- Ta-daaah! –
Elenthe held her arms high as the door of the Nymph's Lair opened
from inside.
- How… -
began Mégane, then she saw Naryd – ah, was it him? Niiice,
Ellie, I see you've found a cute guy…
Elenthe gave
Naryd a punch without too many comments, then hissed:
- He's not my
boyfriend. Just Naryd, no more and no less.
Mégane
threw a healing spell on Naryd, then they all walked inside.
- Yeah, my name
is Naryd, and I'm investigating on the woods' mystery, just as
you. So, I think we should cooperate, since I know the Nymph's Lair
quite well. The guards are in the rooms, I guess the corridor should
be safe for now – said Naryd – anyway, I think we should
separate.
- Why? –
asked Mégane – just lead us to the Nymph's room, then…
- There are two
ways to get there, both usually guarded just by a couple of nymph
slaves. If we walk all together, the guard nixies and grigs will
surely see us, and send upon us the whole army complete even of
snakes and giant spiders! (Mégane shivered) But if we
alk separately, they will see only little of us, and think we're
not a great danger, and consequently call way less warriors to strike
down on us. And so we can surprise the Nymph from two directions.
- Here –
Naryd took a large leaf off a shelf and picked up a piece of ash from
a torch – I'll draw an approximative map. The group which will
not be with me will take it.
Elenthe quickly
snatched the map from Naryd.
- Ellie! But…
- he stammered.
- How many
times do I have to tell you to call me ELENTHE? And I'm taking the
map for one thing is sure: I'm not coming with you!
- All right,
Naryd, come with me and Thya! – said Mégane – Ellie, you
stay with Wyvern.
- WHAT? –
Wyvern seemed to fall out of his quiet attitude and his usually calm
face showed an expression which was a weird mixture of fear, surprise
and horror.
- What's the
matter? – asked Mégane.
- Huh…
nothing… nothing at all…
- You'll have
to excuse Ellie, Naryd – said Mégane as they walked on the
silent corridor – even I find it difficult to understand her
sometimes, though we're soul sisters.
Naryd nodded
silently, his dark green hair falling over his eyes. His stare was
lost somewhere, as if he was dreaming.
- What's up,
Viv? – asked Elenthe, lying on Wyvern's head and playing with his
soft black hair – why didn't you want to come with me?
He let out a
silent groan and didn't answer.
- No danger for
now – continued the pixie undisturbed – I can't see anything
coming in front of us. If we can trust the map Naryd (ugh!) gave us,
now you'll have to turn right…
She sat up and
folded out the large leaf.
- Hey, Viv!
According to the map, here there'll be a room full of…
Wyvern opened
the door.
- …grigs and
nixies!
Wyvern slammed
it closed.
- Phew, Viv!
You should listen to me and… hey! Let me go!
Wyvern's fist
closed around Elenthe.
- Do. Not.
Call. Me. Viv. Was. I. Clear?
- Why? I think
it's sooo cute! And now, let's get into action!
Wyvern opened
the door again, and took out his bow and his dagger.
- Ellie the
pixie and Viv the ranger are killing the evil ones! Legendary heroes!
– shouted Elenthe, flying as a rocket against their enemies.
Meanwhile, the
other company arrived to the door of a great hall.
- The Nymph
holds a prisoner here – said Naryd – I saw him a couple of times,
he's quite an attractive elven male. I think she uses him for…
Thya hissed and
Mégane nodded. Then they opened the door.
- Who are you?
– asked the young elf, sitting on a rug. He had shoulder-lenght
light brown hair and deep blue eyes.
- Not a Nymph,
that's for sure – said Mégane – and you?
- Terari, a
druid of Aawill's camp. I came to investigate, and the Nymph
trapped me… and charmed me…
- Have you
found out anything?
- No…
- I am Mégane,
a fellow druid. Aawill sent me to find you. Can you find the way out
alone?
- I suppose
yes… thanks! I have to go and tell Aawill.
Wyvern's
enormous patience started wearing extremely thin. Elenthe didn't
stop talking for a second – and kept on calling him Viv, Vivvy,
Wyvy and stuff like that. But he knew he couldn't simply kill her
unless he wanted to be slain by Mégane.
- According to
the map, this is the door! – pointed Ellie in front of themselves,
and accidentally giving Wyvern's head a huge kick, obviously
without even noticing.
But by then,
Mégane, Naryd and Thya were already in front of the Nymph.
She didn't
even let them begin but immediately threw a spell on Mégane.
- You're
mine! A new slave! – she laughed.
Mégane
didn't feel anything, but had a quick intuition.
- So – said
the Nymph – now you'll put on this cute little dress and go to
clean my kitchen! Then my prison, my…
- Forget it! –
said Mégane – first, that dress is of a disgusting colour;
second, I wouldn't clean your kitchen even if I was dead!
The Nymph made
a step back.
- But… what…
how come…?
She didn't
even have time to recover from the surprise when Elenthe flew in as a
bomb, screaming, with Wyvern right behind her.
- Let's
destroy the evil Nymph! Yah! Yeh! Zac!
- All right,
Ellie, calm down now… - said Mégane, gently taking her pixie
in her hand and pulling her closer to her.
