Moongrace

Part 41

Movement woke her not too long after.

"Eleeza? Eleeza, where the hell are we? What happened? And... oh Eleeza! Did you change my feet? Do you see them? I can move them! Oh Eleeza!"

Eleeza opened her eyes to her ever silver light and groaned. Somebody shook her.

"Come on, wake up!", Cathryn shook her again. Eleeza could hear confusion, happiness and uneasiness in her voice.

Trembling she sat up, her body and especially her muscles hurt a lot. Then she realised that they had been sleeping – and that Cathryn was awake. Which meant that the men must have woken up as well.

"Cathryn! We need to keep moving! Come on!"

She stood up, but Cathryn gripped her hands: "Wait! What? What has happened? Where are we?"

"I will tell you while walking, okay? We really need to get away from here!" With those words she hauled Cathryn up.

"Alright. Which direction?"

Eleeza pointed eastwards and off they went, this time Cathryn led Eleeza. They were much faster that way.

"Okay, so tell me. What has happened? And why don't I remember anything but..." She got quiet.

"But what? What did you see?", Eleeza dug deeper curiously.

"Well, nothing really. I was just dreaming about some childhood memories and I guess some places I would love to go to." She sounded dreamily.

They walked a bit in silence.

"So, tell me. Where are we and how did we get here? I am quite confused!" Cathryn suddenly picked up their conversation again.

"Well, last night, or last to last night... I don't know what time it is just now... I found a way to escape. That metallic ball Meino gave me once, do you remember it?"

"Yes, sure. You were playing with it endlessly." Cathryn seemed confused.

"Well, I somehow managed to solve the riddle and open it. The gem in the centre contained an unbelievable amount of magic. Once Lenrio removed the Horreummeomrial that made it impossible for me to use magic, I released it. The spell made everyone around see beautiful things on their minds, which ultimately let you all loose contact with reality. Lenrio and the other two fell in a trance, just like you. I went to get you and flew away."

"Wait!", Cathryn interrupted. "That's unbelievable! How did you find me and how could you fly with me? I am even bigger than you!"

"Finding you wasn't that hard, really! You are always in the kitchen in the morning. I simply had to follow the kitchen smells and then listen for your breathing and heartbeat. And I am, as you call us, a fairy. Did you not tell me once that the men are unbelievable strong? I am of the same kin." She shrugged.

"This is crazy! What happened then?"

"After some hours we crashed into a tree and fell. Oh, does anything hurt? I searched you for injuries, but... well, being blind it's not so easy to see if anything is broken. I could heal you though!" How could she forget to ask Cathryn? Concerned she made them stop.

"No, don't worry. Nothing hurts much, I guess it's just bruises and scratches. Let's keep going." Cathryn took her hand again and guided her further.

Eleeza sighed relieved: "Okay, so being on the ground meant we could not keep flying. Out of the simple reason that I would never find through those branches. So, I dragged you through the trees. We weren't very fast though."

"I believe that! Running through the forest being blind is crazy, Eleeza!" Cathryn almost scolded.

"We needed to keep moving. I guess at some point of time I just broke down and fell asleep. I really hope that we are far enough. Since you woke up, the men woke up as well. And they'll be searching for us just now. We need to get more distance between them and us."

Cathryn just pressed her hand in assurance. While they walked on and on, Cathryn kept asking for more details of their flight. But both got more tensed by the minute. During their first break Eleeza asked Cathryn to find two sticks at the length of a forearm. With quite a lot of magic she turned them to daggers to give them some protection. Each girl took one and they kept walking. With Eleeza's sensitive hearing they could find even a small stream and have some water at their next stop. The extreme use of magic had taken toll on Eleeza's strength and she was relieved that Cathryn took it as her task to help her.

"What time is it? And can you tell what time it was when we woke up?", Eleeza asked after they had been quietly walking for some hours. Cathryn had found a small path and now they were moving even faster.

"It must have been around midday, when I woke up. I remember the sun being just above me when I opened my eyes. Now dusk is settling, the forest is getting darker and darker. I am glad we found the path, else we would be stumbling like you did before."

Both knew that darkness meant being slow, because Cathryn would be as blind as Eleeza. But Eleeza could also hear the exhaustion of Cathryn, her heartbeat never fully went down to normal as did her breathing.

"We will walk so long as you can see the path, okay? Then we'll take a break!"

"Alright." Was Cathryn's short answer.

Half an hour later Cathryn got slower and finally stopped: "I can barely see a thing. Just you are glowing as ever, but that's not enough light to keep walking."

They sat down next to the path, leaning their backs on trees and trying to catch their breath.
Suddenly Eleeza listened up, she had trained her hearing on her surroundings listening for steps and wings moving. This wasn't a bird flying, those wings were bigger. Despair swept over her: "They are coming!", she whispered.

Cathryn's breath became shallow: "That cannot be! That cannot be, are you sure?"

A tear ran down Eleeza's cheek. Everything had been for waste, there was no way she would ever be able to escape those men. Cathryn moved to her and put her head on Eleeza's shoulder. She wiped her tearstained cheek with her thump: "I am sure, their wings get louder. They'll reach within moments."

When Cathryn started sobbing, Eleeza suddenly pulled away: "Cathryn! We need to fight them! We still have our daggers and... we must try!"

Cathryn sniffed: "But they are unbelievable strong. And they have magic!"

"I am much stronger than them and we are strong if we work together."

"But how will I fight Nioru, I won't even see him!", Cathryn wasn't convinced yet.

"Leave him to me, you concentrate on Meino."