Chapter Thirteen

Jake and Alekzavier crouched on the ground in the woods a little ways away from the stream.

"We camp for the night, then, tomorrow, we go to the caves. It's about a day's hike, so we won't go all the way," Jake said, drawing a map in the ground with a stick, "and camp again." He looked up to make sure Alekzavier was following. "We'll stop right around here," he indicated a spot on the map that was taking shape in the dirt, "we'll start searching the caves the next day."

The silent wizard nodded."But for today, let's just go back to Atzigul and get ourselves some dinner at the tavern. I haven't had a proper meal in ages."

***

In the morning, Jake and Alekzavier began their hike to the caves, carrying with them some food and a small pot.

For two hours they hiked without speaking before Jake turned to Zavier and asked, "have you ever been to the caves?"

The latter shook his head.

"Me neither...do you think there are going to be any wild animals living there?"

Zavier shrugged.

"Bats?"

Another shrug.

"What? Don't feel like talking?"

Alekzavier looked up and glared at him.

Jake started laughing.

"I'm sure we'll find her, and then you'll be able to talk again."

Zavier grimaced and they continued once again in silence.

"Hey!" Jake was suddenly struck with an idea, "what if you let out the final words! And I write them down! Then you'll be able to speak, and we'll still have the words!"

Zavier shook his head vehemently.

"Why not?"

Zavier sighed, and picked another stick off the ground, writing in the dirt again.

Too risky.

"Oh come on, it'll work!"

Another headshake.

Words come fast. No time to write it all down.

"Whatever."

Twenty minutes later, Zavier stopped walking, stiffening. Jake looked at him. The silent mage pointed at his nose and looked curiously at Jake.

"What?"

Same gesture.

Jake copied him and pointed at his own nose as well. Zavier facepalmed. "Dude, what is it?"

Zavier started tapping his nose, then pointed ahead. Jake furrowed his brow.

"Do I smell anything ahead?"

Zavier nodded vehemently. Jake sniffed. "Yeah...something's burning."

And now they could see the flickering lights ahead. A forest fire. Moving fast.

Zavier whirled to face Jake, his expression clearly displaying panic. What do we do now?

Run! Both mages took off in opposite directions, then both turned around when they realized the other was going the other way. Exasperated, Zavier motioned for Jake to follow him.

Zavier was running towards and to the left of the fire. Jake stopped following him and started yelling instead, "Hey, stop running toward the flames you idiot, run away!"

But if he was able to hear his friend, Zavier paid him no attention.

Again, Jake ran the other way, to the right of the spreading fire.

But it was too quick for them, spreading fast in every direction.

The crackling of the flames nearly drowned out Jake's screams.

Alekzavier's eyes widened in horror when he heard them, changing course and talking off to the right. But the flames were upon him.

He ran at full speed, jumping, ducking, and diving to avoid burning branches and falling trees aflame, around firey bushes, squinting all the while.

Too much smoke getting in his eyes and nostrils, he kept his jaw shut tight, afraid of crying out. He felt as if he was on fire, running through an oven.

Flames on Akeefa territory were brighter and hotter than normal fire. He wasn't sure how long he could take this. He felt as if he were melting…

Zavier's cloak caught fire and he threw it off, jumping to avoid a falling branch. He covered his face with his hands, peeking through his fingers...too much smoke. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa he needed fresh air. But oh! There! He spotted what he hoped was Jake, under a huge boulder slightly elevated at one part, trying to hide from the fire.

He was about to cry out to him but stopped himself just in time. You can't ruin it after all this time. Jake's hands were over his ears, his eyes were closed, and he was biting his lip. How could Alekzavier tell him he was there?

The silent mage jumped out of the way of another falling branch, then placed his arms on his opposite shoulders, crossing them over his chest. Then, he very quickly ran his fingers against his opposite arms at the same time, forming two fists when he'd run them off the other hands' fingertips, unclenched the fists, lightly clapped both hands together once, and formed a gun shape with both hands that he pointed at his friend under the rock.

It sent a small stream of air, an air bullet through the air making contact with Jake's right shoulder.

Jake opened an eye to see Zavier approaching him, then started scooting to the right, trying to make room for his friend.

They squished themselves like sardines under the rock and waited.

***

Almost two hours later, the fire began abating, and was eventually over, at least in the part of the forest the mages were in, though it was still spreading farther down behind them, leaving a black forest of leafless and charred or fallen trees, piles of ash where there used to be bushes and no life to be seen anywhere.

Groaning, Jake rolled out from out of the rock, then yelped and jumped to his feet upon making contact with the hot ground. He moaned, hearing his bones cracking as he stood up, after being in such a cramped position for such a long period of time.

"Need...water…" he rasped, clutching at his neck.

Zavier followed him out, grimacing and furrowing his brow and making pained expressions.

Well, what was there to do?

They continued their walk, hoping to find some water.

They crossed some dry riverbeds, but everything was dry for half an hour until…"We've been blessed!" Jake cried out in ecstasy, "rain!"

After a wonderful breakfast at Brooke and Asher���s cottage, the five teenagers set out, determined to make some good progress on the Ennell. Outside the gates, they came up with a plan.

"We should split up," said Istelle surveying the group. "Nayana, you can come with me. Gwanwyn can be with Pendre. Talion, I think you will do fine alone."

The centaur shrugged, "works for me."

"Good. Nayana and I will stick to the right, we'll start out that way. Talion, why don't you go opposite us, and Pendre with Gwanwyn, you can take the center."

Her friends nodded.

"All right. Meet back here by sunset everyone."

