57

Hide and Seek

In a newly created forest sits a youth that has a white streak through his hair. His face is serene and if he was not sitting up you would think he is sleeping. His chest rises slowly with a long and deep breath. It stops for a second and with the expelling of his breath his chest sinks again. He looks calm, collected almost like he belongs here on the same level as the tree next to him.

A breeze carrying the scent of the sea rustles through the leaves, filling the surroundings with a sound similar to thousands of hands clapping together in a far of destination. This however is the only sound in the forest; there are no birds chirping and no bugs buzzing. Even the trees seem to refuse to let out any creaking or cracking noises as they slowly continue their age old dance with the wind. Any forest dweller worth his salt would feel shivers up his spine at the unnatural feeling of it all.

The reason is simple, the living creatures can feel it, can feel him. Slyfer’s mind is spread far and wide with his concentration focused on the colors all around representing the different kinds of magic. He can feel, blue, green, red and recently he has picked up black and white. Unlike the others black and white can be found everywhere and is intermingled with the other colors changing them into different shades!

What this means Slyfer has no idea, which is why he is sitting in the forest. The abundant and uncomplicated life around him makes the colors easier to discern compared to sentient beings.  To Slyfer’s surprise when he did the same inside the camp, he found that the colors would fluctuate on the elves, wolves and tigers. This only served to confuse him even more. What he found even more baffling was that the dragons in his mind were not able to explain, some said they had experienced the same thing before, but thought nothing of it.

Slyfer lets out one last breath and his eyes open, unknown to him, his eyes have become cloudy; almost the same as he had seen on the white dragon!  It slowly fades to the normal blue as he blinks a few times.

-Another wasted day?- He thinks while biting his lip. He had been doing the same thing for the last seven days and today would be his last chance to be idle. The elves have completed the preparations for the construction of the outpost and it is scheduled to be built today.

He leans back into a tree letting out a long breath to expel his frustration. –If I just had something to guide me to show me the way, to explain all these things!- He swears, he had hoped the academy would help, but seeing as it has been teaching that dragons are the cause of all the problems, his heart would not allow him to join and even if he did, killing a few teachers in rage would most likely be the end result of his “studies”.

“If not the academy, then who?” His senses picks up someone approaching at a fast pace. It suddenly slows down and slowly moves forward. –Its Luna? Is she trying to stalk me?-

Slyfer smiles his heart starting to pound away with excitement, he looks around and a second later, disappears into the thick forest….

Luna’s golden eyes flash, as she slowly stalks her way forward. She had sensed Slyfer the way she always does when near him and then slowed down in order to creep up on him and hopefully give him a scare! She suddenly stops and goosebumps spread all over her body. She giggles at the feeling and mutters under her breath while crawling under a bush to hide from view. “As expected of Alpha.”

She slows down her heart rate and leopard crawls forward, making sure to avoid any twigs. She had not been idle the last few days. After the fight it became painfully obvious that without her transformation she is utterly useless in a battle. So she joined in the training for the scouting division. At first, they tried to make her shoot a bow…. It did not last long before they had to call the healers to come and pull an arrow out of the instructor’s leg! She thinks back on how bad she felt, but after patting his head and saying “pain, pain go away!” Like Vinx does whenever she gets hurt with one of her escapades, she felt better and left while humming a song.

Of course Luna did not know that while Vinx was saying that she would use the magic unique to her race, to heal her! The next day the bow instructors did not allow her to go near the bow rack instead they pointed her towards a man that was sitting next to the field in a meditative position. His clothes were all black a large hood covered most of his facial features. No armor adorned his body except for a black leather vest.

Luna walked over and instinctively knew that he had already noticed her presence. She tilted her head, blinking the golden eyes, while wondering what he was doing and why he did not talk to her. An hour passed like this, then two, three, four. Luna’s stomach grumbled, breaking the silence between the two.

Shrugging she got up and intended to walk away when an old gruff voice broke the silence, nearly causing her to have a heart attack. “You have patience, but need discipline.”

When Luna turned around the man’s eyes were open for the first time. “I will train you.” The man got up and rubbed his chin while looking at Luna. This caused the other trainees to stop and look in their direction in surprise. Since they could remember the man had never moved. He just appeared oneday and was always at the allocated training grounds first thing in the morning, no one ever saw him leave or arrive, he was just there. At first it caused a commotion and many tried to talk to the man, however he never replied, never moved, except when a trainee got angry and tried to shake him. The mysterious figure barely moved, and a second later the trainee flopped to the ground utterly useless. When the medical team arrived they were appalled and utterly surprised to find that almost all of the trainee’s tendons had been cleanly severed!

