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He licked his dry, bloodied lips. ”Sitting right on top of its head, as calm and composed as a queen on her throne, was an alien girl.”

Sol’s entire posture changed.

”Wait...” His voice lost its flat, indifferent weight instantly, turning incredibly sharp and focused. The temperature around them seemed to drop. ”You said... an alien girl?”

Gorr nodded frantically, sensing he had struck a nerve.

The Zharun prince quickly nodded his head like a frantic rattle, his neck joints popping under the rapid movement. ”Yes! Yes! It was definitely an alien girl! I swear on the blood of my lineage!

She didn’t look like any human, or any beast kin we had fought, and most importantly she didn’t carry the scent of any tribe in the Great Orrath! She had this... otherworldly presence. Even that colossal beast obeyed her completely.”

Sol’s mind flashed back immediately to that fateful encounter deep in the Orrath jungle... the mysterious lavender-skinned girl with obsidian horns, the graceful tail, and the quiet power that had both intrigued and unsettled him. Elyndra.

The coincidence was too strong to ignore.

He stepped closer to the broken prince, his presence growing even more oppressive as golden energy flickered faintly around his body.

”Describe her,” Sol demanded, his tone leaving no room for hesitation or lies. ”What did she look like? Every detail. Now.”

Prince Gorr flinched violently under the pressure. His swollen lips trembled as the words tumbled out in a frantic, desperate rush, each syllable spoken as if it might buy him one more breath of life.

”She... she was humanoid!” the prince shouted, eyes wide with terror. ”But she wasn’t like us! Not at all! Her skin was this pale, beautiful lavender color... smooth and almost glowing, like moonlight on amethyst.

Her hair was the same shade... long, flowing, the exact color of wild lilac flowers swaying in the wind. She had a long, thin tail that moved with a mind of its own, whipping through the air behind her with grace.

Gorr paused to catch his ragged breath, then continued even faster.

”And most strikingly... she had two large, elegantly curved obsidian horns growing straight out of her forehead. They were glossy black, catching the light like polished blades. She sat atop that monstrous beast as if she belonged there... calm, regal, completely unafraid. The creature obeyed her every subtle command.”

Sol’s heart gave a sudden, powerful thrum beneath his ribs.

There was no mistake. Lavender skin, lilac hair, a tail, and two curved obsidian horns.

It was Elyndra.

The alien girl he had met in the deeper sectors of the Orrath. The same girl whose presence had lingered in the back of his mind ever since that strange meeting.

A complex swirl of emotions surged through him... surprise, relief, cautious intrigue, and something warmer he didn’t bother naming right now. The fact that she had appeared here, riding a legendary beast and protecting Lumi, was as strange as it could.

Sol’s eyes sharpened with new purpose as he stared down at the trembling prince.

”What did she do?” Sol demanded, his grip tightening on the hilt of the Dreadwing Blade until his knuckles turned white. His voice was sharp as a freshly honed edge, laced with barely contained urgency. ”What did she do to Lumi? Answer me.”

Prince Gorr shrank back as much as the Golden Dominion would allow, his broken body trembling. Tears of pain and fear mixed with the blood on his face as he whispered hoarsely:

”We... we thought we were all going to die.”

His voice cracked, carrying both awe and raw terror.

”Our spears were raised. Every warrior still able to stand had formed a final circle around the ritual hut, ready to fight to the last man. We believed the beasts had come to devour everything. But the alien girl... she didn’t even glance at us. She didn’t look at our warriors, our weapons, or our huts. It was as if we were beneath her notice.”

Gorr’s eyes grew distant, lost in the memory.

”She simply guided that colossal beast forward. The ground shook with every step it took. It stopped right in front of the ritual hut where we had kept the girl... Lumi.

The alien girl leaned down from her seat atop the beast’s head... and reached out. She picked Lumi up with her own hands as gently as if the child were a small, fragile bird.”

The prince swallowed hard, his voice dropping to a haunted whisper.

”And then... they disappeared.”

He looked up at Sol with wide, desperate eyes, his face deathly pale.

”I’m not lying! I swear on my own blood and the bones of my mother!” Gorr cried out, his voice rising into a near-sob that echoed across the silent, blood-soaked clearing. ”You can ask anyone who still lives! Ask my father! Ask any of the surviving warriors!

They all saw it with their own eyes! She didn’t run or ride away into the jungle.

The moment she held Lumi safely in her arms, a bright purple light flared around them... brilliant and otherworldly.

It swallowed both the girl and the massive beast whole... and then they were just... gone.”

Gorr’s breathing came in ragged gasps.

”They vanished completely. Like they had never existed in the marsh at all. One moment they were there, the next... nothing but empty air and fading purple sparks.”

He took a ragged, trembling breath, his chest heaving as fresh blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

”And once they vanished...” Gorr continued, voice hoarse and broken, ”the giant beasts didn’t continue the slaughter. They didn’t even roar.

They simply turned around in eerie silence, heads lowered in submission, and dispersed back into the deepest, darkest parts of the jungle without touching another soul.”

The prince’s eyes were glassy, still haunted by the memory.

”It was like the entire horde had lost all will to fight the moment she left. One second they were an unstoppable tide of fangs and claws... the next, they were gone. Returning to whatever nightmare they crawled out of.”