Disclaimer: I own none of the recognized characters. I am merely borrowing them to satisfy my muse
Chapter 41
The sight in front of CJ was slightly disappointing. She'd been itching for a fight all day, and had come across a seemingly promising trail. But now, the trail had disappeared, with no sign of enemies to fight.
"Damn." She muttered in disgust.
"Cole, if you knew what I am, what I'd done, why didn't you say anything?" CJ looked back at Blackwall. He was staring at the younger man, frowning.
Cole blinked, tilting his head slightly. "Everyone hides dead things. They pretend. You wanted to fix it."
"I'm a murderer."
"You don't want to be. You're Blackwall. You killed Rainier."
"If only that were possible," CJ could see the pain in his eyes.
"You would stand between Rainier and the carriage. But it doesn't work like that. So you carry the bodies to remember."
Blackwall was silent for a moment. "I suppose I do." He said slowly.
"If you want to remember, remember this. If you become Rainier again, we will be here. We will kill you." CJ realized Cole was including her in his words. "And if I become a demon again and hurt people, you will kill me."
CJ's heart twisted at the thought of killing either of them, but knew if she had to, she would.
"I believe I can work with that."
"If there's going to be talk of killing, let's make it about enemies, huh? Now my two great trackers, where did the trail go?" CJ exclaimed, and the men looked at her. Cole smiled softly, clearly able to read her thoughts.
"I will look."
"Thank you."
Despite Cole's best efforts, the trail remained lost.
"Damn it." CJ muttered again and sighed. "Might as well head back now. Maybe we can find a deer or boar, so at least the day wouldn't be a total bust."
Cole and Blackwall nodded in agreement, and they turned back. Heading towards the army which was marching its' way to the Arbor Wilds.
They'd managed to catch some rabbits, but the bigger game had been mysteriously absent by the time they reached the army. They'd stopped for the night and were in the process of setting up camp. Cole carried the rabbits off towards where some soldiers had started fires for cooking while CJ and Blackwall wound their way through, looking for Talon and Cullen.
"Any news?" Jarrod, one of Cullen's sergeants called.
"None from us," CJ called back. "Where's Cullen?"
"Up front." He pointed in the direction they were already headed, and CJ waved a hand in thanks.
"Come along, Blackwall." She grinned at the man and picked up her pace.
"There's our fearless leader!" Talon shot her an annoyed look, but then focused on Cullen who was giving a report. CJ and Blackwall drew even and listened in.
"Scouts are reporting in. There are signs of the enemy, but no definite sightings." Cullen was saying.
"We followed a trail for about ten miles, but then it disappeared." CJ chimed in. "But the weird thing,"
"You mean a trail disappearing isn't the weird thing?" Talon asked, and CJ stuck her tongue out.
"The weird thing," She continued. "Is that all of the big game, deer and the like, are nowhere to be found."
"What do you mean?"
"There are no deer. No elk. No boars. Hell, there weren't even any bears." Blackwall said.
Talon frowned. "And you found no signs of our enemies?"
"No." They shook their heads.
"Something's not right." Talon said, and looked at Cullen. "What do you think we should do?"
Cullen rocked back on his heels as he thought.
"We need to increase our scout rotations. Smaller groups more spread out." He said slowly. "We're about a week and a half away from the Arbor Wilds. If the enemy is out there, we should be meeting them soon."
"Unless we're ahead of them." Talon commented. "We did march out pretty quickly."
CJ thought for a moment. "It's possible," She agreed.
"All right." Cullen nodded, deciding. That's what we'll do then."
CJ listened carefully as Cullen laid out their new scouting rotations.
First up, she was with Vivienne and Sera. Well, that's be interesting.
"If you don't stop your vulgar language, Sera, I'm going to leave you bound and gagged for the enemy!" Vivienne exclaimed, for what must have been the twentieth time since they'd started their scouting rotation. CJ looked up at the sky, asking for patience.
"Relax, Madam Prissy." Sera retorted, messing with an arrow.
"Madame Vivienne." She corrected. Also, not for the first time.
"All right, Vivvy." Sera said cheerfully. CJ groaned. Cullen was punishing her for something, CJ just knew it. There was no other reason why he would have stuck Vivienne and Sera on the same team.
"Vivienne, please don't freeze her." CJ cut in, noticing how Vivienne was shifting her hold on her staff. "I don't want to have to haul a frozen elf back to the army."
"Who said anything about bringing her back?" Vivienne answered, smiling slightly.
Sera gulped and hastily stepped away. "Hey, look at this!" She pointed at something on the ground. CJ walked over and crouched, inspecting the track Sera had found.
"Looks like an animal print." She said after a moment.
