The Throne of Bones.

5. Astrá: The Adventurer.

Minto's lunch fell to the ground and spilled as he began running down the path toward the woman and the beasts that chased her. 

He was about to take to the sky when he remembered what Shaél had told him about strangers seeing his wings, so retracted them and kept on running. 

Halfway toward them he could see the woman was actually running faster than any human should, but it wasn't unnatural for a few to be gifted with magic. This proved to be the case as the woman spun mid-run and shot a bolt of fire from her palm toward the beasts, three in total.  

They had the head of bulls, but their bodies were like lions and they were roughly the size of elephants. The bolt of fire the woman shot was completely ignored as it crashed against the enraged beast's face.  

"Damn you!" She cursed, turning and running off again. They were right at her heels.  

Her hair was below her waist, crimson in colour along with her eyes and she had light ebony skin. 

She was wearing plain clothes like any normal village bumpkin, save for a weathered down brass breastplate and a large broadsword on her back that actually seemed to be slowing her down a great deal, to make matters worse, she was also barefooted. 

When Minto was a hundred feet away from her he picked up his pace.  

Finally noticing the mad youth running toward her the woman began flailing her hands crazily.  

"Flee, turn and flee, lest you be mauled to pieces!"  She would know it seemed, there were cuts and gashes all over her body, and her clothes were barely hanging on. 

Minto ignored her plight and jumped high over her head, the beasts were focused on their target and didn't see him until he had landed on the forehead of the one heading the charge.  

He slapped his palm onto its head and whispered, "sleep." And all of a sudden the raging beast collapsed causing him to come flying right into the back of the running woman. 

They both crashed in the middle of the road, with the woman taking all the damage from the fall, by the time both of them could get up, the other two beasts were right at their asses.  

Minto grabbed the woman who had fallen unconscious and began running with her, but when the beasts almost took a chunk from his back, he gritted his teeth and stomped with all his strength into the ground.  

The area began rumbling before a gigantic tree shot up out of his footprint in mere seconds, sending the beasts flying before crashing and breaking bone and body like eggs. 

Minto's Sprint turned into a jog, then into walking before he fell to his knees and then keeled over to the side, causing the redhead in his arms to fall as well. 

He had fallen unconscious. 

When Minto's eyes opened again, he found himself in close face to face proximity with a pair of crimson eyes. He could barely lift his head, or even speak so he just looked at her until she raised her head. 

"Are you sure he will be fine?" She turned her head to the side. 

"Yes, he foolishly used his own magic to grow an enormous tree in an instant, the fact that he is not dead means he will be okay in a few days." He heard Shaél's voice above his aching head before blacking out again. 

The next time he woke up it was night, Shaél and Miriá were asleep around a fire, and there was a terrible taste in his mouth, like bitter weed. 

He sat up rubbing his head then grabbing his stomach.  

"You are hungry, yes?"  Came a soft voice beneath him, and he slowly turned only to see a head of red hair rested several inches from where his head was. "Lady-Shaél predicted you would awaken soon so I have yet to sleep." She smiled sitting up, instead of the rags she was wearing before, she now wore what he assumed belonged to Miriá.  

The pants were short with the waist unable to be buckled, and the blouse was tight, it could barely be seen as better than what she was wearing before because of how small it was. 

She quickly stood and went to the fire picking up a plate that rested close enough to keep its contents warm and carrying it over to him.  

"Here." She extended the meal to him. 

Minto was still in a daze, but took it and wordlessly bit in.  

" I am Astrá Colvin." She smiled as he ate. "Can I please have the name of my savior?" She asked as he swallowed sitting and patiently waiting as he looked at her. 

"Minto." He replied. 

"Why are you going toward Eliós, do you have business there?" Astrá asked again, causing the halfling to become wary. 

"That..." he began, but trailed off when shuffling from the other two alerted him. "I can't say." 

