11 Imprisonment, yet again...

"However, you will have to leave the dryad girl here."

A baby, whose eyes contained far more wisdom than sages, faced several youths.

"There's no way we're leaving Iris behind!" Scarlett yelled.

"Hmph, if it weren't for the dryad, I would reject your offer right away. Why should I help a group of humans for no reason?" Ialantha Pherlorna, the high chief of the elves, responded.

A cold light flashed through her eyes. Supporting her chin with a single hand, she apathetically spoke, "I would have killed you all the moment you stepped into my village. Now, I have to imprison all of you. I can't have the dryad perishing together with you, children. It's a rather dangerous world out there. So, why don't you obey me?"

Iris smiled, "How about no?"

"Yeah! How about no!" Scarlett repeated as she blitzed toward Ialantha. Raising a claw, she tried grabbing ahold of the infant.

The vines trembled as they moved in front of Ialantha to shield her. Ialantha raised her palm, several elves appeared, obstructing Scarlett. In contrast to Ialantha's appearance, the elves were fully grown adults.

Before even reaching the baby, Scarlett was stopped by the numerous of guards. Soon the children were surrounded by the elves. A vine snatched Jade from Wendy's back and carried her to Ialantha. More and more vines wrapped around Jae, Iris, Scarlett, and Clara. Wendy, with her quick legs, was the only one who managed to jump away from the entanglement.

"Wendy! Escape now! Head to the others!" Jae shouted.

Wendy nodded as she continued to leap over the vines and out the window.

"Wendy!" Scarlett screamed.

"Seize her!" Ialantha commanded, "If she dies, the dryad will perish as well!"

On the contrary to everyone's expectations, Wendy did not fall to her death. Instead, she hopped onto the branches which protruded from the stump and safely landed on the ground. Without stopping, she galloped away. No elf, vine, or magic could stop the female cervitaur from fleeing the village.

Jae recalled that while Wendy was adapting to her new appendages, she climbed over many uneven surfaces and up boulders. She was even better at adjusting to her legs than Bridget, the arachnid. Only, her antlers would get stuck on everything, hindering her movements.

"Clara, do you think you can fly away with those wings of yours?" Jae helplessly asked.

Clara rolled her eyes, "If I could, I would have flown far away from all of you months ago."

"Go follow the girl and capture her! Also, acquire the five other children of different races she is seeking," Ialantha ordered.

"Yes, high chief!" Several elves jumped out of the window, leaving five to guard against the four lively children and Farlyn. Two vines suspended Jade and the bag that contained Alexis next to Ialantha.

"Now, what to do with the rest of the children...," tapping her lip in fake contemplation, Ialantha smirked, "Imprison them, including Farlyn. Separately. However, leave the dryad in the room near my chamber."

"Yes!" The elves executed Ialantha's orders without question.

"Wait! Why are you capturing me?" Farlyn desperately called out.

Ialantha indifferently glanced at Farlyn, "Farlyn Pherlorna. A foolish child who got tricked by children to doing their bidding. I can predict with my eyes that you will betray me in the future for those children."

The elves apprehended the children and carried them away. Farlyn struggled within one of the guard's arms.

"But, it didn't happen yet!"

"But, it will. Because my eyes have always been correct. Always."

Ialantha snapped her fingers as the guard swiftly took Farlyn away. The vines transferred the injured Jade and broken Alexis to Ialantha's room.

As usual, Ialantha exerted her tiny body to crawl down the wooden thone toward the open window. In the now barren room, Ialantha looked at the blue sky, seemingly observing something far beyond what any mortal can perceive.

"Why must you also not listen?" A lonely voice resounded within the field of flowers.

Flowers that Dahlia loved as well.

--------

A single cervitaur sprinted past her limits to her companions. She knew that if she could not reach them in time, it was unknown what would happen to Jae and the others.

'Faster. Faster!'

Channeling mana through her veins, she continued to speed up.

Originally, it took two days for the separated party to reach the village. However, that was at the pace of the other children's legs. Furthermore, they were hindered by the excess weight they had to carry.

Now that Wendy was free from the extra baggage and could finally run past her limits, she quickly reached the waiting children within a day.

"*Pant* Every-*pant*-one….we...need help!" Wendy plopped onto the ground in front of the bewildered group.

