"Setu, four weeks old."
"Arifa, two weeks old."
Every word spoken hit Kigen like a ton of rocks. Under his watch, they had lost two dear ones. His heart was cold; his eyes filled with rage. He hated that he had not been enough to protect them.
He felt responsible. He felt as though he had failed them, and all his kin in general. They all looked up to him for protection, but he had failed these two. He made a silent vow to never fail the fairies ever again.
As for Setu and Arifa, Kigen vowed to avenge them. As he looked at their mangled bodies, their little fairy bodies looking so defenseless and limp, Kigen vowed to return this favor to the enemy a hundredfold.
Meanwhile, the entire colony, even Kigen himself, looked battered. If he could, Kigen wished to move the entire clan, and the mother tree. Unfortunately, the mother tree was planted in place, unmovable.
The good news was that very few mud golems got back. After their assault, more than half of them had become fodder for the fairies, absorbing their cores. When the mud golems ran away, so did the undead birds.
The fairies all around were mourning. Some were sobbing, others had somber expressions. All in all, this was a feeling that none of the fairies had experienced. A loss of one of them. Never had a fairy fallen, be it in a fight, or a hunt.
Now, the fairies had had their bloodiest battle yet, and in this battle, two of them had fallen. Kigen had a thought. Once, there was only him, now, there were quite a lot of new members that he didn't know many of them. He felt ashamed that he did not even know these two.
"We must remember them," Nina said. Arifa was part of her faction. A young energetic fairy with so much to offer, Nina felt so angry that the little fairy did not live long enough to see his potential realized. Just two weeks old, how short his life had been.
"How do you suggest we do that?" Foli asked. Setu had not been part of his faction, but the young fairy had died so close to him. While they were fighting, some fairies under Luita's faction were directly under him. He was supposed to be watching out for them.
He'd seen it, the strike. So ruthless had that sword been that it tore the fairy in half. Foli was having a hard time getting that image out of his mind.
"We will celebrate them," Kigen said, "and then bury them." A human tradition, but it would help the fairies move past this.
And so it was that after much effort, the fairies managed to dig two holes near the mother tree's root. They buried their fallen kin there, a place so close to home.
After that, several days passed.
The fairies that had been battered got time to recover from their injuries. Unlike humans, the fairies just needed to spend some time jacked into the mother tree. Her healing powers could wipe away any wound, apart from death.
In these days, the fairies managed to set up a perimeter around the mother tree, keeping watch and ensuring no enemy made their way over. They especially monitored the river, since this was where most of their enemies had come from.
Kigen was hovering somewhere under the mother tree's canopy. He formed a bow and began generating an arrow. Something strange about the arrow was that it was not made of wood, but ice.
After the encounter with the golems, the fairies had gained quite the boon. After absorbing all those golem cores, the affinity of the fairies to the water element was greatly increased. Since they had absorbed mud golem cores, the double element of earth and water had been enhanced. Now, Kigen was testing his limit.
There was not a lot going on. Since it was in the morning hours, multiple hunting parties had already left for the hunt. Of the few fairies still around, they were engrossed in various activities.
Kigen hardly left the tree, but that did not mean that he was lazy. Rather, he spent time training his power, horning his skills, so that he can be able to protect his own should a need arise. This was what he was doing.
Now, with his ice arrow, Kigen aimed at a nearby tree. Due to various experimentations, many of the trees near the mother tree had suffered a lot of battery from the fairies. Some were even cracked along the trunk. Kigen chose a dead tree this time.
Mustering all the power in his body, Kigen pulled the bow to the max. He then channeled his own ability into the bow and arrow, adding more potential energy. Once he released the arrow, the icy arrow was barely visible.
Onwards it went, hurtling through the foliage, and tree trunks. Kigen was an expert shot, and his arrow had a range of over a hundred meters.
Boom! With a bang, the arrow destroyed the tree trunk Kigen had been aiming at. The impact caused a deep cavity to form on the trunk, while also freezing the trunk with a burst of ice. Even the fairies were startled by the sound.
Once he inspected the damage, he smiled. It was as he hoped. Now that he had a new skill in his belt, he might as well take that step. Turning around to a nearby fairy, he said, "get me Luita and Nixa."
For a long time, he had been wondering about something. The opposing party had been more concerned with capturing them than killing them. If their goal was to kill, the fairies would have lost more than two of their kin so far.
While Kigen had managed to stop them from kidnapping his people time and time again, it seemed inevitable that they might really succeed. Especially considering how mighty the enemy was said to be. If that happened, Kigen was not sure what horrors they would go through.
From Manati, the resident serpent, Kigen had learned that capture and captivity was not always a bad thing. At least, in the case of Erebus the serpent, it was quite good. However, he always had a lingering feeling that the enemy wanted his fairies for something more than just capturing a pet, or a commodity for trade.
Now, upon Luita and Nixa's return, they had mentioned of their encounter with the druids. Something about the warning the elder had given still stuck with Kigen. If at all possible, prevent the fairies from being caught. He could feel there was a lot the elder had not disclosed. Perhaps that was why they wanted to meet up.
Of course, Kigen could not rule out the possibility of a trap. Should he go galivanting with some elder druids, who would look after the mother tree, and the family? Should those mud golems, especially the one in the lead, come back, wouldn't his family be defenseless?
Nevertheless, curiosity was winning over caution. This was why he had fairies swimming all over, looking for any signs of the golems. So far, they had remained hidden, not even returning to their original position.
This issue of the missing enemies worried Kigen to no end. He hated that he did not know their position, or if they were planning something. Last time, Kigen had only left for a few minutes, going to fight some birds and bring some fairies home. Yet, the trouble that had descended his home had been so devastating he did not wish to see a repeat.
"Go back the druids," Once Nixa and Luita had arrived, Kigen turned and looked at them. "Tell that elder that my home is threatened and I cannot leave as I please. If he really wants to meet up, we of the fay kind welcome him to our forest."
"Lord, he mentioned he would only speak to you," Luita said, shrinking back. He was not too eager to leave too. The horror of fighting to come back, and the news of death that greeted them upon their return, all this was too much.
"Then tell him to come over. I can't go to him. Find a better way to phrase that," Kigen shot back. These days, he was becoming a little bit short with his temper.
"Got it," Nixa interjected. "We shall deliver the message, senior." With that, the two flew off. They would come back three days later, saying the elder druid had agreed to meet up. Time for the fairies to play host.