Essa returns home dragging his tired body. He is totally exhausted from his shapeshifting practice and the confrontation with the wildling.

Karays is making leatherware. She puts down her tools and looks up at Essa, "What kind of beast did you run into today?"

Essa slumps into a wide rattan chair, "It was fine actually, just almost got eaten as a prey.”

Karays snorted out a laugh. Essa turns his head to her and says, “Well, I don't think I'll be able to master shapeshifting."

“Why?" Karays asks.

Essa tells her what had happened today.

“How is that dangerous?" Karays expresses her disdain fully, “Well, the little wildling does sound cute."

“Alright, it's certainly nothing compared to the perils you've encountered, but it's sort of like coming back from the dead." Essa says as he gets up from the rattan chair and walks to the stove, "What would you like for dinner tonight?"

"I'll just have the fresh cabbage picked today and cheese baked eggs, you can feed yourself whatever meat you want." Karays goes back to the leatherwear making with her head down.

Essa sighs, "Sometimes I really don't know which one of us is more like a druid."

.

The uninhabited village they lives in is surrounded by water and sandwiched by two pristine forests to the east and west. To the north, the waterway leads to Dragonfly Town, and to the south, the Ember Moon Wetland, which is difficult to navigate.

This area belongs to the Phoenix Federation and is the border area between the Federation and the Sukemoon Kingdom. Due to the poor geography, the stifling heat and humidity, and the unsuitability of the land for growing crops, the former villagers have entirely moved to the more livable surroundings of Dragonfly Town for decades. Till ten years ago, Essa and Karays ended their last adventure and had just gotten married. They just came here, chose an empty house and settled here.

With Essa's Plant Growth spell and his natural attraction to animals, there is more than enough food for the them. Karays' leather-making skill is also superb. With her whimsical ideas, she can often produce amazing leather clothing and armour. From time to time, they take some of the novel and exotic plants and animals or leather goods to the market in Dragonfly Town. They can earn enough to live and to buy tools, equipment and magical materials.

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After the meal, Essa rests early after a long day. And Karays also get ready for bed after some more leatherwork.

She goes into the bedroom and blows out the candles. The moment the fire is extinguished, she suddenly senses a hint of something different.

This extraordinary insight has saved her from dangers many times since she was a child, so she trusts her instincts deeply.

The moonlight pours in through the window, coating the bedroom as a whole in a dull silvery white. The tension in the air intensified.

Karays, now even more convinced of the impending danger, decides to play it safe. She walks slowly to the bed, as she always does, so as not to wake Essa. She gently lifts the quilt, lies down, and then gently pulls the quilt over herself. She closes her eyes and slowly adjusts her breathing, pretending that it is getting heavier.

Time slowly passes and her breathing becomes smoother and the interval gets longer.

The angle of the moonlight changes at an extremely slow pace, but suddenly and without warning it disappears. The moon goes behind a dark cloud, and darkness envelopes the room.

Suddenly, Karays’ heart tightens as she senses that someone has entered the bedroom.

She gently squints one of her eyes into a slit, and her natural dark vision allows her to see a dark figure crouching in front of the wooden chest in the bedroom, trying to pick the lock. With one hand gripping the corner of the quilt and the other gripping the short sword she has brought to bed earlier, Karays is ready to explode.

The dark figure easily picks the lock, lifts the lid of the wooden chest and begins to fumble around inside.

Suddenly, the dark figure feels a strong gust of wind coming at her and she instinctively rolls to the side. Karays’ attack falls short.

But her sword doesn’t not stop there, she decides to change the direction of the blade the moment she senses that the first attack would be dodged. With a flick of her wrist, the short sword slashes horizontally at the dark figure again.

Clang! Metals clash and sparks fly.

In the glimmer of the fire, Karays can see that the thief is a young woman dressed head to toe in black, with a silver white symbol emblazoned on the pointed hood she wears: a three-petalled lotus flower blooming beneath a waxing crescent moon.

With a moment's hesitation, the thief seizes the opportunity to lunge at Karays, with her sleeve sword thrusting at Karays’ heart.

Karays raises her short sword to block. The sleeve sword strikes the blade of the short sword, stirring up another shower of sparks.

The thief realizes that Essa has woken up and knows that she must be no match for the couple. She makes an backward somersault and flips out of the window.

Karays rushes out the door to find the thief has long since melted into the darkness, with no trace of her.