Roaring high into the air, the flames swallowed the adventurer, panicking the horses as Seras cursed and reached for a vial. This was far sooner than she had thought it would be and even sooner than she had hoped. Worse yet was that they had already lost the hunter.

Seras had hoped they could at least get halfway before needing to use him as a distraction, but what could she expect when she couldn’t hire a stronger adventurer without drawing too much attention?

Now, as Luna started to cry and the hellhounds closed in, she wished she had just risked it.

But as the charcoal-furred beasts circled them, their burning body-length mohawks flaring with the excitement of finding their prey. She guessed it didn’t matter now anyway. She just had to kill them and hope they wouldn’t run into anymore.

One hound lept at them, its saliva hissing to steam as it snapped its jaws open. Jaws that would never shut again as Seras twisted and threw the vial at the dog. Before reaching it, the vial burst, the blue liquid expanding and turning back to the ice it had once been, entombing the hellhound, which flew over them and crashed behind the horses.

The others cried out in rage, but before they could lunge at her, Seras pulled more vials from her satchel, moving Luna behind her while using the horses as a wall to guard their backs.

There were four more hounds, and Seras had five more vials. This meant that after this, they would have to ride the horses to death, hoping no more hounds would reach them, but they could still do it.

Luna cried, and Seras turned and threw a vial. Only the hound tried to dodge in mid-air, leaving only its back legs frozen.

Seras thought about finishing it off but stopped and threw her second vial at the ground. This time, the vial crashed to the ground, the force of which made the liquid splash and freeze in spikes that lanced the hound that had tried to jump at them.

Luna cried again, and Seras realised her unavoidable mistake. Fast as she could, she reached for another vial, but the hellhound that had stayed in front of them, making it seem to be in the most disadvantaged position, was already in the air. In a moment, it would rip her throat out, and they could carry Luna back to the hell awaiting her.

Unwilling to give up, she grabbed another vial, ready to pour the contents over both herself and the hellhound.

Faster than any person should be able to, the adventurer fell from the sky, landing on the head of the hellhound that had almost ended her and crushing its head into the ground.

‘Sorry about that. I had a bit of a flight back.’ The hunter smiled, his clothes not even burnt by the flames that should have turned him to ash. ‘Are you two okay?’

Still unable to believe what she was seeing, Seras nodded, getting a relieved nod from the hunter before he looked down and noticed the hellhound squirming under his boot,

‘I couldn’t have one of those, could I?’ the hunter asked, pointing to the ice potion she was still holding.

With a nod, she tossed it up at him, who caught it and, with practised ease, drew his sword and unstopped the vial with his teeth.

Still reeling, Seras wasn’t able to stop him as he poured the potion on his blade, but instead of the steel shattering, ice grew around it before falling away, leaving a blade glowing with blue light.

‘Light, am I glad that worked.’ He laughed before he vanished and appeared above the hellhound that lept at him and spun once throught the air, cutting it in two.

In complete disbelief, Seras watched the hunter twist like a spinning top, plunging his sword into the hound he had landed on before leaping into the air as if swimming to float above them and looking over them.

Where had once been the less-than-savoury hunter that Crownguard was plagued with, albeit one more unusual looking than most. Now she saw a radiant being, his already unusual eyes shining with an inner light while a silver breeze seemed to exist solely for him.

In a blink, the hunter vanished and appeared in front of them again, driving his boot into a hound that had snuck up on Seras and Luna before turning again and slashing the last hound.

‘You two aren’t hurt, are you?’ Lan asked as the Silver Wind faded, and he landed. Both the woman and the girl didn’t look like they had been hurt, but he was still kicking himself for getting caught out like that. ‘Uh, are you okay?’ he asked when all the woman did was stare at him.

‘The others!’ she shouted, taking what was left of the potion from Lan before rushing to pour some on any Hellhound that was still alive. Lan thought about helping, but it looked like she had a handle on it, so he looked over his sword. The odd ice potion had worked just like the fire silk, even if it had worried him for a moment, but watching the ice rune dance around the heart of Spellthief, Lan knew he had barely started to understand his sword’s potential.

Suddenly, Lan heard sobbing and felt his brotherly instinct kick in.

‘Hey, it’s okay now.’ He dropped to his knees in front of the girl as she rubbed at her eyes. ‘It’s okay,’ he soothed, ‘I know it was scary, but it’s over now.’ Lan moved to pat her on the head but stopped as her tears caught his eyes. Not only were they larger than they should have been, but as they welled up and fell to the ground, they seemed to harden… no, crystallise.

