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Ivy felt her legs go limp, her stomach tightened. Her hackles rising and laying flat again. She rushed to her den heart throbbing in her chest everything was destroyed, the wolf cores gone. Going in deeper she found tufts of Ullr's hair, but the cat was nowhere to be found. She wanted to scream or cry at the very least, instead her body collapsed, Angela bounded to her. "Come on! Get up we have to find our son." Ivy nodded with heaving sobs shacking her whole body. She had to drag herself out. The girl was watching her with curiosity before hiding it at Ivy's somber state. Without a word she picked up the depressed fox and stroked her head in a rhythmic tempo. Ivy thought back to a time her mother would do the same in that situation to calm her in sadness, anger or fright. She let herself enjoy this distraction before she would search for Ullr and kill the person who did this. Angela staring at her nodded as if she knew what she was thinking.
Spirit world--
Ivy stared at the vast icy landscape filled with numerous of her dead kin. She instantly knew she was dreaming. "So you're the last surviving member of your species." A deep gravely voice came from behind Ivy. Twirling around she was confronted by a massive fox similar in size to Tsalice, and just like her numerous tails swayed from behind him. His brown fur stood out hard against the snowy environment they found themselves in. He lowered his head, his earth brown eyes staring directly at her. "My children have prayed for you, they asked me to bless you," he paused for a moment. "After a bit of time watching you I've decided to indeed grant that blessing." Ivy stared at him. "Why?" A low chuckle escaped from the god's lips. "You saved my children. I'm Posylon but Tsalice probably already told you that." After a moment of silence Posylon lifted his jet black paw, touching his claw to Ivy's nose. "You will now be able to use earth magic." Ivy nodded before curling into a ball and letting the darkness take her back.
Physical world--
Ivy woke in the elf's arms, the area looked weird, wood covered her head moonlight gleamed through a cracked window. The elf was fast asleep her body was relaxed. A twig snapped outside signaling someone's presence. Rising to her feet she crept to the broken window before jumping outside making sure to not make a sound.
The chilly wind swept across her fur making it rise like a cat's. Slowly stalking to the foliage she eventually spotted the creature, an earth fox. "What do you want?" Ivy called out. It stopped in its tracks and quickly spun around. He stared at Ivy for a moment as if searching for words. "I saw kitten of you. Taken by man in shining stuff, dropped in wood box," he paused and inhaled deeply. "I know which brick nests he was taken too. It's called Hudenburg." Ivy narrowed her eyes and thought for a moment. If he was speaking the truth then she got a lead to where Ullr was taken to. If he lied to her the chances of seeing her son again were next to impossible. Nodding Ivy said. "Alright I believe you when the dark elves will wake up let's get moving." The fox looked relieved relaxing his muscles. Ivy her way back in via the broken window closely followed by the fox, she was in thought she had four years and six months in lifespan had about enough mana for a medium-level spell and eight low-level ones and beside her ice-magic she could now also use earth-magic.
Touching the ground with her paws Ivy tried to use earth-magic, in her mind the feeling should be the same as with ice-magic. She remembered her mother telling her. "To use ice-magic, one must search for the water in the air, body, or ground and use it as a medium to cast their spell." Ivy got lost in her memories and froze the ground instead of molding it or whatever was supposed to happen when using earth-magic. Ivy finally noticed that she was not doing what she wanted. Focusing harder she focused on the ground itself, it took a while as she was accustomed to finding the water that was located around her, so accustomed to the fact that even without focusing they showed up in her eyes as tiny blue dots. She slowly started to feel connecting to the dirt under her feed, slowly starting to see brown and gray spots. Ivy strained her muscles as she pulled the colors above ground and sorted them in piles. Ivy gasped as she stopped the usage of her mana the colors fading from her vision, three piles lay before her. The first pile consisted of the brown particles contained dirt and rocks. The second pile contained what looked like dark gray spikes intrigued she waddled close and sniffed, the smell reminded her of blood. "What are you doing?" Startled Ivy flung herself forward and twisted her body around to face the origin of the sound, the dark elf looked at her with intrigue and repeated her question after a moment of silence. Ivy shifted. "I'm trying to figure out what that is," Ivy commented while pointing at the dark gray pile. "And I'm trying to use earth magic." Ivy paused a moment for dramatic effect. "Which worked, as you can see. I just remembered I haven't asked your name yet, please enlighten me. Mine's Ivy." The elf nodded. "My name's Luna, and the pile you pointed to is called iron." Ivy froze for a moment, wasn't this used to make weapons and armor, but she recalled some stores she visited in the city specifically sold and bought ore, and it was rather pricey. The earth fox approached. "Shall we leave? Elf has awoken." Ivy turned her head to him and nodded in agreement, standing up she signaled Luna to follow them.
It took around two days to reach the home of the earth foxes who greeted them and let them stay the night, when the time came to leave the earth foxes pointed her in the direction of where Ullr was supposedly taken to she also went on a detour and got herself a bag in the city and filled it with iron on her way to the earth foxes. The den of the earth foxes just disappeared from sight the fox that let them stayed behind. Angela was staring blankly ahead while sitting on Ivy's shoulder. Ivy wasn't in the mood to be attacked by adventurers so she took on her demi-human form, to avoid trouble. Ivy looked at her friend's somber expression. "We will find Ullr for sure so don't worry." Angela smiled weakly before returning to her somber expression. Ivy's heart ached for her as she to fold the pain of losing Ullr but probably not as hard as her. After a bit of walking they eventually passed a new forest. Ivy gagged at the stench of death radiating from it. Luna paused in her tracks before squatting down sounds of clanking metal suddenly filled the quiet area. Ivy walked over swatting the occasional grasshopper away that landed on her. Luna was grabbing a sword, with its scabbard from a body. Ivy looked up her eyes widening at mountains worth of corpses scattered throughout the area, mostly all of them looked rather young. "Come on! We need to leave this area and fast." Luna nodded. "You're right." Luna finished her struggle and quickly attached the scabbard to her side. Ivy quickly ran beside Luna across the corpse littered ground eventually everything cleared out into a vast green open grassland a road of compressed dirt snaked its way through it. They walked to the road and followed it, eventually reaching a city. Stone walls trapped the buildings inside and lines of people stood at the gates waiting to enter. Luna grunted in annoyance while Ivy sighed in agreement.
