Chapter 78: Pulling out all the stops. Journey north.

“Did you find out anything?” asked Edward the moment Ingvar appeared at the door.

“There is no path going through the mountain. The guild sealed the old path using magic to avoid lava spilling out. The only way towards the north is by climbing or flying over the mountains.”

“What about master?”

“No news from her either. The guild has even released a quest to search for her.”

“Fuck. Can you please ask your father to make a quest in my name? I want to hire the elf who saved me from the assassins in the south for a mission.”

“Assassins?”

“It’s a long story. Can you do it?”

“I’ll ask.” Said Ingvar hesitantly.

“Alright. I’ll come back in a few days. If the elf replies to my quest in the meantime, tell him I need his help to teleport me to the north of the mountains. While I’m gone, please keep watch over Violet and make sure nothing happens to her. Also, I need you to tell her I’ll be out of the city for a while if she asks.”

Ingvar has some questions of his own, but Edward disappeared before he could even voice one of them.

“What did he get himself into? And since when did I become his personal servant?” murmured Ingvar under his breath.

“Something is going on with Violet.” Said Kara as she appeared behind Ingvar. “I’ve looked into her mother and found out Arthur had disappeared on a quest in the north of the mountains before returning two years later with a little girl. Since he’s planning to go there, whatever is bothering him must be related to Violet and her mother.”

“Do you plan on doing anything?” asked Ingvar.

“I’ll try. You keep an eye on that girl.” Said Kara as she walked back inside the house.

Edward quickly sprinted towards the southern gate of the city. If there was no path through the mountain and his master was not back to help him, he could think of a single way he could reach that place.

“Minx, we’re leaving.” Said Edward when he reached the forest and immediately climbed on the wolf’s back, but before they could run off, the same elf as last time appeared in front of him.

‘That was fast.’ Edward found it quite suspicious how fast the elf arrived, but at this moment, he couldn’t care less. He needed all the help he could get and didn’t have to question potential allies.

Jumping back down, he bowed towards the elf and said: “Sir Finlas. Thank you for listening to my…”

The elf stopped Edward from talking by raising a hand and saying: “Ingvar told me your situation. I just came to let you know teleporting into the north is impossible for the time being.”

“Why?” asked Edward, feeling his frustration increasing.

‘Nothing seems to work out in my favor these days.’

“There was a recent commotion in the dragon kingdom in the north and they have locked space throughout the entire north. I’m afraid any attempt at teleporting there would prove fruitless.”

Edward sighed and resigned himself to the fact he had to make use of his last choice.

“Do you know if flying is possible?”

“Yes, but that’s not exactly safe either. There are periodic dragon patrols and I imagine they would not look favorably upon a human appearing in their territory during these times.”

“That’s alright. I’ll see how I deal with them. Thank you for letting me know anyway, Finlas. I apologize, but I can’t stay anymore.” Edward didn’t feel like wasting time while Violet’s condition was still a complete mystery to him.

“That’s fine. I wish you a safe journey ahead.”

Edward nodded and climbed back onto Minx’s back.

[Ingvar seems to have a few secrets of his own.], said Fenrir after they were quite a distance away.

“Tell me about it. I barely left the city, and he had already come to find me. Well, it doesn’t matter as long as he’s not an enemy. Did you find anything out?”

[We did indeed find something interesting. Listen to this: According to some legends, there is a forest creature called a huldra roaming the northern forests. They all live as a tribe and their entire race has only females. They take the appearance of beautiful women with the only difference being the fact that they have a tail akin to the of a fox.]

[They charm human males and bring them into their tribe. Over there, they have sex with the humans, sucking their lifespan through the act until they eventually die of old age. Also, there are legends that if one looks into the huldra’s eyes, he falls completely under its control, having to obey any order or command until the huldra releases the spell or they die.]

“I see, but what about the ears? And how come Violet only started behaving weirdly after we had sex? Also, I didn’t age at all.”

[I don’t know the answer to the first two questions, but I know why you didn’t die. Don’t you remember? Your lifespan is infinite.]

“Oh yeah, I forgot about the whole immoral thing. It matches the letter Arthur wrote as well, even tho some things don’t add up. Keep looking for more info.”

[Are you going to ask Flastrdra for help?]

“What else can I do? Do you know any other flying beast?”

Fenrir fell silent, and Edward continued on his journey. He asked Minx to continue running until she exhausted all her stamina before taking her place in his wolf form. While Minx rested on his back, he continue running as fast as he could. It was not the most pleasant journey for either of them, but he needed to reach Flastrdra’s dungeon as fast as possible.

It took Edward three days to reach the dungeon Flastrdra was hiding in. When he entered the hidden room before the dungeon, he found her warming up the egg using her body. She has grown to just a little over fifteen feet in the time he has not seen her.

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Flastrdra lifted her head and looked at Edward with an indifferent expression, already having felt him approaching a while ago.

“Flastrdra, I know you need to protect your egg, but I have a favor to ask of you.”

Flastrdra tilted her head to the side and waited for Edward to continue.

“My lover has encountered a problem and I need to travel to the forests in the far north of the continent to look for a solution. For that, I need to fly over the Fallwrath mountains.”

