The commotion Arwen and Althaea caused before leaving did little to disrupt the elves.

They soon left the tribe and started their way towards the capital.

Kais Evergreen ordered there would be no further diversions on the way to the capital since there were no other tribes remaining directly in the path unless they take detours.

A few of the elves from nearby tribes who have not been visited seemed displeased by this, but remained quiet since it was forbidden for an elf to speak up to a high clansman, especially from their ruling clan.

Ava has felt gloomy since Arwen left on a negative note.

She enjoyed learning herbology from him, some of her best moments so far have come from being under his teachings, being a young child she has been limited so far in what she could since arriving in this world, and having a mature soul made it frustrating to her.

Arwen took her more seriously talking to her on a more mature level, even if all came from a major misunderstanding that her maturity was similar from his experience in dealing with children with a powerful soul.

Althaea despite her initial reluctance was also a great magic instructor, she learnt to cast her first spells from her and she taught her magic!

She had spent more time with them both than her own Father, although it was no fault of his own, she felt a bit angered he made an opinion for her, that he took her choice away.

It was irrational she knew to an outsiders perspective she was just a young child, but it still displeased her that soon as her Father made up his mind for her future it was decided.

She had no idea how the Royal Clan was like but her loyalty will not be secured just because her Father believes it’s best for her to follow them obediently.

Her Father and Mother seemed to notice her poor mood as they travelled, despite attempting to cheer her up, her Father even trying to drag stories from his travels she couldn’t find the mood to engage with them.

She knew it was immature, that she shouldn’t be moping around like a child, her Father had disappeared for years and she should be putting in an effort to talk to him, yet she just couldn’t find the motivation.

Even when the usually stoic and stern Hoatan completely changed character in an attempt to cheer her up didn’t work.

And when her parents finally just accepted that she was just going through a tantrum and would be fine once she arrived, the whole group halted due to emergency sighting by the scouts.

The panicked scouts arrived trying to talk to Kais Evergreen about something.

All she heard was as one of them protesting about making a detour, but he was firmly rebooked by Kais who gave him a cold glare before reprimanding him.

When everyone grew concerned and was starting to grow panicked, Kais took this moment to step up to calm everyone as he said, “No worries everyone, just some overreacting from our scouts here, we will keep moving forward, you may witness a few dead carcasses of a bunch of beasts but this is merely a common sight here, nothing to worry about, the greater concern is the humans and I will not risk losing any of you by diverting ourself further, onward!”

Ava found herself moving with the group obediently.

She found it strange, the elves just obeyed his every word like a machine, not even the slightest hesitance filled their gaze as they followed Kais cryptic words as truth.

Not one of them stepped forth to refute him, or put forward a counter argument, even the protesting scouts from earlier seem to follow vacantly, none of the previous concern in their eyes.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Even the elves at her tribe did not follow her Father with such blind fanaticism, they respected him as the tribe chief, but there was a secondary council of elders, the oldest of the tribe in place to challenge and offer second opinions to him, advising what is best for the tribe.

They behaved as a community and ran harmoniously, but didn’t follow blindly.

On the other hand since Kais Evergreen has shown himself, everyone followed his commands perfectly, he would make an order and the elves would obey without question.

Even her parents and Hoatan followed like blind sheep.

At that moment a distasteful voice sounded in her head as Cense said, ‘Mind Magic… to dare use it on his own people. If one someone that high ranking among elves dare to use it like this, it does not bode well.’

Ava has to suppress herself from making an outburst at Cense words, she did not want to draw any more attention than she is already receiving from that Kais fellow, he already seemed to watch her like a hawk at every opportunity as it is.

‘What is mind magic? And why does it seem to not be working on me, or is it?’ Ava said unsure if her actions are due to whatever this mind magic is.

‘It is a distasteful type of magic, and is a rarer path of a mage. A Mind Mage uses others as their pawns, it is known for being a perverted form of magic as they can manipulate, influence others thoughts, no one trusts a mind mage as most of the time the most paranoid is the mind mage themselves, they view the need to control everything, to always ensure obedience and loyalty.’ Cense described before pausing allowing her to digest the new information.

The whole description of a what a mind mage is sounds disturbing, making her even more concerned over the possibility of being manipulated.

‘How can you defend against it?’ Ava asked, wondering how would you even be able to avoid such a powerful magic.

‘It’s not as strong as you may think. It is obvious mind magic is not that elves primary magic, he has a limited form of it, some talent but not a great deal. However it is enough to put suggestions into people’s minds, if they are unprepared, they will find themselves agreeing with everything they say, going along with it, it works perfectly with cultivations much weaker than yourself, but if any of these people here knew about it and offer any resistance suddenly the illusion will break. Mind magic is powerful but Mages are naturally resistant with their strong souls, warriors have great mental resilience, but are usually more vulnerable, you on the other hand, as long as I’m present you don’t have to worry about a mind mage, being connected to your soul, as a soul artefact I naturally make you resistant to such soul manipulations.’ Cense explained making the idea of a mind mage much less terrifying.

‘Then what even is his goal? Where are we even going?’ Ava asked, unsure where he was even directing them.

‘Pay attention to your surroundings, listen, recall your teachers instructions. Look at the bark of the trees, the ground, what does this show?’ Cense asked making her finally focus intently on the surroundings.

It was then she noticed. The bark had deep jagged intrusions into it, like a claw was swiped across it.

The only thing is the trees were absolutely massive, the bark was crazy thick, to leave such a mark, which appeared to be the claws of some beast it must have been ginormous.

Looking at the ground she saw similar signs, near them was large foot prints, seeming fairly fresh, they were walking right into the territory of a magical beast. Something big.

She suddenly felt a deep sense of terror as the further they moved she finally saw the beasts the scout was on about.

Pools of blood lay everywhere, and an entire pack of large green wolves lay strewn about in pieces, barely recognisably.

She realised they were wind wolves. Wind wolves were around the third or fourth tier in strength, and an alpha can be up to the sixth tier, a pack of them slaughtered like this, they weren’t even able to put up a fight.

Some of the elves in the group seemed to wake up from the foggy cloud the mind magic seem to place over their mind.

Even Kais manipulation couldn’t convince them everything appeared normal, that they shouldn’t feel threatened.

However it was too late as the loudest roar she had ever heard sounded.

That was when she saw it. A large head resembling a dragon from folklore, two big horns, a row of sharp, jagged teeth, deep, piercing green eyes, it body was long and round like a snake, having two front legs with massive talons, wingless with a large jagged spiked tail, it was covered head to toe in thick dark green scales.

An elf screamed the name of the beast before she could even react, “A Forest Wyrm! Run!”

And that was when all hell let loose as the beast leapt towards the front of the group in a blur of motion tearing into the elves like they were made of glass.

The next thing she felt was her Father grabbing ahold of her passing her to Hoatan as he screamed for them to run.