Katolis, somewhere in the castle

"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Opeli asks as she shuts the spellbook close and hands it back to Claudia. "I have no doubt your father may have had something to do with the assassinations, but are you sure this could have been his doing?"

"The spell requires a special candle made of dragon wax and the ashes of something deceased, the night Florian and his wife were killed, my mom had seen that the "assassin" was carrying a khopesh."

"I was in the tower the night my dad was killed, I did see an elf carrying that weapon you mentioned." Callum adds. "I think I did see the weapons the other elves were carrying, maybe we can ask the other rulers who probably witnessed the attacks to confirm this."

The group luckily had managed to grab Opeli earlier to drag her into a "secret meeting" in the tailor workshop instead of the throne room like they had originally planned, hoping this would be a little more secret and descreet. Damian was more than happy to let them use the workshop for a meeting place as long as they didn't make a mess of it while he left to give them privacy, after leaving them with the spellbook that now had a simple dark brown cover.

"Okay but if Viren was behind all this, what did he have to gain from killing four rulers?" Callum asks as he takes his book back. "It's not like he could have tried conquering the other four, Kasef, Aric, Cira, Silas and Aanya would have fought back if he tried seizing their thrones thinking they were weak without rulers."

"My mom told us that the other four rulers had refused to send armies to fight against a "rising threat" in Xadia, by eliminating the four standing in his way, Viren would have been able to possibly manipulate four newly crowned kings and queens who were all too young to take the throne and make level headed decisions." Claudia explains holding up four of her fingers and began to push them down one by one. "Kasef must have heard from his father about Viren's request and after seeing his father get hurt by a dangerous foe from Xadia, he made the choice of gathering a portion of the Neolandian army and taking it with him because it's what Viren requested - the same thing happened with king Silas and king Aric. And let's not forget that at this time, everyone assumed he was the official regent, when he wasn't."

"So he just manipulated a bunch of new rulers into giving him their armies, right?" Ezran asks, raising his hand. "In doing this, he just had to get rid of the four current rulers and use their families' grief to get what he wanted."

"Sounds exactly like something he would do." Opeli mutters with a frown. "I should have had him executed, he was too dangerous to be left alive. I can't even imagine what he would have done to the kings and queens if they said yes to his request and went with him to Xadia to lead their armies."

"They probably would have faced the same fate as Kasef and those soldiers, turned into a monster of stone and fire." Enya responds with a shrug. "Opeli, what are we going to do now? We just found out that Viren is possibly alive thanks to Callum and Rayla's discovery at the Caped Caldera, should we send word to the Xadian rulers to warn them and be on the lookout for him and Desmond?"

"Wait, he's alive?" Claudia asks in horror and Soren stiffened. "How is that possible? Soren told me that your elf friend knocked him off the top of the Spire, and if my knowledge of Xadia serves me right, that mountain is very high and a drop from it would guarantee a straight path to the afterlife."

"We're not sure, but Rayla told us she saw him in some sort of cocoon when she dove into that space between life and death and saw him open his eyes." Ezran explains. "So it is possible he's still alive, and she left to go find him."

"Ah, that explains her absence." Soren says with a shake of his head. "Shame, I was looking forward to catching up with her, introducing her to my sister, maybe even wiggle in a little sparring match to see who is the better warrior."

"Trust me, you don't want to unless you are ready to take on a teenager traied to kill or incapacitate grow human men." Callum chuckles efore his face fell. "I still can't believe she did that, left without saying anything and just left us a note saying not to follow her. And on the morning of my birthday too."

Claudia frowns before walking forward and pulls Callum into a tight hug. "Don't worry, I'm sure your friend will be okay. Maybe we'll find her when we go to Xadia once we figure out how to fix the those soldiers."

"Wait, what did you say?" Opeli asks. "You're going to try and cure the soldiers Viren transformed? That's going to be impossible, the Sun Forge is out of commission thanks to him tainting it, Janai even told us that they won't be able to do powerful sun magic anymore or even make their special blades."

"Actually, we thought that if we went through my dad's old books we could find a spell on how to reverse it." Claudia responds as she released Callum and points at the book in her hand. "I haven't read through the whole book yet, but I'm sure it's somewhere. Maybe in his secret lab's bookshelves we could find something. And I was thinking of...trying to reverse the spell myself."

"No!" Callum, Ezran, Enya and Opeli yelled at the same time.

