Mira's Hope (6 page)

“Really Galena, how many heart stopping
experiences do you think we can handle?” Tark asked, a looked of
feigned worry on his face.

“The sad part is,” Elenio said more to Tark.
“Most of the damage she has suffered has been at her own hands.
What do you think will happen when we finally make it to Rau?”

Both elves looked seriously at Galena before
they broke into devious grins.

Thought they were funny did they
.
Galena raised an eyebrow at them as they chuckled at their own
jokes.

Elenio took in her expression just before
Galena sent both of them soaring into the air, spinning around and
around the campfire. She heard Tark scream out for
her
to
stop, but all she heard was that he wanted to be stopped, so she
obliged by sending him crashing into Elenio. The thump they made
was very satisfying to her, and she laughed aloud before gently
setting them down on either side of her. Her mirth grew and she
laughed even harder when she saw the dazed and somewhat silly
expressions on their faces. Even this didn’t last long as they took
her momentarily smug assurance she had won, and used it against
her. Tark dove for her first, grabbing her arms as Elenio reached
in for the kill. He tickled her mercilessly, causing her to gasp in
between attacks. She couldn’t concentrate enough to use her magic
to stop him and before long, she was crying out a truce.

Tark released her arms and immediately she
scrambled away to the other side of the campfire. As she worked on
returning her breathing to normal, she realized something very
vital to their success.

“I couldn’t use magic to save myself.” She
stared into the fire while the meaning of her words soaked into the
minds of Tark and Elenio. She looked up and found she had indeed
gained both of their attention.

“What?” Elenio asked cautiously as if he had
heard her wrong.

“Just now, when you were tickling me, I
couldn’t concentrate enough to use magic and stop you.”

“That was the whole point,” Tark said,
shrugging. He poked the logs around in the fire, causing the flames
to rise even farther.

Their dance distracted Galena for a moment,
so free and gay. She shook her head, effectively bringing herself
back to the present. “Doesn’t anyone see a problem with that? “

Elenio turned his full attention to her when
he sensed her fears and panic.

“What if I am completely distracted with Rau
or the torlics? I won’t be able to use my magic to help, because
I’ll be too worried about defending myself with a sword!”

Both Elenio and Tark stared at Galena with
dumbfounded expressions on their faces. If Galena hadn’t been so
worried by this sudden thought, she would have laughed.

“But it’s never been an issue before,” Tark
said, still looking bewildered.

“I wasn’t swinging a sword around when I used
magic before,” Galena nearly wailed. How could she not have thought
about this until now?

Elenio smirked before he scooted over to her.
Wrapping an arm around her waist, he pulled her closer and kissed
her temple. “Practice then, my love. You didn’t learn how to wield
a sword overnight, and you can’t expect to know how to use magic in
a single moment either. Just think; you’ve only really been
attempting this for the past couple of months. The only real
teacher you’ve had was Morgo, and even then, you couldn’t practice
what he told you. Be patient with yourself and you’ll learn. You
have never failed at anything you’ve ever attempted and I don’t
expect you to start now.”

Galena looked up at Elenio, realizing he was
right and she was blowing things way out of proportion. It all
seemed so overwhelming to her that she constantly had to remind
herself she was free from Rau.

Suddenly feeling embarrassed by her sudden
outbreak, she buried her face into Elenio’s chest. He wrapped his
other arm around her shoulders, providing her with further
comfort.

“It’s late. Let’s get some sleep. Which is
something Elenio and I have gone without for several days now.”
Tark grabbed his pack, removed his blanket, and then placed the
pack behind him. Turning his attention back to Galena, he asked,
“Do you think you could set a protective ring around us like Morgo
did?”

“I think so. He told me it was basically air
that was forced into stillness. I could do something like that and
as an extra precaution, put a ring of fire around us. The moving
air would alert me and the fire should keep other creatures away
until I’m up and moving.”

“Good. I think we all could use a solid night
of sleep before we move on.”

