Chapter 14: Mysterious Black Egg
Elise gently flapped her wings and landed with a graceful flourish, she looked ahead and saw branches covering a small hole hidden in the ground. Her heart began to thump wildly, and she ran forward tearing away the branches frantically from the entrance.
She cleared the branches and the light from the outside shone down on Ashley who was curled up in a tiny ball.Ashley blinked hard trying to make out the figure in front of her who was covered in sunlight.
"Mommy?" she cautiously called out.
Something shattered in Elise's heart and she rushed forward with a half-choked sob caught in her throat, she had never felt such a deep sense of loss when Ashley had vanished before her eyes. She wrapped her arms firmly around her daughter and began to stroke her trembling back.
"Mom I was so scared by myself," Ashley could not hold back the tears from falling and she began to cry heavily in Elise's arms.
"I' m here. I'm here. I'm here" Elise began to mutter frantically.
No trace of the vicious monster remained on her face, her left eye quickly returned to its normal violet hue and shone slightly with unshed tears.
Elise could not understand why she was acting this way, she had seen the loss of her comrades, family and friends over the years of bloodshed and was no stranger to death. Her heart had closed, and she was numb to the feeling the pain of losing those close to her.
And yet.
The mere thought of this little girl dying sent a deep sense of paralyzing fear down her body. Elise turned to the little girl sniffled in her arms and came to a realization that deeply unsettled her.
This child was her weakness.
She suddenly could not hold back her tears and broke down as well, the mother-daughter pair cried and held each other for a few minutes. Elise carefully lifted Ashley out of the hole and looked at her eyes that were shinning with hope.
Ashley seemed to be unhurt, but Elise quickly scanned her body in case she had a few hidden injuries. She was fine and Elise breathed a sigh of relief but then she noticed that Ashley was holding something in her hand.
"Ashley what's that black rock?" Elise asked curiously.
"Its not a rock mommy! I found it here and I think it might be a magic beast egg!" Ashley excitedly whispered.
"What! Ashley gave me that egg, we need to destroy it as soon as we can," Elise worriedly said.
(Ashley's POV)
Mommy quickly took the black egg from my hand and placed in on the ground and drew her sword. She looked just like a warrior princess from my story books! As she swung her sword at the egg, I felt a panicked emotion from my heart.
My palm was heating up slightly and began to pulse in the same rhythm as the egg kicking from earlier. I was very confused but as I watched the sword draw closer a panicked cry came from my throat.
"Stop mommy! Don't hurt it!"
(Main Story)
As Elise heard Ashley's cry, she immediately adjusted her sword arc and the blade landed two inches away from the egg. She looked inquisitively at Ashley then came to a sudden realization,
"Ashley is your palm beating with the egg?" Elise asked.
Ashley frowned and nodded. Elise suppressed the groan that was threatening to come out, looks like her little daughter had bonded with a magical beast. This was a rare occurrence that could happen if the embryo inside an egg felt a connection with a person's mana circuit.
The magic beast would then regard the person as a parent when it hatched and would link their mana circuit to their owner. The problem is that Elise could not recognise what type of magical beast was inside the egg and she sighed silently to herself.
It was okay she reasoned to herself, worse come to worse she could simply sever the link and kill the beast if it turned to be an aggressive species.
"Alright you can keep the egg for now but let me know immediately if it starts to hatch"
"I got it mommy," Ashley replied seriously.
The Valkyries had decided to meet again at the carriage by the lake and if Ashley was still not found, they would spend the afternoon looking for her.It was now midday, close to the appointed time the Valkyries would regroup by the small lake, so Elise unfurled her wings and picked up Ashley in her arms and soared into the air.
As Elise was flying back to meet the other Valkyries, she suddenly recalled the strange voice that guided her to Ashley's location, curiously she looked down at her daughter and asked the burning question.
"Ashley did you hear a voice when you were by yourself?"
"Yeah a kind older sister helped me avoid the scary monsters", Ashley replied with a happy tone.
Elise nodded her head and began to contemplate internally to herself, as far as she knew only old gods with massive amounts of believers and followers would communicate directly and even then they would only speak words of wisdom to the chosen ones of their faith such as the popes or archbishops.
Compared to ancient times the power of the old gods were restricted by the mortal plane and they needed large masses of believers to gain enough strength to barely communicate. Although that madman from the church of Light also claimed to hear the voice of god.
Elise frowned, she hoped never to meet the monster known as the 'Grand Inquisitor'. That was a man even she had no confidence she could defeat in a fair match. But then why was the huntress goddess able to talk to them? Elise built a shrine, but she was no a believer and maybe only Ashley had faith in the legends.
Was only one person necessary?
Elise shook her head slightly and left the questions unanswered in her heart, ever since she had picked up Ashley the voice had stopped speaking to her. She tried to thank her numerous times but received no reply in response.
"Ashley do you like to fly?" Elise spoke to her little daughter.
Her daughter shook her head adorably, "I'm afraid of heights" she tearfully admitted.
Elise immediately asked her if she wanted to land and they could walk to the meeting point but Ashley resolutely shook her head from side to side.
"I'm scared but I trust mommy" she said with a slight smile.
Elise smiled back involuntarily but adjusted her flight path to travel more slowly, her raven wings were specialised for long distance flying so they pumped steadily as they drew closer to the location of the carriage.
When they landed the rest of Valkyries had already reached and were waiting impatiently for their arrival with a great deal of panic. What if their little lady was hurt?
Elise tucked away her wings and stopped circulating mana around her body, her dark marks began to withdraw into her skin and the black tendrils quieted down. She gently put Ashley down and held her hand as they walked towards the group.
"My little lady!" Servia and Luxia were the first to spot them and dashed forward quickly. Servia was crying heavily, and ugly tears dripped down her face. She stopped two meters away from Ashley and began to bow heavily and started to apologise profusely for failing to grab her in time.
Luxia was the quieter of the two but her face shone with concern as she picked up Ashley from the ground and began to check all over her for injuries. Ashley smiled at her two worried big sisters and cheerfully began to tell them about her adventures in the woods.
"My duchess, I have failed you" Elena approached Elise and bowed her head silently.
"My siren song did not detect the wisp but I was distracted by the battle and forgot to look at Ashley so I will accept full responsibility," she was overcome with guilt and choked out a response not daring to look at Elise.
"Raise your head Elena, this was the failure of all the Valkyries, myself included." Elise replied.
She gently cupped her heads around Elena's chin and raised her head slowly until her eyes were level with hers.
She gazed into her eyes with violet meeting pale green as Elena stared at her enraptured.
"I want you to be Ashley's personal guard so have more confidence in yourself, I do." She removed her hands and bluntly told Elena how she felt.
Elena was overwhelmed and could not speak for a moment, eventually she nodded yes as she did not trust herself to talk. Elise turned and walked towards the twins who were now both hugging Ashley frantically while shedding big tears as the rest of the Valkyries watched on in a mixture of relief and exasperation.
As her back was facing Elena, she missed the obvious blush that was spreading across Elena's face as she brought her hands up and softly felt the spot on her chin that Elise had held.
"Stupid Elise will make me fall for her all over again," Elena muttered with a small pout.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
HopelesslyRomantic
HopelesslyRomantic This has got to be my favourite chapter that I have written so far, nothing I love more than setting up some spicy subplots for the future
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