“What? Tialon?” The panicked voice of the guard to the west basically encapsulated their emotions as a whole. All questions about her wellbeing after having woken were shoved aside in the immediate panic of approaching enemies.
Yawning, she covered her mouth with her hand before waving him down. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of them. I need to restock my supply of magical meat anyways.” She popped her neck and cracked her knuckles, waiting for a moment, but the rebuke from her mother and the nurses never came. The others were staring at her expectantly and she was once again reminded that she wasn’t in the hospital. She’d probably never be scolded for cracking her knuckles again.
A pang of homesickness hit her, but she shoved it to the back of her mind to deal with later. What was the use of it, anyway? She was here now. Her life was here. Here, she was free to run, walk, jump, and do magic! With a spring in her step at that thought, she grinned and opened the door to step outside, where several of her babies fluttered around her. She might not have her parents anymore, but it didn’t mean she didn’t have family. “Hello, my lovelies. Did you miss me?” She cooed at them lovingly as she turned to face the direction the tialon were coming from.
Her heightened perception could pick out the barest movements of the grain giving way before the beasts as they moved stealthily through the golden waves. They appeared large from Willow’s perspective, but she’d thought that was because Willow was so tiny. It seemed she was wrong, as from what she could pick out, they were probably three or four times larger than their earthly counterparts. She was quite impressed they managed to flatten themselves to the ground as much as they had.
This was good news for her! Bigger beasts meant more meat for her to eat, after all. Unless…
She watched in curiosity as the two tialon both jumped from the grain to pounce at her, only to take on a pancake look when they smashed headfirst into the wind wall she’d put up. She flicked her wrists, feeling the mana flow out of her as she trapped them in wind forms. She walked forward, studying the golden creatures from about a foot away as they roared and snarled at her. Her babies were fluttering anxiously around her head, ready to protect her from the two towering creatures. If they hadn’t been trying to bite her in half, she’d have a hard time inspecting their heads, given that they were more than twice her height.
She’d compressed the wind walls around them so they were individually contained and couldn’t jump around to hurt themselves, or anyone else, really. She walked around to the side of the slightly smaller tialon, reaching through her wind wall to touch the fur. It was soft, but had a silky quality. It was rather pleasant, and she nodded, walking back around to the heads of the beasts to stare into their glowering green eyes.
“It’s too bad you aren’t green and silver. I like silver so much better than gold.” If they had been silver, she would be way more tempted to keep them. However, she was genuinely not fond of the color gold, and she already had Ramoth and Rio who more than filled her allowed allotment of the color. The larger was still attempting to bite down on the wind wall which separated her from them. Their eyes were practically glowing with anger.
Still, she considered them. If she contracted them with a master contract instead of equals, then she could use them as beasts of burden to get them off the plains, and kill them afterward without a negative effect on her mind. It was the brutal reality of what might happen if she failed that stopped her in the end. If she was mentally incapacitated, they’d easily swallow her and her companions, and then where would they be? Dead.
Looking at the tialon, she sighed as she whispered, “I’m sorry, kitties, I can’t afford to keep you. I’ll make this as painless as possible.” She figured they understood something of her intent, because they began to try to bite her walls even more frantically than before. Knowing that the longer she kept it up, the weaker she would be, she made her final move.
Due to their close proximity, she reached for the blood in their brains and turned it into a spiked monstrosity that ravaged their minds and killed them instantly. She could see the light leave their eyes as their bodies held for a moment before collapsing to the ground. Reaching out, she let her wind walls drop and closed their eyes before whisking them into her ring. It was a really good thing she’d expanded it as much as she had.
Her babies settled as soon as she’d finally killed the tialon, and she smiled at them as they lined up on her braid, which was rather messy after she’d slept on it. Willow returned, and she noticed that Bolt and Amber smoothly replaced her and Andy in their perimeter sweeps. She kind of loved how organized her little army was. She sincerely didn’t know what she’d have done without them. “Can someone go up and look for the group coming for us? I want to know how far away they are.”
Her mental request was met by an immediate, “We’ll go!” Lavender and Carl took off into the sky, headed towards the castle to scan for the search party. Jade beamed as she watched them fly higher for a moment, then turned and walked back to their little compound. Everyone inside was awake, and while those who were ‘on duty’ were still mostly looking out in their respective directions, they kept sneaking glances at her.
She’d learned to tell the twins apart at this point, even though they looked identical, especially with the dark circles beneath their eyes. It was more their differing energy than anything else. Hunter was far more proactive, while Hayden tended to stay back more and observe. Therefore, it came as no surprise that Hunter was the first one who couldn’t contain his curiosity, asking in barely constrained awe, “How did you do that? What did you even do?”
Smiling wryly, she sat back down on her cot, Hunter plopping down right beside her. Tisha and Hayden followed his example a moment later, sitting on the cot next to her. All of them were staring avidly at her, as if they were waiting for dispensation of knowledge from the heavens. She was rather afraid the truth would disappoint them. “I knew they were coming because Willow spotted them before they were close. Due to our bond, I can see through her eyes when we want to.” Willow fluttered to her shoulder and preened happily there as curious eyes greedily drank in her every movement with Jade’s words.
“After that, I set up a wind wall and gave them an easy target to make sure they’d attack me and not the walls. After they hit it and were momentarily stunned, I trapped them in a wind cage. After that…” She paused and all three of them leaned forward, hanging on her every word. She had to remind herself that they were used to violence, and they’d seen her do a lot worse already, so what did it matter if she told them bluntly? “I used their blood to destroy their brains, no muss, no fuss.” She hesitated, then shrugged. “I like their fur, and I kinda wanted it in one piece and unbloodied.”
Yep, golden as it may be, she already planned to take the green bits and have them made into something for her. Maybe a cloak. It would be especially great if it kept its camouflaging properties and turned into a camo-cape.
“You destroyed their brains because you liked their fur?” Hayden’s voice had a slightly strained quality to it, as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing.
Jade shrugged and nodded, and he looked like he might have been about to say something else when Tisha beat him to it. “The green and gold will look fantastic on you! You should have it made into a beautiful dress!” She sighed dreamily, her enthusiasm for the ball somehow resurfacing despite her recent kidnapping. Jade couldn’t help but let out a small giggle. She was thrilled that Tisha was still thinking about things like the ball. It meant she’d recover from the mental scarring Jade was almost sure this trip would cause.