A gust of wind escaped Flastrdra’s nostrils, and she placed her head back down again.

“Please, Flastrdra. You are the only one I can rely on. If I do nothing, I don’t even want to imagine what would happen to her. I’ll do whatever you want me if you agree to help me.” He only knew from Arthur’s letter that it was a fate worse than death, so he didn’t want to imagine what would happen to Violet.

Still seeing no reaction from Flastrdra, Edward fell to his knees and bowed his head. After a few minutes, a voice no different from a teen girl’s sounded throughout the room.

“What happened to her?”

Edward knew that must be Flastrdra’s voice and was surprised that she could speak again. Her being his only hope right now, Edward started explaining everything, even his conjecture about the huldra.

“The huldra are no more. Since no humans visited their tribe during the period the volcano was active, and dragons were immune to their charms, they could only mate with other magic beasts to prevent their tribe from dying out. Most attempts yielded no result, not conceiving any offspring, but after mating with one wolf, one huldra became pregnant. Three more conceived before the wolf’s lifespan was spent and it died.”

“They gave birth to three new souls, but the same problem repeated itself. The children were all female. They tried mating with other wolves, but none yielded any pregnancy. Trying to find what was special about that particular wolf, they found a relic in the cave they found the wolf. I don’t know what that relic was, but whenever they had intercourse with a wolf in the presence of that relic, the huldra would remain pregnant.”

“Their race slowly changed, and it became composed of only female half-wolf, half-huldra creatures. They even started venerating the new relic as a sign from their new God and adopted a new name for their entire race, Viera. Unfortunately, after adopting their religion, the viera became quite secretive and my people never bothered to find out more about them, so I can’t tell you if there’s any solution to your problem.”

“Your lover is most likely a viera. Or half-viera, if you’re saying her father was human.”

“Thank you for telling me this, Flastrdra.” Said Edward, already grateful she has helped him identify the identity of Violet’s mother’s race.

“I can help take you to the north and find the viera since I still owe you a debt of two lives, but I need your wolf to stay here and protect my child.”

“Minx?” asked Edward, turning with a hopeful look towards his companion.

“Minx will help.” Replied Minx instantly. She didn’t want to leave Edward’s side, but she knew this was important to him.

“Good, but remember, if anything happens to my child, I’ll kill Edward before coming here and doing the same to you. I will leave a protection amulet that can block three attacks from someone around level 50. This protection can be broken even by lower-level people if attacked constantly, so make sure you check it regularly. During this time, head into the dungeon below and increase your strength by consuming monster cores. You are still too weak to deal with any threat that might appear.”

Minx nodded in understanding, and Flastrdra activated an amulet that covered the egg in a fire barrier.

“Let’s make haste. I want to finish this as soon as possible and return.”

Edward nodded and thanked Minx before leaving the secret chamber with Flastrdra. Once outside, Flastrdra lowered one of her wings for Edward to climb on her back.

“I’ll slowly increase my speed. You tell me when you can’t hold on anymore.”

Edward climbed on her back and held onto one of the protruding scales on her back before saying: “How fast can you reach the forests in the north?”

“At full speed: less than one day.”

“Alright. Also, I’ve heard there are dragon patrols over the mountains. They should be your people, no?”

Flastrdra snorted and said in disgust: “They are no longer my people. I still have a debt to settle with them. Too bad I’m too weak right now.”

After Edward settled on her back, Flastrdra started flapping her wings and took flight. Once up in the air, she started flying north while slowly ramping up her speed.

Once he couldn’t hold on to her anymore, Edward summoned a water whip and used it as a harness to hold on. This allowed Flastrdra to reach her full speed, but Edward could feel his skin tearing from the sheer wind pressure.

Edward formed a water ball in front of Flastrdra’s eyes since he couldn’t speak at this speed and she stopped midair before looking back, confused.

Edward turned into his wolf form and tied himself to her back using the whip before howling at her. Flastrdra understood his meaning and continued flying forward. In his wolf form, it was easier for him to hold on, but he knew his stamina would eventually run out.

After an hour and a half, when his stamina ran low, Edward stopped Flastrdra again. He turned into his human form and said: “Can you kill some beasts and drop me down next to them?”

Flastrdra didn’t know what he had planned, but did as she was told. She quickly killed some weak wild beasts and dropped Edward near them.

“Fly up so I won’t attack you and come pick me up after I turn back.” As his words ended, Edward knocked himself out and let the wolf feed itself on the freshly killed beasts.

The moment Edward turned back, Flastrdra came to pick him up and asked: “What was that? It looked like your skill but… different.”

“I’ll tell you when we’re not in a hurry anymore.”, said Edward before turning into his wolf form and tying himself to her again.

They continued in this rhythm until they reached the mountains, where Flastrdra slowed down and started flying lower to avoid any dragon patrols. The entire journey to the other side took them a day and a half.

When they reached the northern forests without encountering a single dragon, it was already night and Flastrdra insisted she wanted to rest before searching for the viera tribe. Edward wanted to continue searching now, but at Flastrdra’s insistence and because they arrived earlier than he originally believed they would, Edward reluctantly agreed. He still needed to rely on her knowledge of the north if he hoped to find the viera tribe as soon as possible.

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