Ivy scanned the wall spotting three gates, out of two gates a line of people stretched while the third was empty. "Let's head to that gate." Ivy pointed towards the last gate. Luna nodded taking the initiative while Ivy followed close behind her. They eventually reached it two guards stood beside the wooden monstrosities, but they paid to the two approaching figures. Ivy was baffled as they walked past the two supposed guards without them stopping her and Luna. The streets of the city greeted them as they entered, voices filled the air and horses walked through the streets pulling heavy carriages. A few stores and taverns stood beside houses of the city's inhabitants. Ivy entered one of the specialty ore stores that she found. A sturdy looking man looked up, his muscles practically filling up his poor clothing that looked like it was about to combust. "How may I help you?" The clerk asked with his surprisingly high voice, he sounded like a child. Shrugging it off Ivy plopped the bag of iron on the table, with a thud it made contact. The man looked intrigued before carefully grabbing it. Opening the bag he nodded when he saw it filled with iron. Grabbing a scale from under his desk he plopped the sack on it and started adding weights until it was balanced, after the balancing he started counting the number of weights used to even the scales. "That comes to three pieces of big silver and five normal ones."
Ivy nodded and shook the man's hand. She left that store quite a bit richer. Angela jumped off her shoulder. "So what are you going to do now?" She inquired. Ivy thought for a moment. "I will rent a room at the tavern and look around for Ullr's scent." Angela's eyes darkened at her son's name muttering something under her breath that Ivy couldn't quite catch. Luna was browsing stalls looking at necklaces, Ivy stared at her confused what was so mesmerizing about those stones that they just absorbed Luna's attention like that. Ivy's eyes caught sight of cages in the distance. "Luna," she whispered her voice tense. "Let's go to those cages over there." Luna followed her gaze and nodded. "Alright." Numerous creatures and humanoids were crammed into the cages their eyes bleak and begging for death. They reeked of sickness and dirt clumped onto their fur or skin. Some bore long scars while others flinched at people's gazes. Ivy felt sick she covered her mouth as she gagged. Scents overwhelmed her one was familiar, Ullr. Rushing to its origin instead of Ullr she stared at a slave beast-man scars ran down his eyes, clumps of hair and nails were missing. Ullr was here but already got transported. "Angela," Angela's ears perked up as they heard her name. "I scent Ullr, but he's somewhere else, but it's fresher than the others I picked up on the way." Angela eyes widened with hope. "Please you're saying the truth right?" Ivy stared at her a bid hurt but nodded. Luna stared at Ivy. "Who are you talking to?" "No one," Ivy quickly responded. "I sometimes talk to myself." Luna nodded, but her gaze sent a shiver through her spine it was as if she knew she was lying.
The doors of the tavern swung open with a mighty creak numerous faces turned to her before going back to the conversation with their friends, some lingering with unpleasant intent. The tavern reeked of ale suppressing the gag Ivy approached the main desk, behind it a woman sat waiting patiently until Ivy was in front of her. "Greetings miss. What can this fine establishment do for you?" Ivy waited a bit. "I would like to book a room for two please." The girl nodded never resting her smile. "That will be one big copper please." Ivy reached into her small cash pouch before pulling out a silver and giving it to the clerk whose eyes widened for a second. She gracefully took the silver and put it inside a tiny chest that was located to the right of the table before pulling out four big copper pieces and placing them in Ivy hand. "Your room is number 6 on the second floor, also at the end of the week you can pay a big copper again to stay another week." The clerk widened her smile a bit before sliding a key to Ivy with the number six engraved on it. Ivy nodded her appreciation and took the key.
The stairs cracked as Ivy and Luna ascended the old stairs. Reaching the second floor Ivy browsed the numbers etched into the doors. "Three, four, five, and six." Ivy halted and inserted the key into the lock. A click echoed through the hall as the door unlocked. "This will be our home for now." Ivy said to Luna while Angela walked in, Luna and Ivy both entered shortly after her.
Ivy clenched her fist the cages reminded her of what she swore to do, and tomorrow night a mass graveyard should be built. "I have forgotten my purpose flesh bags, but don't be relieved just yet as I finally remember what I must do."
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Character info:
Luna: Once a slave under the Goldenteeth estate freed by Ivy at the invasion of the estate. Now free she travels along with Ivy protecting her friend's secret. She's a dark elf meaning she has the body of a normal elf, but her skin is a gentle brown. She has long curly black hair and a set of ash colored eyes.
Posylon: The god of the earth foxes, almost as old as Tsalice with the same build. The only notable differences are that he is a male and supports a mud brown pelt and jet black paws.
Ivy: Ivy has grown now reaching the waist of an average human (Ivy's demi-human form size is fixed, it's a bit larger than the average woman.) She can now use earth magic.
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Writer's note:
Nothing to note.