Walking With Giants (Completed)

Chapter 4

"What do you want from me?"

Herin just made a face in between a grimace and a smirk. This guy's either playing coy, or he is one of the most gullible idiots on the planet.

"DON'T call me gullible!" Ursa bellowed. "I know more than any of you!" Ursa was obviously on edge, Herin thought. He recalled that Ursa had the power of reading thoughts. Eon was obviously right... He pushed the thought out of his head. Thinking about Eon would lead Ursa right to him.

"Let's go a couple rounds, you and me." Ursa said, breathing heavy but trying to control it. "I'm not afraid of you. You know it because I do."

Herin was having a hard time wrapping his mind around what Ursa said, so instead he advanced with a full-on charge. He started by aiming a blow to Ursa's midsection with his elbow. Ursa didn't even try to fight back, and he began to hack with each blow Herin aimed at him. Herin elbowed Ursa in between the shoulder blades, and watched him collapse. Blood trickled out of his mouth, staining the forest floor.

"You fell for it."

The reason Herin pivited towards Ursa like he saw a ghost was not because he was undaunted by the words coming from Ursa, but the way he said it. It sounded like, deep down in Ursa's windpipe, a garbage disposal was grinding up a metal knife.

And then, just like that, Ursa collapsed into a pile of leaves.

At first, Herin thought that Ursa was just defeated. The he realized that he, of all, was doomed. The last words of Ursa/Leaves still rang in his head, and made him feel cursed.

So what happens now?

Now, he thought, I have to go find Eon, and hope that Ursa, if he is still alive, is not following me.

Herin started into the woods, feeling increasingly haunted every step. The woods always partially unnerved Herin, but seeing Ursa made him feel like the forest was going to swallow him and never let him leave. Once, Herin had tripped on a root ascending in a crescent shape from the ground and he fell to the forest floor. He screamed in anguish, as if Ursa was the one who tripped him. He quickly recovered and started off again, but the terrifying thought of Ursa grew and grew in his head.

I need to conquer my fear and stop worrying about Ursa, he thought. This is probably what he wants.

And who is Elipse?

This was the thought that made Herin filled with a new fear. If Ursa was so afraid of Elipse, and Ursa was not afraid of me... Then how powerful is Elipse?

Powerful enough to kill me.

This hurried Herin's steps through the woods. He began to break into an anaerobic run, stumbling through bushes and tearing through thistles and thorns. He needed to reach Eon before Ursa did. Eon was the only one who could help him now.

A whispering cut through the shrill whistling of the birds in the canopy. It was as if the wind was possessed; it swirled ominously through the bushes and was aimed directly against Herin. It sounded as if the wind was creating sounds as it brushed past Herin's ears and disappeared behind him. Suddenly the wind whispered its secrets to Herin, and he became afraid.

...Whsisss-There is nowhere to goooo...

Herin spun in circles, his eyes begginning to water in fear. The trees became unfamiliar to him, his path disoriented, and his mind in chaos. He cringed in pain. The wind even smelled like snake venom, sharp and evil to the point.

...Whisss--You will fall...You will fall..You will fallyouwillfallyes,yes,falltothefloorandcrybecausethereisnoonetohelpyounow...

"No!" Herin cried in anguish. "NOOOO!" He raised his right hand to Heaven and his left hand to hell.

And there he began.

"Wind, go back to where you once came,

Never come to haunt me again.

If your master be an enemy of me,

I cast you remorse-eternal damnation is yours to bear!!!!"

He heard a low, grinding scream, a sound that would drive any man insane. It turned to a shrill hack, like a monster that was admitted unbearable pain. The wind whipped past his ears, emitting ululating screeches, and caused Herin to fall to his knees in pain. His yells almost cancelled out that of the wind itself.

And, then, it was all gone. The forest stood still. The earth seemed to not even spin. It was only minutes later that he birds warillly resumed their happy songs, but every whistle contained a demonic trace of the wind. Herin lay on the forest floor, blood bubbling in his mouth and black at the corners of his vision.

That was the craziest curse I've ever done.

It was true; it took Herin awhile to find his power, but he used it on small things, like an agrovating pest or a chirping bird to get it to shut up. But sending something to hell-that was something different entirely.

If it was Ursa controlling the wind, Herin thought, I wouldn't've sent him to hell, would I have?

Herin never wanted to wish something like that on anyone... anyone at all. Hell was a terrible thing; Herin would sometimes get snippets of his past life: he was a victim of sin and was dumped in hell.

Herin instantly shook his head and willed the thought away from him. When he thought about his past, he would get a Flash-a very realistic flashback of his time in hell. It was not his fault he was dumped in; it was his friend who tricked him into it.

Suddenly, Herin heard a rustle in the bushes.

"Herin?"

It was Eon. He emerged from the bushes and stood over me, staff in hand. "You have blood on your lips."

"I know. I did a crazy curse."

Herin told the whole story to Eon. He started with the brawl with Ursa, then the screaming wind. He ended with the hell curse.

"I already know," Eon said, frowning. "You shouldn't have done that curse. I heard it from almost a half of a mile away. Here. I have a spare bandage in my pack for your mouth."

He slung the small bag off of his shoulders and slowly lowered his brace to the ground. Despite the fact that Eon's magic helped him heal his leg, it was nearly fatal, so Eon still had to wear his brace and use traditional methods of 'healing.' Eon removed the bandage from his pack and gave it to Herin.

"Here," he said. "Even if the curse was as magnificent as you said, it wouldn't have caused internal bleeding. You probably cut something on your cheek."

Herin stuffed the cloth into his mouth. "Thunfs. Hid hyou fee Urfa?"

"Take the cloth out, smart one."

Herin removed the cloth from his mouth. It was coated in a light crimson sheet of blood. "Did you see Ursa? While you were away?"

"No."

"Thank God. He definetely has full control of his powers right now. If he really is as powerful as he displays, we won't be able to stop him anytime soon."

"It's two versus one. We have a solid chance, you know. But who said anything about doing it now?"

Eon's right, Herin thought. We have to lie low. Too bad Elipse or whoever the hell Ursa was talking about scared Ursa. So we have to try to avoid running into Elipse.

"We need to find the rest of us, Herin. It's time."

"I agree."

And Ursa knows.