The young archer led Gwanwyn through the forest, stopping only occasionally for water breaks or to rest his foot. It was recovering, with much thanks to Gwanwyn, but still not completely healed.

Gwanwyn had learned many herbs and treatments from Evan Lloyd Greene and had much practice from looking after Arin.

She smiled, thinking about her family back at the Cabin. She could still clearly remember the day she'd met them, three years ago…

She had gotten into a fight with her father when she had accidentally brushed a curtain half-open and her tail had been made visible outside. Nobody had seen it, but it had been a long, hot day and her father was tired, having just returned from the mill...Her little accident had made him angry.

He had scolded her, but she too had been quite tired and restless and didn't back down, instead she talked back and it had turned into a very heated argument.

She remembered yelling at him, Easy for you to say, you can do whatever you want!

Then he glared at her, and whispered, this miserable house isn't soundproof. Don't ever shout Gwanwyn.

And so she had stopped shouting, though she did glare back...she hadn't ever shouted in anger since that day.

But it had been too late. There had been shouts from outside, Did you guys hear that? Stewart, you okay in there? What's going on?

There had been knocks on the door. Gwanwyn had only just had time to duck under the table and behind a crate before the door had opened and several curious villagers had entered, inquiring about the voice they had heard. Her father had stuttered, unable to come up with a good story, the villagers had started looking around, inspecting the house...Gwanwyn's heart had beat so hard, then, somebody had kicked aside the crate, the face of an unfamiliar man...he had jumped back and yelled, the ladies had shrieked, and her father had grabbed a mug and thrown it out a window, causing the glass to shatter everywhere. Gwanwyn run! And she had, her father right behind her, out the window as more villagers had crowded into the house, shrieking at the broken glass and the girl with wolf ears, a tail, and fur, escaping through the window.

They had chased them, Gwanwyn ran faster than she ever had before, around the houses, not a glance behind her.

She had left the village and began running up a hill...she had looked back to see her father trying to catch up to her, but the village was at his heels. None of it had made sense, why were they so angry? But for whatever the reason, they were quite outraged, and she had turned her back on them and run as fast as she could away.

It was a long time until she stopped running, and she had collapsed to the ground, out of breath. She was in the forest.

Eventually, she had decided to look for her father, and she had for a long time, getting more and more lost, calling his name...but she never found him. Instead, almost an hour later, Evan and Arin had found her.

By this time she had been weeping, wandering aimlessly, and leaking tears.

My dear, what is the matter? The first words Evan had ever spoken to her. Her first sight of Arin, the little girl was clinging to the pocket of Evan's robe, looking up at

Gwanwyn with a mixture of curiosity, concern, and confusion. She was only five years old then.

Gwanwyn of course was very cautious around strangers, and it took her a few seconds of thought before deciding to trust this one enough to tell him what was bothering her. In the end, he had put a hand on her shoulder and invited her to come stay with them, saying Tomorrow, all of us will go out to search for your father. And they had, every day for weeks until one day she decided she didn't want to anymore. And she had adjusted to living with them in the forest, taking care of Arin…

She jumped when she saw Pendre staring at her. "What is it?" she asked him, embarrassed. "Uh," she put a finger over her mouth "shhhhh, do you hear that?" His eyes widened, "hooves!" It sounded like a stampede of hooved creatures, tearing through the trees to their left. Soon, they saw the source.

Their fur was brown, black, white, and all the other usual animal colors. Muddy and scraped, with dirty rotten fangs, most certainly carnivores. Their hooves pounding hard as they moved as a herd, their heads lowered, their single, long, black horns sizzling with magical electricity, pointed at the petrified with fear teenagers, smoke coming from their nostrils, making dust rise from the ground. Unicorns.

Gwanwyn looked around, frantic, trying to decide whether to climb a tree or to run. But which way to go? Which tree to climb? The unicorns came closer and closer as Gwanwyn became more and more panicked...whistle. Thump.

Gwanwyn turned back around to see Pendre with his bow drawn. He let the arrow fly. Whistle. The arrow flew through the air and sunk right into his target, right under a unicorn's neck. The animal fell over and hit the ground with a thump. Pendre was already shooting his next arrow. He hit each monster before it reached them. Gwanwyn watched the scene in horror.

Pendre only used four arrows before the rest of the herd realized what was happening and turned around the other way.

The two stood in silence.

"You saved my life," said Gwanwyn finally, "thank you."

"I was saving mine too."

***

"So, how did it go for everyone?" asked Istelle when the five met back together at sunset, all looking quite exhausted.

"Not so bad," said Talion, "I recruited several men and women, a group of wizards with trained Griffins and a few mages, as well as several groups of centaurs."

"Neat," said Istelle, nodding her approval, "Nayana and I also recruited three young men, two are brothers, as well as some trolls, goblins, and a few insect ashies. How did you two do?" she asked Gwanwyn and Pendre.

"A sphynx, some bird and one skunk ashy, more sprites and elves…" Gwanwyn turned to Pendre and he said "And I have also obtained four unicorn horns."

He laid them out on the table for the others to look at.

They were long and graceful, shiny and black, though they had scratches here and there. Pendre had tried to remove the meat and skin from the bases of the horns, but some still remained, which was a little disgusting.

"...don't unicorn horns have power in them?"

"Yes, they can be and are when people can get their hands on them, used as magic wands. It isn't easy to get them though since unicorns are quite vicious monsters who can only be found in large woods," Pendre answered Nayana.

"So what should we do with them?" Gwanwyn looked at Istelle, as the leader of the group.

"Let's keep them for now," she answered, "I'm sure we'll find a use later on.