Mark of the Ranger

XLIII. The Journey There

"You're sure this is the right path?" I asked Jordan. We had been walking for straight hours, with the path curving very slightly to the left. There was nothing but forest for miles, and my feet were beginning to tire out. Jordan snorted. "Of course I'm sure," he told me. He didn't sound exactly sure, but he was my superior officer. I was not to question him at all, no matter how unsure he was. I heard another bird cry out in pain. Josie and Elena had grown tired of just walking, so they started shooting down birds. This provided an activity for Marrow, too, for he would go and grab the birds that the two young women shot down.

Marrow, true to the last eight hours, dashed off and came back seconds later with a bird the size of my torso. With immense boredom, I took it from him and placed it in my sack. "That was three seconds," Josie bragged. "Your best was two and a third. I hold the record." Elena sighed in exasperation, then strung her bowedge again. I barely saw her release before I heard another cry of pain. Marrow came back with a larger bird. "Three and a half," Elena said smugly.

"I'm bored out of my skull," Isabel mentioned. Oric hummed his sympathy. I wished this could just go faster.

*****

"Give us all your supplies," the bandit in front of me commanded. There were about fifteen of them, surrounding us in a circle. I pulled out my lances and impaled him in the stomach. He dropped his crossbow, which he had been holding up until he had died. The other bandits ran away. "Those ones didn't even fight us," Jordan commented. No fighting was boring. Fighting was boring. Nothing seemed to give us interest. I had hoped that this would have been exciting, but it wasn't at all.

"I hope something interesting happens in the Badlands," Karen hoped, then pointed ahead. We were reaching what was called in these parts the "Bad-Wood Border." That was just a fancy name given by the people of both countries. It certainly had a great ring to it, and it was more interesting than bandits.

We neared the border within a few minutes. A Badland Ranger dashed for us, yelling "Halt!" He was armed with his weapon, which seemed to be iron gauntlets. He had customized them with spikes, which were certainly more interesting than bandits. "Who are you?" The Ranger, who was certainly more interesting than bandits, asked us. Isabel walked to the front of our pack and turned around, pointing at her golden sun mark. The Badland Ranger seemed to get the point, and he let us pass.

The Badlands were, needless to say, more interesting than the Woodlands, bandits and all. It was composed of valleys, both grassy and icy places, and many ups and downs. Jordan finally let us take a few breaks while we trekked through the path. During those times, and also when we were walking, I would gaze at the amazing scenery. There weren't as many bandits in the Badlands, most likely because there weren't any inconspicuous bushes in the Badlands, or at least not as many. The villages, which were full of ecstatic people, were certainly more interesting than bandits, which were only ecstatic about half the time.

Finally, we reached the border of the Deadlands. I couldn't wait to see the lonely, blank desert, sprinkled here and there with conspiring cacti and lizards. However, the Deadlands I saw was quite different from the one that I couldn't have waited to see.

The end that we were at was sandy, lonely, and full of conspiring cacti. However, when I looked to the east, I saw that the Deadlands seemed to be going up in smoke. I saw a glint of fire at the base of the gigantic storm of smoke. "Is it moving?" Josie asked in horror, sashaying up to my left. She was holding her bowedge, which was drawn. I looked at the smoke again. It was moving--crawling slowly to the west. I gulped, and felt as if I wanted to draw my lances, but I wasn't sure about what I would do with them.

"I can only think of one thing that could make fire that large," Jordan muttered dramatically. "That must be from the Molten Emperor." We turned toward each other and spoke his name, which brought dread upon all those in the Five Lands.

"Infernas."

*****

Infernas grabbed another core from his collection. He squeezed it in his armored fist, drawing all the power from it. Once it was nothing but ash, he grabbed another core and did the same. He had finally destroyed the entirety of the Deadlands, and had collected all their cores. Now he had to initiate the next part of his plan while his fire consumed the region. He had to absorb all the power from the Deadlands and make his fire even hotter--so hot that no one would ever go against him. He grabbed another core. He also had to make more Wildfires. Those would be the best option for destruction, as they were made out of his own fire magic. No one's fire was as hot as Infernas'.

"Infernas, my rider," Moonshadow growled. "Are you sure that you want to consume these all at once?" Infernas thought about his dragon's point. If he consumed too much of the power of the Deadlands, surely he would only destroy himself, and not all those in his way. Infernas set the core he was going to absorb back down. "I will get back to these later," he promised himself.

*****

I was panting even louder now. In fear, we had broken into a run across the Deadlands. We hoped that the fire wouldn't come near enough to burn us, but anything was possible. We were lucky that the Deadlands path was the shortest one to take, and we were nearing the center of the Five Lands. I saw something in the distance, about a mile away. "That's it!" Isabel cried out, seeing the same thing I had. "That's the pedestal! The portal to the grand council!" We ran even faster, all ten of us. I hadn't known I could have even run this fast. I supposed that when you have no time to lose, you really do have not time to lose.

"Run! Run!" David shouted, just in case we had lost track of what we were doing. I looked back at the pedestal. It was simply a large, pyramid-shaped rock, but it would be the thing that saved our lives. We nearly reached it...just a few more feet...

Isabel made it first. "All of you, put your hands on me!" With no time to question, we all put one hand each on one of her shoulders. Marrow put a paw on her foot. Isabel put her hand on some sort of circle that was full of symbols. The symbols and the circle glowed with light. I looked back at the fire. It had picked up speed dramatically, seemingly seeking to end all life in the Deadlands. It was only a about forty feet from us.

Then everything went white, and we were saved.