Isolda

"You will allow me and my company safe passage to your city by the sea, you will find the other scouts and tell them of what has happened and you will send them ahead so your people can prepare for my arrival. You must not let my company know who I am, our master needs to remain hidden from those who may try and stop him from achieving sovereignty over this world. I would not like to be the one who ruined his plans." Isolda gestured a knife across the throat but really meant much much worse. " i must return to my group, do what i have commanded and your rewards will be great." Isolda melded into a nearby shadow cast by a small pine tree and disappeared, the two orcs spoke amongst themselves. " we must return to the city, if she is a vassal for an ancient and we don't she could kill us all." Cringe, which was the smaller of two orcs, had a deep fear in his voice when he spoke. He saw the ancient in that girls soul himself, the power that dwelled in her was a scary dark power, one that made him feel both terrified and energized. Like that power is what his body had needed his whole life. " Ragna was a bit more composed, he was skeptical of what he had seen. The girl was a witch, and a human one to boot and he was certain she may have used magic to trick them. "There has not been an ancient on Thre'a for over five thousand years, since the elves defeated them and drove their armies to all the corners of the world. Only the kraken clan remained on this continent because they aligned with the sea ancient and took to the sea." They debated back and forth for a few more minutes before a figure slid out of the shadows, " i suppose ill have to motivate you further." Isolda said with fire behind her voice, she was annoyed her commands hadn't been followed. She knew she would have to kill one of the orcs and delighted in every moment that lay ahead.

A dark aura enveloped her as if her body had been encased in shadows, all but her eyes which shone brighter than the clearest emerald and lit the area up with a green light releasing a strange pressure around the area making the orcs feel nauseous and fall to their knees. Ragna vomited black blood as his mask fell from his face. Horror struck across his face, which revealed beedy black eyes and a large flat nose, his mouth had gaps between its shark like teeth. Under the jowls four slits on each side pulsated and began to pulsate rapidly as Ragna began to panick. She was the vassal of the great maw and he had offended her, he knew she was going to slaughter them both for his discretion.

He scrambled for his spear in hopes he could get lucky maybe and save himself.

Black tendrils reached from the aura surrounding Isolda, twenty or more flailed above her, some looked like a krakens tentacles, while others looked more menacing like battle axes and scythes and sickles swinging wildly leaving large gashes in the larger trees and downing the smaller.

Cringe covered his face with his hands, he didn't want to see this, if he were to die he wanted it to be over without him seeing the monster doing it. Krakens were fearless against the world of thre'a because they've got the memories of the ancients and their horrors burned into their genetic memories. What they were feeling right now wakes up the old habit to submit to their masters and the old fear of their vile punishments. " As vassal of your master for the act of treason I sentence you to die." Isoldas voice deepened as she cast her sentence, " the punishment is death!" As she spoke the tendrils seemed to target only Ragna pointing and writhing in his direction. " you! Cringe! Remove your hands, you must watch as a witness, for you are a believer and will do my bidding without question." Cringe removed his hands to find Isolda in front of him with her back turned and her tendrils attacking Ragna furiously. Slashes cut pieces of the orcs spraying blood and flesh, the tentacle like tendrils would snatch up the flesh and seem to suck up the pools of blood as it fell. The scene was gruesome, when she had finished there was only the head and the bones remaining. The tendrils slid back to the aura before melding back into Isolda. " now when i say with haste servant i mean with haste."

Cringe scrambled to his feet and took off as fast as orc legs could carry him leaving his spear and his comrade behind as he disappeared into the thick woods.

Isolda once again took to the shadows staying close to her party to make sure they made their way to their destination never knowing the atrocity she had just committed. She teleported to random shadows along the path and using her shadow peek spell to. Check and see if anything was off further ahead. Cringe wouldn't be to the city by the sea for at least a fort night and them at least a fort night after that.

