Leon and Riya: How to Raise a Gnoll

Chapter 44

Leon, Mu, Riya, Rose, and Varna had met in Riya and Leon's room.

Riya: Mu, you said that the scouts found something.

Mu: Yes. A camp a day to the southwest, Leiko's there.

Upon hearing Leiko's name Varna's ears had shifted slightly and the look on her face was one of concentration.

Leon: I'm assuming you have some plan.

Before Mu could say something Varna spoke up.

Varna: I'm going!

Mu had a look of irritation when she looked at Varna.

Mu: Oh? We could just as easily have you stay here!

After Mu had said that the expression on Varna's muzzle had shifted to a scowl. She stomped on the ground hard enough that the sound of it reverberated throughout the room.

Varna: If it involves Leiko then I'm going! I'd like to see you stop me.

Varna and Mu stared each other down for about a minute before Mu gave an irritated look and a snort.

Mu: Fine, whatever.

Mu then looked back to Riya.

Mu: Riya, what do you think we should do?

Riya looked at Rose.

Riya: Rose you are going to take your father and lock yourselves in your room until we get back, we have no idea what could happen, and if it is a trap you two need to be somewhere you can easily hide and defend yourselves.

Rose had a conflicted look on her face but nodded. Leon placed a hand on her left arm.

Leon: Hey, I'm sure it will be fine! Besides, I'm sure we could find something to do until they get back.

Hearing Leon say that Rose relaxed a little.

Mu: Right, let's get going then.

Riya: Before we go I am going to find Maria and have her come with us, just in case Leiko decides to have poison on him again.

***

Upon arriving at the camp they could see it was devoid of anything, Varna looked around as if she was searching for something.

Riya: Varna, do you have a way to deal with him when we find him?

Varna stopped looking around and looked at Riya with an annoyed look.

Varna: Yes.

Mu: Are you going to elaborate on that at all?

Varna: No.

Mu had an annoyed look on her muzzle.

Mu: And why not?

Varna shifted her gaze to Mu.

Varna: Because I don't need someone who doesn't know the first thing about magic to tell me how to deal with it, that's why.

Mu had a scowl on her muzzle. She turned away with a huff while Riya gave a defeated sigh.

Once they all had come into the camp they heard the sound of burrowing. Outside the perimeter of the camp, Witherlings began burrowing out of the ground and marching in the direction of Stoneholde. As soon as Mu made a move to strike one of them a gray fog began to rise up from the perimeter of the camp, eventually encapsulating the camp in a dome.

Mu: What?

When her weapon went to pass through the fog it stopped as if it had hit a wall. Maria attempted to push her dagger through the fog but just like Mu's halberd it stopped at the fog as if it was a solid wall.

Maria: Yeah, we aren't going anywhere while this is here. Not only that but Witherlings began marching towards Stoneholde once it triggered, we just have to hope that some weren't already under the fort.

Riya: Then we need to figure out how to shut it off!

Riya saw that Varna seemed to be looking around for something.

Riya: What are you looking for?

Varna: The cause of the magic, as far as I can tell there doesn't seem to be any magic users nearby, and if they are they're good at hiding themselves.

Varna shook her head.

Varna: Leiko can't use magic and I can't sense any magic users nearby, which would mean that they would have to be feeding magic through him like a conduit. This would mean that to get rid of the spell we would need to cut the magic being fed to him off.

Maria: Then we need to find him.

With that, they split up to start searching around the Large camp. After what felt like hours of searching Varna heard something near her, she quickly reached out in the direction of the noise. Leiko dodged away from her, barely avoiding getting grabbed.

Varna: Found him!

Hearing Varna shout, the others rushed to where she was, surrounding Leiko. Leiko was shifting his focus from one to the other rapidly. Maria was the first to rush him, he leaped over her to avoid her, as he landed he quickly used his momentum to transfer into a slide to go under Mu's swing before springing out of the slide to avoid Riya's sweep. While he was in the air Varna pounced at him, catching him and forcing him to the ground in a bear hug.

Once she had a hold of him Varna could sense that she had been correct, he was being used as a conduit for magic. She spoke barely above a whisper.

Varna: I am so very sorry.

As she readied her spell a tear ran down her muzzle. Then she released the spell directly into Leiko, shortly after she began pumping the magic from the spell into him he began to let out a blood-curdling scream.

***

As Oshka had been using a mirror to see exactly what was happening with Leiko she had watched Varna pounce him out of the air. While annoyed that he hadn't avoided it he had served his purpose, a distraction. Once Varna had started her spell she could feel something was wrong, it started out as a dull thump in the back of her head but as time passed the dull thump slowly escalated into a pounding pain, until eventually, it became a unbearable pounding as if someone was using her head as a drum. That was when she realized what was going on, magic was coming through the link through Leiko into her!

In a panic, she severed the connection. After a second her eyes widened in fear at what she just did. In her rush to sever the connection to stop the magic coming through the link she had wholly severed her connection to Leiko, and from this distance she couldn't reestablish it, she had lost her control over him. In her anger, she let out a roar of rage and shattered the mirror in front of her.

***

Once the dome around the camp had dispersed Varna released her spell and placed Leiko on the ground, unmoving. Varna then looked at Maria.

Varna: It's time for your goddess to hold up her end of the deal.

Maria simply nodded, got on her knees, and pressed her hands together, after several minutes there was a quick flash of golden light that receded just as fast as it appeared. When Varna could see again she looked to Leiko and it could be seen that his fur seemed to be a little brighter than it had been. Then suddenly he let out a gasp to desperately fill his lungs as he opened his eyes.