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Elcha cut her story and stared at me, bewildered – my face must have had too eloquent a palette of colors that were enough to get my feelings without a word.
“Run, Elcha, run!” I screamed pulling the blades out of the sheath and rushing to cover her. She immediately realized everything and, jumping off the boulder, tried to rush to the river, yet was definitely too slow against the monster. It jumped, too, and would have got her right there, but ran into my claw – I had released one of the chains a split second before.
The creature roared and fell onto the stones, while I quickly pulled the blade out still
wondering how I had managed it.
“There! Fast!” I pointed toward a small cleft between the rocks hoping the beast would prove too large to squeeze in.
I could hear stones rustling behind and then a growl followed, which was getting closer. I grabbed Elcha by the arm and ran pulling her along.
She is too slow, I realized with horror, but we have to make it, no choice, the only desperate thought was beating in my head.
As we reached the cleft, I pushed her thus both adding her some acceleration and attaching direction to her movement. She flew into the crevice like an arrow, and I turned around. The beast was running at breakneck pace yet came to a dead stop the second it saw me standing on the way, daggers in my hands. Now it was standing opposite, growling.
“What now, you stupid rubbish? Never seen anyone fighting you back?” I shouted. “Wanna try once again?”
It growled again, teeth bared, and I could hear real menace in it.
“There is a way here!” Elcha’s voice came from behind.
“Elcha, run as far as you can, don’t look back,” I shouted over my shoulder, never taking my eyes off the monster. That moment, on my right, with my side vision, I could notice some more movement. And as I turned my gaze I froze. Another beast was emerging slowly from the bushes, its eyes glued to me.
“And you?”
“I’ll catch up!” I said slowly, trying to keep my voice stable. And there I had a click in my mind, I won’t catch up with her, no way! I won’t even leave this place now. Ever!
“Ricka! You crazy! I’m not leaving you here!” she was not just panicking, I could hear she was nearly crying.
“Elcha, just leave!” I shouted at the top of my lungs still never taking my eyes off the beasts. “Leave now!”
I could hear quick sounds of two feet running over the stones and getting lost in the distance.
The monsters were grinning and growling, yet did not dare come any closer, just standing there with their tentacles stretching forth.
Only then I could see they were different. The one I already knew was black as ink, while the other one had a slightly whitish mane. But the pattern on their skins was the same.
I wished I had not left my bag behind, Nargara’s special action elixirs would come in handy indeed.
My heart was nearly jumping out of my mouth, but at the same time I felt some strange and frightening calmness inside. The main thing was to stretch the time thus giving Elcha a chance to go as far as possible.
“What now, you stupid mongrels? Got your tails between your legs?” I tried to stick a smile on my face, but I think even someone sentenced to the rope would have a happier smile before the execution. “Afraid of getting your miserable skins spoilt? Expected to get me on a silver platter, didn’t you? You, two ugly things! And you couldn’t get me last time, so now you brought help, right?” I asked the black beast stuffing my voice with as much sarcasm as I could.
They both let out a hoarse growl and began their advance.
And the next moment, the one with the whitish mane rushed forward.
I was so frightened I shot both claws, which left a dull sob behind as they entered the flesh. The beast bellowed with pain and collapsed onto the grass having jumped short of me. However, as it fell down, my chains remained under.
Here, Truvle! Really great! Tell me nobody can get me with this weapon. So it was neither Truvle’s work nor the lessons I learnt from Yoos that could help me anymore. I tried pulling the chains with all might, and pulled again, but all in vain. They chains stuck under the ugly carcass. Out of my eye’s corner I saw the other beast ready to jump, and despair seized me. I threw the handles and darted to the passage. Something cut through my shoulder, getting deep through both clothes and skin. I uttered a moan, my teeth still pressed tight.
And then suddenly I was blinded by a bright flash, and a disgusting howl nearly ruined my ears, followed with the smell of burning flesh. I yet took a few steps forward, stumbled upon something and tried to pull focus. It was Elcha – standing right in front of me, her face harder than stone, and her hand ablaze with fire.
“Have been dreaming so long of trying this!” she said as she gave a wolfish smile, and then a huge fireball jumped off her hand. The fist creature, which had my blades under it, was already up and rushing at us. Everything around seemed to be slowing down.
“Elcha!”
She turned around and let another spell at the beast, which was already halfway jumping. The ball got right into its disgusting jaws, throwing it back, and us – the opposite way.
I was quick to jump up and drag my sister to the cleft seeing that the black monster was once again on its feet, already shaking its head to come round.
