Moon Chasers: Into the storm [Finished]

Chapter One: Wrong place, wrong time

That one morning Jory had awoken cold and shivering, it was the late winter and he had forgotten to close the window. He sighted and went to close it, but that was no good now, the floor tiles were freezing cold and there was even a bit of frost in the sink, Jory shook his head and grabbed as many blankets he could to put on his bed and went back to sleep. He woke up a short while later, warm and comfy and he regretted his choice, the air would appear even more cold now he sighed again and bravely left his bed.

When he went to start a good fire in the chimney he was faced with the horrible truth, he had forgotten to make more firewood and now he had nothing left. How could he be this forgetful! He stayed there, mad at himself, for a single minute before deciding that he was still going to do it or he'll freeze completely next night, plus he needed fire for every chore or almost every chore of the house.

So, Jory took his winter clothes and left the small cottage, headed toward the forest to go make some more firewood. The world was silent and immaculate, he could not deny that it was peaceful and splendid but he had seen enough snow for an entire lifetime, yet he made the choice to live here knowing full well that there was going to be snow. He brought his scarf further up to cover his nose, his pointy ears were safely tucked inside his beanie. The little bit of skin showing was already red but he pushed further, it was his fault if he was here now. The forest stayed quiet and he reached the place he had marked down as a good wood source and got started on his difficult task. That had at least the advantage of warming his freezing little body.

It took the better part of the morning and the young halfling was starting to get hungry, he stopped and went to pile up the last of the firewood on his sledge and slowly made his way back to the cottage, and that could have been it, but no, because today was not his day, no today it had been decided that it would be terrible, so the cord broke and the sledge continued its course down the hill fast down back into the forest and continuing between the trees.

"For the gods' sakes! I can't believe this just happened!" Jory ran after the sledge, which was going much faster than him. His right foot got caught in something and he went head over heals all the way down the hill too but he luckily stopped before hitting the trees of the forest. He groggily stood up, a little shaken by the slide and went into the forest in the direction the sledge took.

The more he walked the more he believed he was going in the wrong direction; it took him another half an hour to finish to cross the part of the forest which was slopping but even back on flat ground the sledge was nowhere to be seen. Two things crossed Jory's mind, first: that he could give up, that sledge was not that important and the wood could be just picked up and brought back later and second: that he anyway didn't have anything better to do than run after a runaway sledge.

He continued. The day was frigid and he was starting to really get hungry, he had missed second breakfast time and now he was going to miss lunch, but determined to get that sledge back he continued on struggling in the snow. His light and small stature was at least useful to prevent his fall in a powered snow hole but everything felt much longer than they looked, he walked for what seemed to be an eternity but finally there it was, resting on a pine tree thirty meters away from him all the woods, thank to some higher power, was still firmly tied onto the sledge.

"Finally! There you are you annoyingly fast amalgam of wood!" Jory ran to the sledge and made sure that it was still in one piece, and it was, there was some scratch and it definitely hit a tree in its course but it was in fairly good shape for something made by someone as unqualified as Jory. "Ahah I can finally go ho..." someone flew over his head and hit a tree behind him Jory left the sledge and ran in the direction he hoped was away from both side of this fight.

A fireball lit up the snow around him in crimson light but he dropped to the floor just in time for it to misses him, someone in greyish robes stared at him before charging another attack, Jory ran again, trying to make himself a harder target to hit, an arrow was shot from somewhere above, somewhere in the tree and the figure fell with a short scream. He rolled behind a giant boulder and tried to catch his breath. A shower not of rain or snow but of arrows came down from the tree and killed three of the figures, the rest, whom had just discovered where the archer was hiding, charged up balls of energy and turned to the trees. A very fast shape, dressed in somewhat vibrant green jump from branches to branches and Jory wondered how he could not see it before.

The person who flew above his head before came running back into battle, a sword in their hand. Their mastery and speed soon transformed them into a tornado of red and silver and it became clear who was going to win. It however did not end quickly. The figures in robes conjured armours of shining energy and weapons, the fight from then on took a more violent and confused look, the vibrant green shape was nowhere to be seen and the person in red was kind of overflooded with them, even if arrows were still coming.

Jory changed his position, he didn't care who those people were, all he cared for at this instant was his sledge and the wood on it and maybe how wet his clothes were starting to be. He snicked away but tangled his feet in a partially frozen bush before finally walking away from the fight toward the wood pile. His exit did not go unnoticed and a figure tried to shoot him with a spell but they tripped and shot one of their allies instead. The red fighter who saw this happens turned around and saw Jory run. They signalled it to their hidden partner and Jory heard the fight become even more intense, those mages were strongly against letting anyone leave alive and another fireball grazed his arm before exploding a nearby tree, Jory surprised and terrified fell and a splinter went right in his coat but luckily it was too thick to let it go all the way through and he didn't feel a single thing. He however abandoned the wood again to jumped behind a just tall enough rock to protect him.

The rock was fragile and small and numerous magic attacks flared close to him or hit the rock tearing it apart little by little, eventually Jory had to go back behind the boulder from before and rolled into a ball fearing that some spell could still hit him, he did not see it but the archer had seen him move and was now just waiting for the fight to wrap up to reach him. The snow started to fall again, plummeting down on the bodies of the fallen mages and the fighters from both sides. Jory closed his eyes and prayed, there was no way he was going to die here, not now!

The fighter was graciously dodging spells, like a deadly ballet dancer he waltzed around the clearing, tearing down mages' shields cutting limbs and parring attack, the archer remained unseen but led a helpful hand in the fight, making it seems like a beautiful but gruesome dance. Jory did not see; he was still hiding behind the rock pretending to not know the fight was going off strong right next to him.

Finally, the fight calmed down, the last one fell down silently in the snow, there was a short whistle and there was suddenly someone above him, Jory quickly stood up and found himself looking up at the face of the swordfighter.

"The fight has ended" he said in a somewhat reassuring voice "You can come out of hiding"

"Yeah, yeah...Anyway thanks for not letting me die but I have to go!" Jory turned around and the last thing he saw was vibrant green before he was punched in the face.