Watching from afar as the massive shadow condor disappeared into the distance chasing after the escaping blue moon hawks, Scaly didn’t dare move out from beneath the leaves that covered her immediately. Understanding that, the dangerous situation she found herself in was far from over, as she was still in an extremely weakened and exhausted state. Even a slightly stronger oversized rat finding her might end her little life if she was unlucky- or it would provide her with a nutritious meal that would help her recover faster. Either way, it wasn’t something she wanted to risk... And thus, she decided to remain hidden beneath the leaves for now. Taking the opportunity to recover her mana and strength.
Although resting out in the open like this was extremely risky, she didn’t really have any other option in her current situation. All she could do was hope that the leaves and the sturdy tree she found herself leaning up against would provide her with enough cover for any other monster roaming the skies above.
As for monster roaming around on the ground... She didn’t see any while rolling down the hill and neither did, she spot any monsters when hiding beneath the leaves.
But then again, this might also just be because the monsters had been scared into hiding by the blue moon hawks first and later decided to remain in hiding after the far more terrifying shadow condor appeared.
In the end, this was something she would have to keep an eye on for later when different monsters potentially began to emerge from their hiding spots and started roaming around the relatively empty hillside.
The only positive she could think of was the fact that the monsters in hiding shouldn’t be too powerful considering how they had hidden from the blue moon hawks that she herself considered relatively weak on their own. Although she might not have fully recovered by the time those monsters began to appear, she felt more than confident in dealing with them.
The main problem was that there was also a very real chance that there wasn’t any monsters hiding on the hillside, a probability that Scaly felt was the most likely given how she hadn’t seen any monsters scrambling to hide away when she had rolled down the side of the hill nor had she seen any signs of monster activity throughout the hillside while hiding beneath the leaves.
Hiding was one thing, but leaving no trace of their existence was a completely different matter altogether, causing her to lean more towards there being no monsters living on the hillside.
However, this presented a brand-new problem, why were there no monsters on the hillside?
No matter how hard she thought about it, Scaly couldn’t figure out an answer to this question, as there wasn’t any sign of the hill itself being home to a powerful monster nor was there any sign of it being a dangerous location filled with magical or natural anomalies that would deter monsters from settling down.
Abnormal as all of this was, Scaly couldn’t really investigate the situation any further in her current state and to be honest, she didn’t really mind the hill being deserted without any monsters, as it allowed her to recover her strength with peace of mind.
In the end, after forcibly keeping herself awake for another three hours to ensure that everything was safe, Scaly slowly felt the exhaustion from everything that had happened washing over her. Forcing her to fall into a deep sleep while her body began to long process of recovery.
Rustle~
However, unknown to her, the branches of the tree she had fallen asleep beneath began to move ever so slightly after she fell asleep before a few smaller branches reached down towards her sleeping form-
Whoosh~
Gently lifting her up before placing her on a large branch hidden entirely from view. Making it impossible for any passing monsters flying above to spot her.
Rustle~
At the end, the branches slowly retreated to their original locations like nothing had happened. Making the tree return to its original appearance without any sign of what had happened earlier-
Screeech~!
And only a few seconds later, the shadow condor that had chased after the blue moon hawks a few hours earlier reappeared above the small hill, its gaze seemingly scouring through the hillside for a few seconds before letting out another, somewhat disappointed screeching sound before flapping its wings and flying into the distance.
From a single glance, it was clear that the shadow condor had noticed Scaly back when it had chased after the blue moon hawks, it was just that it deemed it more important to chase after the blue moon hawks after seeing how injured she was. Planning to come back later after dealing with the blue moon hawks to deal with her.
Unfortunately, things had not worked out like the shadow condor had expected, as Scaly had seemingly already left before it could get back. Forcing it to give up and leave.
It was not that it didn’t also search through the trees in case she might have somehow managed to crawl out and hide inside their leafy crowns, it was just that it didn’t find anything in there either. Unknown to the shadow condor, the trees on this specific hillside were far from ordinary and though it felt like it searched the area thoroughly, some unseen force had long since cloaked the true presence of these trees and in turn also Scaly hidden inside one of the tree crowns.
By the time the shadow condor left, the trees spread out on the hillside all swayed gently, seemingly communicating with each other, as a gentle black colored miasma slowly began to rise from their leaves before covering the entire hill in a thick miasma that made it impossible for those outside the miasma to discern what was happening on the inside. Only a few loud sounds of swaying branches could be heard before the miasma lifted a few hours later to reveal the barren hillside with nothing on it expect a few lonely trees with no sign of anything having happened.
All while Scaly herself remained deep asleep. Unaware of anything happening around her...