CHAPTER 31: LOOTING A FORT

~Lilliana POV~

Yet again I found myself coming back to the land of the living with a pounding headache and in an unfamiliar location. I subconsciously run Touch of Life through me which helps take the edge off the pain. It is at that point that I remember what happened before I passed out, again.

After seeing Kana and Amanda injured and bound on the floor with 2 shadowed figures holding knifes to them a rage I didn’t even know I possessed rose in me. I hit them with the full force of my aura marking them as enemies so they recived the reverse effect of its healing. Using that to stun them I impaled them with dozens of roots and finally utilised one spell that I hadn’t had a chance to use just yet Spear of the Wilds and damn did that do some damage as th last thing I saw was both of their heads exploding in a shower of gore before passing out.

I open my eyes after the momories return and look up into the Violet orbs of Alana staring down at me with concern and love and with a faint smile on her lips. "Glad to see your awake love, how are you?" She asks me in a gentle voice.

I let out a groan at first before coughing and finally I croak out. "I really need to stop passing out so often, this is the second time today that it’s happened, I think. Wait how long was I out? And how’s Amanda she was injured and.." before I can continue on my rant Kana sushes me and smiles before answering.

"Amanda is fine now your were out for maybe an hour and there are no more threats, you quite handily dealt with that." She replies with a dark smile on her lips towards the end there. "The more important question though is are you okay? You were crying when you walked up those stairs and sorry to say but you look awful." She bluntly but with an underlying tone of concern states.

I sigh at that and take a moment to process my thoughts, letting everything that’s happened to me since entering this valley play through my mind. I feel myself start to shiver and then sob as the emotions come pouring out.

———

~Kana POV~

I hold the small elf in my arms as she weeps, letting loose a torrent of emotions as I gently stroke her hair. "Hey it’s alright we’re okay, your okay, it’s going to be alright." I coo to her. Trying to reassure her with my presence. I glance to my side and see Amanda sat next to me with a pained look on her face whilst watching Lilly cry, I gesture to her for her to join in the hug and she at first hesitates but then joins in. Sandwiching the petite red head between us, she is still clutching the egg to her chest and refuses to release it even in her current state.

I cannt help but wonder where it came from and why she seems to put so much care into it but figuring that out can wait as right now Lilly need sour support.

We stay like like for quite some time with the sun beginning to reach its zenith by the time the tears dry up and her sobs start to wane. "Thata girl, now why don’t you tell us what happened here? If you want to at least don’t feel like you have to just yet."

Lilly registeres this and pauses for a moment before I feel a shiver run down her spine as she obviously remembers something before she takes a deep breath and nods. And then she begins to tell us what happened from the moment she walked into the valley.

———

~Lilliana POV~

I explain everything, from the moment I walked into the valley to the moment I passed out after killing those two people, I have another mini breakdown when I register that I actually just killed 2 people but I still feel somewhat numb and am unable to properly process that just yet.

Once my description is over both of the girls sit there in stunned silence for a while till Amanda reaches out and pulls me into another hug which I gladly welcome. Her acceptance and presence bringing a small smile to my lips as I savour her warmth.

I struggled to explain the memories that the vine imparted on me as how can you explain experiencing 20+ years of life from the perspective of a vine in any efficient way but I feel like I managed to impart to them just how impactful that memory was on me and to then have it sacrifice itself for me at the end... needless to say whilst they might not fully grasp it they still listen and provide their support as best they can.

After that I get round to asking them what happened and after a brief explanation from Amanda I understand how that situation came to be. It seemed like the adventuring team that left before us camped outside of the valley and watched us arrive and then saw me enter. After I didn’t return they decided to attack the two girls and use them to get information about me. With them probabally going to wait and ambush me once I returned.

Shaking my head at their idiocy I can only sigh and move on. As it is around lunch time we have some food which is greatly appreciated especially me given how much mana I used up over the last day. And whilst my mana is back to full my body feels, empty and the food fills that up quite nicely.

Once we have eaten and I am feeling much better Kana finally asks a quite prudent question to me. "So what exactly are you planning to do with that egg? I get that you were asked to protect it but are you wanting to hatch it? From your story that egg has been in a kind of stasis for hundreds of years, is it even still alive?"