"See, I'm not the only one who thinks you doing it is stupid!" Soren scoffed. "I told you, before you can even do it, find a capable mage who can!"

"I don't think we have any powerful mages in Katolis, as far as I'm aware Desmond and Viren were the only powerful ones." Opeli says with a shake of her head. "I know Evenere has one who is supposed to keep a special book locked away with magic, Del Bar and Duren are practically void of them, but Neolandia has some decent ones. Though after what happened I doubt any mages want to even help."

"It won't hurt to try, right?" Ezran points out. "Maybe we could ask the other rulers if they can lend us their mages, get some elf mages from Xadia and figure out how to reverse it? We don't just have to do dark magic to do it."

"You think Del Bar, Evenere and Neolandia would come to a meeting?" Enya asks, looking at him skeptically. "It'd be nice if they did, but after what happened, I doubt -"

KNOCK KNOCK

The group froze, Enya's hand jumping to the knife on her belt while Soren grabs for the hilt of his sword and Claudia grabs for her ax before another knock sounded, followed my a muffled: "Uh king Ezran? You have some urgent mail from Neolandia and Evenere! And I think some from Xadia!"

"Oh it's just Crowmaster, good." Enya sighs in relief as she removed her hand from the knife and hurried to the doors to let in a boy her age, dressed in dark robes and looking round nervously. "Calm down, what's the matter?"

The boy looked at her nervously before thrusting some scrolls into her arms before hurrying over to a chair and sat down in it. Enya looks at him in surprise before walking back to the group and handed the letters to Opeli and Ezran.

"Wow, Neolandia has another kid ruler." Ezran says holding up his letter. "Who's prince Salim again?"

"Ahling's second born kid and second son, I've seen him before." Callum says. "Kind of around my size and age, a little more bookish too. Just think of him as the opposite of his big brother."

"Silas is currently regent, that's good." Opeli remarks as she is reading a different letter. "He's summoning us for a Pentarchy meeting and asks if we can call on the elven rulers and the dragon queen to come, and it's about reversing the soldiers conditions and fixing the Sun Forge. Also bring as many dark mages as possible."

"Same from Salim, seems he also wants us and the other human rulers to bring dark mages- which we don't have anymore."

"I'm sure there are some dark mages still in Katolis, how else did my dad get trained?" Claudia says with a shrug. "Seems like these two had the same idea as I did."

"This probably would be safer to do with someone who is very skilled, I've seen what dark magic could do to someone who has never practiced it before." Callum says, looking away embarrassed.

"Seen? Callum, you literally did dark magic and fell into a coma!" Ezran exclaims. "Yeah that helped you unlock the ability to do sky magic without a primal stone, but it was still dangerous!"

"If you are thinking of trying to learn other forms of primal magic, don't even repeat what you did last time." Enya adds and prodded the prince in the chest. "Not even doing over one hundred Jerk Face Dances would make up for it if you even try doing dark magic to fall into a coma again."

"I won't! I swear I won't, I'll just find out a way to unlock that." Callum says defensively. "But right now I wanna try learning every sky magic spell that exists, but I can't because we have no spell books on it since humans can't do magic without a primal stone or being connected to a certain source."

"Oh maybe in that secret lab of my dad's you can find something, I remember him having a primal stone to do sky magic with, so maybe there's a book or notebook he had that has some spells written down." Claudia suggests helpfully.

"Or we can wait to see Ibis and Reyna again, Salim's letter says he'll be trying to contact the leaders of the elves and possibly even the dragon queen herself to figure something out." Ezran says waving the letter in his hand. "Ibis is an emissary of the dragons and might accompany Zubeia, so if we see him and his daughter at this meeting you can ask him for some lessons."

"So you are going to this Pentarchy meeting?" Opeli asks skeptically. "I don't know, this feels like a disaster waiting to happen."

I'm sure it will be fine, what's the worst that can happen?"

"Another human civil war?" Enya suggests and shrugs. "Well if you are gonna go, I'm going with you as your bodyguard since your aunt gave me orders to keep an eye on you and your brother when she's not here."

"I'm probably have to go too, I have the spellbook that might have a reversal spell in here." Claudia adds and poked her brother's shoulder with a grin. "And you are coming too, gramps and ma won't be happy if you came home without me. Also you can't leave Enya alone to supervise three rowdy and crazy kids."

"You're hardly a kid, and I'm going to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't do anything stupid." Soren scoffs. "Also I know what you are doing, so stop it."

