Willow's Legend - Original Version

Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Michael was back to them in a second, baffling Willow by not only his speed but how quiet he was. How was he walking through all those leaves and branches without making a sound?

                "Chelsea," he whispered. "The Kopors aren't Lyre's work. The knots are way too intricate for Mountain Lyres. And they were hit on the head to knock them out, Mountain Lyres aren't smart enough to think of that."

                Chris furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, "But why would someone dump a bunch of Kopors in a Mountain Lyre's feeding pen?"

                Michael shrugged, "Maybe they held a grudge against them."

                "Maybe their trying to pin the blame." Willow inquired, they all looked at her with confusion. Alicia was given her the this-person-has-stupid-ideas look and Willow immediately regretted the suggesting realizing how cheesy it was. "You know," she said defensively. "They beat these people up and didn't want anybody to know it was them, so they put them in the pen, pinning the blame on the Mountain Lyres."

                Alicia shook her head. "Nobody would punish them for beating up some people, happens all the time. Of course, if we were to find them with beaten up Kales we would make them stop, but we wouldn't go into an investigation to find out who did it. We're not like you UpperWorlders caring about every life lost.”

                "Maybe this is Machire’s work as a distraction," Chris whispered.

                “As a distraction? Why would Machire care about us? Why would he be distracting us?” Chelsea said. “No, this isn’t Machire’s work because it is pointless and Machire never does anything pointless.”

                "Guys,” Michael said, worry hinting his tone. “Let’s just get them out and ask questions later, they may be able to answer some things.”

                Chelsea nodded, “Let’s go.”

                They all got up from the crouches and slipped through the bushes. Willow was behind Michael, following closely behind him. The Ganashes were quiet, like feather, barely making any noise with every step they took, while Willow kept crunching and tripping and rustling, drawing attention to where they were. But the Lyres didn’t seem to notice, though. They were too busy singing loudly.

                They got to the pen within minutes and Michael immediately grabbed a dagger out. He started to cut the ropes, but Willow could tell it was going nowhere. She felt an anxiety rise in her chest as she looked over her shoulder at the Bolesgire. They were very close to them, too close for comfort. And one was literally right next to Alicia, its back to turned away from her. At any moment one of them could look over and catch them. She looked back at how Michael was doing, the rope didn’t look any different, his cutting was going nowhere.

                He said a very ungentlemanly word, and then explained, "It's enchanted, can't cut through it. Looks like an Tauhitehew spell, Rizkaet’s work." He swore again, and jammed the dagger back into his belt.

                "We need a Rizkaet’s weapon, but we’re never going to find one in a Lyre’s camp—“ Alicia started but was interrupted by Chelsea.

                “Think again, Alicia.” She whispered. “Look at the Lyre to the left, he’s got one.”

                They all looked over at the Lyre, Michael, Alicia and Chris nodded, seeing it. Willow though, could not tell which one was which. There were three weapons on the Lyre to the left, how could they tell which one was a Rizkaet’s weapon.”