they were incapable of gaining any height, only reducing her falling speed even more.

“What are you doing?” Icasondra flew beside her, already having caught up to her even if she had jumped out before. This only showed how limited and atrocious Alta’s flying form was.

“Investigating for dangers.” Alta briefly stated, her focus placed on maintaining her altitude. She judged that even with perfect posture and control, she wouldn’t reach her destination before landing. Not that she thought of landing directly on the smoke pillar, that would give away her position.

Position... Alta realized that her current shape wasn’t the stealthiest, as her wings illuminated the skies like a torch. The Blossomflame diminished the intensity of her wings, like how they were on the lake.

The embers she now had for wings were insufficient for cohesive flapping, so she stopped using them even if that meant losing altitude faster.

Alta turned her head to see Icasondra, her face died in worry. But what mattered to the chimera were the fairy’s wings. They are bright, but not too bright. The Moonlight fairy’s wings only reflected the light of the Celestial Triumvirate, and on this dark night that meant they lost most of their potency.

“Tell me!” Icasondra spoke once again.

“Look before you,” Alta responded. “There’s a smoke pillar over there.”

“Smoke? I don’t see any smoke. I can’t even see the Evergreen, for the sister’s sake!”

“Doesn’t matter if you see it or not, you know what it means.” The chimera remained impassive, even when the fairy raised her voice.

Icasondra’s eyes shot wide open. “Humans...”

“Most likely, yes,” Alta added. “There’s no chance the fire is natural, there has not been a thunderstorm for days, so someone must have lighted it.”

The Moonlight fairy’s visage lost color, resembling more the white light of Nux, the youngest sister of the moons, than the beige color of skin.

“Turn back.” The Blossomflame reasoned. “Having prey in a hunt will end badly.”

“...No.” She spoke weakly, the fast winds of the night mostly covering her voice.

“What?” Alta asked, not having fully understood Icasondra.

“No, I won’t back away!” The fairy’s irises trembled. “You don’t know anything about humans, if our first encounter is to be trusted, you massacred them before talking!”

“They attacked first!” The chimera responded, not believing the words coming out of her mouth. “And if I hadn’t done so, they would have gotten you!”

Icasondra closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. That’s when Alta realized that the fairy didn’t even know what she was saying. She didn’t care about reason, but only about her instincts. And her instincts told her to push forward.

Alta could understand that. She was also guided by instincts.

“Can you dim the light of your wings?” The chimera asked.

“What?” Icasondra opened her eyes, not understanding Alta’s intentions.

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“Can you dim the light of your wings?” The chimera reiterated, though instead of a neutral voice, now she screamed in a commanding tone.

“Y-yes!” The fairy instantly responded, a hint of fear in her voice.

“Do so then!” Alta commanded.

Knowing better than responding, Icasondra dimmed the light of wings. Before they were a fourth moon on the sky, now though, they shone even fainter than a firefly. A name Alta considered inappropriate as they weren’t made out of fire like her Blossomflame shape was.

“Do you now see the smoke?” The chimera pointed with her eyes as her arms were occupied working as impromptu gliders to sustain her flight.

“Em... I think so?” The fairy responded with uncertainty.

“I’ll take that as a no.” Alta dismissed her. “Follow me, I’m losing too much altitude, I’m going to land in a few seconds.”

The Blossomflame didn’t wait for the Moonlight to respond to her and instantly dived into the forest. She guided her arms into her body, her shape now without gliders nor wings descended fast. The wind sang in her ears, the violent whistling drowning any potential complaints Icasondra may have.

Her current altitude was so low, that she didn’t even need to shift biomass to make her landing smoother. Alta stepped on the ground, dirt and grass being forcefully displaced and her knees crying in protest, but otherwise uninjured. She had been silent, unlike the fluttering fairy that followed her wake.

“Step on the ground and stop flying,” Alta commanded.

“But I’m barefoot...” Icasondra protested.

“Step on the ground!” The chimera reiterated, not raising her voice much now that they were nearing the source of the smoke.

“Alright, alright.” The dim wings of the fairy stopped moving and her feet landed graciously on the ground.

“Follow me.”

----------------------------------------

Icasondra was scared.

It was her fault, she understood that, but this commanding Alta reminded her of the chimera she had met a week ago on the Barren Lands. A ruthless predator that had a clear vision.

A clear vision to destroy anything on her path.

The chimera crouched, seeking something Icasondra herself couldn’t see. Intimidated by peer pressure, the fairy followed her steps, going into a crouch even if the chimera herself didn’t order her to do so.

Both fairies had luminescent wings yet now they were dimmer than the scarce light that filtered through the foliage of the Evergreen. Icasondra wouldn’t have believed Alta was still a Blossomflame fairy if it weren’t for the barren embers on her back, shadows of what the deflagrations they used to be.

Trekking across the forest ground was a difficult activity the fairy wasn’t used to, she always opted for flying in every situation. She knew how to walk, but that was different from using her feet correctly. For fairies, walking was a sluggish act, only reserved for interiors and very short distances, not a long and stealthy journey across the forest.

How’s she able to traverse the Evergreen this efficiently? She didn’t know much of the chimera’s origins, but she certainly hadn’t stepped into a forest before their first encounter.

The instant Icasondra saw a shimmering light on the horizon, Alta did a gesture with her hand pushing it down, indicating to the fairy to go lower.

This time, Icasondra didn’t question her. She now knew that something pried in that light.

It was difficult to move her body lower, the Moonlight fairy had difficulties walking even if they had only been on for five minutes. Her legs protested, her knees gritted, but she did her best moving in her crouched position.

She also kept her wings stuck together to each other, reducing her overall area. This wasn’t an advanced stealth tactic that had poured into her head magically, but the fear speaking. It was normal to flutter one’s wings when they were happy, even if they weren’t flying. The opposite happened when a fairy was scared. She couldn’t bring herself to flap them, and neither she wanted.

Alta hid after a tree and then pointed to another before her. Icasondra nodded and moved behind the other tree, trying to see what the source of the smoke was.

It was obviously a campfire.

But what worried the fairy was what was next to the fire.

Humans.

Icasondra’s heart sunk, thoughts of doubt and fear overwhelming her mind, asking herself why she came here in the first place. The fear, the blood, the despair. The trauma. She swayed her head to dissipate, or at least tried to do, her afflictions.

There were a bunch of humans. A lot. More than she had ever seen.

She counted ten, and they wore armor of leather and iron. Those weren’t like the guards of the merchant cart that Alta had killed. No, the ones here knew battle. Their armor was muddied and dirty as if they had never seen a bath.

Deserters? Icasondra thought as she inspected the worn armor and weapons. They don’t have any coats of arms, maybe mercenaries? She wasn’t well-versed on human warfare, or warfare at all, but it would seem that Flrynwydl had been right. These humans weren’t part of a military or an expedition, but an off-product of a battle. And they didn’t look like nice people.

Scared, Icasondra approached Alta who was a tree away, but her movements were stopped by a crunching sound. With dread, the fairy looked down at her feet to find a stick snapped in two.

By the time she raised her head back up, the felt the pain in her neck. The warmth. She was unable to turn her head down, something stopping her from doing so.

Alta looked at her with eyes wide open.

Icasondra looked to the fire just to see a human with a crossbow in his hands. The shooting contraption was unsprang.

The Moonlight fairy’s eyes wandered down to see the bolt embedded in her neck.

Her sight wavered.

Her body fell to the ground.