"Doing what?" His sister asks innocently.

"So...should I get a crow ready for a response?" Crowmaster asks, startling the group.

"I forgot he was here." Callum mutters before loudly saying, "Uh yes, have a crow ready so we can send this letter out as quickly as possible. In the meantime, we should get packed. Opeli, are you going to come with us?"

"Someone eneds to stay behind to keep an eye on the kingdom- again." The councilwoman responds with a sigh. "Just try not to get into any trouble, okay? And I mean all of you, and that includes Amaya and Bait."

"Alright, roadtrip!" Soren cheers. "Oh I'll have to write to mom to let her know about this, she'll be worried sick if we don't and hunt us down."

"I'll have another crow ready for that too then, just come by the crow tower when you need to deliver it." Crowmaster says with a nod before heading out the door, being followed by the rest of the little council.

"I should get my knives sharpened by the blacksmith, even if weapons aren't going to be allowed in I still need them sharpened if we get attacked for some reason on the way to that meeting." Enya says pointing in the opposite direction that Callum, Ezran and Opei were going and turns to Soren and Claudia. "I don't know if you two have any on your person, but you should probably get your weapons sharpened and balanced before we leave. Just tell Annora I sent you if you go to the one in town, kind of owes me a favor. I'll see you both later."

"She really is something." Claudia comments once Enya was out of earshot and smirks when she sees her brother watching the girl with a slight blush on his cheeks.

"Yeah, she is." Soren responds absentmindedly and his sister grins before he snaps out of it and looks at her in horror. "Wait you-"

"Someone has a big ol' c-r-u-s-h on the king's bodyguard!~" Claudia giggled as her brother looks away flustered. "Oh come on, she's cute but I didn't know you were into girls like that! They come off as soft looking and then turn out to be tough cookies, if I had known I would have tried getting you and Agnes together!"

"Agnes likes girls, and I wasn't even interested in her in the first place!" Soren exclaims and huffs. "Look she's just a friend, we hardly know each other!"

"Bjorn said there was a spark between you both!"

"Bjorn is an idiot blabber mouth!"

"Well what I saw was you getting flustered and blushing a lot when she talked to you and even touched your hand or face."

"I'm not used to being touched by random girls!"

"You looked bashful!" Claudia laughs before hearedly slapping her brother on the back. "Aw come on Sore-bear, it's great you have someone to like, I'm sure she likes you too! Maybe during this little trip you two will bond more than you did when going to Xadia for the first time."

"I highly doubt it. Let's just get that letter to mom and get ready for a long trip to that meeting."

---

Neolandia

"If you leave, I am going to steal all your shoes and hide them where you'll never find them!" Nijah yells as Salim is tying to pry her off his leg. "You can't leave!"

"Talora make her let go!"

Talora, who was seated on one of the large cushions in her brother's room with a book in hand, looks up from her reading to shake her head and goes back to her book. Salim groans as he half walks and half drags his little sister, praying to find the strength to pry her off his legs and pack up with no problem. Of course Nijah had to be clinging to him like a little desert lizard and was now screaming and crying her head off, which was now starting to hurt his ears.

As much as he didn't want to go, fearing that leaving his sisters alone would result in something bad, Salim knew he had to attend this meeting. He may have asked Ihab to be his regent and help out with royal duties, but he was asked by Silas to come to the meeting with the regent. Of course he had told his sisters in advance what he was going to do and they did nothing, yet today Nijah decided to try and make him stay.

"Nijah please, I need to leave. This meeting is important!" Salim says as he stops walking and tries lifting his leg to shake his sister off. Damn it, Kasef was right for once, he really needed to start working out more. "I have to go with Ihab, we're gonna figure out how to help those soldiers who went with our brother to Xadia!"

"No! Last time papa went to a meeting he got hurt! And when Kasef left he never came back! You can't go and leave us!" The princess sobs as she clings tighter to her brother's leg. "If you leave what's gonna happen to me and Talora?!"

"Nothing's going to happen, I promise!" Salim groans as he dropped his leg. He didn't want to resort to guilt tripping, but right now he had no choice. "Please Nijah, I have to go to discuss how we are going to help the soldiers who got turned into monsters like him and Ihab's daughter. If our brother was still with us and going to this meeting could possibly help him, would you try and stop me?"

