by Nicole Sloan
I could really use some help with this and I whistle as loud as I can and wait for the Unicorn to appear. I wait a few minutes and have no luck. I’m not sure if it can hear me through the winds which are starting to pick up. I try again, this time whistling a little louder. I turn around and he’s galloping up to me.
“It’s time now for us to fight. Will you please try to help me the best that you can?” I ask it. It responds and encourages me with a push against my arm.
“What did they call him in the past, in the tales you’ve heard?” I ask Laderic while rubbing the Unicorn’s nose.
“It is said its name is Champion, for the people that it brings to help Yazen in its time of need.” Laderic tells me while looking at the Unicorn. It seemed to respond to the name when he mentioned it.
Luriss and his people are the last to emerge from the mountain home of the Dwarves and he heads over to us.
“We are as ready as we ever can be. We brought our weapons with us and are ready,” Luriss tells us.
I go and stand on top of one of the wagons to shout out to everyone, “Thank you all for being here and for your support. The reign of the Dark Elves ends now. We will push them back from Yazen and reclaim the land that is ours! Now begin our war.”
Everyone cheers as we begin to head toward the mountain tops and to the pass to lead us to the Dreadlands.
Chapter Twelve
The first day of traveling is quiet, except the sky looks as if is going to storm bad at any minute. The attack we thought would come at first was just a warning. We make it over the first part of the mountain and we decide to take turns sleeping for a few hours in a small abandoned cave at the bottom of the mountain the Dwarves knew about.
I can’t believe the first day went so easy, especially after the Elementals made their powerful debut. After everyone gets the chance to get some shuteye, we head out to travel through the second leg of our journey through the Mistpeak Mountains.
As we begin climbing however, the Air Elemental is the first to try and slow us down. The wind begins blowing at dangerously high speeds and it begins to pour down rain. It’s raining so hard that I can barely see the steps in front of me and the wind keeps knocking me back down the mountain.
We decide to stop for a few minutes until the rain lets up some and finally after 20 minutes, both the winds and rain dissipate but there are still dark clouds all around.
We begin to travel further up the mountain as quickly and safely as we can. The rocks are very slippery from the rain, causing a lot of us to slip and stumble. It makes it more difficult to climb and slows us down. We make it halfway up the mountain and stop on the top of this one large rock for a small break.
The ground begins to rumble and shake. What is going on? Is it an earthquake? I can’t stay on my feet. Everyone else is lying on the ground for their safety.
Next thing I realize, Laderic, Drakoe, and I are being lifted high in the air. The rock we’re standing on is a creature. It must be the Earth Elemental! It picks us up and launches us down the mountain. We roll down the hill, hitting trees, branches, and rocks. Luckily the armor is protecting my skin from getting scratched up, but it doesn’t stop any rocks from knocking the wind out of me. When we stop rolling near the bottom, I slowly sit up, catching my breath. Everything is spinning, I’m so dizzy, and my shoulder hurts from hitting something on the way down.
I look around and see Laderic upside down against a tree. Drakoe’s lying face down in some mud. I see the others working their way down to us. They’re all trying to avoid the Earth Elemental. It begins to hurl rocks at us, thankfully inaccurate, but they still make huge craters around us where the rocks land.
“Everyone, come down here, there’s a cave down there!” I shout. I hope it’s safer in here, at least it can get us away from the Elemental. I help Alex and Jenn down toward the cave on the other mountain ahead of us. Calina helps the others that are coming down the hill while keeping an eye on the Earth Elemental.
The Earth Elemental is made out of multiple rocks and has tree branches and moss growing all over it. It has dirt falling off of it every time it moves. Its face is carved out of the rock, with sharp teeth and round, beady eyes. I don’t think it can see us, but it seems to be able to sense our presence. It never throws the rocks directly at us, just in our general area.
We all begin to enter into the base of the cave, and it’s really dark and hard to see. I hear a loud rumble coming from behind us. We turn to see what has happened. The large Earth Elemental is on the ground, tied tightly in vines. It’s struggling to break free but it’s being held tight.
“Oh wow, he is completely pinned in place,” Alex says. Jenn looks petrified. She’s staying close to Alex.
“So what should we do now?” Nytril asks me.
“I think we should break into groups. One group will go through this cave toward the other end of the mountain and then have two groups go over, split apart, so we can spread out and launch a three-pronged attack, hopefully catching them by surprise,” Ovvar suggests.
It seems like a solid plan and we’re all in agreement. We end up breaking into three groups. I decide to go in the cave with a few others and explore the caverns. I wonder if it will go all the way through to the other side like Ovvar said. I wish we had light in here. Ovvar comes to the front and shines the light from his helmet down the dark cavern.
“We do not have enough light to take many of us this way. I can take a handful of us, but the others will have to go over the mountain,” Ovvar says. So Ovvar decides to bring just Nytril, Korla, Laderic, Drakoe, Calina, and I with him. Alex goes with the Centaurs and Fauns while Jenn goes with the Halflings, Dwarves, and the rest of the Wood Elves.
