A kindling fire crackles and snaps into the clear night sky. A light breeze whistles through the trees that causes a rustling amongst the bushes and leaves. Ellanora’s delicate palms hover over the fire in order to keep warm. Her steed; Opal, is grazing some grass where they decided to camp. Ellanora reaches into her satchel given to her Nestor and pulls out some salted pork to begin to cook over the fire. The meat was sliced thickly, but they were not huge chunks. With this, Ellanora pierced her knife through the pork and began to cook it over the fire. Constantly rotating the knife allowed the meat to cook in different spots. The smell was divine and the drippings of her spoils began to trickle into the fire. Unknown to the princesses, a pair of yellow eyes were peering at her not too far from her. The unseen creature smacked its lips in the distance, leaving dribbles of saliva pooling into the ground. The smell grew to be too much and the mysterious beast concocted a plan to infiltrate the princesses camp.
With a few cracked sticks, Opal lifted its ears and began to look around cautiously.
“What is it? Someone here?” Ellanora placed the meat in its wrapping in the satchel. She placed her knife close by and imbued the knife with magic as well in case she needed to cast a spell at what was heading towards her. Ellanora was now thankful of the many years she snuck into the library as a child to learn these powerful spells for these particular situations. The cracking of sticks grew louder and louder, until the creature emerged from its hiding place. The creature had a vibrant and puffy tail, tattered clothing and looked as though it had not eaten in months. The creature’s ears flicked and their pointed snout wiggled at the aroma of the freshly cooked meat. Opal and Ellanora remained alert at the beast who stood like a human before them.
“State your business.” Ellanora said in a shaky tone.
Maintaining composure the creature spoke softly in order to convince the princess he meant no ill intention. “Why, I am a beastfolk my dear. I go by Dev, please I mean you no harm, m’lady. I am simply a nomad of this forest.”
The orange creature bowed before Ellanora, but she still remained cautious of the creature. She was aware that beastfolk were known criminals and he should be no exception. Still holding on to the knife tightly, she gripped her satchel with her other hand. Opal postured to show she would buck this mysterious creature at any given moment. Sheepishly, it said “I assure you, I just want to sit by a warm fire. I can’t remember the last time I sat near one.” The creature smiled, but kept his distance in order to slowly gain Opal and Ellanora’s trust.
They sat in silence for quite some time as the fuzzy creature kept warm by the fire. Opal would graze, but occasionally would peer over at the creature. Ellanora eventually put her knife back in the hilt and acted as though she was composed. Feeling uncomfortable, Ellanora muttered “So…you’re a beastfolk? I have never seen one before, but my father used to talk about them when he visited Csteria.”
With a wry grin, the fox replied, “Ahh, so you are familiar with Csteria? I guess I should be more precise with my species then, I am a fox beastfolk. We are known for our petite figures and puffy tails.”
The princess soon felt bad for the fox and decided to make an offer with him. Something that would quell his hunger. “Would you like me to cook you some salted pork I have in my satchel here? I also have bread that you can have with it as well,” she offered.
The fox felt his mouth fill with saliva, but he tried to keep it in his mouth to not seem as desperate as he was. He simply nodded his head and Ellanora placed another piece of the sliced meat on her knife. The aroma invaded the fox’s nose, his plan was something that could almost be fulfilled. He wanted to keep things mutual in order to get what he wanted, even if the temptation was too great. “A warm fire is enough for me, I would hate for you to give up your food for a little ol’ thing like me.”
Opal flicked her ears, still remaining alert as she found the fox untrustworthy. A prolonged silence again struck the two, the only sound that broke it was the crackling of the fire and the chirping of various insects. Ellanora took the piece of meat she cooked previously and began to chew on it slowly. The meat was a bit tough for her liking which made swallowing the chunks a bit difficult. With this, the fox found it harder and harder to continue himself, so he decided to move in for the kill.
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“Ya know, I am curious, miss, where are you from? I don’t see a lot of female travelers in these parts?” he asked.
Ellanora froze, unsure of what to say or do. She couldn’t admit to the fox that she was of high royalty. She also knew that beastfolk and elves have a complex history between one another which would only make her situation worse. Ellanora came up with a haphazard plan to not give herself away, but knew her lie was unconvincing.
