Chapter 8
Saïna
It was dusk when Saïna appeared before a very small humanoid. "What is your order Mistress," she said, bowing slightly.
The small creature gawked in terror, immobile with the stone Tablet at her feet. She had long pointy ears, starting on the side of her head like any human and reaching almost as high as the top of her head. She had very long black hair, reaching as low as her knee and she had bright purple eyes, almost luminous. Everything else was the same as any human female, except her skin was a bright gray, almost silver with sparkles, and she stood barely 1 meter tall. She was wearing a hoodless cloak and a bikini made of white fur with black stripes, and a leather belt with a small dagger on one side and a small belt pouch on the other.
Saïna's monstrous humanoid weretiger form had this effect on people. She was standing three meters tall, her strong build and muscular stature covered with golden fur and black stripes. Her tiger head and face with her powerful maw usually had any creatures stare at her either in awe or terror at any given time when she was in her true form.
After a moment, Saïna changed to look exactly as the girl, minus the white fur clothes, and shrank at the same time to match her size. "Is this less scary?" Saïna asked.
The girl grinded her throat, nodding faintly. "I used this Tablet," the girl said, pointing at the Tablet. "It said that by holding this Tablet and speaking the name, a helpful servant with great powers will appear. You appeared... I assume you are that servant, so, can you help me?"
"I probably can," Saïna said, taking a moment to look around.
They were near the edge of a forest, it was the usual trees one would expect to find in a temperate forest; oak trees, some pine trees, birch trees, a lot of moss and bushes, and lots of colorful leaves everywhere.
'It must be the beginning of fall,'
she thought. But on the other side, barely a few meters behind the girl, all the trees were cut down. The lumps were broken and showed signs of multiple hits, presumably made by an axe, not a straight cut like a saw would make.
"What happened here?"
"This is what I need your help with," the girl said. "The lumberjacks are killing my forest."
"Tell me more about you, what you want from me, and how I may be of service."
"My name is Thea," the girl said. "I'm a fairy and I'm the new Queen of the Silverymoon Forest. My mother died a few weeks ago at the hands of those lumberjacks, so I'm now in charge of our fate; fight or flight. I chose to fight back. My mother tried to stop them, but we were no match against them. They outnumbered us, and that's not counting the Fairy hunters, but we lost so many in the past few months, I began doubting my decision. An old elf hermit living at the edge of the forest opposite to here told me to look for a magical item in this area. He said it may help us win this war."
Saïna smiled. "He was probably right."
"I want them to suffer for what they did to my people," Thea said. "There is a camp nearby in that direction," she pointed. "I want you to punish them all."
"As you wish Mistress," Saïna said, bowing her head slightly. "I'm limited to stay within five hundred meters of the Tablet, and I can't touch it. You'll have to go with me."
"I saw you change your form," Thea said. "Can you change into a tiger?"
"Of course," Saïna said.
"I'd like you to turn into a white tiger so I can ride you."
Thea's body grew double in size, making it easier to hold the Tablet in one hand. She hopped on Saïna's back after she had turn into a large white tiger and launched in the direction of the camp.
"What kind of fairy are you?" Saïna asked while running. "I never saw one of your kind."
"That's because we never show our true form to strangers," Thea said. "I'm a Silver-Leaf Fairy."
"I've seen your kind before, and you don't look like one even if we don't consider the fact that you were almost eight times taller then your kind."
"That's because I went through the ritual to make me a Queen after my mother died," Thea said. "The ritual takes my wings away, but I can grow them back if I use energy for it. It also made me bigger, but again, I can use my magic to shrink back, or I can grow even taller. I can even look human if I need to, but not for long. It requires a lot of energy."
"How long can you stay this tall?"
"For as long as I want," Thea said. "My true size is about 1 meters high now, but I can shrink as small as six centimeters or as tall as 2 meters without using more energy than I can recover, so unless I'm in a fight or something, I can maintain this size indefinitely. Growing taller than that is a whole different kind of energy investment and I can barely maintain it for an hour, less if I also use my magic to alter my appearance to look like another specie."
"You're a fascinating creature," Saïna said, slowing down. "The camp is just ahead of us."
"I'm sure you are too," Thea said. "Go faster, they must all be preparing to eat after a long day of hard work, so we can surprise them."
Saïna obeyed and dashed forward.
