A little to her own surprise, not yet used to her own enhanced abilities, Ammeline landed on the forest floor just fine. She'd definitely been expecting to crash and die, that being the normal thing to do when flung god knows how far into a tree filled forest. You know, what people expected of you. When she'd flipped and landed on her feet, knees bent a little to absorb the impact, she had been flagrantly disregarding tradition. No doubt her mother would disapprove.
Well she was used to that. Ammeline had never let her mother's disapproval get in the way before, not when it really mattered. And while landing safely on the forest floor rather than crashing down in a mangled heap of pulped flesh and broken bones might be considered a faux-pas she preferred safe landings, thanks all the same, see you at next week's luncheon, I like your hat.
These were not perhaps the sanest thoughts to be having, she knew, but she wasn't giggling like an idiot yet so she couldn't be completely insane. Alright, it was time to focus on the problem at hand rather than the fact that so many magical encounters with homicidal maniacs in such a short space of time was making her to crazy. Break it down into bullet points.
Point one, they'd been attacked by a deranged elf who could summon killer plants.
Point two, this was especially worrying because they were in a forest, heavily associated with both elves and plants.
Point three, she was alone, with no way to find the others or know their condition.
Point four, she had a choice to make, whether to try to find the others to lend assistance or to leave the forest to seek help.
Point four was the one that required immediate action, so she focused in on it. There were two problems with point four. The first problem was she wasn't actually sure how to contact help once she was out of the forest. Sure, the logical thing to do was to call in the agents who had covered everything up in the fight with Danny, but how? She couldn't just call and ask fir "that spooky lady from the government." And how far was it to someplace she could call for help anyway? They got here by magic duck, how far did she have to go to get cell service?
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
The second problem was that she had zero idea how to get anywhere she decided to go in the first place. She had a vague, very vague, idea of the direction she'd been thrown from. She could walk the opposite way...but she had no way of knowing if that way was just deeper into the forest. And there was no way to...
A massive gout of fire shot towards the sky in the distance.
"Alright!" Ammeline said out loud. "Someone over there is fighting and might need some help, so I will go that way! And me talking to myself is by no means another signal that I am going insane! Ahahahahahahahaha...no, Ammeline, no, you're doing the crazy laughter thing you will NOT do the crazy laughter thing you will take your sword and go help! I will... where's my sword?"
She looked around on the forest floor, horrified she might have dropped it while she was flying through the air. But no, no, she'd been gripping it then, she was sure. It must have dropped when she landed, so it should be around here someplace. She looked around for it, and stopped. Well, she'd found her sword.
But uhm, yeah. Well. That was her sword alright. She had found her sword. Yep. Her sword. Right there. Right there, being held up by...
"Ahahahahahahahaha!" Ammeline said. "I have decided it will be easier to just go insane."
The sword was being held by three tiny women, each less than a foot tall. They wore dresses made of leaves, and they had long pointed ears. Long for their size at least. Two if them had pale skin with a greenish tint to it, as if they'd once been fully green and had the color washed out. The third was colored the deep brown of old bark. They stared back up at Ammeline with shocked expressions, then at each other.
"Cheese it!" One exclaimed, and they all bolted into the forest carrying away Anmeline's sword.
"Hey wait!" Ammeline called after them. "Come back, I needed that!"
She tried to chase after them, but the three tiny women vanished into the underbrush. She gave up after a few steps, staring into the forest.
"Yeah!" A wicked voice cackled behind her. "You DID need that!"
Ammeline turned to see Sylvanandra stepping out of the shadows. But not completely out of the shadows. The shadows came with her, whisped off her like smoke.
"You're actually pretty scary with that sword. And thus duplication spell...well, it's got limitations. Hate to admit it, but it does. I can't give all my powers to all my copies. So one of them was going to have to have ONLY shadow magic, or just about. So who do I send that after? Shadow magic is a lot better for sneaking around than fighting. So how about...you?
"Your an object infuser type right? Sure you're pretty scary with a sword in your hand, but WITHOUT it you're maybe a little bit stronger and faster than a regular person. So I infused this copy with just enough forest magic to make the forest sprites do what I want, and you lose your sword! And shadow magic is pretty good at making blades so BOOM! Check it out!"
The shadows swirled in her hand, molding into a curved sword of slithering darkness.
"I get to say the line I get to say the line I get to say the line...okay...ready...here we go...wait for it...Mine's BIGGER!"