"It is still alive." I say with certainty. "I can feel its life and state when my healing, I have no idea what kind of creature is inside but it must be powerfull given it has survived this long. Plus it is eating up every scrap of life and nature mana that I can feed it." I finish with a light laugh.

"Well that’s fair enough, suppose it would be nice to have an animal companion." Kana says.

Amanda then speaks up. "On a different note though. Are we planning on looting this place or are we just going to sit around here talking all day?" She has a manic glint in her eyes that is only slightly disturbing. I never would have taken the usually calm and collected Amanda to have a thing for looting but hey who am I to judge.

"That my delightful friend is a wonderful idea. I say we start from the top and make our way down?" I happily say. Getting nods of agreement from them both we get up, clean up and start to make our way through the semi collapsed Fort. Starting at the top we go through room by room, thankfully most of the doors have either rotted or rusted away, or have been blasted off their hinges entirely by the vines. At first we find nothing of note just some old bedrooms and store rooms which have nothing but piles of decayed clothing and mouldy beds.

However, when we enter what looks like an office of sorts we spot a desk that looks to be in supprisingly good condition. Making our way over to it we search through it and find a pouch of holding in one of the draws. With excitement we open it up only to see in mild disappointment as it holds piles of half rotten documents. However their is a silver lining, or should I say gold lining as their is around 100 Gold coins in the pouch as well!

I store the coins and Amanda takes all the paperwork for now. We clear out the rest of the top floor finding not much else past a few collections of coins which we add to the pile.

Down on the ground floor we again start searching and whilst at first we don’t find much we eventually stumble upon what we think was the armoury to all of our delight. Saddly most of the weapons are rusted beyond repair but their are still a few that seem to hold clear enchantments and are still in great condition.

First there is a giant halbard easily 2m in length that has a basic durability, and sharpness enhancement on it.

Next we find a lovely bow that is enchanted to imbue any arrows fired with wind mana to allow for the arrows flight path to be altered after it has been fired. We give that to a delighted Kana.

A sword that can be imbued with mana to send a cutting arc of power out the blade I gladly take this one for now.

And the last item in decent condition is a dark leather armour set that allows the wearer to teleport between shadows once every few minutes. We manage to pursuade Amanda to take this one which she bashfully accepts and puts on. And my god does she look sexy in it. It fully hugs her every curve and comes with a black skin tight underlayer that aids in reducing any noise made by the wearer and the armour itself.

Saddly that is all we find that is of any use I still collect all the rusted weapons as I’m sure a smith will take them if only for scrap metal but it’s better than nothing. After clearing out the armoury the only spot left to search is the downstairs garden.

I stand at the top of the stairs one hand gripping tightly onto the egg, the other being held by Kana as she smiles at me. "You don’t have to go down their if you don’t want to. Me and Amanda can search down there whilst you wait a while up here." She says kindly to me.

I shake my head and begin to walk down whilst saying. "No i need to go back down, I want to do something to remember this place by."

Once we reach the bottom of the staircase we lay witness to the final resting place of the Living Vine. Its dead and withered vines lay everywhere with the truly sad sight of the vine dome still standing as an edifice to its sacrifice. Taking a deep breath I circulate my mana are release Nature moulding to its utmost as I walk forward trying to touch every vine present and speeding up their return to nature whilst purifying any remaining corruption with my aura. Slowly I change the garden from a place of death to a place of new life as flowers and other plant life sprouts from the previously withered soil. When I get to the dome I pause for a minute in remeberance before I return this too to the soil it once came from. Once the vine and all remaining corruption has been cleaned up I bring out my wooden sword and begin to carve out the likenss of the Living Vines core whilst a woman sits next to it and embraces it whilst the vines in turn embrace her. It is crude and not overly detailed but once it is done I simply stand there for a while and relive some of the happier memories that I experienced of the mother and child.

Smiling I turn to my companions as they watched over me and say. "Well I think we are about finished here eh, shall we head back?"

——

The Fort arc is over! Now for another return to civilisation arc!!! Don’t worry won’t put you all through that again.

Let me know your thoughts on how you feel this went. Think I’m going to stick with this format of a few slice of life Chapters where the characters get to relax and deepen their bonds and then have a small adventure mini arc of between 5-10 Chapters.