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The Tales of the Scarlet Suns - Ch 5: Journey to the Nala Crags

With the village of Ampwick no longer being visible for the trio, Chae looked at her sister Naphalee and at Irving before giving a sigh, "I am already missing home." Naphalee lowered her head as she gave her mount a soft pat on the mane, "I know. I do too." Irving gave them both an understanding look, "Yeah, but we swore to carry out our duty as Guardsmen." Chae and Naphalee knew very well what he meant, since it was their father that had given the order to have them follow him and they didn't plan to anger their father with disobeying, especially after they had gotten married to Irving and they wore golden bracelets to show it too.

Irving could see the Tini Woods approaching to the northeast, something of a pointer for where they needed to go. And it was also a location that Mark had told Irving about as it was a way to come to the village of Doladriand, the only issue being that Mark had not told anything other than that it was only needed to pass through the woods to find the village, but no one knew how far it was or which direction they had to go to get there. However, they couldn't get through the woods without Naphalee's steed risking to get stuck somewhere, so the idea was out of question and they had to track either eastward or northwestward when arriving at the entrance to it.

"How much longer is it?" Chae asked when they reached the Tini Woods, seeing the trees that were unlike the ones back in Ampwick, sporting some colorful blue and purple leaves, unlike the boring green, yellow and red back at home. Irving was amazed by the beauty of it, that he didn't notice a little pup coming towards him until it was barking at him. Chae smiled and moved closer before sitting down, "Hey there, little cutie. Are you lost?" The pup began to growl at Chae before leaping at her, but the quick reaction from Irving soon had the pup hanging by the scruff in his hand, whimpering in fear, "Bad little canine."

The pup's whimpering had however alerted something, as soon Irving had to drop the pup when ten massive wolf-like creatures came out of the woods and growled at him, making him raise his hands, "Whoa, calm down there. I was just defending her." Too bad, none of the creatures knew a thing about their language as one of the smaller ones jumped towards Chae who quickly pulled her mace free and delivered a clean chin strike to the creature, sending it tumbling back to its fellows. The others sniffed it before growling as they all charged in, seeming rather agitated by Chae's action.

Drawing his greatsword, Irving was spinning around to cause an arch of air to form before it struck the ears on the male in the front of the pack, his growls of pain soon making two of the apparent females stop to tend to his wound while the rest of the pack went on the assault. Chae struck the ground in front of her, erupting pillars of solid dirt to push the assaulting canines back, just in time for Naphalee to come charging past them with the spear in hand, screeching like a warrior as the steed ran into the pack and with a swift strike, she had fell two of the canines, pushing the others in the pack into a retreat until the pack's alpha growled and had them back in formation before continuing the assault.

The formation however seemed odd as went into a crescent moon and ran after Naphalee, who gave the reins on the steed a good tug, "Come on, Corinth. Take us back to the others." The steed neighed before charging back through the pack, Naphalee's spear working hard to shove away the canines, one of them even managed to leap up and bite onto the handle of it before Naphalee rolled backwards off the steed, locked her hips around the neck of the canine, the momentum of the roll allowing her to swiftly twist its neck before throwing it into a leaping female, "What a rush!"

Chae could have sworn that if her jaw wasn't connected to her skull, it would be resting on the ground by now. Even Irving had to admit that he was impressed, but it wasn't over yet as another male had bitten down on the spear and Naphalee was pinned down and surrounded by the other canines that attempted to bite down on her throat. Irving's and Chae's eyes went small as pinheads, "Naphalee!!!"

Their call of her name gave Naphalee a sudden boost of power as she quickly snapped the neck of the male biting her spear, but she rolled back as her claws had been extended and like in her and Chae's training with Irving, she was growing extended claws with the air around her and when one of the females attempted to pin her down again, it was met by Naphalee's claws puncturing the throat and tearing out parts of the flesh at the same time, her eyes focusing on the pack before it seemed like she had disappeared as one by one, the females and males were falling until the alpha remained and Naphalee appeared in front of him to finish him off, but like with the training again, she was dropping to a knee and panted, allowing the male to pin her down and before he could deliver the final bite, Naphalee's hands held his jaws open.

It was the moment when both Irving and Chae noticed a stream of water coming from behind them and the alpha soon found his body bloating up as he was getting filled with water, the roles reversing now as Naphalee fought to keep the jaws open when Tavia was filling him up with a rapid stream of water from the ground and not before long the agonizing, but drowned howl of pain echoed as the pressure of the water was too much and the entire back of the alpha's body soon erupted into a burst of blood, guts and water as Naphalee looked back and smiled, "Your timing was impeccable." Tavia smiled, "Good thing I showed up, or else you might have been a meal here."

Irving looked at Tavia, "Sis, what are you doing here?" Tavia smiled, "I came after you to help you with your duty. And you also ran off without me knowing." Irving laughed, "Sorry, sis. I was eager to get going, so I forgot." Tavia just smiled, "I do not blame you. Lets just get going and find a good spot to rest." With that said, the quad was back on the road and with the help of Tavia's knowledge of the various signs of finding civilization, they had traveled east and then northwest when reaching the Nala Crags before setting up camp in a cave.

As they went to sleep as the night came rolling in and Tavia took the first nightwatch, Chae and Naphalee looked at Irving, "Are you okay with her showing up like this and wanting to follow us on our journey?" Irving nodded, "I do not see why it would be a problem. She is my sister after all and I know that she is a powerful hydromancer in her own way." Naphalee nodded, "Yes, but it means that we won't ever get any time for ourselves." Tavia's ears picked it up and she giggled, "If you are worried about that, then just tell me and I will let you have your private moment. Everyone is entitled to privacy after all."

Naphalee felt her cheeks burn and Tavia looked back at them and smiled, "After all, that is what sisters are for." Naphalee had no idea why, but Tavia's smile felt genuine and soon Chae smiled, "Maybe we are just over-thinking it a bit." Irving nodded before he yawned and pulled the two hybrids close to him, kissing them, "Well, time to sleep. Goodnight you two, and goodnight, sis." Both the girls purred and Tavia smiled, "Goodnight, brother." With that, Irving curled up with the girls nearby and fell asleep, hoping that they would all be prepared for the next day when they would reach the village of Doladriand, their first destination on their journey.

To be continued in chapter 6: Doladriand, the Vermilion Village.