Hanetsuno II
Going Strong

I feel so alone sometimes. I have the greatest friend in the world, but I as long as I can remember... I've always felt like I'm only half of something else. I can think clearly and thrive on my own, but.... Where is this other half?

Chapter 1


Kyri hooked a gold chain belt around her waist. It contained seven medallions with an eighth hanging down from the one in front. There were smaller chains that hung from the belt and were draped over her upper legs like golden spider webs. The whole thing felt heavy and awkward.

She looked at Aikel. He had a leather guard around his neck. It had seven silver chains connecting to the seven medallions around his chest, shoulders, and back. An eighth hung down in front, and there were silver chains going between them.

Kyri leaned against the exterior wall of Nalya Troop's inn. Saraelye observed their new adornments before asking, "Where's your orb?"

Aikel took the Soil Orb from the pack on his belt and held it out. He blinked in surprise as it contracted and shrank to half its normal size. It fell apart in two neat halves. Saraelye took the halves and poked each one in the centermost medallion of Kyri's belt and Aikel's neckpiece.

"Its magical properties can sense when you're in danger," Saraelye explained. "Earth.... It's defensive and long lasting."

"Uh-huh..." Aikel mumbled.

"Your next goal is another orb..." Saraelye said, " but there's another thing I need from you first."

"What's that?" Pegasus asked.

"We need help from the elves. A merchant of any sort would know the way to their capital city. Yet with the enemy soldiers everywhere, we can't send a merchant out by himself. When I find a merchant, you'll need to accompany him to the elven castle in Alfheimana. When you get back, I'll point you toward your next treasure."

Kyri looked at down at her half of the Soil Orb. It twinkled like an eye looking back at her.

* * *
  

"You have a suggestion, no?" Queen Saraelye asked Prithvi.

"Yes, your majesty." The two of slowed the flutter of their wings and landed outside the general store. "The girl--a sprite--is our main Alfheimana trader. She's gone back and forth numerous time. She appears very clumsy with daily routines, but she's always quick and efficient with matters of importance."

They walked in and approached the timid shopkeeper. "How may I help you?" the woman asked.

"I've been told your daughter is experienced with the Alfheimana Trade Route..." Saraelye began. "I need her to deliver a message to the King of the Elven Territories."

"But..." the shopkeeper began, ignoring Prithvi's reprimanding scowl, "she's only fourteen... and flightless! The forest has been so dangerous!"

"I intend to give her the best of escorts," Saraelye promised.

The shopkeeper nodded reluctantly. She turned and called, "Yousei!"

* * *
  

Yousei determined that Prithvi was not the troop's best briefer. She was given her commands with such hasty unemotional efficiency that she was left clueless. Aikel, Kyri, Pegasus, and Unicorn were introduced to her as if they were Prithvi-like automations that didn't have personalities. She recognized their preferable dispositions when Kyri rephrased Prithvi's explanations with a bit more charisma.

Her mother told her to take her spear with her on the trip. This was useless; she always took her spear. Bandits were uncommon but not unheard-of; these newer enemies wouldn't be any different. They all try to kill you, she thought, but the soldiers don't take your stuff.

 As the first rays of the rising sun began to squeeze through the ocean of foliage, Queen Saraelye met the travelers at the troop's northern gate. The morning mist around her grabbed the sunlight and made her glow. She gave her wings an occasional flutter to keep the mist from settling on them.

She handed a dark-colored scroll case to Aikel. "Don't just give it to the attendants," she said. "Request an audience with the royal court. Make sure you see King Wealden read it."

Aikel gave a slight bow when he nodded. Pegasus flapped to stay balanced on his shoulders.

You must have to be a human to get away with only a little respect for the queen, Yousei thought.

"Come to me as soon as you're back," Queen Saraelye said.

"Goodbye," Kyri said kindly.

"Be careful," Queen Saraelye responded. As she turned back toward the heart of the town, she gave Yousei a smile. Her deep eyes sparkled like precious stones. She shrunk down and flew toward the main part of the troop.

"Well... let's go," Yousei said to Aikel, Pegasus, Kyri, and Unicorn. She jumped past them and used her spear as a walking stick while going down the path that cut through the trees.

Kyri felt obliged to be behind everyone. Yousei knew where to go, and Aikel could make sure they got there safely. She kept looking over her shoulder until Nalya was out of sight. She tried to stop the tendency when she noticed Unicorn's concerned look.

She looked around and observed the forest. The path they were walking on was covered in moist fallen leaves and soft dirt. Grass lined the trail and continued away out of sight. A bird would occasionally poke its head out from the behind the foliage and watch the travelers. The slender trees branched out in serene curves. The soft round leaves swayed back and forth hypnotically.

" Kyri..." Unicorn said.

Kyri snapped back to attention. The path split in accordance to a large gray rock, and she had stopped there absentmindedly. Yousei, Aikel, and Pegasus were headed down the right path, and she hurried to catch up.

Aikel gave her a look. It wasn't a harsh look, but it felt like a wordless reprimand.

After several minutes of walking, Kyri noticed Yousei's pointed ears twitch. Her head turned a bit to the right, and her steps slowed. Kyri tightened her arm around Unicorn and adjusted the grip she had on her staff as Yousei's eyes moved along the bushes.

Kyri jumped as a twig snapped.

Yousei stopped and swung her spear toward the bushes. Something long and green collided with it and wrapped around the pole. She swung the weapon back over her head, and the thing flew off the end. It landed in the dirt in a chaotic mass of writhing green coils.

"A snake?!" Kyri cried. It was as thick as her arm and longer than she was tall.

She jumped back and suppressed a scream when its head lunged and snapped at her.

"Watch out!" Yousei called.

Unicorn sprang away from Kyri's grip. She bounced off the ground and turned into a glowing blur. The surprised snake stared at her glowing after-image as she circled and pounced on it. She wasn't clearly seen until she stopped to watch the snake's movement. Her small clumsy form had been discarded like a shed skin.

She had four legs with large clawed paws beneath her white-furred feline shape. Her tail was long, and her fangs hung out of her mouth. She still had bright blue eyes and long white-gold spiral horn. She glanced toward the focus of Aikel's attention.

A white wolf emerged from behind his legs. He had a pair of wings on each of his thin ankles, and he gave them a test flap. He grinned at Unicorn; his green eyes sparkled.

The two of them lunged at the confused reptile and stepped on its body.

"Hey!" Yousei yelled.

Pegasus jumped and flapped his short, but capable, wings when the snake tried to bite his paws. He stopped flapping and stomped on its head. Unicorn bit into its midsection.

"I said 'watch out,' not 'kill it!'" Yousei shouted, poking at Pegasus and Unicorn with the blunt end of her spear. "It only attacked us because we startled it...." She cautiously inspected the reptile's wounds. Its tail twitched.

