=== After leaving, POV Crete ===

 

"Is everything fine?"

I had put Viczien in a kind of rucksack-shaped structure of tendrils and hung him on my back.

“Nam!”

Vicziens sounded satisfied, so I continued to focus on what was in front of me. The forest was almost endless, but the trees and plants had their eyes and ears everywhere for me. Nyam and Myam could have found Lyam on their own, but they were young and not trained for combat, unlike me.

The trees showed me ​​the way from the beginning, and surprisingly, according to the trees, my destination wasn't that far as I expected.

By nightfall, I had already reached the place where Lyam was taken by the skeletons.

The skeletons were a big problem because trees can't see anything, only feel. But like me, the skeletons are invisible even to trees. Therefore, I couldn't take a direct route to Lyam and had to follow her trail.

I turned to one of the trees.

"Young star, in which direction was Lyam going?"

"Lyam?"

The very young tree was a little surprised that I spoke to him. It was customary for dryads to talk to the older trees rather than the younger ones. The reasons were often different, but primarily due to the knowledge that the older trees had gathered. But we, the Hesperides, never made a distinction between the age of the trees because almost all trees were younger than my sisters Aigle, Erytheia, Hesperia, and Arethusa.

 "And? In which direction was the dryad brought?"

The young tree was silent for a moment before answering with just a name.

"The solitary mountain."

"F-!"

I wanted to curse immediately, but I didn't want to scare the young tree unnecessarily. Besides, Viczien slept on my back, and I didn't want to wake him up with my vulgar choice of words.

"Thanks, then I know where I need to go!"

I glanced at Viczien, who was still asleep. Perfect, I thought to myself and prepared myself for the further trip.

 

=== Near the solitary mountain, next morning

 

The solitary mountain could already be seen from afar, and I could have reached it within a day, but because of Viczien and the fear of meeting a strong opponent. It would have been bad if I were tired and met a strong opponent, so I spent the night at a safe distance.

"Cre."

Viczien patted my shoulder. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Viczien standing in front of me.

"What's going on?"

I sat up slowly and looked him in the eye.

"Wah!"

He waved a hand toward the mountain.

"The mountain... huh... do you want to see it?"

When I answered, he began tapping his thighs with both hands.

"Laaa... laaa."

He didn't seem to be averse or afraid of the mountain. All things considered, his answer looked like a yes to me.

I lifted him into my arms and sat him into the same tendril form from yesterday. From here, he could watch exactly what lay ahead of us.

With a “Daa daa daaam da daaa daam” he trumpeted a happy melody.

The mountain was approaching at breakneck speed, and the foot of the mountain could already be seen between the trees when Viczien melody turned fearsome.

“Waah… wah! Wah! Waaaah..."

He swung his hands and feet, and one of his fists hit my jaw. It was a reason for me to stop and see if everything was okay.

"What's wrong, Viczien?"

Before I knew it, skeletons appeared among the trees. Their movements seemed more natural, which speaks for a master of cursed magic controlling them.

The skeleton in front of me slowly moved towards me. A lifeless voice howled and roared.

"Intruder! Exterminate!"

The voice was static, and it made no impression on me that negotiating was an option.

I wrapped around Viczien with more tendrils. The whole structure resembled that of a cocoon.

"Come!"

I stretched out my arm and provoked the skeleton in front of me with one hand. Unfortunately, it didn't react a bit, and the skeleton on my left attacked me first.

I jumped back a leap and saw the head of the skeleton go by in front of me. I grabbed the long neck in both hands and flung the skeleton onto the skeleton on my right.

Without rest, I jumped in the air and did a backflip. I landed on the back of the fourth skeleton, which was a little smaller than the others. It was pressed to the ground under the weight of my body. The bones broke, and the entire body of the skeleton burst.

Skeleton two, which I threw on skeleton three, got up again, as did skeleton three. But before either attack, skeleton number five did. This one was to the left of the little skeleton, number four.

"Hey, quiet boy!"

Number five tried to bite me, but I grabbed the lower jaw with one hand and the upper jaw with the other. I kept the skeleton from biting.

"Let's end this here!"

I summoned huge roots that grabbed one skeleton after the other. Each of the four remaining was embraced by roots and slowly pulled under the ground.

The forest came to rest as the last skeleton sank into the ground.

"Silence."

I made a short movement with both hands to find my inner center. That was a symbolic act to thank the trees because it was their roots that I manipulated.

I looked around again to make sure nothing was nearby.

When I had checked everything, I continued on my way. The solitary mountain was within reach.

 

=== Foot of the Solitary Mountain

 

I looked around, but nothing pointed to a cave or a path up the mountain. The last tree assured me that they passed here, so I had to assume that whatever was behind the abduction lived behind a barrier after seeing it.

Depending on the effort and strength of the summoner, I would not be able to find the barrier.

What now...

I walked along the wall and felt it.

"Ha!?"

There was a spot in the wall that felt strange, so I examined it more closely.

A magic drain barrier... I don't know enough about such barriers to break them down.

Hmm... I won't get any further on this path... Or...

I turned away. Whatever was behind that barrier, knew I was near...