Re: Elf Prince—A Degenerate's Second Chance-Chapter 68. Recap

68. Recap

Eryndor gasped back to life the cold howling winds of the icy mounygrerted him. His hands reflexively went to his neck and then his eyes and ears, after taking his time to confirm he was fine he took a moment to relax. To double check he looked at himself from Snow’s eyes and he looked fine but he could not dispel the feeling of fear he still felt in his heart.

What was that place and the temple? Was he in a shrine? And what was "the messiah of the night" and why was that baby sacrificed? Who were those cloaked figures? Most importantly what did all of this have to do with him? Was the legacy of the crescent prince involved?

He felt king licking at his face with his tongue making his face stuck and partly warm. Eryndor knew he had to focus on what mattered at the moment, though the dread of the nightmare still plagued him he had to put it till later. He was still by the corpse of the mountain wolf king and he needed to find cover to recover to good health. He also had to feed his newest ally before it starved to death, it seemed on ascending his mana core from dormant to awakened his wounds healed partly. The change was very subtle but it made it easier for him to move with less burden.

Cutting out strips of meat from his biggest kill and carrying King in his arms he turned to leave. He gave the sight of the fallen awakened beast one last look, this was his doing and he was pleased with it. King looked over at his mother and wined, Eryndor did not know whether it knew who it’s mother was or was just sympathising with the beast either way Eryndor smiled.

To think that just months away he was the degenerate prince of the elf empire. He was a loser and prankster and mostly ignorant. He could also remember his first time coming to the mountain, he had been with Thalor back then. He could remember being at the mercy of the white fur mountain wolves, he had almost lost his life but his uncle had saved him. Then his first night out alone, that was been a night full of scars. He could say that he survived by luck mostly. His mind then stayed to the time he spent training in the moon style sword art, under his uncle’s strict training he had almost died.

But all of these were no where compared to what he had faced in the ice mountain regions. He had faced ice serpents, packs of wolves, fallen off a mountain, fought against a blizzard, battles a dark leather gator under a half frozen stream. He had met a noble beast and become friends with it, he failed to save it, he made an ally, he raised a beast and trained it. He had survived, hunted and trained in the harsh weather conditions. He had become a better mage and hunter, and eventually he had done his biggest feat and killed an awakened beast and ended up with another beast under his wing.

Thinking back to everything he had been through he thought to himself. "Did I really do all this?" He found it hard to believe that these were all his achievements. He had made a spectacular growth in a yeyars time and now what he wanted more than ever was a quiet rest in a warm cozy bed. Not wanting to be distracted any longer hs turned away from the corpse of the fallen awakened beast and left the scene with a sense of finality and accomplishment.

He walked for a hour till he found one of the safe spots he had marked in on if his scouts, there were a number of holes and some big enough to hold more than a dozen elves his size. He crawled into one of them and roasted some steaks of meat for his allys before drifting off into sleep. For the next few days he did his best to rest and take care of his beasts, occasionally Snow would hint stray snow hares and bring back for him to roast.

Not being a culinary chef like his uncle caused him a few setbacks at the station if his quest but he did not have much if a choice since the wild did not provide even the basic seasoning for cooking. Besides aside from burning meat over fire he did not have any other alternative for cooking meals.

While he napped Snow would usually watch over both him and King. She added like a big sister to the little wolf pup, at first Eryndor had thought they would have a big fight but Snow seemed proud that she was number one so she took the responsibilities to some extent. As a weak passed Eryndor was strong enough to make his way back to his uncles cottage. Using a long tree branch as an aid he walked back to the cottage, King would walk close to him while Snow would scout ahead, it took a few days but he managed to reach his uncles cottage near evening on the fourth day.

Thalvarin seemed surprised when he came out of the cottage thinking he sensed some dangerous beast in the area to find his young nephew alive and kicking. He had on his face a smile that seemed more relieved than happy. Eryndor tried to put up a big show of power but ended up in tears, the trauma of everything he had been through played through his head. Under such a young age he had seen more than his brain could handle and he broke under the pressure. There was a time he saw his proud uncle shed a tear or two on his return. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Thalvarin found it hard to believe that the young arrogant nephew of his had come back alive and in one piece, despite it being a quest. He had expected Eryndor to come running back after a few days but when he did not see him for weeks he assumed the worst. Seeing Eryndor looking like a work out suit of armour filled him with joy, he did not see him as a a kid any longer.

One of the most surprising things was that he had managed to actually kill the awakened beast despite being poorly trained and not just that he survived the unforgiving cold mountains for so long and coming back with not one but two beast companions. Eryndor had turned out to be a true survivalist and rare genius that only bloomed in the harshest of situations.

It took some time for Eryndor to fully heal but by then he had received his sister’s keepsake and shared his stories with Thalvarin. He also received his very first gift from his uncle, a mages staff that he used in his earlier days. A long bright brown soon like a big walking cane only that on top it’s had an arched cap with inscriptions on it. With it his mana control and attacks became more fluid.

Time went by slowly, hours turning into days and days into weeks, weeks into months, then years and soon it was time for the elf prince to leave the ice mountain that had been his home for the next Chapter of his life. Eryndor would emerge a changed from when he had first entered the ice mountain.