This Druid was not a Crow. She had remained in Crow form only because Yi Illymoyas had bound her Magic Power.
Once the dragon curse was lifted, the Druid changed from a Crow into a female Halfling. Beneath her tousled chestnut curls was a freckled face.
Some races had names that told you exactly what they were like, and Halflings were one of them. They stood only half as tall as ordinary humans, about the same height as Dwarves, but they lacked the Dwarves' "one meter tall, one hundred kilograms" build. They looked like adults with the bodies of young children... which had led their people to suffer a tragic fate because of certain human tastes.
Ingrid arrived and relaxed. A woman, and a member of the Foreign Races at that... There was nothing to worry about. The City Lord would soon strip this Crow of every last feather.
"What are you looking at?!"
Annan's stare made the Halfling woman flush with anger. She pulled the scraps of fabric she had left over her body.
It was hard to imagine so much temper packed into such a small body.
Annan suddenly took off his Mage Robe and draped it over the furious Halfling woman.
"You... I don't need charity from someone marked for death!"
Annan's charm could turn indifference into friendliness and hostility into indifference. That was enough.
Ignoring her now less heated attitude, Annan asked Ingrid, "What did we lose?"
"Only five Skeletons." If the Earth Elemental were still here, they would probably be begging the Halfling not to die.
Annan turned back to the Halfling woman. "You're a Druid, yet you've been slaughtering poor farmers..."
"Fool! Villain! Madman! You're the ones spreading death!" The Halfling woman, who had only just calmed down, was breathing hard again at his