Chapter 299 299 Surprise Welcome
Chapter 299 299 Surprise Welcome
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Headmistress Peach looked around the armoured vehicle to see if they were actually messing with her. She had heard a lot of ridiculous rumours in her time, but a high-ranking Demon and a bunch of Rank Two witches making a Fae Forest in the middle of the Frozen Wastes was pretty unbelievable.
Especially when she heard the size. It must cover hundreds of square kilometres to be the size that they said, and even if there were multiple powerful Rank One witches, they shouldn't have been able to convert that much of the Frozen Waste in one winter.
The team wouldn't tell her who she was supposed to be meeting, but as a Headmistress, it could be nearly anyone. She had taught generations of witches at this point, and many of them could be counted as an old acquaintance.
With the help of her magic, they made decent time across the rapidly thawing grasslands near the foothills, which led to the supposed forest, and they were set to make it there before lunchtime after entering the Frozen Wastes right at dawn.
Nobody had slept well in the crowded vehicle, but that was normal in such a situation, where they couldn't be sure of their safety, and they didn't dare stop for too long.
[Snowman, this is Noxus One. We will be incoming to the southern border of the Forest. Do you copy?] The driver was asking over the radio.
They couldn't hear the response with him wearing headphones to cancel the noise of the vehicle, but she answered positively to whatever she heard.
[Understood, Snowman. I know the spot. We will be there in two hours if nothing goes wrong.] The driver agreed.
"The group in the Forest says that the river runs from Northwest to Southeast through the Forest. We will wait at the Southeastern edge of the forest, where the river passes through the crack in the mountains and forms a waterfall." The driver explained to everyone behind her.
"The forest reaches that far? Shouldn't we see it soon, then?" Headmistress Peach asked.
"Within the next five minutes, if my intelligence is correct." The driver agreed.
Once they reached the next ridgeline, the Forest came into view, stretching toward the sky and extending for dozens of kilometres in any direction.
"I know where we are, and there definitely didn't used to be a forest here. There is a small lake somewhere in that Forest which I was stationed at once many years ago." The Headmistress informed the team, who laughed at her inability to believe what her eyes were showing her.
"We've been hearing about it for ages on the military radio channels. It's a no-fly zone because you never know where you will end up if you fly over the Forest, so everyone has just stayed away from it until now. It hasn't even been properly scouted.
But they will meet us where the river exits and escort us in since a Fae Forest will get intruders lost if they enter on their own." The Noxus Elder closest to Headmistress Peach explained.
They followed the edge of the forest at a slow pace for over an hour, trying not to beat the occupants too badly with the bouncing of the vehicle until they reached the river, and the driver pulled them to a stop next to a small camp setup.
There wasn't anyone in sight, but a fire was burning. There were logs cut for benches, and there were sticks with fish roasting arranged over the flames.
A few seconds later, a pair of Witches in dark green robes and large brimmed pointy hats stepped out of the forest, accompanied by a pair of meter-tall trolls.
"Come on out. We don't bite. The food is almost ready, so please forgive our delay. We were at the other side of the river when the call came in, and we had to rush over here to greet you." One of the witches called.
That voice was familiar to Headmistress Peach. If she recalled correctly, it should be one of the twins, girls who had been drafted out of the academy last fall. But her Familiar was not Fae, and from what Peach had learned, her Familiar had died in battle before she was imprisoned as a Deserter and sent to die in the Sylvan Coven frontline camps.
The two identical faces looked up at the armoured vehicle, and the Headmistress gasped. Those really were the twins, and they were powerful. Very powerful.
If she didn't know that it was impossible after they had lost their familiars and then been crippled by the Nerve Gas, she would have run out already to greet the two unfortunate witches, but the impossibility of what she was seeing froze her to her seat.
The Noxus Elders were the first to move.
"I don't know about you all, but that fish looks pretty good, and I'm sick of being in this tin can. We will meet you at the fire." The Elder laughed as he opened the door and stepped out, followed by his three peers.
That was enough to snap the Headmistress out of her paralysis. They were unarmed and unarmoured, heading toward a pair of Fae and two unknown witches who looked like girls they couldn't be.
The moment she stepped out, the twins pointed at her and began to laugh. "Headmistress Peach? Is that really you? Why did Reiko send you along with her delegation?" Jenna asked.
"Who are you? You look like Jenna and Molly, but that's not possible. I saw them at the Treatment Camp, and their magic was completely gone." The Headmistress demanded, preparing to cast defensive spells to protect her group.
"Oh, it's really us. You will understand when you get to the village, but losing your magic doesn't mean as much here as it does elsewhere. We have our own ways of recovering."
The Noxus Elders wiggled their eyebrows suggestively at the Twins, who giggled and shrugged.
"It seems that someone told both of you how to do it as well." Molly accused.
"Yes, in a way. But it's nearly impossible for us, no matter how hard we try." The leader of the group sighed.
"Well, perhaps we can fix that too. If you would like to lock up your vehicle, the transport boat will be here momentarily. The one we took doesn't have room for so many people." Jenna informed the gathered group of witches and Noxus Elders.
"But first, eat," Molly added.