The Sky Demons Part One: Journey

Chapter Nine- Offensive and defensive

Tigre- Offensive and defensive

Everything was happy, we were laughing and Nightshade was showing us some magic tricks so that we could learn about her range of magical abilities, we watched the trees bend into interesting shapes and flowers grow up from the ground in a matter of seconds- fearsome stuff.

“We dogriffs are more on the defensive side of magic than the offensive, trees and earth can make very powerful protective barriers. Our talons and teeth are offensive weapons enough.”

I jumped at the voice that so suddenly interrupted my train of thought before realising that Nightshade was talking to me again.

“This takes a lot of getting used to,” I grumbled in my head.

“Interesting conversation?”

We both jumped. I turned to see Serefk’na smiling and Senka peering curiously at us.

“I can tell when people are using telepathy, after all I have my own familiar,” she laughed.

Then without warning, Senka jumped up, a shocked expression flashed across her face, she shot her hand towards Serefk’na and shouted “Kiraha, fiota uftay lo norte-oes”, a powerful wind blew into Serefk’na- who was looking rather shocked by this point- knocking her to the ground at the same moment I noticed the glint of an object hurtling towards her. She landed heavily and a thud sounded above her as an arrow embedded itself in a tree trunk. Seconds later she was on her feet and stood with her back against the trunk as she invoked the second spell of the deishani- the transformation spell. Her body flashed amber-gold and then she was standing, still at the same height but now on four paws as a huge white wolf with cream coloured wings: her deishan form. She lowered her head and snarled, showing off her huge teeth, her ears flattened to her skull.

There was a sound like a hundred leaves rustling at once, Serefk’na spun wildly on her paws, lashing out blindly with her tail in an effort to foil the enemy’s possible attempt to attack her from behind using the third- super speed- spell.

Somewhere I thought I heard someone shouting, but it left my mind as too many things happened at once. I saw Serefk’na’s movements become stilted as ice rose up to envelope her paws and an attacking deishani made his appearance, leaping towards her with knife in hand, fiery red wings outstretched, only to have to scramble backwards suddenly to avoid another aimed swipe of her tail.

Senka began running in the opposite direction as I rushed to help Serefk’na. With a growl Serefk’na forcefully removed her leg from the ice casing and turned to the phoenix deishani as he rushed towards her, brandishing his dagger.

For a second she looked too panicked to know what to do, but then her body flashed golden again and her sudden drastic decrease in size caused the enemy’s swing to miss. Now within his guard she drew her own dagger and slashed at his hand, her agility greater in her anian form. Reaching them with my scythe now in my hands, I quickly moved the blade, neatly tucking it around his neck as he moved backward to avoid Serefk’na’s dagger. He froze, eyes wide. I moved the scythe, forcing him to walk backwards until he stood against a tree. Its branches reached out to enfold him, holding him against its trunk.

“Thanks Nightshade, good job.”

“No problem Tigre.”

He struggled violently against the binds, “damn it, Siofra, your senses spell didn’t work!” he yelled. Serefk’na swiftly knocked the phoenix man out with the hilt of her dagger before he could try to transform into his deishan form so that he could use the magical abilities of his animal to set fire to the tree and escape.