Sapphire Moon

The Great Escape

Oliver's POV

"Hello Dawn, it's good to see you. My my you've grown more beautiful with each passing day. No time to dilly dally, we've got to move fast and put as much distance between us and the clan as we can. There's no telling how long your father will take to notice you're gone." Emma cooed to her. Dawn stood there wide eyed with tears starting to pool in her eyes.

"Is it really you? Am I dreaming or something? I don't understand...." Dawn started saying before being cut off.

"We're don't have time for this right now. We'll talk as soon as it's safe to do so. Let's go." Emma said as she tugged on Dawn's arm to get her moving. "Aer, ignis, terra, aer, elementa artis meae, adiuva nos nosmetipsos abscondere." (Air, fire, Earth, and air, elements of my craft, help us conceal ourselves.) With that said, they were invisible to the naked eye.

As they started off on their journey to Sapphire Moon, the sun started setting over the fir covered mountains. If you didn't know any better, you'd have thought it was a Bob Ross original painting. The sky had few thinly clouds that were shining bright with the colors of the sky. There were pinks, blues, purples, and oranges that ran throughout the sky line and bouncing off the clouds. Birds were soaring to their nightly destination filling the air with their favorite melody.

I wanted to stop and admire the view with Dawn, but I know that we're somewhat in a time-crunch. Instead, I just stared at her like a love sick puppy. That is, until I smelled something rancid. My nose crinkled with disgust at the smell. I kept my eyes on the tree lines, but with the way the sun was setting, I couldn't see anything. It was that in between stage where you couldn't see in the shadows, and not quite dark enough for us to see with our night vision. While looking around, I noticed the birds stopped singing and weren't flying around any longer. It's like there was a threat approaching. I tried to hear any type of noise that was not from us, but for an unknown reason, I couldn't hear anything but our steps. 'I wonder if Emma's spell has anything to do with it?' I thought to myself. As I was just about to ask if that was the case, when Emma stopped dead in her tracks with a finger up to her lips, signaling to us to be silent. Dawn, Riley, and I basically stopped breathing, just looking around for any signs of danger or life. Dead. All we could see hadn't changed, however, you could see there was no form of life. No birds, no field mice, and no bugs.

I glanced at Dawn and Riley, then Emma, to see if there was any hint as to why we stopped. Dawn and Riley just shook their heads at me, but Emma was paying me no mind and only concentrating on one particular area of the trees. After what felt like an hour, she signaled for us to walk quietly toward my pack. I grabbed Dawn's hand, while she took Riley's, and lead them in the direction of Sapphire Moon, but kept glancing back at Emma. She still hadn't moved. We had just made it to the waterfall when the smell of death wafted towards us. "Rogues." I said in my head. Just as I had finished saying it in my head, four rogues appeared from the trees that were in the same direction we needed to go. At first I had worried that Emma's spell wore off since she wasn't with us, but they didn't seem to notice our presence. Dawn squeezed my hand in fear, not knowing if we'd be seen. I gave her and Riley a reassuring smile and squeezed Dawn's hand back. We started moving again, being aware of where we were stepping to avoid any noise. That is, until I noticed one sniffing the air. I stopped and turned to the girls signaling to them the rogues could smell us. We watched as the rogue that was sniffing the air walked around trying to pinpoint the scent. They walked over to the rocks next to the waterfall, which was only a few yards away. He was getting closer and I knew if I didn't act fast, they would know we're here. I started concentrating on the sky's and spun my ring around. Soon there was a storm rolling in.

The rogue was mere inches from my face when it started down pouring. That rain helped mask our scents and soon the rogue was turning around and going back toward the others. Riley and Dawn let out a quiet sigh. It must not have been quiet enough because one of the other rogues turned back around and started walking toward us. "We're going to have to run as fast and quietly as possible. Riley, can you keep up?" I asked in a very low whisper while I signed the question to Riley.  I realized she hadn't learned ASL yet. I quickly wrote it in the dirt and she shook her head yes. I nodded as I wiped the words away. Signaling a count to 3, we started running. The rogues were trailing behind trying to figure out what was going on, yet still hot on our tail. I started spinning the ring again and pictured the weather shift into a lightning and Thunder storm. As I opened my eyes, I had to jump out of the way of a tree. Running with your eyes closed is definitely not a good idea. The storm however, started bringing in lightning strikes on branches close to the rogues. One fell right on top of one of them and caged him in. *BOOM* *CRACK* is all that can be heard before one of the now gaining rogues is taken out by a stray lightning bolt.

I recognized the area we were in and stopped. I started shaking tree stumps and flowers to get the attention of the sprites. As they started ascending from their homes, I recognized one from a couple days ago. "Please help us. I know you keep to yourselves, but I'm not sure we'll make it without your help. We need your assistance, please." The sprites looked at the rogues gaining, then us, and seemed to understand the situation. Normally, I would've handled the rogues myself, but I had two women that haven't shifted yet. I can't take on any of them if I want the spell to keep working. Sprites are different. Since they are magic and of the fae, they can still see through an invisibility spell. It looks as though they're assembling to take on, or at least distract them. The sight in front of us was something out of a story book, hundreds of sprites swarming like bees in bubbles toward the rogues. I grabbed Dawn and Riley's hands and pulled them with me toward the pack lands. While this would've been something to watch, I had to make sure I got them to safety. Nothing else in this moment mattered more. A loud shriek could be heard in the distance. It had to have been Emma. I was sure about it, as I had both girls. One in each hand..... or so I thought. I looked up at Dawn and then turned to Riley, only to find I'm not holding her hand, but a rogue's instead.