“That was priceless,” Almas exclaimed as he dropped down from the low branch to the ground.
Ulec sat down and rested with his back to the tree. “Yeah, the look on their faces were great.”
One of the wolves happily came over to Almas, who rubbed the side of his head. “Hi Crusty!”
Crusty was the pet wolf that Ulec had given him four years previous when they had first met. He had raised him from a cub and now the wolf was full grown and spent as much time in the forest with the other wolves as it did at the Aguerius Estate.
Almas glanced at Ulec and noticed he was half asleep and looked paler than normal. With some concern he asked, “Are you okay? You don’t look so well.”
“I’m fine, just a little tired,” Ulec responded.
Almas was about to respond when a voice above them spoke first. “You’ll be more than tired if Mother or Father find out you were using Vithal magic.”
Looking above them they found Seacra sitting on the branch that Almas had just dropped down from.
“Dang it, Seacra! It’s bad enough when Ulec scares me doing that. Don’t you start now,” Almas complained.
“I thought you were showing the flowers to Cady,” Ulec said in an annoyed tone.
“I showed her all the flowers and realized you weren’t anywhere near the place you said you would be. So afterward I took her back home and came looking for you to see what you were really up to. You mean you didn’t notice?”
Ulec turned red. He normally kept good tabs on everything happening in the forest. Almas had never seen anyone sneak up on him before.
“I was distracted,” he responded.
“I know. It’s rare I ever get the drop on you, let alone twice in one day.”
Ulec sighed, “There just seems to be a lot more poachers in the forest than normal lately. I just thought I’d give this group a good show and maybe discourage others from coming.”
Seacra slid off the branch and dropped lightly to the ground next to Almas. Meanwhile Ulec opened up his shoulder bag and let Metal out, which began rolling and oozing towards Seacra.
“Ulec! Keep that thing away from me. That thing is gross.”
Ulec smiled lightly and responded, “Mention any of this to Mother or Father and you just might find him sleeping next to you one morning. He likes you.”
“Okay, just get it away from me.”
“Good,” Ulec said as he closed his eyes and leaned his head against the tree. “Now just let me rest a moment here.”
As Ulec closed his eyes and relaxed, Metal oozed over to some rocks, settled over the top of them, and soon the smell of acid on rock filled the air. Almas shook his head and laughed, “Those rocks must have a little iron ore in them. Some day that thing is going to be metal plated.”
“That thing is just plain creepy,” Seacra muttered.
“That thing saved my life once,” Almas responded back. “It attacked a forest dragon to protect Ulec and me.”
Seacra shrugged and after a few moments of silence, Almas spoke again, “What did you mean earlier when you said something about Ulec using Vithal magic?”
Seacra answered with a question, “You know the difference between elvish magic and human magic, right?”
Almas thought back to conversations he had had with his parents and with Ulec. “Humans have to make their magic by some sort of action, like when I play my harp, and Ulec once told me elves use energy given off by living things, which is why you live in the forest. Lots of life means lots of magic for you.”
“That’s right; there were three races of elves during the War of Destruction: Elder elves, Shadow elves, and Desert elves. Elder and Shadow elves use Natela magic, Desert elves use Vithal magic, and humans use Trabar magic. Elder and Shadow elves have a large source of magic, but we all use the same source and can feel when someone is using it and how much they are using.”
“So you and Ulec can’t use magic without your parents knowing it?” Almas asked.
Seacra answered, “Normally no, but our mother is only half Elder elf. Her mother was an Elder elf and her father was a Desert elf.”
“And that makes her different?”
“It makes her, Ulec and myself a little different. Desert elves were a race of elves that lived in the great northern desert that were wiped out during the War of Destruction. Since there is very little Natela magic in the desert, they learned to tap their own life force as a source of magic. So when one of us uses Vithal magic we draw the magic from ourselves so no one else can sense it,” Seacra explained.
“That sounds like it would hurt.”
“More like exhaust you,” Seacra corrected, nodding toward Ulec who was now sleeping. “but you need to be careful not to use too much. If you do, then it can shorten your life. That is why our mother would be very angry if she caught Ulec doing it.”
Almas took a moment to digest everything Seacra said. He wasn’t sure what to say after that. After a while Almas spoke up, “Well, it’s starting to get late; I should be heading home. Tell Ulec I said goodbye when he wakes up.”
“Okay.”
Frost Wyrm Page 8