Skyfire is my own character. All others belong to their creators, Wendy and Richard Pini.
All words contained within # # are mental speech.
Story takes place several days following Fire and Flight
The sun was setting on the elves' second day in the desert when an arguement broke out.
Skyfire, who'd been growing steadily weaker the entire trip, could no longer travel. The arguement was over who would stay behind with her while the others continued on.
"I should stay with her, she's my sister!"
"We should stay with her, she's our cub!"
"It's my fault she was hurt so I should be the one to stay."
"Yes, it is your fault!"
"That's enough! All of you!" Cutter yelled. "Here we have barely enough strength to keep going, and you waste it arguing over something which you have no say in the matter!"
Everyone immediately fell silent, bowing their heads in shame.
Cutter, from his sitting position next to Skyfire's prone form, looked down into her face and took her nearest hand in both of his. She turned her gaze up to his face.
#What do you want me to do?# Cutter asked.
#Cutter, you know I am dieing...# She trailed off when Cutter broke eye contact over her words, closing his eyes and bowing his head. She mustered enough strength to raise her other arm and cupped his chin. He opened his eys reluctantly and met her gaze again. #You know this is so.# He nodded once. #And all that want to stay behind cannot do so. It could mean death to more than just myself. But... I do not wish to be alone.#
#Then who...?#
Skyfire considered it for a moment. #Redlance... His guilt is deep. Maybe... maybe staying with me and seeing me through to the end will help him.#
#Then Redlance it will be,# Cutter vowed. #But don't give up yet, Skyfire. While you still live, there is hope for you.#
#What? Do you expect to find another elf tribe with a healer whose powers are greather than Rain's were?# she jested gently.
#No, that's impossible,# Cutter replied, shaking his head. #But... something...# He trailed off helplessly.
Skyfire sensed what he was really trying to say. #I promise not to give up and fight death off with the last of my strength,# she vowed.
Cutter nodded, satisfied that Skyfire had gotten his message. He turned to address the others. "Skyfire has made her choice and there will be no arguements over it, not so much as a single word. Redlance, you will stay with Skyfire, no one else. Everyone say your goodbyes, we need to get going."
With Cutter, a decision made was quickly acted upon. The tribe was soon on its way, leaving Skyfire and Redlance to their fate... whatever it might be.
A day went by, each hour long and torturous, feeling as if it was stretched out into an entire moon cycle. All Redlance could do was to watch as Skyfire kept slipping away from him - from life - a bit at a time. Soon, when Skyfire could fight no more, he felt her mind disappear into a dark pit. Her body was closing down and her mind had withdrawn into itself to escape the pain and wait for the end.
A carrion bird - a creature known for scavenging off death - flew down and perched on rocks near the two elves, eyeing Skyfire with a piercing stare.
It knew... Redlance thought. It knew death was near. Too near, for Redlance's liking. In a sudden fit of unusual anger, he picked up a small stone and threw it with amazing accuracy at the carrion bird, striking its feathered chest.
"Away, scavenger!" Redlance yelled as the bird screeched and flew off the rock. "Leave her alone! She won't feed your belly, not while I live!" He lowered his head, so didn't see if the bird stayed or flew off. Tears flooded his eyes - tears of shame, of guilt, of loss... If the others never returned, he swore then that he would carry Skyfire's body to the mountains or die trying.
But that, he would quickly discover, would not prove to be necessary...
"AYOOOOAH! REDLANCE!"
Hope surged in Redlance's heart. "Cutter!" he yelled, rising to his feet. Cutter had returned for him and Skyfire, just as he'd sworn to do.
And he wasn't alone...
Redlance ran to meet Cutter after a brief hesitation - reluctant to leave Skyfire's side. Cutter slid off Nightrunner's back to greet him and the two men clasped each other in a quick and fierce embrace. When they stepped back from eath other, Redlance turned to look at the two dark-skinned elves that had accompanied Cutter. The male of the pair was helping the female down from her strange mount. A beast he'd never seen before, one twice as large as the wolves his kind rode, and strange in appearance. But Redlance ignored the beasts in favor of their riders.
#Who are they, Cutter?#
#Later. For now, know that this female can help Skyfire. Trust my words, she is a healer.#
Leetah walked over to Skyfire and knelt by her side. Tenderly, she took one of Skyfire's hands in her own and placed her other hand on the stricken maiden's forehead. A moment later she gasped in surprise. "These wounds were deliberately inflicted! Who could have done such a thing!"
