Chapter 2

Turning around quickly, he sees a man standing there with a spear. The armor the man wears marks him clearly as a member of the Lord's Guard. Green tiled armor, signifying that he is a cultivator of the wind. Though he doesn't have the gold trimming that would have marked him as a mage.

"How'd you manage to get wind enchanted arrows though little one?" he asks.

Matthew looks around. He's avoided the Lord's men since the day his village was destroyed. Not because he is necessarily a criminal, but because he has no cultivation. And he knows everyone will be able to see that. However, he already knows that if there is one he can see, there are probably two others he can't.

"I didn't. That was a normal arrow," he says. Honesty is the only method he knows of to get out of this. And to be fair, it is a normal arrow. He doesn't know about Breeze.

"Hmmph," he snorts, "Sure kid. A normal arrow was able to correct it's course and pierce the eye of a D class beast."

Matthew has no idea what a D class beast is, but that's not too surprising. He's been living on his own for four years now. Things that he would have learned if his village was still around.

"D class?" he asks, trying to sound innocent.

"Come on Corp," he hears from behind him once more, "the kid is obviously a thief or something. Let's just take him back in and bring the corpse along."

'That's two. Where's number three?' Matthew thinks to himself. If he can figure out where all three are, he might be able to figure out a way to run. He can lose himself in the tall grass fairly easily. But if he doesn't know where the third one is, he runs a risk of trying to run right past him.

"I'm not a thief!" he says, glaring at the brush where another guard has just walked out. It's clear this is a hunting squad. Matthew just hopes that the villagers were correct that they always moved in groups of three.

The corp just snorts again, before seeming to suddenly appear next to Matthew and grabbing him by the back of his shirt.

"You probably have the right of it Lewis. You and Mark grab the boar. We'll take the boy back with us to Northern Wind Keep. They'll figure out what to do with him there."

All Matthew can think is, 'shit'.

*****

Besides being put in cuffs and his bow being taken, the guards didn't treat Matthew poorly. After all, he did manage to kill the boar they were hunting. So they at least had some respect for his skill as a hunter. Even if they insisted he had to have stolen a wind enchanted arrow. They know his other arrows are normal though.

The thing is, none of them had the skill to try and get the arrow out of the eye of the boar. The corporal, which is what corp stood for Matthew found out, was a little upset about that. More because he was worried it meant that the arrow was a higher level enchanted arrow than he had originally thought.

However, they allowed him to eat some of the rations they had. When they stopped to camp or even to "release the pressure" as Lewis called it, they would allow him to conduct his business by himself. Of course, they would make sure he couldn't run when he did so. But considering he was effectively a prisoner, it was a bit better than he had been expecting.

It took them only four days to get to Northern Wind Keep. Even Matthew knew that this keep was the stronghold of the Count of Northern Winds. He was one of three counts under the Northern Duke of Air, and responsible for protecting the Northern Plains against any attacks from across the Northern Border.

Matthew wasn't exactly sure why he had been brought here. He had been expecting to be dropped off in a town where the local Lord would have sentenced him. As they walked through the gates, with the Corporal nodding his head at one of the gate guards, he put a hand on one of Matthew's shoulders and directed him further into the fortress.

And Fortress it was. The walls were far thicker than the boar was tall. If Matthew had to guess, he would say they were probably four to six meters thick, and ten to twelve meters high.

"I'm worried about you," Breeze said. That was one thing Matthew had been very careful about. Talking with Breeze had to be handled carefully, as he didn't want anyone assuming he was talking to himself. It wouldn't help his case any if they thought he was crazy on top of everything. The only villager he had seen who was called insane was an old man who talked to houses, carts and other objects.

He had been hung by his village, with the villagers saying it was to ward off the demons that had clearly possessed him.

"This way," the corporal said, pushing him into a room. The room had a couple of chairs and a table. As he turned around to ask what was happening, the corporal closed it again.

"Well, at least I have a second to talk to you Breeze. I don't like this one bit." he said, once he was sure the Corporal had walked off. The door they had entered was just past the entry tunnel, and looked like it was part of the outer wall. Which made some sense. If an enemy attacked and managed to break through the walls, there would be defenders already there. Or the walls could be collapsed onto the rooms in the wall to prevent invaders from entering as quickly.

"Want me to try and figure out what's going on?" she asks. She's clearly not comfortable being surrounded by stone like this.

Before he can respond, some Earth spirits approach him. He knows they are Earth spirits, as they are brown and Breeze explained that the color had to do with what element they were. Green was air, Blue was water, Red was fire, and Brown was Earth. Then there were the ones that didn't match the elements as he knew them. Black was death, white was life. There were more, but Breeze didn't really know that much. Just rumors she had heard from others.

These Earth elementals came up to him and just danced around him for a moment. Then the largest one stopped in front of him and made a sound that to Matthew sounded like two rocks hitting each other.

"Oh, this could be good. They're asking if you'll bind with them." Breeze says.

"Should I?" he asks.

Both Breeze and the Earth elemental bob up and down. "I've no idea if it's possible. But yeah, that would probably help."

So Matthew reaches his hand out, and the Earth elemental touches his hand. He once again feels the rushing sound as the Elemental link itself to him. Then a pop and a deep voice says, "Well we be in a bit of a spot now."

The new elemental is about the same height as Breeze, but that's where the similarities end. Where Breeze looks like a woman with a light dress on, this one is dressed in solid tones with what looks like armor. He also has a thick beard and on his head is a mushroom cap, all in solid brown.

In that same deep voice he says, "My name is Rubble. I'm probably the most active of the bunch here. As Earth elementals, that says a lot. I saw you had the agreement with the missy there. That's why I wanted to try my luck as well. But it sounds like if we don't get you outta here, there won't be much wandering going on."

"You got any ideas Rubble?" Matthew asks.

"Well, most of the people in the fort are at the Core Forming stage. Which level don't matter, they are all stronger than you are. So we need to be sneaky. Now, there are some caves below the fort. We can try to get out through them."

"Ugh," Breeze says, "I hate caves."

Rubble chuckles, "Well why don't you sit in our host?"

Breeze and Matthew both blink. "Sit in the Host?"

He looks back at both of them and sighs. "I don't know much about it. A while back, I think a hundred years ago? Ach, whatever. Anyway, a while back an Earth Elemental came through and said he'd been in a binding before. We all believed him, cause he was clearly a male. None of us had that experience."

"Anyway, one of the things he talked about was how whenever he didn't like a situation his host was in, he would sit in the host and wait to be called back out."

Now Matthew is looking at Rubble with excitement. "You mean there are more people like me?"

"Hah!" Rubble says, "You're probably one in a million kid. There aren't many who can converse with elementals. I've only met the one elemental that has done this before."

Matthew nods. Obviously Rubble only had a little bit of information.

"Now, if we want to get out of here, you're gonna need to help me out here. You're full of energy, so let's do some work."

***** Twenty minutes later *****

When the corporal returned with the investigator, they were both surprised to see that the boy who had killed the boar was no longer in the room. The fort went on lockdown for almost an hour, with no one finding him.

Which made the investigator and the corporal want to find some answers.