Avaline's Mission

One of the places you'd least expect to find a woman would be deep in a forest that had, as far as the untrained eye could see, no land points, nothing to discern one direction from another. Not even the sun was of any help except to light the area far beneath the canopy. In this place that seemed unfriendly to humans, or even elves from the first glance from the root covered ground, the vines hanging here and there like webs, the constant sounds of predators in the brush.. But there she was, an armored woman making her way down a path of some sort. How she could tell it was a path no human would likely be able to tell. It looked just like every other piece of ground here. She, though.. She knew what she was doing and where she was going.

Her brown hair, streaked in silver from genetics and a bit of old age, was pulled back neatly from her face for once, to prevent the hair from matting to her face. She often let her hair cover her left eye, for an obvious reason. There was a scar that started near the forehead and ended near the jawline, having, for the most part, ruined her eye. The scar was faded, though, giving one the impression that it was quite old. She, however, looked youthful, despite the coloring of her hair. Maybe twenty-seven? Her looks were deceiving. Her silvered hair, her right eye that was a bright red, her amazing balance as she made her way along the forest floor.. It was easy to tell she a half-blood, part human and part drow, which would explain her slow aging.

She wore a disciplined look on her face, one that would snap an unruly bunch into an orderly group of soldiers in an instant. Her life in the army was her pride in life. Her salvation. Her legend. She was well known around most of the continent as Avaline, Hellhound of the Human Empire. She was their general, loyal and obedient, leading men into battles where victory was against all the odds, and bringing them out victorious. No doubt, the Empire and the King coveted this little hound of theirs.

However, she was soon about to bite the hand that fed her. Ordered to break the Truce between elves and humans, her loyalty faltered. She accepted the mission given; to sneak into the Laufs Territory in the Eterne Forest and assassinate the clan leader and frame the work on a clan of a nearby Territory. The elves seemed to constantly fight amongst their own, sharing overall codes, but despising each other for their differences. Peace had finally fallen on the Territories, but the humans intended to ruin that, to take this land as their own, too.

She would not have it. She would go and tell the leader right to her face just what sort of plans the humans had. She would tell all the elves, and attempt to unite them for the purpose of fighting against the humans, or at least protect themselves from future attack. She pondered on the reaction she would face when she walked into their village, hidden amongst the trees, and give them this news. Being what she was, both the human's Hellhound and a half-blood, made her undesirable to have around by most, unless she brought them a sweet victory. She did not doubt they would be cold and suspicious towards her until she proved herself.

She should be getting close, now, shouldn't she? She had passed the 'Tree That Sat On Air', which was nothing more than a large tree raised from the ground by it's oddly shaped roots. Beneath it, one could even stand up straight and jump without touching the bottom of the tree. It made for a wonderful place for people to camp if they were between villages, large enough for several families.

She slowed her pace quietly, her one bright, red eye squinting as she gazed around, looking for another sign that she was growing nearer. As soon as she slowed, one of her hands came to rest, naturally, on the hilt of her blade at her side. An untraditional sword for a General, with a light curve to the blade and little guard for one's hand on the hilt. But this was her sword, the one she worked best with. She arched her right brow quietly, giving a faint hum. Surely, she was getting close, she thought.

Of course, Avaline was not the only person inhabiting that area of the forest. A mage, hiding amongst the forest using only magic as her camouflage, was moving through the trees soundlessly. Her image was obscured via a blurring spell. And, while it might have had trouble keeping her invisible while moving in an urban environment, in the confusing leaves and trees of the forest, she was perhaps better than completely invisible. Her movement could only be detected by 'swaying leaves' or 'waving grass'. In fact, it was the blur of her spell rippling through the air as she walked on by. Her footsteps were obscured with a sound-containing spell as she walked, so that no matter what happened, whether it was dried leaves or twigs crunching underfoot, she did not make a sound. She was a very cautious woman, it would appear.

What was she doing out here? She was hunting someone. Hunting a woman who could destroy all that she worked for, all that she had spent her life doing. She had heard of Avaline's mission to assassinate one of the drow leaders, to cause dissent and unrest among the tribes. She would have none of it! She was not going to let her friends and loved-ones become prey to the human's greed! She was going to stop it before it could start. And so, here she was, wandering amongst the dangerous forest, looking for the woman who could be responsible for it all. She had yet another spell cast for that purpose, detecting life for up to twenty meters away in all directions.

Of course, that would have been useless had she not had a vague idea of where she was going to be in the first place. When she spotted the woman, she frowned just slightly. Why did it seem like she was not even trying to hide her presence here? She was standing out like a bonfire at midnight. She slowly glanced around at the area around her for a moment, and shrugged her shoulders. She was not going to think over the specifics when she was so close to the drow settlement. She stepped out into the clearing and cast a massive spell. She wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. She thrust her staff forward, her blur spell disrupting as she cast.

The ground beneath Avaline's feet began to erupt, throwing rock, dirt, grass and whatever else up into the air, taking the woman along with it in the force of the explosion. It was as if a bomb had gone off underneath the woman's feet, and thrown her away from the epicenter. As soon as she had finished casting that spell, she drew her staff back towards her, and immediately began to murmur the words to another, making gestures with her left hand, before throwing it outwards, throwing a fireball towards the airborne woman. She was sure of her aim--she had been practicing things like this all her life. And, then, before the fireball even made itself half-way to the woman, she already began murmuring the words of another spell. As soon as she finished throwing her hand upward, a geyser of boiling hot water shot up out of the ground towards the woman. Not only hot, but electrically charged so much that visible lightning spiraled around it as it shot up towards her back.

She was assuming that, pelted with earth, water, fire, and electricity at the same time would be a quick end to the battle. Still, this was Avaline she was dealing with. There was no telling what the woman had hidden up her sleeve. She was practically legendary--maybe she was tougher than mortal man.

Avaline's head turned a bit, blinking several times over in one direction, staring hard at it for a moment. She gave a faint sound, turning her eye away as she moved on, until something flashed into view where she had previously been looking. Her eye widened, spotting a woman, obviously a magic user, when the ground beneath her began to rumble and 'explode', hitting her with a force and throwing her in the air. She gave out a sharp sound, if only for a moment, tugging at the sword at her side while she was in the air, squinting tightly to avoid any of the flying dirt and debris from making its way into her eyes.

She managed to get her sword out in what little time she had, giving a deliberate swing and turn in the air upon seeing a fireball flying towards her. Why? The reason was obvious when the fireball's power was weakened considerably, and she'd let it hit her back, already reaching up with her free hand to tear at the cloak she had been wearing. Having turned, she had plenty of time, or at least for a person like herself, to see the geyser rushing up to meet her. Her arm pulled back before thrusting forward, slicing down towards the geyser. For any normal sword, this would be a useless gesture. For hers, the geyser, for the most part, split and lost most of it's electric charge as well, though she could do nothing about what water did hit her.

She hit the ground rather roughly, dropping to her knees with a grunt, struggling with the cloak and pulling it off, dropping it to the side. Her fingers, in doing so, seemed dumb, for the most part uncoordinated, her arms giving a slight spasm. One would notice that her back kept arching while her body as a whole felt stunned, burned. She numbly staggered up to her feet, spinning around to look over towards her opponent, brow furrowed in a dark glare. Wait... That woman... She squinted a bit, huffing quietly for a moment. She was human!

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She demanded, drawing her sword up, which one would notice was shaking. Or rather, her arm was shaking, still spasming from the charged effects of the water earlier. It was obvious that the sword she held had saved her life, fashioned as a magic cancel weapon. Such things were rare, but then again, so were people like herself. However, it was obvious that she had not completely mastered the blade, seeing as how the spells still had an effect on her.

"You know who I am, don't you? Being human, you ought to." She would, until she thought it was no longer necessary, play the part of the human's General until she got to the village she sought.

