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Pursuit- part 1
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Pursuit- part 1 |
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Darkfire k'Sheyna Junior Member
since 2003-03-20
Posts 26Maryland, U.S.A. |
Katri burst into the slumbering camp, fear written across her face. “Shae!” she cried, shaking her half-elven brother awake. “Shae, get up! They’re right behind us! We’ve got to go, now!” “What?” he cried, sitting bolt upright. “Wake the others, I’ll start packing.” Katri rushed across the camp to the only other humanoid, the elf Elijah. “Elijah! Wake up! We have to go, now!” She paused just long enough to make sure he got up, and then went to the fourth member of their ragged band. “Rhynna,” she called to the unicorn. “Rhynna, we must leave immediately.” Elijah, busy packing, called to Katri, “How far behind us are they?” “Only a couple of hours at the most. We have to put some more distance between us before they wake,” Katri replied. They gathered everything quickly and started off at a rapid pace. Katri, Shae, Elijah, and Rhynna were fleeing for their lives from a large human tracking party. Their three races were part of a larger group known as the Exotics, which besides half-elves, unicorns, and elves, included dragons, centaurs, fairies, ogres, goblins, griffons, and many other species. The humans were vastly more numerous than all of the Exotics, mostly due to the fact that they hunted and killed most of them on sight. The humans hated and feared them all. The half-elves Katri and Shae were twins, hidden away at birth by their elven mother, and forced to fend for themselves after her death when they were fifteen. They met up with Elijah and Rhynna and lived in hiding for five more years before being discovered and forced to flee. They had heard rumors of a place known as the Sanctuary, a magically hidden refuge for the Exotics. No human had magic, and only those with the power could see through the illusion placed on the building. Unfortunately, they had no proof that it actually existed, and only a vague idea of where it was supposed to be located. With no other options available, they ran that way in the vain hope that they might find it. “I thought we had lost them yesterday,” Rhynna said, frustrated. “So did I,” Katri replied grimly, walking alongside the majestic beast. “But I used the FarSeeing spell and I Saw the tracking party. It was definitely them, and they weren’t very far behind.” Elijah, overhearing, cursed softly. “How do we even know we’re not running towards nothing? This Sanctuary may not even exist. All we have to go on are rumors and a riddle,” he said. Rhynna turned her head to face him, her sapphire eyes stern. “Because it is our only hope, and I for one prefer to keep believing rather then to give in to despair,” she said firmly. Elijah frowned. “Shae,” he said thoughtfully, “let me hear that riddle again.” The half-elf pushed a lock of golden hair back and obliged. “Through the dragon with wings out wide, and east to the stony tree. Follow the instructions of the written guide, To find the Sanctuary.” “The dragon with wings out wide…” Elijah mused. He was silent a while, thinking, and the group continued onwards. The land grew higher around them as they journeyed, as if walls had sprung up on either side. Then one appeared in front of them, covered in vines. It was a dead end. They stopped. “Now what?” Katri asked, glancing around. Shae looked at his companions. They all looked weary and exhausted. They had been running for three days now. “We rest,” he said firmly. “We might as well. There must be more distance between us.” Rhynna lay down on the soft moss. “Sounds good to me,” she said. Elijah, however, seemed restless. He picked at the vines and wandered around. Katri, exhausted, took Rhynna’s idea and lay down. She promptly fell asleep. Shae decided to stand watch, since nobody else was. He walked a little ways off, sat down, and invoked the FarSeeing spell to see where the humans were. To his shock, he found them no more then half an hour away. He snapped out of his trance and rushed back. Seeing Rhynna, he called, “The humans are coming! We’re trapped!” She jerked to her feet in alarm. “What?” she gasped. “They’re half an hour away. We’re trapped down here. If we go back the way we came, they’ll have us for sure,” he said urgently. Just then, Elijah gave