Things Lost and Found (a Waglington and Mianite fanfiction)

Chapter 58

The song for this chapter is "Hero" by Skillet. I'd recommend watching the music video now; there's also a specific spot in the chapter to listen to it. Remember the last time I had a song with a specific starting point in a chapter? Yeah...

Anyways, who's still wondering what happened to the apprentices that got captured? *smiles innocently* CuriosityWasFramed and Ila_di_Angelo, this is the chapter I asked you about forever ago.

Warnings: blood, death, and destruction ahead

Annika's POV

My mother had always told me that time was like a grand tapestry still being woven. Our lives were single threads of the whole, and we could never appreciate the overarching design from our position. Our lack of ability to see that "big picture" did not lessen its reality any more than the invisibility of the wind made it less dangerous. (Being fire elementals, my people had a special regard for wind and its ability to snuff out a fragile flame or incite an inferno.) All I had known before leaving home was our one corner of life's tapestry. Once I'd set out from our sheltered valley, I had discovered that life had a way of intertwining one's thread with those of others in unexpected ways. What twists, turns, and snags were encountered, how we worked around and handled them, whether we incorporated the unforeseen or tried to exclude it from the picture—all of it affected the image being woven. I wondered what my life had become and what it would be when I was gone. I could feel the shuttle leading my thread on its last trip through the warp. I held no illusions of living long enough to see my home again.

The realms were far bigger than I had thought, looking back. I had seen and learned much beyond what I had hoped. I had made friends and lost friends. I had fought battles and survived them. My tribe would have been proud had they seen me a week ago. Now, I was not so sure.

I had prided myself on my focus and control in a fight. (Both were extremely important in dealing with living flame.) When my friends and I were ambushed a week ago, I had lost both. I closed my eyes and tried to calm my frantic thoughts, letting the bumping of the wagon, the jingle of tack, and the conversations of the soldiers around me fade into the background as I recalled the scene.

~Flashback~

Seven days ago we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. When the charge was called out of the blue, we quickly retreated, until we realized there was nowhere to run to. The Mianite battalion had completely surrounded the blood mage camp; everywhere we looked, mortals were joined in combat. The cries of the wounded, clang of steel, and whoosh of those using flight magic filled the air, punctuated by the occasional explosion of an energy blaster charge.

"Ilanna, get us out of here!" I yelled over the din.

My friend nodded, making the purple tips of her hair bob wildly. After grabbing our hands and focusing intently, she snapped her violet eyes open in panic. Her face drained of its already light color as she said, "I can't teleport! They're blocking it somehow." Her eyes started darting frantically to the fighting that was rapidly being forced back from the camp's perimeter into the lines of collapsed tents.

"Then I suppose we lend our blood brothers a hand," I said resolutely, trying to steady the claustrophobic ender apprentice. I had seen her rounds in Rythian's training ring and knew she could be lethal with a sword. She just had to remember that. Charlie on the other hand had a big heart, but not for fighting. If we could keep the fight from the center of camp, hopefully she could go unnoticed. She hadn't even brought a weapon with her on our errand today. "Charlie, stay out of sight. Ilanna, let's go." I pulled my goggles down to protect my eyes and started running down one line of tents, Ilanna only a few seconds behind me with her obsidian sword drawn.