Rinae eyed the king as he walked all around her. Every small movement he made she watched. He went behind her and touched her hair. It felt uncomfortably human, she looked painfully human. She moved her hands rattling the chains she was kept in. The king turned to Amalia and pointed a finger.

“This is the monster that caused that uproar in Beka?”

Amalia nodded. “Yes, my king.”

He looked back at the little girl. He placed a hand on his chin. “This...child bested you in hand to hand?”

Amalia looked to the king. “You don’t believe me that this creature is dangerous?”

“I want to believe you, my niece. But I’m having trouble believing this girl, who comes up to my waist destroyed half a city.”

Amalia took a few steps back and went to the side of the carpet, she snapped her fingers, the sound of a gate hitting the floor echoed through the halls. The yelling of soldiers also rang throughout. A black mass of writhing limbs burst through the chamber doors, by the time the royal guards had reacted. The swarmling was upon the king, it lunged forward, jumping to make the kill. Amalia pulled forth a shield to intercept the path for the king. The creature was thrown to the front of the room. It scrambled again to its feet.

Amalia pulled the king towards her. The creature charged again roaring and hissing like a mad dog, but it suddenly stopped.

“This is your proof, my king.”

The creature was halted in front of Rinae. The entire attack she remained unmoved. The being brought its head down to her level. She raised a hand to pet the creature. The shackles jangled as it collided with the chitin. She turned her head to the two behind her. The knights began to gather around

Rinae turned around to face each one of them. With a twist of her arms, the creature fell to the ground. Even if it weren’t her actual child, she wouldn’t allow one of her own to remain in a capture. A brutal maternal instinct that she had. The king looked aghast, appalled by the entity in front of him.

“Guards! Kill the creature!” He shouted. Each one readied a spell. Lightning, Fire, Ice no mage was the same.

“Uncle!” Amalia shouted. Her voice took everyone by surprise. “This creature was captured by me. I’m taking it to the church.”

He placed a hand over his face. And nodded. “Amalia. I will trust your judgment, but I will inform your father about these creatures.”

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Amalia kneeled and saluted him. “I understand.”

He motioned for her to raise. “These matters have escalated past our realm. This is on a much bigger scale. I want you to be safe.”

She nodded. “I will, uncle.”

~^~

Scarpha ducked into another room as the elf fired another shot, just barely missing her. The bullet caused the head of the swarmling to immediately explode on contact.

Scarpha found herself in a room filled with books and a window. Nothing that could help her flank the position of the woman. Scarpha turned around to hear another shot go off. Possibly killing another one of the swarmlings she brought with her, she hissed. Whether or not they heard her was irrelevant, they were a small group out of a whole. Well, it became irrelevant after she listened to the firing rate increase. Every one shot became two shots, every two shots became four. Same with the voices they seemingly multiplied by the second.

“I saw it crawl in there!” Scarpha heard the shrill voice of the elf mother, she knew this was in reference towards her the moment she heard the footsteps getting closer. Scarpha realized she had backed herself into a corner. But that didn’t matter, this was actually the type of advantage she needed. She crawled out the window and descended to another window opening on a lower floor. She crawled in through the kitchen. Upon entering she witnessed one of those elves executing one of the injured swarmlings. She noticed something quite interesting, those weapons were operated by lightly armored She kept to her fours as she crept ultimately she got the drop on him and grabbed him by the leg and dragging him back to the kitchen. Of course, he screamed, but that was apart of the plan. Footsteps raced down the stairs to enter the room.

One round went off, and one bullet hole appeared in one of the “too-be-saviors” his death wasn’t instantaneous he looked the shooter in the eyes, the bleeding black eyes. In the group of seven including the shooter one was down. The group fired a volley into the betrayer. Five remained.

Scarpha hissed again, her position was hidden, but that noise was most definitely heard throughout the house. One of the armed men ran to the very same window that she entered from, it was too small for him to fit but he was able to look out and witnessing a glimpse of Scarpha’s tail crawling right back upstairs.

“It climbed back upstairs!” One shouted.

“Amra!” Another shouted. He was the first to take off towards the upper deck the group followed once more.

The elf soldier burst through the doorway to the baby’s room, his weapon was drawn. Two other appeared behind him.

“Amra!” He shouted. “Are you okay!?”

Amra, the mother elf was wiping tears from her face. She was kneeling beside the crib was her child used to be sleeping peacefully. She got up and embraced the man. She cried even harder for the loss of her child.

He placed a hand on the back of her head. “No mother should have to go through this, I’m sorry.”

Then a scream once again came from the downstairs. Everyone was startled, The elf embracing the female broke the hug but kept her hand in his. She was brought with the group to the stairs. Hanging from the ceiling was another one of their comrades. His neck was sliced deeply. The blood was draining like a faucet. No amount of magic could be used to save him.

The survivor count was raised by one but also lowered by one as well.