"And that's exactly why I'm going to stop you! I know what you are here to do!" She claimed, her eyes burning fiercely as she pulled her staff up. So, the woman's blade was a spell-breaker. And yet, it did not break the spells completely. How interesting that the human's general seemed only half trained in weaponry. Just proof of how unorganized the human army was. She hardly thought of herself as human herself, anymore, having lived among the drow for as long as she had. Her lips parted and sucked in a soft breath. Those spells she had cast had drained a lot out of her--she still had plenty, but knocking a quarter of her power out so quickly was like suddenly gaining half-again as much weight as she already weighed.

She puffed for a few seconds, but she hid it well, not showing how much that had hit her in the face. She had been expecting immediate death. She was going to have to conserve her power from here on out, knowing now that the woman's sword could negate spells. She would have to come at her from unexpected angles. As she thought over it, the more it seemed the thing to do in her mind. With a sword like that, even her most powerful spell would become nonlethal. She felt a grim smile coming to her lips as she began to murmur anther spell. She threw her hand out into a horizontal sweep, as several sharp rock spikes began to shoot up from the ground. Row-after-row, encroaching upon the half-human.

They were not real spikes. They were merely tricks of the mind in order to force the woman to run instead of fight back. She did not intend to leave this battle with a mark on her. And behind the woman, the path was shifting. Of course, she could not actually change the path, yet alternative routs seemed to suddenly be blocked by trees, and fallen longs, leaving only the single path from which she had came from. She did this for two reasons; One, to lead her where she wanted to go, and two, to keep her from being suspicious. After all, she likely did not check the paths she had no intention of crossing, right?

And besides, who would notice missing paths when there was a wall of spikes running towards you?

She paused for a moment, a strange look of disbelief crossing off her face as she stared at the woman. Here to stop her mission from the humans? She doubted, though it was always possible, that the woman had been sent to stop her from defecting and joining the Drows. She would have guessed instead that the woman was a bandit that would use defeating her as a reason for a reward from the Drow. Simple lies could stretch a long way, after all, but for the woman to straight out say to her she was going to stop her from doing what was ordered of her..

She opened her mouth to reply for a moment until noticing the woman was at work on another spell, her eyes widening when spikes shot up from the ground, moving towards her. Damn! How powerful was this woman!? Rapid casting that didn't even look as though it effected her energy levels, followed by something like this? She wasn't going to chance cutting through this spell. She backed away as the spikes shot towards her, turning and stumbling a few steps before breaking into a run.

Was the path really like this when she traveled down it? Her eye squinted as she ran from the wall of spikes chasing her, her head swiveling around to look for some quick, easy way to get away. She, at one or two times, considered using the trees themselves, looking up at the canopy far above. The limbs were two high and it'd leave her open to attack if she used her sword to climb. She considered jumping the logs that were on the side of the path, too, but the trees, as large as they were in this forest, would not make such a thing easy.

No matter where she looked, she was stuck on the one path. Something seemed suspicious about it, but she was in no position to stop and experiment on what she thought should or should not be there. Not with her life on the line.

All the while in her run, there was a slight limp to her step, still a slight spasm of defect in her body from the multiple attacks earlier. It hurt to move, certain parts of her body stinging, and the clothes she wore certainly did not make it easy on her where boiling water had hit her earlier, irritating the blistered skin. There was also that spot on her back where the fireball had hit, even singing the ends of her hair. She didn't doubt that her back would need treatment of some sort later, even if she had been wearing armor.

She smirked for just a moment, nodding Her head in satisfaction. The woman was moving according to plan. She began to follow through the spike walls, which were transparent enough for her to see clearly through. Of course, only transparent to her. To anyone else they looked as real as could be. She had to keep the other in sight. And of course, the spike wall eventually had to stop lifting. She began to let them collapse into the ground, dispelling the illusion as she ran, making it seem like she was running right behind the advancing spike wall.

Soon enough, the wall suddenly stopped and the last layer sank down, with her running past it as soon as it was gone. 'Drow archers' seemed to rise out from behind some of the fallen tree trunks, and began loosing arrows towards the woman in a fury that seemed to swarm from both sides. It left little time to think, little time for anything but doing for the Hellhound. She found herself smirking, throwing small, bright bolts of light in her direction. There were a few real ones thrown in, just to keep her thinking all of them were real. The ones that were real shattered whole chucks out of the trunks of trees, and she made a note to come back and heal those trees later.

Some of those attack's were true to their aim, and actually headded for the woman, though she doubted that they would actually succeed in striking, despite how ragged the general seemed from her first attack. It looked like she was about to be run to the ground. She felt a surge of hope in her chest. There was a chance for victory after all, despite her spellbreaking sword. Even now, it looked like the electricity was forcing her limbs to falter, and the fire causing her back to sting. All her hopes, though, rest on pushing that woman into the roots of that Tree... Once there, she would be done for.

She felt more alive than she ever had before. So this was battle! A very one-sided battle, but she felt blood rushing through her veins, she felt the air in her lungs, the breeze on her cheeks. She felt her hair rustling, and she felt the fur trim on her gloves tickling her skin, the earrings swinging in her ears. Every little detail registered at once. She was completely aware of herself and her surroundings. It was an amazing feeling. Still, she forced herself to show restraint. She had to keep at least half of her power in order to safely cast the final spell, and she was already another eighth of a way depleted.

She chanced glancing back, wearing an enraged look on her face, at the woman over her right shoulder. She was chasing her!? Seriously!? It wasn't enough she was already forcing the Hellhound to retreat in a battle, by herself no less? She let a hiss escape her lips, turning her gaze back around to focus on the path before her. With one eye and an injured body, it was dangerous to run without looking where she going in an area like this.

She did keep glancing back at the woman whenever she found herself to be running on relatively safe enough ground, her eye widening as the spike wall sank down, no longer chasing her. Now it was just the woman! She could fight! She faltered a bit before noticing the archers, her eye widening again. She muttered some profanity, stumbling because of her falter, again running for some safety. This must have all been set up! There must have been a spy or something like that back in the human courts! Were they really all this prepared for her?

She took no time to inspect the oncoming attacks, flinching whenever one struck at a tree nearby, if only from the fear that splinters or something would claim her other eye. That was one of her few constant fears in life, and something she did not care if other's knew about. She was careful to protect that remaining eye of hers. Her arm lifted up a bit, as if it was a bit of a guard to prevent any such thing.

She squinted her eye over her arm, wincing maybe once or twice, feeling some of the attacking bolts come near her body at times, one actually almost grazing her arm. She didn't let it slow her. She was outnumbered and over powered, and needed shelter from this insanity. Her eye eventually widened, staring off in a nearing distance at a tree she was coming up to. The 'Tree That Sat On Air'! She gave a glance back at the archers, the fury of attacks and the woman giving chase behind her, her brow furrowing tightly. Her only choice would be to hide beneath that thing! Something about it made her skin crawl...

She gave a deep throated snarl that certainly did not belong to any human or drow. A noise she typically made when a move happened that she disliked. As she neared the tree, she took a leap, disappearing beneath its root system, obviously eager for shelter from the barrage of arrows and magic bolts. Beneath the thing, she found herself feeling like a rat trapped in a fire pit, the twigs in which were already lit and working on the logs. She shuffled over, pressing her back against one of the large roots, panting heavily. She held her sword before her chest, wearing a paranoid look on her face, listening. Anyone who came after her under here would die... There was no way she could be beaten under here! Or that's what she thought, at least.

She laughed with delight as the woman dove beneath the roots of the tree. It was really that easy! She still had plenty of energy left over to cast the spell. She held back a little bit of reserve, so that she would not collapse upon finishing the spell, or worse; die. She walked slowly up to the tree roots, as she stared into the mess, letting a small trill of laughter as she began gathering the rest of her energies, channeling them into a spell and directing it towards the tree itself. Yes, she was going to crush the woman beneath that tree, and end her life.

"The Hellhound of the human army..." She gloated quietly after her laughter trailed off. "Defeated by simple parlor tricks and illusions." Okay , so they weren't simple in any way, but still. "Defeated by phantoms and ghosts, and one single woman." She said, as the tree began to shiver. It was only a shiver, as if the tree were no more than cold. Still, that shiver was ominous. Such a great, majestic thing was not supposed to feel anything enough to shiver. Yet shiver it did. "And now, you will be crushed, hiding in a rat-hole like the pest you are."

