Celebration I

A giant thorny branch reached down from the dark clouds, seemingly from out of nowhere. Ammine looked up at the branch with a bewildered expression. Within seconds, the branch made its way down to the ground and Ammine prepared herself for a fight. She was just ready to charge and attack the vine when Fae popped out from one of the giant thorns and started waving his arms frantically for her not to.

Ammine barely managed to stop herself in time as he was flying at a breakneck speed towards the vine and couldn't stop and had to evade it. She spun to the side just as she was about to reach the vine when she saw Fae and slowed down as she flew back around to the vine. Kies couldn't hear what they were saying to each other since the pool didn't also share the sound. After a short talk, Ammine landed on one of the thorns of the branch, and the entire thing ascended back up into the clouds. It was definitely a sight for sore eyes.

"There is an ancient tree growing on this island and that was one of its roots, and as you can see, it is much quicker to show you it than explain it," the witch said. "Hm, or maybe actually not. It's really not that complicated to explain now that I think about it. Oh well, it's too late now." The witch waved her hand and dismissed the pool. "Fae should be back any second now with your companion."

Kies looked at the door that Fae had gone through, and sure enough, after some time, the sound of footsteps can be heard behind the door. The door opened to reveal an undead and an extremely tired and pissed-off demon. There was more blood staining her clothes and smearing her face than when Kies last saw her. He wouldn't be surprised if she tells him that she had killed every single undead that was in her path just based on how much blood there was on her.

Ammine walked up to Kies, crossed her arms, and said, "So, I heard from Fae that you were the one that killed the Bone Whistler."

Kies looked at Ammine for a few seconds before replying, "I guess I did."

"Impressive. Never would I have ever guessed that you would be the one to take down that monster." Though her face didn't really match her words, Kies could tell that she was really surprised by it.

"I guess that concludes our business here. Finally, I have been dying to get out of this forest." Ammine stretched her body and went to talk with the witch. While she didn't really help in the final fight with the Bone Whistler, she still upheld their side of the deal in helping the witch defeat him. It was now her turn to hold her side of the deal.

While Ammine was doing that, Kies thought that it was a good idea to go practice some magic. He really didn't have much magic power left after the fight with the Bone Whistler and only regenerated some of it back but it was still enough for a couple of spells. Just as Kies was about to go off and find someplace where he could practice in peace, he noticed that the werewolves were messing around with something.

"Hey boss, what do we do about this?" One of the werewolves went over to Bloodmane, holding up the dragonskin bag they had picked up from before.

"Hm? You still have that?" Bloodmane took the bag from the werewolf's hands and tugged on it, trying his best to pull it apart with no success. "Gah, what is this thing?"

"Yeah, I almost left it behind but remembered that it was there. The owl said that it was useful or something so I grabbed it as we were leaving, but none of us can figure out how to open this thing."

Bloodmane handed the bag back to the werewolf and pointed at Haro. "Go give it to that owl, he was the one that wanted this."

"Hoo yes, the bag." Haro flew over as he overheard their conversation. His ears were extremely sharp as he heard them talking from across the room. Haro picked up the bag with his talons and flew over to a table and dropped it down.

Kies went over to Haro since he was curious about what was in the bag, assuming that they could even open it. He watched as Haro tried tearing open the bag with his talons and instantly dropped that idea a few seconds later after seeing that it had no effect. The werewolves had already tried opening the bag this way multiple times and hadn't succeeded, so there was no point in him trying as his strength was nowhere near the werewolves' level.

Next, Haro tried blasting magic at the bag which also had no effect. Since the werewolves didn't have anything better to do, they all came over as well and watched the owl as he tried a bunch of different ways of opening the bag.

"What are you all huddling around for?" Ammine finished talking to the witch and walked over to the table where everyone was gathered and looked down at the bag.

"Hoot, we've been trying to figure out how to open this," Haro told her.

"This?" Ammine picked up the bag and examined it for a moment before suddenly slamming it down onto the table. *Thump!* She startled everyone and broke the table as well, splitting it perfectly down the middle in two.

Fae was attracted by the loud noise and came rushing over to find the destroyed table and yelled in distress. "What are you all doing!? Don't you know how hard it is to get that kind of stuff in this forest!?"

"Oh, sorry." Ammine apologized to Fae who sighed and shook his head disappointingly. He then disappeared behind another of the several doors that were in the room and came back with a bottle of white liquid in his hand.

"You two, hold up the pieces of the table," Fae ordered Ammine and one of the werewolves.

"Huh? Why do we have to help fix that demon's mess? It's not like-"

Fae glared at the werewolf and the werewolf simply shook his head whatever and picked up half of the table as he was told. Fae then poured the white liquid onto the side of the table where it had broken and had the two stick the table back together. After repairing the table, Fae walked back to the room to return the bottle, but not before scolding the group and reminding them to not break anything.

Ammine picked up the bag again, shook it, and then plopped it back down on the table. There was no sound coming from the inside to indicate what item might be in it. For all they know, it could be empty and that they were just wasting their time with the thing.

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