Mark of the Ranger

XXXVI. The Escape

"Well, now that that's done," I began, with not much else to say. "Let's complete the rest of the plan. Why, exactly, did we feed the geovores those ores, again?" I asked one of the rock breakers that had freed Toxiclaw. He shrugged. "To free them, maybe, which would divert the attention of the guards and also destroy the farm?" His answer seemed to be acceptable, so I went with it. I abruptly ran to the geovore ravine, just to make sure they were going to be freed. As I opened the last wooden door, I saw a mass of men and women, obviously holding axes, breaking down a giant wooden fence-wall that had been preventing the geovores from getting onto the beach of the island.

"Hold on, now," I said to myself. "Are they...singing?" I heard voices chanting in a melodic pattern. I drew closer to hear the words.

Take the axe and chop them down,
Swing the blade and go to town.
Break this wall, and give them glee,
Shatter the wood, and SET THEM FREE.

The fence was set up in a grid pattern, and the people were hacking at the edges. I saw the fence-wall slowly come loose, lock by lock, until it fell with a mighty crash. The mass of men and women ran like devils away from the fence-wall as geovores, seeing the light, dashed for freedom. What had been done could not be undone; the geovores were free now.

I ran away, now, searching for my friends. I found Ko and David. "Help us with the pirates!" Ko asked of me, and I nodded and bean to follow him. "If only we could get rid of these inane manacles," I muttered, remembering the Mark of Strength. Ko stopped so suddenly that I nearly ran into him. "We have pickaxes, is that not correct?" He asked, referencing when we freed Toxiclaw. The realization came to me, and we ran back to grab the life-saving tools. "Why didn't we think of this earlier?" I cried to them, placing my forearm on a rock to David could break it with a pick.

"We thought it would be too dangerous, but now we have to take the risk," David answered, swinging the pick down on me with a loud clang. I winced in pain, but saw the manacle crack. David swung again, and four more times, before my manacle cracked open. I immediately traced the Mark of Strength and ripped my other manacle off, as well as David's and Ko's manacles. They traced their Marks, too, and we dashed right back to the outside of the island, where the pirate ships were waiting.

There were four ships, mighty beasts of seafaring, but there was no time to admire them or their many sails. They were firing their cannons at a large black dot in the sky, which was firing green blasts. However, the black dot was being cautious, and didn't fire unless it had a shot that wouldn't damage the ships.

Toxiclaw.

The other slaves were waiting with bated breath for the newly grown fighting dragon to destroy the pirates. "We have the Marks of Strength!" I shouted at them, stealing their attention from Toxiclaw. They turned and smiled, seeing the glowing red dash near my wrist. We broke everyone's manacles once we reached them with sheer brute force, the power of our Marks. We had more than ten times the strength that we had without our Marks, so the restraints shattered before our powerful fingers. Soon, everyone was free, and we turned our attention back to Toxiclaw.

The moment we saw him, however, he was shot by a cannon ball. With a mighty roar of pain, he fell onto the beach. I failed to hesitate as I ran towards him. He was trying to get up, but the cannon fire had seared his flank and ripped his wing. "Toxiclaw!" I cried to him, hoping that, by some miracle, he would survive this. He shifted, then began to try to speak.

"I'm only two years old," Toxiclaw grunted. He tried to move his claw, but it only budged a little. "As opposed to one hundred, which would be when I would earn my title." I stroked the crest of his rough, scaly skull. "Even if you don't survive, you can live in our stories," I told him. "Toxiclaw, the dragon who grew in one day. Toxiclaw, the Bone-Melter." I pointed to a steaming corpse of one of the sailors, which had fallen of the ship and onto the beach. Toxiclaw shook his head. "Undoubtedly, I will survive. Leave me, and I will be fine." I nodded, then slowly backed away.

A geovore roared at Toxiclaw. He turned his head toward it and shot a green bolt of acid fire from his mouth. The projectile melted straight through the geovore's head and landed on the sand behind it, continuing to pass through the ground. Toxiclaw turned back to me and shooed me away with his giant venomous claw. He already seemed better.

I ran back to the others. "Is Toxiclaw going to be okay?" David asked me. I nodded. "It was a bad hit, but he said he'd be fine." The two teammates seemed to have a little doubt, but they turned and commanded everyone to start boarding the ships. Ko remembered the stockpiles of fruit and ran off, presumably to go grab the barrels. Some other snow elves, fast as can be, followed him.

I saw Isabel and Ellie emerge from the entrance, now in normal clothes. As soon as they reached me, I broke their manacles, taking advantage of the Mark of Strength while its effect still lasted. I also broke Isabel's magic hindrance collar, but without a staff, there still wasn't much she could do.

"Where's Jeff?" I heard Karen's voice waft from somewhere to my right. She was standing there, her hands on her hips. She seemed concerned for her teammate and friend. "I have no idea, but I know Ko is gathering fruit with some other snow elves," I told her as Ellie snapped her collar off.

"Fruit Ho!" I heard Ko shout. He was carrying six barrels, clearly containing fruit, above his head. The other snow elves were only carrying one, for they didn't have such strength as the Mark gave him. We stepped out of the way, allowing the snow elves to distribute the barrels among the ships. "Where's Jeff?" Karen asked again.

A wall of rock blasted open with the force of an earthquake.