walking under the moonlight

"I'm okay." Lyon growled at her angering her even more. "I can hold out a little bit."

"No, you are not and you can't." A white aura enveloped her and spread around like tear gas. "Rest!"

Her growl and her aura forced the already weakened general to collapse and start snoring. She puked blood as her body complained of the strain it was forced to endure as the wounds appeared on her skin.

She closed her eyes and used a diagnostic spell on herself to check how damaged she was. But wished she didn't. Though the simple spell didn't use a bit of her mana, only circulated a the mana already flowing within her blood and sent whatever information she collected, it felt like she was doing a mammoth task.

The spell showed her a lot of things wrong with her including wounds that haven't healed from weeks before to being poisoned by the hell hound. Her ribs that were slowly healing earlier had broke once more.

But that didn't worry her a lot more than the seven chakras in her body that were not only half empty but the one in her sternum, her mana core was bone dry and almost ready to cannibalize itself to fill the void forming in it.

She took the ointment and applied it all over her battered body which burnt in white flames for a full minutes before they closed.

She force fed herself a few potions to recover the nutrients and energy she lost in the fight while proving energy to Laurent who could only fight with the power of his two tails. She knew he was still nursing the wounds he sustained two days ago and she had done her best to support him because the last time, she couldn't help him.

She consumed two more potions and even though her stomach was full, she felt the emptiness of her mana eat at her. Slowly stealing from the other six.

But the mana core she could fill. The others not so much.

With the last energy she had, tended to the kids, Carey and Lyon before finding her way to the Hamadryad tree. Before she could use it to return to the temple were people would tend to her, she burped a blood clot with a bit of her liver and fell at the root of the tree.

Green small hands pulled her as the tree started glowing and she disappeared into the trunk of the tree.

When she woke up a hours later, a white ceiling stared back at her while white sheets where wrapped around her body. The smell of coffee and bacon that had assaulted her nose until she woke up made her stomach growl.

"You awake?" An emerald skinned man with red hair said sitting next to her whilst putting away the breakfast plate. His eyes were as warm and kind as he pinned the red eyes of her.

"A bit, how long was I asleep?" she rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms whilst yawning.

"Seventeen hours. You pushed yourself a bit too much this time Diana."

"I'm sorry."

"Did Laurent let you push yourself so hard you almost died?" The dryad asked.

"No, I… what happened to my clothes?" Diana asked after trying to get up only to realize that she was stark naked. She turned pale and looked at the dryad. "you didn't…"

"i don't know where your clothes are." The dryad looked aside ignoring the not so veiled accusation. "Only you may know. I took you from Lyon's territory naked."

Diana's eyes glowed with the white light he grew to love but sometimes hated. A tell in her aura that towered over his scrawny built made him feel that he did something wrong but nothing crawled into his head.

"What didn't i do?"

"Get out."

"what?"

"GET OUT!" she roared at him with enough fury to turn her into hybrid white wolf.The dryad ran out of the bedroom wondering what pissed his queen off.

For what he could remember he hadn't done anything wrong. Nor acted unbecoming of his race. He ran downstairs the three story house to ask advice from the elders.

Or maybe warn them if he's done wrong so they may defuse the situation before his race fell in trouble with the powers of the island. Or if it was because she was in her so called mood again they may all tread with caution.

He recalled feeling the queen faint at the base of his tree and he helped her.

Moving her from the ground through the tree all the way to the palace where the king of the forest dwelt.

He remembered wondering why the queen was naked and not wearing the clothes she clearly enjoyed wearing but dismissed the thought.

Maybe she was tired.

Besides she always walked around naked when she was in her wolf fur. Being without a few leaves didn't make any difference.

He took care of her for a minute before the elder dryads healed her and sent her to her sleeping quarters.

While the dryad ran off, Diana got up and looked at the plate resting on her bedside table.

Her stomach growled wat more than ever as if it was Juliet crying to be with Romeo on the plate. But looking at the ham on the plate almost rid her of her appetite.

She picked a sandwich and broke it apart to check if there were any meat hidden inside the pieces of bread with spread and greens. She didn't find any even when she sniffed it. She still remembered the last time a dryad experimented with her and spent a week in bed with a broken heart.

She looked at the bread contemplating if to eat it or not. It was clearly dryad made and everything about dryads had to be inspected thoroughly.

They ate everything including long dead animals, sick animals sometimes even their own elders.

They didn't care what they ate as long as it had a physical manifestation and their saliva or roots can break it down, they could eat it.

They even robbed graves of copses and spent weeks eating them. Sometimes even months. Cadavers and mummies were even considered delicacies. They even found ways to make food with them. Mummy porridge and...

Just thinking about it almost made her puke.

she put the bread away and decided to eat only the boiled eggs. At least they couldn't be infused with dead animals and they were free from life since they never even had one.

She broke the two eggs and ate them with the stir fried vegetables on the side.

She left the ham and bread on the plate untouched and opened herwindow to let the cool night air and soft light of the moon whilst she watched outside.

Owls hooted, the high pitched screeches of bat sounded all over and the mating calls of insects were all audible to her ears. Even the distant party of dryads who always danced in the moonlight.

She listened to them knowing that that was the only way she could join it. Dryads were shy by nature and if she were to get closer to their party, all she would find would be nothing but an unnaturally packed forest surrounded by thousands of fireflies that took place for the fire.

They hated it and were mostly afraid of it except for a few of their elders. The elders which now were heading to the room shewas given.

It wasn't necessarily in the center of the Dryad village, like the moon house was, but it was not ecxactly at the edge of the village.

It was almost in between. But it was all because they needed her and where still trying to see if she was really a friend or just an enemy. She like to hope that is what they thought. But now she was... tired. She wanted to rest and enjoy herself.

She watched the moon rise over the tree cover and with it the entire forest.

It started off as whispers in her head but then turned into a chorus that can only be eclipsed by an over the top church choir. A clear indication that she was finally home.

No more city noises, no more sounds of helicopters or fights, just the calm peace of... a howl of a wolf reached her ears. With it the announcement to chase intruders.

Having spent months away from everything and everyone she knew, the chorus of the midnights in an induction sounded more like a siren calling out to fishermen.

Her ears perked up, filtering everything till all she could hear were the thundering footsteps of the midnights running across the plains and into the hills.

The feelings of air rushing through their furs. The thrill of the hunt and the faint masked fear of another running for its dear life hit her.

She jumped out of the window caring not at all for the dryads knocking on her door and turned into a white wolf the moment she touched the ground.

But unlike her usual size she turned into a meter tall wolf at the whithers not the usual five meter tall.

Her white fur glowed white and even out glowed the full moon as she went in the direction of the keepers grounds.