"Is it still alive?!" Pegasus demanded.

"No," Yousei grumbled, "just its reflexes." Without touching it, she coiled it around her spear and threw its body into the forest to the left.



Chapter 2




"This is an awfully long walk," Aikel said casually. Pegasus had returned to his original limbless form and was asleep in the crook of Aikel's arm.

"We're in the elf country, if it makes you feel better," Yousei stated. "It's only a few more minutes to the capital city's gate."

Kyri was relieved. The distance between Nalya and the elven capital was only half the distance between Nalya and where Terraia lived, but Kyri was still worn out from before. Her feet and legs ached; she'd been dying to complain.

As they turned around a clump of trees, they saw a person with a navy blue cloak. Her brown hair was long and ended in curls. Her chin length bangs were blond, and they began the gold streak that flowed behind with the rest of her hair.

"Hello," she said as she approached the travelers.

"Hi," Yousei responded.

Kyri smiled amiably and glanced at Aikel. She noted the sudden redness of his face and rolled her eyes. He started to speak but said nothing.

"Are you going to Alfheimana?" the girl asked.

"Yes," Yousei said.

"They might not let you inside the walls. There's been a lot of extra security lately."

"We're on diplomatic business."

"Oh, okay." The girl smiled. "I don't want to keep you. Goodbye." She began to walk past them.

"Bye," Yousei said. She glanced at Aikel and Kyri to make sure they were following her as she continued their course. A moment later, Yousei pointed up and said, "You can see some of the tall buildings of the town from here."

It was only a few minutes later when they came to a large clearing. A prodigious log wall was in front of them. The massive gate was open and accompanied by a pair of elven guards. A pair of thick trees behind the gate had been fashioned into watchtowers.

"Give me that scroll, Aikel," Yousei said before they approached.

One of the guards looked at her quizzically. She realized he was probably used to seeing her and was wondering where her merchandise was.

The scroll case had a tulip-patterned royal seal on it. Yousei showed the seal to the guards and said, "Warder Prithvi has sent us to deliver a message to King Wealden."

The guard nodded. He gestured toward the town with his spear to signify their permission to enter.

The town's interior was like a scarce forest littered with wooden homes. Many buildings had trees growing up through them, and some were made of hollowed trees. Other buildings were on platforms in the branches. At the far end of the main street, a large tree-supported building loomed high above the others.

"There, that's where we're going," Yousei said, pointing to the building. She merrily skipped a step as she began leading her party down the main avenue.

The elves that went about their business on the lively street either stared at or made a point of looking away from them. The people had hair of every imaginable color, sometimes two or more colors per person, and Kyri felt more at ease with her own blue hair.

She stopped as a ball flew across her path, bounced off the roots of a nearby tree, and rolled to a stop in front of her. An elven boy with indigo chin-length hair had split from his group of friends to retrieve it, but he hesitated as he neared Kyri.

She bent to pick it up, and she smiled gently as she handed it to him. He took it slowly, backed up, and ran back to his friend.

Kyri jogged to catch up with Aikel and Yousei. Her motion roused Unicorn.

" Mmm.... Are we there yet...?" the sleepy creature inquired.

"Almost," Kyri said softly.

The tree castle had a wooden wall around it, and the guards didn't like the notion of foreigners entering. After they disregarded scroll's seal, Yousei became angry. She threatened that Queen Saraelye herself would come to fry them, and their stupidity would justify it in their king's eyes. She demonstrated by whistling a series of four quick notes and sending a fireball whizzing by one of the guards' head. The fire dissolved in midair before reaching anything flammable.

Having a severely heated ear, the guard relented and the group was allowed past the gate.

Kyri found the courtyard beautiful with uneven grassy ground and multiple small streams. Trees and bushes were scattered over the tiny hills. The main path had light-colored stone bridges over the streams. It forked around a huge tree in the center of the courtyard.

Kyri looked up the tree while she and the others were near it. It seemed impossibly tall. It had to be at least a hundred yards to its topmost leaves, though the trunk was narrow enough for a person to wrap his arms around it. Only the upper half of the great thing had any of its tremendous branches or leaves; the lower half was smooth bark.

After climbing the steps to the door, Yousei began to speak with the steward.

"I can deliver your message to the king, miss," he said, looking as if he didn't like being so formal with someone the height of his waist.

"I have orders to speak to him personally," Yousei said with equal detachment.

"King Wealdon is a very busy person."

"I have orders to speak to him personally," Yousei repeated. She waved the scroll and its seal up at him. "Warder Prithvi trusted the message to me and my escorts, and she insists that we see the king receive the message."

The steward could no longer argue, and he allowed them into the castle. They waited outside the throne room until the king was free of his other matters.

Pegasus and Unicorn regained complete consciousness while the group waited. They amused themselves by playing leapfrog together.

"All right," Yousei said to Aikel and Kyri, "when we're before the king, you get on your right knee, bow your head, and stand up. The whole motion takes about four seconds; try to do it in unison. After you stand up, stay back and let me do the talking unless he asks you something. Addressing him as 'sir' is most appropriate. If I've left something out, and you're not sure how polite to be, just follow your instincts. Don't follow my lead; since I'm half-breed, I have to look like I worship him. Got all that?"

Kyri nodded. "You're a half-elf?"

"Well, yeah, but 'half-elf' is a term used for human-elf hybrids. I'm faery-elf, so I'm called a sprite. Anyway, for when we leave the throne room.... If the king didn't say anything to you at all, just follow me out. If he did speak to one of you two, you both do a bit of a waist bow, then give a respectful nod to the queen or princess if they're there.... Okay?"

"Okay," Kyri said as kindly as possible, sensing Yousei's sudden nervousness. So many diplomatic details seemed a bit silly.

Yousei only nodded, and the room was covered in silence.

Aikel watched Pegasus and Unicorn take turns jumping over each other and began to space out due to boredom. He thought of how the two little creatures had transformed in the woods. They were much more powerful that way; why hadn't they done it before? He considered asking them, but they were having more fun than he wanted to disrupt. He tried to find something else on which to center his wandering mind.

The girl in the forest.... She was pretty. She had the air of a kind outgoing person. But she was an elf. It'd be weird getting involved with an elf.

Yousei broke the silence with a sigh right before the steward entered and beckoned them.

* * *
  

King Wealdon was tall, thin, and very young-looking. His blond hair was tied loosely near the end, which was at mid-thigh. He didn't have a crown, but he was adorned with stately robes of green, gold, and white. He smiley warmly as his visitors entered the throne room, and he was almost pretty-looking.

Aikel and Kyri bowed as Yousei had told them, and Pegasus and Unicorn stayed just beyond their toes. Yousei got on both knees and scrunched down until her elbows and hands were on the green-carpeted floor. Her spear was laid horizontally under her legs, so that it would be at her feet when she stood.