An arrow bounced on her forehead as she approached the large cabin. The archer was in a watchtower nearby and rang the bell right after he shot at them. Saïna adjusted her trajectory slightly before jumping ten meters high into the tower. The archer screamed his lungs out before throwing himself over. He stumbled on the structure before flopping on the ground below, squirming in pain.
"Hide up here," Saïna said.
Saïna jumped down and landed almost twenty meters away from the tower and she didn't have much distance left before reaching the first few men, all rushing out of the cabin, weapons in hand.
'Swords, Clubs, Bows, Daggers and shields,'
she thought, amused.
'So, this is definitely not a world with technology.'
A few arrows bounced off her skin as she charged towards the men. Their screams of terror echoed loudly as they realised the uselessness of their weapons. She ran through six of them like a bowling ball through pins. The men flung in every direction, legs and hips broken or severely injured by the impact of her strength, speed and weight combined.
'Bummer I don't have all of my powers,'
she thought.
'This would have been a lot less messy.'
She changed into a human right before the remaining three men. They gawped in awe as their brain was probably trying to make sense of how this monstrous white tiger, who had just crippled six of their friends, was turning into an incredibly beautiful naked girl.
She walked to the first man, snatched the club out of his hand while throwing a swift front kick at his knee. The man cried out, holding his broken knee as he fell to the ground in agony.
The last two tried to flee, screaming, but she swung the club at the first one before he could take off, breaking his arm severely and sending him crumbling to the ground. She watched the second man run for a moment to anticipate his movement before tossing the club at the back of his head. The man flopped to the ground.
Everyone was in pain, screaming and moaning loudly, but still alive.
'That's punishment enough,'
she thought before changing back into a tiger.
She rammed through the door and roared. Twenty lumberjacks were waiting inside, most still sitting around a dinner table with their axes in hand. She pounced.
The entire cabin was a loud chore of moans when Saïna changed back to look like Thea in the tower.
"Everyone's been punished, Mistress," she said, bowing her head slightly.
"You didn't kill them?" Thea asked.
"You didn't order to kill, Mistress," Saïna said. "They should survive, but it's unlikely any of them will ever cut wood again."
Thea looked to the sky for a moment and then nodded. "I like that," she said before clicking her tongue. "I need to know why they're cutting so much wood. Can you find out?"
"I shall try," Saïna said, leaping off the tower as she changed into a tiger.
She walked back inside the cabin and looked at all the crippled. "Who's in charge," she said with a growl tone in her feline voice.
Many pointed at the same guy. His eyes grew wide and he tried to get on his feet, holding his mauled wrist in pain, but she pinned him down swiftly.
"Who's paying you to cut all the trees and why?"
"The Lords in Praxion," he squealed. "The city started growing faster since Lord Salks joined the consortium in charge of the arena. People are coming from every corner of the lands to witness the fights."
"Why does he need so much wood?"
"He doesn't. The people do. The merchants are making a fortune selling wood to the people as they chose to stay in Praxion. They need to build more houses then the city has to offer."
"How can we make this stop?"
"You can't," the man said, gulping.
"Spread the word," she said, growling to his face. "Every lumberjack caught anywhere near the Silverymoon forest will be mutilated, just like you were, and live the rest of their lives as infirm."
The man nodded slightly before she went back to her mistress again.
"There's five other camps nearby and another dozen further West," Thea said. "Let's punish those five and then we'll see if the others flee. If not, we'll attack them too in two days."
Saïna changed back into a tiger and took off in the direction Thea pointed.
The other camps were just as easily conquered as the first and Saïna made sure to deliver her message to each of them.
"They will send someone to hunt me down," Saïna said, walking back into the forest.
"Probably," Thea said, riding on her back. "The sun will rise in a few minutes. They will skulk back to the city and spread the word. I suppose we'll have a few days before they send anyone else. How long can you stay?"
"Until I die or until you return me into the Tablet by speaking the name."
"What happens if you get killed?"
"I return to the Tablet and you can't summon me again for ten days," Saïna said. "It's only one day if you call me back before I die or any other time."
"Why are you trapped in this Tablet?"
"It's part of a very powerful ritual meant to liberate me and a few others," Saïna said.
"Isn't it a bit ironic that you have to be captured in a Tablet to be liberated from something?"
