Rise of the Erifs (The Fire Song Chronicles Book 1)

Chapter 16

Earth

BEFORE AURORA KNEW WHAT SHE WAS DOING SHE HAD UNSLUNG HER BOW, grabbed an arrow and was lining up her target. She breathed deeply. She looked down her arrow and moved it until it was perfectly lined up with the Erif. Her heart was racing at a hundred miles an hour. She felt a bead of sweat drip down the back of her neck. She was preparing to release when one of the other Erifs stepped forward.

"Stop! You can't kill him, Crimson needs him alive!" she said.

Aurora lowered her bow and watched. The female Erif had her back to Aurora. 

"Shut it! I'll do what I want. I'm in command!" the Erif shouted.

The other Erif threw up her hands and stepped back. Their eyes widened as an arrow whizzed through the air and struck their commanding officer in the back of the right shoulder. He let out a cry of pain and released his grip on Roy who fell to the ground coughing and spluttering. The Erif whirled around in the direction from which the arrow had come.

"There!" he shouted as he spotted Aurora in the tree. He still had the arrow in his shoulder as he charged off in Aurora's direction.

Aurora was already climbing down the tree. She practically jumped most of the way down, swinging from branch to branch like a little monkey.

As her feet hit the ground she was nearly run over by Alex and Daye, who were in her Jeep. Alex jammed his foot down on the brake and wrenched the steering wheel to the right narrowly missing Aurora. He stared at Aurora in shock.

"And you said I was the bad driver," Aurora muttered.

"Aurora!" Alex shouted.

"It's dad! They've got dad! Come on!" Aurora shouted.

"What?" Alex jumped out of the Jeep but she was already gone.

She bolted off in the direction of the lab. Her reasoning was that the Erifs would be expecting them to flee not come running at them. With the element of surprise on their side they burst from the forest to see the Erifs had reacted unexpectedly. They had taken off in the direction of the Pathway with Roy in tow.

Aurora dived back into the forest and ran as fast she could using the shadows for cover. Her feet pounded the ground as she sprinted towards them. Her long silky dark hair streamed out behind her as she ran. She held her bow tightly in her hand.

Alex and Daye were running behind her but they were struggling to keep up.

"What is she going to do when she catches up to them?" Daye said, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear. 

"I don't think she's thought that far ahead," Alex said, gasping for breath. His lungs were burning and his legs ached but he wasn't going to stop. "She's kind of impulsive."

"Like I haven't noticed," Daye said, sarcastically.  

The commanding Erif looked back and caught a glimpse of Aurora. He hissed in annoyance.

"Split up! Meet at the Pathway!" he ordered. He grabbed Roy, threw him over his shoulder and carried him along effortlessly.

The other two Erifs darted off in different directions.   

Aurora was running when she suddenly saw something flash through the bushes out of the corner of her eye. Something orange and red. She dived for the ground and a fire ball breezed across her back barely missing her by centimetres. She rolled and jumped up to see an Erif running away from her. Aurora's expression was grim.

Alex saw Aurora hit the ground and he called out to her. "Aurora, you all right?"

"Yeah! I'll meet you at the Pathway!"