She said, "Greetings, your Majesty. I am grateful to be in your presence, sire." She mellowed her loud sociable voice to a more formal tone.

He stood and, with a soft voice, told her to rise. She stood and bowed from her waist.

"Why do you come here, young lady?" he asked kindly.

"I bring a message of urgency from my Queen Saraelye and my Warder Prithvi, sire." She held the scroll out to him. He stepped forward to take it, and she was whacked with the instinct that he shouldn't have to come to her to get it.

She jumped forward and handed it too him. She shyly moved back as he took it, and she silently cursed at herself. I shouldn't have moved if he didn't tell me to, she scolded herself. The fact that he was coming to me should've told me to stay put.

King Wealdon hadn't noticed her fumbling, though she thought she saw the steward give her a nasty look. The king unrolled the scroll and read it with a concerned look on his face. He backed up and sat on his throne as he continued reading.

As he read, Yousei did her best to absorb her surroundings without turning her head. The queen, a pretty brown-haired woman, sat in the chair next to the king's. The room had nobles standing on either side of the green velvet carpet that led up two steps to the throne.

"Hmm," the king mumbled quietly. The queen looked at him sympathetically. After a long pause he said, "The message has been received; was Prin--Queen Saraelye expecting a reply?" He gestured to the steward, who gave him a piece of paper and a stamp for his seal.

"Yes, your highness," Yousei said.

He wrote and signed the new message before placing the Elven seal on it in green ink. He handed Saraelye's message to the steward and placed his in its case. He motioned for Yousei to come get it.

"Thank you for the delivery," he said, sighing, as Yousei stepped up and took it. He was tiredly slouching back in his throne. "Is there anything else?"

"No, sire," Yousei said. She bowed her head as she stepped back.

"You're dismissed then," he said.

"Thank you for your time, your Majesty," Yousei said as she got back on her knees to bow. "I wish you well."

"Goodbye."

Yousei turned to follow the steward away. Aikel and Kyri trailed behind her with Pegasus and Unicorn.

They stopped to have lunch in a café before returning to the forest path. Yousei paid for the meal, as only she had elven currency. Once they walking began, Kyri tried to start a conversation. Silence was boring.

" Alfheimana'd be nice place to live, wouldn't it?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, I always thought so," Yousei responded, "but elves like to keep their society pure. Only elves can live in the big cities. The country towns allow foreigners, as long as there's no interbreeding." She giggled. "As you can tell by me, that last part isn't always followed!"

" Ahhhh!"

Aikel spun on his heels to look at Kyri, in case she'd been the one who screamed, but the sound had come from the east.

"There's a lake over there..." Yousei noted. "Someone could need help!" With a leap, she disappeared beyond the foliage.

"Hey, wait!" Aikel called. "We're supposed to protect you!" He snatched Pegasus from the air and ran after her.

Kyri looked around frantically, realized that Unicorn was already in her arms, and did her best to follow.



Chapter 3




Orcs were brutish solders consisting of fat, muscle, armor, and warty skin. While they wielded scimitars, the stronger but stupider ogres used clubs. A group of ten, consisting of the two species, surrounded the girl they had chased to the lakeside.

She cursed knowing that she wouldn't be able to run to either side of the lake without being hit. She faced her pursuers with her fists ready and her hair plastered to her forehead with sweat.

She back-stepped closer to the boulder between her and the shore. She ducked a swinging club and jumped onto the boulder's slanted surface to avoid the scimitar aimed at her legs. She moved to the tip of the stone. She closed her eyes in concentration.

" Eeeya!" The sound distracted her, but the sprite girl that had made it was sinking her spear into an orc's neck. The orc had been about to slice at the elf girl, but he only cut her cloak at her thigh before he fell.

Yousei turned to the orcs and ogres through which she had run and held her spear at ready. One of the ogres lunged for her. Her spear had a longer reach, and he was skewered. She ducked under the orc that ran at her. He was flipped forward and knocked into the shallow water. She whistled.

A light, like a ball of blue fire, appeared in the air. When it stopped moving, it was revealed as a glowing faery-like hand-sized creature. She dived down, grabbed the wet orc, and dragged him under the water. Several panicky bubbles rose to the surface before the water became still.

One of the distant ogres threw his club. Yousei tensed, but the club hit the other girl in the head. She cried out and fell off the boulder.

"Hey!" Aikel shouted. He readied himself next to Yousei as the other girl landed unconscious behind them. An orc slashed. He blocked. Another scimitar was coming at him. Kyri used her staff to whack the attacker in the head.

Pegasus and Unicorn had transformed into the cat and the wolf they had been while fighting the snake. Pegasus was pinned down by an ogre. Unicorn pounced on the ogre, and her claws ripped through his skin. Pegasus escaped.

Aikel blocked a club. An orc sliced a cut in his right arm. Kyri was ready to heal it, but an ogre knocked her back.

Yousei used her spear to vault up and kick at an ogre. The ogre ducked and swung his spear. Aikel received the blow upside his head. He watched his vision blur and go dark.

* * *
  

He awoke with a quiet groan as he felt something moving on him. His head hurt too much to focus his eyes, and he was too dizzy to tell up from down. After a moment, he felt that he was sitting on a hard surface, laying back against something softer. His wrists were bound together and were resting on his stomach. He saw the sky above him and felt a breeze. He was lying against a group of canvas bags. He looked around and saw the deck of a ship. No wonder he felt seasick.

The girl with the blue cloak was in a fetal position on the deck next to him. She already had a dagger in her hands and was using it to saw at the ropes around her wrists. She moved slowly to avoid catching the attention of the orcs on the deck.

Yousei was behind Aikel, draped across the bags. He couldn't see her entirely, but he sensed she was awake. Kyri had been thrown over his lap. Her head was on the other girl's ribs. There was another canvas bag on her legs; it seemed like a likely binding for Pegasus and Unicorn.

"You're awake, huh?" a hoarse voice asked mockingly. Aikel quickly followed Kyri's example of feigning unconsciousness. He watched the other girl from the corner of his eye.

She had hidden her dagger, as well as part of her bindings, under her sleeve. The orc that had spoken jabbed her stomach with the hilt of his weapon.

"You're not so tough now," he laughed. "I bet your daddy cooperates with our master after all." He moved off, guffawing at his own bravado, and the girl continued to sever her rope. The last fibers broke apart, and she quickly lashed her ankles free.

She took a tiny bottle of sky-blue liquid from her cloak and drank its contents. A few minutes later, her wounds were gone and her eyes looked clearer. She shucked off her cloak and jumped onto a stack of barrels near the main mast. Less than half off the orcs and ogres on deck saw her before she had already climbed halfway up the huge pole.

