The Sky Demons Part Two: Quest

Chapter Seven- Your life, your decision

Kayira- Your life, your decision

A few days after I told everyone about what had happened Lofar and Aniar returned from their trip. Minutes after they’d stepped through the door Ketsuo was barging his way into Alex’s room, telling me that they’d arrived, that everyone else was heading to the library for a meeting and now he’d come to help me move over there.

I fixed him with the stare that usually had Tenmar backtracking and making excuses, unfortunately Ketsuo didn’t know me quite as well as Tenmar and carried on attempting to help. I casually shoved him out of the way with one arm and stood on wobbly legs, hiding my desire to hiss at the flash of pain in my side and the creaking of my limbs as I stumbled my way out of the door.

A few minutes later I was gratefully flopping into one of the more comfortable chairs in the library, looking around at the people assembled: everyone was gathered around except for Enya, Francis’ familiar… and Tenmar.

The four young hybrids sat close together, surrounded by familiars and seeming tense and ready for a fight. I looked at them sternly, wondering if perhaps they were planning to argue for being allowed to join Tenmar’s rescue mission. No way in hell was I letting four kids come with me into that group’s base, the fact that they had had to travel through all of those traps alone to reach The Hideout was bad enough and they had barely survived that at times.

“So,” began Maria, “we all know what occurred during Kayira and Tenmar’s mission. Now it’s time to decide what our next move will be; what we know for sure is that we must leave The Hideout. Immediately.”

Tigre leaned forward in her chair so that she could see Maria where she perched at the head of the table. “A lot of us have wings,” she pointed out, “and we also have Firah and the wolves who are all capable of carrying at least two people each- except Lyall- can’t we just fly out of here?”

Lofar grunted, “The Peryton forest forms a semicircle, it’s cupped on one side by The Barrier Mountains and cut off on the other by the flower hills, which Mt. Gastaria sticks out into-”

“Yep!” continued Aniar, cutting Lofar off; “The only way for Grey to reach The Hideout is for him and his lackeys to pass through the labyrinth and then the flower hills. If we reach the end point of the labyrinth first then there’s a chance we can pass by him over the thorn fields while he passes through the labyrinth, but considering how late we’ll be setting off- Alex how long until Firah is able to fly?”

“A week at least, maybe more. You can only perform a magical healing on the same wound once so there’s nothing I can do to speed up the healing process more than I already have.”

“The chances of us running into Grey at some point between the forest and the other end of the flower hills is high then,” commented Lofar.

“And I wouldn’t put it past him to force some animal to fly him over here either. Flying is an option but not the best way to go,” added Aniar.

“What does that leave us with though?” asked Asher, his brows knitting together.

Serefk’na nodded in agreement, “Flying is dangerous, walking is worse, but isn’t the flower hill route is the only way out?”

“Unless we plan to hide out in the mountains, then bypass them and leave over the flower hills once they pass by on the way to The Hideout,” said Tigre.

“The mountains are too treacherous,” I snapped, “the environment is near uninhabitable and dragons and shade dwellers rule the lower caverns. No one’s passed through them since our ancestors made their home in this country and they could only do it because of the army of hybrids they had with them.”