We all form a single-file line behind Ovvar so we don’t get lost of misstep anywhere. I’m in the middle of the pack. It’s so dark in here, I’m glad I’m not at the end of the line. We follow mostly a straight line down this hallway for about a mile, and then it branches off into three sections. We decide to follow Ovvar down the middle hallway and continue walking. After a few feet we begin to see a red-colored hue. The walls are covered with green moss, I’m assuming from the humidity.
We slowly walk toward it but realize we have come across a lava pit. It’s bright red with a yellow-orange glow, and bubbles of lava keep erupting like burp bubbles. It’s extremely hot in this part of the cavern and I have a lot of trouble seeing anything, as the air here is so hot. Everyone stays close together so no one falls in.
“It’s so hot in here,” Korla says out loud. I have sweat beads starting to drip down my forehead. Everyone seems uncomfortable except Ovvar. I guess he’s used to the lava since he works around it in his home. I forgot they flooded his home with lava. It’s such a shame, as it was very nice from what I could see of just the few floors that he had shown us.
We continue to walk past the lava, when halfway through the lava pit, waves and rocks begins to bubble up in the lava, forming rough human shapes. Where at first it was black, its shape beings to coalesce into bones. It looks like a skeleton made of fire with two big horns on its head. It looks like it resembles what I would consider the devil. The lava begins to rise up on the rock stairway that we’re standing on, making it hot and melting it, making it start to fall apart. We all run at this point to get out of there without getting burned by the lava. We run full speed with Ovvar in the lead since he has the light on his helmet.
“Run faster, the lava’s having no trouble in keeping up with us!” Laderic yells.
I turn to look behind me and I can see his tattoo beginning to glow similar to Narissa’s when she was captured. It looks like he’s holding on to a gem but I’m not sure. I have to look straight to make sure I don’t fall or run into anyone. I turn back again to see what he’s doing and he has a large, green, protective wall behind him. It’s pushing back on the lava that’s rushing up from below but its only partially effective. It breaks under the pressure of the flow. It reminds me of the shield that the Da
rk Elves put around themselves at the trade center.
We finally make it to a flight of stairs and the tunnel spreads out slowing down the lava. The green shield disappears.
“What was that green wall? Was it magic?” I ask Laderic, while I’m still out of breath.
“Yes, in a way,” Laderic says while still looking behind him down the tunnel.
“What you saw was one of the ways we protect ourselves,” Nytril mentions to the side of me. I turn to him and I’m very curious why Narissa’s tattoo began to glow before the Dark Elves took her. They took her necklace away from her and it stopped. Laderic had something in his hand as well when his tattoo began to glow.
“Some of us do have magical affinity to different extents. Anyone you see with tattoos here on Yazen generally has magical abilities. You saw those Elementals; they’re also brought to life the same way. It’s a bit more complicated than that and we don’t really have much time to explain, as we have to get Narissa back,” Nytril says with a frown on his brow.
I wonder what we’re going to run into next. I have never seen anything like that before in my life. I wonder what it’s like to have magical powers and tattoos. Distracted, I can hear bats flying around in the top of the cave. Every now and then they swoop down at the light from Ovvar’s helmet. The light from the lava is receding and it’s getting dark again where we’re standing.
After climbing a few more flights of stairs, we come to an opening on the other side of the mountain. After being used to being underground for a while, it’s really bright heading back outside. In front of us stands a fence of huge trees blocking our view of the castle and enemy grounds. I hear people moving behind us, so I turn and look up.
It is the rest of the two groups meeting up with us. We did near perfect timing, even with our running and trouble with the Fire Elemental.
“So what are our plans from here?” Luriss asks, clearly tired from walking this far, trying to catch his breath.
I have no idea what to do now. I’m not used to being in charge. What I thought was great at first, now I want to just sit back and follow someone else’s orders for a while instead.
I walk over and look in between the trees. Beyond lies a huge open land with a few trees around the perimeter. There’s a large wall that surrounds our destination. A dark-colored moat is on the outside of the wall all the way around. Out front of the moat is a large pond. Surrounded by the moat lies the castle. I can see a few ballistae along the top of the wall set up in a defensive position.
From where we stand, the Dark Elves look like ants running around down there. The castle is huge. It has a drawbridge they use to cross the moat.
Out of nowhere, we hear deep thuds coming from behind us, and the ground is shaking. I turn, guessing the Earth Elemental is coming to attack us again, but it turns out to be the Dryads. I didn’t know that they could walk. This is great! I didn’t know they could move like that!
“We came to help. We heard what was going on, and we couldn’t just sit by idly,” a young beautiful blonde Dryad says. She stands very tall, and she’s wearing a green tank top, green arm bands, and a brown belt. The rest of her outfit is combined into the tree. She has no legs and when she walks; the roots of the tree move her to her next destination. I have never seen anything like it before. She blends in perfectly when she stands next to another tree.
