Flying through the darkness, I swerved back and forth around the trees. Behind me I heard the crackling of twigs and the faintest trace of wind moving, but I didn't pay attention to it. My mind was on things forward.
All the sudden I came to a clearing. It was beautiful in the darkness that my eyes had adjusted to. It was a little meadow with pockets of daisies and other wild flowers. I knew though, that everything here was not as good as it seemed. This was the saying that everybody lived by. Watch your back or you may be attacked when you least expect it. The motto of the land of Kaydyn.
I gingerly walked the perimeter of the area, my eyes open and my ears listening. I growled once in the back of my throat when I felt the air move behind me. It was only Seth, one of my partners, and I relaxed the little bit that I could.
"Hey Aidyn," he whispered, saying my name. "Um…what are we looking for again?"
Despite the danger, I gave a little chuckle. "This time it's a wozel. Those little fast things remember?" Even though he could be a little annoying jokester at times, I was glad that Seth was with me.
"Oh yeah…" Seth thought for a moment. "Those things were tricky weren't they?"
"Yeah, which means you better watch your back," I warned looking around warily. "At least we know how to catch them."
"We do?" Seth gave me a wide-eyed look.
Why if he was older, did I always feel like I was in charge? "Well yeah, we did have to catch them back in Mewil woods."
Seth eyes sparkled in the dark. "I knew that, just making sure you did."
Too bad I needed him or I would have knocked him out there and then. I was about to make a witty retort when on the other side of the meadow, a bush rustled. Knowing exactly what to do, I pulled out my dark wood bow and an arrow.
"Shut up," I whispered to Seth. The change in him was immediate. His dark red eyes grew more piercing and he clutched the hilt of his sword. He nodded his head in agreement and swiftly moved into the bush.
Out from the hedge, a small shadow appeared. Moving like a droplet of water, the shadow never took on a shape except that it was always long. It seemed to be moving slowly trying to sense us in whatever way it did.
I waited for Seth to move, placing my arrow on my bow just in case something went wrong.
Seth silently jumped out of the wooded area with his sword out and behind him. He raced towards the shadow, his black hair moving in the wind. In the moment before he struck out, he mumbled something.
Unfortunately he missed the shadow and it seemed to disappear. With a yelp, I noticed it was running towards me and growing bigger. I scrambled with my arrow, drawing the bowstring tight.
As I watched the thing running towards me, I mumbled to myself the prayer of sealing.
"Hear my plea, O Aliryian, goddess of Kaydyn
So that I may send this best to whence it became."
Taking a deep breath, I let my arrow fly. It flew into the shadow and it stopped moving. For a hear-wrenching second, I thought that Aliryian had forsaken me, but then a green web spread out and enveloped the shadow. With a blinding flash of green light, the shadow disappeared leaving the meadow as alone and dark as when I first came to it.
Falling to my knees, I gasped for breath. For a few seconds I just sat there until I figured out that it was a moment of weakness and stood up again.
"Hey Aidyn!" Seth called as he ran over. "Aidyn! Thank your guardian god you're okay!"
"She's a goddess remember and no thanks to you," I scolded.
He scowled at me. "I try to be nice for once and you just treat me like a git!"
"Maybe that's because you are one," I snapped. "Besides, I thought that you had that one. Now you made me use up my last arrow."
"I would have had it too if it wasn't so dang fast. Come on, its no use arguing here. Let's get back to Sudi and see what we can do about your precious arrows." Seth then got a sneaky glint in his eyes. "Race you back to the camp," he challenged. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he sprang off nimbly into the woods.
I just rolled my eyes as I jogged before taking off into the dark woods.