Luna once again only tilted her head while looking at the man. He nodded with satisfaction. “What is your name child?”

“Luna’s name is Luna, what is your name?”

He did not answer her question; he simply ignored it and continued talking while sizing her up. “Luna from now on I want you to be here before the sun rises and the bottom of the moons are touching the horizon.”

Luna frowned; it was too early for her taste. She enjoyed waking up when the sun was already shining and would always stretch to her hearts content and laze around for a bit, before getting up. Still with a frown on her face she asked. “Why?”

The Old Man’s expression hardened. “Do you want to be trained or not?” He then sat back down. “You can always go back to training on the bow….”

Her frown smoothed a bit and she stepped forward. “What will you train Luna in?”

The Old Man smiled for the first time. “I will train you to move silently, to become a shadow where there are no shadows. To blend into your surroundings like a chameleon. I will train you to know the weakness of every creature just by looking at them and then when all of that is done, I will train you to kill in the most efficient way possible. Child, are you willing to become an assassin?”

The next day the Old Man found her sleepily waiting for him. To her surprise they did not stay at the training grounds and instead moved into the forest where he started her on a strict training regimen. She did not know, but as they trained the man became more and more excited. Luna’s natural instincts are far higher then he had ever seen and her talent as an assassin seemed limitless, however on the fourth day when he tried to introduce the bow again. He decided then and there that her talent with the bow is less than non-existent. So he ignored it and instead skipped directly to the tools of his trade…. Daggers.

When Luna first held the daggers, they felt good in her hands. The sharp blades were polished to a sheen and she could see small markings engraved into it. On dagger was as long as her forearm with a slightly curved blade. The other is much shorter and completely black. It does not have a handle, but instead two holes where her middle and fore- finger goes through.  Seeing her wonder at the tools brought a smile to the man. “These are your tools, never lose them. They serve not only as your weapons, but also as identification to others of our order.”

She looked at him blankly, not understanding the whole order thing, but that he was giving her something was good! She remembered what Slyfer had told her about saying thanks and quickly bowed. “Luna thanks you shady person.”

The man did not know if he should laugh or cry. He had told her many times to call him “master” but it only served to upset the girl and she would shout at him that she only has one “Alpha”.

Lying under the bush where she is now, her mind goes through all he had trained her. She can sense danger in the air, but it is always that way when she is close to Slyfer and it has somehow become a welcomed feeling, in her mind feeling it means that she is close to him. She smiles –Let’s see if Alpha can still find me after this!-

Slyfer jumping from tree to tree, suddenly stops. –Where did she go?- She had just suddenly disappeared from his senses. Smiling in surprise he decides to slowly make his way to where he last sensed her.

Her eyes dart around. The feeling of danger suddenly increased and has become sharper as well.  -Alpha must be close!- Where she is positioned now she can watch the bush she was under a moment ago. The breeze rustling the leaves imperceptibly increases. Her head tilts to the side. –Magic?- It dawns on her. --Alpha is using magic to blow throught the trees, increasing the noise in order to hide the sound of his movements!-

Her muscles tense up and she chides herself, the shady guy said she had to always keep a detached and neutral outlook, no matter what the case, in order to better assess the situation. She forces herself to relax, the breeze calms down and she soon realizes she is holding her own breath! –Alpha must have stopped moving, he is close.-

Her eyes scan the surroundings, always making sure to keep the bush in her peripheral vision… The bush suddenly shakes, her eyes snap back and her heart wants to jump out!

Silence…

Slyfer watches closely from the tree top while smirking. –I am a genius, throwing the stick into her little trap should make her impatient and reveal her location!-

Luna’s eyes stay focused on the bush, her instincts are telling her not to go anywhere near it! She lets out a slow breath. -Shady guy said never to act rashly and that I must only move when I am sure of the kill.-  The wind picks up again and she feels a sense of panic, if Slyfer is moving he will spot her sooner or later. –So stupid, why can’t Luna use magic!-

A sudden sound makes her snap around! Nothing….

