Happy Easter!
I do not own.
Roy screamed as he felt the orb being pulled out of his body. He could see part of the orb starting to emerge. Then something curious happened. The orb blasted a light so bright that it knocked the shadow back. The light continued to grow enveloping all the shadow creatures. The creatures holding Reselda dissolved. She looked around in surprise before checking to make sure her pouch was still secured.
Roy staggered to his feet. "That was not pleasant." He gripped his chest.
"Roy, Reselda! What goes on?" Senarius showed up with his sword drawn. Many of the soldiers around the area came out of their tents as well. Conrad came running with Nachum not far behind.
"Senarius, some strange creatures tried to take the orbs." Reselda said as he came closer.
"Yeah, right out of my chest." Roy complained.
"Did they get any?" Senarius asked.
"No, luckily not." Reselda's hand went instinctively to her pouch.
"Good. Where did those monsters come from?" Senarius wondered.
Conrad who had quietly been examining the area. He waved his hand while muttering an incantation. A trail of red misma appeared in the air coming from the forest.
"When did you learn how to do that, brother?" Roy asked surprised.
"I've always known how to track. How do you think we found all those lost sheep?" He replied.
"Your control of your power is growing." Reselda said approvingly. She glanced at Senarius who was looking at the forest.
"Perhaps it was a mistake to camp here." Senarius said grimly.
Reselda walked over and slipped her arm around his. He looked down at her concern face.
"Do you think that the master has been usurped?" She asked.
Senarius shook his head. "No, but one in his circle is definitely working for Baratrum." He paused before continuing. "Siren was right. We should have camped further away."
"It's always clearer in the day than the night. What's done is done. The question is what do we do now?" Reselda asked.
He turned and said the Nachum. "Get more watchmen to guard this side of the camp. Tell the others to go back to rest. Then come find me." Nachum scrambled to carry out Senarius' orders.
Senarius wordlessly motioned for the rest of them to follow him. They looked at each other before walking after him. He walked to the caravan and knocked on the door. After a few minutes later, a tired Siren opened the door.
"What? What happened?" She looked around at the group.
"Did you see the commotion?" Roy asked.
"No, I put a noise spell around the caravan." Siren yawned. "What happen?"
"These weird shadow creatures tried to steal the orbs." Roy said.
"Shadow creatures?" Siren was suddenly awake. "Did they look like this?" She waved her hand and for a second a small miniature of the shadow creature appeared before disappearing.
Everyone gaped at her.
"Yes, that's it." Reselda nodded.
She open wide the door and ushered them in. Slamming the door, she looked at them wide eyed. "Those are tracker wraiths. They are dark, restless souls captured by mages to find magical beings or objects."
Bofur, who was in the hammock hanging from the ceiling, looked over at them.
"They are naturally attracted by strong magic." He added.
"The orbs!" Reselda turned pale.
"Yes, you have to be an extremely powerful to control them. Tracker wraiths are relentless. They will not stop until they are find what they are searching for." Bofur hopped onto the floor.
"Well, I stopped them." Roy said proudly.
Everyone looked at him.
"Well, I mean the orb that's inside me stopped them and since this is my orb, by default, I stopped them." He argued.
Senarius said ignoring Roy. "Is there any way to keep them from sensing the orbs?"
Siren shook her head. "They can sense any magic anywhere."
"How was Roy or rather his orb able to stop them?" Conrad asked.
Siren studied him for a second. She placed her hand on his chest. Roy took a step back in surprise.
"The orb has bonded with him." She said. "It will not leave him easily."
"Really? Awesome!" Roy beamed.
"That just means they will kill you first." Siren said.
"Oh… that's less awesome." Roy frowned.
"I propose we leave right now. We can't take a chance that the wraiths come back and take the orbs." Reselda turned to Senarius.
"I have an idea." Senarius said. "But it's dangerous. And all parties must agree to it. "
A knock from the door made them jump.
"Who's there?" Siren asked cautiously.