"DON'T YOU DARE USE KASEF TO GUILT TRIP HER!" Salim yelped as he ducked to avoid the book thrown at his head that hit the wall behind him. Talora was now on her feet and heaving angrily, her pale blue eyes brimming with tears as her hands were clenched in fists. "If he didn't leave this wouldn't have happened! He wouldn't be a corpse rotting in Xadia, he'd be here with us praying and hoping our father would wake up! If he were still here, we wouldn't have to be worrying so much! He left us and look what happened, now you are leaving and who knows what's going to happen to you!"

"Ihab is going to go with me, we're just going to a Pentarchy meeting to talk with the other rulers and even some elves to figure out how to help these soldiers. If Kasef was still alive and brought back to us in that state, I would still go to this meeting if it meant we could change him back and have our big brother with us again." Salim says, glancing at the painting on his desk of him and his three siblings. "I know after what happened to him and our father was bad because they left home, but what sort of crown prince would I be if I didn't try to help my people?"

"One who's alive and plays it safe, that's the sort of crown prince you'd be." Talora spat and looks away with a huff. "It's not fair that you're doing this, can't Ihab just go with another council member who isn't going to be spouting nonsense and stirring up trouble?"

"Silas asked for me to come, and I already sent a letter back saying I would come in person with Ihab. You know I can't really refuse that-"

"What is with all this racket? I swear everyone can hear your sobbing all the way from the other side of the castle!" The three children gasp and turn to see an elderly Neolandian woman, dressed in dark brown sleeping robes with pale golden flower patterns and looking very annoyed.

"Grandmother!" Salim yells and hastily bows. "I am so sorry we disturbed you! Please don't be angry!"

If the people on his father's council didn't make prince Salim nervous, it was his grandmother, queen Zaria. He had heard stories of how fearsome his grandmother was in her youth, always scowling and looking like she was always in a foul mood no matter what time of the day it was. Sadly she wasn't able to hold her position as the ruling member of the royal family after her husband had passed, everything being dropped onto her only son due to her sudden poor health. How did such a grumpy looking woman and an equally stoic and grumpy man like his grandfather manage to produce a man like his father was a mystery

"I've been awake since the early hours of the morning, I was just taking a stroll through the hallways since I can't go outside and I could hear your sister sobbing. What has upset her this time?" Zaria asks with a scowl. "And what did you do to upset her, Salim? Stand up, no grandson of mine needs to grovel at my feet like a sniveling noble."

"Salim is leaving us! Just like daddy and Kasef!" Nijah yells as she pointed up at her brother. "Talora and me told him not to go after what happened to Kasef and he don't listen!"

"It's "Talora and I", have you even been attending your grammar lessons?" The dowager queen corrects her. "Now Salim, what even gave you the idea of leaving the palace? Your father is ill and I am in no shape or mood to deal with those hacks unless they are Ihab and Khalen."

"Uh...Silas- I mean prince consort Silas and I have summoned some other members of the human and elven kingdoms to a meeting. We are trying to find a cure for the soldiers who were turned by dark magic and revert them to their human selves. We have summoned dark mages from our kingdoms and the other kingdoms to come so we can asked them for help, and hope the elves bring along some mages of their own too."

"Ugh, I'll never understand what those mages find so appealing about dark magic. It's messy and practically damaging to your own body. Your grandfather had a cousin who was attempting to learn it, and look where that got her: her ashes in an urn somewhere in her wife's house and collecting dust and cobwebs." Zaria scoffs and huffed. "I do hope you are not planning on using yourself as a vessel for dark magic if no mages in our kingdom come, I've already lost one grandchild to that abomination of magic and I don't think your father would be too happy if he woke up and found out you died or became corrupted by the very thing that got your brother killed."

"I-I won't, Ihab managed to summon one very well skilled dark mage to aid us in this. No other mages want to step forward and help out of fear."

"Well that's good at least, but are you actually going to go or are you sending your regent?"

"I am going, but a certain pair of sisters refuse to let me go and do it."

"He tried to guilt trip Nijah by using Kasef." Talora states and scowled at her brother, looking very much like their grandmother now. "I'd punch him if Nijah wasn't in the room."

"Please don't, I'd like to arrive at this meeting without any noticeable bruises." Salim mutters. "Grandmother, can you please make Nijah release me?"

"You're a big boy and a whole lot bigger than her, and you do have the choice whether you want to attend this meeting or not. And Nijah, would you do this to your father if he wasn't unconscious and had to go himself?"

