ChaoZ: A Royal pain in the elves.

Jex nodded as the he watched the two witches leave them. He let Rol carry the potions and returnip due to his lack of pockets. Turning to face East, he started.

"Come along with me with the butterflies and bees."

"WE CAN WANDER THROUGH THE FOREST.. Sounds like poorly written song lyrics to teach kids about sex."

The bounty hunter followed behind the mage, urging Fluffy to coming along.

Fluffy whipped its tail back and forth as it followed them. Looking up at the Sky and flapping its small wings.

The sun was shining brightly and there were almost no clouds. The weather apparently had no clue that it was anything but a normal day. Then again, what is a normal day in a place like Val?

They reached the end of the forest (you left scott in a forest I think? Or at least near trees.). In front of them a large meadow stretched as far as they could see. Only interupted by a few roads and bridges.

Fluffy began to run ahead and gained speed very quickly. And then he jumped. Somehow his small wings had grown in size and now they were large enough for him to fly. And that's what he did. He flew high above Rol and Jex, circling around them as they walked.

Rol pretended to wipe a tear from his eyes after seeing Fluffy fly.

"Oh. They grow up soooo fast."

The bounty hunter yelled up to Fluffy, "Stay close, if you go too far people'll think you're a baddie."

Jex took a deep breath.

He could feel the nature around him flourishing, each living thing in the immediate area filled to the brim with natural magic. He felt so alive. He let the bottom of his staff brush the overgrowth. 

Watching Fluffy's wingspan increase startled him, but not by that much. He guessed it may have something to do with crossing the forest, or maybe he leveled up or something.

"Forward, then?"

Fluffy let out a loud cry as he soared through the sky. It was hard to tell if it was in response to Rol or just from the excitement of flying after being locked up for so long.

The trip was long and rather uneventfull for the most part. Hours passed without anything happening. They didn't even spot any towns on their way. The High elven Kingdom had far more open space than Centrea.

However the peacefull trip couldn't last. Because random encounter!
Fluffy spotted trouble on the horizon and cried out before flying down and landing next to Rol and Jex.

Jex and Rol didn't have to wait long to see why Fluffy cried out, Giant jumping spiders. Three of them, they were human sized and they jumped quickly over the meadows.
They attacked.

"Forwards, sure." Rol said in response to his friend. 

Not long after Fluffy's warning cry came and the spiders made themselves known. "Ooh, nice call Fluffy."

The bounty hunter made a wall of shadows to hinder the spiders attack, but they'd probably just jump it.

Jex looked around and let the natural magic flow around him. He felt calm around nature, despite the bugs that annoyed him so much. 

Speak of the Devil.

"Sagitta Magica. Series Fulgaris!"

3 arrows of fire materialized and fired forward from the tip of his staff as he swung it forward, one for each spider.

Two of Jex's arrows hit their target. One of the spiders was set on fire but the other only got it's leg a little burned. The third one did indeed jump over Rol's wall.
The burning spider curled up and burned to death.
The other one Jumped at Jex and released some kind of toxic spray towards him.

Fluffy fired some of it's stings at the spider above Rols wall before it landed. This distracted it from Rol and it went after fluffy instead.

"Woah there buddy."

Rol eyed the long shadows cast from the spiders legs and began to manipulate them, the spider was hopefully too distracted by fluffy to notice. He attempted to cage the spider making it unable to jump around any more.

"YOU ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD AND SHIT."

Jex dove off to the side, hoping to dodge the poison.

"Shit."

He rolled on the ground and held his staff up and aimed it like a rifle at the spider.

"Sagitta Magica, Series Fulgaris!"


More bolts of fire shot at the spider

The spider was trapped in the shadow cage and hissed. It spewed it's poison at fluffy. Fluffy was hit. But shook it off. Manticores were immune to most poisons so it didn't bother fluffy at all.

Jex managed to dodge the poison and his fire bolts hit the spider. It burst into flame and crumpled up and died.

"Yo."

Rol approached Jex after permanently solidifying the cage. 

"Let's continue to the temple place and find the master sword. Ooooh, meta joke nice one Rol."


The bounty hunter clapped once, as if high-fiving himself.

Jex sighed. He wondered how many more of those they would encounter along the way. Well you know what they say, if you're meeting monsters, you're going the right way.

"Let's go, then."

He mumbled as he helped himself up and started walking.

Floffy growled at the spider one last time before following Rol. After a short walk the Manticore decides it's safe and flies up into the air again.
The sight of the flying manticore scared off most animals and monsters.
Not that they would have been much of a challenge anyway.

The road took them past a few small towns but they didn't have time to stop. The prince and the dark elf were also on their way to one of the temples. It would be best if Rol and Jex got there before they did.
But the road was long and after hours of walking the sun started to set slowly. Even fluffy had landed. The manticore was too tired too keep flying for any longer.

Luckily the three found another town before the sun completely set. This town was slightly larger than the previous one but not by much. The shops had started to close and there weren't many people about. The ones that were still out didn't seem to want to have much to do with the two humans and their flying predator.

With one exception, a short girl came running up to them. "Ooh, a manticore! You don't see many tame ones around here."
She really stood out from the other elves. Aside from being much shorter than any of the others she also had green hair that came down to her neck, much shorter than most high elven hair. And her ears were much longer, which meant she was probably a wood elf. Her clothing was also much less colored than that of her high elven neighbours.
"Can I pet him?" She asked gesturing at Fluffy.
Fluffy tilted his head and looked up at the wood elf girl.

(Floffy)
The bounty hunter looked around the town. 

"Guess we're staying here, huh?"

He smirked, then noticed an elf who had approach the party, or more particularly Fluffy.

"Oh pet Fluffy? Sure I guess. I dunno how he'll react to a stranger but guess we can find out." Rol said, nonchalantly.