The trembling of the tree grew more violent, and the roots began to spread out as leaves began to drop from the branches. And suddenly, with a thudding crash, the tree fell into the earth as if it were a battering ram trying to burst through the crust. It slammed down on the half-elf within, and 'crushed' her beneath it. Of course, it should have killed her before she even realized what had happened, yet... That sword of hers altered the nature of her spell. Instead of crushing her, it began to soak her up, as if through those roots that had just betrayed her.

The tree drank her body up eagerly, absorbing her life force into its own. Merging them together, making their spirits one and the same. And while that added lifespan was insignificant to a tree, it was nearly immortalizing even for a full elf, much more so for a half-drow. As she watched on, her face took on a strange expression as the woman's figure began to emerge from the trunk of the tree, high up among the branches. Alive.. but slumbering. After all, trees lived so long, that they could not be bothered with mundane, day-to-day things.

She grew incredibly tense as she heard the woman advance on the tree, her brows furrowing. If that woman had enough magic... Who knew what she could do? She'd have to come down under the tree to get to her, though! There was no way she could attack from where she was now! No one was that powerful except the higher mages back at home, or maybe some of those real special elves. She tightened her trembling grip on her sword's hilt, her jaw clenching tightly.

She felt her lips pull back and bare her teeth as the woman above spoke, another snarl rising up in her throat. One that tended to be ominous on it's own, beside the fact that it was a sound coming out of a dark hole in the ground, like there was a monster under the tree instead of a woman. The snarl slid away quickly as she felt the root she leaned against shiver. Her back arched and she yanked away from the root, moving to the center beneath the giant tree. Her eye was progressively growing wider, looking around frantically for a reason why the tree should shiver like that. And then the woman's words hit her. Crushed? Crushed now? There was no way that woman was powerful enough to bring the tree down on her!

She had gone quickly from frantic for an escape, to insulted and defeated by illusions, to frantic again, looking to the light. She began to move for one of the exits from beneath the tree, only managing one step before the increasingly rumbling tree came down on her. Surprisingly, it was not frightening to Avaline when the sudden force of the tree slammed down into her body, forcing her down into the dirt, surprisingly without crushing her. Instead, her mind went blank after she gave a sharp yell from beneath the thing.

Pressure... That was the first and only word that returned to her mind after a few, what felt to her to be minutes. Intense, incredibly pressure that felt like it'd force her to implode, like a mage had done to a rat in practice in front of her before. She could just feel the skin tearing, when that was, in fact, only her armor and clothing. There was no actual pain in it all.. But her heart thumped insanely in her chest, which tried to draw breath where it was impossible to breath. After a few minutes, she lost whatever consciousness she had left, but never did her hand leave the sword.

When she appeared minutes later up above, among the branches, she was in a complete comatose like state. Her torso, what was bared, at least, was naked, displaying a few scars from her past. She didn't have many, of course, but enough to show her past to be quite the lively one. Her head hung limp, hair loose and falling around her face, her eye closed. Her hands were still within the tree, holding her up in what looked to be an uncomfortable position. But she was asleep, and couldn't care if she was uncomfortable or not. One would have even have thought she was dead, had she not sucked in a breath when she emerged. Her breathing following was soft, but the rest of her body, merged with the tree, depended on it's life force.

She winced as she brushed some bush off of her leg. The years had been kind to her, but there was only so much help mother nature could give the body. She rest a hand upon her back, pressing against it and rubbing it with her knuckles to work the aches out. Some of the drow walking with her gave her concerned looks. After all, she was far too old to be doing this kind of thing. Her adventuring years were well past her, or so everyone said. She was seventy years old, a respectable age even by some drow standards. Her eyes were deep set and haggard, with dark rings around them as if she had not been getting good sleep.

They had been tracking after this lumberjack of sorts for some time, now. It was all fun and exciting for her in the beginning; a chance to relive the old days. Of course, she was no battle mage anymore, though she had taken her fair share in battles. No, she was a medic now, and healing was her forte. It seemed no matter how far she fought, she never could manage to push the humans back. They were encroaching more and more on the Drow territory even now. She no longer even remembered being human; she had been elf a long time, in spirit if not in body.

The drow thought so too. They looked at her as one of their own. She slowly took in a quiet breath, letting it out slowly before murmuring; "I'm fine, I'm fine." No matter how little she had been able to make a difference in fighting in the war, being a medic made all the difference, in each individual she saved. And not only was she good with magic, but she could use nature itself to heal people, or even make her magic more potent with herbs and the like. Herbology took longer than magic, but it was worth it to have a few poultices on hand just in case.

Grey hair hung almost to her feet, but somehow or another managed to avoid touching the ground as she walked. She was one of those women who lost weight as they got older, not gained it. She was skin and bones, now. She did not quite look like a skeleton, but all traces of her former beauty had evaporated sometime between her fifties and sixties. She didn't miss it. She had long since grown accustomed to the idea of 'being old'. She wore maturity on her as closely as she would wear her own clothing. That clothing consisting of little more than a white robe that covered her from neck to ankles.

As her red eyes, long since faded to pink from cataracts, scanned the area from behind frames of huge glasses that were about two inches in diameter. It was something only mages knew how to do at present, though the feat was easily accomplishable with the right tools mundanely. It merely took heating up sand with fire magic, then cooling it down in the shape of a small saucer. She slowly let her lips turn down into a small frown, a small cough slipping weakly out of her lungs. The drow continued to observe her cautiously, as if expecting her to fall over. She grimaced and lift up her walking stick, wacking at one of them across the back with surprising old-woman strength.

"I'm not gonna die in the next five minutes so just keep lookin'!" She scrawled on in a shrill, but quiet voice. A few of them smiled and relaxed, returning their attention around them as she said; "Somebody could hold an arrow right under your nose and you'd miss it with all your gawking." She began to propel herself forward again after a moment, using that stick to dig into the ground and drag herself forward.

She smiled after a moment, letting her irritability fade. Most of them she had known when they were fifty years younger, and yet they barely looked different at all yet here she was crumbling before their eyes like nothing. Just dust in the wind. No wonder they thought she was going to fall over. To them it must look like she aged a year within a day. She slowly let her teeth chitter against one another, as she gazed through the forest. When suddenly she saw an arrow landing on the ground infront of her, she opened her mouth to yell "Ambush!" But before she could utter the words, the arrow seemed to emit a sphere of electricity which dropped the lot of drow to the ground in a fit of twitching paralysis.

She, of course, was only mildly affected. She would not walk out and about without magical charms, after all. Still, her lungs spasmed for breath, and she managed to gasp it out after a few minutes, but by that time, a human mage had managed to cast another spell directly on her, which she could not resist nearly as easily. She felt blackness claim her after a few moments longer.

---

She woke with a start, her eyes popping open and her form sitting up. She was unrestrained, but disarmed of all her magical weaponry. And there was... a choker around her throat. She did not need to actually see it to know what it was for. It was to repress her magic. She could not so much as conjure a glass of water with it on. She slowly looked around for a moment, to catch her bearing. She frowned. This was a camp. Not any drow camp, which meant it must have been human. She growled, before letting a small cough leave her throat. She looked around for all of her friends, and breathed a sigh of relief to see them all restrained, but alive.

Taken down so easily... She scoffed, and shook her head for a moment. She couldn't believe it. Well, she was so old... She pushed herself to her feet. Another advantage to being old, people didn't take you for a threat, unless you had magic, and then they took care of that but nothing else. "I'll be back." She told them, and slowly walked up towards a soldier, and said; "Where.." Her words trailed off as she looked at a long length of what seemed to be silk. Her eyes followed it upwards along the tree until she found not silkworms, but a woman at the root of it.

"Ah... That tree..." She said. Of course the old woman remembered this tree. It was the turning point of the war, and though the drow nation had only seemed to postpone the inevitable, if fifty years ago, Avaline had not been sealed up, it would be almost certain that the drow nation would have been swallowed up long since. She slowly smiled for a moment, but it faded when the captain came forward. "What is this tree?" He asked. "It's a holy shrine." The old woman replied, with a new smile.

