Dance with the Devil

Willow was screaming very loud. The pain was too much to bear."you want my dispair....?" Lillith looked at the tentacles coming from the ground. "Don't kill him....I'm not a monster......"

Gramps acted fast and quickly applied some red powder to her wounds, after which the pain became tolerable. "Give it a few hours," he triee to calm her down. "If you scratch it, you may end up with scars."

He then went ahead and bandaged her.

"You're telling you actually did it?" the fire mage asked. "All your magic now relies on negative emotions?"

The ice mage grinned. "Yes. It was an option I couldn't refuse."

"When were you gonna tell me?"

"Never. You don't need to know."

"thank you...Thank you....That hurt too much..." Lillith still looked sad. Everything was hopeless now.

Autumn made sure the dryad was dead and then went back to the others. "What were you thinking, sticking your head out like that?" he berated Willow. "We would have told you everything out there for blood, but you just went for it."

"Be a little easy on her, Autumn," gramps said as he finished bandaging her wounds and tapping Lotus on the shoulder to have her snap out of it. "Weeks ago, not even you knew they'd attack at sight."

"Healing... hug." Lotus embraced Willow.

There was a thundering sound – another mage arrived. She had a look around, lightning dancing around her limbs, her eyes a static, glowing white.

Willow looked. "I'm sorry...Next time I'll know better.." lillith looked at the other mage. "Hey there.."

"You'll have to rest later," gramps asked, offering her his paw. "We have to keep going."

"With some luck, we'll find another place to camp." Autumn said annoyed.

"h-hello," the lightning mage greeted her. "is this the right place?"

Despite what Lillith said, Azzar still wanted to get rid of the ice mage, one way or another. Like some of her friends, even he knew evil when he saw it.

Willow grabbed his paw trying to walk. "Yes this is the right place....Azzar I know what you want to do but killing isn't the answer...."

Walking was no problem, but because of the wound on her side, walking quickly proved to be painful.

Autumn looked displeased; he knew she'd do nothing but slow them down.

Lotus, however, just went beside her for extra support. She wasn't very strong, but she wanted to help her.

"Some of us, particularly the mages of Arcturus, believe tournaments should be held to determine who is fit to represent one branch of magic," the lightning mage said. "As of know, being the headmaster of the school with the most students is enough."

"Haha!" the ice mage taunted her. "Like that's ever going to happen." The lightning mage disappeared and reappeared right in front of ice mage, making him jump.

"Scared you'd lose?"

"thank you lil one. I wish I wasn't such a p-pain..." Lillith sighed. She was no longer in any good mood and just went next to azzar turning into a dragon again.

Autumn scouted ahead. "Elemental; earth," he announced to the group. "Just came out of cave to the east; it's likely that there's more."

Azzar just gave her a hug. "Idiots exist everywhere; just ignore it."

"so we go another way?" "I know you'll never hurt me..." She she nuzzled one of his tentacles.

Without saying anything, the group tried going around it. As they retraced their steps and went to follow a river, the dryad's body was gone.

"I knew I should have burnt it into ashes," Autumn said. "Here's hoping we don't bump into her again."

Azzar wished he could give her a kiss. "I gave you a promise."

"maybe it won't attack us next time...." Lillith smiled. "You're the best"

The group had no problems for at least an hour of walking through the dense forest, but the dryad eventually caught up to them.

Though burnt considerably, the magic that was keeping it going was still intact. As it walked towards them, it tore out chunks of wood from a tree and used it to repair itself.

Azzar laughed. "You're the bestest."

"why are you following us...Why did you attack me wh-ehen I wasn't going to hurt you...." "No I'm not..."

The dryad spoke, but her voice sounded like pieces of wood scraping against one another. It drew a line in the ground with its foot.

"Yeah, so?" Autumn muttered, a fireball ready. "We're just passing through."

"Don't lie to yourself," Azzar told her. "For me, you're the best."

"Yes...We just need to travel through here to get to where we need to go..." Lillith smiled and cuddle with him more.

The dryad drew a creature with many tails on the ground and then crossed it with an X.

None of them were passing through her.

"How about we left and came back later?" Azzar gave her a suggestion. "It may take some till until all the mages arrive."

"Why can't you be nice...We don't want any fights..." "No...I want to see all of the mages...Mages are...Cool..." She didn't sound exited though.

The dryad spoke, but again, none of the kitsune present could understand her.

"Big mean tree lady!" Lotus cried out.

That was when the dryad noticed the child and walked closer.

Autumn lobbed a fireball and did a near-miss on the forest guardian. "Nuh-uh, oak-face," he said. "One step closer and I'm making coal outta ya!"

"Maybe illusion mages will arrive as well?" Azzar told her. "Or something else that'll interest you."

"what it's not allowed to look that we have a child?" "Yeah I'll wait"

"It knows; that's as much as that thing is getting," Autumn said. "And to think my mom used to tell me how they protected the forest and everything that lived in it."

The dryad spoke again and then did something unusual.

It aimed one hand at Willow and the other at a tree. Soon after, the tree withered and died. 

Autumn turned to violence and simply set her ablaze.

However, what it did healed Willow's injuries.

Soon enough, an illusionist does arrive – complete with card tricks and pulling coins out of other mages' ears.

"was burning it the right choice? It just healed me..." Willow said . Lillith walked over to illusionist.

Autumn scratched his head and extinguished the dryad with his five tails.

The dryad spoke again, her voice now sounding like wooden planks that were about to break.

"How was I supposed to know?" Volt told her. "I thought she was gonna attack you again."

"Greetings!" the illusionist smiled at her. "What do you need, miss?"

Willow got right next to the dryad. "You can heal yourself with the trees right?" "Can you do a cool illusion?"