The Last Sylph

Chapter 11

The spell was ingrained in Elea. It was the first one she discovered she knew. It came to her about a week after she ran from Roanoke. She was starving! She was so young and all alone. She tried to catch a rabbit with nothing but her wits and a stone but failed. Miserably! She was starting to believe she would die out in the wilderness alone not from the wild animals or the arduous journey but from starvation. She was nearly incapable of moving, she was drained of all her strength and even her mind was starting to shut down. That is when the spell came to her. It was just a few words in Sylphish. So simple, so easy. No more than few words that roughly translated into a child's lullaby about resting soundly with full tummy.

She had been so fatigued she barely whispered the words when the rabbit that had so easily escaped her earlier in the week strolled right up to her and offered itself as a sacrifice. From that day forward if nothing else, Elea knew she could feed herself. Now, cooking, fire and so many other things continued to elude her for many years.

Elea looked around the chamber and noticed the pelt Billy shed only an hour or so ago had already turned to dust. She smiled to herself then said whispered the words

'Hrănește copilul, oferă-i hrană, apoi trimite-l la culcare.'

It was done. Nothing left to do but wait to see what animal Cooper brought her back to butcher and prepare for the smoker.

Cooper remained stock still at the entrance to the cave. According to Elea, what ever animal answered the call of her magic would simply waltz itself around the frozen waterfall and into the cave. He caught the scent of elk on the wind and his heart skipped a beat in anticipation. Then, just as Elea told him, in strolled the cow. Her leg dragging behind her. He made the kill quickly using his bowie knife. Then field dressed her before caring the cow back to Elea to prepare for smoking.

"Elea, it worked! It was the female elk after all!" he said as he entered the chamber.

Elea gave him a half-cocked smile while she shook her head at him and said

"I never doubted it. You Coop obviously did. Bring it here and I'll start butchering it. Once we are finished, we are going to need to store some and cook some. We won't be able to stay in this chamber during the day while the meat is smoking have you found an alternate place for us to hang out?" she questioned

"I have, there is a hot spring not far from here. Seems like a great place for us to hang out during the day. I already have Billy getting it ready. As soon as the meats ready we can get the fire going in here and seal off the chamber so the meat starts smoking. I'm going to head out and find a few more granite rocks so once we have to put the fire out the chamber stays warm enough for us to sleep more comfortably." Cooper replied. He gave Elea a smile then looked like he wanted to say something more, but instead turned and left.

He spent an hour or so collecting as many granite rocks as he could find. He was going to use them to make a fire pit in the chamber. He returned to find Elea had finished butchering the elk and the room was ready for him to build the fire. She was not in the chamber, so he assumed she already relocated to the hot spring.

He carefully used all the rocks to built a pit, then put lit the fire. Once lit, he added both dry and wet wood to ensure the fire would burn hot throughout the entire day and produced large amounts of smoke to help cure the meat. Once the fire was done, he turned and pulled the chamber closed with the boulder and headed to the spring.

Elea and Billy were laughing and playing around in the water. Splashing and playing some kind of water game. They looked like they were having a blast without a care in the world. On the rock near the far end of the water Billy must have laid out some dried meat and fresh fruit he must have found will scavenging. Cooper's belly growled so he decided he would have a bite before joining them in water. The moment Billy spotted Cooper he said