The Unknown Alchemist

Chapter 34 - You have magic

Avery scooped up the youngling in front of her. The female whimpered in her arms and clung to Avery's neck. She pulled another youngling along by the hand trying to get the group to move faster. A bruise was forming on her cheek from a blow she had taken when she wrenched on a male's wing to distract him so the younglings could escape. The male had turned in rage and knocked her aside and likely would have snapped her neck had the crone not slammed her staff across his head and crushed his face with the butt end of the stick. Avery fled to the cover of the trees with a swarm of young faunids around her.

Now she stumbled through the snow, breathing heavily under the weight of the pup and herding the others along.

"Fly! You need to fly! Even from tree to tree! We need to cover our trail!" she urged any aerial faunids.

They swooped in and out of the trees ahead of her and she collected the ones on the ground getting them to run as fast as their little legs could take them.

She dared a glanced over her shoulder and saw a male Accipiter closing in fast. The trees were too dense for his feathered wings at least, but he had no trouble running through the deep snow. As he reached them Avery dropped to the ground, shielding the pup in her arms from his strike. The hawk slammed into a shield of hard air.

The Papilio crone had her arms outstretched, holding the shield in place so Avery could flee, but the mortal just gaped up at her.

"You have magic! Who are you?"

"Run, stupid girl!"

The shield cracked as a sword cut through the air and the Accipiter's head fell to the ground. Leo leapt over the body and lifted a youngling from the ground before leading them away. They hadn't gone far before an arrow struck the tree above their heads and Leo dropped low to a crouch, placing the youngling on the ground beside him.

"I will find the shooter while you lead them away. You know the spot," he said to the Papilio.

Avery's head spun between them. "What do you know? Tell me!"

The crone grabbed Avery's wrist and pulled her away as Leo adjusted his sword to face the attackers. Avery twisted out of the crone's grasp and grabbed Leo's arm, forcing him to look at her.

"You lied to me," she spat in his face. Leo's eyes grew wary and he glanced at the crone. "You're not old and crippled at all. You are the great warrior you've always been."

Leo grinned and ran into the trees with a roar.

*********

Arctos kept his eyes to the ground but all of his senses stretched wide to pick up any disturbance in the forest. The tracks were difficult to follow, as if someone had tried to hide them. Every once in a while, they found a mark in the snow where a youngling had landed. But there were foot tracks, adult, with hoof prints following behind. Avery would be on foot and had a youngling in tow.

He dared a glance at his brother who had his eyes on the forest, his face a mask of stone. Though Roedin's outward appearance was calm, the stress poured him as he tried to listen to the Whispers that might tell him where his mate was. Arctos hoped the other males in the search party could keep their instincts in check to stay alert. Their younglings were out here as well.

A trail of blood in the snow led them to a broken faunid, gasping in death. He had a deep wound in his side, not particularly large. Blood rushed out with no sign of clotting.

"This territory is as pathetic as he said," the male gurgled through the blood leaking from his lips. "You have females doing your fighting and humans raising your young."