Chapter 77: She Flies Them Home
The children could not believe their eyes. Someone had found their location, and disrupted the goblin ceremony. Moreover, it was a handsome older brother!
One of the children finally found her voice and sobbed aloud in relief, causing the others to soon join them in loud crying. Robin would have tried to comfort them, but the goblins had returned with their primitive weapons, despite the surrounding flames burning down their cloth tents.
Robin jumped out of the bonfire, and landed on the ground in front of the children, standing protectively with her back towards them.
"While I would enjoy nothing less than to kill off every single one of you, I'm afraid that will have to wait until later." Robin addressed the green, warty demons. "For now, I'll have to say, farewell!"
And, with that, Robin created a bright, piercing light in front of her as she stamped the ground. Then a stone platform with a sheer, smooth wall rose up from the ground out of the range of the goblin's arrows and darts. It encompassed both Robin and the tree with the children within its circumference.
"Now, let's get you children out of this before they get smart, and try to climb the pillar." Robin said, lightly to the children, as she cut open the cage with her sword.
"Big Bro! I know we're safe now, but...how are we going to get away from here!?" One of the children asked.
Robin put a hand on the tree behind them. "Naturally, I have a good idea. But, this big bro needs to catch his breath. It isn't easy to spam intermediate spells so close together. Those treants were stubborn old logs."
While Robin was surrounded by treants, she recalled Keith's earth pillar spell. If there were no safe places to put her feet, then she would make them!
Who knew that the pillars would come up so quickly, or that the treants roots would be so strong that they were lifted up, as well? And who knew that, upon the roots finally disentangling themselves, the treants would be catapulted into other parts of the forest? Upon seeing black smoke rise from one of the locations, Robin had hurried over. Sure enough, it was the location of the goblin's hidden village, located in a recessed area of ground.
Still unused to using magic, Robin felt her breath fall short, and her head start to ache. Her mana source needed to rest.
The children looked over the edge of the stone platform. The goblin leader was jumping up and down with rage. He pointed at the stone pillar. Shrieking at the goblins, he urged them to climb it. But they could not find purchase on the smooth, vertical stone.
Robin gazed off into the near distance. From this vantage point, she could see the town, a few miles away.
"I can see the town walls from here!" One of the children shouted.
"If only we could fly home..." Another one said, bitterly. Robin's eyes glittered, as an idea came to her. She counted the number of children. There were thirteen of them.
"Fly? That's a tall order, but let this big bro grant your wish, then!" Robin said, cryptically. She glanced at the sliced open basket cage, and cut the bottom half completely off. Then she took out a large rain-repellant tent from her storage bracer.
Quickly tying everything together, Robin asked the children.
"Do any of you know fire magic?"
"Gertie does! Her Pa is a baker!" One of them exclaimed, pointing at a girl in a dirt-stained yellow dress.
Robin turned towards Gertie. "Gertie, I have a very important job for you. How big of a fire can you make?"
Gertie shyly spoke. "Um...I can make a fire as big as a campfire." She said.
"Good, good! And how long can you keep it going?" Robin asked, as she continued to tie both the tent, and the basket up securely with ropes.
"Um...I think five minutes is my limit." Gertie said.
"Hmm...Well, if you use it all at the beginning, it should be enough. But, is there anyone else that can use fire magic?" She asked. The children shook their heads.
"...I'll try to add a tail wind to help speed you along." Robin muttered calculations to herself as she considered both the distance and the magic that would act as fuel.
"Each is approximately thirty to forty pounds, times twelve....that is approximately three hundred and sixty to four hundred and eighty pounds total weight, alone... It's 1 pound of lift per every 65 cubic foot of air...it's a straight shot to the clearing in front of the town...I need in between 23,400 and 31,200 cubic feet of air....to hold that much air....yup! It was a good idea that I used the mess hall tent! 27,000 cubic feet ought to supply for a slow descent."
Her calculations finished, Robin made sure the ropes were long enough, and secured the knots.
"Get in the basket, and this big bro will give you all a wonderful ride~!" Robin cheerfully told the children, who all piled into the basket.
Then she called a great wind to quickly fill up the makeshift balloon, which unfurled like a windsock at first. Since the ground below still burning, the rising air was hot. It. quickly filled the balloon, and tugged at it, threatening to rise. This all took less than ten minutes to accomplish, despite the goblins unsuccessful attempts to climb the stone pillar.
However, Robin still stood on the basket, keeping it grounded.
"Remember what I said, Gertie. When it starts to go descend, I need you to aim your fireplace flame at the center of this hole, and heat up the air inside this balloon for as long as you can, okay? When you get to town, tell them Robin sent you!"
"Okay, big bro!" Gertie agreed, and the balloon suddenly quickly rose into the air. Robin had stepped off the basket, letting it float up, quickly.
Gertie called down. "But what about you, Mister Robin!? How will you get back?"
Robin smiled, but didn't answer that question as she called back. "Did you forget!? I"ll be giving you a tailwind to push you in the right direction."
She gathered the wind mana in the area, and aimed it all towards the town.
"Wind." Robin said, and a stiff breeze blew the balloon quickly out in the direction of the town.
Gertie looked back at the figure of Robin growing smaller the more distant they got from him. Before he got too small to make out, she saw Robin suddenly stagger back against the tree on the pillar.
"Mister Robin!" she called out, alarmed.
"Gertie, the balloon's starting to go down!" Beth exclaimed. Gertie had no choice but to turn back, and begin using her fire magic like Robin had instructed her.
Back on the stone pillar, Robin gasped for breath as she clutched at the spot above her heart. "It seems I overdid it." She murmured, struggling to stay awake. For her last act, she put up a barrier that kept out the smoke.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
The goblins, failing to climb the stone pillar, were now using a battering ram to strike it down. They ignored the surrounding fires that were spreading out towards the rest of the forest.
Robin closed her eyes for a bit. After a while, she couldn't hear the battering ram anymore. She opened them again. Dark smoke was billowing all about her.
'Carbon Monoxide poisoning.' She realized. The goblins were most likely dead by now.
She lifted her head. The forest was burning. It had reached the treant colony, Robin could hear their shrieking cries as they caught on fire.
Robin, struggling to move, took out a healing potion from her bracer, bit off the cork, and downed it. Then, when she felt it was working, she struggled to her feet.
"Jasmine is so gonna scold me for this, later." Robin chuckled, painfully as she once more called the wind mana to her, along with water mana, clouds of smoke and steam gathered overhead. "Rain." She said, right before losing consciousness and falling back against the tree.
~~~~~~~
'...bin...'
'...robin..'
"Robin! Can you hear me?" A voice called out to her.
Robin tried to open her eyes, but they felt so heavy. Who is calling? They are so loud! Couldn't they tell that someone was trying to sleep!? Robin tried to drift back into unconsciousness.
"Robin! Speak to me! Can you hear my voice!?" Someone loudly yelled next to her ear.
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BriarRose
BriarRose On the third day of Christmas the author gave to you, your third chapter for you to view~
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