The Forêt Woods

Lum'Valia now officially at the end of her rope, cries. She slumps onto the ground next to Maelik, and sobs. Silver tears run down her face, and she sobs loudly. She is the picture of perfect sorrow, beautiful, and heart breaking.

"I can't heal you, my magic would only hurt you. I don't know what to do, just please wake up."

She lays her head on his chest, and continues to cry.

When Maelik stirred Lum looked up hopefully. He was still weak, but he had spoken! Tears still streaming down her face, but her voice is still calm.

"I will *sniffle* stop crying, if you tell me how to help you. *sniffle*

She starts sobbing again. She moves over lifting his head off the ground, so she can cradle it in her lap.

The voice of Madame Naoki interjects once more through the magical channels provided by the gem on Lum’s finger. Her voice is considerably calmer, and a good bit more composed than previously. The mirrors seem to at least suggest that Maelik isn’t going to die. Which is nice.

“Excellent work. As near as I can tell from over here, there aren’t any outstanding injuries. Your healing is remarkable. He’s obviously not perfectly well, though. I can’t tell what’s wrong from over here. I would suggest, if you feel up to it, that you transport him away.”

A pause, as Naoki consults another mirror.

“My operative isn’t going to be able to occupy Zuu indefinitely. Or, he might- I’m not sure. It’s not something I’d bet on. However, one thing I would bet on, is that Zuu isn’t going to allow Maelik to continue his napping, given the opportunity to harm him again. Unless you’d like to have a go at politely asking her to leave, I suggest that you take Maelik and vacate the area. I have a task force coming on foot, carrying a stretcher. They’re about two minutes away from the edge of the forest, north of you. If you can carry him that far, to the edge of the forest, the immediate crisis will be over. In addition to the stretcher guys and medical experts, I’ve also deployed enough muscle to make it a foolish fight for Zuu to pick, but you should probably get going, she seems pretty fast. If she catches you before you get there, you could be in for a tense few minutes.”

“Well alright, I suppose you could just… Yeah. … I suppose. There will be a team waiting at the local Tower. Careful not to rattle him around too much.”

Here, Naoki stops transmitting to Lum, and instead directs a message to Xel'rath.

“The Demonlord has been successfully exfiltrated, excellent work. If you’re feeling up to it, I’d like to request that you remove Zuu from this world with some… finality. She's too dangerous a loose end to leave lying around, and she attacked and wounded one of us. I have another operative inbound, he should join you shortly. Between the two of you, I wouldn’t like to see her again. I leave the methods entirely to your discretion.”

Zuu finally figures a way out of the illusion, teleporting herself outside its range as she supresses its effects with her own mastery of illusory arts. Then, she realises that Maelik'S aura has gone. Without so much as a glance at the other two combatants, she growls and rockets off into the sky, seeking out Maelik's unique feel like a bloodhound. He would not get away so easily!

*This takes place while Maelik is still in school*

With an unnatural silence to his gait Maelik led the way to a good spot to set up the barbie, his tail lugging the bundled together grill just above the ground. Roy would have little to fear when it came to animals this night as most of them scurried miles away after witnessing the nightmarish specter that was the demon.

Hell, even just his aura was enough to send a dreadful feeling down one's spine, its suffocating presence smothering the starlight and casting the area in an even dimmer view.

"I think this is good enough," he muttered after happening upon a nice open clearing, the trees surrounding them cast in an ominous shadow. "Nice and flat, no tree cover to interfere with the smoke. Excellent."

With practiced motions and a single minded focus the Lord went to work, erecting the grill in moments and slipping on his cooking hate and bbq apron, the words printed on the front reading, 'Caution, hot surface.'

Vera hands the fur wrapped meats to the demonlord. She is clearly unfazed by the woods around her, she just seems excited by the prospect of food.

"Aw right Maelik! Way you were talking makes me think, you think you are something special. Let's see if you live up to your own hype."

Roy looks around the clearing, certain that monsters and witches and giant spiders are about to come out of the woods at any moment.

"Are you sure this is safe, Maelik? The smell of the meat might bring wild animals. I don't want to get torn apart by wild animals! Anyway, are you sure we're allowed to do this? I don't want to get in trouble. Starting a fire in the woods might be against the rules."

"I'll make you eat more than just your words..." he promised with a dark tone, feeding the flames of the grill with maple wood and dragging out some corn from one of his portals.

"Roy! Pass me the basil, the sea salt and the honey. Now."

Assuming that the vampire was prompt with his delivery (and for his sake he'd better be) Maelik would begin the not so lengthy process of cooking up the meat.

Before placing any slabs down on the grill he'd be sure that the flames were at just the right height and produced the perfect amount of heat, throwing in wood and removing it as he saw fit. Once the conditions were met he'd throw the first batch on the fire, keeping as much of it near the center as possible and flipping it very frequently until the red meat a shade darker.

Then, before the meat got too cooked and the flesh tightened he rubbed in the honey and sprinkled in some of the basil, although while the honey was slathered all over the basil only made it to one side. This time the food stayed on the grill, the demon pressing it against the metal bars with a steel flipper to squeeze out the blood and excess honey, it wouldn't do for it to come out tasting too sweet. He'd turn the meat over after exactly three minutes of open flame, and would repeat the process as often as it took until the meat turned brown and small char lines began to show.

The corn was much the same, although it required a great deal less upkeep he also roasted it on the grill, buttering it and quickly turning it over so that not a single kernal was burned.

When he had enough for two servings (Royal's being more on the rare side so that he could indeed get some blood) he'd dish them up and sparingly sprinkle the sea salt on the corn, passing the plates along to the two waiting mouths who accompanied him. Although suspiciously he himself didn't seem all that eager to eat anything at all.

"Well dig in, then you can tell for yourself that I know what I'm doing," he grumbled whilst absently repeating the process with the rest of the meat solely with his tail. Vera may want leftovers later after all.