The Color snatcher

Dayrue and Cronan were forcing themselves to keep moving. It was obvious they needed to take a break to recover, but doing so in that Domain was a terrible idea. They both insisted they moved along and that they would be fine.

Rue could not wait until both that Domain and the Dreadful Werewolf one were both behind her. She wanted to let her guard down, unstiffen and take a nap without the fear of being woken up from something that wanted to harm them.

While they walked through the bushes Ezra and Skinner encountered leaves that had mouths trying to bite them. They slashed them down with the edge of their swords.

All the while Rue was thinking to herself at the back. She thought about her hair being in enough water to have taken all the moisture from it. It needed to be re-moisturized before it started to break off.

She felt a few strands that stuck to her temples and they were dry and brittle. But she could not stop nor take her eyes away from looking out for the dangers that might jump out. Especially with her father and Dayrue in their condition.

Being at the back along with Roshar, she could see the ends of their mantles were ragged. They were shorter and soon they may not be able to hide their tails. Luckily the bandaged part of her tail was hidden still under her mantle. Not even other creatures should be able to see it.

They had moved far from the shore. They turned to go north again once they believed they would not meet into any of the two giants in case they took their battle near land.

Dimness began to cast above them as they passed through tall trees and tall rocky grounds on one side. A creature shot sharp darts down at them from the high rocks.

Dayrue created a telekinetic field around them to catch the darts before reversing them to shoot back at the creature. It docked to miss them and did not come back up.

Skinner looked behind at Dayrue with a made-up face and his twig frozen in his mouth.

Dayrue signed, "It was reflex. It won't happen again." The new pain caused her to hold one hand over the bandaged injury at the side of her head.

Rue had not heard from her father in a while. She missed hearing his strong loud voice that reassured her she would be safe. His current state only reminded her that this Quest was dangerous.

From behind she could not see his face with red eyes that blended in with his skin. But at least he had started to walk more steadily.

Ezra and Skinner at the front stopped once they looked out at lands that were void of any color. The others along with Rue moved closer to look.

Everything from the ground, trees, and leaves had a monochrome look like the portraits of her mother. At the sound of a blood-curdling shriek, they all froze to look in all directions.

The dark land ahead had jet-black leafless trees that blended in with their dark shadows creating an eerie mess from a nightmare. Large holes in the ground were everywhere. Even with the midday sun gleaming down on everything it looked unwelcoming.

They already had their weapons out but Cronan and Dayrue were not in any condition to fight. Even worse, they were not to use their telekinesis for a while as it would worsen their condition.

They held their weapons close to them to maintain a streamlined position and headed off in their grouped formation. The five rattlers stayed in the center along with Cronan and Dayrue.

Bones piled the roots of trees near the large holes in the ground. Many small critters that appeared to be scavengers roamed around but they did not attack them.

The assassins stopped when a two-legged monster sprang up from one of the large holes to block their path. Its many eyes below a mouth filled with wiggling tentacles had locked onto them. Fleeing to hide behind the trees was not an option.

Every move they made the creature moved closer but stopped when they did. It dodged a shuriken that aimed at one of its eyes and disappeared into another hole in the ground.

The assassins continued to move when it leaped from another hole behind them to attack viciously. It dodged their attacks before disappearing again into another hole.

It began to peep through several holes located at different places all around them. The assassins soon realized the holes were all connected underground. Attacking and disappearing to peek out from their openings was its strategy.

Any attack they threw its way it saw it coming with its many eyes and dodged it. The rattlers kept moving all over without stopping after being startled by the creature popping up in so many locations. Not even Rue could get them to settle down.

Annoyed, they decided to eliminate it. It seemed to rely on its eyes a lot.

Since it was only one creature, they did a maneuver that involved using their stealth energy field to hide. Rue briefed a clueless Ezra on what to do.

Stealth energy fields were created by altering the molecules close around the body. They ranged from a few millimeters to inches away from the skin. Anything caught within that region would reflect the objects behind their body giving the illusion they were invisible. However, anything outside it would not. It worked best in the dark and by keeping still when in light.

Rue along with Skinner, and Ezra, scurried around the surrounding trees, stamping on twigs and throwing shurikens to disrupt its senses. They moved so fast that any sight or scent it may have locked on their slightly opaque figures quickly got lost.

Dayrue was master of the stealth energy field and so even in her condition, she could create one for herself and one for Roshar's arrow so it remained invisible once it left his region.

Roshar hid the parts of his metal bow that stood out by hiding behind a tree once his arrows flew out. One by one they shot invisible arrows to attack its eyes once its head moved for them to get a clean shot. Apart from Roshar's bow-hand, he, Dayrue, and Cronan kept still.

Before all its eyes went out it fled into a hole in the ground. The others knew from their training not to stop moving with speed as it might attack again. However, Ezra did not and the minute it submerged underground, he slowed down to regroup with Dayrue, Roshar, and Cronan.

He had lost track of their location after moving around at such speed and them being so still. He stopped and dismissed his stealth field so they could see him.

The creature popped its head out from a nearby hole and darted an elongated tentacle from its mouth to wrap around his right arm. Instantly it tugged him before his feet were able to make a firm stand to resist the pull.

"No!" Rue screamed the second she saw him lose his stand while moving behind the trees.

He fell and his body got dragged over the coarse black earth as it pulled him nearer by his arm. He yelled out as the pain was so much he could not think to attack the monster.

A dagger sliced the creature's tongue separating it from Ezra, while several others lodged into its head sending it to fall back into the hole with blood squirting out.