‘How?’ Lan asked, picking up what to the naked eye, looked like a diamond. ‘A diamond?’

Realising what she was doing, the girl’s head shot up to look at him, her eyes wild and full of fear and once again the same brilliant violet he had seen the first time before he felt an impression from Tyr as he felt a blade pressed against the back of his neck.

‘Don’t move.’ the woman ordered. ‘Thank you for saving our lives, but don’t think that it will stop me from ending you if you try anything.’

‘You can try and stab me if you want, but I think you owe me an explanation first.’ Lan said, raising and turning to face her. Both knew that even at close distance, she really couldn’t lay a finger on him with Tyr there. Defiantly, the woman stared up at Lan before sighing and looking away.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

‘I would rather you drop it.’

‘I would love to.’ Lan shrugged. ‘But if I am not mistaken, those are familiar gemstones in the foreheads of those things. Which tells me that someone is looking for you two. Or should I say her?’ Lan said, making Leaf wince.

‘I think we are past the point of keeping anything secret. At this point, the more I know, the better I can tell if I am doing the right thing. Otherwise, you can take all three horses and try to make it yourself.’ Although Lan didn’t think he could just leave them, he would also not keep going without knowing what they were in for.

After a moment, Leaf sighed.

‘As you can guess, Bird and I are not mother and child, and I am sure you can also guess that I am not the one those Hellhounds were sent to bring back.’ Leaf walked over and picked Bird up. ‘We are from Leeto, part of Prince Caerleon’s parade party. Bird… has a very unique ability. Her tears turn to gems. As a result, she was sold to Prince Caerleon. He was delighted with his new gift until we learned that tears formed from pain or fear don’t last long before fading away,’ she said, and the pain in her eyes made Lan not need to know how they had learned, which only made his blood boil.

‘So he brought her along with hopes of duping Crownguard nobles, at least that was the plan until he got distracted and forgot about her. I was tasked with seeing if I could make tears that lasted as… long as possible.’ After a while, I just… couldn’t,’ she said, holding Bird closer as her eyes filled with guilt in a moment of weakness ‘and started planning to escape with her while the Prince was still distracted.’

Leaf looked up at Lan as if daring him to pity her. ‘So there you have it.’ she lifted her chin.

For a moment, Lan just looked at her. The story sounded just like what anyone trying to hide their true goals would come up with for sympathy. What made up his mind was looking to Bird or, more so, the way she clung to Leaf like her only lifeline, even though Leaf had all but admitted to hurting her in the past.

‘Okay, what is our plan now that we have been found?’

Leaf blinked before recovering. ‘As long as we killed all of them, then we have not been found just yet. Familiars like these are not able to send communication over a long distance, but there are no doubt more on the way, so as long as none escaped, we should be able to keep going with the plan.’

‘Okay, let’s get a move on.’ Lan said before noticing that Bird was still crying quietly. ‘Hi there, Little Miss. I have to say I have never seen eyes like yours before. people say my eyes are unique too, although mine only glow.’ Lan said, tapping the side of his head with a finger, knowing his eyes would still be burning with light as Bird looked up from under her hand.

It had its effect as Bird stopped crying and stared wide-eyed at him.

‘Aside from having cool eyes, I am an adventurer. Do you know what that is?’ Lan asked, getting a nod from Bird.

‘You fight bad people and monsters?’

‘That’s right, and I like to think that I am getting very good at fighting bad people too. so I’ll tell you what, if you see any bad people, just point them out, and I will thump them for you.’ Lan said, patting her on the head as she laughed softly. ‘In the meantime, now that I know what they look like, I will make sure you never have to see one of those scary mutts again.’

Bird sniffed before sticking her pinky out, and Lan looked up at Leaf.

‘Pinky promise.’ Leaf said, showing Lan what to do in the air. Lan nodded and locked his pinky around Birds.

‘You make a pinky promise and keep it all your life; you break that pinky promise, and your pinky turns to ice.’ she sang through sniffs.

Lan could only stare at her as she finished before raising an eyebrow at Leaf, who shrugged, clearly not getting it either.

Then he laughed. ‘Well, I’d better keep my promise because I can’t lose my pinky. It’s my fifth favourite finger on my hand.’ he said, making her giggle.

Standing, Lan moved to ready his horse before Leaf called to him.

