She Who Unites, or She Who Destroys?

[Blood]

A bead of sweat slid down Evangeline's forehead as her eyes followed a creature in the forest, soft snorting filling the air around her. She pursed her lips and blew up air, trying to get her unkempt bangs away from her eyes. Today was a hunting day for her and not only was she quite rusty, she was extremely distracted. She lifted her bow slowly and sighed solemnly. Clutching an arrow and drew it back on the bow, her eyes were struggling to focus on the boar she was aiming for. It was a sizable boar and she knew if she did as terrible as to not shoot it right in it's cranium it would scatter off squealing into the woods, warning it's kin. Her fingers started to tremble.

To her left, her most trusted knight Keryth gazed at her almost anxiously. He sensed something was off about her today, and had started examining her, his eyes trailing up and down her figure. Her posture was confident and yet he noticed her bow trembling. His gaze shifted to where she was aiming, examining the larger boar she was aiming for. They had brought with them a team of trusted hunters who were scattered off a few miles east to them, he trusted they would get a good hunt but was quite worried about the confidence of his queen as she mainly came to these excursions not only because she enjoyed them, but also because it was good archery practice.

Evangeline took a deep breath and followed the boar with her bow, aiming for the sweet spot right behind it's ears. It lowered it's head to nibble squeamishly on some dry grass, and then raised it's head again to carry on. She let her fingers go, and the arrow zipped through the air, impaling the boars skull. The boar became rigid and fell to it's side, creating a big thud. It's legs began to kick rapidly and then it became motionless again.

A sigh of relief left Evangeline's lips, and Keryth started slowly clapping. "Excellent form, Evangeline. Not a single squeal from it's maw." She turned to her left and as their eyes met, she gave him a smirk. "You thought I would miss, didn't you?" She chuckled, furrowing her eyebrows. "Let's meet back with the others and come back for him, shall we? He's quite a big boar and I think we might need multiple men for this one." Evangeline reached over to put her bow around her back and turned to Keryth. "Well? Let's get a move on."

 

[Freikugel]

In the midst of her triumph over the boar, something strange would happen. The sky turned blood red. The clouds spiraled in the sky as a hysterical wind began to blow through the air, necessitating that even the strongest of men brace themselves lest they fall on their rears. The clouds soon combined into one. Bolts of lightning rushed towards the land first gradually, one by one, before gaining momentum until three or four would strike every other second.

Soon, the bolts had ignited flames amongst the trees. The constant pressure from the bolts as the leaves crackled from the fire made this malignant tumor of heat spread quickly. In the air, orb shaped particles of light traveled slowly into the eye of the storm, which was located north outside of the forest, surely a quick horse ride away. A sole pillar of light protruded down from it, standing peacefully still as the hellish storm raged on.

A silhouette would be visible from the distance as a lone figure floated down from it. When they finally landed, the inferno stopped, the sky calming down. The flames that previously seemed so dangerous were cooled by a refreshing angelic wind, leaving as quickly as they came. And in the aftermath? All that was left were the pillar of light and the strange man who floated in its center.

 

[Blood]

Evangeline stopped in her tracks. "Wait," she muttered to herself, "something isn't right with the air." The forest got seemingly darker, filled with a red hue. Her head swung up to stare through the trees at the sky, confirming that her instincts were right. Something was terribly wrong. A sudden wind gushed through the trees, causing her short frame to tumble in a somersault like motion. She could hear the crash of Keryth's armor as he followed suit, tumbling near her. As the oppressive wind halted Evangeline took a moment to compose herself and stood up, whipping her head around to find Keryth.

Keryth grunted as he stood up, wiping dirty quickly from his armor as his gaze met the clouds. Evangeline turned to look in the same direction. Clashes of lightning fell upon the land, igniting the trees. With the bolts continuing pressure, heat started to travel across the land. Evangeline realized they were not too far from the source of the storm. She put her arm over her face and squinted, trying to see the eye of the storm more clearly. Keryth stammered near her, panting, "What kind of witchcraft..."

Evangeline cursed to herself, remembering that they had left their horses a ways back, as to not scare boars. Surely they had run off in a scare now. As eager as she was to see what was at the eye of the storm, she would most likely not get there fast enough for whatever battle was commencing. As trees ignited around them a hellish heat filled the air and she began coughing. Evangeline's armor began heating up to an intense heat, and as flames surrounded the trees she could feel her skin almost burning. She watched painfully as a figure in the distance was floating and her eyes followed it as it disappeared into the trees, and soon a mysterious cooling wind swept the forest alleviating their surroundings of the crushing dangers.

"We must get to where that pillar of light was," Evangeline turned to look at Keryth, his face pale with shock. "We better hope our horses and men are still intact."