Jex walked beneath Fluffy, allowing him to lead the way.

When they had come across the small town, Jex made sure to take careful note of what was happening around them. The elves didn't seem to want to associate themselves with the three and so he tried to avoid eye contact. When the little Wood Elf came along, she started at Fluffy, trying to pet the Manticore.

"Uh."

Was all he could muster. He supposed it was Rol's decision but he wasn't sure how the manticore would react. Meanwhile, he looked at the elf. She looked way out of place. She seemed quite young as well, though he dared not try to guess her age.

"Are you from here?"

(Oh dear gods, floffy.. I don't even..)

"Fluffy?" The girl looked carefully at the manticore. "A weird name for a manticore but cute." She shrugged and started scratching fluffy behind his ear. He seemed to like it.
"Well, no and yes. I live here but only temporarily. I'm actually planning to move to a friends place soon. I've lived here for a few years but the locals don't seem to like me. I guess my parents were right when they said High elves are xenopubes.. umm I pronounced that wrong didn't I? It means they hate strangers."

Fluffy purred as she kept petting him. "..The only issue is that my friend lives rather far away to the west. And I can't travel that far by myself. I asked my friend to come and pick me up but she doesn't have time. She's too busy with her farm." The girl pouts.
Fluffy looks at her before licking her hand. "Oh, sorry you don't want me to stop?"
She starts petting fluffy again and he starts purring, again.

"Oooh! I know! You guys can take me to my friends farm. You're heading west right? I know because theres only one road through here and you came from the not-west side. You seem like good people, if you weren't then fluffy wouldn't be so friendly, right? In return I'll let you sleep in my house. On the couch of course. Its getting late and this town doesn't have an Inn, it's better than sleeping outside right? Ooh, I know something! If you guys take me to my friends place I'll teach you how to fly on fluffy! My friend probably has a spare saddle you can use."

The wood elf jumped up and down excitedly. Fluffy watched the hyper active wood elf as she bounced.
"Please, oh please, pleeease~."

"Oh boy, that was a lot of dialogue I didn't pay attention to." Rol scratched his head. 

The bounty hunter didn't really know how to respond to the tsunami of communication. But he could pick up bits and pieces. "I dunno, Jex it's up to you since I'd imagine you'd be far better at any sort of decision making than I am. Fluffy seems to like her so I haven't got any objections."

He sighed. "And it's xenophobe.."


(Fluffy watched the hyper active wood elf as she bounced.
"Please, oh please, pleeease~."  - read that out of context.)

Jex nodded at everything that the wood elf said. He wondered if she could be trusted. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.


"Sure. I'm all for it."

He loosened his grip on his staff and stared and Fluffy.

"Lead the way."

(Thanks for the mental image. You're lucky I don't draw bestiality or that mental image would have become a real one. Then again.. I don't consider pokemon porn to be bestiality since pokemon are intelligent enough (Most of them at least, not counting slowpoke and such.) And fluffy is rather smart.. Nah, not gonna cross that line.)


"Yay! Thank you!" The Wood elf smiled widely.
She then turned to lead them to her house. "This way!" She skipped along happily.
"Oh I almost forgot! My name is Daeronna but you can just call me Leaf." She giggled. She then continued to babble on the entire way to her house.

Her house wasn't too far away but by the time they had reached it the sun had set.
the house was just large enough for one small girl to live. It only had two floors. It looked suspiciously much like a house in an old rpg. A living room on the bottom with a table and a few plants, two couches, a rug and not much else. A staircase lead to a single bedroom with a bed and some cabinets.
Also lots of empty pots for no reason at all.

"Alright, you can each sleep on a couch. And if there's anything you need you can just ask me, okay?" Leaf didn't wait for an answer and headed up the stairs.

"How the hell did Daeronna turn into Leaf?" The bounty hunter pondered while following the elf to her home.

"Okay, Jex look through the pots because money is probably in them. Normally I'd say break them, but I am going to sleep and that would be loud. Also breaking people's items tends to lead to them  kicking you out of their house. Wake me if required."


Rol fell on to the couch he was closest to and slept.

Jex nodded as Rol read his mind. He walked forward at the pots and looked inside. He rolled up his sleeve and reached into each pot with his right hand, ready to pull it out if anything were to feel off.

"We should be fine."

He muttered as Leaf went to her room upstairs.

"Oh right, humans don't speak wood elvish. Daeronna means 'Leaf of the Sacred Oak Tree'. Well it could also mean 'Topless Tortoises Bathing in the Moonlight' but thats in another accent than they speak in my hometown. It doesn't make sense anyway."
Leaf answered Rol's question and then trailed off again.
(Happened before arriving to the house.)


Jex found 8 Gems and a strawberry, which may or may not be a bit moldy.

---
The next morning:

The sun had just started to rise and a rooster was making its morning wake up calls.
Wait no.. It was Leaf singing in the shower. Sorry, it sounded just like a rooster but more happy.
After a while she came back into the house all dressed and drying her hair off.
"Oh good, you guys are awake. I'll go pack my things. Meanwhile you can have breakfast and then we leave, okay?" Again she didn't wait for an answer and headed upstairs.

Fluffy was still sleeping and snoring slightly on the floor.

Cahill stretched his arms out, gems in his pocket. He looked around. Everyone was still asleep and the sun was young. He stood up from the couch and walked towards the window. It was a bright and early morning in the land of Elves. He stood for a second, admiring the scene when the little elf girl starting caw caw-ing. He cringed and looked behind him as she came down.

"Alright."

He muttered as there was not much to eat. He looked around and made sure he didn't leave anything. Opening the door, he stepped out and stretched his arms wide once more. He tightened and loosened his grip on his staff, twirling it in between his fingers. He waited for his companions to follow.