Elenio nodded in agreement before stifling a
huge yawn.

Seeing no reason why it wouldn’t work, Galena
thought about air and the way it felt when used as a breeze. She
thought of how it would look if it were frozen like water in lakes
and streams in the dead of winter. There was always water moving
underneath, but on the outside, it stood still, unable to move in
the frigid cold. Almost immediately, she felt an outer layer of air
surrounding their camp, freezing just like ice she thought of.
Sensing where the wall was, she created a dome shape over them,
leaving a tiny opening at the very center for which the smoke from
their campfire could go through.

Morgo indicated when they forced the elements
to do something they normally wouldn’t do, or when they called on
them to do something at that moment, the same element would have to
be dismissed mentally as well. It simply could not undo what it had
been forced into. The elements did not possess wills or thoughts of
their own, so it had to be released from what it was doing by the
one who controlled it. If something else tried to disturb the
element while it was in the unnatural state, the controller would
know it.

After she finished with the air wall hut, she
began working on the ring of fire. This was much easier, because it
was something that did not take as much creativity as a hut made of
air. Galena was surprised how warm the little air hut became with
the fire blazing around them. The warmth felt good for the nights
had grown colder with the approach of winter.

Twoit poked her tiny head out of Galena’s
pack when Galena picked it up to get her blanket. The ferret
sniffed the air and sensing the magic surrounding them, crawled out
so Galena could use the pack to lay her head on. Galena was amazed
as always, at how intuitive her little friend seemed to be. No
wonder the elves from the olden days enjoyed them as pets before
the fall.

Galena looked over at Tark and saw to her
amazement, he’d fallen asleep in the short time it took her to set
up her magical defenses. He lay curled up on his side, head on his
pack, and a blanket over him. She watched his shoulder rise and
fall with his slow, deep breaths. She smiled at him, feeling glad
he’d come, but sad he had to leave his family behind. What a hard
situation for him.

Galena took her pack and laid it behind her,
intending to use it as a pillow like Tark. She arranged the
blankets around her legs, but before she could lie back, Elenio
grabbed her upper arm and pulled her toward him.

“You’re sleeping next to me. I have spent
more nights without you next to me than I care to.” He smiled at
her, continuing to pull on her arm until she scooted over to
him.

Pulling her blanket over both of them, she
laid back, put her head on his chest, and wrapped an arm around his
waist. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a gentle
squeeze. With his free hand, he entwined his fingers with hers,
placing both of their hands on his stomach. She felt him sigh
deeply and knew he was as content as she was. She felt Twoit curl
up behind the back of her knees and had to smile. Apparently, there
were several beings afraid to let her out of their sight.

“You’re scared, aren’t you?”

It wasn’t really a question, more of a
statement, but it made Galena stop to think just the same.

“You forget; I feel your emotions as you feel
them. When you’re scared, I feel it. Part of the commitment bond,
remember?” He tweaked her nose gently and she could hear the smile
in his voice.

“I’m terrified. It’s one thing to
spontaneously give up your life to save the ones you love, but
heading into a magical cave and then to take on the creature that
enslaved us, a once incredibly powerful race...” She trailed off,
knowing Elenio understood exactly what she meant.

“You want to know the truth?” Elenio reached
up and began to stroke Galena’s long, coppery hair as he continued,
“I think Rau has become as prideful and lazy as Lamiria was.”

“What makes you say that?” Galena rose up,
using her elbow to prop herself so she could see him better.

“If I thought there was someone out there
able to defeat me, I would send everything at them. If that failed,
I would be hot on their trail myself,” he said as he shrugged. “I
don’t believe he thinks you’re a real threat. Won’t he be shocked
when he finds your marks have been removed?” He chuckled
humorlessly to himself.

“It’s probably for the best,” Galena said as
she lay back down. “Even with magic, he’s going to be extremely
hard to defeat. I need all the advantages I can get.”

