Cannon Fodder To Villainess

🏮54. Prey

After a while of walking, Alina started to grow numb to the shooting needles and was exhausted. She was ready for this little outing to be officially over.

Finally Amber came to a clearing near a meandering river, where the water was quite clear, and you could see all the way to the bottom of it. The bottom of the river was covered in sand. Towards the center of the slow moving river there were some large bunches of rocks. That was the perfect place to find shellfish.

Crabs, clams, crayfish, and rainbow fish just happened to be some of the Duke's favorite foods. There was a somewhat cute scene in Duchess Dash where the two leads spent an evening collecting shellfish from the river. Then they had a romantic dinner near the shore while watching the sunset. It was the turning point where Cray Silver started to fall for Duke Erin Dreyfus.

Amber reached her hand into her tiny pouch, reaching in up to her shoulder. Alina blinked and rubbed her eyes as Amber started to pull out a large tent. It had a domed top and an odd glow to it, like a bubble. As Amber pulled and tugged it out of the tiny bag, it eventually grew to twice as tall as Amber and double as wide as it was tall.

Inside the bubble tent was a piece of furniture that had the shape of an outdoor brick oven. It was used for heat and to cook. It changed from clear, to yellow, to bright red; depending on how hot it got. Furthest from the door, was a round canopy bed. The canopy was also clear, but like the dome, it had an adjustable dimmer.

In the center of the domed roof, there was another item that was essentially a mana powered light. The opening of the tent slid up and down when you pressed your thumb onto a round button to the side of the door. This tent was pretty much free to Amber who traded it for some of her refined mana water.

After pulling out her tent, Amber quickly pulled out a picnic table with attached benches, a long clothing line, some clothes that she hung on the line, and a few little everyday items. Once everything was set out, it looked like she had been living in this forest for quite some time. Then she propped a bow and a quiver of arrows against a tree. It wasn't a particularly good bow. It was something that most wealthy merchants could easily afford. All it was capable of doing, was using the archers mana to make the arrows shoot farther and more accurately without as much force. Expensive bows shot elemental arrows, targeting arrows and other such things. Amber wanted to seem like she didn't have strong mana. She would get better mana tools after she gained more practice with them and had a better idea of what she was looking for. She walked around in a wide circle along the perimeter of the camp. In even intervals she shot out needle after needle into the ground.

[What are the needles for?]

"I'm setting out a web," Amber said cheerfully.

[Web?] Alina said while lifting one eyebrow in confusion and tilting her head the side, while looking down to the tiny hole in the ground.

"Yes, web," Amber said while lifting up her hand.

A bright blue glow came over her hand, making the surrounding air chilly. Goosebumps traveled up Alina's arms and her eyes widened as invisible strings connected to Amber's hand started to cover in frost. The frost started off slow, but gradually followed along the strings, further away from her hand. After just a couple of moments, the frost had traveled along all of the strings until it followed them all underground. Amber had indeed been making large invisible webs connected to the ground by large poisoned needles, which she controlled from the palm of her hand. Behind them, were more smaller webs. Amber quickly pulled her ice magic back, making her traps invisible again.

Alina swallowed, but didn't make any further comments.

Lastly, Amber pulled out two gravestones, which she quickly placed towards the back of her campsite along the river. They looked like memorials for her dead parents. It was quite morbid considering that both of Lady Arabella Amber's Parents were alive and well. Maybe not fully functioning on a sane level, but well in a general sense.

[Do I want to know?] Alina said.

Amber cheerfully smiled while walking into her tent, carrying a large piece of meat in one hand as if it were a club, and a large frozen rainbow fish in her other hand. She tossed the raw food into the magical oven and pressed her hand up against the panel on the top. She concentrated for a moment on purposely releasing mana, but not releasing magic. Her hand lightly sputtered, releasing tiny ice needles. She clenched her teeth and concentrated harder on pulling her magic back. A little frown appeared between her eyes in concentration. After a moment, a weak steady white glow showed up out of her palm. She breathed in a sigh of relief, not realizing until that moment that she had been holding her breath.

[Whatcha doin?] Alina said while flying off of Amber's shoulder. Then gracefully flying to the side of the tool oven. She looked down in curiosity.

As her royal dad's only daughter from his previous deceased wife, Alina had been extremely sheltered. This had been her first trip out of her father's realm. She only managed to get out undetected, because her father was in closed cultivation. If anyone other than her sister had asked, she would have turned them down before they'd even finished their sentence. Thinking about it now, it wasn't so bad. This was an opportunity to see the outside world. Her wings glittered with a rainbow blow, indicating her excitement for adventure.

"I'm releasing bait to entice my prey," Amber said nonchalantly.

[Prey?!]

Amber smirked. "That's right. What else should you call it when you're purposely luring someone, so that you can use them for your own gain?"

[Prey it is. So explain to me how this chunk of dead carcass is going to lure your prey in?]

Amber pressed in a button on a magical oven which released a flap in the ceiling. There a tube coming off the oven met the tent's roof. The magical oven released puffs of fragrant smoke out from the roof. Alina's nose crinkled in distaste. Light pixie's and many other types of pixie's had no interest in meat and were even repulsed by it.

"I'm going to use this to lure in Duke Dreyfus and some others who are roaming around in this forest, looking for my dragon egg. It'll be much easier to get what I want if other people do most of the work for me. Then once they locate what I want, I'll steal it out from under them.

This dead carcass," Amber said while smirking. "Just so happens to be Duke Dreyfus's favorite type of meat. I just sent out several puffs of smoke leading him and his party to my location. There's no way he'll be able to resist a nice warm and convenient meal."

Alina blinked her eyes in shock. [Wow! You just threw that out there, huh? No qualms about what you intend to do at all?]

Amber shrugged her shoulders. "It is what it is. There's no reason to put a dress on a pig. They're going after something that I want and I intend to get it first. It will be much easier to get what I want, if they do most of the work for me.

[ Your species is so disgusting. The only pixies that eat meat are Blood Pixie's.] Alina said with her nose scrunched in distaste. [They're only born from large concentrations of mana in mass grave sites or other places full of corpses. They're truly disgusting creatures. You kind of remind me of them. So how does that require all of this stuff and those tombstones?]

"You'll see," Amber said with a pleased look on her face. "Tell me more about these blood pixie's." she said while pulling a large folding fan out of the little bag, whipping it open, and fanning the golden flames around the meat.

Alina squinted her eyes suspiciously at the little bag. Then she opened her mouth to speak once more, when the strong smell of meat assaulted her senses, and her face turned green. Alina quickly flew out of the tent towards the water. By the shore she lowered herself into the grass and puked out rainbows.

This trip would definitely be an adventure for her. It would just be a matter of time before Alina decided if this was too much adventure for her or not.