"No." The princess responds. "But-"

"Exactly, and if your older brother was still here with us he would have done the same. Or he would have refused and I would drag him there myself by the ear." Zaria says with a nod. "I understand that you are downright terrified about losing your brother, but that mage isn't around anymore to hurt him. When Salim goes, he'll be dealing with the true king of Katolis, not some washed up mage with an ego the size of a Neolandian elephant who has no regard for the safety or well-being of his soldiers. And this may be a great opportunity for your brother as well."

"How so?" Talora asks skeptically.

"Might give him a chance to grow and stop being such a nervous and meek wreck for one, and it will give him the chance to at least create a better relationship with the new leaders of the human kingdoms as well as the rulers and leaders of the elves and dragons."

"So you think this life changing trip to the Pentarchy might get him to grow a bigger backbone."

"Hey I have one!" Salim protests.

"Yeah, but you always just regress when the snobs start talking." Talora points out.

"Exactly why I think this is a good chance for him to grow, this kingdom needs a good ruler to sit on its throne. Your father may somewhat have been a good king and had a good council when he started out, but now look at what's happened. Your brother probably wouldn't have been a good king, but we need a crown prince who at least keeps his temper in check and knows how to use his brain." Zaria agrees and turns to Salim. For a moment, he thought he saw her eyes shining with pride and a small smile on her lips before they fell back in their usual state of frowning. "I expect you to at least return knowing how to stand up for yourself, and with some good news of progress. Now pack your things, have some soldiers who need your help."

---

Storm Spire, Xadia

"Queen Zubeia! A letter for you!"

Zubeia looks over her shoulder to see one of the new Dragon Guard recruits, a young Sunfire elf, hurrying over to her waving something in her hands. The queen sighs before getting up and carefully turning around, taking care not to accidentally crush her son as he was sleeping in his nest of grass and blossoming flowers.

"What news do you bring Solana?" She whispers (well tried to whisper) once the elf got close.

"Well it's two letters, and they're from two rulers in the human kingdoms." Solana responds as she waves the papers.

"From Ezran and Aanya?"

"No, the seal of one is gold and the other is bright green. I think they're from the other two kingdoms who aided the false king of Katolis."

"Read them for me, if you can."

Zubeia listened as Solara read both letters to her. Surprisingly they were from the two current leaders of the kingdoms Neolandia and Evenere, and both were inviting her and the other elven rulers to come attend a meeting in the human kingdoms to not only make peace, but figure out a way to fix the power source of the Sunfire elves and return the transformed humans back to normal.

"My queen, if you do not wish to attend, perhaps we can send the Skywing emissary in your stead?" Solara asks as she folds the letters up.

"No, Ibis has done enough and needs his rest, he and his daughter have been with me for weeks after I had been unwell. The humans who sided with the false king wish to make peace with us, it's only fair if I come instead of sending a diplomat in my place."

"I wanna go!" Zubeia turns in surprise to see Azymondias scurrying and tripping up the stairs towards them. "Mama let me go too!"

"Darling, aren't you supposed to be napping?" The queen chuckles as the little dragonet once he reaches her.

"Oh can we go mama? Can we?" Azymondias asks excitedly as he pawed at her leg. "Please? I haven't seen my friends in eons!"

"Dearest it's only been two months, and I don't think you'd like sitting in a boring meeting."

"But if I'm gonna be king when I get bigger, I gotta know what it's like to be in a boring meeting!"

That statement made the dragon queen chuckle, recalling how her mate said something like that when they were just hatchlings. Of course he still found meetings to be tedious and boring even when he got older and became the dragon king.

"Do you really want to go or are you just saying that just to get out of the mountain?" Zubeia asks and her son huffs.

"I wanna go! And I wanna see my friends, especially Ezran, Bait and Maya!" The little prince declared and flared his wings. "I'll hold my breath until you let me!"

"Alright alright dear, you can come as long as you behave and stick close to me when we travel." Zubeia chuckles before nuzzling her son. "Once we are there you can play with your friends after the meeting is over, deal?"

"Deal!"

---

Somewhere In Xadia

"...alright that should be enough to take back to the herbalist and see what we can do with them." Reyna sighs in relief as she wiped her sweaty forehead with her wrist. "And that means I can take a break before looking for some solar blossoms."

