Garthalan: Mother of the Wood

Soul Art

Helena pov

I loosed an arrow into a wyvern that was about to bite down on Artunous's arm, it jolted back and Artunous put a spear in its chest. It stumbled for a moment before falling dead the other two were still going for Gretha and Yennefer.

Gretha let off a spray of rocks, it pelted the wyvern wearing away scales and sending it reeling backwards. A much larger rock emerged from the ground hovering over the unsuspecting beast. It dropped crushing the wyvern under the weight.

Yennefer dodged a tail strike and jumped on its back, it reared up so I sent an arrow into its chest. Yennefer stabbed its neck, then ripped sideways halfway cutting it off.

Yennefer walked over and checked my leg. "I told you no running, no fighting. You did both. Can you boys go get a cart for us? We need to get them to Adayas place."

They walked off, after a few minutes came back with a cart. Adaya and I were loaded into it, Gretha steered while Artunous and Yennefer rode horses.

"Yennefer, you know something about healing. Ride ahead and get us set up if you would." She rode off. "It'll be a while you may wanna catch some sleep M'lady." Gretha called back to me, I listened and shut my eyes using Adaya as a pillow.

Yennefer pov

Gretha would be at least three days, it would only take me one. I road without stopping to make camp through the night and ran into little to no trouble. When I got back the girl sasha was awake but resting, I had her help me set up places for Adaya and Helena. Luckily Adaya had chose a place with two large rooms. One was storage, the other her living area, I made the storage into a clinic of sorts setting up three beds from the uninhabited housing leaving Adaya and her sisters beds alone in the bedroom. Liya wanted to help too so I had her organising the ingredients on shelves, and the already prepared medicines into drawers. I thought I would have to go behind her but she actually got everything right.

The infirmery was set up, the only thing to do now was wait. So I spoke with sasha about her little mishap with the demon.

"I can't really say what happened. once we left the war camp everything is like a dream, I know it's there I just can't see it clearly enough to actually say what happened. It's all a big blur." She sounded ashamed for some reason I could not fathom, she survived a demon in its own lair.

"Sasha, there's nothing to be ashamed of, you've made it through more than most. Adaya told me of her venture there and had she not had magic, and friends in the animal kingdom, she would've been a mid-day snack. You did good."

"I'd still like to know what happened myself." It probably wouldn't happen anytime soon, if you forget something like that, it must have been too horribly bad for the mind to comprehend.

We spoke for a while longer about nothing impaticular. A few hours later Danielle came in the door, overly excited.

"Liya! Liya! Come see it, it's done!" Liya perked up and ran out the door, sasha and I, as confused as ever followed as well. We came to the wall where they had built the escape tunnel. It was decorated just like the doorway to every house from the Dales so long ago, this was built as a gift however, it had names alongside picture carvings. My eyes went strait to Duncan's his name was in a foreighn language, it looked like he was from Falhearth, his picture was here of horses running through water, towards a man on a half shaded hill. It's been a while since I've done soul art, but if memory serves me, should you treat him right he would do anything for you (the horses) he was also a hero and leader (man in the hill) though he was still a follower as well (the water) he could also hold a grudge and could get bored eventually, (the shadow on the hill). This is a perfect gift, though now it would be a memorial.

I moved to Grethas name, it was scribes in the common high elven language, he's from the capitol, his portrait was a farmer pulling an ox out of the mud next to a fully grown field. He always works hard without much rest(the farmer). he is as stubborn as the ox (the ox). He builds up everything he has the chance to (the field). Yet no matter how hard he tries it's never as planned (the mudhole with the ox in it). That was actually the summary of his life, he built up the fort made sure it was thriving, then the capitol decided it was enough and attacked multiple Times yet he's too stubborn to give so here we are, no more capitol, and back to building the fort up again.

Since no-one else I was close friends with worked on the tunnel that's all that was there. I still looked over the names and portraits, each beautiful in its own way, each with defects as well as purity, then one caught my eye.

It was just a blackened spot. You could barely make out the portrait of an eel wrapped around a lion. The name was in an ancient language, when I was younger I heard of it, Drakosinhall it is a demon prison, And one got out judging by this portrait. But who is it. And what's that name?