The owls were moving much slower than the krakens did in the wilds, they weren't used to the hills and obstacles that came with traversing the wilderness, they led an arboreal life in the trees rarely coming to the ground. The air was heavier making the paths( which were uphill and steep littered with logs and rocks along the way) more treacherous. Jani'dae and yoka spent most of their time floating and rarely walked anywhere so they needed multiple stops to rest. Before long night fall caused the group to think about setting up camp somewhere in the thicket of the woods. Isolda pretended to scout ahead because the others still feared of a sneak attack by the kraken clan.

She led them all to a group of trees that was walled on three sides naturally by thorn bushes that looked as if a single scratch would fill you with poisons. Green leaves with purple thorns that grew up around the tress at least three meters high. Jani'dae cast a few enchantments and began to weave protective charms and enchantments like a magical quilt around the area for a great distance. Yoko began to cast her own enchantments around the area. Isolda pulled a small box from her travel pack and threw it, a small purple tent popped up where it landed.

The orcs created dwellings using enchantments on the thorny bushes to further protect themselves. Jani'dae protested against isolda using her tent box she created herself claiming it would be hard to hide a tent in a wilderness filed with kraken clan orcs. She shrugged off her mothers warnings and brought it anyway, she could slaughter all the orcs in the savage lands by herself if she wanted and not even need a nap after ( of course she kept that to herself). Isolda cast a spell and lit a fire, they passed around canteens of honey water and slabs of hard bread and sweet cheese, the male orc who Isolda had learned was too hard to pronounce in common tongue so she called him lizard in an attempt to mock him. " those north of the orc land call these the savage lands, and to those not orc these lands are indeed savage. Iron bears so large they tower five hands over the largest orc with claws like castle forged steel from the north. Then there's the two headed tree vipers who make their homes in the black limbs of dying pines, their venom eats the insides of an orc in a few seconds leaving them frozen where they stand before having their insides sucked out like a spider does to a fly. Saber cats and blood drinking large bats and worse make these lands their home, i fear the brush beasts the most." He said wiping his mouth on his sleeve after taking a large gulp out of a canteen no one recognized but assumed was spirits. Jani'dae laughed breaking the seriousness of the conversation, " brush beasts! You know no such animals exists and if they did they most certainly are not something to fear. In all my years iv never seen hide nor tail of one, not a track, not even a carcass from a kill." Lizard grunted " and you never will, brush beasts are most savage, they tear their prey apart before devours the pieces. How many times have you found patches of earth covered in blood with no bodies found? And brush beasts dont leave carcasses, when they die they turn to flame and burn out as quick as they started leaving just a scorch mark where they lay."

Isolda didn't believe but hoped such a creature did exists, she would love to have one or two at yer command. " such creatures do exists, but they are not made of brush, rather they're made of Black living fire and were once instruments of my power, black fire phoenixes. Don't worry my servant one day you will have them at your command." The maw echoed inside her head, "black fire phoenixes." Isolda repeated out loud, she hadn't paid attention because the idea of a creature made of living black fire was mesmerizing to her. " what was that Isolda?" Jani'dae thought she heard the word phoenix come out of Isoldas mouth. Orcs feared the phoenix, their ferocity forever etched in the memories of the orcs and just the word would cause shivers down their spine.

They believed the birds of living black fire were the reason for the melted coastal shelves of the savage lands. They were not like the cliffs that make up the shores of the rest of thre'a which were worn by the seas constant beatings over the ages.

These cliffs were like black ice, pure obsidian ooze down the side of the cliffs like wax down a candle but had the beauty of black glass. The orcs believed at some point before the great war that ended the age of the ancients, before the first human crawled from the life pools that now lay dormant in the lands beyond the east. They believed the savage lands to be much much larger, but a great ancient and a rival had a dispute over the continent of thre'a itself. That a great war had broke out between the two ancients and those who aligned to either side. Of all the ancients there was a great dark ancient who decided he had grown tired of the constant fighting over Thre'a so he snatched a great red phoenix out of the sky. He began to vomit into the birds screeching mouth. At first just its beak went black, then its red fires went black as well. When the ancient had finished a bird as large as a mountains peek and made of fire blacker than volcanic glass took to the air and began spewing its corrosive fire across the battlefield melting away mountains and ending the war abruptly.