Smolder

Chapter 8:

It was the capital all over again. Only ten times worse .

The wall of flame on the west side of town soared so high into the air that it appeared as if the sky was on fire. Black smoke rose from that direction and cast deep blue shadows across the town, turning the mid noon into dusk. The smell of burning wax threatened to suffocate them.

The wave of people running away from the fire almost tripped them over. Somehow Mr Orpheus could stand upright in it, his expression a mask of shadows. He looked up for a moment and saw something.

Then he suddenly took Elli's hand and said, "Follow the crowd. Len would find you. Follow him. I'll meet with you later."

Then without allowing them to say a word he unfurled his wings and leaped into the air.

At full length his wings were easily more than fifteen feet long each, brown and white, like a falcon's. They slammed down and with a gust of air, he flew up.

Russell was looking up in awe, until he felt a pull from behind. Vivi was pulling his hand. Elli and Arron were already few steps forward. As Russell turned around and ran to follow the crowd, blinding blue light illuminated the sky behind him, along with a deafening crackle. Russell turned around one last time to see blue-white tendrils of lightning ejecting from the Warden, spreading through the sky like a glowing net.

Following the crowd made no sense. People were running at all directions except West. Arrows fell like rain. Their tips were lit by blue flames. They exploded like firecrackers as soon as they fell on the ground. Even though Orpheus had kept most of the soldiers busy, some slipped past his offense.

Vivi turned around and made a very undignified whimpering sound. Russell followed her gaze and looked back.

Russell's mind had a hard time processing what he was seeing.

There were everyday soldiers, yes. They ran around stabbing and slashing at anybody who stood in their way.

But there were stranger things. They looked like swirling and shifting masses of black ink. It tried to take a lot of shapes at the same time, and ended up with none of them.

One decided that it'd become a dog. But it's other half decided to become a spider? scorpion? some kind of bug.

The awkward abomination growled and twisted for a moment, only a moment. Then it exploded back into it's chaotic swirling ink tornado form.

One of them collided with a house. For a second, it seemed to flaten itself on the wall, like a big blotch of ink. Then it exploded. Along with windows, the front wall and the door. Furniture and people hiding inside were thrown out.

Then, with a bright flash, the house was on fire, along with a number of unfortunate people nearby.

Vivi's grip on Russell's hand was gone for a while. His heart skipped a beat. He looked forward to see Vivi had only gotten further forward, apparently fixing on something behind the wall of people.

The crowd shifted and Russell caught a glimpse of what Vivi had fixed upon.

Among the crowd, a single abnormally tall person stood straight. He kept whipping around, screaming orders to the people, shoving some of the more frantic ones to a trap door beside him.

As Russell came closer he saw who it was.

Even though he had no one's reaction to know from, he suspected he had the expression of the century.

Why it was his good friend the bakery elf!

Just his luck. Two consecutive days on the run, a hungry stomach and now the person he purposefully ticked off that very day is his only hope of not dying. Perfect! He might as well take a knife on the back.