She had the whole ship's attention when the orc in the crow's nest landed hard on the deck. Aikel couldn't see her well, but after several seconds, she pointed her hands down and shouted. A beam of light collided with the deck and exploded outward in a dome shape. The orcs that were rushing toward the mast were knocked out, killed, or disintegrated by the blast.

Aikel let himself breathe more steadily as he felt his pain fade. He wondered if it was the girl's spell, but he looked down and saw a glow leaving Kyri's hands.

Are you okay? she mouthed.

He nodded.

The other girl was already back on deck. She quickly cut their ropes, tied her hair back with a red band, and dusted herself off. She wore a dull navy leotard with a dark red body suit over it and whip tied around her waist. Her leather gloves went halfway up her upper arm, and she had a gold, blue, and green bracelet on one wrist.

She adjusted her earrings; she had a large gold hoop, a smaller silver hoop, and a little diamond in each ear. She place her dagger back into the side of one of her sandal-like boots.

"Thanks for your help," she said as Kyri released Pegasus and Unicorn.

"I didn't think we'd done anything," Yousei laughed.

"Well, no, but it's the thought that counts," the girl said. "It helped me to know I had support. I got caught off guard in the woods and completely forgot that I was armed.... Fortunately, they did too. Oh, your weapons are over there." She pointed to the far side of the canvas bags. "Don't sheathe them yet."

As if on her cue, the door leading down into the ship was slammed open. The nine orcs that crowded through the doorway gawked incredulously at the havoc that had been wreaked on deck. They hesitated, saw the elven girl smirk at them as she untied her whip, and charged.

The leader was knocked back by a whip crack to his face. He fell back into the rest of the group. He was skewered by a comrade's blade. As the other eight foes split up, the girl took on another. She lashed her whip from a distance. She slashed with the dagger in her left hand. She jumped away from the orc's sword.

Aikel slashed at his attacker. His blade ripped into the leather armor. He blocked a slash and attacked. He pierced the orc's flesh, but he jumped back to avoid the scimitar coming down at him.

Pegasus and Unicorn had transformed. While Pegasus flew and jumped around as a distraction, Unicorn pounced on the target from behind. Her claws left gaping bloodstained streaks through the orc's armor.

Yousei , cornered, surprised her two opponents by whistling four notes. She parried a strike and whistled the three high-pitched notes she had at the lakeside.

Something small with long fluttering wings hovered near one of the two orcs. It looked like a large dragonfly, and he swatted it away. It clung to his hand and erupted in an red-orange glow. The orc cried out and tried to shake it off.

A similar creature, which glowed blue as it had before, approached Yousei. "Help her!" Yousei ordered it and pointed at Kyri. As the little creature flew off, she began to fight with her second attacker.

Kyri backed away from the two orcs that slashed at her. She'd managed to cast a spell to strengthen herself, but it hardly made up for her weaknesses. She held her breath and lunged defiantly. She blocked the first orc's slash. Yousei's blue faery-like creature distracted the other one. Kyri ducked. She lodged her staff under the first orc's arm and pushed upward. He roared as he was dumped over the railing.

He landed in water and floundered there until the blue creature shoved the other orc off the ship. She flew down and shoved both of them beneath the waves.

Kyri watched the churning water for several moments. The noise beyond her died down to heavy breathing. She turned to see seven corpses, and she sighed in relief that each one was an orc's body.

"Are you okay, Kyri?" Unicorn asked as she ran over. She shrunk down to her smaller form and plastered herself against Kyri's ankle.

"Yeah," Kyri said quietly as she looked back at the water. "Let's help everybody...." The two of them used their spell to close the bloody gashes that covered their companions. She looked into her pack of supplies and found the small jar of green salve she carried.

"Thanks," the elf girl said. She brightened as she was healed. "Oh, aren't I rude?" she giggled a few moments later. "I'm Himeki."

"I'm Yousei," Yousei said. "These guys are Aikel, Kyri, Pegasus, and Unicorn."

"It's nice to meet you all," Himeki said. Aikel nodded and Kyri shook her hand. She waved her hand to ward off the little red creature as it approached her. "Who are these things?"

"Oh, I haven't introduced them to anybody," Yousei said. "They're Sunny and Puddles--you can probably guess which is which.... Puddles! Don't eat that!"

The blue creature was sitting one Kyri's shoulder and greedily gnawing on a lock of blue hair. She stopped her chewing and scowled, but she released the hair and took flight when Yousei didn't relent.

"They're pixies," Yousei continued. She waved her hand in the air, making Sunny and Puddles fly around to dodge it. "I found them in the forest when I was little. The little twits had nearly killed themselves fighting with each other. I took care of them, so they come help me whenever I whistle for them. I don't think they're ever around otherwise, but they always hear me. It's weird."

"They're cute," Kyri commented.

" Erm.... How do we find some dirt?" Pegasus asked, putting a stop to the introductions. He was flying around trying to spot land in the distance. He stopped and looked closer. "I see something way, way over there.... How do you steer this big thing?"

"I have no idea," Aikel admitted.

"I know you use that wheel thing up there," Kyri said. She pointed toward the bow of the ship.

"How do you kick the wind up?" Himeki asked. "I can use a little Wind magic, but...."

Pegasus had flown up near the crow's nest and spotted something in the water. He called, "Hey, look at that!"

"It's a ship..." he heard Aikel say.

"Can you tell what's on it, Pegasus?" Unicorn called. "Is it orcs?

He could see movement on the other ship's deck, but it was too far away to identify the species of the inhabitants. He flapped in that direction and came to a glide over the ship. It wasn't far from land, and he could see a port town along the shore.

The people on the ship deck were short stocky humanoids. They were dwarves, like those of Haunkyo Village. They regarded Pegasus curiously when he fluttered down to them.



Chapter 4




The dwarves, though perplexed by the situation, transported the captives of the orcs' ship back to the shore town. Borharn was the town's name, and it was apparently a popular trade city, as well as the capital of the dwarven country Flahitain.

"The northern continent?!" Aikel cried as he gawked at the known-world map that the local innkeeper was holding up for him.

"You're kidding..." Kyri whispered incredulously as she peered over his shoulder.

"Is that really bad?" Unicorn asked worriedly. Kyri only looked inquiringly at Aikel.

"It's not good..." Aikel moaned. "We're supposed to be in the northern part of the southern continent. Now we're over here on the east of the northern continent...."

"If it makes you feel better," Himeki said, "you can look across the Cloven Strait and see the land on the other side." She pointed to the channel of water between the tips of the continents.

"You're gonna need to rest awhile before you start that big long journey..." the innkeeper said, grinning. She put the map away and leaned on her counter as she held out her hand.