"Humans!" Cutter exclaimed, practically snarling the word. "The same ones who tried to destroy us with fire!"
"Really...?" Rayek asked with disdain in his voice. "We have legends of such creatures, but I never believed them." His tone was clearly dismissive.
"You're looking at their handiwork right now!" Cutter said with fury.
"Silence!" Rayek hissed. "The healing begins!" His nod indicated the pair of maidens a short distance from them.
Leetah held her hands over Skyfire's wounds as she began to pass into a dream-like trance. Incredible power flowed from her hands into the other elf maiden's body, knitting cracked bones, mending torn tissues, and stopping hidden bleeding. The power filled Skyfire's entire being, beginning at her middle and flowing to both ends of her body. Inside her head, the powerful force found a bit of damage - a block of some kind - that was nearly as old as the elf herself. Healing energy bombarded the mass and made it slowly dissapate, leaving only normal brain matter behind...
She was a small cub, hiding in some bushes. Curled up into a tight little ball, hands held tightly around her knees. She was silent, waiting for something... or someone?
Footsteps sounded somewhere near her. Then a voice called out.
"Two-Moons? Two-Moons! Where are you, cub?"
She giggled, she couldn't help it. The same voice had been going back and forth for awhile now and had yet to find her.
"Aha! Found you!"
A hand grabbed her ankle. She shrieked as the hand began to tug her from her hiding place, then giggled as another hand started tickling the bottom of her foot.
"Farsight, stop!" she managed to cry out through her laughter.
He continued to tickle her for a moment longer before releasing her foot. She crawled out from beneath the bush and was immediately picked up and wrapped in a pair of strong, capable arms. Arms which belonged to a kindly-faced, white-haired elf with green eyes.
"I love you, Farsight." She kissed his cheek.
"And I love you, too, little sister." He growled in her ear playfully, making her laugh again. "We have to get back to the holt now. Mother will be wondering where we've gotten to."
"Aww!" She pouted. "Just a little while longer?" she pleaded. "I promise I won't make it nearly as hard for you to find me this time."
Farsight sighed in mock exasperation and shook his head. "Fine. But just once more. Then we have to go. Deal?"
"Deal!" she nodded her head in agreement.
He set her down and tapped her bottom lightly with the palm of his hand. "How long shal I count to, then?"
"Umm... four-eights. Now remember, no peeking. 'Kay?"
"'Kay." Farsight closed his eyes and began to count.
They played the game once more then turned back for the holt. It had been nice to spend time playing together today. Farsight had a lifemate and a near-grown cub and didn't always have time to spend with the young sister that loved and admired him so much.
Before they reached the hold, the sounds of terrified screams filled the air.
"Farsight, what is it? What's going on?" she asked, feeling very scared and very small in that moment.
"I don't know, cub, but it can't be good." He set her down gently. "Go hide while I see what's going on."
He left and she went to hide.
Time passed. The screams continued. Farsight didn't return. She had to go find him, find out what was going on. She ran back to the holt, stopping dead when it came into view. Green-skinned... monsters... were everywhere. Elves covered in blood lay still upon the ground, eyes froze open in horror.
Farsight... he was fighting one of the monsters with his sword. It stabbed him through the middle and withdrew its blade. Farsight fell to his knees. The monster raised its blade high and swung down quickly, severly Farsight's head from his body in one blow.
She screamed. And screamed. And screamed...
Rayek turned and stared in surprise as the two pale-skinned strangers cried out as if in pain, coinciding with the maiden's cries. They fell to their knees in the sand, each clutching their head in their hands.
Skyfire suddenly stopped screaming. She opened her eyes. They flared in panic as she caught sight of Leetah's unfamiliar face. She rolled to her hands and knees away from Leetah. Her head began to move from side to side in quick, jerky movements, taking in her surroundings.
"Skyfire," Redlance said in a pained whisper. Skyfire's ability to make other elves feel her physical sensations through sending had so far only been used when mating. He hadn't known that she could also use it to share emotions and other sensations as well - like fear and pain.
Leetah tried to reach out to Skyfire, her healer's instinct prodding her to offer aid to a being in pain. She would have done better to listen to her self-preservation instincts instead. It wasn't wise to approach a wild, panicked animal, especially not one carrying her own weapons.
Skyfire snarled and bared her fangs at the brown-skinned appendage reaching out toward her.