The captain seemed to sense the tone of the woman's voice, that said 'you won't get anything more out of me', and he said; "Interrogate the prisoners." Her lips curved down into a dark frown, and she gripped her hands at her side, beginning to walk towards the tree. She was grabbed and restrained, pushed back to the prisoners, and this time tied down with the rest. She did not put up a struggle, and only sighed for a moment.

-----

A few hours later, enough information had been gathered for the captain to gather that it was the Hellhound up there. Excited, he called for the mages to be summoned so that they could all release her from the tree. When the old woman heard that, her eyes grew as wide as the glasses they were hiding behind, and she struggled then, against her bondage. "You can't let her out! No! You don't know what you're doing!" She shouted to the mages, who paid her no heed. The soldiers did however, and unhooked her, bringing her forth towards the tree.

"You are a human traitor, gone to the drows to fight against the rightful ruler of all the world. We'll give you as the first sacrifice to the Hellhound when she wakes up; a treasoner, how appropriate." The captain said this while watching Avaline's form, who hung just slightly forward from the tree, but was still quite encased within it. In fact, she seemed to have been slowly covered by more and more of the tree, as it was encroaching on her body and growing around it.

However, the mages began chanting their spells, and the old women grew even more frantic as she watched the magic flow from their hands into the tree, trying to break the bonds of the magic that was ancient, practically. She groaned in despair as she watched her own spells unweaving around the half-drow, half-human. Her shoulders slumped in despair. They were surely all doomed, now, with Avaline soon to be free from her life-long bondage.

Of course, the binds the tree had on Avaline would not be released so easily, so quickly, by the human magic the mages wielded. They would have to make several long, hard, combined attempts until they looked like they were on the brink of death, needing rests between working their magics. Each attempt took up to several hours, and with each one, obvious changes began to occur in the tree. The woman who bound Avaline here had been quite powerful indeed, if it took a group of mages so many attempts to undo what she had done.

With each attempt, the leaves began to curl and dry, falling from the branches far above. Some of the leaves would even turn to dust before they touched the ground. The branches and limbs began to dry and creak in a sad way, as though to make the statement, 'But I am life, and you are killing me.' Some branches would snap and fall to the ground, rotting and leaving mounds of dirt within minutes. The bark along the tree began to fall off in chunks, and like the branches, become mere dirt where they landed. Another change, though slightly less obvious, was that the woman trapped within the tree was slowly growing looser and looser. She was shrinking, it seemed, growing thinner, her bust slowly diminishing to nothing more than small mounds.

A full day after the attempts to awaken her were started, the tree gave a low groan, its roots cracking and crumbling away. The magic was paused enough for a few of the human soldiers to bring forth axes, with which they hacked at one side of the large tree until it began to tremble with their individual hacks. Then the magic began again, and with part of the mighty tree's base chopped away, it began to fall with a loud snap and that certain scream that trees seemed to have when they fell, but were still alive. By the time it had it the ground, though, it had already begun to rot.

The scent of fresh dirt rose up quickly, fanned through the forest by the tree's fall, perfectly aimed so the girl still trapped within would be on top of the thing. The soldiers began to make their approach on the once mighty thing, losing all sight of the woman, except her hair, now hanging down along the side of the tree. They didn't dare climb up on that thing, though.. They did not doubt, from the looks of it, that if they did, they would disappear within it like she had done.

She stirred quietly in her hole of what was quickly becoming dirt. Warm dirt... Why was it so warm? It felt like it was nurturing her.. Her eyes fluttered, though only one would ever work. The other still wore a scar over it, though the scar itself had become little more than a skin discoloration, the skin smoothed by time. The scars on the rest of her body had long faded, too, though one would notice, if they ever saw it, a circle of darker skin on the center of her back.

Her muscles, somehow preserved all those years in the tree, began to twitch, her fingers reaching out before grasping again, one around something rough that her hand knew exceptionally well. Even awakening from a fifty year slumber, her mind did not need reminding that she was holding onto her precious sword. Her mouth opened, and she took in a heavy breath, releasing it in a heavier yawn, one of her hands digging its way up out of the dirt to rub at her eye, which she clenched shut for a moment. When it pulled away, her eye opened quietly, staring up towards the sky..

She lay there in the warmth of the dirt for several long minutes, simply staring up at the sky, wondering what she was doing here. She felt good, though... Like something was embracing her in a motherly fashion. She had not felt that since she was a tiny child. Eventually, the warmth cooled and the dirt around her became chilled, no longer feeding her the life of the tree. She gave a low whine, squirming this way and that. Now that it had become cold, she was uncomfortable.. She sat up slowly, looking this way and that slowly. Her mind was obviously dazed by her long sleep, for such movement seemed to make her dizzy.

She slowly rocked herself forward, pushing herself into a kneeling position, naturally pulling her sword out along with her. She reached down with her free hand, touching lightly at the dirt before pushing herself up to her feet. She looked incredibly unstable, like she was going to topple over at any second. She gazed around quietly, looking unimpressed by anything she saw, slowly stretching her body and giving another yawn.

It wasn't until the captain of the human soldiers walked forward among the shocked soldiers, whispering quietly as he passed, and called out "Hellhound, Avaline!" that she focused on anything. Hearing her name, she blinked a few times, eye widening as she looked around, suddenly seeming to snap from her daze. She stared down towards him quietly for a long moment before moving forward, trusting her weight and the rot of the tree, sliding down safely to the ground, stumbling a few steps. She winced at one point, having stepped on her hair.

When she stopped before him, the man seemed shocked more than anything, staring down at her. Her brow furrowed, giving a childish glare for a moment. "W-wh... what... is.. it.... What's... going on... Where am I?" She asked, only widening her eye again after a few seconds. Her voice! Her hand reached up and brushed her hand over her throat, to see if it was injured. She shouldn't sound like that! Like it had been ages since she spoke! And what was with that childish sound to it?

She suddenly yelped, looking down at herself with a wide-eyed, frantic look on her face, looking after herself at the long hair that hung behind her and trailed on the ground. "Just what in god's name is going on here!?" She growled, sounding like nothing more than a delinquent preteen in her opinion. Her breasts were gone, her muscle, the curves of her body.. She looked down at her hands, no longer slender and powerful around the hilt of the old sword, which still had dirt caked to it. Instead, they held that certain childlike chub on them, youthful and, in her eyes, clumsy looking. Her nails had grown little over the years, considering her hands had been trapped within the tree. That was her only relief.

"Ah... Avaline..." The captain seemed hesitant for a moment until she snapped her eye up towards him. "This is certainly unexpected, but... it is you, the Hound of legend..." She pursed her lips quietly. She found herself staring with a wide eye and shock as the man told her just how long it had been since she disappeared, and explained her new youth as some sort of side-effect of the magic used to revive her from the tree. She was glaring again, before too long, her hangs working over her sword, cleaning at it with that certain care that only experienced warriors seemed to have.

"But now... You are awake again! And with new life comes new glory and fame! Come, come, we've someone for your blade to taste.. A traitor to our glorious empire!" The man ushered for his men to bring forth the old woman, which they held like some sort of dangerous criminal who'd kill them all if they slipped and made one mistake. Avaline's eye narrowed quietly at the man, flickering to the old woman, her lips pursing into a fine line, seeming to have fallen into thought, to absorb what all she had just heard.

Of course, she had not moved the entire time, watching as the shining accomplishment of a young mage was torn down. And worse, as one of the most powerful trees in the whole forest was slowly melted away. Of course, once combined, a spirit cannot be separated into two individual spirits, again. So... To free the girl they had to destroy the tree. Or rather, have the girl take the lifeforce of the tree completely into herself. The tree would wither and die, just as it was doing right before her eyes.

She watched with dread as hour-after-hour, the tree slowly began to break down and die. Her shoulders slumped as time grew short. She could do nothing, restrained like she was. When the day had passed, she looked up upon the woman while she slowly climbed out of the tree, and felt something akin to shock. She had expected something like that, but to see her so young, with no more age on her than a child! She could not find up the will to feel humor at the situation. She lowered her head, staring at the ground as she was dragged forward. She could not bear to be seen by the woman. Her white hair hung around her face as well as it could. It was one of the few things about her that had not changed a bit since she was younger.

