Leech of the World, Chapter 4.1: Rest

Atop the tallest cliff facing towards Sea that for some reasons has little grass on it, Azur’s House sat.

The Elderly Humans that aided Azur become chief made it with the help of the Krygnym and their magic, needless to say this house had way more Human vibes to it than Krygnym ones, its walls were completely vertical and little if any light or water ever passed through the ceiling that was also a second floor. Small magical lights could be seen already on the house, someone as talented as dangerous was already inside, preparing something, Ephiri, the younger sister of the chief and the most beautiful Krygnym on the Village.

While Azur would have been fine with half of what it ended up being, the Villagers and Humans on Azur’s side decided that it was their way of repaying her for reuniting Alexandrite and for saving the Human town which became their Allies. At this point Aquara was already in love with Azur, she also helped on the construction.
 

“For how long are you going to peek for Aqua?” the Sky Blue Krygnym minding her own business suddenly said those words “You know we don’t mind the Shadows but we both know when it’s you”
 

“Sorry lil sis, couldn’t help myself” she wasn’t actually sorry as she appeared from the shadows to the brightly lit lamps.
 

“*Sigh* how it all went with big sis?” between annoyed and disappointed Ephiri asked the Spotted Aquara.
 

“Pretty good I'd say, she did seemed pissed bout’ something, no idea what though...” the spotted looked confused.
 

“You actually have no idea? Ho ho, you think it could’ve been Aquila?” gossiping Ephiri said. 

“Nah, she always just shakes off whatever that tadpole says to her... it has to be something bigger...”
 

“Well I do want to know more about that, but I have a feeling we’ll get the answer whenever she arrives, but for now...”

“oh boy...” Aqua sounded a little concerned, but Ephiri did not hear these words.
 

“Was it really the Lion of the North?! Tell me!” excited Ephiri stopped looking at the mean she was cooking for a moment.
 

“Well, it did look the same as the ones on the book you showed me, but was it supposed to be the size of an adult Dragolisk?”

“Sometimes, maybe it was an elder Lion, they get bigger with age...”
 

A thunder sound in the distance

“Crap, another storm? things are just getting weirder and weirder” Aquara complaint.

“Yeah, not even Lady Suxuq know why it's happening, First the stronger and more frequent Storms, then Water limits our magic for some damn reason, now the Lion appears out of nowhere...”

“Hey... you don’t think... Azur is scared?” a serious Aqua looked through the window, watching the dark clouds in the sky miles away getting closer.
 

“Scared...” Ephi also took a look at the clouds, but snapped out earlier that Aqua “With how amazing sis is I don’t even know what she would be afraid of...” Ephi tried to make Aqua ease up a little.
 

“You’re right, she is a mazing”
 

*Knock* *Knock* Aquara was back from her trance as Ephi went to the front door.
 

“Ah, Mavlov, Brey and... sorry what was your name again?” she recognized both Krygnym, each had two wooden barrels, one on each hand and also recognized the human with them, but she could not recall his name.
 

He was a young man, no more than 25 years old about 1.75m tall, short brown hair and very muscular for a human.
 

“Damir young Lady, I'm here because Azur requested some drinks from my father” he didn’t seem bothered by the fact that Ephi didn’t remembered his name.
 

“(I still can’t get used to the Lady thing...) ah yes, and I suppose this two wanted to help...” Ephi said like she was scolding the brothers for something.
 

“Well... Azur only ask this of us if there is going to be some kind of gathering... but worry not, I'm keeping this a secret as usual, but for now I'll need your sign here, Miss Ephiri” he handed Ephi a clipboard with paper on it.
 

“Thanks, Damir” she told the man as she signed with her fingertip that shine with a blue light and returned the crude clipboard.
 

“That’ll be all Miss Ephiri, now I'll be going back” and just like that the man just left to a cart that had plenty of barrels on it, the cart was dragged by a domesticated Dragolisk, these were way too small to be a threat but still big and strong in comparison to horses, not to mention that they could fight back on a worst-case scenario.
 

“Then I took for granted that all went well with big sis” she with her arms crossed now turned her attention to the two Krygnym that were still standing by the door.
 

