Chapter 165 (1/2)

Chapter 165 Chase

Lightning traveled back and forth between Border Town and the southern hills, while the parchments in her hands were slowly becoming all the more complete.

This was her newly received task, together with Soraya, she had to draw a map of the Western Border.

Flying together with Soraya, her flying height was significantly reduced, making it awfully difficult to fly over the forest. So she would first paint a rough outline of the topography, and later with Soraya, they would draw a more exact picture. By using her magic pen, the map would look like a view from up in the air, every detail seemingly totally lifelike.

After a parchment was filled, Lightning would then turn around, and fly back to Border Town. Today, after a few months of training, her flying speed had only become faster and faster. According to the calculation method taught by Prince Roland, her full-speed flight had almost reached close to one hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. At this speed, the incoming strong wind made it nearly impossible for her to open her eyes.

Because of this problem, Lightning thought that she had already reached her limit, but the day before yesterday, His Royal Highness had given her a gift. A headband made out of leather, with two copper ring wrapped into it. Embedded inside those copper rings was a pure and transparent glass, allowing her, for as long as she wore the headband, to be immune to the incoming wind.

His Royal Highness had said that this headband is called ‘windproof glasses’, and that it was actually quite easy to manufacture, by melting some glassware. He had also said, that with her wearing the headband she would look even more like a small Ezreal.

Lightning didn’t know who this Ezreal person was, but she realized that even though the headband was only made out of cowhide, copper rings, and glass lenses, it had still needed a lot of effort to put something like this together. The complete piece of leather had a double layered structure to it so that it could wrap itself tightly around the inset copper rings. And also, to keep her from worrying that the leather band would scratch her skin, the headband had something similar to the buckle of a belt on it, with which she could adjust its size. Looking at it, it didn’t give her the impression of something that had been just casually made.

She immediately fell in love with this gift, almost to the extent that she wanted to wear it even when she was sleeping. Now, she only had to had to pull down the glasses, and she could keep on flying faster and faster, no longer needing to take into account the impact from the whistling wind.

It wouldn’t take very long before Lighting would reach the town, she had planned to immediately head back to the castle and hand over the new map to Soraya, but at that very moment a pale figure suddenly swept past the corner of her eye.

Looking sideways, Lightning saw a pigeon with its wings extended gliding in the direction of Longsong Stronghold. Pigeons weren’t very rare birds, but this one was quite different, it was really too big to be like normal pigeon, just the wings alone would be enough to satisfy her stomach for the length of a whole day.

Lightning had to swallow down her saliva, she remembered the time when she had still lived on the island and caught some flying fish by hand later roasting them over the fire.

Now, living under the roof of His Highness, although the food was very rich, having to eat bread with butter and mushroom soup for months on end, the food had started to become somewhat tasteless to her, so if she could catch a pigeon for roasting…

Reaching out to the pack of salt and pepper fastened to her waist, her decision was made.

Turning around, Lightning flew straight toward the pigeon, and the pigeon quickly noticed the approach of the uninvited guest. It immediately folded its wings, diving downward and seemingly wanting to drill into the woods, to rid itself of this menacing hunter.

Seeing this scene unfolding in front of her, Lighting was shocked, she would never have thought a pigeon could be this smart. A few seconds later, a broad grin spread across her face, and with a sudden turn, she followed the pigeon as it dove downwards. Since the Months of Demons had already ended, the little girl had become confident that nothing could escape from beneath her gaze.

For a moment, the pigeon still skimmed over the treetops, but a moment later it lowered it altitude even further, entering the forest and flying extremely close to the ground. But the distance between itself and its hunter only became shorter and short, no matter how fast it beat its wings, it couldn’t throw off Lightning’s pursuit.

The dense forest receded, and the sun would occasionally shine through the branches, becoming alternatives patches of light and shade. Until they finally flew through an open area, and their surrounding suddenly became open and bright. Grabbing hold of this opportunity, Lightning brought her speed up to maximum, instantly hugging the pigeon from behind and tumbling to the ground.

The pigeon struggled heavily, trying to break free from its shackles. Lightning had already pulled out the knife from her waist, ready to finish off the game, but at this last moment, the dove opened its beak, “Don’t, goo! Help me, goo!”

The little girls shock was so heavy, that she almost tossed her knife away. But she quickly regained her rationality, and asked, “You, are you a witch?”

As an answer, the pigeon nodded.

“And I thought I could finally taste another type of flavor,” Lightning sighed in regret, putting her knife away. “My name is Lightning, what is your name?”

The other expanded into a ball, and then turned into its human form, “Maggie, you actually wanted to eat a bird!” the woman complained.