Leetah stilled for a moment, then continued to extend her hand. She was determined to fix whatever damage she had unintentionally wrought upon the pale-skinned barbarian maiden.
With lightning speed, Skyfire unsheathed the brightmetal dagger at her waist and swung out in a wild arc.
Leetah felt someone grab her from behind and pull her away just as the deadly sharp blade would have connected with her hand. She looked down and saw pale arms crssed about her waist. It was at that moment that she knew that Cutter had saved her from harm - not that it really meant much, for as a healer, she was able to heal her own wounds with ease.
Leetah looked up and to her right as the elf Cutter had called Redlance darted past them to confront Skyfire.
Redlance wanted to approach Skyfire directly but thought better of it when he saw no sign in her eyes that she remembered him. Her eyes flashed green fire as she continued to bare her sharp teeth in a fearsome snarl, warning him with her body language to stay away.
Redlance got on his hands and knees, putting himself on the same level as Skyfire. He was trying to appear less intimidating in an effort to put her at ease.
Rayek would have snorted at the display and thought it completely ridiculous had he not been staring at Cutter's back and wishing he would either suddenly drop dead or burst into flames... or both. Both was good. The pale barbarian had been quicker to save Leetah from the savage maiden and now continued to hold Leetah around her waist. He wasn't sure which irked him more - the fact that Cutter held Leetah, or the fact that she wasn't making any protests about it.
Skyfire, meanwhile, showed no signs of returning to her right mind. She continued to growl and snarl as if she was a wild beast displaying bravely in an effort to warn everyone to stay away from her.
Redlance tried sending to Skyfire, hoping to bring her inner mind to the surface, but it only seemed to succeed in agitating her further. She looked around wildly, searching for the source of the voice. In her current state, she didn't realize that she was hearing Redlance's voice within her own mind.
Cutter slowly released Leetah and moved around her left side, moving closer to Skyfire. He was worried. It was taking far too long for Skyfire's mind to return to her. She was still stuck in a long-ago memory. He still had trouble believing the visions he had seen streaming from her mind. Trolls - stronger and more vicious than any of King Greymung's lot - had killed her first tribe. All but she and her mother, who died soon after delivering her to his tribe, had been killed. She'd been forced to see so much of it - the bloody carnage, elves dieing all around her... It was no small wonder that everything from her life before she'd come to her adopted tribe had been closed off so tightly that it was as if she had been born as a cub of six turns' size.
Skyfire started edging backward, away from the elves that were so strange to her at that moment.
Cutter feared that Skyfire would soon bolt. He looked to all three wolves in turn and sent similar orders to each to gather around Skyfire's back and prevent her from retreating any further than she already had. They were quick to obey. Even Whitestar, who whined pitifully.
Her escape route closed off, Skyfire bolted toward Redlance and Cutter, trying to dart between them, but Redlance was ready for just such a move. He caught one wrist, grabbed the opposite shoulder, and flipped her onto her back. When she tried to get up, he straddled her chest and pinned both her arms above her head.
Skyfire struggled fiercely to free herself, but her efforts were to no avail. Redlance just would not be budged.
Cutter knelt by Skyfire's head and placed his hands on either side of her face. He kept her head still and stared down into her wide, terrified eyes. He began to send to her, projecting calmness and ressurance to her mind. He couldn't say for sure, but he was certain that Redlance was doing the same things.
Skyfire's struggles began to lessen in their intensity and in a few moments she went limp. Tears began to form in her eyes and she started to tremble instead.
"Skyfire?" Redlance asked, sounding as if he was half afraid to hear her answer. There was a short pause, then Skyfire nodded a few times. Relieved, Redlance got off of her chest and finally let her up.
Skyfire sat up and reached for Redlance, needing to feel the reassurance of a familiar embrace after what she'd just been through. She felt his arms close around her without heistation. A hand - Cutter's, obviously - touched her back and rubbed comfortingly. Feeling overwhelmed, Skyfire began to cry. She poured out all of her emotions - rage, grief, humiliation, fear - into her tears. She caught sight of Leetah, who looked entirely uncertain about herself, and turned her face away.
When they finally left that place and began their trek back to the Sun Village, Skyfire chose to ride with Redlance instead of on the stretcher that the dark-skinned elves had brought with them. She refused to acknowledge their presence, knowing that Leetah - though she had saved her life - had been the cause of her tormented vision. In time, though, she would be grateful to the healer for her life and more... much, much more.