"No duh," Sera scoffed. "But what does that look like?" Embedded in the animal track was something red.
Carefully, CJ dug it out.
"It's a shard of red lyrium." She exclaimed.
"Those don't just fall idly," Vivienne commented.
"Come on." CJ unsheathed her daggers. "We need to find the animal that caused this."
The three women followed the tracks for almost an hour, finally coming to a tunnel that led into a cliff.
CJ looked back at Sera and Vivienne. "What should we do?" She questioned, not too keen on continuing without back-up. But they couldn't just leave either. They'd found a few more slivers of red lyrium in the tracks.
"I say we go in." Sera grinned.
"As much as it pains me, I agree with Sera." Vivienne said and CJ sighed.
"All right. Be prepared. Whatever creature made these tracks might not be too welcoming of visitors."
The tunnel opened into a sort of grove hidden among the rocks. At first glance, it looked empty.
"There's nothing here!" Sera groused, loudly, before either CJ or Vivienne could quiet her.
"Hush!" CJ hissed, not liking the atmosphere of the clearing. Something was off. Cautiously, the three stepped further into the clearing, weapons held at the ready.
But there was no sign of the creature they'd been following.
"Well this was a waste of time," Sera snapped, and CJ turned to scold her, but the words died on her lips.
"Oh shit. Move!" Was all the warning CJ could give before a large animal was launching itself at them. It was a pure white creature, something CJ didn't recognize.
"What the hell is that?!" She demanded, scrambling backwards to avoid its' sharp teeth.
"A wyvern." Vivienne called, while casting a fire ball, forcing the creature to turn away from her. "A white wyvern."
"And it has friends!" More of the creatures were crawling down the cliff walls and out of the small group of trees. Seven in all. There was only one white one, the others were darker. But they were all fast. CJ swore again as she dodged away. Sera and Vivienne did best as ranged fighters, not in close quarters. They were trying to fall back to the outer edges of the clearing. But it was difficult.
CJ had four of the creatures circling her, snarling. One lunged forward and she swiped at it with a dagger. The dagger drew a line of blood, and the creature fell back.
"I need the heart of the white wyvern!" She heard Vivienne call. "Aim for the eyes! They are the weak points!"
"Yeah," CJ muttered under her breath. "Because they are such big targets!"
They fell into a rhythm. CJ and Vivienne would draw the wyverns' attention and keep them in a tight area where Sera would pick them off with her arrows.
"Do I look like a wyvern?!" CJ shouted as one of Sera's arrows sliced across her arm before burying itself in an attacking wyvern's eye.
"Sometimes!" Sera retorted. "Have you seen you in the mornings?!"
"No worse than you!" There were two wyverns left, and they were circling CJ. They both lunged at the same time, and CJ swore, diving forward to avoid them. She hit the ground and rolled, feeling claws tear at the leather armor she wore.
"Shit!" She swore, jumping to her feet, feeling new wounds begin to bleed. One of the wyverns had been taken down, an arrow to the eye, but the second one was still pursuing CJ. "Not good!" It jumped at her, bowling her over even as she tried to fend it off with her daggers. "Really not good!" Its' claws were ripping at her armor, trying to gain purchase in something more substantial and damaging. Like her skin. "A little help would be nice!" She managed to lodge a dagger in its' jaw, which caused the creature to howl.
"Hold still!" Sera called.
"Yeah, I'll get right on that!" CJ yelled back. "Could you please hold still little beastie so we can kill you? Pretty please?!"
Blood sprayed across CJ's face as an arrow sunk deep into the wyvern's eye. The creature went stiffened before collapsing on top of CJ. It stunk like rotting meat, and it was heavy. She gagged and shoved at the dead creature.
"Thanks, Sera." CJ exclaimed, as she managed to shove the wyvern off her. "Next time, we're waiting for-," She cut herself off as she turned to face Sera. "Behind you!" The white wyvern had apparently faked its' death. Despite the arrows that were sticking out of its neck and head, it had been able to maneuver up the rock wall behind Sera unnoticed. CJ was too far away to do anything but yell as it lunged and Sera whipped around. She was bringing up her bow, but was too slow. She wouldn't make it in time. An instant before the creature would have slammed into the elf, who would not have survived the encounter, vines shot off the wall and wrapped around the wyvern.
It snarled, furious to be denied its prey. But that fury didn't last long as Sera quickly shot an arrow point blank into its skull.
There was a moment of silence as Sera stared at the creature who almost killed her. She then turned wide eyes to Vivienne. The mage was panting heavily, her arms still outstretched in the spell that caught the wyvern.
"If anything is going to kill you, my dear," Vivienne began. "It is going to be me."
Sera didn't look particularly relieved with that knowledge. CJ just grinned.