Another sound to the left, then another to the right. It makes her want to rush out and meet Slyfer head on, but her instincts tell her, if she moves she will be caught!  -Uuuuh why does Luna feel like the prey now.-

Her eyes strain to hear anything, her concentration is higher than it has ever been. Her focus is on the surroundings, yet she fails to notice something falling form above and it hits her squire on her head! She looks down at what it was. –A stick , why is a….-

“Caught you!”

“Aaaah!” She screams and runs, Slyfer laughing is close on her heels. She screams some more and soon starts laughing with him.

She looks behind, but can’t see anything but bush and trees…. Her heart races, her chest heaves as her legs propel her nimbly through the forest.

Catch!

After rounding a boulder Slyfer had jumped out and she ran directly into his arms. She squeals in delight and excitement as they crash to the forest floor. She can feel his body shaking underneath her and she looks up to find him laughing.

“Uuuh Alpha is unfair, using magic and sticks….” Her voice trails off when her eyes meet his. Like always she feels lost in them. Like they can see right through her. Those eyes are the first thing she remembers  seeing after turning back from the dark place she was before.

Slyfer is still laughing when Luna pulls herself forward up, over his body and plants a kiss on his lips. The laughing stops to be replaced by a look of surprise.

“Luna you… we.”

She ignores him and kisses him again, the strange butterfly feeling starting to grow in her tummy. Slyfer rolls around ending up on top. A shaft of light coming throught the thick canopy above spills over them and to him it seems like her long silver hair splayed out behind her has received a life of its own.

She smiles and picks a dried leave from Slyfer’s hair before her eyes return to his. They are purple…. He blinks and they return to blue. He smiles at her. “Where did you learn to hide like that.”

Luna swallows as she fights the butterflies that seem to muddle her mind driving her to want to kiss him again. “Luna is training, ummm Luna is training to be a assi…assas,” Her head tilts to the side, she always forgets the word! Her eyes suddenly widens when she grasps the word she was looking for! “Luna is training to be a assussanunin!”

Slyfer frowns and then starts to laugh while leaning on one elbow and gently moving a strand of her hair away from her face. ‘I think you mean assassin?”

She pouts, “yes that is what Luna said.”

Slyfer rolls off and sits up, before asking. “How long have you been training?”

Feeling Slyfer's weight leave her body she somehow feels empty, but not able to understand why she pushes the feeling to the back of her mind and answers while also sitting up. “Luna has been training for seven days.”

Slyfer’s face turns into one of surprise and he starts to mutter to himself. ‘Seven days and she can already hide from me, that is…” in truth, hitting her with the thrown stick was pure luck if it had not been for the different sound it made, he would not have known where she was.

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Luna’s voice interrupts his thinking. “Did Luna do well?”

Slyfer smiles and pats her head and starts to remove the leaves stuck in her hair. “Yes Luna, you did very well, what made you start to train?”

Luna sits still enjoying his attention. She looks down and half whispers. “Because Luna is not any good at fighting without changing and Luna wants to be useful to Alpha.”

Slyfer’s hand stops moving and he looks at her with a gaze she cant quite place and takes her smaller hands in his. His thumbs rubbing them. She looks down at them and somehow her hands being so small compared to his makes her feel a sense of safety. “You know Luna, if I could I would never want these hands to have blood on them again. I wish for you to live a happy and peaceful life.”

She frowns; not liking his words and asks. “Is Alpha  going to fight?”

Slyfer nods.

“Then Luna will fight!”

His eyes searches hers, in them he can find nothing but determination.

He leans towards her, his face set and serious. “Luna, will you do anything I say?”

She nods with the same determination. Slyfer squeezes her hands a bit tighter, before asking. “Will you please not fight then? Live your life the way it was supposed to be lived, in peace. Leave the fighting to me, okay?”

Luna looks at him for a second then exaggeratedly shakes her head. “No, Luna will fight.”

“But you just said you will do anything I say!”

‘Yes Luna will do anything, but Luna will fight.”

He sighs, “that makes no sense at all, you know”

She smiles, “it makes perfect sense to Luna.”

When the two reach camp half an hour later, it is in an uproar. A dark elf obviously stationed to look for Slyfer runs over as soonas he sees him. “My Lord we have received news from the capital.”

Slyfer looks over the Dark Elf. “Is it bad?”

The darks elf nod, before saying. “Very bad My Lord, they are preparing an army to meet us. The leaders have already called for a meeting in the main tent and they request your attendance.”

Slyfer sighs, his mind already starting to work on what the reason behind it could be and he can only come up with one….”Humans.”