“Oh, shit,” I couldn’t hold anger, “they are up again… We got to run now.”
We ran down the narrow crevice in the rocks, dodging between stones. The cleft was soon left behind and we jumped out of the other side of the cliff.
The Sun had already set, and twilight came. We ended up just a little way off the Karun valley, and now there was a huge green field stretching before us.
I knew the place. Local shepherds often brought cattle to graze here. A little left, there was the trade route, and further down it, was the Eagle’s Nest fortress.
“There,” I waved to the side where the city lights were flickering, and then turned to Elcha. She was standing there, staggering, all pale and her face fallen. I even thought for a second that she had grown several years older within just the last minutes.
“I read somewhere that combat magic drains your power. But I could never have expected the feeling to be such a nasty one,” she smiled tightly.
“Hold on,” I whispered, casting a nervous glance at the cleft. “Looks like we’ve broken off, despite the thin odds. I don’t think they’ll squeeze through the crevice. Now all we got to do is get home,” I grabbed her hand and dragged along.
“We need to get to the valley entrance… the valley is sealed, they said, sealed, they said they would not go there…” she muttered indistinctly under her breath, “now I understaaand …” she drawled and giggled.
I gave her a look full of suspicion.
Looks like she is delirious, I concluded, as she went on slurring over her words, “They picked up the trail, hee-hee… there was only a year left, he said, all you have to do is just hold out for another year, hee-hee-hee … and he also said, while one is alive we don’t need the other one. Yes, that’s what he said… And there was something else, something about the danger of
fights…”
“Who was saying that, Elcha?” I snapped. I was all in goosebumps seeing her going insane.
And what if she goes completely nuts and stays that forever!
“Who was that, Elcha?” I asked again and gave her a strong shake.
She looked up at me, distracted, her gaze blurred, and smiled absently.
“I mean those two, wearing cloaks, I told you earlier today,” she murmured in a strange and dreamy voice.
“Okay, we got to cross this field right now, as quickly as possible, too visible here,” I said and looked around.
Some growl came from behind, my entire body got tense instantly, and I looked back still keeping Elcha with my one hand and bringing her behind my back.
The two monsters were approaching, both growling and their eyes shooting fire in the dark.
“That’s just perfect!” my sister said giggling again, which made me so mad I wished I had something heavy in my hand to bang her on the head.
Apparently, I was losing my nerve, too. And she seemed to be right, the situation was just perfect – no weapon in my hand and no place to hide, open area around only.
“What the hell do you want, finally?” I shouted, full of despair rather than courage. “Are we going to be so delicious or something? No more wild goats to eat?”
Elcha gave another giggle full of nerve, then raised her hand and let another clot of fire into the creatures. They jumped aside still remembering the previous fight, yet did not intend to leave, just stood at a short distance.
Okay, we’ll get to Elcha’s nervous breakdown later. The major part now is to survive…
“Elcha, listen to me now,” I said, “you beat them with magic whenever I tell you, just don’t waste your power, okay? And we are moving now to the city, fast, just as fast as we can.”
She replied with an estranged nod.
But my plan failed. A few seconds later my sister fainted, so I got her hanging in my arms like a huge sack, completely exhausted. The only part of me still able to move fast was my thoughts rushing around in my head.
I sat on the ground and embraced my sister, my eyes all sore with tears and indignation.
The beasts brightened up and began to approach us feeling much more confident.
Just another couple of seconds and it’s all over. I think I did have a chance to survive, alone, but I never – NEVER – even thought of leaving my sister behind.
I was up already, watching silently them approaching us. Next moment, one of them rushed at me, knocked me to the ground and pressed down. The smell streaming out of its mouth hit my nose. Disgusting! I looked up and saw the monster’s face right over mine, its teeth bared in an ugly grin, and its tentacles nearly reaching my face.
As they touched me it felt like electricity running through my body, and then I realized that I could make no slightest movement.
But suddenly the beast lost all its interest in me. They both mover toward my sister, then one of them bit her arm and started dragging her away. Elcha moaned with pain. The other at that time was moving its head to Elcha’s neck, as if trying to pick the right spot for an assault.
They are going to tear her apart, flashed in my mind. Tears were streaming down my
face, yet I could do nothing. I screamed, but I could not hear my own voice. Despair, rage and fear overwhelmed my head and were burning me from inside. I was rushing through that inner heat looking desperately for a way out of that all, and then it came to me… It was the way out! The heat that I could feel with my entire soul was the way out. There was a fire tearing me apart as if trying to get out… a flame of incredible power… a flame, pure and naturally primitive. And I could no longer tell where it was me, and where it was the fire! I was the fire.
