Isoldas

Isolda had taken to her orc studies very well, and had grown used to her mask, which was very odd, it had no strings but fit perfectly over her face, it didn't move or fall during the day. Her new magical abilities even started to effect Vladimir's power. He could now control small dolls and even battle the spider-squirrels and win. He had a small army at his disposal after a few weeks of battling with them, the language they spoke would spew from his mouth as he gave his orders to his little loyal minions. "Vladdy it still makes me laugh when you speak squirrelish!" Isolda chuckled as she watched a group enact a scene from vlad's favorite play. It was late into the night, a small red candle was burning to its end and Isolda had been engrossed in a scroll she had found that taught orcish reanimation magic. The scroll claimed the orcs of the darkmoon clan had created a spell that could reanimate fallen creatures and fauna, Isolda wondered if her autumn magic would have some different effects when combined with it. Recently she had noticed some of her orcish spells would have different effects when she channeled her autumn magics into them.

Isolda had learned orcish magic was powered by the mana flow of nature, much like elemental magic except most orchis spells actied as enchantments and could alter life around it rather than manifest it or create it. There were no spells that could directly destroy anything, the closest she had found was the mention of a spell that could corrupt life forces and when she asked her tutors about the subject she was always told "some magic deserves to be forgotten" or " such spells don't deserve the honor of being learned".

This spell she was reading now was just historical accounts of its legitimacy and what it could do, how to use the spell or even what the incantations were, were absent. She bet she she could reanimate people with this spell if she used her autumn magic to power it, she could resurrect fallen orcs and push the encroachers out of the savage lands.

Her little candle finally burned out as the light faded to darkness, Isolda crawls over to her soft bed.

She opened her eyes to find the birds chirping singing excitedly outside her window, she could hear the music of some bard owls somewhere in the tree, playing along to the singing swallows. She crawled out of bed and strode over to her window to see the concert going on so early . She opened her window and popped her head out to see her home ablaze. The building were smoldering and sneezing bright red flames, the birds singing were charred skeletons, acting as if they weren't just black bones. The flames engulfed the area around around her window, but none of the flames touched her home. She looked beyond the diery trees to see what had caused this destruction, a giant pheonix like creature, covered in a black fired loomed above the burning city, spewing a wretched black lava down onto the orcs who were losing the battle. She tried to leap out of her window to help her family below only to find herself unable to exit, like an invisible wall had been placed across her hut. She screamed but no sound came out, in the distance she could see her orc mother be burned to death, her mask turn to ash and her body smolder and cinder.

She sling herself from the window towards the door to find it was gone, where it should have been was just another blank wall, she was trapped with her home burning around her, her family dying and all she could do was watch from her window. She tried casting spells towards the bird but nothing happened, it was like she was a common-folk , her mana felt empty and her incantations were just words falling on deaf ears. She continued to watch as the pheonix spot its tar like lava across the battlefield, until a deep lake sized pool formed encompassing the whole of the area. Small waves spread across its surface, and Isolda noticed in the center a strange bubbling, then a large black oily tentacle shot from the pool, followed by several more tentacles. They wrapped themselves around the black pheonix and ripped it from the sky towards the lava lake. The bird screeched and bit down on a tentacle that had found its neck, isolda watched as the pieces fell to the pool below. The stumpy tentacle glowed and became two tentacle and continued to wrap itself around the bird. It spewed more black fire but it did not effect the tentacles they just continued slowly dragging the bird as it faught with all its might. After a few minutes and twenty or so new tentacles the bird had accepted its fate and just squawked a sad song, isolda began to feel sorry for this beast. It may have leveled the city but watching it get slowly dragged to its doom was still hard to watch. As the bird made its way to the lava the pool began to disrupt at the surface causing a large whirlpool. The lava emptied into a gaping maw, it reminded Isolda of a squid but this was definitely not a squid. It had multiple mouths around the one large mouth that had just appeared, she couldnt get a look at the rest of its body or head but she knew what she was seeing wasn't all of its head even. She watched as the pheonix enters the maw and its its squawks of acceptance became screeches of pain, the sounds of its flesh and bones crunching resounded across the savage lands. The birds head was the last to disappear, when it finally was gone the beast disappeared into the lava pool. The city had become a charred ruin of what it was, trees fell over catching fire as the lava spread around it, animals could be heard retching in the distance as they too were consumed by the fire. The black pool of lava began to turn and bubble again, another large tentacle exited from the ripples, this tentacle was different, having a bulbous end instead of a pointed end, she really stretched herself as far as the barrier would let her, focusing on the tentacle. The pod opened at the end and thats when she realized what she was seeing, the tentacle had a giant black bulbous eye on the end of it and it was scanning the new environment it was now in. Now isolda had only two concerns, she hoped the barrier could make her hut invisible or the barrier was strong enough to keep the creature away. She wished in her head that the creature would leave her alone, but her hopes were dashed when the tentacle pointed its eye directly her way, small waves formed as it started to head her way.