“I didn’t realize you could change location like that. I thought Beldis told us she was stuck.” I tell her. I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but I’m genuinely curious.
“Ah, unfortunately she is indeed unable to move. We, on the other hand, don’t have that affliction. We would love to help out. Yazen is as much our home as anyone else’s here. We would love to have our land back and not have to worry about being attacked by the Dark Elves. I even think we have a plan to help you out,” she says.
“I would love to hear your plan. What is your name?” I ask her. It dawns on me that this was the Dryad that Alex was talking with the first day we met them.
“My name is Summer. I think we can get close to them if you let me and the other Dryads slowly walk closer to the Fort. We can have a few of you follow behind us so they don’t spot you. We have a special gift that we can use to lure the Dark Elves to us. We can sing a very beautiful and subtle song that will attract them. Anybody close to us will go into a trance, so a few archers will have to stay far enough back so they do not go into the trance. Then they can dispatch the ones that we lure in,” Summer tells us.
Their plan sounds great, to be honest, and at least it is a plan. I honestly didn’t have a plan myself on how we should attack them so this is great timing.
“I think it’s a good plan. Does anyone else have any ideas that they would like to add?” I ask.
Everybody’s quiet and is looking around. No one is offering any advice. I really wish my grandpa was here to help me through this; he always has the right answers.
“Okay, everybody listen up. I think we should go with Summer’s plan. We’ll let them go ahead of us and get as close as they can without being overtly suspicious. A few of us will follow close behind but keep enough distance so we do not go under their spell when they start singing. I want everyone to partner up, one shooter and one person with bits of cloth in their ears, to stop the others from falling under the trance. Once the Dark Elves are lured to them, we’ll take care of them. Then we’ll work our way into the undefended castle and take back Yazen!” I tell them while taking out my bow and raising it up in the air.
Everyone raises their arms and weapons in the air in agreement. We stay hidden behind the trees and watch as the Dryads begin to slowly make their way into the field. There are about fifteen Dryads that have spread out from each other so it is not obvious. The rest of us spread out, and a few of us go out at a time; the ones of us that have bows and arrows are paired up and are staying hidden behind other trees. I follow behind Summer and make sure I keep a distance from her. I do remember hearing her sing before at Last Hope the first time we went there. It was alluring, and she had all of the Centaurs’ and Fauns’ attention from it.
I have my own bow out and ready, while keeping an arrow in my hand just to be ready. I’m so nervous I can hear my heart pounding. We make it out pretty far, just before the large pond.
The Dryads all look at each other, and we all get our arrows ready. Summer begins to sing the most fascinating song ever. I almost feel as I’m being pulled closer to her. I catch myself, however, and shake my head, snapping out of it. This is an important time to get as many of the Dark Elves off guard as we can.
Slowly, around 20 or so Dark Elves come walking out to the Dryads as though they are mesmerized. I have never shot an arrow this far so I really hope that I don’t miss. Once the Dark Elves circle the Dryads, I give the signal.
We all pull our arrows back and launch them at the Dark Elves. I pray none of the Dryads get hurt. The Dark Elves are pelted with the arrows, most of them falling and screaming for help. A few of them get away, making it back to their castle. We all charge down to the Dryads. I stop at Summer to see an arrow through her chest, blood dripping down her arms.
“Summer, no!” I yell. She risked her life for us! A tear begins to build up in my eye.
“Go, Zac. Save the others, they need you,” she says to me. I hear a shout and I look over behind me. Korla is running full speed over toward us; she has brought a bottle of healing water and begins to pour it onto Summer’s wound. The arrow breaks in half, and her body begins to reject the arrow’s head, dropping both ends to the ground. Her wound begins to heal perfectly like nothing has ever happened.
“Thank you, Korla, for saving her life,” I say to her while giving her a big hug.
“Zac, you’re welcome, but this is only the beginning of the bloodshed that you’re about to see. I won’t be able to save everyone like this. It’s happening now, and you have to be strong and know that it’s all worth it in the end,” she tells me. She’s right; I need to pull myself
together. I’m already beginning to lose it at the first sign of blood and we have just begun.
We begin to rush toward the castle wall. As we begin to approach the large pond, however, we’re suddenly attacked by the Water Elemental. It has turned itself into a large water drake. It’s blue with a white underbelly. It has blue horns and large blue wings and a long blue tail. Its fingernails are sharp, and it has sharp razor teeth. It has multiple fins on its back as well.
How can this pond hold this creature? I would think that they could only survive in a lake or ocean. I have no idea how we’re going to beat this creature. Everyone scatters around the perimeter of the pond.
“Watch out and don’t get caught!” I yell at the top of my lungs. I grab my sword and shield as I begin to make my way over to the water drake. It’s quick for as big as it is. It rushes toward me, hitting me with its tail. I go flying back several yards. I sit for a minute to get my bearings because everything is still spinning. I slowly make my way back to the pond.