Demons & Mages (Demon Ace x Sorceress Reader)

The Druidess

"Again."

I held my staff out in front of me and closed my eyes. The air became heavy around me. Strands of my (h/c) hair tickled my flushed cheeks as the breeze gently lifted them.
My core became hot. Sweat wetted my brow and trickled down my back and in the valley of my breasts. My eyes scrunched in concentration for a second before I forced myself to relax my face.

That's right, I told myself.

Shoulders back.

Face relaxed.

Arms outstretched, but not locked out.

Hands firmly griping the staff I had recently carved from a large hickory branch. This was the weapon I was to train with and use to fine tune my magic.

I cleared my mind and leveled my breathing, in through my nose, out through my mouth, feeling my magic energy flow out from my body and into my staff.

"Your staff is an extension of your body. An extension of your magic energy and intent." My mentor reminded. "Speak the incantation. Picture it clearly in your mind and let it be done."

I did as my mentor instructed. The air became almost suffocating

"Assula!"

I spoke with firm resolve and watched as the birch tree that stood five feet in front of me, splintered open as though a bolt of lightening struck it.

The sound of a fire crackled nearby. The smell of cedar, lavender, and sweet hickory smoke filled the air. It was dark. No, wait my eyes are just closed, I realized. I tried to take a deep breath and groaned as my entire ribcage felt like it was bruised. I tried wiggling my fingers and rotating my wrists. Each movement felt sluggish and numb. I tried moving my right arm, as though to prop myself up and hissed as a sharp pain arced down my arm and the right side of my back. once I had ceased movement the sharp pin turned into a throbbing.

"That wasn't smart." A raspy female voice spoke. I winced as I turned my head to the left side, where the voice originated and saw a rather large burly woman with wild orange curls. She wore a large red beaded necklace, black sigils carved into each of the beads, a white shirt with the top button undone, and plaid pants tucked into black boots. She was smoking a pipe sitting cross legged by the fire pit in the room. "After fighting rogues and getting hit by a truck, my bad by the way, you need a lot of rest honey."

"How'd you kn–" I started but the woman cut in

"Know about all that? Easy. You're guildmates with Luffy, the brat who grew up here. He asked me to be vigilant since the rogues were closest to my woods. Hell, they even captured some of the woodland fae I keep treaties with!" She drew in a breath from her pipe. "Names Dadan."

Treaties with fae. The large beads with sigils. Hell, even the scent of the room and the way it looked; wooden floors and walls with a pit dug into the middle with an iron cooking set, currently holding a kettle, over the fire, and old glass windows that made the outside look wavey and distorted. Creeping English ivy bordered what I could see of the windows and herbs hung over top of their panes with sigils carved into the border sides. If I were to see the entire outside of this abode I would probably that it is connected to the trees or, at the very least, have more of a forest feel. Dadan was a druidess.

Dadan pulled a washcloth from her pocket and bent closer to the fire where she wrapped the cloth around the handle of the kettle and lifted it up. She walked the kettle over to a worktable a few feet away from the bed where I laid. A large steel pitcher was at the back of the table and a variety of dried herbs were laid out on the table along with jars filled with what looked like various powders and seeds and medium sized, white marble mortar and pestle.