THE DEVAKEES

Next morning, Sun was at the horizon. 

SOMEWHERE IN THE FOREST.

[BIRDS CHIRPING].

[FOOTSTEPS CLOMPING].

[FOILAGE RUSTLING].

It was the Elven man walking with the youngest Elven girl in his lap who was still asleep, while the other two Elven girl's were riding on the wind. They were riding on the wind because of a spell casted by the young Elven man. Krishi was also following them closely. The excitement of riding on the wind was clearly evident on the girls faces.

[BUSHES RUSTLING].

At some distance from where they all were, the Elven man heard the bushes rustling. After looking around a bit, he turned towards Krishi and said "Look after them." Krishi nodded her head, the Elven man laid the child in his lap under a tree. 

He began walking in the direction from where the sound came. He was already so far away from the rest that they couldn't hear or see him.

As he looks on the other side in the bushes, there was nothing to be found. He looked around, all of a sudden a huge snake like creature, beyond ten meters, purple in color, small eyes, with big canine teeth, and it's split tongue out, was hanging behind him from one of the branches of a huge tree.

The Elven man had already sensed this danger, he didn't move. The snake like creature was trying to sense something with it's tongue. After some time the Elven man slowly turned his face towards the snake like creature to face it, but even before he could turn completely, it attacked by trying to harm him with it's teeth. But just like wind he vanished from the sights of the snake like creature, with in a second the role of prey and predator was reversed.

The snake like creature was now crawling on the ground searching for the Elven man.

The Elven man he was standing on one of the branches of the same tree but far above from where the snake like creature was before. He was looking at it and said "a 1st class Devakee, even though we are not so deep in-to the forest."

Devakees are creatures, who resemble the normal animals of the forest but are far more dangerous, one of the most important reason why they are so dangerous is their intelligence. Compared to a normal animal, they are sharp, they learn, they think, and then they take actions accordingly.

It is a common knowledge among the folks of this world, that these creatures are only seen in the deepest part of the forest, one of the reasons why the Elves previously in-habitated the exterior parts of the forest, instead of living somewhere deep.

But not all Devakees are equally powerful and intelligent and so, thousands of years ago a classification was created. They were classified on the basis of amount of destruction that one of them could bring. They were divided in NINE classes, named from one to nine, with a 1st class creature being the least harmful and the 9th class being the most harmful and intelligent.

There were still some of these creatures who couldn't be put under any of these classes. They were creature with potential to destroy Kingdoms.

They were called as DEVANS. In the history there has never been a Devan recorded but myths were always around the people of both the Empire as well as the Elves.

The Elven man was still staring down at the crawling snake, he said "I still don't know the reason why you all have to come out of the deepest part of the forest."

He raised his right hand and casted a spell, a small fire ball started burning in his hands, he looked towards the Snake Devakee and said "I shall look to it." and threw the fire ball down, towards the Snake Devakee, before the Snake Devakee could sense that something was approaching it, the fire ball hit it and incinerated the 1st class Devakee.

For sometime the Devakee struggled in pain, but soon not even it's bone were left.

The Elven man Jumped from the tree, unfazed, started moving back in the direction from where he came.

 ----×----×----×----

Somewhere, far away, deep in the Forest.

[HORSE'S FOOTSTEPS CLOMPING].

There was a group of people who were travelling on their horses. It was the group of The Princess from the Empire, with the General and more than Fifty soldiers of Empire to protect her.

They were travelling by forming a circle, with the Princess and the General at the center, protected by the soldiers from all side. She was riding a white Royal horse. A soldier on his horse comes to the General, The group stopped, soldier got off the horse and bowed on his knees, he said "The footprints we were following earlier but lost are re-found, the evidences speak that these footprints are fresh."

The General also get's off his horse and while walking by the soldier he says "lead the way." The General looks at the footprints 'haha ha, we ain't that far, it's a pack of around fifty, may be the last survivors, Amazing... if we speed up a bit we will be able to catch up-to them before tomorrow's sunrise.'

His happiness was evident, he walked back to where the princess was, with happiness and a greedy smile he said "your highness I have brought good news, the preys aren't that far, they are around fifty, I believe they are the last pack of survivors, if we move a bit fast we could catch them before tomorrow's sunrise."

The Princess looked towards him with anger and said "then what are you waiting for you morons."

The General's face turned down, he walked back to his horse and mounted, then he announced "Listen, we are speeding up, but remember the Princess's safety takes priority over anything else."

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"YES SIR." the soldiers yelled.

The group started moving with more pace than before.

 ----×----×----×----

At the same time, somewhere far away in the deepest part of the forest, Inside a huge cave, surrounded by more stones, covered in grasses, muddy ground, there was wooden torch burning.

Many Elves, Elderly and young, skinny and weak with depressed and despaired faces, were sitting on the ground. The mothers of crying younger ones were trying to comfort the children and silence them in their laps.

In particular there was an Elderly skinny Elven man, with white dirty torn clothes, depressed and saddened eyes was sitting in a corner. His dirty hairs have have grown long enough to cover his entire face, if that wasn't enough his dirty beard covered the rest of his face with only his eyes visible in that slightly dark cave. Five Elven man who looked young but there faces was not visible in the darkness have just entered the cave, they walked directly to the old man and bowed and said "This is all that we were able to find." One of them handed two bags full of fruits to the Old man, the old man kept staring at the bags for a while and then said "alright, gather everyone."

The five men had their heads down in shame and one of them said "Elder, we are sorry, that this is all that we could bring, even though we knew this won't be enough, but we had to escape because we were attacked by 4th class Twin white tiger Devakee."

The old man looked towards them and asked "where is he?" One of them replied in a shameful voice "we wanted to help senior fight it, but he said we will only get in his way and ordered us to return back."

"Gather everyone." The old man replied in a low voice.

All the Elves in the Cave gathered in front of the old man in a queue, the old man gave two fruits to each one of them, and by the time the distribution was over.

[FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING].

A huge Elven man entered in the cave with four bags filled with fruits in his hands, his hands were dripping with blood of his own, he was hurt in several places all over his body, with marks of tiger's paw visible, but even his face was not visible due to the darkness in the cave. He handed the four bags to the Old man and said "this should do fine for today." And walked by.

 ----×----×----×----

The young Elven man was walking back to where he left the kids with Krishi. A different Fairy approached him and sat on his shoulder and whispered something in his ears. As she finished speaking, his eyes turned red in anger with his fist so tightly closed that blood started dripping from his right fist.

----×----×----×----