"I don't know if we have that much money," Aikel mumbled, "or the right kind of money...."

"This is a trade city, and I am the Inn of Borharn innkeeper," the dwarf said, rolling her eyes. "The townsfolk will take pretty much any currency, and I know how much everything equals compared to everything else."

A room with four twin beds wasn't expensive. With the exception of Himeki, everyone was kept awake by their own fatigue.

"Why do you think the orcs wanted to capture her?" Kyri asked, looking at the bundle of blankets that hid Himeki.

"They said something, about her father," Yousei mused. "If he's politically important, they might have wanted her as a hostage."

"I'm glad she's okay."

Yousei nodded. "She looks like a typical non-archer elven warrior."

"What do you mean?" Kyri asked quietly.

"One of those people that know how to fight all sorts of ways. She used a whip, a dagger, magic... and I bet she can do a lot of other things too. Elves encourage the idea of a single person being able to do everything well. It gives them another reason to think they're better than everyone else." She giggled.

After brief thought, Kyri asked, "Do you think elves are superior to other societies?"

"Not to other people in general, but in terms of society, yeah." Yousei shrugged. "They have long life spans, so the monarchs almost never die before their oldest child is a hundred-years-old.... And up till the possible heirs are about ten, they live and eat like the middle class. Sometimes they're beaten if they're mean to anyone.... So they won't grow up to be spoiled brats. Oh, and the majority of the kingdom isn't even allowed to know the oldest child's first name until he or she is pretty old. So they mingle with people without letting them know that they're a member of the royal family. And they do a lot to make sure those kids are physically and mentally strong."

"Like what?"

"Make them learn all sorts of skills--thieving, cooking, hunting, fencing, wilderness survival..." Yousei thought. "You know that huge tree in the castle courtyard?"

Kyri nodded.

"The heir isn't allowed to assume the throne unless they've climbed to the top of that thing!"

Kyri's eyebrows arched.

"That's crazy," Aikel commented.

"Yeah, but from what I've heard..." Yousei sounded incredulous. "King Wealdon's only daughter is... hmm, less than twenty... and she's already gotten to the top!"

"Wow..." Kyri mumbled.

"Of course, all elves are good at climbing trees," Yousei said, "because they live in the forest and they have long limbs." She gestured toward the lump of blankets on the next bed. "You saw how she went up and down that mast."

Kyri nodded. A sudden thought approached her mind, but she lost it instantly. She shook her head in mild frustration. "I'd better get some sleep," she told Yousei, "because I'm starting to lose my mind."

"You're not alone," Yousei said; her words were distorted by a yawn.

"We have a lot of walking to do tomorrow," Aikel commented heavily.

"Where are we walking to?" Kyri asked.

Aikel looked at her as if he were wondering whether or not she was being sarcastic.

"Well, we aren't walking across the ocean, are we?" Kyri asked defensively. "Is there a ferry or something that we need to find?"

"There are ferries that cross the Cloven Straight," Yousei said, "but it might be expensive. The countries on either side of the strait are human and elven. The like to put high prices on interaction...."

* * *
  

"I saw the oddest thing this mornin'!"

"A mirror?"

"No, you twit...!"

Himeki frowned and attempted to shove her pillows into her ears.

"What'd you see then?"

"This band of big ugly blokes! Ogres, I think they're called...."

Himeki eyes snapped open. She leaped from her bed and pressed her ear against the door.

"What were they doin'?"

"They were marchin' up the mountain... to that Fire Canyon!"

"What would they want from there?"

"Fire?"

"Uh...."

"I dunno. That place is supposed to have some holy power to it...."

"Wives' tale."

"Maybe those brutes are superstitious! They could be trying to get that magic power."

"As fake as that 'power' is, I hate the thought of them havin' any."

"Those things are ten-feet-tall! They've got more power than is just!"

"Yeah, I--"

"Will you two keep it down?" the innkeeper's voice snapped. "I have customers that are trying to sleep. You're going to give my facility a bad reputation!"

The male voices continued too quietly to be heard.

" Himeki?" Kyri mumbled. "What are you doing?" Her movement stirred Unicorn.

"I heard somebody talking about ogres," Himeki said. She sat back on her bed.

"Ogres?" Kyri asked anxiously.

Kyri and Unicorn listened closely as Himeki repeated what she'd heard.

"When Aikel and Pegasus wake up," Unicorn said worriedly, "we should tell them about this." She flicked her ears fretfully. She looked over and saw Aikel sleeping soundly, but Pegasus was blinking his eyes open.

"Tell us about what...?" he yawned.

"Something about ogres looking for holy power."

Pegasus perked. "What?! Tell me, tell me, tell me!" He leaped to her side and fluttered his wings with uncontainable excitement.

"Not until Aikel wakes up!" Unicorn said. "We don't wanna have to tell the story a million times!"

"But I wanna know now!"

Unicorn puffed her cheeks to show that she wouldn't speak.

Pegasus whined, still fluttering. "Aikel!" He jumped, rolled into a ball, landed roughly on Aikel's chest, and continued bouncing there. Aikel awoke with a grunt on the first bounce. Eyes squeezed shut, he raise his arm and smacked at his assailant.

" Yiiie!" Pegasus cried. Yousei squeaked as he landed on her and fell off the far side of her bed.

"Are you okay?" Kyri asked him as Yousei and Aikel sat up sleepily. Unicorn looked over worriedly.

"Yeah...." Pegasus groaned. "I wake him up like that all the time...."

Pegasus fluttered apprehensively as Himeki's account was quickly repeated, but Aikel struggled to stay awake while listening to it.

"Ogres and holy power?" Aikel asked skeptically. "I was bounced awake for that?"

"This could be really important! We have to stop them!" Pegasus yelped.

"But that's just a myth," Aikel said. "We shouldn't risk our lives over something that isn't real."

"Myths come from real things."

"Actually..." Yousei said before Aikel could respond, "I think he's right. Myth's do originate from realities. Hmm... since I have good hearing..." She flicked her ears and propped her head up on her fist. "I sometimes overhear people talking. Queen Saraelye doesn't know where all of the magical orbs are. When Master Roki and his lead squad left to rehabilitate that dragon, Warder Prithvi told him to check around for myths of magical spirits, valuable jewels, places 'of no return,' or holy power."

After a moment of thoughtful silence, Unicorn said, "What else would be worth going into a place called 'Fire Canyon?'"

"Sounds hot," Pegasus commented, "but we should go."

Aikel was silent. Unicorn could tell he was thinking hard about the possible dangers. She saw Kyri watching for an indication of his thoughts.

He sighed. "Are you up to that...?" he asked Pegasus.

"As ready as you'll ever be!"

"And you two?" He looked at Kyri.

Unicorn answered her friend's inquiring gaze, and Kyri nodded for both of them.

