Jason returned to the house and saw that Veina and Besia had returned. They seemed tired from shooting the bow, Veina was even cleaning some blood from her fingers, because of the string Jason guessed. Everything seemed to calm down and Jason put what just happened to the back of his mind.

"Brother you're back!" exclaimed Veina in surprise as Jason returned "Did your hunt go well?"

"Ah, well it didn't go so well today to tell you the truth. What about you? Did you practice the bow till now?" said Jason a little happy. Even though this was not really his sister, he appreciated her as his most precious thing.

"Yeah, me an Besia have been practicing for a while. I've gotten quite better these last few days, you should come see me." smilingly said Veina. She seemed so proud of her achievement.

Besia who was to her side also wanted to brag about to improving, but she held her tongue. Since that time he had kissed her she had been feeling something she couldn't explain. She grew angry when he did better than her in archery, but was very happy everytime he praised her.

' Do I like him....' Besia asked herself. She wasn't stupid or little to not know about love and all that , but she hadn't really believed in something like that, and thought it more like something written in stories. She had tried to forget about it , but everytime she thought about it her heart speed up.

' Stupid, goblin shitty Fir.....

This of course went over Jason's head as all he was concerned right now was what they were having for lunch. Hopefully something good he thought.

............

In the meantime the elf had finished gaining the information she wanted from Giro and was concerned but what she found out.

' It's crucial that I talk to the elder as soon as possible. He should have the right answer.' thought the elf as she put Giro to sleep with a potion she had around and immediately headed towards one direction.

She moved fast and gracefully through the forest , each step she took was more than two meters and followed with a small gust of wind. This made her hard to be seen as she agilely crossed a distance of 100 m in about five seconds. She traveled a long way and stopped in front a big and wide tree who seemed very ancient. She then looked for something on the ground for a while until she found it.

*Click*

She pulled her hand up and a wooden hatch covered in dirt and grass was opened, revealing the dark underground. She didn't seem bothered by this at all as she immediately entered the tunnel, carefully closing the hatch behind her. She then walked with her eyes closed in the pitch black tunnel for about ten seconds, until a soft light was seen in the ground.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

This made her open her eyes and saw the thing that illuminated the dark tunnel, a small, green sapling. It radiated a fluorescent light revealing that the place where she was right now was under the ground, right below the roots of a tree. It was quite a sight seeing all the twisting roots along the walls, but she was only focused on the sapling.

' The 'Mother Tree' sapling.....' thought the as she felt a great longing for it , but she pushed that feeling down and sat crosslegged before putting her hand over the small, less than 5 cm tall sapling. After that, she slowly injected her spirit energy into it and the sapling absorbed it without any fuss. Immediately on after she felt a connection.

' Great Elder, sorry for the disturbance, but I have some important things to report.' said she through the connection and not even a second later she received an answer.

' Mmmm, it's fine child..... but do tell..... what is it that had caught your attention? ' answered what could be described as an old but clear voice. It made the elf feel only respect .

' Great Elder, I have just acquired some crucial information about the matter regarding the Dark Church. '

' The Dark Church.... those filthy creatures. Did something bad happen ?'

' No Great Elder, on the contrary. I just received some believe information on one of their bases of operation. It seems that they have been hiding in underground tunnels in the forest. If that is the case, the that would explain the manner and speed of their attack.'

The person on the other side seemed to think about this for a second before he answered

'Mmmmm....may I know how did you find this out?'

'Yes.....one of the captured adventurers had managed to escape them when they were suddenly attacked by goblins, and fled into the forest. There he was found by the human who found the ' Spirit Nexus'. He then brought him to me.'

Another period of silence ensued before the elder answered again.

' I understand, I'll speak to the other elders , but in the meantime you shall do some light investing. You shall not engage them in battle , but it would be good if could gain any information, Grail Grove is an ally of the empire after all.'

' I understand Great Elder, I'll do as you say.' she respectful answered and was about to break the connection, when another message reached her.

' That human, keep an eye on him.....

' Yes.... Great Elder.' said the elf as the connection broke and she opened her eyes to see the green sapling in front of her.

..............

After the conversation with the elder she went back to her treehouse, equiped herself and called her hawk. She then immediately flew towards the direction Giro said he had come from and it didn't take long for her to find the place. Blood and limbs were all over as both human and goblin bodies littered the ground.

' It seems that the human adventurer was correct, but there doesn't seem for there to be any people around here.Did they abandon the.....'

The elf stopped halfway through her thoughts as she noticed the ground that had collapsed in a couple of places.

'It showed that they have abandoned the tunnels and most likely fled.' she frowned , thinking this was a trap, but it didn't seem like that.

She landed on the ground gently and began to carefully look around. It was hard to look for clues in the remants of the battle, but for her an elf that had been trained is espionage her ability to notice clues and erase her tracks was very good. She easily noticed a clear path that lead out of the tunnel and into the forest so she followed it, but also keeping an eye at her surroundings.

She was expecting to find some other clue or another tunnel when she found out where the tracks lead to, but what she found worried her. The tracks she followed had all led into a dungeon.