Enter the Fairy of the Crystal Forest! (Delilah + Menel)

“Shhhh... Calm down.”

Delilah crouched low on the frost covered floor, gently easing forward to the small nest. The blue bird was not so happy about it. They keep tweeting and flapping about the edge of the stony nest in the tiny cave. Their crystal feathers were flying off in all direction, cutting her hand as she edge closer towards her eggs.

“I’m not gonna hurt you. I’m just going to take one okay?” she cooed softly as she carefully reached for the small bird. Slowly and gingerly she stroked the head the little bird. Soon they seemed to understand the human meant them no harm. During the small time the bird was distracted, she took one of the small clear eggs and slowly back out, still just quietly stroking the bird. Soon she withdrew her hand just as the bird stop pecking her and flinging crystal feathers at her.

“Thank you!” she said cheerfully and put the small clear egg away in her inventory. Now she just one more ingredients to get and hopefully they are in a better mood than this little bird.

She took out her handkerchief and carefully wiped the blood off of her hands, it won’t do to scare away the critter with the smell of blood. Health potion was the better option but she didn’t have many of them left after giving majority of it away to a new player. So she would just have made do with what she has right now. It was also one of the reasons on her ingredients hunting session today, she wanted to make more and better potion for everyone she encounter.

Once she was sure all the red was cleared away, she patted the dust off of herself and jumped up. Bells jingling on her ribbons at the movement, it would probably annoy someone down the track but for now she was alone in the crystal forest so it was unlikely. At least that was what she thought.

Delilah didn’t even move too far from the previous clearing when a giant purple lizard dropped from the canopy above. The thing was large as it was almost taller than her. Large glowing crystal lined their whole spine, ending with a massive cluster at the end of the tail. They seemed to be very aggressive, for what reason she wasn’t sure at the moment.

“Woah... Easy now...” she breathed and quickly equipping her staff. Of course she has no actual intention to immediately hurt this creature, but the lizard was already snapping their jaws constantly as they edge towards her. Delilah looked around the area to see if there were any place she could run to in time.

It was a cold region, which Menel wasn't terribly fond of, but he was hunting down ingredients for health potions. It was always good to have a few of those on hand, but the ingredients for them had become less and less common of late. He suspected that it was because the company that ran the game was trying to get more people to buy their potions rather than going through the effort of collecting up what was necessary to make their own. Today the ingredient was crystal bird eggs which were always guarded both by the birds that laid them, but also by a newer crystal lizard creature.

As he searched for some sign of the little birds that would signal where the eggs were hidden, Menel kept a sharp eye out for the lizards. Usually they didn't pop up until you tried to make off with an egg, but sometimes they could spawn in the region randomly.

He heard the tale-tell growling ahead of him, so he dropped down low. If he could he'd rather avoid the creatures, but... He sneaked further toward where the growling was coming from. The lizards were also often right on top of the eggs which would make finding a batch much easier.

The swordsman hid himself behind a formation and peeked around it. There, standing beside a nest was a small girl all dressed up as if she meant to go to a party. Her hands were red-stained likely from stealing an egg from the nest where a pair of birds were still angrily chirping at her. It was the chirping that had attracted the lizards. If she'd killed the birds, or managed to find the nest untended then the angry chirping could have been avoided but now... She huddled back away from the lizards clearly looking to run away from them. Even he could see that wasn’t an option any longer. The creatures were too close now and she’d draw their attack the moment she turned to try.

It was an easy decision for Menel, coming around the corner with his swords already coming out. The sound of steel clearing his sheathes made his blood begin to race and he grinned at the lizards. “Over here!” He called out to them loudly and cut the closest one before it even realized that he was there. That would draw them toward him as much as the sudden noise. Birds flocked into the air in a rush of claxing crystal wings. A shower of tiny shards fell down like a rain on them and he motioned a little with one of his swords. “Run for it!”

Mentally she run through the list of potion she brought with her today. The debuff potion was to slow and the buff potion was increased strength. Still not helpful against multiple enemies, one needed to be ingested and the other one needed to be splashed on. Not to mention those little birds were really unhappy about the egg. They have been tweeting non-stop for the last few minutes. It was strange, this didn’t happen last time she was gathering the ingredients, was there a major change in the recent update?

“Over here!”

She practically jumped at the sudden voice, she turned back to see another man come in swinging. Out of practise she immediately step to the side to allow him clear and easy path towards one of the lizard. They couldn’t do much but take the hit. However they recovered rather quickly and snarled viciously. They swiftly whipped their tail around, glowing mace causing sparks as it dragged along the ground. Delilah was at least fast enough to bring the staff up to block it, even if it made her stagger back more. The other one snarled at the newcomer and lunged for him, teeth bared and sparkling claw out stretched. She looked back towards the one that attacked her, the crystals on the back was glowing and sparking. That can’t be good.

“Run for it!”

Delilah didn’t really think twice before immediately turning and ran towards the man. Jumping up a little to avoid the snapping jaws, then grabbing for his arm and tug him along to run with her. She will never leave anyone behind. Even if they can’t outrun the mob – she have no idea if the bells accessories she have attracted them or how far their pathing range should be – they could at least get to a more open area to deal with this.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw motion and immediately thought it was somehow a third one of those lizard creatures. Even so he couldn't help glancing that way only to see the girl he'd come to rescue running straight for him. He started to open his mouth to tell her that she was going the wrong way, but he realized just as quickly that she was heading for him.

