The Elements Book One: Gilly

Chapter 3: Ambush

After fifteen minutes of hauling Abraham, still unconscious, through some rather dense alder, I suddenly stopped short. A sense of dread settled over me, like something thick and cold was being poured down my spine.

"They found us again." I said tersely when I got questioning looks from everyone else. Before they could ask the obvious follow-up, I shrugged. "It's hard to tell. I'm limiting myself as far as using my...other senses since I'm carrying Abraham."

Patrik frowned. "Don't think you ever really explained why that's a thing."

I rolled my eyes. "He's unconscious. Ergo, functionally asleep. Asleep minds are incredibly vulnerable to invasion, which, with my telepathic strength, happens almost automatically unless I'm very careful to avoid it. As such, it's very difficult to perform full power searches without endangering his mind. However, since I'm also the most logical one to carry him it's a risk I'll have to work around."

Andy raised an eyebrow. "I can technically do the whole energy sharing thing too. You're not the only one here that can circulate and direct energy, y'know."

I rolled my eyes. "You make me sound like some dopey New Age weirdo with a bunch of shiny rocks. And yes you technically could but not only am I faster at it, I'm better at it because fire itself naturally radiates energy. Plus I can dedicate a small amount of magic to circulating a small healing spell through him to facilitate the transition. Bodily he's perfectly healthy, of course, but his mind just took a major shock."

Andy shrugged. "Fair enough. I'll focus more on the plant life in the area, I might be able to locate our mystery attackers."

I raised an eyebrow. "I think we'll hear them coming." I pointed out, gesturing with my head at the surrounding alder and very nearly stabbing myself in the eye with a branch for the effort.

The corner of Andy's mouth twitched as he fought down a smirk. "True. It's still probably smart for me to try and extend our detection area."

"I thought you couldn't see that far with the plants." Dave pointed out.

"It's better than what you can do." Andy retorted.

I rolled my eyes. "Argue any more and we won't need to worry about finding them cause they'll just pinpoint where we are from your incessant nattering."

Dave gave me a wounded expression. "That was hardly 'nattering'."

I gave him a 'yeah right' face, then resumed moving through the alders.

"Oh, so the sound of you trampling through undergrowth won't attract them but Dave and I having a debate will." Andy deadpanned.

I smirked and nodded.

A distant snap hushed us immediately.

As quietly as possible, I started giving orders. "Dave, you and Andy go and find them. Do NOT get caught, but we need to know what we're dealing with. Patrik, move out a bit but stay in contact. You're our main melee fighter right now so you'll need to be drawing attention away from the rest of us. Evret, with me. We'll try and locate a source of water for you to do crowd control with. I can't risk doing anything fancy while I've still got Sleeping Beauty here."

"For the last time, I can just summon water to work with." Evret muttered rebelliously.

I rolled my eyes. "Someone never studied strategy. A source of water near here will mean a stream or a creek. We can use that to hamper the approach of enemies while you deal with immediate threats."

His shoulders dropped a bit and he let out a small huff. "Fine." He muttered.

I glanced behind us in time to see Dave vanish without a sound into the woods.