“My name is Ella, I am a rogue. I tend to roam different areas with my steed, Opal.”
The fox lifted his eyebrows suspiciously and hovered over Ellanora. Sweat slowly began to dribble down the side of her face. Opal puffed out her chest and began to snort viciously. Chuckling, the fox stepped back a few paces away from the horse, but with his quick wit and quicker hands, unveiled the princess. Her once hidden, pointed ears were exposed and Opal trotted over toward her. Once again, with his reflexes, the fox grabbed one of the sticks from the flame and waved it around the horse. Opal, startled by the fire, stepped backward, and almost fell backward. “I knew it, you are not only someone from wealth…you’re a stinkin’ elf!” the fox accused.
Carelessly, Ellanora brandished her knife, but the fox pierced his sharp claws into her skin. Dev threw the flaming stick toward Opal, which frightened her even more. Soon the grass set ablaze near Opal and she quickly found herself trapped in a sea of flames. Ellanora attempted to loosen the grip of the foxes hold, but without any hesitation, he sunk his teeth into her arm. Blood pooled out of her arm, her skin being torn apart by teeth, the wound getting deeper. It felt as though the fox’s teeth soon began to grind against bone which caused Ellanora to wince. She needed to come up with a plan fast or else she would be faced with a wound that would be difficult to heal with just spells. Closing her eyes, she slowly inhaled and exhaled. Concentrating on only the sounds of the popping fire. With this she shouted as loud as she could which caused the fox to grip even tighter on her arm. “POTENTIA OF SOLIS…IGNIS!!!”
With her free hand, fire rocketed out of her palms which singed the fox’s fur and made him release his grip on Ellanora’s arm. Writhing in pain from his newly formed wound, Ellanoa tossed the knife she wielded into her free arm and slashed the fox on his right eye; his sliced pupil caused him to tumble over and blood flowed out of the slit of skin. Persistence however, gave Dev continued courage to stand up and fight back. With one good eye, he leapt forward, gnawing at Ellanora’s shoulder. With this, Ellanora violently shook the fox, without even thinking she was deepening the wounds. Crunching her bones, the foxes powerful grip felt as though it was permanently attached to her, as though the foxes teeth were fused to her bones. Opal, no longer could witness the princess being tortured in front of her and leapt through the flames, which were spreading quickly through the glade.
The horse gripped onto the fox’s tail, refusing to let go. Dev shrieked in agony. Opal then whipped the fox to the ground and proceeded to stomp onto the foxes body. The only sound that could be heard were bones being shattered and the sound of flesh pounding into the Earth. Opal was enraged by the princess being hurt and didn’t stop stomping onto the fox until the princess waved her one good hand to cease the horse from the act.
The legs of Opal were now covered in red and her hooves had bits of fleshy matter stuck onto her. In disbelief, Ellanora did the only thing she found best in this moment; pet the steed and spoke to her softly. “Thank you Opal, you have saved me. For that I must repay you soon.”
Ellanora looked over the foxes body, he was nothing more than a pile of mush and bones. She was surprised Opal had such power to do such an act, but was also grateful she helped when she did. Noticing the flame slowly engulfing some bushes around them, she took out the water jug Nestor had given to her and she slowly splashed some water in various places to put out the tiny flame. She even put out the fire where she was cooking and without warning collapsed from the blood loss.
Opal frantically looked over at the princess and trotted over her body in a panic. She grabbed the water jug that Ellanora was holding and poured it on Ellanora’s face. Ellanora weakly awoke and saw Opal’s huge brown eyes gaze upon her. Opal knelt next to Ellanora, signaling her to hop on. Wobbling and holding onto her shoulder; that was gushing blood, she found herself slowly getting onto the horse. Once she felt she was on the saddle of Opal, her body collapsed once again and knew she would not awaken anytime soon. Opal quickly lifted herself off the ground and rapidly began to pound the ground. Opal knew the significance of the wounds Ellanora obtained and knew she needed help.
Opal, bound by honor and fueled by hope to save the princess, set out for as long as it took without stopping or slowing in speed.