One good thing the hive discovered about the Eye spell is that it didn’t have to start from the tunnels. The Eye seems to have a connection to any location it had been before and the hive found that it could create the Eye right at these locations. The connection to most of these places was weak and the hive suspect the connection was deteriorating over time but there was one place that shone like a beacon; the Unicorn Glade.

After gathering and converting the needed energy, the hive released the spell at the Unicorn Glade. It was a success. The small floating eyeball appeared right above the pool of shining water and it’s appearance surprised everyone there; the Unicorns and their foals, the monkey that was strangely still there, and two Ratlings who were currently taking a bath in the pool.

The hive had informed the Kin of the Unicorn Glade and told the Chieftain to collect some ‘Healing Grass’ and shining water from the glade. These two Ratlings must be the ones the Chieftain had sent. The hive was glad that they seem to be having a good time and was pleased by what they were doing. The hive never thought of telling the Kin to bath in the shining water and was pleasantly surprised at the initiative of these two. The hive was wondering if bathing in the waters would have any effect on the creatures and the Eye looked carefully at the two Ratlings. There wasn’t any effect that the Eye could see and the spirits within the hive erupted into argument on whether they should use the “Appraisal” spell on the two Ratlings.

The argument became useless when the two Ratlings quickly got out of the pool and while one of them started to pluck the grass, the other was quickly filling up a bottle with the shining water. Once they were done, the duo began running, almost sprinting, towards the tunnels. The Air spirit controlling the Eye looked on in shock. The hive didn’t even have time to decide whether to cast the “Appraisal” spell! Why were those two suddenly in such a hurry? With no way to answer that, the Air spirit decided to let it go and get on with it’s mission.

The Eye was not fast. The hive had realized this when the Nature spirit was controlling it but the hive had wondered if it would be different if another type of spirit was controlling it. It was not. The Air spirit controlling it was trying to move the Eye through the Great Kar Forest as quickly as possible but the speed of the Eye was not increasing. The speed of the Eye was the same no matter who was controlling it. However it was moving faster as the Air spirit didn’t care about the forest the way the Nature spirit did. The Air spirit controlling the Eye did not stop to enjoy the forest as it didn’t care about the heavenly smell or the ancient trees of the forest.

After some time, the Eye finally reached the edge of the Great Kar Forest. The Eye looked out and could see the vast grassland of the Homeless Plains. This was the place the hive was looking for. The Homeless Plains and within the vast flatlands was the city of Yachium. Most of the spirits within the hive had actually forgotten about their promise to the Fire Hive about taking the spirit matrix within the city but seeing the advancement of the Fire Hive had lit a fire in them. The hive was not going to be shown up by those fiery fools.

Before the Eye could go onto the plains however, it sensed the coming of the humans. The Air spirit controlling the hive stayed within the forest looking out as a group of humans who were riding horses passed by. The humans rode by the edge of the forest and the Eye could sense the tension in the air. The humans were constantly looking at the forest while riding, as if they were fearful of whatever was in the forest. The Eye waited for the group to ride past before emerging from the forest. From talks with the Speaker, the hive had a good general idea of where the city of Yachium was and the floating eye went headed east in the direction of the city. During this trip, the hive discovered the usefulness of having such a small Eye. Whenever the Eye sensed a group of human coming, it could lower into the tall grass and continue on unmolested.

Four days after casting the spell, the Eye saw it’s destination. Although nothing had happened, it was still a hard journey. The problem the hive faced was the fact that it got harder and harder to maintain the spell as the Eye went further away from the tunnels. Luckily the hive had decided beforehand to cut off the other senses of the Eye due to the length of the journey and it was fortunate that it had done so. The Eye would never had reach Yachium otherwise. As the city of Yachium lay in the distance, the Air spirit decided it need to have a good look before the spell went out. The Eye soared into the sky and the Air spirit could feel the spell giving out. Before it did, the Eye took a good unobstructed wide view of the city.

The Speaker had spoken of Yachium at length before but the hive was still surprised by how big the city was. The city was easily bigger than the tunnels and solid tall walls surround the city on all sides. The spirits within the hive were not tacticians but even they could tell that from the walls, the humans would have a panorama of the surrounding plains. From the air, the Eye could see two structures that dwarfed all others. A castle near the center of the city which was the residence of the Duke, supposedly the ruler of the city, and a tall tower on the eastern end of the city that was the headquarters of the Mage Council, the true power of Yachium. It was daytime and even at this distance the Eye could see the numerous humans going about their daily life within the city. There were a lot of them. As the spell finally fade, the Eye disappeared and Air spirit controlling it returned to the hive. The scouting mission was a success and the hive finally understood one thing; a thing they must do if they want to take the city.

“We are going to need to make a lot more creatures.”

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