Avaleade: An Old Elf's Tale

Chapter Six

     Everyone cried out in shock, and for the first time I felt the presence of a higher being. I could see nothing, having been blinded by the explosion, yet I felt a warm presence lingering around me, holding me much like my mother would when I was young. The warmth, oddly enough, caused me to shiver, and my skin grew chilly bumps from my scalp to my toes.

     I blinked. Once, twice, and eventually my sight came back to me, along with other senses I had not realized were missing. I heard the faint sound of insects buzzing around the barn and smelt old hay and moldy wood... and felt the weight of an object in my hands. I looked down to see a thick ivory staff with an enormous black pearl clutched within ivory vines atop it.

     It was lighter than it looked to be and was perfectly balanced in the center. I raised it and channeled my magic through it, and likewise it channeled the strange chilling warmth from before into me.

     "Well, it certainly opened easily," Katsukii muttered, and the sounds of chains jingling accompanied him. I looked up to see our group standing dazed and bewildered.

     Kisara looked down at her hands, which now were covered by deep black gloves with raised gold bones placed where the bones in her hand would be. The tips of her gloved fingers were sharp like daggers, and when she flexed her fingers the points retracted. I noticed a faint blue glow emanating from the palm, spreading to the tips of her fingers.

     Yukan stood between the twins, shielding Iria, and quite literally. A large shield had manifested on the arm he had used, presumably to attempt to shield her from the explosion. The shield held the symbol of the Wandering Goddess, a wandering cane with an acorn styled knob being circled by bees, set into the bright birch wood. The shield had gold trimming the edges with ruby studs. In his other hand he held a silver, bladed mace, with honeycomb-like engravings on the blades and gold vines tracing its length.

     When Yukan came back to his senses, he backed away from his charge. Iria looked around in a confused manner, her curious eyes darting first to her sister. Upon seeing she was safe, Iria frantically turned to see Katsukii, who was staring dumbfoundedly down at two small hand scythes with silver blades and black chains that dangled from the base of the grip section. The chains reached the floor, where weights rested in the dirty hay by his feet. His new weapons were also emanating a pulsing blue glow.

     "What in the Barrens was that?" Kay growled, blinking and rubbing her eyes with her free hand. Her occupied hand now held a massive, menacing-looking great sword that was nearly as tall as herself. The blade was as roughly as wide as her neck and tapered to a point at the end. The hand guard looked to be a woman with her arms crossed over her chest and wings that spread out of her back that acted as the guards themselves. It looked to weigh twice as much as Kay, though she raised it with one hand to look at it closer. "And what in the Barrens is this!?"

     "What, what's the matter?" Iria stumbled towards Kay, a worried expression on her face. Her stumble turned into a sudden tumble when she tripped over the butt end of a spear she was now holding. She squeaked as Kisara and Yukan both rushed to catch her, but neither were quick enough. Iria fell with a cacophonous metallic bang onto a shield of her own. When Kisara and Yukan both helped her to her feet, she looked down to inspect her shield. It was a deep black metal, with the most beautiful white wings that spread outward from its center. The wings caught the rays of sunlight coming in from broken roof and refracted the light outward. We were basking in glorious light.

     "When did I get this?" She asked the question aloud that I presumed we all were asking ourselves.

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