"What are we voting on?" Himeki asked Yousei.

"The faeries' plan against the orcs and ogres involve getting these magical orbs, and they think there might be one in that canyon," Yousei said. "I guess you'd either stay here until we got back, or go home by yourself."

"I can't go with?"

"It's dangerous...."

"Exactly," Aikel interrupted, "so neither of you can go. This is the four of us."

"You are supposed to be my escorts," Yousei snapped. "You're not going anywhere without me!" Aikel didn't get to answer.

"The enemy! They attacked me because of who I am," Himeki said fervently. "Now, being who I am, I intend to show them that my nation isn't so easy to harass!"

"It's not like they can't fight," Pegasus said. "There's no reason they can't come. Unless you're yielding to the legend...."

Aikel let a scowl slip. "Fine.... If you're careful.... Maybe you can make up for some of Kyri's dead weight."

"Hey!" Kyri protested. Unicorn puffed with indignation.

"Let's go buy supplies," Aikel said.

* * *
  

After much conversing, they discovered that the Fire Canyon was not a canyon, but a large cave atop the mountain to the east. It was supposed to be, as the name suggested, quite hot.

The trek up the most of mountain wasn't steep. There was an easy-to-follow trail winding quite a ways up. Yousei hopped onto ledges and jogged up small slopes with ease, and Himeki's strong lengthy limbs were causing her to have to stop and wait for everyone else. Pegasus hovered about Aikel, and Unicorn sat atop Kyri's shoulder whenever she couldn't jump over the next rock.

Aikel occasionally felt obliged to offer help to Kyri, but he noted that she tried to pretend not to see his hand whenever she could. Yet there were a few times when she gratefully took hold and allowed herself to be pulled up.

Passing a dilapidated signpost, Himeki stepped onto a rock and hopped over a deep narrow crack caused by erosion. She stepped onto a downward slope and yelped as she started to slip. She flailed her arms to keep her balance until she finished sliding and stumbled safely over solid level ground.

"Watch that spot," she warned shakily.

Yousei jumped over the little slope completely. Aikel stepped down on the large steady rocks. Kyri edged down sideways. There was a slight rise in the path ahead, and Himeki stopped when she reached its point.

"If we continue on this trail, we'll just be going back down the mountain," she announced.

"Did we miss a fork somewhere?" asked Yousei.

"The dwarves that made this trail probably don't have need to go any farther up than this," Aikel said. "We'll have to get off the trail now to get anywhere."

"So we make our own trail?" Yousei said and beamed.

"Most of these cliffs are too steep to climb..." Kyri commented very quietly.

Himeki turned back to the others and observed the rock wall to their side. She placed a hand on it and said, "It shouldn't be too hard to get over this part."

She found a place for her foot and began to climb up. Yousei jumped between a few worthy spots, and the two of them reached the level ground above at the same time.

"Will you need help?" Aikel asked Kyri. "Do you want to go first in case you fall?"

"I'll be fine.... You go...."

When they were both up, Aikel looked around at the small area on which they had to stand. There was a tall tree surrounded by a patch of grass, and the next row of cliffs was tall, smooth, and almost perfectly vertical.

"I don't think we can climb up here," Aikel said. "Maybe we should go back down and look for another place to go up."

"I don't think we have to," Himeki commented. She jumped up, grabbed a branch on the tree, and pulled herself up among the leaves. She said, "This tree goes high enough to get us up there."

"Works for me!" Yousei had to run, jump, and bounce off the trunk to reach the lowest branch.

"Hey, you two are used to trees because you both live in a forest," Aikel protested.

Himeki had just climbed to a second branch. She sat down on it and asked, "You mean there aren't any trees at all where you're from?"

"Sure, there are some...."

"Then why aren't you used to those?"

"There aren't enough of them to be used as transportation."

"Oh, it's not so bad," Pegasus commented as he flew up to Himeki's altitude.

"Pegasus, you fly!" Unicorn protested.

"So? You can poke things."

"How is poking the tree going to get me up there?!"

Kyri placed her hand upon Unicorn in order to calm the little creature. She smiled and said, "I think we can make it."

"The branches are thick and sturdy," Himeki informed. She continued climbing.

"I guess it's worth a try," Aikel admitted.

He vaguely heard Himeki laugh as she reached the top edge of the cliff, but she cut herself short with a "Woah...."

"What is it?" Yousei asked. She hopped up to Himeki's side. "Hey, I guess we picked the right place to climb after all."

There was a hole in the ground. It was large and slightly oblong. It led into a downward tunnel that changed to a slant after the first few feet.

"Is this what you'd call a cave?" Aikel asked skeptically.

"It looks cavey to me," Yousei answered. After a moment of thought she jumped down into it.

"Hey! Be careful!" Aikel called frantically.

"Oh, don't worry!" Yousei nagged as she landed and braced herself. She looked down the slope. "There's light down there!"

"Really?" Himeki questioned.

"Yeah, and the carving on the floor doesn't look natural."

"I guess this is the place..." Aikel said.



Chapter 5




Aikel sat down on the edge of the hole, waited for Yousei to move, and dropped down. The tunnel got continually darker at first, but there was a reddish glow at the far end where the path curved out of sight. The floor started as dirt and dwindled into stone. The stone was flat for several feet, then it slanted for a foot, and then it was flat again. It looked like an odd set of stairs.

Himeki , Kyri, Pegasus, and Unicorn dropped into the hole, and everyone shuffled down the path.

"It's awfully dark right here," Himeki commented when they were halfway to the glow.

"Maybe you should have stayed at the inn," said Aikel.

"Ooh, I'll show you..." Himeki grumbled.

As they approached the glow, Pegasus launched himself from Aikel's shoulder and flew to a place where he could see around the curve in the tunnel.

"The Orb of Fire is here!" he announced.

"You see it?!" Aikel demanded.

"No..." said Pegasus, "but I can tell it's here.... I can feel it!"

"Are you sure that's not just the heat you're feeling?" Yousei asked. "It is hot down here." She jumped a rock and slid over to him. "Wow!"

When the others joined her, they saw that the tunnel abruptly widened into a large cavern. Most of the floor was covered in small hexagon-shaped white marble tiles, many of which were scratched, chipped, cracked, shattered, or dug up. There were a few marble pillars reaching to the cavern's ceiling, and others were lying broken across the ground. There was an abundance of shorter pillars, most of which were intact, that each held a single lit torch. There were large rocks, piles of dirt, smears of mud, masses of cobwebs, and the occasional bone strewn all over the floor. The two corridors leading from this main room both looked like they'd been menaced by cave-ins.

"I didn't expect something like this down in a cave," Kyri said. She tiptoed onto the tile and looked around. She heard the others following her and felt Unicorn tense.

