A Mermaids Tail

6.Laufeyson

'Hati, følge dem, men holde seg ute av syne, gå, nå!' Narfi instructed the huge beast and away it bounded after Alicia.

Glaring through the flames Narfi could see the shape of the captain, a burning torch in his hand, a cruel leer on his face.

"Crees que tú y tu puta pescado puede esconderse en el bosque precioso de mi? A continuación, voy a grabarlo en el suelo! No hay ningún!" the captain roared through the flames at Narfi.

With one swift movement Narfi had notched an arrow to his bow and let it fly, punching through the flames and catching the captain square in the gut sending him hurtling backwards. Angry cries went up from the brigands and Narfi darted for cover as a hail of sling stones and arrows hammered into the tree trunks and ground around him. He could feel the missiles hammering into the tree he had took shelter behind but then they began to hit the ground before the tree, they were giving covering fire, he realised, and broke free of his cover notching three arrows at a time blindly firing at the bobbing mass of pirates retreating through the smoke filled woods. He could hear the pained cries as arrows found their targets but with the flames growing in ferocity he knew that none would stop to help their comrades.

Seeing no sense in wasting more good arrows, and realising there was more pressing matters at hand he shouldered his bow and stood turning in a circle, taking stock of the situation.

The forest was dry as tinder wood, the fire would spread rampantly through the forest burning down the Faery village and killing many of the creatures within magical and non magical alike. He saw only one option, sighing heavily drawing an arrow from its quiver he pierced the tip of each forefinger. Using his own blood, the began to outline the ancient runes on the palms and backs of his hands. Whispering the old incantations forgotten by the modern world of man, he stirred the air with his hands, twisting and turning them through the dry night air, until a slight sparkling covered his hands. As the sparkling grew and began to follow his hands in a trail like a Faeries, the ground around him began to frost as if the blazing heat were not there. Speeding up the movements of his hands the area around him became frozen solid, a clear hissing being heard over the raging inferno around him as the magical bifrost froze everything it touched, licks of flame that leant towards him encased in ice. Soon the freezing wind that circled him, twisting and dipping with his hands, surrounded him in an icy storm and as the shattered frozen flames mixed with it to block him from view. Within the icy cloud Narfi pulled against the winds he had summoned and clapped his hands together, a sound like thunder boomed throughout the forest as the bifrost hurled outwards away from him in all directions, freezing the fire that threatened his beloved forest instantly.

Exhausted he fell to his knees, his panting now the only sound, as the eerie silence of a midwinters night fell on the place. The pirates had scattered, par those that had fallen to an arrow and lay frozen, pained expressions forever etched into their faces. As he struggled to his feet he looked down the frosted road he so often avoided that lead to the city of man, the place he was feared and outcasted, and made in that direction with as much pace as he could muster. The pack he'd left contained nothing he needed now, the tools of his trade were either strapped to his body or within it.