Fallen One (Book three of Alfireán age)

- What Now? -

Drake held Alf's sword as Pony transformed back into a human and collapsed to her knees.

"Stinks, doesn't it?" Scarlet commented, rubbing her fingers against the pink skin on her face where she had been healed from one of the many cuts and bruises she had sustained while running through the jungle.

"Yes... it does," the brown-haired maid complained, her two buns drooping downwards and sweat pouring from her forehead. "I... don't like... being a beast of burden," she continued between deep gasps of air.

"It's okay dear. I'll take over from here," Silver told said placing a comforting hand on Pony's shoulder. Seconds later, a light flared, hiding the eldest maid from view as she transformed into a unicorn.

As the light faded and the white mare stepped out, she lowered her head and Drake hung Alf's sword around Silver's neck. He tightened the makeshift sash so the weapon wouldn't get in her way as she ran. "Thank you," he whispered, knowing full well the maids despised this on an intrinsically deep level, and it was his fault such a thing was necessary.

The unicorn nodded, her large amethyst eyes looking at him with wisdom beyond her appearance, and swishing her silver tail, she took off at a fast trot. "We will speak later," the mystical creature's voice echoed in his mind as he stepped back.

Drake had figured as much.

With a prance of her silver hooves, Silver picked up speed and the world around him blurred once more. As they passed through the forest gully and splashed over the stream, Drakovian gazed unseeingly through Alf's barrier. I hope I never have to get used to being around people that can read my mind, he thought to himself. Putting up with it in this brief period—of his hopefully long lifespan—was already far too much for him.

"How much distance do you think we've put between us and Vackzilian?" Alf asked as Olivia healed his eyes from his earlier usage of Ra'avah. Groping blindly about, he reached up and touched the shield around them, imbuing it with more wind magic.

"That's hard to tell," the prince answered, pulled from his thoughts. "From the trip spells I left behind, it seems they have either stopped their search for us-"

"Fat chance of that," Rex grumbled, looking up from the dark shield still entrapping his boot.

"Or," Drake continued, "they've greatly underestimated our speed."

"Of... course... they have," Pony gasped from her collapsed position. "Me... and my sisters...are far faster.. than any... stupid old blood oaths!"

"That's not something we should advertise," Scarlet muttered as she ran her hands through her hair and began to re-braid the untangled strands.

Drakovian sighed deeply and closed his eyes: the image of the twelve-foot figure he had seen earlier still visible on the back of his eyelids. Of course, he had figured out what had really occurred during that situation. Alf had not been channeling energy into the shield but rather trying to change its polarity, while Olivia had been charging the ground in order to cause it to become the path of least resistance. As a result, the lightning had hit Alf's shield, but only for a fraction of a second, and then changed course. The supposed image of an angel burned on the back of his retinas was nothing more than an illusion, a trick of the light, as it were, as the lightning shifted course.... at least, that is what he kept telling himself.

"So where exactly are we headed?" Zaphaniea asked from where she sat cross-legged on one of her spheres with dark shadows under her eyes. Her shoulders hunched forward and a haunted look darkened her features as the shifting light from the overhead branches rushed by. "Or are we just headed northeast for no apparent reason?" she said sarcastically.