Sprite had planned to take a long, long walk. It was bad enough that she was out in the middle of nowhere. She was out in the middle of nowhere with a town full of people who could be controlled at any time by her pseudo-older brother. Okay, it was a little creepy.
But, not even a half-hour into her walk, she noticed movement in the distance. It was moving quickly. She tried to ignore the nagging feeling in the back of her mind to return to the nice Amazonians and finish her walk. But curiosity won out, and she took a few steps forward to get a better view of what was moving at such a breakneck speed.
Its skin or fur was a dark color. If it was some kind of prey animal, she could easily cast an illusion to distract it long enough for Sprite to get as far away from it as possible. But as she got closer, she realized it was far too large to be a normal animal.
“Oh shit.”
It was a deviant. And it was moving very fast.
Towards her.
She didn't have much time to think, so the first thought that came to mind was to return to the village. Yes, it may sound foolish, it most likely was—but she was pretty sure she saw a gun or two back there. While human guns don't contain cosmic energy, a shot to the head would still cause some damage.
Besides, if it didn’t work, Druig would know what to do. The question was whether he would help her. Of course, Sprite charging full-speed into the small village with a deviant— Shoot! She didn't have time to check to see if there were more than one—on her tail, she didn't think he'd have much of a choice.
She could already see the small figures of some of the villagers when suddenly her shoulder was struck, knocking her off balance. She raised her hand to check on it. Trying to get up as fast as she could, she began to feel whether her shoulder was seriously injured or not. It definitely hurt but it didn’t feel dislocated and her hand came back unbloody. Hopefully it was just bruised.
Knowing the deviant must be right behind her, she waved her hand to make it seem that there were way more trees than there should be, while she quickly ducked behind an actual tree and hid. From where she was, she could still see the deviant coming to a full stop not too far from her. Great.
Luckily for her, it seemed it was only one deviant. For now.
Her abilities will not keep it there indefinitely. And the deviant was getting much too close for her liking. After she thought about it, she couldn't exactly just lead it to the village. With the mass of people gathered there, and if the deviant just pounced on an unsuspecting villager
She had to warn them before the deviant got anywhere near humans.
Druig could help her. She just needs to get his attention. She just needs to get one of the villager’s attention. If the villagers knew about the very dangerous man-eating beast that was currently only meters from their village that was covered only by Sprite’s illusions, they’ll panic. Hopefully, Druig would notice fast enough before they start full-on screaming, as that would probably attract the deviant more than her tiny eternal self.
As to how to get their attention,
Three enormous fireworks continuously exploded far above the trees. Not too close to her position but also not pointing in the direction of the village.
It seemed to do the trick as she could faintly see groups of people looking her way and quickly dispersing. With any luck, return with something or someone who could take down this thing.
Sprite was so preoccupied with watching over the village that she didn't notice that her making illusions of fireworks had reduced the number of tree illusions around her and that she was now directly in the path of the growling deviant.
She felt behind her, where she kept her dagger and unsheathed it slowly.
She stepped away from the tree where she had previously sought refuge, slowly backing away towards where she knew the village would be. The deviant charged towards her before she could get far, and she managed to raise the hand that held the dagger, causing it to impale itself on the side of the deviant's head. She didn't think the dagger did much damage to the deviant based on its size, and judging by the way the deviant flung her away, she was right.
As her back hit the ground, she felt the air being knocked out of her lungs. She groaned, wondering if help was even coming.
Druig will help. But a part of her mind couldn’t help doubting. Will he?
The deviant quickly regained its composure and was ready to pounce her. Even with her doubts, she found herself screaming for him.
“Druig!! Help me! DRUIG!!”
As the deviant loom over her, a shot rang out and something pierced its side, blood splattered to the ground. More shots were fired. Around her, the villagers formed a half-circle, their eyes glowing brightly.
Searching for the one who was controlling them, she felt the back of clothes being grasped and yanked backward. The deviant was thrashing wildly while protecting its body from bullets. Throwing parts of trees around and even debris towards them. Where sprite sat before, now sat a big boulder of rock that would’ve definitely crushed her.
“If you’re just going to sit there and watch. You might as well get out of the way.” She turned around and behind her stood Druig holding a well-aimed gun. His words sunk in when she heard the loud bang as he pulled the trigger.
Wondering what good, guns would do against the deviant, sprite looked around. The villagers weren’t just shooting aimlessly—or Druig wasn’t making them shoot aimlessly—they were pushing it back and cornering it to a well-placed pit that even sprite hadn’t seen until now.
“Well?” Irritation in his voice, Druig considered making one of the villagers just drag Sprite back to the village.
Although it seemed he didn’t have to as Sprite conjured up a battle-ready Thena to charge at the deviant. It seemed to spook it enough for it to stumble back and finally fall into the pit.
Swiftly after it had fallen, the pit burst into flame as a couple of the villagers dropped torches into it.
Now that the deviant was a couple of feet below ground and probably scorched, Sprite started inspecting her injuries. Her shoulder still seemed to be the worst problem as she felt it sting as she rolled her shoulder. She was definitely visiting Ajak after this.
“I told you coming here was a mistake.” Sprite raised her gaze to the face staring down at her.
“Shut up.”
“Is that your version of a ‘thank you?”
Despite her glare, he didn't blink as he pulled her up and quickly let go of her hand once he heard her hiss in pain.
“That. Hurt.”
“Your own fault for wandering off. I told you to stay close to the village. You never listen.”
“I thought you told me that coming here was a mistake.” She threw his words back at him.
She had another snarky retort in her head, but it was cut short by his unamused expression.
So instead she said, “You left me some crayons, paper, and said to stay in the house so I didn’t cause trouble. Do you think I was going to do that?? I’m not a kid!”
He scoffed. “I thought you liked art. You used to talk your mouth off about art.”
“That was decades ago.”
“So you don’t like it anymore?”
“No-“
“-you don’t like it?-”
“-what? No, I mean yes I lik-“
“-you’re not making sense sprite.” His monotonous way of talking pissed her off.
“Well, you’re an ass druig!” She stomped back towards the village.
“I better get that thank you soon.” She could hear him drawl. She gave him the middle finger, and if she had turned around, she would have seen the soft smile on his face before it vanished a split second later.
Druig watched the back of his fellow eternal—he could even say little sister—from afar. Monitoring the woods and finding no signs of other deviants lurking around, he set free the villager’s minds. And if a few of them formed a circle around the little brat on her way to the village, well she didn’t seem to notice nor mind.
Only after he saw that the small ginger-haired figure had vanished into the safety of his village did he move from his perch to follow.