Mira's Hope (2 page)

When any normal elf used magic, those marks
would cause instant pain, enough to render the elf incapable of
anything and within moments, they would die. Galena was different.
She could use small bits of magic without serious harm. Although,
she’d pushed herself a little too far at times, knocking herself
unconscious for days at a time. She’d always pulled through though.
However, this time was different. She pushed herself past the point
of return. She’d succumbed to the painful torture Rau intended for
every elf who attempted what was forbidden to them, but still, she
was alive.

As soon as she’d fallen, Elenio realized they
had to get her to Mira’s View if they wanted to save her. Mira’s
View was on top of one of the two remaining mountains. It was the
place that was said Mira herself visited from time to time when she
wanted to view her creation. On that mountaintop, there was
supposed to be a statue made in her image, looking down on a pool
of water. These waters were rumored to have magical healing
properties and given Galena’s predicament, Elenio fervently hoped
that part of the story was true.

Tark and Elenio devised a harness type of
system that would strap Galena securely to their backs, like a
grotesque pack. Each elf kept her strapped to their back as long as
they could before switching off. Galena for the most part, hung
limply in this harness, but every now and again, they would have to
pause while they watched her convulse in pain. They’d managed to
tie her hands to the harness system as well, to prevent her from
clawing herself to death. It made Elenio sick to watch her body
jerk uncontrollably while she silently screamed. Her voice had
given out some time before.

The entire way down, they continued to
discuss which mountain they should try next. Their friend Morgo,
stated no one really knew which of the three mountains were the
tallest if there really was a difference at all. Elenio felt the
middle mountain would be too obvious an answer, while Tark thought
mountains that led up like stairs would be a bit strange too. In
the end, they decided to try the middle mountain first, because it
was next. Neither mountain was a good choice in their minds.

Elenio placed his face in his hands and
almost sobbed aloud. He didn’t feel Galena would survive the ascent
of two mountains, if she even made it to the top of one. He looked
over at her where she lay twitching on the ground. They’d wrapped
her up like a cocoon in hopes of keeping her warm as well as to
keep her hands away from her wrists. She’d lost most of the color
from her face, looking grayer than her usual creamy white. She was
always covered in a thin layer of sweat as her daily battles
within, raged on. Any time she opened her eyes, only the whites
showed. His heart ached to see her this way. They had only stopped
twice and that was purely so they could each take a short nap in
order to regain some of their strength. At this point, Elenio felt
they were both climbing on adrenaline and even that was starting to
burn out.

Not only did they feel they were racing
against Galena’s will to live, but they felt sure Rau would send
more of his dark creatures to check on Galena. No torlics survived
the battle to report the results to Rau. For this reason alone, Rau
would be mad not to send someone to check on them. Elenio groaned
silently to himself, realizing if they did reach Mira’s View in one
piece, the rest of the journey would be simple. He almost laughed
aloud when he considered how hard the first half of the trip had
been before Galena had taken herself out.

Standing up, he stretched briefly before
stepping over the fire to Tark and gently shaking him awake. Tark
sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep from his eyes before saying, “My
turn to carry her?”

Elenio just nodded his head as he began to
unwrap Galena from her cocoon of blankets. He strapped a rope
around the top of her legs then bringing both ends up and crossing
them across her chest, he waited for Tark. Tark stepped over to
Galena, who Elenio had put in a sitting position, and turned so
they were back to back. Elenio then ran the rope over Tark’s
shoulders and crossed the rope across his chest. He then wrapped
the remaining rope around both Tark and Galena’s waist. Once this
was done, he fished out the smaller piece of rope and tied Galena’s
hands together in front of her. Checking to make sure all the ropes
and ties were secure, he helped Tark to his feet and then strapped
all three packs to his own back as well as all the swords and
scabbards. Both loads were equally heavy and awkward, but at least
Elenio didn’t have to worry about the packs having seizures every
now again.

Twoit, Galena’s ferret, had been beside
herself when Galena had first fallen. They couldn’t get her to
leave Galena alone in the beginning. They were finally reduced to
trapping her in one of the bags in order to keep her from trying to
lie on Galena’s shoulders or anywhere else on Galena’s person.
After that, it seemed as if Twoit went into a depressed stupor. She
would only drink when one of them forced her to and they hadn’t
been able to get her to eat anything. But, the ferret was the least
of their worries.
As long as they could get her to drink, she
should be fine
, Elenio reasoned with himself.

The same held true for Galena as well, only
they were less successful in getting her to drink. In most cases,
whenever they tried to pour water into her mouth, it sent her into
another spasm, allowing the water to escape the confines of her
lips and drain down onto her tunic. Her lack of anything entering
her body to sustain her energy was yet another reason they couldn’t
stop for breaks in Elenio’s mind. His body was screaming in protest
at this point, but compared to what Galena must be going through,
it was something he felt he could deal with.

Elenio and Tark started to descend the
mountainside, their steps becoming easier to take, but still they
stumbled with tiredness. They’d reached the point on the mountain
where it was no longer a steep climb, but more of a steeply sloping
hill. They trudged on at a relentless pace, only stopping for
moments to collect water from a stream that happened by their path.
Around noon, they switched off, Elenio taking Galena and Tark
taking the packs and weapons. They also dug their food out from
within their packs to eat as they continued on their way.

Their rations were beyond low at this point,
bordering on the verge of being gone. They had plenty of bite size
food, but they figured all of that would literally be one meal.
Elenio never learned a great deal about scavenging for food in the
wild from his teachers and family when he was growing up. Now, he
could have kicked himself for such a lack in judgment.

Tark said in somewhat of an offhanded voice
while handing Elenio his portion of the food, “This is the
last.”

