Elements

Bad to Worse

“What are you doing?” asked Morn who had just gotten back from patrol. He had come back to the cave to find everything in packs and the fire out. Sorsa had cleaned up camp, and Morn had no clue why.

“I am packing,” Sorsa replied busily packing away the blankets.

“Packing for what?”

“We have to leave, now.”

“Leave? Look, we are perfectly safe here. We’ll spend one more night, and then leave.”

“No. We need to leave now.”

“What is the rush? It’s 6 hours til dark, let’s spend the night here and leave first thing in the morning.”

“You don’t get it! Claqu knows we’re here! He could be here any moment!”

“How could you possibly know that?”

“Claqu doesn’t track through tracks. He tracks through energy and magic.”

“What? That’s impossible!”

“Oh no it’s not! Haven’t you ever noticed that all his assignments are for criminals that can either use magic or give off a lot of energy? He is a dark necromancer, a shadow caster, which means he can sense even the smallest amounts of energy. That wave of energy I accidentally let off was very large, he will find us very easily! So, we need to leave immediately!”

“He can’t possibly originate where that wave came form. It could have come from anywhere in the forest.”

“Have you ever seen ripples in a pond?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s just like that. The bigger around the ripple is, the farther it is form it’s originating point. All you have to do is condense the energy level and make the ripple smaller. That is one of Claqu’s specialties. He’s perfected his method!”

“This is something I’ve never heard of before. How do you know this?”

“I was his student, remember!?”

“This is impossible!”

“You of all people should know nothing is impossible, Morn. Especially for someone like me,” came a voice from behind them.

Sorsa froze, in the mouth of the cave was Claqu leaning casually against the wall. Soldiers and wizards were pulling themselves over the edge, and were filling the cave; blocking the exit.

“Sorsa was right, you know. You should listen to her more often. After all, she knew me better than most people.”

Lien started snarling and growling at Claqu, but it had no effect. Claqu started forward. The men surrounded the small group of four. Sorsa and Morn said nothing, remaining silent was better than giving Claqu satisfaction. 

Morn was trying to think of a plan, fast. Lien couldn’t fit in the cave as a dragon, so she couldn’t carry all four of them out of the forest. He only had one choice, and he hated doing it.

Claqu headed toward Sorsa. “I always wondered what happened during those ten years after you ran away. Now I can find out.” He pulled out a small book, her diary.

Sorsa was trying to play her poker face, but when she saw her diary, shock crossed over her face. Of course he would be the one ot read her diary, and learn all her secrets and memories she had had over the past ten years.

“So you do know what this is. Let’s see,” Claqu said flipping through the pages, “this is an entry from when you were 9. ‘Dear diary, a horrible fire broke out last night. I got out of the house okay, bu Mom and Dad didn’t. I really did try to go get them, but Claqu wouldn’t let me. The house didn’t have one shingle left when the fire finally burned out. Mom and Dad were in the ashes not moving at all....”

Sorsa couldn’t take it any more. Tears weld up in her eyes, and a single droplet escaped. It rolled down her cheek, and hit the cave floor. It was heard by all.

A flash of movement caught her attention, but when she looked up nothing was there.

This was very strange. All of these creatures had dragged themselves over the edge, and were just standing there. The bigger dragon did not look happy, she actually looked angry. The strange elven creature was standing stone still, with his muscles clenched and ready to strike. The strangest one of all, was the dark figure in the center about 12 feet from Sorsa.

Airn looked at Sorsa, she seemed not to be showing any expression. He could tell that she was angry at the man in black, though. Airn had only hatched a few days ago, but he was already the size of a large dog. He knew what a lot of things were already. He was also very attached to Sorsa.

The black figure pulled out a small black thing. Sorsa seemed very surprised! Then the man, for Airn just realized it was a man, began to read from the black thing.

    As he read, Sorsa was beginning to become very upset. This was making Airn upset. She was unhappy, and this made Airn unhappy. Her feelings were his feelings. He needed to make her happy again.

Slowly and silently he crept behind everyone to the side of the cave. Like a cat, he climbed up the mossy side to the ceiling where a ledge was. Hopping onto the ledge he surveyed the scene.

The men on the edges were not the trouble. The dragon and elven man weren’t doing anything. Then there was the black figure in the middle. He was still talking, and Sorsa had not become upset until he had started. 

Airn had found his target. Through instinct, he crouched into attack position. He stared straight at the figure. Airn ran off the ledge, opened his wings slightly, and glided straight to his opponent. He didn’t know how to fly quite yet. 

Out of control, he spun in a circle hitting the dark man dead in the face with his tail. The man dropped the book and stumbled back in surprise. Airn crash landed, and slid with the small object that the black man was reading from to Sorsa’s feet. He immediately stood to attack position, and growled the most terrifying growl he could muster.