"What is it...?" she asked, but she trailed off when she heard something. She raised a finger to silence the comment Himeki was about to make.

There was a shuffling noise. The murmurs of Kyri's comrades quieted as they heard it too.

There were large boulders blocking both of the corridors out of the room. Something jumped onto one of the boulders to the left. It looked a bit like a very small dragon without wings. Its head was about four feet above where its claws stood. Its body was covered in red scales with the occasional yellow speckle on its back.

The creature stared warily at the group that had come into the cavern.

"What is it?" Aikel asked.

"F... fire drake?" Himeki suggested.

"Yeah, it's a fire drake," Pegasus confirmed.

Kyri began, "It doesn't look very friendly but maybe it'll--"

The drake shrieked. Four more climbed into sight. After a few seconds, all five of them lunged forward.

"Stay back!" Aikel yelled at the others. He drew his sword and swung it at closest of the reptiles. They all stepped back when their leader shrieked in pain. Aikel vaguely noticed his Soil Orb glowing and felt a sudden weight. He brushed his free hand over his torso and felt chain mail.

The sudden appearance of armor distracted him for a moment, and he had to make a startled swing at an approaching drake. He backed up and saw that Himeki was a bit in front of him but to the side. He gestured for her to get back.

" Seyeney..." she muttered. " Suiyari!" She threw her hand forward. "Ha!" A blue bolt flew from her hand and shattered against a reptile's nose. The target shrieked in pain and backed up into its fellows. Himeki jumped for protection behind Aikel.

"How many spells do you know?" he heard Yousei ask her.

"As many as I've needed," Himeki answered.

"Come on!" Pegasus shouted to Aikel. He bounced at the leading drake and used his energy attack. While the drake was stunned, Aikel ran his sword through its neck. The others backed up as he pulled his sword away and let the monster's body fall to the floor.

Its comrades stared at its corpse several seconds. Yousei crept forward and stabbed at them with her spear. They panicked, turned, and scrambled back toward the corridor from which they'd come.

Yousei whistled. Puddles was soon upon her shoulder.

"Isn't it a little late now?" Himeki laughed.

"I want to have her ready," Yousei explained.

As they conversed, Aikel turned to Kyri. She'd gotten used to the gold chains hanging down from her belt, but she now had similar ones draped protectively over her chest and shoulders. She looked at these chains with an unreadable expression, but she soon caught sight of Aikel's chain mail. They locked on each other's eyes for several seconds to make sure they each understood what the other knew.

Himeki and Yousei seemed to have been too interested in the drakes to notice the suddenly appearing armor. Pegasus and Unicorn seemed to have taken not of it, but they didn't comment.

Rather than mention it, Aikel asked, "Are we going to continue through here?"

"I came down here to spill blood," Himeki said as if she was talking about something more pacifistic. "I haven't done it yet."

"Hmmm..." was Aikel's response.

"But that way would be good," Yousei suggested with a sardonic chuckle. She gestured excessively toward the corridor from which the drakes had not come. Pegasus gave a spasm-like motion to his tiny wings.

"Yeah," said Aikel. "If we're going, let's go." He looked around quickly and walked toward the corridor. The others trailed behind him, and they wove around the boulders in the path. Kyri groaned and waved her hand to ward the growing heat away from her face.

They emerged into a room much like the previous one. The floor ended a few yards away. A cliff dropped down into a small lake of churning red liquid that continued farther through the cavern than one could go on foot.

The blood that was splashed the tile were still wet. It surrounded a group of orc corpses whose flesh was squashed and mangled or scorched from their skeletons.

Himeki only frowned at the corpses while everyone else's stomachs flipped. She turned her head toward the source of most of the heat. "Lava? We aren't that far below the surface...."

Yousei twitched and drew her attention away from the orcs' unknown deaths. "This is a shrine to the element of fire. The magical power in this place probably keeps the lava hot enough."

"Um..." Kyri voiced quietly. The others turned to her, expecting to see her concentrating on the orcs.

Instead her head was turned upward toward a large arch-shaped hole high in the wall. It looked like something that had once been a door to a balcony. Most of the balcony was in boulder-sized chunks on the floor below, but there was a small segment that was still attached to the wall.

After a few seconds of looking, Aikel saw that something was draped across the segment. A body. A body that was, despite its stone-like lack of movement, still alive.

Only the upper half of a thin womanly form was visible. It was laying on its front and looked as if its head had been resting in its folded arms before rising up enough to let one of its unblinking eyes stare at Kyri through strands of long red hair.

"That's who... we've got to fight..." Kyri choked as tears welled up in her eyes, "maybe kill."

The figure on the balcony didn't move.

"That's who..." Himeki began, gesturing hesitantly at the corpses on the floor.

Pegasus growled. He stretched his wings and transformed into his wolf form. Unicorn followed his lead.

"We will have to fight her," Aikel said. He tried to keep the quiver of guilt and horror out of his voice. "She's not out enemy, but we might have to kill her.... Try not to, but value your own life more than hers." He realized who he was talking to and corrected himself with, "Actually, you two should probably just get out of here now. The orcs are dead, so this isn't your battle anymore."

"I don't know about that," Himeki countered. She pulled her dagger from her boot.

"It's so dangerous..." Kyri mumbled.

"We've got hot blood," Yousei said. "I've got reasons that I can't turn away from you, and I'm sure Himeki does too."

"Just leave now," Aikel ordered. He stepped forward and shouted to the figure on the balcony, "Hey! We need to talk to you!"

She made her first visible movement; she moved her eyes to Aikel. After a pause, she slid backwards into the shadows of the archway behind her.

"Where's the door?" Himeki whispered. "Where does she have to come out?"

She appeared at the edge of the cliff. She rose only enough to show her upper half. She didn't have her arms on the cliff side, and there didn't seem to be anything else holding her up.

" Inber!" Unicorn shouted. The woman's eyes turned to her a moment before going back to Aikel.

" Inber?" Aikel asked. "That's her name?"

The woman gave one slow nod.

"You have the... Orb of Fire?" he asked her.

She nodded again.

He stepped forward and with desperate hope asked, "May we have it?"

She turned her head slowly from side to side and watched Aikel draw his sword hesitantly. She had to duck down to throw her lower half onto the top of the cliff. Everyone drew back in start as she piled giant coils into view. Where she should've had legs, her hips faded into nearly fifteen feet of twisting reptilian flesh. Drops of lave dripped off her red scales.

She made herself upright, with her head reaching ten feet above the floor. She watched the group of intruders before her. Kyri was mumbling the words to a spell which she finished by laying her hand on Aikel's arm.

"You two should leave now," Aikel reminded Himeki and Yousei. He got a proper grip on his sword, checked to see that Pegasus and Unicorn were ready, and lunged for Inber.

