A Mermaids Tail

5: Seperation

It was later that night when they had settled down to sleep that she heard it, the distant screams of fear and panic echoing through the woods. Sitting upright she looked over at Narfi, his eyes open as he lay motionless on his back staring fixedly at the canopy of trees.

She got up and walked over to him pointing to the distant sound, "Ellos necesitan nuestra ayuda!"

He didn't look away from the tree tops as he spoke, "De ville ikke hjelpe oss."

She looked helplessly from his unmoving form to the source of the cries and collapsed to her knees tears welling in her eyes, "Había niños Narfi, hijitos"

He growled and in one powerful movement flexed himself to his feet standing over her, "Dette er en dårlig idé" he muttered to himself as he unpacked the bow and quiver from his pack along with the sheathed weapons that he strapped to his person, "Hvis jeg dør redde disse pompøse drittsekker, jeg kommer til å hjemsøke deg," he looked at her sternly as he spoke but then smiled and winked, laughing lightly.

Turning away from her he faced the woods and blew three short sharp ear-piercing whistles. The effect was instantaneous, the ground under their feet began to tremble and the approaching sound of snapping branches met their ears grounding louder and louder until suddenly the huge beast burst through the darkness of the nighttime forest.

"Vargr," nodded Narfi in direction of the beast, a huge wolf the height of a horse but twice as wide stood before her, saliva dripping from its glistening white fangs as it panted looking almost impatient. Narfi walked up to the Vargr and petted it and it nuzzled him affectionately back. He looked to Alicia the petted the Vargr, "Hati."

Faster than she could keep track of Hati bounded forwards like a bolt and she felt herstlf off the ground and landed astride the huge canine, Narfi' capable arms either side of her, hands clenched in fur holding her steady. Her hair whipped back behind her and she paused to think what a pain it was for him but he complained none. Pushing Hati faster through the forest shattering and smashing trees as they went, splinters catching in her hair, she heard the anguished cries then as the wind blew the hair from her eyes she gasped at the blaze of orange spreading through the forest, the square carriages silhouetted against the flames.

It didn't take long until Hati cleared the low bushes starting to catch fire and landed in the centre of the circle of carriages. Leaping from Hati he let loose with his bow, downing five pirates before his feet touched the ground. The Vargr ploughed on through the circle, teeth and claws ripping and slashing as it went, Alicia clinging for dear life to its neck. Soon the pirates within the circle had been disbanded leaving only the survivors of the procession remaining. Looking around at their terrified faces he urged as kindly as his cracked voice could muster, "Vennligst komme tilbake i dine vogner må du gå nå!"

The gathering of people looked uneasily between each other but did not move.

"Du må gå nå!" he bellowed but it did nothing to help.

Having dismounted Hati, Alicia walked over to the cowering auburn haired girl and said ever so softly, using the magic of her voice to sooth her, "Tenemos que salir de inmediato y estoy muy asustada. Puedo ir contigo?"

The subtlety of her talents enchanting the girl she nodded vigorously, taking Alicia's hand and leading her into a carriage. Drifting along on the magic of her words the rest followed into their respective transports. When they were all safely loaded Narfi sent the carriages away one by one, ignoring Alicia's shouts as the carriage containing her vanished into the dark forest night. Within moments he was left alone the raging flames and the crashing of falling trees the only sounds.