The Kelpie's Cries (Completed)

Tortured land

Odan had found the campsite of the humans soon after the others left as Össur had done a good job of scouting the surrounding area. Well, it wasn't that concealed to begin with; the smoke from the campfire and the unnatural orange light mingling in the natural scenery made it stand out quite a bit. Normally, there would be no fires out and about around the trees; it would either stay burning in lanterns, oil lamps and on the wick of candles -not on grass and sticks! There were a couple of tents set up with big spikes hammered into the soil. There was less vegetation than before in the location and the man didn't miss the darkening colour of the surrounding trees. The leaves that had fallen looked crunchy but they were continuously disintegrating into nothingness by the second. He dragged a finger on the ground to find it feeling harder and some almost transparent tiny crystals stuck to his fingers. Salt? 

The humans had watered the soil with salt; that was the conclusion he had come to. There was no indication whether they wanted to make the soil infertile and the land barren of life or if it was just some stupid human superstition that the salt would keep the demons away. Possibly both; those people were folklore hunters after all seeing how they knew to shoot silver bullets at Össur before. The dragon was sniffing around the campsite, looking through the tents and different backpacks of which most were empty. The man didn't need to count how many tents there were on site to know that the humans he had killed were merely a part of a bigger group that had infiltrated Blue Peace. However, there was no life in sight and he wondered where the rest were headed.

There were no tracks, no unusual sounds to alert anyone to the presence of foreigners and Össur had yet to find their scent trail. Odan was scared to order the dragon to go in the sky in fear of his wounds getting worse but as the two investigated it looked like there was no other choice but to take that risk. There was no other way to find them. Then again, there was a chance that the forest had tried to spit them out but sadly, it couldn't force anything outside because of its own rules.

Blue Peace couldn't open its gate and kick something outside because it was a sanctuary for those who found it. There was no getting rid of pests if they didn't want to leave on their own. It was like a tree that had no defense to termites and sadly, if the man couldn't find those termites, the health of the entire forest was at stake. They had already killed a whole area just to set up camp! Gods forbid, was all he could think as the worst case scenario hit him like a track. Those humans could kill Blue Peace if he didn't get to them in time; they could make all the trees collapse, leave behind a really dead forest and force everything out of it and into the greedy hands of the humans and those wretched folklore hunters.

"Össur, i'm sorry to suggest this but you might have to go up", Odan told the dragon and the latter was hesitant to consent to his words. Though, something caught his attention behind the man and led him to roar at it. Odan turned and almost unsheathed his sword to stab the human who had approached them.

It was Henry who stood near a dead tree just a few meters away from them, just outside the campsite borders. His expression was panicked and frightened, his forehead creasing from how much he was pushing up his eyebrows. There was a gun in his hand and a sheath with a dagger and two handles stuck out of his boots like sore thumbs which were very hard to miss.

Odan furrowed his brows at him, his yellow eyes becoming slits behind his eyelids as he glared at the man. There was no reason for him to be there and most certainly, he didn't want him around.

"What do you want?", he asked the panicked man, taking his hand off the handle of the sheathed sword, "Did you come to help out your friends?"

"What happened back there?", Henry asked, sounding a little out of breath. He took a look behind

"I think you saw what happened on your way here", Odan answered. Össur looked unsure about the situation and he was jittering, letting out small anxious sounds whenever the human moved or breathed.

"Hunters?"
"Did it look like they were just campers?"
"Well, no... but where are the rest?"
"Probably out in the forest spreading silent chaos"

Henry fell silent all of a sudden and he looked down at his feet. That was when he noticed the small crystals on the ground and he was able to connect the dots in a minute after squinting his eyes at them. His home was at stake; his wife and child, who he loved so much, were in danger of being prosecuted if the hunters had followed the direction to the clearing they lived at. What if they had already found the cabin and were torturing them? He shook his head and approached the tents to investigate the site himself -he didn't want his mind wandering to the worst outcome of this ordeal.

"What are you doing?", Odan asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Protecting my family from those people", the other answered as he looked through a bag.
"Huh, I never thought that I would see the day of a human betraying his kind".

Henry brushed off Odan's remark and continued looking for anything that could help locate the hunters. There still was no audible indication of them being nearby nor had they discovered some trail or scent to follow. It felt like Össur's luck wanted his wing damaged more than it was already.

"Össur, get ready for take off, we will need to search from above", his tone was hesitant and anxious but the situation couldn't be helped otherwise.

The dragon was nervous as well. He could already feel his muscles ripping apart just by the thought of flapping his wings to fly. However, he too knew that there was no hope for the life of Blue Peace if they didn't act quick. And so, he changed his size just slightly, making his body smaller and his wings bigger in hopes of being able to hover in midair and not strain his wounds as much. Odan climbed aboard and Össur began looking for a tall tree to scale; there was no flying if he had no space for it. Henry had just noticed what the two were doing because of the rustling of dead leaves and the crackling sounds of decaying branches but before he could utter a word, the dragon had taken off.