Chapter Seven– Cheerful Greetings
The sun glinted weirdly off the battlements of the castle of the Beast Kingdom,
as if the sun's light, in decent, had diminished to a pale shadow of itself.
Eternal night lurked above this kingdom.
Flammie circled above the castle twice, then descended with a flurry of wings.
It got darker as she came closer to the treetops, and in the sky the sun shone
a sickly white like the full moon. She landed in a small flower-strewn clearing.
Duran jumped off first, and landed. He stretched his arms out and breathed in
the clean night air. Carlie landed next to him.
"Nice flowers." she said. Duran nodded. "Where d'we go ta get
Kevin?" Carlie looked up at Duran.
"Why don't you ask Lise that?" Duran looked back. Flammie was curling
up in the flowers, looking contented, her white wings folded over her.
"That way." Lise came up behind Duran, and gestured to a narrow, slightly
overgrown path that twisted through the dark woods. "It's not far. And
then we hope that Kevin has better news than we do."
The path was short, eventually petering out into a paved clearing. The castle
walls loomed over the clearing, and the gate was shut against the everlasting
night. One of the guards leaned over the ramparts above the gate.
"Who goes there?" the beastman roared, clashing his halberd against
the ramparts for effect.
Duran cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted back at the guard looking
down at them. "The Warriors of Mana!"
The guard stared over the ramparts, then motioned at someone in the gatehouse.
The gates slowly creaked open, and Kevin loped out to greet them, grinning madly.
"Lise! Duran! Carlie!" he said, hugging them. He stopped. "Where
everyone else?"
Lise glanced at Duran and Carlie, then cleared her throat. "We couldn't
find them. Kevin, we bring ill tidings, not good news."
Kevin waved his hand. "Tell later. Now, we go in. I get food, we feast!
All happy. Then tell me. Come!"
The three other Warriors of Mana followed him inside the castle of the Beast
Kingdom, each worrying silently about the person they had left behind, and if
the demon-wolf was truly only after them.
Kevin sat in a wooden chair, pushed back from the table where they had been
eating. "So," he said slowly, "This blood-beast attack not you,
just good friends and family?"
Duran nodded, while Lise looked at the both and Carlie went on chewing at a
baked Rabite leg.
"How you know blood-beast want kill you, not friends?"
"What it said to us." Duran shuddered at the memory of the daemon's
voice. "It swore to kill us all, hunt us all down one by one, and . . ."
He clenched the hilt of his sword.
Lise broke in. She sounded very tense, like a taut string. "You haven't
heard of it? I was told of it in my castle before it attacked Eliot."
"No, not hear anything. But very secluded here, hard to come." Kevin
looked worried. "I come with you. Not want anything to happen to Karl or
kingdom. You came on Flammie?"
Carlie glanced up from her food, smiling. "Yup-yup! Flammie's waiting!
C'mon! Let's go!
Kevin leaped up from his chair. "I come! Just few things, then go!"
Duran stood up slowly, pushing his chair back to the table. "Let's wait
for him by the gate."
Lise followed him out the door. Carlie gnawed loudly on her food until Lise
came back in, picked her up, and carried her out, all the while telling Carlie
about good table manners and the importance of looking dignified during social
occasions.
"So," Lise said, to Kevin while they traveled down the dark, brush-covered
path to Flammie's clearing, "Then this stupid knight came up to me, and
started complaining about the right to hunt Harpies up in the mountains, like
Forcenians have any rights in Rolante! And . . ."
Carlie chased lightning bugs in erratic circles around them, occasionally bumping
into Duran, who was just walking silently. He wondered why Lise even had the
heart to chatter on like that. She was probably just trying to keep her mind
off what was going on.
A scream and a roar shattered the nervous calm of the path. All four Warrior
stopped, startled, eyes wide, then ran down the path.
A grating voice confirmed their fears. (Cursed dragon! Leave our path, Daughter
of Winds! Or we will rip you as well! The Warriors are ours to rend!) The
cry ended in a shriek that deafened Flammie's battle cries.
(We will return, wind-dragon! You will regret that! We will tear . . . .)
The voice faded even as they reached the flower-strewn clearing. Flammie lay
on her side at one end, blood streaked down her side, and darker blood on her
paws. It hissed and bubbled, eating away at the very bone of her claws. Her
wings were tattered, feathers ripped away and broken.
Carlie yelped and ran over to Flammie. She examined the claws, careful not to
touch the daemon's blood, and then began to chant.
"Goddess's light, source of our power, heal these wounds! Light Heal!"
Light shimmered down onto Flammie, glowing so brightly she could not be seen
for a moment, and then dissipated. Flammie still lay on her side, but her wings
were restored and clean white again, and the blood had vanished, along with
any trace of a wound. She raised her head and looked at Carlie, eyes bright
with joy. She nuzzled Carlie.
Carlie laughed. "All better, huh huh?" Flammie whuffed in reply.
Kevin ran up, and greeted her with a bunch of flowers he had just picked from
the edge of the clearing. He braided them into her mane while Duran and Lise
relaxed nearby.
Carlie chased more firebugs.
When at least they were ready to leave, they left quickly.
It was just dawning above the eternal night.
Author's Notes:
Sorry I took so long to get this up. ^.^* You forgive me, right? I should get the next chapter up quickly . . . don't get your hopes really high though . . .
Remember, review! And I hope you like this chapter . . . I was in a bit of a hurry when I wrote it . . .
~CC