"Wendy!" Nora hopped toward the exhausted cervitaur and hugged Wendy with her pink tentacles.

"*Pant*You're so *pant* cool, Nora~" Wendy let out a relaxed expression for the first time since she had arrived.

"What happened?" Melody asked as she brought a Waterskin to Wendy's lips.

The dehydrated cervitaur gulped down as if she hadn't drunk water in years.

Cough. Cough.

"Slow down, i-it's al-alright," Natalie patted Wendy's back.

"Your stuttering won't comfort her at all," Melody retorted.

After calming down, Wendy began to explain to the group regarding the events that occurred in the elven village.

"W-What should w-we do now?" Natalie trembled as she looked downcast.

"We have to go back for them!" Bridget responded.

Wendy noticed that Bridget's legs were cured. It had only been approximately three days since Bridget broke around three of them.

"Don't ask about my legs," Bridget promptly said.

"Oh, that's because she shed her skin and got new and improved legs! Her old skin is over there!" Nora disregarded Bridget's desire to hide the skin behind her.

"Nora! We agreed to never mention it!" Bridget barked.

Nora shrugged her nonexistent shoulders, "It's a natural process. Don't worry about it."

Suddenly, an arrow shot past Bridget's cheek. It was a warning arrow.

"Wendy! You've been followed!" Nora shouted as she bounced on top of the cervitaur's back, "We got to run! Now! Go, Wendy!"

"Eh~! I just got here~!"

Several elves followed from a distance, however, due to Wendy's advantage in speed, the gap between the two groups was still wide.

The group dodged the incoming arrows as they hid under the trees, going deeper into the nearby forest--a different forest than the ones they had previously encountered.

Oddly enough, the elves did not follow. No, it wasn't that they didn't want to, but they couldn't follow.

After all, that was the Illusionary Forest. Home of the fairies.

--------

Ialantha Pherlorna sat in her crib. Before her, was the injured Jade and Alexis. By using her magic and the forest's protection, it was a simple task to close Jade's open chest. However, the main problem lied in Alexis.

"Of all things, a crystal golem. How troublesome," Ialantha lamented.

Alexis was made of mana crystals, which were only found in the mines of the human empire. Most races, especially elves, can be easily contaminated by the mana in the mines. Once exposed to impure mana, they will become monsters. However, the human race, whose bodies could adapt to anything, could enter the mines.

As humans were the only race that can mine for mana crystals safely, the crystals were the humans' main source of trade. And thus, sold for high prices in low quantities to other races.

Although Alexis was broken into fragments, she had been conscious the entire time. After she became a golem, she never required any sleep or food. Unless all the mana within her body was exhausted at once, she would not die.

Nevertheless, in order to heal Alexis, she would need the combination of mana and mana crystals. As a result, she ordered for Jade and Alexis to be thrown into prison while having a guard occasionally supply mana to Alexis.

If it wasn't for the dryad's life relying on the eleven other children, Ialantha would have sold the Alexis away and killed the others. The mana crystals were too valuable to not sell.

Just as she was pondering about mana crystals, one of the guards she had sent out returned.

"High Chief Ialantha Pherlorna! I am Rathel Pherlorna, reporting for duty!"

Raising an eyebrow, Ialantha questioned, "So, what of the other children?"

"We apologize! The children had entered the Illusionary Forest and we could not follow without breaking the treaty with the fairies."

"What?" Ialantha frowned.

There was no telling what the fairies would do to a group of "toys" that invaded their territory. While the elves did form an agreement to never approach the fairies, it was on the fairy king's whim. Their slight resistance toward the fairy race's illusions would not assist them in countering the royal court's magic.

"The dryad cannot die. I need her," she muttered under her breath.

Facing the elf subordinate, Ialantha ordered, "Go seek the fairy king. Offer the Fruit of Vanity to trade for the children's lives."

"But-"

"We could obtain another if we regained our power."

"Yes!"

------

Melody wandered through the forest in a daze. At some point in time, a fog had settled in her surroundings. Yet, instead of being hidden by the mist, her thin-membrane wings became radiant and iridescent as the colors flickered between yellow, green, and blue.

However, no one was around to appreciate the beauty of her wings.

For she was alone.