A Yet To Be Named Fantasy Novel (draft)

A Perilous pool

The surprisingly conspicuous trail of inhuman mismatched footprints followed be matching human ones continued into the largest collection of trees Kadlin had seen in this tree deprived town. The human tracks seemed to be much fresher; she must have stopped a few times in her course. There was a cold mist emanating from the forest, well, cold for the current weather; Kadlin could also smell something, no, some things inside it. The first and seemingly closest, was a feint scent of, what Kadlin thought to be a human, a sweaty one, likely from a tavern, definitely Pheliara. The others were odd, seemingly none of the human overlands, all had a magical aura, she could not decipher what they were, the mist clouded all of the details. She continued her pursuit into the woods.

Pheliara, now rather deep into the mist, began to feel something else, something hot, steaming hot. It couldn't be the orb creature, and nothing from around here could produce this much heat of this intensity. She began to hear a loud, large something breathing, perhaps snoring nearby, in the direction of the heat. Was it the thing Willow mentioned earlier? Pheliara didn't care to risk finding out at the moment, shaking at the thought of waking it. She attempted to sneak past the snoring creature. Trembling at every slow, careful step; all of her remaining moisture seemed to be falling down her body, her clothes were already drenched in it, she felt more and more lightheaded, like she was about to feint. She pressed on, further into the mist.

At last, water, she found a pool of water, clear water. Pheliara collapsed at the tiny pond; thoughtlessly drinking more and more, as much as she possibly could! She thought she saw something in the pool, attempted to reach further in to grasp it; Suddenly, in her tiredness, she lost her balance. *SPLASH* Pheliara fell, face first into the deep, temperate water! She felt something wrap around her arm, she tried to shake it off, but it grabbed her other arm.

Kadlin's sense of smell dulled in the mist, she could only sense one being in the forest, it reeked of raw meat and a terrible, supernatural musk, an unbearable heat came from its direction; One of the beasts from below the sky? But how could it get all the way up here, in the land of mankind? She slowly honed in, feeling the air around her go from sultry, to scorching. Before she could reach the beast, she heard a loud high-pitched scream, near, to her side, a human likely female. Kadlin ceased her current approach, to seek out the origin of the voice. She speedily and loudly rushed in the direction of the scream. She was led to an open area with a large puddle, quickly scanning the area for any people in the vicinity, she noticed something frantically flailing around in the water.

Kadlin plunged one of her arms into the water. She caught something, a human's leg. Kadlin attempted to pull the person out of the pond, but something was pulling back harder, she decided to try two arms. Kadlin felt the person's waist, slowly dragging the person's flailing body out of the pond. This person was a small, young woman with curly, long brown hair, pinkish skin in a colourful, revealing outfit, she was erratically shaking her limbs around, with two plant-like tendrils wrapped around her wrists leading to the edge of the pond; Kadlin assumed this was Pheliara.

Back at the tavern, the old Willbur was catching up with his two old research associates, on the last few years? decades? It all seems to blend together at his age.

Willbur noted "Is that so? I was under the control of an artifact of one of the ancient southern kingdoms? I merely stopped by to del.."

"We believe it came from the City of Rivers," Claus interrupted while signaling Willbur to change the topic in a manor, that did not go unnoticed to Runa.

Willbur changed the topic, "Ah, yes. To check in with you two. By the way, how has my child been doing? I'm sure I have entrusted the perfect couple to take care of... of... Oh dear, I seem to have forgotten my child's name, it's been so long."

"Willow, they go by Willow at the moment" answered Claus.

"I seem to recall a different name, but you must be be correct," spoke Willbur.

Runa interrupted, questioning "Delivered what, exactly?"

The two old men looked towards her, clearly about to try to hide something. She knew them both too well for them to succeed; suddenly a loud booming sound came from the door of the establishment. Someone was knocking at the door, at this hour? In this economy?