And so... Things had come full-circle, she thought. The Hellhound Avaline was finally out of her prison. She prepared for her death. She knew that she only had at most five years left on her life. To end it today would be a mercy. She felt a little sorrow over the drow prisoners, but she could not save them, now. She was just an old woman who could barely walk without her stick. She took in a slow, quiet breath. She would go down with dignity, if nothing else. Even so, she could not manage to meet the girl's eyes, even with a gesture of defiance. After all... What if she was recognized? She could not bear the gloating.

Avaline stared silently at the woman they had brought forth, eventually closing her eye for a long moment of thought. Fifty years... Fifty years in that slumber, fifty years that should have been taken away from her life, and here she stood... A child! The sword in her hand trembled, and her fingers readjusted along it. Her lips, pursed into a tight line, pursed tighter until she began biting at her lower lip. She'd have to grow up again. She'd have to live a long, long life, always fighting. As if forty years hadn't been enough in the first place!

And now, look at her.. She, the Hellhound, was nothing more than a child, once a woman thinking of betraying her Empire and the king she once fought for, pledged loyalty to, even. What would people see when they looked at her now? A child, a frightening, disgusting, half-breed child! A mere tool, now, as anyone who's respect she had earned had all long since died out, or so she suspected. What was worse was that she stood here, a child with a weaker body, naked and cold, surrounded by however many people! She didn't care to count..

"Captain, does the king still live.." She muttered quietly, arching her brow as she cast her old glare at him. Even as a child, it was enough to send shivers down that man's back. He shook his head, explaining that his wife, the Queen, and her daughter, now held the throne gloriously. Her cheek gave a slight twitch at the mention of that old hag. She was apparently ignoring the old woman they had brought for her to kill. "Ahhh, the Queen... Never liked her... She was paranoid, always thinking someone would steal her husband away, and she'd lose her title... She hated me, too." No lies, there.

She was very carefree in saying this, her glare loosening into an uncaring gaze, even as a glare crossed the man's face, and his hand reached for his sword. A smile worked across her face, and before he could touch the hilt of his blade, the tip of her own sword was pricking at his throat. A look of shock was on his face, as well as the soldiers gathered around. She gave a low sigh, shaking her head like a disappointed mother before murmuring quietly, "I pledged my loyalty to Him, but not to Her. I suppose I can not really have any hard feeling about doing this, now."

When the captain asked why she was doing this, she only arched her brows again quietly, shaking her head softly. Her free hand came up to rest on her small hip, and she sighed softly. "Not the right question you should be asking, really. I mean, if you had a brain, you might have figured it out, already." She shrugged quietly. "But you've quickly proved yourself to be dumb. Too ignorant to lead men. Here you stand before the Hellhound, a... woman who led human armies to victory! And what do you offer me in my awakening? Food? Clothes? A bit of time for things to sink in? Nope! Tsk.... Instead, you offer me the head of an..." She shot a sudden glare towards the woman, sneering slightly. "An old hag..."

"You are disrespectful, and I suspect you of being some sort of pervert, if you're really okay with watching a naked little girl kill an old woman! No, no man should be led by such an idiot." She waved off the insults the soldiers gave, sighing as some of them began to draw their swords. Some of them swore openly their loyalty to their captain, and she tsked lightly. "But maybe, you have dimmed their minds enough to make them obedient. Soldiers should be obedient, yes, but..." She sighed quietly, shaking her head. "Not unable to think on their own. A smart soldier is a good one. A foolish one is a walking skeleton... I'll do you and your men a favor, and end your lives here. Be thankful, it's by the hand of a legend."

Her hand drew back in that second, whipping back around in a slice before a single movement could be made to stop it. A moment passed after this blur of a movement, and nothing seemed to have changed, except where she was holding the sword, elevated and to her side. The Captain stood there with a dumbstruck face for several long moments before blood began to seep from a fine line on his neck, spurting as his head began to slide. When the head fell off, the body remained standing for several moments before toppling down beside it.

The men circling her gasped and cried in rage, several moving in to attack. She furrowed her brows, turning to face them, glaring quietly. In this body, taking on several men at once might prove difficult... When they struck, she turned and slipped between their blades, moving behind them, making quick jabs and slices, both at the backs of their legs and their necks, and their backs, if they were exposed to such things. One by one, the men fell, including the guards that had brought forth the old woman.

The rest of the camp could only stare, some of the guards around the Drow prisoners staring with wide eyes and a look of fear. She arched her brow towards them, moving quietly past the old woman until she stood behind her. Another quick movement, and the ropes tying her were split. Even young, she had some fairly good skills... For a moment she actually thanked her father for selling her off at such a young age to that cruel bastard. If not for him, she'd never have learned these things in the first place. So little changed in her skill except her strength..

Still, she had to hate this body... Everything felt so clumsy, and walking hurt the bottoms of her feet. Furthermore, she was getting colder. She huffed darkly, glaring once again, moving on with a trail of silver following after her. She cared not one bit that some of her hair was dragged through puddles of blood. She'd get rid of it as soon as she cleaned her sword of this mess anyway. As she approached the guards over the prisoners, some of them broke from their positions, merely turning and running, or doing the stupid thing and attacking, only to be met by a side step and a taste of steel. She never once even looked at the group of mages, who were quietly trembling away off to the side, exhausted and defenseless, with no energy to defend themselves.

The remaining guards didn't budge, frozen in place, probably by fright. She didn't care to touch them, either, slipping right past them and sweeping her sword about the prisoners carefully, slicing away the tethers that held them down. The guards and the mages that remained... Their fates would rest on these Drow. She sighed quiet, backing away, careful to not step all over this mess of hair of hers, letting her blade fall to her side. The tip dug into the surface of the ground, and she could not help but sneer, lifting it to instead rest it on her shoulder. Her poor sword.... It would probably feel mistreated for a while until she was a proper age again.

...Hag? Hag! If I weren't tied down right now, why I'd teach that brat something... She seemed to realize the thoughts passing through her head, and mentally blushed, banishing the words from her mind and staring down at the ground while the soldier and the again-child spoke. She took in a slow breath as she listened to the conversation progress. Things were starting to get a little weird.... This was confirmed when the girl drew her blade on the human instead of herself. And then everything seemed to happen at once. First the captain's head fell off, then the soldiers beside her were dead, then her hands were free.

She turned to watch the child destroy relatively every person in the camp who wasn't tied up. She slowly frowned for just a moment, and she knew she wasn't the only one wearing the expression. She and all the drow stared on quietly as they were freed from captivity by the point of her sword. They seemed a little cautious to move, lest she decide it threatening, and to turn her blade on them next. The old woman frowned a little more deeply as she stared at the half-drow, trying to ascertain a motive for the actions. She noticed, though, that she left the mages alive. Perhaps some sense of honor? She banished that thought just as easily as the last. She was the general of the human army and she just destroyed her own camp. There couldn't be honor in a woman who would do that, right?

Cautiously some of the drow began to stand up, staggering just slightly from the effects of the paralysis and being in bondage for so long in the same position. They rubbed cramps out of their muscles carefully, none of them turning their eyes away from Avaline. The old woman herself reached up to her head, and touched her hair, grimacing when she found blood from the soldiers on it. She glanced around for her walking stick. Getting around wasn't easy without it. When it wasn't found, she sighed silently, and contented herself with trying to find out what the woman would do next, and how she would react to it.

Avaline watched the Drow intently as some of them began to rise, giving only a faint nod of the head to say it was alright. They weren't her enemy, like they should have been... She looked quietly around at the bodies of the men she had slaughtered, shaking her head softly with a disgusted little look. They didn't really think they could fight her, did they? Just because she was... this, again... She slipped off quietly towards one of the tents that had been set up for the camp, disappearing inside. She withdrew soon enough holding a knife between her lips and a cloth in one hand, which she used to wipe at the blade of her sword quietly until it was back to a sheen.