He saw her twitch as her eyes glazed over. Flames formed around her hands, and she arched forward to bring them down on Aikel. Despite the speed with which he and Pegasus had run forward, it was Puddles that reached Inber first. The drops of water that the pixie threw around as she passed were harmless, but they were distracting enough for Aikel to slash thrice and jump back unharmed.

Inber swatted uselessly at the retreating pixie and turned down to look at the Z-shape that had been carved into her front. She saw Pegasus approaching. She shouted, " Hinoyari!" and threw a lance of fire at him. He jumped aside and the magic crashed harmlessly onto the floor.

She cast the spell again, aiming at Aikel this time.

"Ha!" Unicorn shouted as she jumped passed Aikel. She roared and shot a glowing white orb from her mouth. The fire collided with the orb and exploded into white smoke. "This will help protect you from her magic," Unicorn told Aikel. "Stay within it when you can."

He jumped out of the smoke's protection long enough to slash. Yousei and Himeki were on either side of him when he jumped back.

" Suiyari!" they yelled together. Inber shrieked as the two water spells collided with her. She lunged down at them. Unicorn jumped and slashed her chest.

Inber spotted Pegasus from above and rose higher. "Hououken!" Fire erupted from her back in the shape of wings, and she stuck Pegasus with the bird-shaped mass of fire that had formed around her hand. He was knocked from the air, and he tumbled across the floor.

Aikel didn't dare turn away from Inber, but he saw Kyri kneel by Pegasus, and he ran over to guard them. He could smell burnt fur.

" Seyeney..." Himeki said to herself. Inber started to cast another spell, but Himeki shouted, "Suizanchuu!" Water crashed down over Inber as if someone had spilled a large bucket from above.

Inber swung her tail at Himeki and Yousei before lunging for Aikel and the others.

"Stay back!" Aikel shouted. He dashed forward and swung his sword.

Inber ducked to the side, and Aikel missed her. He stumbled and landed against her tail. Within a second, he was trapped within her coils. His sword clattered onto the floor. He fought against her, but her grip only tightened.

Yousei shouted, jumped, and plunged her spear into Inber's tail. Inber howled in pain. She loosened her tail enough for Aikel to scramble away, but Yousei was thrown. She screamed as she was tossed beyond the edge of the cliff. Aikel saw her pause in the air, and she jumped back to safety. She was wide-eyed, and she fell to her knees and shuddered.

Aikel grabbed his sword. While Inber was distracted by his escape, Himeki ran up and sunk her dagger into her hip. Yousei regained her composer and leapt over Inber's tail, attacking in the process.

Inber shrieked again and everyone around her scattered. She stared straight at Aikel, and he lunged for her and attacked. Instead of trying to block, she moved backwards to avoid the strike.

Puddles was in her face again and was spraying water at her. She was startled off-balance, and her tail slipped over the edge of the cliff. Its weight pulled the rest of her down, she slid against the rocks as she fell into the lava.

"Stay back," Himeki warned. "A strong sorceress can stand that heat."

Aikel , Yousei, and Puddles backed away from the edge.

"That was a nice trick you did," Himeki commented to Yousei.

"Huh?"

"Jumping from thin air like that...."

"Oh.... It's some of the magic faeries use to fly when in their larger forms."

"You're a sprite?"

"Yeah."

"I'd never seen a sprite before you. I thought you were a halfling."

"A halfling?!"

"Well, I've never seen a halfling before either."

While they were talking, Aikel went to Kyri and Pegasus. "Is he okay?!"

"He'll be fine," Kyri answered warmly. Pegasus raised his head weakly as she ran her hand over the places that had been injured. He sighed and shrunk back into his smaller shape.

The monotonous sound of the moving lava was broken by an irregular slush, and everyone readied themselves to fight again.

A hand rose over the edge of the cliff, placed a red orb on the floor, and sunk out of view.

Aikel ran to the cliff and looked down. There was nothing but rock and lava in sight. He knelt by the orb and went to pick it up. His fingertips had hardly touched it when he yelped in pain and stumbled back.

"It's hot!" he moaned.

Puddles made a giggling sound. She flew over to orb and cast a spell that dumped a bit of icy water over it. Kyri approached and cautiously felt the air near it before picking it up. She traded it back and forth between each hand to keep it from burning her.

"Are you all right?" she asked Aikel.

"Yeah..." he mumbled. He had landed on his back and hadn't gotten up yet. He looked disdainfully at the shiny pink flesh on his fingers. He used his unburned hand to sit up. He looked at the orb with Kyri. It shrunk and broke in two the way the Soil Orb had.

"I suppose..." Kyri began. She held a piece of the orb out to Aikel and tried to fit the other half into one of the medallions on her belt.

Aikel was aware of another sudden weight as slid his half of the orb into one of his medallions. He reached up and felt a metal helmet. He was tired and dizzy; he didn't want to be wearing a helmet.

He felt it fade away. He looked up and saw that Kyri had a leather hair band. There was a vaguely wing-shaped piece of transparent blue cloth on either side of her head. She didn't bother willing it away.

"Did you get what you came for?" Himeki asked them.

"Yeah..." Aikel answered weakly. "Thank you.... We couldn't have done it without you."

"It was nothing."

"It was everything. Your life was at risk."

"Still...."

Aikel was about to answer when Kyri grabbed his injured fingertips. The pain flared up and then faded away.

"Let's leave now," she said.

* * *
  

It was dark. Trudging down a mountain in the dark was hard.

They were halfway to Borharn when Yousei gasped. Everyone stopped and turned to look at her shadowed form.

"Ware!" a harsh voice shouted. There was movement from a cliff above.

" Orcs?" Himeki asked. She pulled out her dagger.

"No, we're too tired, and we don't know how many there are!" Aikel warned as quietly as he could.

"And they've seen us!" Yousei hissed. "Let's go! Let's get out of here!"

"They'll know to look for us at Borharn! This way!" Aikel had to tug at Himeki's arm to get her moving down the side path they'd picked out.

* * *
  

They had to get around the mountains and go south-southwest. It took three days to make sure the orcs weren't right behind them. When the mountains faded into plains, there was a city in view ahead of them.

It was a big city, and most of the population was human. The inn was easy to find. They asked for the city's name and found that it was Semita, a town in the middle of the Valley Kingdom. There was a highway leading both north and south. The southern route eventually lead to Paden, a port city that offered ferries across the cloven straight.

"At least we know where we are...!" Kyri moaned as she collapsed onto a bed at the inn.

"Yeah...." Aikel sigh. "All we need to do is walk along a road to Paden, take the ferry, and be back where we belong...."

"And give that letter to Queen Saraelye," Yousei added sleepily.

Their weight of their fatigue pulled the consciousness out of them, and they fell into sleep.