‘Wait!’ Leaf said to him before seeming to make up her mind. ‘I think it’s only fair that you know when I made the guild request, I had planned on letting you die if it came to it. These familiars belong to Bird’s Keeper. They are tasked with killing me and bringing her back or reporting back after a kill in case she runs away, as she knows to do. I didn’t care to know anything about you because I planned to use you as a decoy.’ She said, clearly taking no pride in it while not shying away. ‘I see now that you are more important to us alive if we are going to make it out of this.’

For a moment, Lan could only stare at her as Bird picked up on the tension and started to look between them.

‘Okay.’ Lan shrugged. ‘Thanks for letting me know.’ He added as he turned back to the horses.

‘That’s it? I just told you I was willing to throw away your life, and that’s all you have to say?’ she asked, and Lan couldn’t help but laugh. ‘What’s so funny!’ she demanded.

‘Being the decoy is kind of what you paid me for. Although I will accept your apology for not telling me what we were going to face.’ He said, returning to his horse and leaving Leaf to stare at his back.

‘Crazy hunter…’ she sighed.

Now that Lan knew what was coming after them and to look in different directions, he was able to keep his promise to Bird. Wisp Walking and dealing with the next round of Hellhounds and Wisp Walking back.

Appearing above his horse, Lan dropped into the saddle, ‘How many familiars does this man have?’ Lan asked Leaf, who turned to look at him.

‘Olon is not one for forming true connections with his familiars, choosing to keep around thirty of them with basic links to most of them. Olon brought fifteen to Crownguard.

‘So seven more hounds, and we are home free?’ Lan asked

‘Six.’ Leaf shook her head. ‘as I said, most have basic links, but Olon also brought his favourite familiar, a Fire Troll.’

Lan blinked at her. ‘A Fire Troll? That’s… that’s not a thing.’ he said flatly.

Leaf rolled her eyes. ‘Why would I lie about that now?’ she frowned

‘You are telling me that there is such a thing as a fire troll?’ Lan tried to clarify, getting an unamused look from Leaf.

‘Yeah… but a fire troll, how by the light would you even kill something like that?.’ Lan said, sounding lost.

Trolls were one of the odder creatures he knew about. The size, intelligence, and level of their incredible regeneration were utterly different from one to the next. The only thing that they had in common was their weakness to fire.

Besides removing limbs and burning them, the only way to kill a wild troll was with magic greater than their regeneration.

‘You don’t.’ She looked Lan in the eyes. ‘Gregor is the only reason Olon was able to rise to the Sixth Circle; he is nearly unkillable. He is a monster as sadistic as its master and known to all in Leeto. This is why we need to reach Grisham before it is seen by their town: any spy in the town that sees it will have Olon and the Ferrin Knights on us in thirty minutes.

‘Why aren’t they coming after us already.’ Lan asked, trying not to think about how to deal with a living contradiction. ‘Why does it feel like this Olon is the only one we need to worry about?’

As if to emphasise her point, Leaf stopped and looked at him. ‘Make no mistake, all of Leeto is after us. They just don’t know it yet as Olon would not have told anyone yet.’

‘Why wouldn’t he?’ Lan prompted.

‘He lost one of the Prince’s… property.’ Leaf said as if the word was rotting in her mouth. ‘If this was found out, he would be tortured for a year or until the Prince gets bored and then left to die in a cell. Olen’s only hope is to try to bring Leaf back and act as if nothing happened. Failing that, he will prey that the Prince forgets about her completely. Most likely kill anyone that knows about her that he is allowed to kill just in case.’ Leaf shrugged as if commenting on the weather.

Lan heard the reins creek under his grip both because of their situations and the fact that someone could not only own a slave but that they could forget having enslaved someone. Biting back the urge to curse out all of Leeto, Lan breathed.

‘Okay, let’s just focus on getting you to Grisham, but then what?’

Leaf looked away before sighing and turning back. ‘A day after we reach the town, we’ll meet people who will help us leave this land. I would ask you not to pry any further. If you are found out, the less you know, the better your chance will be.’

‘When I am getting tortured, you mean?’ Lan smiled, getting a glare back and another sigh.

‘They are people like her who have shown me they can be trusted with her safety and only want the best for her. Happy now?’

At that, Lan cocked his head before stopping himself and smiling. ‘Almost. Is there a chance that I can stop calling you two Bird and Leaf?’

After another long look, Seras, Luna and Lan set off again.