"Oh, I meant nothing ill by it, I simply wish to find a way to thank you before we separate, since I am also headed in that direction." Astrá drew a little closer, professionally invading his personal space and taking his hands in her own. "My savior, until you rescued me from the Fanged Bisons I had been running for three days without rest, I was at my last breath and would have collapsed soon and been eaten." She squeezed his hands. "I really do not know how to repay this debt." 

Having never faced such a situation before, Minto just wordlessly sat wide-eyed until she finished speaking and released his hand, that's when he realized that she was still covered in cuts and bruises. "Let me heal you." Minto spoke up. 

"You have already done so much, my savior." Astrá grabbed hold of his hands again. "You exhausted all your magic on my behalf and fell comatose for three days, how could I allow you to do any more for me after just awakening?!" She raised her voice worriedly, causing Miriá and Shaél to lift their heads from their rest. 

"You're noisy." Miriá grunted before shuffling and turning her back to them and falling asleep with expert swiftness, but Shaél sat up to further witness what seemed like an interesting conversation. 

Minto turned his gaze back to Astrá. "You are still injured." He looked at her innocently before a sudden wave of crimson coloured magic particles exploded from his hands and engulfed her from head to toe. "You holding my hand is convenient so just lie down like this and sleep, when you wake your wounds should be purged and cured." 

While he was speaking, the bag their head had rested on shifted until it was placed beside both of them. 

Minto took her hand and used his raw magic to make her drowsy, the same as he had done to the Fanged Bison and then guided her to lie down, unfortunately she was right, so he had to Join her again and lie down for the rest of the night. 

Morning came with fog, before the first sun had risen clouds had traversed the skies the night before and were well on their way across the horizontal skyline, covering the sky in every direction and showering down a constant light drizzle that chilled the atmosphere. 

"Minto, Minto, wake up!" Miriá kicked his foot, but he only took a deep breath and relaxed again. 

He was fast asleep on Astrá's stomach, tightly clutching her hand. 

"Would you please allow him to sleep just a while longer?" Astrá suggested. "He is still exhausted it seems."  

"He is not tired; he is trapped in another nightmare." Shaél grunted before raising a glowing green stick and whacking him across his backside, causing Minto and Astrá to yelp, with the aforementioned jumping up from his slumber and standing at attention whilst furiously rubbing his abused hindquarter. 

"Lady-Shaél!" The halfling turned his head to the left and then to the right. "Where are we?" 

"This is still the road that leads to Eliós." Shaél pointed in a random direction. 

"But..." Minto looked around, "there is a small forest here all of a sudden."  

"It's your magic dumbass." Miriá shot him a jealous glare. "Ever since you injected your magic into the land the entire place has been undergoing a constant transformation." She said before bending down and looking at a suckling plant. "Just look, even as we speak these plants grow at an unfathomable rate."  

He watched the suckling sprout more leaves and grow several inches per second then slowed to a stop when it came to about three feet. "I did this?" He gaped as he looked around, for hundreds of metres in every direction the trees had grown, some already fully mature with blossoming flowers.  

The patch of desolate land suddenly seemed like an Oasis. 

"It will not stop growing swiftly until the magic in the soil disperses widely enough."Shaél hummed. 

"Then there's that thing!" Miriá huffed again and pointed behind him.  

Minto followed her finger until he came face to bark with a gigantic tree, hundreds of metres tall with brilliant crimson leaves and a dark maroon bark fifty metres in diameter, from where he stood, he could not see the top.  

He was suddenly speechless. 

"We cannot afford to stay here another day, and these trees react to you, so I'd suggest we leave before a passing traveler notices." Shaél threw the small bag to Miriá and began walking. "Come, we will eat when we reach Eliós." 

The path eventually became lonely again, with Minto constantly looking back at the small woodland and the giant tree in the middle of it in disbelief when Shaél turned to Astrá.  

"Young human, you are an adventurer correct?" She asked, instantly gaining everyone's attention. 

"I had intended to keep that secret for now Lady Elf, how did you know?" Astrá asked sheepishly. 

"You have done a terrible job of hiding that." Shaél pointed to her right breast which had a half-hidden black tattoo, from what was visible it was unidentifiable, but definitely a guild tattoo. 