She dropped the cloth soon after, making her way over towards the old woman as she pulled the knife from her mouth, and reached out upon reaching her to so lightly flick the blade and slice the magic sealing choker on the woman's neck. She pulled her hand back, turning the blade in her hand and offering it up to the woman, giving a slight glare for a second. "Don't even think of cutting me while I'm this cold... You don't want to know what I'd do... Anyway, I need less...." She hissed slightly for a second, pointing behind her at the trail of hair. "It's heavy and it kinda hurts..." She complained quietly, turning her head away. It was obvious that she was disturbed by the idea of giving the woman a chance to kill her, let alone ask a favor of her, but as it currently stood, the woman owed her.

She turned her bright red eye back towards the woman quietly for a long moment before pursing her lips tightly. "Hey... Take some of my... youth, too. I don't like that everything's changed." She muttered with a low growl, assuming that the woman was able to do so. She didn't know how to transfer life energies, or any of that magic stuff. She was just a melee warrior. She reached out and, with a light thrust, sank her sword into the ground neatly in a fashion that would not harm the blade. She withdrew her hand from it quietly, and crossed her arms quietly, staring at her with a look of both hatred and defeat.

"And... Please... Hurry up.... I'm freezing...." She muttered quietly after a few more seconds, closing her eye. Indeed, there were small goosebumps along her body, and she trembled very lightly. She'd have to find some manner of clothing, too, as soon as her hair was cut. She could worry herself on little things like being clean cut when her situation was better, but at the moment, she couldn't afford to be picky.

She gazed upon the knife for a moment, arching her eyebrow at the 'vulgar' weapon. She felt a flux of energy flowing into her now that the collar was off. She tossed the blade away for one of the soldiers to pick up. Steel was their weapon. She would sooner chop a finger off than use one. Probably at the same time, actually. She gazed along the woman's hair quietly for a moment. A request had been made of her by someone who had spared her life. She would oblige, especially since it was as simple as a haircut. And when the prospect of draining her youth came about, her eyes widened momentarily. Some of the drow looked at her oddly, wondering if she could really do such a thing.

She could. But first thing was first. She lift her hand, murmuring a quiet word before slashing in a horizontal line towards the girl. Hair seemed to sever at a perfect line just a few inches below her shoulders, all around. As soon as the cut was complete, she rest her hands upon the other's shoulders, gripping it firmly. "Stand still, brat. Squirming all over the place like a worm." She didn't seem to hold heat in the words. It was just something she would say to anyone under the age of thirty. Her hands began to glow green as she drained life from the girl, letting it fill herself.

At first she was shocked at the sheer amount of life caught within the girl. She had a long life ahead of her, apparently. But she sucked her up nonetheless. As she did, she had the most peculiar sensation. She felt her skin tightening, and her hair softening. Her lips began to flesh out and her breasts began to grow firm. The pink faded from her eyes, though they only got blurrier--because of the glasses. Her chest began to grow light, and breath came easy. She took the first deep breath of air in twenty years. The yellow in her nails faded back to porcelain white. Her teeth grew strong, her face tightened as wrinkles were washed out.

She felt stronger, faster, more fleet. And even more so as the years ticked off. She was fifty, then fourty, then thirty... She deaged right infront of everyone, all staring on in shock whether they be human or drow. And not for nothing. This was something one did not see every day. An old woman turning to a beautiful young, twenty-something, and a powerful general now a child. She jerked her hands away as she began to approach nineteen, and wafted her hands off as if they were hot. Perhaps they were. She gave a small scoff as she brushed her shoulders off. She was still an old woman in her mind, even if the mind was quicker now.

"Now that that's over..." She said, as if she had been the one given an unpleasant task. She even brushed her hands off to clear the dust. "I'll just have to live another fifty years, eh?" She said to the drow, who gave small chuckles and nodded. In truth, if she had still been a drow, she should still have looked like this, so seeing her young again only made her seem even more like them than ever. She cast her gaze back towards Avaline, and said; "Maybe this time my lifes work won't be ruined by a bunch of bothersome humans."

She gave a soft sigh, glancing out across the withered dirt heap that was the Tree That Sat on Air. All in all, she seemed to be ignoring the girl herself. After all, she saved them. She wasn't likely to turn around and kill them--she was a bit more wise than the older drow, because for them, they were still young in life. She slowly reached out, running her fingers through the ashes before murmuring; "All that's left of the magnificent tree now lies in the body of a child." She said aloud, and many sniffles might have come from the drow.

She grimaced for a moment when the woman tossed the knife away, arching her brow for a few seconds. She was about to open her mouth to speak, only to close it again quietly, merely pursing her lips. When the woman lift her hand and murmured something quietly, she felt herself give a slight cringe, and a sigh when all that fell was a mass of the weight from the back of her head. She closed her eye quietly, tilting her head forward and back a few times with a slight wince. She might be sore later from having hung with her head down for the past fifty years... With heavy, long hair. Already, there was an ache of relief along the back of her neck.

She reopened her eye quietly, glancing quietly down at her hair. She gave only a muffled hum before dropping her head for a second, as a gesture of thanks. It was a clean, nice cut.. She twitched back just a bit when the woman reached out for her shoulders, sighing softly and giving another glare up towards her. "You're the brat, I'm at least twenty years older than you.." She complained darkly, pursing her lips tightly.

She fell silent as the woman's hand began to glow, giving a soft sound as the woman began to drink the life out of her. She felt a very light sensation, but it was obvious that what she felt was nothing compared to what the old woman in front of her felt. She watched intently as years disappeared off the woman, quickly bringing her back to a more healthy, able bodied, youthful form. She grumbled something under her breath, closing her eye so she would not have to watch the woman become the girl that had defeated her using mere illusions.

She sneered slightly, reopening her eyes when the woman pulled her hands away. All in all, she only aged maybe a few days, while the woman before her lost the last fifty years. She pursed her lips tightly, growling oh-so-softly after a glance down to herself and watching the woman shake her hands, like she had either touched something hot or disgusting. She grumbled quietly again before muttering, "You'll live several centuries at this rate. I don't intend on waiting forever just to go through puberty again." She fell silent, giving a look that, for this age she now appeared, looked for all the world like she was pouting.

She felt her eye sharpen at the woman at the remark about her life's work, offering only a growl as she turned her head away. "What have they done? They've released me to a life as a child for god knows how long! And as a child, I'll have to fight battles which will undo my life's work from over fifty years ago!" She fell into a fit of muttering to herself, giving a slight shiver as she shook her head. She was what they called a heretic, now, right? Whatever she was, she was a traitor. The impact of that was suddenly rather powerful on her, and she fell into silence, merely thinking on what she'd have to do from here on out.

When the woman turned towards the remains of the tree, Avaline snapped out her her deep thought, turning and watching the woman quietly for a long time, listening as she spoke. She glanced quietly back towards the Drow, pursing her lips softly. Her look softened for just a moment before she looked back towards Jinx, wandering quietly towards her side. She left her sword standing in the ground a ways away. She looked up silently towards her for a moment before muttering, "I suppose I don't care if you believe me or not, but I have no intentions on letting another tree fall because of their greed." She looked up quietly on the large mound of dirt, biting quietly at her lip. Was it strange that she felt a sudden wave of... What was it... Homesickness? Or regret? She felt sad for the big old thing, which now lived on within her. It had taken care of her for all these years, even if she never was conscious to witness it.

Hah. She was the brat. She was twenty years older than her. It was nonsense. She had been asleep for fifty years. What had Jinx been doing? Getting old and taking care of children, even if she had not given birth to them. She didn't need to say any of that to the elf, though. Arguing over things like that was for children, and despite how much of a child she appeared in this youthful body, she had not changed on the inside. Not yet, anyways. She sighed as she thought over what would happen when she acclimated to youth again. Would she become wild and fire-blooded like her past life? She noted the woman's disgust upon looking upon her young form. She wondered why that could be. Perhaps she had retained her ugliness in the transformation.

