Side Quest, Intermission

"Well, maybe we can try it again tomorrow," said Tira. "It is not like we can't catch up to the caravan. Let's head back and regroup."

"Are we going to try to find Twixia?" asked Zip.

"Where did she go?" asked Tira, looking around.

"She ran off into the woods with one of those mosquitoes chasing her," said Zip.

"Probably the one that came back and also stabbed Star," said Raythiel, after getting over being stunned but with a massive headache. "My puppy can find her; hey, go find Twixia," said Rathiel to her familiar.

The dog ran towards the woods still carrying his mosquito, so he banged it on rocks and the like, nearly falling over several times. "I'm useless now, so I will carry her," said Rathiel, picking up Star.

"Wow, she is heavy; take her legs, Olier," said Rathiel.

"I'm not sure I am worthy; I failed to protect her because I am so weak," said Olier.

"Take her feet and let's get back to the road before something else finishes us off," said Tira. It was a mistake to head into the woods right where a battle was; every monster in the area is probably within a half mile of us, and once they pick up our scent, we are finished. "I still have my healing dance, but I am afraid I am already tapped out otherwise for magic."

This quickened everyone up, and they walked as fast as they could to where the dog went. After they got back into the cover of the woods, They searched quietly for Twixia. The dog had indeed found her, as he waited by a large patch of brambles with gigantic thorns.

Zip whistled, "Are you alive, Twixia?"

"Barely, can you help me out of here?" said Twixia.

"I think I can help," said Raythiel, as she whispered to the thorns to get away from Twixia as much as they could.

"Are you talking to the plants, Raythiel?" asked Tira.

"It's not really talking, but yah, I got some cool powers with empathy to plants and magical beasts now," Rathiel said, setting Star down and attempting to yank Twixia free from the thorns.

"So you can just ask the local wildlife to lead us to the dragon's lair?" questioned Zip.

"Oh, I guess that might work," said Raythiel.

Twixia was extracted but was badly off, so Tira used her healing dance, which fully healed her.

"I guess you don't have much for hit points, Twixia?" said Tira.

"I have a maximum of ten," said Twixia.

"I guess running was a good idea," said Zip.

"I'm sorry, I know you gave me a sword and everything, but I don't think I would have even slowed them down," Twixia whimpered as she pet the dog to calm her nerves.

"Less talking, more getting to the road," said Tira.

They breathed a sigh of relief as they managed to get to the edge of the road. They moved as quickly as they could, taking turns carrying Star, much to her embarrassment, and after half an hour or so (about an hour Earth time), they finally caught up with the caravan. Tira went and had a talk with Almeil, who said the second village should be coming up soon.

They could stay there for the night, let the party go ahead, and try again the next day. This was a marathon, not a sprint; they just needed to stay ahead of the guards. He would think of what to summon to help guard them, as he couldn't summon Manuel for a week now. Flipping through his summoning cards, he decided on an angelic tigress named Moonlight. Wait, they did pick up Manuel's sword, right?

Star took Spring Dance as her martial feat, allowing her to heal 4 dice of damage due to her charisma. That appeared to be a magical ability! She flipped through the rules and found that most commoners had magic; they just couldn't access it unless they took bloodline skills. Ah ha! This is great; I basically have a cheat skill! Wait, I have to dance every morning? I guess I should look at the parties' other abilities instead of just the skills; I am curious.

Let's see, Tira is my what? Wait, she really does have to tell me the truth? Wait, why so many versatile skills? She must be something else in bed.

Zip, is waiting! Zip is a heroine! What is this about her having the ability to change into a hero? And she has to swear allegiance to me? Who is this Shard 31, and why is he making everyone serve me? Is he part of the system or something? I'm going to have a talk with him if he shows up again.

Let's see, anything weird with Raythiel? Well, yes, but nothing to do with me; now I feel badly invading her privacy, even though she had told me a lot of this. I guess those dryad seeds were pretty powerful for her.

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Twixia, Let's see, oh, she is leveling up right now. I see she has a slot open for performance. I guess I will send her a message if she wants to learn versatile. What are flags, and why does she have so many?

Twixia leveled up! Now she could learn even more things! She did need some physical skills, so she picked up athletics, hiking, parkour, and running. Then a message showed up, offering to teach her how to be versatile. Well, if Star thinks it is good, why not? I need another performance skill anyway. For scholars' general ability, she picked up Human Culture, which would be good when she got to the academy. Wow. Lots of useful information here; it says human men generally love elfesses, I am going to get so many books! Wait! "Star sent me this skill," she said aloud.

Tira had finally leveled up. It had been so long. Let's see what I get for it! Six hit points and eight skill points—that is good. No saves, no attacks, no powers; all of two mana points are in my second level pool! I get one less penalty to attack for my fury of sword strikes as a martial ability, and that is it! I have been robbed! The system just stole from me! This is what I get for 5th level! great and powerful sword maiden class, sure. I am going to kill many dragons in anger! Sixth level has to be better, right?

