Heir To The Nova (Book 3) (15 page)

I could stomach no more. I released my talons from the slippery branches and started an uncontrolled drop, sliding down, bough to bough, my brain in a fog. My dark elf training was telling me to fight, but my rational mind was saying I was only going to accomplish dying alongside my friends. Well, so be it then; I would die fighting. I hit the ground.

I was so focused that it took me several seconds to realize that bare feet with toes landed in the fresh mud beneath the tree rather than talons; boots forming shortly afterwards. The goblins seemed to be just as shocked to see a dark elf drop into their midst as I was to feel hands and feet again. My father didn’t raise me to be either slow or stupid; reaching down, I picked up one of the dead goblins’ poorly made swords and faced the enemy.

The sword was off balance and none too sharp, probably a human-made conscript’s weapon originally, but the point was sharp enough to rip out the throat of a goblin. These were all forest goblins, clad in rough weave clothes, little to no armor and even less brainpower, but there were more than a handful here and I could hear even more crashing through the underbrush in our direction. Standing over Lin, I used my longer arms to keep them at bay, my blade flicking out to score some damage. The rain constantly running in my eyes made it difficult for me to see everything that was going on. For their part, the goblins’ broad green faces grinned back at me as they just strove to keep me rooted to this spot, probably waiting for more of their ilk to show up with bows to finish me off. We danced like this for several minutes, the squat little bastards staying just out of reach.

With a last clap of thunder, the nearby fire line gave it up and sizzled to a smoldering stop, not a hundred paces from where we fought. A few seconds later, the rains slackened, and Jules finally broke her trance with a moan as she slid senselessly to the ground, joining Lin.

My situation was going nowhere. I couldn’t charge the group without leaving Lin and Jules defenseless; and if I stayed put, more goblins would continue to show up and eventually I would be overwhelmed. For the second time in as many minutes, I contemplated a demise suitable for a dark elf warrior, but I conceded that a real warrior probably wouldn’t have gotten themselves into this mess.

Uneasily, I heard the goblins’ guttural language being shouted from a distance and the grins got bigger on the louts in front of me as they kept me off guard and encircled. Finally, a larger, more decorated, really ugly goblin stepped out of the brush carrying a short bow and a quiver of black evil-looking arrows. He paused to bask in the adulation of the others as he selected an arrow, chuckled, and started to nock it.

He had pulled the string back no more than a couple inches when I heard a roar that seemed to rattle the ground we were standing on, and the big goblin was gone in a flash of black fur and claws. Standing over his body was a red-eyed monster of a black puma. A dozen or more arrows were sticking out of its body, but its teeth and claws still dripped with fresh goblin blood. With another rippling scream, it lunged at the goblins surrounding me, and several of the fools thought that I was the lesser threat and turned their backs to me. I may be a scholar but I am still a dark elf; their bodies slumped to the ground as one. Caught between me and the great cat, the goblins were confused and in disarray; and hurting either Lin or Julia was the last thing on their paltry minds. I took advantage of that and ranged out farther to kill several others. The puma meanwhile, slashed across the face of another goblin with its twelve inch razor paws and bit down on a second, crushing its throat, before settling to the ground with a soft moan. I could tell the cat was dying; the blood seeping out of all the arrow wounds spoke of eminent collapse. The puma down, several of the surviving goblins ran over with the intention of bludgeoning it with their clubs, but a voice inside me wouldn’t let me allow them to dishonor such a warrior.

With a roar of challenge of my own, I stepped in front of the advancing last three. Lashing out with a foot, I caught one of them in the stomach and sent him sprawling. The other two attempted to coordinate their attack, one chopping high and the other low, but I managed to dodge the first club and take out the eye of the wielder with the point of my sword. The second club impacted on my shin and dropped me, but I grabbed the front of his tunic and tossed him over me as I was falling. He landed just inches away from the puma that was laboring to breath. I’m not sure if it was just reflex or battle rage, but the cat’s front paw snapped over the goblin’s neck and curled, raking deep gouges that brought dark blood burbling up under its foot. The last goblin that I had kicked was still writhing on the ground with broken ribs when I slid my blade into its throat.

