Elfborn: The Quest

Chapter 14: Fate and Hope

With their swords slung over their backs, and their packs left to the care of the survivors, the two Elfborn quickly made their way towards the tumble of boulders that sealed off the far end of the beach, moving past the heaped up bodies of their former comrades without turning an eye towards them. Still, they were not unaffected by it.

"Burn me, but somebody's going to pay for this," Garrett promised tightly as he and Lash began to nimbly climb up and over the ragged boulders that formed the natural barricade.

"Whether it be Hephestus for his foolishness, or the Manadim for using magic against us, I will find satisfaction!"

"The fires of Ekoss burn brightly, I see," Lash said with a wry grin over at his comrade, who bobbed a fierce nod of his head.

"And they will yet burn brighter, laddie," Garrett hissed in reply, darting over a crack between two large masses of stone to crest the barricade. "For we have yet to taste battle!"

Lash, a step behind him, abruptly drew them both into a low crouch, to reduce their silhouette against the sky behind them.

"Hold that thought a moment, my friend" He then touched something on the bottom edge of his body shell and, with a ripple of blue light and the familiar warmth of magic at work, Garrett's eyes widened as he watched Lash's mithril armor, including his helmet, turn a mottled gray, effectively hiding the bright silver of the mithril. Lash looked up with a smile.

"Camouflage," he said. "No use giving ourselves away with the brightness of the mithril."

"Can ... can my armor do that?"

Lash nodded, showing Garrett where to put his hands.

"Just find an embossed symbol of a tree here, on the right side of your armor. Hidden in the tree is a Rune of Power that's activated by touch. As you touch it, think of what color you want the mithril to turn."

"Like this?" Garrett asked as his fingers brushed against the symbol, quickly found. And, with a second wave of warmth, his mithril also turned mottled gray in duplication of Lash's.

"Like that," Lash confirmed with a nod. His head swiveled forward. "Now, let's see what we have here!"

As Lash suspected, the beach was considerably more extensive than just the sealed off section they currently were using as shelter. Like a ribbon of gray and black, the rest of the beach curved away from the barricade, its seaward edge heavily fortified with jagged teeth of stone that jutted up and out of the beach's stone foundation. A foundation deep enough and projecting far enough into the surf that the heavy waves were knocked down to bare ripples by the time they touched the beach itself. The wave and weather blasted cliffs still backed the beach, allowing the ribbon of gray to go another two, maybe three hundred metres before it took an abrupt inland turn and disappeared around the corner. But, beyond the corner with its beetling cliffs towering over it, Lash could see more land, quite distant, continuing eastward and out of sight.

"Ah." He smiled slightly. "I think we've found our hidden port."

"That's not all we've found." Garrett added softly, pointing to several now familiar piles of bodies. "It would seem we've also found the rest of our dead comrades!" He looked over at Lash, his face a careful mask of studied indifference. The young Ekossan was quickly learning it paid better to keep one's emotions to oneself. With so much death staring him in the face, it was easier on his mental state of mind that way!

"Although we might find some not as dead as others."

"Let us hope," Lash replied with a nod of his head. His quick trip into death had already taught the young de Marniet how to keep his emotions in check. Seeing so many dead raised not so much as a flicker of emotion from him. As far as he was concerned, he had a greater task to fulfill.