Chapter five: “Yes Uncle”

    “Blast it John! If you know trouble is coming then avoid it!” The old man berated the boy as he rubbed ointment on his wounds. John quietly sat as he practiced his breathing, attempting to speed the healing process. Although the wound on his shoulder would take some time, the others would almost be gone by the end of the day.

    The old man finished wrapping John’s shoulder before he went to examine the dark elf’s corpse. As he searched the body John’s uncle removed everything of value, but wasn’t finding anything that might hint at the shadows original purpose. The old man was quite worried. For a dark elf to be on the surface, something massive must have happened below. It was at the end of the search that he found it, embedded in the dark elf’s chest. It was a small black skull only the size of a thumb, but radiating a heinous magic.

    The old man’s face turned dark as he looked back at his nephew. “John can you run?”

    “Probably, but not too fast, or too long.” although his wounds were feeling much better John was still far from peak condition.

    “Head home as quickly as you can.”

    John felt a little puzzled, but he could feel the serious air around his uncle. “Ok uncle, I’ll start running.” John may have been injured, but years of training coupled with a proper breathing technique gave him a superb physique. John turned away from the mountain and began to jog. John’s uncle cut off the dark elf’s ear, and removed the small skull from his chest. He put both inside a small sack, before he turned to follow his nephew.

    Four dark elves stood in a clearing as the sun began to set. Amongst shadows there were no names, only ranks assigned for each mission. There was a particularly lean shadow who stood out from the rest. He reached towards the totem in his chest and felt the flow of magic, but could not find what he sought. “Shadows three and four go find shadow two.” The cold language of the dark elves caused the air to shudder.

    “It will be done.” The two shadows whispered in unison, before disappearing into the night. Although shadows where skilled in stealth this mission was too important, so they intended to wait for the dark of night, when non could find them. The first shadow had sent his second in command to survey the area, and make sure that there was no one around. That had been several hours ago; too long for a elf of his skill.

    The first shadow slowly mused, (I can’t feel his totem so he must be dead, but it would have only taken an instant to call for help. To kill him so fast, perhaps I should contact the master.) There was an unusual vibration of magic from the totem. He reached down and touched the totem infusing it with magic. The first shadow tried to understand what had happened. Something was off, and the magic was too chaotic. Suddenly everything began to move around him. His mind filled with bewilderment before he heard a clap of thunder, and his head hit the ground.

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    John’s uncle had followed him until the boy’s safety was certain. Thunder beard turned back towards the mountain. He had to investigate further. After spending sometime looking around the mountain, thunder beard was prepared to search the first few levels of the crevice. Although there was quite some area to cover his technique did focus on speed. He was confident he could finish in little more than a day, but just before the old man took off he felt something from his bag. He quickly reached in and covered the small black skull in a layer of crackling magic. Someone was reaching out to it. A thought occurred to the old man. Maybe this artifact could be used. A oddly sinister smile appeared on a very old face. Once the artifact calmed down Thunder beard began to infuse just an ounce of magic into the skull. He felt it for only an instance, but that was long enough. He disappeared from the clearing, leaving only a clap of thunder.

    It only took a moment for the old man to find his first targets. He had only been able to feel the general direction, and normally would have missed the first two. Fortunately they attacked the old man when he slowed down to check the area. Two swings of his sword, and the skull began to react again. The old man smiled once again, infusing a good lump of his own magic into the the skull. He felt the other end, and moved by instinct. Thunder beard had severed two more heads before he had even seen his opponents. When those of the Thunder clan moved at their top speed everything blurred, so the blade techniques of the Thunderclan relied on preset movements. Thunder beard harvested what he could before moving on.

    Thunder beard had reached the third level of the crevice. The main pathways were practically deserted. The groups sent by the kingdom had done a fair job. Thunder beard found a fairly low point in the caves and sat down. As he closed his eyes a faint purple energy began to crackle. The Thunder clans techniques mainly focused on offensive techniques, but after several centuries they had developed a couple of non combative techniques. This particular method allowed them to sense the extremely small sums of lightning within living things. This technique had many restrictions. It was useless in a forest abundant with life, could not discern the difference between targets of similar size, and required too much focus for battle. Fortunately it was well suited for this situation.

    Sweat appeared on the old man’s brow as he spread his attention to its very limit. After several minutes of searching he finally found something. A spark only a couple hundred feet further down. He spread out from there, and a curse left his mouth. “Mother of thunder be damned!” To his senses it felt like a sea of lightning. Most of them were the size of goblins, but there were also giants mixed in. A dark shadow suddenly appeared in the room where Thunder beard had just been sitting, but he was nowhere to be seen.

    A streak of lightning seemed to pass through the forest, stopping by a tree almost half way through. “That was close. Such a dark and overwhelming power. it seems this peaceful dream is coming to an end.

    John had spent less than a day to reach the mountain, but the way home took him almost two. Luckily his injuries were almost gone. As he came up to the small farm John found the house burned down and his uncle waiting with their two horses laden with everything of value. “Hop up boy there’s a long journey ahead of us.”

    “Yes uncle.”