The Enchantress and the Demon Dragon

Bristling mountains and arid rivers, vegetation typical of dry climates full of harmful gases, mostly shrubs and brushwood that only spirits knew why they persisted in growing: the volcano Phytos that made the territory more than inhospitable, dominated with its height and left a cloud of perennial ash on the Island Buì. The spectacle, however, at a height of two km, was breathtaking: the grey and yellow predominated and the lava made everything a bit ghostly. A cry from Accipiter took her back to the mission just as the eagle began a sudden swoop. A motion of nausea went up and the woman broke the contact. She tried to breathe deeply to calm herself but the smell of sulphur and ash prevented her from inhaling. "Calm down, Cathleen, calm down. Just a few more ingredients and then I'll finish the test." Nervous about the first real field work? “Who, me?” One thing was certain: even if courage was not lacking, training was one thing, reality quite another. The enchantress made sure once again that she was alone so that she could reconnect with her familiar in peace, but she could not shake that slimy feeling of being spied on. Yet her powers did not perceive anything relevant within five kilometers. “Maybe I am just paranoid... or something is lurking and I am right!” She sighed and consequently coughed and then she closed the eyes and watched the island again through Accipiter which was still in free fall. "Are you having fun, don't you?" He shouted out pointing to an area showing her another ingredient. The Rumex Scutatus! "Great Cipi!" She gave him fast instructions and set off towards the north-west quietly and carefully: only the previous day the woman had faced a huge infernal hound for the too much noise caused by her running in that marasmus of dry grass. She did not intend to repeat what had happened. She remembered above all its sharp jaws and the smell of putrefaction that accompanied it. Definitely repulsive... but she easily got another key ingredient. It took her more than three hours to reach the place that the familiar had indicated to her by consuming two potions of vigor. The volcano was awfully close. If she could recover everything by tomorrow, she could have beaten the Academy record. There was only one problem: troll blood. Cathleen overcame with a jump a rivulet of lava with determination and concentration. She did not even feel the fatigue anymore thanks to the adrenaline rush. Accipiter still saw no danger except for a large river of lava that seemed to be the last obstacle to the ingredient. She sent him back in his dimension and stopped to admire the view: the huge volcano was now closer; the heat was unbearable and the sudden but predictable geysers didn't help. The acre odour of sulphur was all she could smell besides the heat and ash. “I just have to get over that flow and take the Rumex Scutatus and another ingredient will be mine.” She was at a turning point where part of the journey of her life would end to make space for new roads. The whole of Gaia was waiting for the new intitled mage. Smiling she resumed the race by increasing the speed to give more strength to the jump over the lava. Anyone would have thought she was crazy. But thanks to the levitation she arrived unharmed on the other side, even if slightly cooked for the heat. The climb continued  following the flow, all enthusiastic. Maybe too much because a geyser nearly hit her. The protective screen which was always up saved her and a not purely warrior's scream echoed in the area. But finally she had reached the rocks that Accipiter had shown her: the block seemed to have nothing to do with the main ambientance wich was what many humans would describe as hellish. And yet, she knew for certain that the Black Island, Doilér, in the ancient language, resembled nothing at all to this natural and beautiful place. Doilér was pure corruption. Rotten. Darkness. Eternal pain with no way out. It was losing yourself. The real hell in Gaia. And this was only a taste of what every Soillse felt because of the proximity of one of its inhabitants or the island itself. Not to mention the almost total annihilation of our powers. They were like natural enemies, an antithesis to each other. But now that feeling was just a memory. She hadn't set foot on her homeland for years and the demons didn't come to learn magic at the Academy. As anger and nostalgia tangled inside her, she gathered the fateful plant on those strange rocks. She let out a sigh of relief together with a half-smile of satisfaction and put everything in the magic bag and sent Accipiter to re-examine the situation deciding while waiting to recover the energy on that rock out of place. "Oh, well, rock! We're a little bit alike, you and me. We're in places we don't belong. After all, you're not volcanic like the others. I mean… I don't know what are you doing here”. She lay down to enjoy the unusual coldness of the material while something kept bothering her mind. Something wasn't right. Her thoughts and relaxation were interrupted by a sudden cry for help from Accipiter. She terminated his evocation immediately as she was getting up and ready for anything. Harpies. The hope that they were only a small flock was shattered the moment she raised her eyes to the sky. Anxiety and concentration pervaded her. There were twenty of them, no less. If I'd gotten into that V-shaped cavity that formed that weird rock, I'd have been in a great position. She jumped down quickly and materialized the stuff. Anxiously, she watched them rushing towards me with their wings spread and claws ready to wound. Their shrill screams hurt ears and confused her a little, but she was not overwhelmed. The screams came closer and closer, the enchantress must have looked like a rat in a trap. But she was ready. She waited a few seconds that seemed endless with eyes turned to the only place they could get to. The stuff pointed, the spell ready and there they were! Their voices stunned me even more thanks to the narrowness of the cavity, but it didn't matter. "LOISG!" A huge cone blaze exploded from the stuff, she closed her eyes with the screen active so that the too much light and heat didn't hurt anything but the enemies. She held the spell for a few seconds longer than she should, trying not to vomit because of the acrid smell of burnt feathers and charred flesh. She stopped only when there was no more sounds. The girl opened the eyes and it wasn't a pretty sight: a carcass had fallen by my side, the walls of that cavity were now black, she could see a wing, or rather, a stump of it sprouting together with a leg with claws on the other side. It looked like an overcooked chicken leg. There was also something black that was moving. Cathleen got ready for a new fight. Danger was still present, in fact some of the harpies had survived if they were behind the others. She was tense, alert and trying to figure out everything because of my improved eyesight, another advantage Accipiter gave her. It could be also hear a deaf growl bouncing along the walls. She didn't understand. And still did not understand when the head of a giant black lion appeared in her vision. “What the hell a creature like that is doing there!” The animal grumbled making a movement with its head almost human. Too amazed she jumped frightened when he made a half roar and repeated the gesture. “Does he want me to follow him?” Was that possible? She had to think about how to get out of that situation.