Flight (new version)

Chapter 30: Murder

Griffin stumbled back away from the body. His breaths came out quick and shallow. His pulse pounded in his ears. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think.

Spark is dead. Dead. Dead.

A root caught Griffin's foot, sending him sprawling to the ground. The spriggan took the brunt of the hit on his shoulder, ripping the cloth and scraping the skin. He sat up slowly, wincing in pain as blood began to well to the surface.

Pull yourself together, Griffin, he chided. You need to go find help. Figure out what happened to Spark.

Something rustled in the nearby trees, making Griffin jump. When he glanced fearfully at the spot in question however, he saw nothing.

Pull yourself together, he scolded himself again.

Avoiding looking at the body, Griffin turned and sprinted into the trees, not caring about the grabbing thorns or low-hanging branches that lashed out at him as he raced by.

Griffin burst into the area where Moonlight Band had made camp to find that everyone was already gathered there.

"Spark's dead!" he gasped.

"We know," Wolf replied, stormy eyes dark and unreadable.

"W-what?" Griffin glanced around at the band, hunched over and panting from the dead sprint.

Wolf jerked his head at Jequirity. "She just told us."

Griffin straightened slowly. Everyone's back. I was the only one still out in the forest. "What happened?" he asked.

Jequirity's eyes narrowed. "You tell us, darling."

"What? I don't...I just saw the body," Griffin explained. "I thought you saw what happened?"

Jequirity's unblinking dark blue eyes stayed fixed on him. "I was walking back to camp. And then saw you standing over Spark's body. You heard me and fell." She pointed at his scraped shoulder and arched an eyebrow.

"It wasn't me if that's what you're insinuating," Griffin growled.

"Griffin would never do that!" Fern immediately agreed.

He flashed her a grateful smile.

Wolf stepped forward. "Let's not jump to conclusions and start accusing anyone. For all we know, someone could have snuck in before I put up the wind barrier."

The sylph closed his eyes and lifted his hands, palms outwards. His hands turned silver and wind began to swirl around him, making his hair whip around wildly.

"What's he doing?" Burn asked in a hushed tone.

"He's going to check for any unwelcome guests," Night Shade responded from where she leaned against a tree, arms crossed.

Burn's eyes widened. "He can do that?"

"More or less. He can sense anything moving nearby."

Just as the wisp finished uttering those words, Wolf pushed outward. The wind swept past them all, similar to when he created the wind wall, though it felt oddly warm as it rushed overtop Griffin.

This has more magic in it.

No one spoke as Wolf waited, eyes still closed. Finally he opened them, expression unreadable. "Nothing larger than a fox is moving out there. It's just us."