With a feeble groan, the puma leaned up on its front paws and stared at me for a second. It was as if I was being given instructions, a message that my conscious mind couldn’t decipher; but somewhere deep down, it was understood. Satisfied, the huge black head slumped back to the ground, shuddered, closed its eyes, and went forever still.

Covered in goblin blood, I canted my head for a few seconds listening. I couldn’t detect any other sounds of approaching foes, just the occasional deer or bunny returning to their home. The forest was eerily quiet as I hobbled wearily over to the girls and started pulling the netting off Lin’s wolf body. She was bloody and broken, but her furry chest still rose and fell with some wheezing difficulty. Jules stirred slightly and her blue eyes opened, still unfocused, as she tried to sit up, failed and flopped back down.

Casting around, I found some hot coals still smoldering under a downed log and brought them over to start a small campfire. One of the dead goblins had a serviceable knife and a water skin that wasn’t too disgusting, which I confiscated. Following the sounds of painful cries, I found a large hare that had broken its legs trying to vault over a brush pile in its haste to escape the fire. Ending its suffering, I skinned it and placed the meat over sticks near the fire.

About that time, Reggie erupted out of the ground and stood motionless near Julia. Not knowing what to say, I just blurted out the truth. “Julia is just sleeping from overextending herself. She’ll be fine in a little while.”

The rock manifestation simply grated together a few inches in an approximation of a nod of agreement and remained on guard. I took the water skin and walked out farther to try and find a spring or stream. Dark elves have a keen sense of smell, and even with the smoke stench from the fire, I found a small upwelling of clear water at the bottom of a small swale. Circling back, I skirted the edge of the forest where the goblins had been waiting for the animals to leave the forest and I found them all dead, torn to pieces by a huge cat. Even their tusker mounts were savagely slaughtered.

Returning to my friends, I woke Julia up and made her drink some water. After turning the rabbit on the sticks, I started to work on Lin. By now, she had reverted back to her human girl form, but she was still laying in the fetal position, obviously in pain, but still unconscious. The sound of Lin’s moans jolted Julia back to her old self.

“By the stars, Ryliss; what happened?”

“Don’t you remember?” I gave her the quick version while handing her some rabbit on a stick. “Eat. You need to regain some strength to heal Lin.”

An hour later, both girls were awake and sitting disconsolately on a felled tree trunk. Lin was largely healed but still weak and way quieter than normal. Jules was better, but the concern for Lin still showed in her eyes. Getting up, Julia walked over to my side where I was sadly examining the great cat that had died saving my life.

“Do you know what kind of cat that is, Ryliss?” Julia asked quietly.

“A Jag’uri puma. It’s also my spirit animal,” I replied painfully, almost feeling like a part of me had died, too.

“Do you see anything else?”

“Just a brave noble creature that I can never repay.Why, what else is there?”

Julia smiled sadly. “She was lactating. That means she has a cub nearby; we need to find it.”

“Don’t you have some druid thing you can do?”

Jules shook her brown curls from side to side. “I think I might have overdone it already today. If you want to fly home today with the rest of us, I better save it. It was a good thing Lin somehow managed to transform you back into dark elf super girl before she passed out or we might all be dead. I don’t know how she managed to break my spell; I didn’t think she had enough power to do that.”

“Lin was already unconscious when I changed back; I thought you did it.”

“I don’t think so, I was completely focused on the rain. Hmmm, interesting,” Jules said in wonderment, her elbow on her chest and her hand under her chin. “Anyway, you better see if that cub wants to be found. Jag’uri takes secretive to a whole new level; if it doesn’t want to be found, you’ll never find it…even a small cub.”

She went back and sat with Lin to rest. Taking my battered captured sword with me, I left them still huddled around the fire with Reggie looming over them protectively.