“Why do you think Mira created a sword made
of light?”

“How else can you defeat the dark?” Galena
responded, shrugging nonchalantly.

Chapter
Eight

The night passed uneventfully, with only a
couple of disturbances by various insects or other small animals.
Galena found it interesting that she could tell what animal crossed
the air hut by the shape of the temporary hole left by the
creature. Once the animal crossed through, the hut would re-seal
itself as if nothing happened, but Galena felt it each time. None
of the animals or insects attempted to cross the ring of fire
though.

Galena woke early the following morning,
feeling stiff from sleeping on the ground, but otherwise refreshed.
She moved slowly and carefully to avoid waking Elenio and began
digging through the packs after she removed their protection. She
had noticed Twoit was patiently waiting by a section of the blaze
for Galena to wake so she could go in search of her own breakfast.
Galena smiled at her as she watched her roll and tumble in her
crazy little way, slowly making it to the undergrowth nearby.

Galena continued to dig through the packs
until she found a handful of crumbs and a few blackberries and
raspberries that had shifted to the bottom. Using these, she was
able to grow a large amount of fruit and loaves of bread for the
impending trip. She was pleased to find she was not even the least
bit tired from doing so. Even though she shared the news about the
magical cave and guardian with her brother and Elenio, she’d kept
quiet about how much power Mira implied she possessed. She wasn’t
sure why, it simply hadn’t been the right time. On the other hand,
maybe she was afraid to get their hopes up. Either way, she decided
to keep that piece of information to herself.

After she created enough food to last them
until evening, she stood up and stretched, reaching her hands high
into the sky. Now that she’d released the air and fire from their
tasks, she noticed it had grown considerably colder from when they
first started out. She was glad she’d thought ahead and packed
warmer clothes to add to the ones she had on.

She walked over to her sword and pulling it
out of the scabbard, went through her normal routine. It felt good
to do something that was second nature to her and she was mildly
surprised when she came to the end of a more complicated routine
her father developed for her long ago, without feeling the
slightest bit winded. Wiping the sweat from her brow, she realized
the headache that would have followed such a rigorous workout,
never came. She smiled to herself, pleased she would no longer need
to suck down medicinal herbs every time she moved too much. It
would make for a long trip if she did.

Stretching out by first touching her toes and
then stretching her hands high above her, she finished by standing
in place and twisting from side to side. Feeling sufficiently
warmed up now, she returned her sword to her pack and began on some
of the blackberries. She savored the way the tiny pieces of fruit
burst into sweet goodness when she pressed the berry to the roof of
her mouth with her tongue.
I never realized how much I enjoy
these,
she thought to herself.

Twoit came waddling in her funny little way,
back into the camp carrying what looked suspiciously like a baby
bird in her mouth. Galena decided it would be best not to
investigate too closely in case her suspicions were right and
turned to look at Elenio instead. She was slightly startled when
she found him propped up on his elbow, watching her intently
instead of sleeping as she originally thought he had been.

“How long have you been up?” she asked,
handing him a handful of berries.

“Long enough to see you’re in a very good
mood.” He popped several of the berries in his mouth before he sat
up, pulling his legs up, he rested his arms on his knees and
continued to eat while he watched her.

“No more headaches.” Galena tapped the side
of head and grinned at him.

He shoved the rest of the berries in his
mouth and then dusted his hands together. He stood up and looked
down at her, grinning wickedly. She had to shield her eyes so she
could see him clearly, as the sun was directly behind him.

“Yeah, that might change seeing how your
sword was swinging past your head dangerously close. How long do
you think it’ll be until you hit yourself in the head with your own
weapon?”

The words were barely out of his mouth before
Galena kicked a leg out and hit the back of his knees, causing him
to fall face first on the ground, inches away from their campfire.
Pushing himself up with his hands, he spit out a mouthful of dirt
before looking angrily at Galena. She continued sticking berry
after berry into her mouth, trying to look as innocent as
possible.