a cry and started ripping vines off the rock cliff. “Are you insane?” Shae cried. “What are you doing?” “The dragon!” Elijah cried excitedly. “The dragon with wings out wide!” By now, enough vines were down for Shae to see what he was talking about. A dragon was carved into the rock face, its wings spread. “But the riddle says through the dragon,” said Katri, who had woken up. “How do we get through that?” “There must be a hidden door,” said Rhynna. “Start searching!” A few minutes later, no one had found anything, and they could faintly hear the barking of the tracking dogs the humans used. “We’ll never find it!” Katri said in despair, slumping against the dragon’s claw. “This thing is huge!” There was a sudden grating sound, and a door slid open in the dragon’s belly. Katri stared; open mouthed, and Shae burst out laughing. “Come on!” he called, and led the way through the door. On the other side was more forest, but now they had a direction. “East!” Elijah said, and the bedraggled band moved on. “I don’t understand how they’re moving so damned fast!” Katri complained to him a little later. “They should have been half a day behind, not half an hour. It doesn’t make sense!” “You’re right,” Elijah agreed. “At this rate, it won’t be long until they catch us. The dragon ought to slow them down until they can figure out how to open the door, though, so we’ve bought a little time.” A dog barked behind them. Katri paled, and stared at Elijah, who froze. “Or maybe not,” he said slowly. Another bark, closer. This time, Rhynna and Shae heard it too. “Run!” Elijah yelled. They broke into a desperate run, as swiftly and silently as possible. As they ran, Katri muttered words to a spell. A bow and some arrows appeared for her to use. They ran up a steep hill, and some of the humans were in sight by the time they reached the top. She turned, nocked an arrow, and shot. A human male in the lead cried out and fell as the arrow seemed to sprout from his throat. Shae turned also, a bow in his hands, and felled the other human in the lead. The others slowed their pursuit and backed up as the twins let fly a deadly barrage, Elijah soon joining in as well. The humans got organized quickly, however, and soon were returning fire, but not before at least six lay dead. “Get down!” Shae shouted. Elijah and Katri threw themselves flat, and Rhynna backed up until she couldn’t be seen from below. Katri nocked another arrow, cautiously sat up, and fired. It struck one of the humans in the leg, and he collapsed. Suddenly, a searing pain exploded in her shoulder, and she tumbled backwards from the impact. Looking over, she saw an arrow embedded in her shoulder. She gasped at the pain. “Katri!” Shae cried in horror as he saw her fall. He rushed to her side. “I’m…all right,” Katri gritted out. “We have to get out of here, keep going.” “Rhynna,” Shae called. “Can you bespell one of these bows to continue shooting anytime they get in range? You have the strongest magic of us all.” “Aye, I can and will,” she replied. “Lay yours down there and I’ll do it.” She touched it with her horn and it glowed briefly, then faded. “That should do it. Let’s go,” she said. Shae helped Katri to her feet, one arm around her for support. Elijah dropped his own bow and joined them as they hurried off as best they could. As they left, he heard a twang and a faint cry from below. The spelled bow was doing its job. They continued until nightfall, and, hearing no sounds of pursuit so far, decided to stop and make camp. Shae gently lowered Katri to the ground, and knelt to examine her wound. “How do you feel?” he asked her. She smiled weakly, her face drawn and pale. “ Just fine, thanks,” she said. His mouth twisted in a wry smile. “Liar.” About a quarter of the arrow was in her shoulder. “I’ve got to get this out, you know,” he said. She closed her eyes, and nodded. He grasped the shaft firmly and pulled. Katri cried out with the pain, but the arrow was out. Shae quickly applied pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding, and she moaned. “I know, I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Rhynna, can you tell if it’s infected?” he called. She trotted over and placed the tip of her horn on the area around the injury. “It is,” she said grimly. “Those humans put some kind of mild poison on their arrows.” Shae cursed. “We’ve got to wash this out. Hand me a damp cloth?” he asked. After