There has to be a treasure-finding spell, right? Oh, yes, there is one, but I need divination school. Well, so much for that. How about teleportation? I can make any attack miss me once a day for 8 mana. Wait, so I can avoid the dragon's first, and hopefully only, breath attack! Plus, I can move anywhere within 50 feet. Sounds good; those mosquitoes hurt a lot. Also, I should bring elemental resistance potions for everyone. I knew I was forgetting something important!

The caravan rolled to the next town that they figured would be deserted. but it wasn't! A tiny familiar came flying out to greet them. It was a tiny elf next to an angel. Had Manuel shrunk when he disappeared? No, this one had pretty red and white striped wings and red eyes. He went towards Syran, as he was the lead driver.

"Excuse me, good sir," the boyish angel said in common. "My name is Starfarer; perhaps your people could help out these poor victims of some recent dragon attacks?"

Syran pointed to the dragon hides on top of the wagon he was driving.

"Really? Dragon attacks? I never would have guessed," replied the star elf in jest. "You might notice our horses are mismatched; that is because half of them are summoned and the other half got eaten by dragons. I think the plan was to stop here for the day anyway. But we thought everyone would be dead by now."

"Dead!" said Starfarer. "Why would you think that?"

"Because everyone is likely dead from the village up the enchanted path," said Syran. "The only creatures there were some goblins, but hopefully they are dead now as well."

The angel gasped. "Even though they are not as civilized as others, that is a bad attitude!"

"They were captured by dragons; being dead would be better," replied Syran.

"Nonsense! All we have to do is rescue them!" said Starfarer.

"Rescue them in the worst forest in the GEN? It would take a miracle," said Syran. "We sent out a party of our strongest, who slaughtered dragons like they were nothing, and they made it less than 100 yards, with one dead angel and a beat-up princess. In any case, I am not the leader here; I guess you need to see one of the heroes."

"I do have some healing powers; perhaps I could help your princess?" said Starfarer.

"I guess so; she is in the next wagon; the hero there is a sword maiden, so watch your step."

Syran stopped the wagon train near the road that led to the village.

Starfarer noticed that the wagon had seen better days.There were six elven women sitting in a mostly destroyed cabin. Giant claw and bite marks were everywhere. dragons, he assumed.

"So, what exactly are you?" said Tira, looking at the creature.

Starfarer looked closely at all the Elfesses, went into some sort of panic attack when he laid eyes on Star, and without saying anything, flew away at top speed to the village, ignoring their calls.

"Anything you need to tell us, Star?" asked Tira.

"Well, I gave the versatile skill to Twixia; maybe that was it," said Star, blushing.

"What is the versatile skill?" asked Zip, and why does only Twixia get it?

"Yes, that isn't fair," said Allie.

"I am not sure I want it if it has that effect on angels," said Raythiel.

"It is just how to take care of males," said Twixia.

"What!" said Zip, Raythiel, and Allie.

"I got it from Tira; I'm not sure why the angels are mad at me!" Star defended herself.

Tira just sighed to herself and waited for the group to realize it had nothing to do with the skill in all likelihood, but telling them now would, in her experience, just make things take longer. When all the social powerhouses got going, they weren't going to listen to her anyway. And she had resolved to try to control her temper in order to avoid ending up in the same situation as Olier. They are young; let them have their fun, she thought. Phenaquar showed up, asking what was going on. The handsome knight was much better at stopping the argument than she was, as he demanded their attention.

Zip explained, "Right, I guess there are some elves still alive in the village, and this familiar angel came out and asked us for help." He took one look at Star and bolted for the hills like she was a demon lord or something. You are not a demon lord, right, Star? "I would like to know if I am the maid of a demon lord."

"Why do I bother?" said Phenaquar, and he rode up to the gates.

After talking to the guard, the angel had some sort of bard-like powers. He had shown up a couple of hours ago, out of heaven or whatever, and helped strengthen them against an attack by about a dozen dragon minions. This small town had a lot better defenses than the farming village to the east, including a druid hero. This was an armed village because it was the stopover for caravans like themselves crossing the dangerous forest, and those caravans were sometimes pursued by dangerous adversaries.

The ruling dragon had gone to sleep to evolve, and her children were up to mischief. Well, if mischief was destroying villages and making off with their preferred gender of elf, There was a brother and sister dragon dividing up elves amongst them using gullible minions, which the mother dragon left to roam around when she went to hibernate. They had put up their defenses just in time when they saw that the other village had been destroyed.

Phenaquar said they would help defend the village, as all of the people in the caravan had leveled at least once. In return, they would like any arms that the town could provide them, as they didn't have weapons for almost anyone but the heroes. This deal was agreed to by the frightened townspeople, and the caravan got some free gear.

Almiel and Phenaquar decided that the White Foxes would have a hard time not letting them pass since the druid said they didn't own this road and didn't actually have that authority. They had just gotten a free party out of them, and he laughed at how gullible they were. They should have at least one wisdom-based hero in such a large caravan! Gullible was starting to sound like a swear word for Phenaquar. Since they had gotten free weapons, they would just wait for Star and her party here, where it was a lot safer.

They could get some cash for the dragon meat and hides and sell the chickens. Maybe not as much as they could elsewhere, but good enough. This way, they could cycle the chickens back to normal.

The next day, after Star's party had healed up, they left the gates in search of a dragon or two. The side quest was a go once again!