Everglade: The Underaged

Chapter 35

When Luke woke up, everyone had already packed up to move on to find The Crows again. He got up and quickly packed. He noticed Slade's father coming over. He had a bag.

"Here. There are some extra provisions, clothes, and some medicine in there for your journey." He said, handing Luke the bag. Luke opened it to take inventory. It was filled with Elven food, clothes and medicine, obviously for his use. The bottles of medicine were labeled, the food was wrapped in leaves and the clothes were neatly folded.

"Thank you." Luke said.

"Have you seen Slade by chance?"

"No."

"He disappeared." Damianus came over.

"I'll see you when I get back, Father." He embraced his father. "Don't worry about Slade, You'll find him."

"See you son." Slade and Damianus's father walked away, looking around for Slade. Luke strapped the bag he'd been given to Eclipse. Then he mounted her. He looked at the foal. They'd devised a sling to carry him in until he could fly. They already had it set up. He'd actually gone into it easily with no fuss. They set out. Luke noticed how lumpy one of Forwin's bags looked. Weird. At noon, they stopped for lunch. When Forwin opened his bag he yelled in surprise.

"What is it?" Ailwin asked.

"You tell me." Forwin said,dumping out the bag. Food and Slade fell out.

"Slade! What were you thinking? Father was looking everywhere for you!" Damianus said.

"I wanted to get away." Slade said. "Don't you try to make me go back. I could get taken again." He added with a smirk. Damianus growled. Luke couldn't help but glance at Slade's ears. They weren't pointed yet. But they looked closer than yesterday. Damianus grabbed Slade's arm and took him out of hearing range. For humans anyway. Luke could hear every single word they said. They were arguing over how they were going to get Slade back home. Luke went over to the Alicorn and let him out of the sling. He winnied and began to eat the grass. Luke pulled out an Elven root and nibbled on it while he waited for lunch to cook. It still tasted like almond cakes. He sat against Eclipse who was tearing into a bear. One of the ridgebacks came over to have some, but she growled at him.

Mine. she said. Get own. Luke smiled and rubbed her to encourage her. The ridgeback tried again, but she snapped at him and he backed off. It wasn't long before he was trying again. Eclipse bit him. She grabbed the bear in her beak. Luke barely had time to move before she was working her way into a large abandoned burrow. He could hear her tearing into the bear with gusto. The ridgeback groaned and walked away. Eclipse came out without the bear and laid down next to Luke again. He leaned into her.

Before long, lunch was ready. Luke ate what the others ate. It didn't taste as good as the Elven food he had last night, but it was what he was used to. Damianus and Slade came over, having come to an agreement. Slade took one bite of the food and decided he didn't like it. So Damianus gave him some of the food from his bag. After lunch, they headed out again. Slade had trouble mounting the Pegasus Damianus had been given to ride because of his leg. He tried to leap onto the Pegasus' back, but he failed and fell. The Pegasus looked at him. Slade tried again, with similar results. He looked at his brother.

"A little help?" He said. Damianus grabbed him and put him effortlessly onto the Pegasus' back. Then he mounted behind him. They set out. Slade clung to the Pegasus' mane. Luke saw why. He was slipping from side to side. Damainus sighed and put his legs over Slade's to keep him on, and put his arms on either side of his brother, where previously he had them on his own thighs. Luke guessed he'd had them like that because he was an experienced rider, while Slade was not. Luke looked at the sky ahead of them. There was a storm. They had an hour at most before they got to it.

"There's a storm ahead. We've got about an hour." He warned the others. Slade groaned and put his head against the Pegasus' neck.

"We'll have to stop soon, it looks like we won't be able to fly in it. We haven't seen any sign of a Crow base yet either." Ailwin said.

"I agree. It looks like a severe storm." Forwin said. Luke looked at the dark clouds. They were almost black. After a half an hour, they were getting buffeted with strong, cold winds. They decided to stop. They didn't have time to set up a shelter before the storm was on top of them.