Crimson Revenge... Payback in Blood. Part 2

Rennoewen stood at the edge of the forest.  Her long, curling locks glowing in the sunlight in hues of orange, gold, and red. Her intricate mage robes rustled softly in the breeze.  Her fair skin and glowing, green eyes reflected back the light and twinkled.

"She is almost here..." she whispered more to herself than anyone else. Setting her ebony staff firmly into the soil, she began to utter the spell.  As she spoke, her staff caught on fire and made a trail on the ground into the woods.  The trail faded off into the darkness as she finished her spell.

Rennoewen turned around and smiled at Cazora, who smirked, but then, a smirk was the only smile she ever gave.  "When will the drow get here?" Cazora asked as she slung her bow over her shoulder and reached down to scratch... seemingly, the air.  A deep purr emanated from where her hand was when a large leopard appeared, shimmering, next to Cazora.  He slowly blinked his glowing cyan eyes and yawned, revealing his glowing mouth of the same color.  Saberhagen was a spirit cat and able to slip into another dimension, disappearing and reappearing at will.

"A few days... give or take.  It is a dangerous place and we don't know exactly how skilled she is," Rennoewen replied as she pulled up the hood on her red cloak.  Cazora nodded.  As Rennoewen and Cazora turned to leave, Saberhagen shimmered and disappeared.  They made their way back to camp to await their new recruit.


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Ravvyn was resting in a gnarly old tree.  This tree had seen thousands of years in this forest and it had likely seen at least a few hundred before the curse.  The time when the High elves lived here with their elaborate and beautiful buildings.  Instead of their glorious songs and music, there was now just the haunted whispers of trapped souls, howling, screams and other frightening sounds.  Being a Drow and living in caves and tunnels, she was used to pitch blackness, but sounds out here in the forest did not echo as they did in the Drow caves.  Ravvyn sat, unmoving. Listening.  She was excited to see what the world would be outside of this place... and also anxious.  She began to ponder if she was too far removed from her High Elf ancestors.  What if the sun blinded her forever and she never adjusted?  She feared the openness she would discover when there was no earth, fog and trees surrounding her.

Too absorbed in her own thoughts, she didn't notice that she was being watched.

Several large black spiders, the size of large dogs, began to descend on their silken threads to dangle over their prey.  These were not the cave spiders that the Drow were friendly with.  No, these were forest spiders... wild and hungry.  Their fangs dripped with anticipation and poison.  Hundreds of smaller spiders, ranging from pebble to hand-sized, scurried toward Ravvyn in the dark.  Suddenly, the forest began to glow orange.  Then a trail of the brightest light she had ever seen made it's way to the tree.  The spiders hissed and screeched in pain as the light burned their many eyes.  They scurried away into the darkness.

Gasping at the sudden movements and the bright light, Ravvyn stood and covered her lavender eyes as the fire lit up her world for the first time in her entire life.  Drows always used pink magic light from faerie fire to light their caverns and it was very dim.  Ravvyn blinked several times, tears falling from her eyes as the trail stopped in front of her and then slowly began to make it's way back the way it had come.  Her eyes felt a painful spasm and then she was no longer seeing in ultra violet.  Everything around her became very dark and the fire glowed without hurting her eyes nearly as much.  She blinked away the tears in disbelief, then began to follow the trail when it was moving on without her.  She followed it, excitedly.

[to be continued...]