When he reaches the tent he can hear loud voices. He nods at the guards and walks through. Upon seeing him the voices die down. The Queen is the foirst to greet him and asks. “You heard?”

He nods and sits down at the table, before his eyes nail onto Barendur. “What is going on?”

Barendur runs his hand through his hair in exasperation. “Like I have been trying to explain, I don’t know. I just received an urgent message from my father, telling me to prepare for the worst.”

Slyfer nods, believing the Snow Elf for the simple reason that he has no reason to lie. He turns to the others, “do we know how big the army is?”

They all nod in unison and the great Hunter speaks up. “It is nearly forty times the size of our own.”

The sheer number makes Slyfer want to choke on the sip of water he had just taken.  He swears and bites his lip feeling the familiar sensation of anger building inside him.-No, I can’t get angry this is not like before, I need to think about this rationally.- he turns back to Barendur. “Did your father say why they are amassing such an army?”

Barendur nods, “he said that the council decided on it after hearing of the destruction of the Arana. Before you ask, he also said that he knows that you are rebuilding it as a sign of good faith, however the true reason behind its destruction has not been determined yet and until it has, you will be viewed as enemies.”

Slyfer swears suddenly regretting destroying the stupid thing. Slyfer turns to Jade, “send scouts, we need to know what their actions are. Tell our scouts they are not to engage for any reason except self defence.”

Jade smiles, “I have already done as you suggested.”

Barendur jumps up toppling the chair over. “How…when, that was not our agreement!”

Slyfer gives him a withering stare, not hiding the threat in his voice when he says, “sit.” Barendur finds himself sweating under the gaze, for some reason his body is screaming in fear. He reluctantly does as told and SLyfer continues. “As if now you are a prisoner of war, since your father has acted against us, I hope you understand? Don’t give me that look our agreement was safe passage, hearing a humongous army is waiting for us does not sound safe, does it?”

Barendur can do nothing else, but keep his mouth shut at this point in time his opinion has as much value as a fart in the wind and he is aquitely aware of it! Turning to the Queen SLyfer asks. “Will we still be able to buile the outpost today?”

She nods, “it won’t be a problem, but Slyfer against such a large army….. It won’t help us at all.”

He nods, “I know, but we don’t have a choice, besides that I can’t think that the council is united in this. If Barendur’s father has found out about our agreement then surely the other powers have as well. I think there is something else going on.”

The Queen nods, but the look on her face says, “you have not heard the last of me.”

Fira speaks for the first time, and all present turn to her. Slyfer can’t help but notice that she has lost some weight and have rings under her eyes. A pang of guilt hits him squire on, but he pushes it aside due to the circumstances. She looks uninterested, but her words makes everyone pause in thought. “Why don’t we send a group out to go and talk to them?”

Great Hunter is the one to speak this time. “It would have been a good idea if not for the uncertainties, If there is something else going on like SLyfer says. The enemy will surely attack such a group to keep them from reaching the main army. If that is the case, who will go?”

A deathly silence fills the atmosphere. Facing off against griffins ward-masters and who knows what else, Is not an easy thing to volunteer for! Seeing the reactions Fira’s shoulders slump down. She looks up and her face shows surprise when Slyfer smiles at her and says, “I will go.”

“You can’t!” Shouts, almost everyone present.

To Slyfer the one most adamant seems to be the King and he continues. “Slyfer you have become a symbol of hope to my people, if you were to die….”

He stops speaking halfway not willing to utter the words. The Queen speaks next. “He is right, you cant go. It will greatly affect morale if the people see you leaving.”

“Then we won’t tell them. I have barely shown my face the last few days if word is spread that I am doing some kind of secret training then they won’t question it.” Everyone goes quiet again.

Fira speaks up next. “Please Slyfer, be reasonable and forget I ever said anything!” The worry on her face is palbeble and lyfer cant help but feel his heart warm towards it.

Still…. “There is no helping it, if we do not do this it can easily turn into a bloodbath and that is something that we cannot afford, whoever is doing this wants there to be internal strife. They want us to be weak. Don’t you see? What have I been saying, what have I been fighting with you for, for all this time. The enemies greatest achievement is making you and the others believe that there is no enemy!”

Barendur looks at Slyfer and snort. “Are you crazy, what enemy could we possibly have?”

Slyfer raises an eyebrow to the rest of them as if to say. “See what I mean?”