It did not matter to her. Beauty was a thing of the past, a garment she had long since hung up, never expecting to bring it back down and dust it off. And yet, here she was, wearing it without even realizing it, or caring. Hm... A few more centuries of life. Wait... Did that mean the half-human intended to keep her around that whole time? She let her gaze turn back upon her, her lips curling down into a small frown. She did not want to be a part of her agenda, whatever it was. Some of the drow had formed a ring around them, but not enclosing them.

When Avaline came up beside her and gazed down at the tree, her own eyes were watching. She noticed the girl's expression as she looked out over the tree, and was surprised to see sadness there. She had been thinking the girl would see it as a prison, yet here she was looking at it as if it were a piece of her that had been chopped off. In truth it was. She slowly waved her hands around, and slowly cast a couple of quiet spells, sweeping the dead tree-dust into a magical container. It would take a few moments, so as she waited for it to finish, she turned towards her, and said;

"You mean to tell me that after I locked you away in there for fifty years, inadvertently giving you the form you hold now, after stopping you on your mission to assassinate a drow leader, after insulting you and destroying you with little more than eyetricks, the first thing you want to do on awakening is not kill us--myself especially--but help us? That stretches incredulity just a little too far." Several of the drow nodded. "I mean, yeah, you saved us, and we do thank you for that." More nods, murmured agreement. "But you DO have a reputation for mercilessly killing people. Or at least, you did."

Avaline only pursed her lips quietly, watching the woman do her spells that began to suck up the dust of the old tree that had been her prison for so long. She didn't even seem to care about the Drow gathering around. That was unimportant, unless they decided to kill her off. She had made herself unarmed and defenseless towards them, but she doubted they would turn now to harm her. She gave a quiet shiver, watching the dust of the tree.

She lowered her head slightly, tilting it a bit to the side as she did, her bright red eye staring back up at the woman. Her lips pursed softly as the woman spoke, her hands tightening where they gripped at her upper arms until her nails pressed into the skin. She was careful not to hurt herself, of course, but the woman's words left her with a need to think quietly on her reply. Finally, after a few long moments, she began to mutter. "I'd do anything for the people I had given my loyalty to. Or I thought I would... But when I was ordered to break the truce between human and elf, to do it single-handedly and bring down as much of the elven clans and communities as I could..." She shrugged quietly.

She fell silent for a long few moments, her eye turning up to stare at the canopy, and at the hole that was left by her tree. She pursed her lips tightly, staring up into the sky past it. It was sort of dizzying, when her eyes had adjusted to a closer range because of the forest. She took in a heavy breath, releasing in a bothered sigh, like it was some sort of burden to talk about such things. "I guess I kinda snapped. On the way towards my destination, I was more or less plotting against the humans, or more or less, their greed. They wanted to break peace for their own prosperity. Wanted more people beneath them... More slaves... Bigger armies.." She pursed her lips tightly, grimacing. "In an instant, they had me questioning my service to them."

She grumbled quietly to herself afterward, staring a bit more dully off into space. She had begun complaining under her breath about the cold again soon after, growling softly, though it was no longer a frightening growl like the one she used to have. Thanks to her younger looking body, it only sounded cute, which irked at her. Eventually, she turned her eye up towards the woman quietly, muttering softly, "But like I said earlier. Nothing I expect you to believe in."

She slowly stared into the ashes for a moment, silently, before looking back down towards her quietly as she lifted the jar of ash into her hands, sealing it shut. She slowly held it against her abdomen, listening to her with an impassive face. Her eyes were dark though, and her fingers were tight upon the jar. The things she was saying were filling her heart with a cold dread. Could it really be true that she had sealed away a potential ally all those years ago? Could it be possible that she had...

When the girl finished her speech, her head lowered, looking at the jar as if that were her focus. She could not believe it. She could not deny it, either. She had not saved the elven race at all. She had not protected the drows, she had almost delivered them to defeat! She felt tears brimming in the corners of her eyes, but she repressed them from falling by sheer force of will. She stared at the jar of ashes quietly, and bit down on the inside of her lip. It was impossible. Her shining achievement had been a despicable failure! She had been the cause for perhaps a whole fifty years worth of drow deaths.

Her eyelids fluttered closed after a moment, and she slowly extended her arms, pressing the jar towards the other woman. "Here... It's yours." She said, her shoulders trembling with desire to slump. She could not allow it. She felt her age and maturity melting off of her as easily as her winkles had earlier. The last fifty years she had lived had been a lie. She felt herself deteriorating. It was impossible. She twist her head to the side, and said in a soft whisper, for their ears alone; "I am sorry." She slowly outstretched a part of her robe, enfolding the drow within her furred garment, pulling her close against the unclothed body beneath it. It was only to keep the cold off of her, though.

She slowly asked, after a moment; "Do you still wish to help the drow stop the human invasion? You have been out of the loop for a while, but the humans are slowly winning the war. They have taken quite a bit of our land in the past fifty years." She slowly let her eyes fall down onto the girl she had enfolded in her cloth, murmuring quietly to her; "It may be impossible to stop them completely... Without your help."

Avaline merely stared at the woman with her one bright, red eye. It was somewhat creepy, just how intense such a young eye could get, but it was not really all that young. It just appeared so. She felt her chest deflate just slightly as she watched the woman who had, just moments ago, eaten some of her more than abundant youth. Or absorb it. Whatever the hell the magic term for it was! She did not care. She was one who used a sword, not magic. She felt something slipping away from the woman, and she felt strangely, and powerfully, against it.

When the jar was held out to her, her arms came up surprisingly quickly to take it and hold it against herself, as though she was now going to absorb the remains of the tree. As she hugged at the jar quietly, staring down a it for several long moments before muttering to herself as though stating a fact. "Blood is powerful." And that was all for several moments, and her shoulders lifted and fell in a faint shrug. Not only was the woman's downhill mood getting to her, but she felt helpless as to what to say to the Tree. She shifting a second when the woman reached out to take her into the folds of her cloak, which was something she greatly appreciated, though she showed none of that.

When the woman finally addressed her, her head tilted back and her eye grew hard, staring at the woman for a long time before finally easing, a triumphant light filling them. "I was meant to. Not back then, though. No, not back then. Now.. Now, the humans are weak. Their pathetic slime here-" She nodded towards the bodies on the ground. "Are proof of their weakening. They've only numbers, but they've lost their skills, and now, the Drow know of their broken pact. Now is the time, and this is fate that has brought us back together to fight as allies against them." After all, fifty years ago, it would have been unthinkable, on the Drow's part at least, for the humans to break their more-than-a-thousand-year-old truce. She gave a soft bark of laughter before offering the woman a thankful and reassuring smile, only meant for her, even if she hated her guts. "It is time to counter them, and now, I am on your side. We have prolonged lives, just for this." Another attempt at reassurance, well guarded to make sure none of the others standing around them knew that it was what it was. This woman had beaten her, and somehow, that was her bond to her.

"Now, there's only one thing left to successfully counter and drive the humans back, permanently." She hoped. She doubted she could live another few thousand years to drive them back again in the future. "Uniting of the People." What she said was not in English, but in the tongue of the Drow. Perhaps not these specific Drow, but at least the clan her mother had come from. She didn't doubt that some or all would understand what she meant.

Though younger herself, it felt right to her to have the girl pressed up against her beneath her robes. Things felt right. She was a mother, a grandmother, and regardless of Avaline's mental age, she was a child. It simply felt natural to have such a youth pressed up to her for comfort--even if that comfort was nothing more than protection from the cold. She slowly closed her eyes, taking a few moments to let the natural order replace itself in her mind. Her life might have been a lie, but she could not forget that she had a duty to her children. Now that she had her youth back, and a new powerful ally, the humans would find themselves hard pressed to push into their territory any further.

With those new firm truths settled in her mind, new beliefs to hold dear, she felt that familiar steel settling in her spine. Steel she'd acquired over the fifty years in warfare, motherhood, and old age. It felt odd to have that steel with so little weight needing its support, but she felt energized like she had not for many years. Her offensive magic might have been a little weak, now, but she was strong. She could relearn what she had forgotten while not losing her unwavering support skills and leadership abilities. She slowly turned, her hand resting on Avaline's shoulder to turn her as well, towards the dark elves that were now freed again. "You probably wish to see the leaders of the Dark Elves, correct? We shall lead you to them, so that you can request the aid of an army.