Power made a sharp crackling noise along the lizard's spine, gearing up for the attack when she grabbed his arm. He had no choice really but to let her pull him along. If he'd struggled she might have gotten caught in the attack. As it was he earned himself a burn on the shoulder as he turned away; half caught by the attack the lizard had been gearing up for.

Then he was running behind her, trying to stay between her and the lizards that were now chasing after them. It seemed futile to him, trying to run away like this. They both would have been better off confronting the lizards who were surprisingly quick on their feet considering how large they were. "I've got to stop!"

He gave her a little push, trying to get her further away from him. "You keep going, but running isn't going to work." He pushed her away again and stopped running. The lizards were right behind them but he flashed her a grin. "It'll be alright."

Delilah ran as fast as she could, happy for some of the enchanted bonus she added into her equipments but still it wasn’t fast enough against those lizards. They have gotten quite far from the original spot where the nest of eggs were and were continuing along the path, weaving through trees of crystals and glassy grass. Just ahead she could see a big bright clearing. Hopefully it was far enough that the mob finally loose aggro.

Then suddenly she felt a little push on her back. She was about to turn and asked what’s wrong when the man immediately answered for her. She stared at him with a wide eyed disbelieve.

“But I don’t want them to be hurt! That’s just mean.” she blurted out without much thought. Despite the fact she knew full well this was a game and the lizards were just pixels, probably will not feel anything if they even have an actual conscious. Also that right now it’s more likely that the lizards hurt them.

At the same time she doesn’t want him to be hurt either. She could see the slight burn on his shoulder, probably caused by the rampant magic spewing out of those crystals. After this she would definitely have to patch him up with whatever potion she could craft back in town.

“Is there no other way other than fighting?” she whined, not completely willing to fight. Even though the lizards had caught up to them and began shooting balls of charged crystal at them. Delilah hit back the one coming directly towards her like baseball. The crystal sailed back to distant trees, exploding out of their field of view.

"I will fight them. You don't have to."

“No!” She wailed, almost stunning the lizard back. One did shut their mouth at her sudden outburst, swallowing back the ball of electricity letting it dissipate back on to its spine. “That meant you will get hurt instead! And you already are hurt.”

The other lizard didn’t like that its attack was stopped by the blade and charged up a bigger one in its mouth. Giant spikey crystal, cackling full of energy, threatening to explode straight in its own face, which the lizard shot it straight towards the two players. Delilah moved to try and hit it back, but it was too large. The majority bounced back into the two lizards, stunning them briefly, as well loading the energy right back to their own crystals. Some however remained on her staff, embedded into the wood and letting out small static shock down her staff and into her arm, before exploding into tiny shards. She managed to shield most of it from her eyes, it still took a good chunk out of her health bar.

Yet Delilah shook off the shock and the shards as if they were nothing. “Just a little bit further I’m sure we could just get out of their aggro range.” She said, completely ignoring the cuts that are littering her face and arms.

Although she has no clue just how far the aggro range was, she hasn’t encountered these creatures enough time to guess just how long. However if needed she will run all the way back to town just so she wouldn’t have to fight it. That’s how she always played this game, so far she has only fought or hunt creatures when it was absolutely necessary, and mourn each and every single one of them...

Or at the very least apologise profusely for it.

Delilah yelped as he picked her up. She never thought this would happen without her siblings in game. Still he was fast and easily outrun those lizards. They snapped and snarled behind them, almost galloping over the tree roots in an attempt to get to them. Some even resumed to spitting magical bolts at them.

She held up her staff, knocking them off course as best she can. Each time she knock the bolts away she could feel her arm tremble at the intensity. There was also an ominous crack that only became louder and more frequent with each smack. Eventually the lizards stopped and turned back, vanishing back into the crystal forest. Delilah let out a breath, grateful they are finally safe. The man didn’t stop though, he kept running.

“Umm... We’re okay now. You don’t need to carry me anymore.” She said, not quite sure how she should address him, since they didn’t even got a chance to introduce themselves.

He carried her for a good long while, and only let her down when they were practically out of the forest. The moment her feet finally touched the ground and she was preparing to apologise and thank the person. He beat her to it and started to apologise first. That flustered Delilah.

“No, no no! Don’t worry about me. Are you okay? I’m so sorry I dragged you into this!” She dropped her staff to the side, barely noticing it snapped into pieces as it land in the grass. She just focused on the man in front of him, checking over him everywhere for injuries, fussing over him. She ignored her own magic burns on her hands, it doesn’t hurt that much anyway. All the while Delilah apologised profusely, feeling absolutely horrible for letting a stranger getting injured like this. If only she could run faster by herself, or find some ways to calm down all those critters.

It was surprising that she was apologizing.

The fact embarrassed Menel to no end, and he tried to hush her over it to no avail. "I'm fine really, please stop apologizing." He held his hands up, allowing her to look over his few injuries with patience. Menel finally stopped her though, noticing the burns on her hands as they touched his skin. Gently he reached out, touching her light as a butterfly. "Hey... You were hurt. Do you have any healing items for this?"

His eyes fell to the weapon she'd discarded, wincing at its broken pieces. Their escape had been at a price it seemed. Menel was just glad that price was a weapon easily replaced and not one of their lives. Which given her desire to let the monsters live, might have been a very real possibility.

"Sorry about your weapon." He half-winced at his apology, hearing her need to over-apologize echoing out of his own mouth. "If you want; I'll adventure with you a bit and help you get a new one."