The Queen lets out a long breath and her eyes fill with worry. “Fine, you may go but I will send a group of warriors with you that specialize in espionage and I will accept no argument against it.”

Slyfer smiles at the Queens worried face. “You say that as if you think the choice was ever yours to make, but if it makes you happy I will take these warriors with me, however, hear me now. If they so much as slow me down I will leave them behind.”

The Queen laughs, “be careful, you may be the one that gets left behind instead….”

The meeting is quickly adjourned and plans for the “building” of the outpost is sped up. Before the end of the day Slyfer finds himself basically in the middle of the forest. A large spot of forest has been cleared in order to build it. Trenches have been dug to in the open ground, which according to the Queen is how the walls will be built.

All around these trenches are highelves dressed in brown robes of to the side are ones dressed in blue and Slyfer can sense strong magical waves coming from them. A female Elf dressed in white exits the forest on the far side and makes her way toward the center of where the trenches have been dug.

The Queen next to Slyfer speaks more to herself than Slyfer when she says, “now it will begin!”

Slyfer cant tear his eyes away from the center as in his mind’s eye light magic starts to condense and flow towards her from the surroundings. At the same time the mages in brown start to hum and the earth beneath them trembles at it.

Slyfer cant believe his ears and his heart wants to explode! Barendur nearby, who had looked at it all with scorn mumble, “Such a thing, how can it be possible?”

The female mage start to sing in a sweet and lively voice and SLyfer shakes when the erth mages lift their feet and stamp down. The ground cracks and roils and they stamp again sending waves of magic through the ground! Their humming becomes melodic, merging with the elf’s voice. Her magic condenses and expands and to Slyfer’s astonishment mingles with that of the earth mages, making it stronger than ever before!

They hum and stomp again, bending the earth to their mighty will. Slyfer loses himself in it and finds his mind adrift joining the hum that now seems to have become a part of the earth!

Mother of earth hear our call

*hum*

*hum*

Today is the day you rise and fall!

The earth splits open and walls rise dust that had shot up gets sucked back and gathers up, condensing,  compacting, turning into stones.

From your depths spill forth your power

Show us strength, let the skies cower!

*hum*

*hum*

The earth mages stomp down again and the formed rocks shoot into the wall that is rising higher and higher!

Reveal your soul to us that call

*hum*

*hum*

Let the roots that bind you break, let the rivers rise and the mountains shake!

The mages stomp down again shouting as they do, the rising wall speeds up drowning out all other sound, in Slyfers senses the earth is thrumming, humming with the mages.

From you all life will grow, but we are selfish so give us more!

One day we will die and return to you evening the score

*hum*

*hum*

What happens next is nothing but a blur to Slyfer as he unknowingly starts to hum with them his mind is lost in the roiling and churning of the ground behind him. He is vaguely aware of the Queen’s hand on his shoulder and he shakes it off absent mindedly. Inside his mind dragons roar and Slyfer can sense a strange magic coming from them. All that matters is the hum and the song driving him on as he makes his way towards the light mage caught in her song!

Slyfer retuns to his senses as wind whips at his hair. He rolls over and swears quickly backing away from the edge he nearly fell from now. He looks around taking in his surroundings, only to find that he is on the roof of a massive tower! He scoots closer to the edge and looks down seeing people below that are merely the size of ants. Around the tower is a thick wall that glistens with a marble like sheen in the setting sun. the form of the walls are in a hexagon, the same as the trenches that had been dug.

What surprises him are the dragon shaped heads on every corner that have large jewels inlaid as their eyes. He steps back some more and a shadow falls over him causing his head to snap up. It seems he is standing on a triangular platform and on each corner is a statue of an elf leaning toward the middle with hands outstretched. The hands come together in the center forming all of them supporting a round object the looks like, -Like the blue moon?-

“What, what happened?” Asks Slyfer to no-one in particular.

Footsteps coming from a nearby entrance, set into one of the elven statues makes him tunr around to see the worried Queen rush towards him. “Slyfer are you okay?” She asks even as her face swings around in wonder.

Slyfer looks at her and swallows his eyes as large as saucers! “I don’t know, am I okay?” He feels all over his body to see if any damage has been done.

The Queen turn back to him frowning very deeply. “What happened?”

“How should I know, isn’t this what you planned?”

She shakes her head. “What we planned is four times smaller than, than this.” Says the Queen while gesturing around her. “Even the quality of the stone, the decorations, rooms….. Slyfer what the hell are you!”