The Unveiled

Veiled Chapter 16

Chapter 16: War is coming

Kian jerked awake in the back seat of Agnar's car. He hadn't meant to fall asleep, but sheer exhaustion had won out at some point. "Where are we?" Turid turned from the front seat. The sky was still a little pink, and it was obvious the sun hadn't set too long ago.

"Nearly there."

"We'll stop here." Agnar said, turning into the parking lot of a motel. He looked at his phone. "GPS says we're only about fifteen minutes from where we're headed. This is as good a place as any to stop and formulate a plan." He said before turning off the engine.

No one moved. He looked over the head rest to see the two of them were just sitting there staring at their clasped hands. Once they got out of the car it would be time to prepare for battle. They needed a few minutes to themselves. It was weird seeing them like that. He hadn't seen his sister in almost a year, in many ways he still thought of her as the spoiled daddy's girl she used to be.

"Me and Buddy are going for a walk, check the area, plus I'm sure he needs a potty break, come on." He said petting the mutt beside him. When he opened the door and stepped out the dog hesitated for a moment watching Turid and Agnar then he turned and jumped out the open doorway. They took off across the parking lot. The dog whined, he turned to him and extended his magics.

'Lady and man are scared, other man is scared too, Buddy can feel it. Is scary thing so dangerous?'

"We don't really know, that's the scary part. We know that a dozen Oncari were able to kill a great number of them, and we know that the original Agnar and Turid alone were able to kill hundreds before they were defeated. But all of them were much older, and more skilled than my sister and Agnar. They had many more years to learn, and that's been about a thousand years ago. Who knows how these things might have evolved since then?

"It's just the one supposedly, but an unknown number of monsters will be with it meaning our attention will be divided." He shook his head. "Don't worry Buddy, lady and man will be fine, once we find mom, dad, and Halfred, we'll be more than enough." He said with confidence, they had to be.

...

'The forest was empty.'

"What do you mean it was empty? That's where it said it would be." She said, staring at the owl before her. They'd decided that the best, and safest way, to find out what was awaiting them tomorrow was to send a scout of their own to do surveillance.

'I mean there was no one, man nor animal for a great distance.'

"Probably using some sort of magic to cloak itself. That explains why there's no animals, its presence would scare them all away." Agnar said with a yawn and a stretch. He was tired, they all were, but she didn't think he'd slept a wink since before getting his mother's phone call.

'The place felt wrong, like a large gathering of predators. Not safe.' It said before taking off and flying away.

"I don't know. She seemed to not want to be helpful. Maybe if you send a Raven? You seem to have the most affinity with them. Maybe one would be more willing to help." She shook her head and wiped at her eyes.

"The owl helped as much as any bird could, there's nothing else to learn." She said and turned toward their door. "Sleep." She said ushering her two companions into the room. "There's nothing more we can do, if the owl cannot find them, there is no way we will until he's ready for us. If we tried to go in now as exhausted as we all are, it would only get us killed. We eat, sleep, and gear up for battle." She said, nodding her head. She had no idea where this courage was coming from, right now she just wanted to fall to the ground, curl up into a ball, and cry.