Winds to Light up the World

Chapter 10

Night came and soon Cove was surrounded by darkness. He made himself a little orb of light. There really wasn't much to do. He watched the shore (mostly grass), the stars (obscured by a few clouds) and finally the boat (still in a bad shape and looking worse after the rain). Absolutely bored Cove started playing with the light, as he used to do when he was a child. The light danced around in ribbons, dots, chasing each other, swarming around his head and hands, changing color at his will.

"It's beautiful."

Cove started and then he saw Tanora standing a few paces away watching the light with awe in her eyes.

Then Cove had a devious idea. He sent the little blobs of light swarming around Tanora's head, confusing her.

"Still beautiful?" he laughed, watching Tanora swatting the dots of light. She just rolled her eyes and Cove stopped annoying her. "Quite useful in a fight, if you want to confuse your opponent."

Then suddenly he hears a sputtering sound, quiet at first then getting louder and more pronounced, definitely out of the direction of the decrepit engine. It did not sound good.

Tanora also heard it. "What's that?" she said, looking concerned, "The engine?"

They went to look at the engine and really, it was starting to give up. Cove navigated them towards the shore, in case the engine would stop completely, while Tanora shouted at Rane to help her and maybe fix it. Rane woke with a start and came hurrying over. But even with both of them trying to figure out the problem, poking and turning here and there, the sputtering got worse and worse. With a little bump they hit the sandy shore and disembarked, just as the engine stopped.

With Cove's orb of light, now a bit brighter and bigger, they made their way upriver by foot on a little path along the shore. They hoped to find a suitable place to spend the night. But before they got further than a few paces the first disaster happened. Cove was walking ahead, tired of not sleeping in a while, and suddenly he started to sink into the muddy path. He tried getting his feet out like it was normal mud but they wouldn't budge, submerging more and more into the dark earth.

"Help! I can't get my feet out, I'm stuck! HELP ME, Tanora! Rane!" His voice was filled with panic. He kept sinking at an alarming speed.

But Tanora had gone still, shocked. Rane, bless him, try to pull him out by his arms, but it was like the earth was working against them. He still kept sinking. He was up to his hips in mud, and it just wasn't stopping. They had to think of something, and they had to do it soon.

"Think, think, think. If you go under, hold your breath, but best you don't go under at all. We'll get you out of there. Can you make the light a bit brighter?" Rane tried to sound calm, but Cove knew he was freaking out, not to mention Tanora who was still shocked.

Rane shook her and said, "Come on, help me!"

Cove tried to make more light but in his panic all the training eluded him. For a spell he could see that all around him little shrubs dotted the landscape although before he could see more his concentration slipped and it got darker again. They tried pulling at his arms again but all it did was slowed the sinking, he wasn't further out yet. Rane and Tanora were discussing how to get him out, all the while he was luckily now only stuck up to his chest in the mud. Soon the gloomy thoughts came. He was going to die in the middle of nowhere, his parents didn't know where he was. What where they going to think? And Madron! Cove was going to fail him.

Tanora had gone off into the shrubs and soon came back with an armload of different sized twigs. While he had been lost in his pessimistic thoughts, Rane and Tanora had come up with an idea. They laid the twigs across the patch of mud he had sunken in and told him to brace his arms on them. It was a great idea actually, making a more solid ground to support his weight. And now when all three of them were somehow pulling, or in his case pushing, they made progress. It was slow and they had to take breaks in between.

And finally, after a lot of wriggling, pushing and swearing they made it and Cove was out on solid ground again. Panting the three lay there for a while. They went to the river to clean themselves up, as Cove was covered from shoulders to toe in mud and Tanora and Rane looked like they'd wrestled with a pig.

It was still dark, so Rane suggested to rest until morning. They'd see more and nobody would accidently walk on what they now called murder-mud. It wasn't that cold at night yet, but Rane still made a fire next to which they laid their soaking clothes. Due to their fatigue no one would stay awake.

Cove fell asleep but nobody could talk about peaceful sleep. Once again huge black hounds were following him. He could only guess at the presence of Rane and Tanora somewhere ahead of him and also some more of the dogs behind him.

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