This statement broke through Elenio’s
thoughts of his mother and her sayings more effectively than a
punch to the arm. Elenio knew Tark well enough to know his casual
manner meant he was worried, but refused to let anyone else know.
Instead of responding, Elenio gave a brief nod before looking down
at the meager amount of food in his hand. He had two plums and half
a loaf of bread. Although he never learned to scavenge for food,
he’d learned they would be able to live several days without it as
long as they had water. However, between carrying Galena, their
packs, and climbing the mountain, he knew they would need more than
water to keep them going and he didn’t relish the thought of how
hungry they were about to become. Moreover, he was sure they would
be running into torlics sooner or later and that task alone would
require a great deal of energy. Once again, he silently cursed
himself, why hadn’t he paid more attention to his mother when she
tried to describe the different plants to him?

Elenio was on the verge of smacking himself
on the head for his lapse of judgment, when he felt Galena begin to
twitch more rapidly. From prior experiences, he knew it was better
to stand still until her fit subsided so he stopped, and stood
patiently, waiting for the moment to pass. Tark looked back,
noticing Elenio was no longer with him and stopped as well. He took
the moment to finish off his food and take a drink of water. Elenio
finished his loaf and was reaching for his water, when Galena’s
shaking reached a new level, causing him to almost lose his
balance, and forcing him to resort to holding onto a nearby boulder
for support. She convulsed uncontrollably and moaned aloud. It was
the first time Elenio heard her voice since she lost it after
screaming in agony for several minutes on top of the first
mountain. Alarmed, he tried to turn and see her, but as she was
strapped to his back, he only proceeded in spinning around, looking
like a dog chasing his tail.

Tark raced over to Elenio and grabbing
Galena’s face, he held her head still while her body continued to
seize. He did this to protect her from causing further harm to
herself.

“Come on little sis, we’re almost there.”

Elenio heard the sound of a cloth wipe
against her face. Tark continued to hold Galena’s head between his
hands, whispering to her that they were with her and they were
going to get her to Mira’s View, she just needed to hold on a
little longer. Elenio wished it were him comforting Galena. He
wished he could see her beautiful face. He missed those golden eyes
staring into his own and more importantly, he missed the brief
period that they literally shared every thought and feeling before
she had taken herself consciously out of this world and placed
herself in the world between life and death. Galena was his
commitment partner, they shared what every other committed elf
shared, a true bond. Now, he feared he would never have that
again.

Finally, after several minutes, Galena’s
convulsions passed and she grew still once more. Tark released her
face, but not before kissing her forehead gently. “Let’s go. I want
to get started up the second mountain before we stop again.”

“She’s getting worse isn’t she? “ Elenio
asked quietly.

“There’s no way to know for sure, but I think
so. I think she’s getting tired of fighting. We’re going on
borrowed time as it is.”

Elenio nodded once before picking up the
pace. That was all the motivation he needed to get moving again. If
they didn’t eat again until after she had been healed, then so be
it.

Chapter
Three

It was sometime in the wee hours of the
morning of the third day that Tark stumbled to a stop before
dropping to his knees. He was carrying Galena and her head lolled
lifelessly around as he fell, making the sick feeling in Elenio’s
stomach even more pronounced.

“I have to stop,” he panted, raising a shaky
hand to his face.

They’d descended the first mountain and
started on the middle one sometime last night. They’d made good
progress too, as they were not quite a third of the way up. Now,
the going was harder, steeper, and required more strength, which
they had very little of. Trading Galena back and forth, with no
food since sometime the morning before and even less sleep, their
energy was quickly depleting.

Elenio dropped to his knees as well, panting
as heavily as Tark was. Realizing Tark would need help getting
Galena down, he lifted a leg and using it to brace his hand on as
leverage to help him rise, he stood shakily. His hands were shaking
badly too; hunger was a constant pain somewhere in the middle of
his stomach. It threatened to overwhelm him at times, for which he
responded by downing entire flasks of water. This helped a little,
but even now, he could not deny the ravage beast within in him that
demanded food.

“Shall we break into the bite size food?”
Elenio croaked, while he began to undo the ties around Galena and
Tark’s waist.

Tark wearily nodded, slumping onto all fours
when the weight of Galena was taken off him. Elenio cradled her
body closer to his own while he crouched on the ground. Cupping her
face, he turned it up so he could see her again. He did not like
what he saw. Her lips were blue and caked with blood and what
appeared to be dry foam. Panicking, he brought his fingers to the
side of her neck to check for a pulse, relief and sickness welled
up inside of him simultaneously. She had a pulse, but it was weak
and more sporadic than he cared for it to be.

He carefully laid her down on the blanket
Tark was spreading on the ground for her and wrapped her up like a
cocoon, leaving only her face showing. Finding the stream nearby,
he filled his flask and returned to her. He tilted her head up and
little bit by little bit, poured water in her mouth. It seemed as
if he would finally succeed in getting the liquid into her when she
began convulsing more violently than he’d seen her do so far.
Cradling her head so she wouldn’t beat herself to death on the
stone, he watched helplessly as she continued. Her screams
returned, although they sounded raspy and painful. He sobbed aloud,
the tears flowing freely down his face and onto her head as he
continued to hold her. She was trying to free her arms, clawing at
the blankets surrounding her. Elenio could hear her as she
struggled and was grateful when Tark came to hold her hands still.
He saw that he too was crying. They continued to watch and listen
to her living through this torture even as they tried to hold her
still.

Her screams reached a new height and she
arched her back in response to the agony wracking her body. Elenio
didn’t know what else to do. He couldn’t help her, but he couldn’t
just sit back and watch her battle. Her scream was cut short when
she clamped her mouth shut with a resolute snap. Elenio watched her
jaws bulge from the pressure they eluded. He was sure at that
moment; she could have bitten through a large stick with the amount
of pressure she was using.