“Yep, though I don’t really know what Brey did to get her to accept” Mavlov tried to turn the ‘Ephigun’ away from him.
 

“Hey, I told you, we’ll be working way harder than usual to repay for this” Brey let out a little scared.
 

“Oh, shut it already and bring those inside, will you? I'm not mad at any of you, I'm just not sure who or what I should be mad at” she scolded the far older than her Krygnym that hurriedly entered the house and placed the barrels by where Ephiri had just been cooking.
 

“Are we the first to arrive?” a question flew to Ephiri from Brey.

“Aqua is already here” she answered from the doorway.

“Really, where? I don’t see her!” Mavlov replied.

“Hmm, maybe she went up!” Ephi stood still by the door, she felt something, soon things will change, for good or for bad she could not tell.

“(Child, you there?!)” a voice on Ephi’s head. A 「Message」.

“(What is it, Lady Suxuq?” she said without any hesitation.

“(You felt that too? This strange energy)”

“(I did, but what does it mean?)”

“(I don’t know, but I'm way too tired to think about it now, you got the spell on the House?)”

“(I did, but I was thinking on recasting it)”

“(Good, do that, just checking cuz’ I think this storm will be a big one)”

“(Understood Lady Suxuq, anything else?)”

“(Watch over Azur, something is off and she might be a little mad about the Lion matter)”

“(Very well, then ill end the Message and recast the protection spell)”

“(Take care of them up in there, Child)”

The message ended and Ephi took no breaks and started casting a spell.

The Seal and the lines that grew from it appeared on her forehead once more, clutched her hands focusing on the floor and it tremble for a little, then a sphere of light engulfed the surroundings of the house, but it was over as quick as it started.

「Mass Lightning Protection」: There is a single target version of this spell, but essentially what it does is redirect Lightning away from the Zone/Target and, on higher versions, completely nullify them.

“Now with that done, back to making dinner” she wiped the nonexistent sweat of her forehead and headed back in the house. “You two! Found Aqua yet?!” she yelled at Mavlov and Brey as she opened the front doors. “And I know you’ve been peeping and I'm going to take more time to prepare the Dinner as punishment”

“She was on the second floor!... And not fair!” Brey answered.

“You both still kids or what?! and don't think you can talk your way out of this one Mav!” 

“Damn, she got us” Mav just accepted it.

“(Just like that...)” Brey was shocked

“If you tell me more about the Lion I might as well give a good word to Azur, what you say?” she was clearly onto something.

“Well...” Brey did wanted that good word to Azur.

"No deal from me” Mav stated on a serious tone.

“Then how about you take a look at the little Shadow, would that suffice?” Ephiri was not going to give up information that easily.

“Crap...” Mavlov did wanted that, he had never seen a shadow up close, they are either on fully mist form or way far in the back and he was curious.

“Well then?” she pressured them.

“Fine” both accepted at the same time.

While she was cooking: They told her how they found it, how fast and how clever it was. From the bottom of their heart they also told her that if it wasn’t Azur the one the Lion went for first, one of them would not be that healthy right now. Which was another topic entirely, did it know that she was the strongest? Did Azur jump out the water that high to lure it? Many questions like that popped out but were never voiced.

“Weird, there barely any story where the Lion is that aggressive, usually they just hunt, eat and go back to their territory, at the very least that is what the book says...hmm” she was in deep thoughts as she sprinkled something on the pan in front of her. “Hey V, when you done playing with Aqua come down here!”

“I’ll be down soon Ephi!” followed by a laugh a voice came from the window at the kitchen but is sounded a little like it was two voices, one really near and another really far.

After a couple of minutes: “V, The Youngest Shadow” walked down the stairs.

As Mavlov heard the little footsteps he got more and more anxious, apart from Azur and Ephi themselves, the Shadows also have access to a practically unlimited amount information between the Alexandrite territory that is, which is of course the main reason why Mav wants to meet with a Shadow.

V is 7 years old, the older ones are 20 and 25, questions were made as to why two out of the three shadows were older than their apparent summoner, since the Krygnym become shadows at birth, Azur just told everyone that they just grew faster because of the Shadowification. The inhabitants were unsure about this at first but as Azur Leadership moved forward so did the entire Area around them with the village being the source they stopped caring for details.