"Ezra!" yelled Rue as she ran towards him and dismissed her field. Her knees hit the ground close to him.

The others were still hidden by their stealth energy fields and so took their time to get closer while refraining from making too much noise. They still had to keep their eyes on the lookout in all directions for anything that might attack.

Ezra got to his feet without Rue's help and turned away from her.

"Are you alright?" she asked as she stood back up.

"I'm fine," he snapped at her before moving off with the attacked arm hidden under his mantle.

His response got her speechless as she looked at his back walking away from her. He had never dismissed her nor spoke to her with such harshness. It made her heart wrench.

Her hands rolled into a fist before she said, "Fine."

The rattlers came back to them and they continued to move. However, Ezra was obviously in pain and lagged behind before finally crashing down on his knees. He held his right arm close as he failed to stop his moan from the intense pain.

From the speck of his arm they glimpsed, it was grey as though all the color had been snatched from it.

"That looks serious. We have to treat it," said Roshar in a low voice as he looked down at his friend in pain. He moved Ezra's other hand over his shoulder to help him to his feet.

Rue stopped the urge to clog her ears and looked away. She had never heard Ezra in pain and it was affecting her. There was a horrible feeling she did not understand. She moved to stand close to her father. His gentle pat on her back was reassuring.

Dayrue snapped her finger before pointing to a cave nearby.

Rue and Skinner agreed to go in first. Once they decided it was safe the others went in. They stooped close to Ezra as Roshar examined his right arm. To keep hidden they avoided creating a fire and used the faint light from the outside to see. The Meras had good night vision and so could make do with the limited light.

The lower part of his right arm was decolorized. Roshar began to strip his arm revealing that his glove, hand armor, to even his pink skin underneath had turned monochrome. Roshar assumed it went deep to the bone.

Ezra was breathing too hard and sweat ran down his face. The Meras hardly sweat since they had thick skin and could stand the heat. But it now not heat that caused his sweating. His head hung and he said not a word as the pain was the only thing on his mind.

Rue hated seeing him in that state.

"I'll get some bandages," she said as she moved away.

"This is bad," Roshar added as he began to clear the rest of Ezra's arm. Once his upper arm armor was gone and cut through the black fabric, they noticed only the lower parts of his arm were affected.

They all sighed in relief the same time Rue came back with two bandage rolls. Her brows raised at how muscular Ezra's upper arm was. She always thought he looked like a skinny bean and could not stop staring at it.

The cracking of the decolorized armor into two after Dayrue lifted it to take a closer look broke her from her gaze.

"It's as solid as a rock," she gestured.

Ezra's wide-open eyes looked away from the shattered ceramic and back at his arm in terror.

"Crap," he said under his breath among their disturbed faces.

Skinner had stopped looking through an amputation manual and took out a sword. He got close to Ezra and said in the lowest and cracked voice ever as he looked all over Ezra's decolorized arm.

"Let's see where to cut it."

If it wasn't for the complete silence no one would have heard him as his voice was still too low.

"No!" yelled Ezra in a strong voice between heavy breaths. "I'm keeping the arm."

Roshar took the bandages from Rue and said, "I'll make the softest most protective cast to keep it safe. But it'll take more than two rolls."

"I'll get more," said Rue as she speeded off to unstrap another load.

"In fact, I think you should take them all," he added.

"This is going to take a while," signed Dayrue as she made herself comfortable on the hard ground. "They really need to have qualifications for who can volunteer on these Quests."

She looked back at Ezra, snapped hard to get his attention, and gestured, "How long have you been training for again?"

A sassy Ezra told her, "Why don't you look back at your injured arm and ask yourself that question?"

Dayrue's expressions remained unchanged by his response. She stared deep into Ezra's eyes before he looked away from the discomfort. She took out a dagger and began playing with it with a bored expression on her face.

"A newcomer to our order that volunteered for a Quest on the same day? Never has something so crazy been done before. No one would have expected it," said Roshar.

Rue began to feel he deserved it, and teased him in a low voice, "You really are Turill the second."

Cronan asked with the strongest and clearest words since the shore, "Turill the second?"

Rue's head darted to her father as he removed his hood from his head revealing brows knitted together behind loose strands of this black hair.

"What a name to call someone. I thought I raised you better."

Rue stared at her father with disbelief. She wondered if she should be happy he was speaking loudly again or terrified by what he just heard.

"Dad, I-I-I," she stuttered.

"She must have her reason," signaled Dayrue. "We've got time. What's the story behind it?"

Ezra held onto Rue's arm as she sat by his side and whispered in fear, "Please, don't."

After what Dayrue tried to do to Skinner, he knew he was no match for her even with her head injury and left arm.

Rue knew the Werewolf Domain where he planned to ditch them was next. In order to fulfill her words and stop him, she decided to tell.

"You're right I do have a reason."

He squeezed harder onto her arm, but she pulled it away.

"It's because this low life plans to-"

She didn't continue her words as he had slapped his free hand over her mouth to say, "It's because I told her I plan to commit my heart to her when we get back. Yes, I am madly in love with Rue."

Roshar's busy hands froze and an expression of shock ran over the others' faces.

Rue ripped his hand from over her mouth, turned to him, and glared, "What did you just say?"

Ezra took advantage of the small space between both their faces and gave her a passionate kiss.

All their wide opened eyes finally blinked from Rue and Ezra's faces that finally moved apart from the blood-curdling scream that sounded from outside the cave.