I took a deep breath and cleared my mind, just letting my feet take me in any direction they pointed. There were still some faint tendrils of smoke rising above the charred forest floor as I walked along the edge between recently scorched and still green living land. If nothing else, there might be wounded animals to attend. My ears registered the small rustlings of creatures in the undergrowth, so some life was gratefully returning.

All dark elves spend a lot of time in the forests. Our personal comfort levels are intimately tied to the trees, shrubs, and grasses, and it’s literally our life’s blood. But I was always different; I felt a closer connection to books than the land. Most girls my age were either contemplating marriage or halfway through their warrior training. I was neither. Oh, my father spared no effort to train me to fight as a dark elf warrior, but it was never a true love of mine. Metal weapons like the one in my hand made me itch, which is why I gravitated to the shaped polished wood structure of bows. My hand was itching horribly now, so feeling the danger was past, I cast the ugly sword far away into the burnt zone.

The metal gone, I felt an inrushing of the forest presence that took my breath away, like a blindfold had been lifted from my eyes. Suddenly, the bumblebees in the air around me had a palatable life force that I could see and hear. The sunshine filtering lazily through the tree canopy had a taste. The colors of tree boughs and bark had a smell I could discern from a distance. All combined were nurturing elements to my mind and soul. This is what I had been missing in life, but why was I experiencing it now?

Confused and a little terrified, I stopped and closed my eyes. Instead of restricting the rush of new feelings, it intensified it. My sense of smell registered not just the smoke of the fire, but the rainwater dripping from leaves and the sharp acidic tang of white-footed mice in the grass. It was like eagle vision of the nose, and I loved it. I wanted to soak it all in, roll in it, luxuriate in it. Dig my claws into the soft fragrant soil and feel the coolness on the pads of my feet.

Wait…claws? Pads? Disoriented, I dropped to my knees and slowly toppled over on my back in the wet grass. Something told me to lie still and concentrate on taking slow, even breaths. I think I dozed off for a little while, because when I opened my eyes again, I was not alone. A large black kitten was tucked under my arm, its back pressed against my side, sleeping peacefully.

I sat up slowly in measured increments, finally resting on my elbows. The cat woke up and swiveled its face to look into mine, crystalline blue orbs meeting my eyes and drawing them down into their depths. She uttered a crackling little ‘rawr’ noise.

“Naurakka,” I whispered, the name coming to me instantly. The blue eyes blinked, and I felt her understanding and tacit approval.

“Come on, little one, we have a lot of life ahead of us.”

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Alex

The afternoon of our last full day on the trail was more than half gone and we were all worried. Instead of looking ahead to finding a good campsite, we were scanning the empty skies. Lin, Julia and Ryliss had changed into eagles and taken off right after midday and still weren’t back. In the meantime, a rainstorm darkened the entire sky and swept through, drenching the party. Fifteen minutes of downpour, and then the rain and black clouds lifted and dispersed as if they had never been.

“That was not a natural storm,” Maya muttered under her breath, and Dawn and Dusk nodded their agreement as we all waited out the storm and watched for signs of the girls. After the rain stopped, we resumed our travel; an hour stretched into two before I called a halt at a likely-looking spot to camp. Maya had just sent the twins up into the air to look for our missing companions. The dwarves, Mingt, and I hurriedly unhitched the teams and unloaded the gear. The dragons weren’t gone more than fifteen minutes before the two sleek silvers descended back to the ground at the edge of camp and instantly reverted back into their human forms.

“We saw them and they aren’t far,” Dusk reported. “They’re flying low, just over the tree tops for some reason, and one of them is carrying something in a sack.

A few minutes later, three large blue-toned eagles dropped into camp, the spreading and braking actions of their wings causing the campfire to flutter madly and throw cinders high into the air. Jules reformed first, quickly revoking the spell that held Ryliss in bird form. The dark elf girl appeared, still holding onto the ragged bundle she had been carrying in her talons. Lin brought up the rear, and even in her human form looked half dead. Trouble was etched all over their young faces.