The beasts turned sharply to see what was going on. As our eyes met, their tentacles began to move feverishly; they were both raging around the same spot, greedily catching air with their nostrils. One even began to whine with excitement.
But I took no notice of that already; I was all burning from inside. I glanced at my hands – they were all in flames looking more like scarlet tongues, and then the fire spread all over my body, sweeping me from head to toe. My hair sprang up filled with a force struggling to break out. The grass around flared and crumbled in ashes, spreading the fire further down the slope.
Some unearthly sensation of euphoria and invincibility filled me. There was nothing burning from inside – I myself was burning, just like anything else around.
I stood up, stepped toward the monsters, and, imitating Elcha’s movement, sent all this fire their way, charging it with all my rage, despair and fear.
A flash lit up all around. The light was so intense it looked like daytime for a moment. The space around seemed to be ringing and buzzing, and a deafening bang followed… and then darkness shrouded it all.
That very instant, all the unearthly sensation vanished as if it had never been there, giving way to some deaf emptiness and complete impotence. It felt like I was going to turn into ashes and get scattered around like burnt grass.
Semiconscious, I sank to the ground, curled up and drifted off.
The Accident
I came round feeling water poured on me. They must have poured more than a few glasses, actually. And then I felt on my lips that very nasty bitter taste that always made me sick, after which I saw Nargara’s face, all worried, looking me right in the eyes.
“She’s back! Praise to the Worlds!”
She waved her hand to somebody and I got seated. I spat out that sickening stuff and looked around. Mours again! Then I got surprised seeing I was covered in a blanket, and further then got terrified realizing there was nothing else covering me under that.
Next to me I saw Truvle, who was keeping me from the back and expressing some smile that was too shy to be a real one, actually.
The field around that was green once, was a desert, with all the ground cracked and burnt down to the last straw.
A bit further aside, I saw my sister lying on the ground and covered with ash. But I could not see her face. Nargara and Yoos bent over her and were busy doing something. The only green piece was around her body. Unlike me, she had still the same clothes on, even though much shabby.
“Elcha,” I sighed getting shocked with my own voice, or what was left of my voice, to be exact.
“Alive, lost lots of blood though’” Truvle said sadly.
“The beasts?” I continued huskily.
“Dead,” the smith said and hugged me, which was quite unexpected. “It’s all over, calm down.”
The sky was already getting bright as the first rays got out from behind the horizon.
Mammy approached us quickly and helped Truvle get me up on my feet.
“You can walk, can’t you?” she asked giving me a look full of concern.
I shook my head.
“Truvle, take her then. We got to leave right now, fast. Got to leave before a soul sees us,” the witch snapped, and that very moment the smith’s strong arms took me up.
Yoos was already standing nearby, holding Elcha in his arms.
She was unconscious, all pale, with sunken eyes and bluish lips. One of her arms was wrapped with a narrow strip of white cloth.
“Sorry, Truvle. I lost your gift,” I complained as I buried my face into his shoulder, “lost the blades near the river…”
“You really care about that sort of rubbish, baby? There, look! Your blades, I mean,” and he pointed at Yoos who was carrying Elcha. I looked out from behind his powerful shoulder and saw my weapon dangling at the old warrior’s belt.
“Where did…” I was baffled.
“When you got beyond the valley,” Truvle started, “Nargara could feel that right away. I had just come to Karun and was approaching your home when I met her. Then we called Yoos as we were rushing here. He was on watch, at the eastern gate. And then we followed your footsteps down to the meadows, and then got down the river still with no single where you went afterwards. We saw lots of prints, all mixed, and then found your claws and bag. When Yoos could make sense of it all, he said that the beast was not alone, and we went on to finally end up at the crack in the rock… and then there was an insane explosion that left the mountains buzzing,” he fell into silence for a few moments, and then drew a tight sigh, “Nargara rushed that way, and we still had to roam through the rocks before we could finally come out of the maze to find you,” he stopped again, and then, piercing me with an extremely intense look, added, “and the very thought something could be wrong with you two… We had real frights of our lives.”
“It was creepy,” I confirmed, still surprised with the severe looks on his unshaven face, which, in a moment, gave way to sorrow.
“When we got closer, you both were on the ground, not a single movement. I thought you were dead,” he had real trouble uttering the last words.
I gave a sob and buried my face in the shoulder again.
“Okay. C’mon, girl. Everyone is alive, and that’s what matters.”
“Alive…” I echoed still not sure it was true.