"It's me Nachum. I was told that Senarius was headed this way." A voice came from outside.
She gave Senarius a glance. When he nodded, she allowed him in."
"My apologies, my lord, for taking so long. I didn't know where you had gone." He bowed before Senarius.
"It's fine. Nachum I have a dangerous mission for you if you chose to take it." He said.
"Of course, my lord. What is it?"
0o0
During the third watch of the night, two hooded figures on horses broke from the far end of the camp. One had a pouch bulging from their waste. They galloped furiously away. A few minutes later black swirls from the forest formed into several shadow creatures and zipped through the camp before going after the riders. The riders sped up trying to outpace the shadows. The creatures, however, glided through the ground hopping from the shadows cast by the trees from the moonlight. The riders glances back briefly. When they turned back several shadow creatures rose in front of them. The horses reared back in fear. Both riders tried to bring their horses under control. As they turned around to escape the creatures blocking their way, they saw their back way was blocked as well.
They drew their swords as the creatures descended upon them. The riders found that their swords were useless. One of the creatures reached for the pouch. The rider sidestepped the creature. The hood fell off to reveal that it was Nachum.
"Hands off, Knave." He growled. "I have a mission to complete."
The creature snarled before knocking him off his horse. Grabbing the pouch, the creature opened it to only see rocks.
"Surprise!" Nachum grinned. The creature tossed the pouch aside and its arm became a spike. The creature raised it to plunge its weapon into Nachum but a glowing war hammer blocked it.
"Nuh-uh, that's not very sporting of you." The hood slipped off to show that it was Roy. He grinned. "You guys after something? Come and get it." His expression grew serious and swung his glowing War Hammers. To the creature's surprise the War Hammer was able to slice him.
"Wondering why I can cut you now?" Roy asked as he kept swinging. "Well, it seems my orb really likes me. And all I have to do is ask it for some Light!"
His War Hammers glowed even brighter. The creatures recoiled and fled.
"Where are you going? The fun is just getting started." Nachum taunted. He hopped onto his horse and went after the creatures.
"Hey, wait for me!" Roy formed his centaur form and chased after them.
Nachum was well ahead of Roy. He ignored Roy's call for him to wait.
He almost reached the creatures until his horse stopped abruptly sending Nachum flying. He tucked and rolled to save himself. He came to a stop on his knees. Sensing someone in front of him, he looked up in time to get a kick in the face. Flying back, he fell onto his back. Stunned but determined to get up, Nachum struggled to sit up. A foot landed on his chest squeezing the air from his lungs.
"Meddler!" The figure growled. "You'll now see what happens to people who interfere."
Sorry for the massive delay. No excuses just apologies and I'm finishing the story soon. Then I'm taking a long break. Then I'm going to try to come back with something special… hopefully. Thanks for sticking with me.
Side note on the new Ben10 reboot/Generator Rex crossover episode. I watched some clips of the Ben 10 reboot episode that had Generator Rex in it called Ben Gen 10. I'll try to find a way to watch the full episodes. If anyone sees it first, let me know what you think.
Honestly, I don't like the Ben 10 reboot. I'm not a big fan of the animation but I can overlook it if the story is good.
The few clips I saw left me with mixed feelings. The interaction of Rex and Ben are good. But there's a clip where Six tries to capture Rex and it's clear that he only sees Rex as a weapon. So, it seems they've decided to kill the father/son or mentor relationship they had in the old series. I get that it's a reboot but somehow when I first saw the clip, I had a knee-jerk reaction of disappointment. It is a younger Rex, and he is in the world of Ben 10 where the Nanite event probably didn't happen, or didn't happen the way it did in the old show. But it's only two episodes and who knows if Rex will ever show up again or if this is what's called a back door pilot episode where they try to make a Gen Rex spin-off. But if it's not a continuation of the original show or if it's such a radical rebooted of the original so that it's unrecognizable, is it still worth watching? I don't know. You'll have to decide for yourself. I'm going to stick with the original Generator Rex timeline.