"Yes, I do belong to a guild, it is called Crimson-Dragon, because of my appearance and affinity to fire I became their mascot so I.."  Her words fell back down her throat when the earth in front of them rumbled then suddenly opened up and became unleveled with several large cracks. 

"Dragon you say, that's... interesting." Minto stopped walking and his hair obscured his face, the air around them became cold and the wind began racing, but then it all died down when Shaél grabbed him by his cheeks and slapped them simultaneously. 

"Calm, down." She stared him in his eyes. "Do not lose control of your anger so easily, we will be among other people soon." 

Miriá had taken a few steps back already, but Astrá was frozen in one spot from fright, Minto's presence had moved from a serene ocean to a wrathful volcano in seconds. It made her realize something as well. "You three." She said, gaining their attention. "You are survivors of Ashrótt's massacre." 

Once again she swallowed her words when she realized she was being ignored, not because she had said something offensive, but because of the pained expression Minto wore, the hatred in his eyes scared her to the core, it felt dark and suffocating like a demon on the verge of losing its sanity and going on a bloody rampage. 

"I, I spoke out of line, my savior, please forgive me." She quickly righted her posture and approached, but stopped short when Miriá stood in her way with a worried stare. 

"Let him be." The tomboy shook her head, adjusting the bag on her back. "Let's walk ahead."  

For the four remaining days of their journey to the city Eliós the four of them exchanged no words except Astrá who tried tirelessly to make Minto's journey as comfortable as she possibly could. 

As they began seeing the walls of Eliós, they also began seeing people strung along the path and slowly the dirt led way to a brick road. 

The walls stretched for miles in each direction and it was well kept with centuries lined across it gapped by no more than fifty feet apart. 

Closer to the gates they began seeing merchants selling everything imaginable, food, cloth, weapons, small pet beasts of all kinds, slaves, the list just grew and grew. The closer they got to the gates the closer Miriá drew to Minto until she eventually bumped shoulders with him and took his hand squeezing it. 

"What's wrong with you?" He tried pulling away, buy Miriá was stronger than she looked.  

"I'm sorry, I get nervous around crowds." She replied still holding his hand. 

He allowed her to keep holding his hand, but only because he himself had the same phobia. 

"My savior!" Astrá called from behind them, causing Minto to slouch. 

"I told you not to call me that." He looked at her with a deadpan, but became curious when she presented to him a wooden case with a handle. "What is inside of it?"  

"You have been walking barefooted this whole journey, so I bought you a pair of boots and some other garments as thanks, I will also trouble the three of you to lodge at my house, but I should tell you now that it is not much." She smiled before taking his elbow and leading him along. 

"Lady-Shaél!" Miriá called looking backward, but the old Elf only smiled and followed wordlessly. 

Once they reached the gate though their antics became tamed as they approached the guard. The wall was far greater than they had expected, and the great iron gate was only half opened to accommodate a single wagon or chariot at a time. "State your business." The armored five metre tall Troll grunted slamming his large battle axe on the ground.  

"I am Astrá Colvin." Astrá said, not revealing any more information. 

"Hmm, Crimson-Dragon Guild." He grunted. "And them?"  

"These three are my guests!" Astrá laughed and pulled Minto closer to herself and running her free hand in his hair. As expected, Minto snapped with a hiss. 

"Guests you say?" The guard leaned over to get a better look at the hissing halfling. "This hostile one is your guest, are you in your right mind?" He asked. 

Minto stood his ground and stared back at the Troll with defiance.  

"Oi-Oi, you brick-head stop wasting my time!" Astrá snapped at the Troll causing him to burst into chuckles.  

"Fine, Lady-Astrá you and your guests may pass!" The Troll laughed, lifting his axe from their path and watching the four of them pass while Astrá grumbled. 

"Welcome." Astrá turned to see a worried Miriá, a baffled Minto and a nonchalant Shaél staring back at her. "Welcome to the City of Eliós.