The Skywing quickly starts to gather her things, humming softly to herself before placing her tools away in her bag and the carefully wrapped herbs into a basket she was carrying before jumping to her feet to make a run for the trees. Summers in Xadia were always warm, though today felt a little more warmer than usual. There was a stream nearby so she could refill her water skin and splash some water on her face to cool off at least, perhaps even find some more herbs or plants near the water that could be useful. When she wasn't traveling with Ibis or in her village helping out the healers, Reyna was often traveling to every field she could to gather as many plants and herbs as possible. Whatever she found would either be sold to the herbalists and traders as dried clumps or grounded powder, or given to the healers who needed them, and whatever was leftover from her gathering would just be taken home and her family could find some use for it. Today had been especially successful, since a lot of plants and flowers were in bloom during the summer and she hardly found anything shriveled up.

I wonder if Enya finally got home to send a letter, it'd be nice to hear from her again and she has me worried. Reyna thinks as she hears the stream and soon approaches it. Since the war was over and there had been a somewhat established peace between the humans and the citizens of Xadia, that now gave her the opportunity to have an actual pen pal who was at least interesting and had been keeping in touch more than the ones she had in childhood. Since Enya's last letter, she told Reyna that she wouldn't be able to respond or receive anything, saying she was going on a trip with her friends and promised to write as soon as she got back. It had been two months and still nothing new, which was worrying. I'm sure she's fine, probably still traveling and ran into some trouble, nothing she can't handle with that assassin and the human mage on her side. Maybe got sidetracked too, who knows.

As she was refilling the water skin with one hand and scooping some into her mouth with the other, the elf suddenly heard a loud snap. Now alert, she quickly raised her head and looked around for where the sound came from, one hand slipping into her bag for one of the numerous knives Ikaros made her pack before leaving to collect her herbs. It could have been just a dragon, or perhaps some Snickeries or one of those Hillwolves that decided to wander from the mountains nearby, but after the battle she had to be wary. Apparently some of the transformed humans has escaped and ran off before the rebel humans could capture them, and everyone was warned not to travel alone or unarmed anywhere in Xadia, just in case one of the beasts decided to attack a lone traveler.

Reyna slowly pulled out her knife and carefully got up before backing away from the stream. She heard another snap, coming from the direction behind her and turns to see a dark shadow in the trees, a single bright amber eye watching her intently. Yeah not one of those cute little chipmunks. Without warning, the creature bursts out from the shadows roaring and running straight for her.

"SHIT!" Reyna yells when she saw it was one of those transformed soldiers and turns for the stream. She instantly leaps across it, landing painfully on her feet but continued to run. She could hear the monster behind her, sounding louder and louder with each second. No time to draw out a wind or lightning rune, she needed to get into the air and fast.

She spotted a tree up ahead with a low hanging branch, if she could just jump high enough she could climb it, do the mage wing spell and fly out of here as quickly as possible. Probably would have to ditch the herbs but her life right now was more important than the plants and she could always come back to get them later - with one of her dads and several armed elves of course. Reyna quickly flung the basket behind her at the beast and quickly drew a swift rune that launched her into the air in a gust of wind, grabbing the branch with both hands.

"Ha! Too slow you brute!" She yells triumphantly at the soldier that was now below her. "Gonna have to try harder than that to get -"

Without warning, the beast leaps up, grabs her feet and yanked her down with such force that the branch snapped in her hands and she fell to the floor with a thud and she could have sworn she felt something in her leg break. Reyna lets out a pained scream before the beast snarls, now hovering over her. It stank so bad, like it hadn't even bathed in weeks and the stench coming from its opened mouth wasn't any better. The knife she had in hand earlier was only lying several inches away and there was no way she could grab it before the monster could rip her throat out.

This is it, isn't it? I'm going to die at the hands of some monster like my mother, and no one will ever know. Reyna thinks bitterly. Some big smelly beast that was once a human that probably has a deep rooted hatred for my kind.

The idea was just so stupid it made her want to laugh. She fought with the humans and now she was about to die at the hands of one, even if it wasn't even a human anymore. No, she wasn't going to die, not like this. Just as the soldier was going to get close, Reyna felt her hand grasp a large rock and swung it upward to collide it with the side of it's head. The beast roars in pain as it rears back, giving the injured elf time to painfully scoot out of the way and frantically crawl towards her fallen knife. Her hand grasps the familiar and worn leather handle before she struggles to get to her feet and face the beast as it's now bellowing and turning to charge at her.

"COME AT ME!" The elf yells as the beast charges at her, bracing herself for the impact.