the Forest of Emmitaenu

The Sky Is Falling

Zeftx heard a woman shriek at the same time that he saw the male witch throw himself in front of a gargoyle that had been after Jade. Zeftx wasn't sure if it was noble or insane, but because of all the chaos there was nothing he could do to help as the witch was carried into the sky.

Birds where falling like raindrops; fluttering to the ground with broken wings or broken beaks, but sadly overall they were mostly hitting the dirt lifeless. More and more gargoyles were arriving, and he didn't know how they would get out alive. He was struggling against outrageous numbers. His opposition had multiplied when he tried to rescue the girl crawling in the dirt. 

While Zeftx couldn't outrun the gargoyles, he could hide. He just wouldn't if it meant leaving others in harms way.  Thats why against his better judgment Zeftx attempted to rescue the young witch. Now, the mob of gargoyles he had taken on had him held down between the four of them. He fought as diligently as he could, refusing to make it easy for them to carry him away. He noticed the girl inching closer and closer wanting to help but not knowing how.  He wished instead she would escape, so his effort wasn't all in vain.

"Jade...Jade!" Zeftx screamed when he couldn't see her anywhere in plain view. Out of nowhere she pushed her way into the huddle where he was pinned. "No!"  That's not what he wanted her to do!  Zeftx protested but she wasn't listening. And it was too late anyway, the gargoyles had already noticed her.

"Take that, you nasty creatures!" She crowed after slapping them all in the face with her left hand, leaving behind hand prints with an oily substance. Zeftx jaw dropped. That would hurt Jade's hand more than it would hurt them. Then she waved her right hand under their noses, igniting the oil on their faces with her tiny torch.

They jumped back and roared, forgot their prey, and stretched out their wings to fly, trying futilely to outrun the fire clinging to them. "Well then, glad that worked," Jade said, sounding just as surprised and relieved as he felt. She reached down to scoop up more kindling from the forest floor.  Now they just had to rescue Lara.

"Lara!" They both exclaimed in unison. Zeftx jumped back to his feet and was almost knocked back down again when the helpless girl threw herself against his waist.

"Who are you?" Zeftx had to ask.

"Tres," she answered in a mousy voice that was barely audible. Jade spun around with eyes darting in every direction. Zeftx turned too so he could watch her back.

Suddenly he realized they were lucky to have received as little confrontation as they had. Not that it was meager by any means, but when he noticed the crowd surrounding Lara's mother, he realized it could have been twenty times worse. She was somehow providing a major distraction.

Tres started talking under her breath. Stretching out a shaky hand, she began outlining shapes in the empty air. She's casting a spell, Zeftx realized. The anxiety he instinctively felt was bottled by comprehension. She was trying to protect them. At least he hoped so.

A strong wind pushed through the narrow way, rustling the tree tops and parting the leaves enough for the moon, heavy and luminous to finally brake through.

"The sky is falling," the girl panicked. Zeftx weirdly wanted to laugh but he couldn't because it looked like she was right. The moon was the closest he'd ever seen it, the biggest it had ever appeared, and the brightest it had ever glowed. The only thing that could compare to it was standing a few strides away behind a wall of beasts. Lara's mother was putting out such a strong glimmering light of her own that it was hard to decide which was more startling to see.

Lara was hanging carelessly in the gargoyles arms. She had a bird's eye view as they left the forest beneath them and flew above the trees. It was an unpleasant shocked to see Lienkin rise into the sky a few hundred yards after her. From this height the moon could be seen but Lara hadn't noticed since her eyes were aiming down.

A gust of unnatural wind threw them off course with such ferocity that they both began to spiral back down into the trees. The gargoyles bounced clumsily off tree branches and got twisted up in their own wings as they twisted and rolled toward the forest floor. Lara and Lienkin yelled and their kidnappers both moaned in their ferocious voices as they impacted the ground.

Lara was wide-eyed with fear and too scared to speak. It took her some time to untangle herself from the stone claws. Lienkin, disoriented from the fall, wrestled out of his captors grip and raced to her. Stumbling to her feet at last, she leapt into his arms.

"You're alive," she cried out in relief. Gently Lienkin rubbed her back and kissed the top of her hair. She held on tightly to him and they stood alone together in the dark. Hundreds of yards away they could hear the moans of other beasts hitting the dirt. What happened to them? Lara didn't really care, she was just glad for it. She was so afraid to learn where the gargoyles were taking them.

They were both so shaken up from the ordeal but were no longer in the air which Lara was thankful for. She was still dizzy from the ride. The monsters nearby began to stir and she gasped. With Lienkin's arms wrapped securely around her, he lead them both back in the direction of the others.