tending to Katri, Shae thought back over the events of the day. “How could the humans have found the way through that dragon carving so fast?” he asked aloud, pacing the clearing. “They don’t even know that we went through it.” “Well, where else would we have gone?” Rhynna pointed out. “It was a dead end, and the vines were all over the ground, revealing the carving.” “But they still shouldn’t have gotten through so quickly!” Shae said, scowling. A though occurred to him, and he paused in his pacing. “Unless-” He spun. “Who was the last person through the dragon?” he demanded. “Elijah,” said Rhynna. “Why?” “Elijah!” Shae called. The elf emerged from the surrounding tees with a canteen of water. “What?” he asked. “Did you close the door in the carving once you were through?” “No,” Elijah said slowly, “I assumed it would close on it’s own.” “But you didn’t check to see if it did, now, did you?” Shae asked. “No, I didn’t.” “Well, there we go,” said Shae angrily. “That’s why the humans caught up. You left the door wide open.” “Now, see here-” Elijah began heatedly. “It’s your fault that they found us and Katri got an arrow in her shoulder!” Shae yelled. “You don’t even know if that is what really happened!” Elijah retorted. “You’re just looking for some one to blame for your poor leadership!” “My poor leadership?” sputtered Shae. “I didn’t see you jumping forward to take charge! Someone had to!” “I didn’t take charge because you wouldn’t let me! You had to do things your way! You wouldn’t listen to my suggestions!” “Because they were ridiculous!” Shae bellowed. “Oh, like leaving our hiding place before the humans found us and chased us out! Searching for the Sanctuary without a hunting party on our trail! Yes, that sounds ridiculous, that does!” Shae’s green eyes flashed with fury. He opened his mouth to respond angrily when Rhynna interrupted. “And yelling like this will soon have every human in the forest descending on our camp,” she said calmly. Shae shut his mouth, and his shoulders slumped. “Not that it matters what we do,” he said hopelessly. “The humans will catch us anyway.” Elijah glowered at him and muttered something in Elvish that Shae didn’t understand, and then stalked catlike out of the clearing. Shae watched him go in silence, glaring at his back. “You know,” Rhynna remarked into the quiet, “that really was uncalled for.” “What would you know, spikehead?” Shae demanded viciously. Rhynna looked hurt, and he immediately felt bad. “I’m sorry, Rhynna,” he said, his anger slipping away. “I didn’t mean that.” He turned and stared out into the dark trees, his eyes bleak. “It’s just that we’ve been running for nearly four days now, and every move we make, every bit of time we gain, the humans are still right behind us.” He looked at the unicorn. “I don’t know what to do,” he said in a voice so soft, it was almost a whisper. “I’m scared.” Elijah pushed his way through the forest, scowling. Sitting in a tree helped to calm him, so he picked one and swung up into its branches. Funny, he thought. This bark is really hard. It almost feels like-like stone! He almost fell out of the tree when he realized. East to the stony tree! We found it! His anger evaporated in the face of his excitement. “Stony tree!” he called, tumbling down to the ground, yet landing gracefully. He ran back to the clearing. “The tree! Made of stone!” Shae looked up, his eyes full of rekindled hope. “It is?” he asked. Elijah nodded. “Wonderful! Do you see any written guides?” “It’s too dark now to make anything out. We’ll have to wait until morning to look for that,” Elijah said. “All right. Your turn for first watch,” Shae replied, then paused. “’Lij?” Elijah turned. “I’m sorry.” The elf shrugged. “Don’t worry about it,” he replied. Shae checked on Katri again, only to discover that she was unconscious. His forehead creased with worry, he gently bandaged her shoulder as best he could, then settled down for sleep. |
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| © Copyright 2003 Jennifer Quinn - All Rights Reserved | |||
LoveBug
Moderator
Member Elite
since 2000-01-08
Posts 4697 |
Wow... I really enjoyed this. Tolkien turned me on to the fantasy genre, and I think your story is very captivating. I'm surprised this doesn't have any more replies. I'm looking forward to the conclusion. Very well done. Oh, make me Thine forever |
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