"But before we do that, we need to make a trip to my own home." She stated, as small shutters fell over her eyes. Liching the girl's lifeforce would probably have permanent effects on her own appearance, but she did not mind. She could literally feel the mass of darkness writhing along her skin, tentacular appendages reaching out like dark shadows across her comparatively pale skin. It never stayed in once spot, and seemed to slither across her form snakishly, even moving across her face at times. It would likely be like that for the rest of her life.

She turned her eyes across the Dark Elves, who were murmuring quietly amongst themselves. She said nothing for a long moment. She knew trust would come slowly to them, and even more so to the breadth of Dark Elf civilization, but she would rectify her own error by helping to sway the minds of those who she had led astray. But there was something else that she had to do before she even thought about swaying minds. "Trust me if you cannot trust her; I would not ask this of you if I were not certain that I believed her, or that she is the hinge our victory rests on." She was pleading. Most of these people remembered what she looked like when she was younger, and if anything were likely more comfortable with her now that she did not seem as if she would suddenly die at any wrong moment.

As soon as it seemed they were willing to at least give the girl a chance before deciding anything permanent, she murmured; "Everyone stand back. I will create a portal." She slowly clutched her right arm around Avaline more tightly, before extending the left and spreading her fingers out as wide as they would go, so that the metacarpals stood out against the back of her palm. The air slowly began to darken, as if the light were being contracted to a singularity. After a moment of darkness a sudden wreath of light erupted from the miniature black hole. The blue light radiated from the center, but within it seemed to be the inside of a room, her room, at that.

"Wait here." She said, doffing her robes, and letting them settle fully around Avaline, to shield her from the cold before stepping towards the portal and stating to them all; "I will return within a matter of minutes." And then she stepped into it, the blue light encasing her for just a moment before she became nothing more than a hazy blur on the other side. She of course, could not stop anyone from following short of closing the portal, but that meant having no guarantee she could find them again.

Avaline's eye narrowed silently before falling shut in the folds of warmth provided by the now-young woman. It was comforting, and similar to the nurturing the Tree had given to her in the last minutes of its life. No, no. It's life hadn't ended. It was within her. With that thought, some of the turmoil in her at the loss of her old body settled down. She might not be as strong as she was in the life before the Tree, but she was more alive, and that was better than simple strength. She finally found the words she wanted to give the remains of the Tree she held in her arms, and her head tilted down to whisper them down to the container, speaking her thanks and promises so softly that it was doubtful even Jinx could hear her.

She straightened back up when her words were finished, giving a satisfied sigh, reopening her eye to stare up towards the woman that had beaten her so long ago. It didn't feel so long ago to her. She shared one of the gifts of the Tree with the woman, despite their one-sided fight fifty years ago, and began to feel satisfied with that, too, as resolve again began to strengthen the woman. If she was just going to mope around sadly, Avaline would not have been happy with having the woman take some of her youth. She let the woman turn her, and her red eye flickered from her towards the faces of the Dark Elves. With the woman's words, the corners of her lips twitched upwards, if only gently, before she nodded gently in agreement. The thought of an army.. Not just an army, but an army of elves.. That was intimidating to her. Things were no doubt going to be different from when she lead armies in the past.

When the woman mentioned dropping by her home first, Avaline's brow arched and she cast the woman a look of curiosity before beginning to understand what she had meant. The woman had lost many of the years she had accumulated in appearance, after all, like Avaline, and there were things that needed to be done before making any appearance before someone higher.

She glanced back to the Drow quietly, and her lips pursed softly as their murmurs reached her ears. She could understand that fully, too. After all, she had been sent to cause chaos amongst them once long ago, even if she had other plans. She was on the verge of opening her mouth to say something before the woman spoke up, blinking quietly towards her as she spoke. She already believed in her? Trusted her? Was it because she was human? She shook the questions from her mind, but made a note to ask the woman later, when it was appropriate. When they were alone, or something. For now, the look on her face was simply grateful.

When the elves were finally starting to at least accept the idea of Avaline, she felt herself grow a bit more relaxed. She offered up a faint sound when the woman spoke of making a portal, her brow furrowing quietly. Just how powerful was the woman when she had been in her prime? She had beaten her when she was twenty years younger than the general, but the ideas of Portals and what not was alien to her. She could not keep herself from giving a faint gasp when the woman proceeded in making this said portal, blinking in disbelief. She shifted almost uncomfortably as she stared at the image of a room, glancing around curiously when the woman pulled away, leaving her robes about Avaline to step into the portal. She hugged tightly at the jar within her arms, lips pursed softly again.

Something was pulling at her to follow the woman, she realized after a few moments. She felt strangely awkward, standing here without the woman beside her. She bit at her lip quietly before muttering to the others that she had to speak to the woman alone, and pressing forward into that portal, eye clenched shut for a moment, almost in fear of something bad happening. Magic... She didn't trust it. When she passed through safely, her eye opened quietly, glancing around quickly before settling her eye on the woman. She pursed her lips softly before opening her mouth, shocking herself when the first words out of her mouth were apologies for following without permission. She stood there awkwardly for several long moments before murmuring, "I followed because I felt a need to speak to you." That was not all of the truth, but it was still truth. "You... Already believe in me. Why? I could be trying to trick you and the rest." She kept the words quiet, and projected them in the woman's direction alone, incase they could be heard on the other side.

She stepped into the home. It was very human, and very elven. It was human in that it was made of wood, elven in that she had killed no trees in the process of gathering said wood. Trees could be convinced to. . . share themselves with her if given the right persuasion. Small pieces here and there, melded into single sheets that made for a unique look. Made of wood, but nothing so rough-looking as a log cabin. It was simply a cabin made of wood. There seemed to be no seams anywhere, but it was obviously nothing fancy. The place was actually in disrepair; in that there was heavy dust covering everything; as if this were nothing more than a storehouse for her.

There were not even any doors or windows, though the whole home seemed to be sufficiently lit with a sort of otherworldly glow that permeated the whole area. She slowly stepped over to the closet, opening it up. Strangely enough, no dust was in there, though truthfully that was because magic prevented it. When she heard a voice behind her, she cast her gaze over her shoulder as she ran her fingers along the garments before vanishing inside. She hummed under her breath as she began to pull on various articles of clothing. She could STILL feel that writhing mass of evil slithering across her skin.

"Why do I trust you?" She called from within the closet, assured that the youth couldn't see her. "Because I'm an old fool. Or rather, it is because I was an old fool, and now I am a young fool. Maybe taking some of your life has given me a sort of attraction to you. I simply feel the urge to believe what you say, while at the same time knowing that what you say is true. I was wrong, fifty years ago, and so instead of trying to perpetuate that wrong, I am going to instead try to help make things right." She stepped from the closet then, making a small flourish with her new cloak.

The plain robes she had worn before were befitting an old woman, and cute on the girl, but what she was wearing now would make even an experienced courtesan blush. Two leather straps came together in four places at a central ring just above her breasts. The red material wrapped both around her neck and supported her breasts in a rather barely-covered fashion. Her leggings were skintight and purplish, with what seemed to be embroidery of metal, perhaps to help provide shape and form. Whatever the reason, it was obviously a magical garment that required magic to put on. In order to make it slightly more modest, a small skirt was tied around her waist, that just obscured the area and left the less covered of her two legs completely exposed. Fur trimmed gloves of the same material as her leggings cloaked her arms, and several accessories decorated her form, all magical.

Regardless, it was a style of dress that she could not have worn over the past thirty years. She drew her cloak carefully around her as she nudged the door shut and smiled down at Avaline. "I would offer to get you something but nothing I have would fit you. I could cut off the bottom of that robe so that it would be safer to walk in, but I think you will want the warmth instead, unless I am mistaken." Whatever the case, she seemed to be flamboyantly displaying her body in a careless way.