A/N: Sorry about the wait. I've made a mess of this and I was attempting to dig myself out of the hole. Needless to say I was unsuccessful, and so this chapter is terrible, but it does end the story. Huzzah. This is it. The end. I know I know tear tear. You don't fool me. –throws chapter to the crowd- take it! It is a reminder of how far I've fallen…

Important!!!!! As I said, I messed up the last chapter, so just kind of ignore it okay? You need to in order to get this one. Sorry 'bout that. Also, I kind of made something up, or rather altered something for my own uses, so don't get mad at me.

Disclaimer: Numair is all mine, yes Alex, all mine! Muahahaha!

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Chapter 9- Clinging

Numair placed Spot's reins in the hand of the hostler. From the corner of his eye he saw Daine do the same with Cloud. He could not see what the mare did, but he heard Daine scold "Cloud, leave be, its too late for you to be at your tricks." Numair grinned a little to himself.

Legann, He sighed, looking at the city before him, another place where we will be assigned yet another task. He glanced at Daine. She had a firm expression set on her face, but her blue eyes could not hide her exhaustion. I'm tired myself come to think of it.

Tkaa and Kitten followed behind them. The young dragon had been thrilled that her friend could accompany them on this mission. The King came out to greet them. He smiled, but Numair knew it was only a matter of time before the tasks began. He had no idea the severity of that task.

None of the company knew of Ulmer of Greenhall's arrival, until a messenger boy came to them, summoning them up to see the King on the coast wall. Numair listened to the explanation of Ulmer's problems. He did not know of these Immortals, but they sounded like a definite challenge, one that he was not sure he wanted to face. Jon's voice drew his thoughts

"I'm sorry. I know you're exhausted—" Of course we are exhausted, but I'm not going to sit around here waiting out the opportune time for you to use my reserves.

"You need your other mages to deal with the enemy fleet and the siege. This is why you've kept me in reserve, Your Majesty." Numair knew that in times of war he was viewed as a weapon to be yielded and now was a time to strike.

Daine agreed to pack for the two of them. As she left Jon grabbed her sleeve. Their backs were to Numair, but he caught bits of their conversation. Jon was concerned for them. That much Numair already knew. His heart leapt at Daine's assurance that he could handle it all. He sincerely hoped he wouldn't fail her. He'd rather die than fail her. Jonathan brought up Midsummer's Day. Is it really Midsummer already? Midsummer was a holiday for lovers. It was a time when girls Daine's age would make charms and look into mirrors and such in a quest for there true love. No matter how hard he tried to fight it, the idea of Daine doing such a thing bothered him very much.

He caught her reply. "Midsummer—do you know I'd fair forgotten? Maybe I'll look into a pond along the way and find out who my true love will be." I'm right here. He thought desperately. But you won't ever see me. Not like that. As it should be, a nasty part of his mind retorted.

When she had left he turned to the King. "Jon does she have—"

The King held up a hand stopping the question that both he and his black robe knew the answer to.

"She's just so tired." Numair said. He stared into his hands. "We both are." He looked up at the king. A blind man would see the weariness in his eyes.

"I know Numair. I promise you that when this is all through you will both get enough time off to make you come begging me for work." Numair smiled, and he knew a dismissal when he heard one. Rising and bowing shortly with a "Your Majesty." He left.

Daine met him in front of the stables. He took his things from off of her shoulders. "Thanks" He barely glanced at her. His mind was too fixed on the events ahead.

"Numair, I'm going to shift and fly ahead. I'd like to get a look at these things before we face them. Also, we can get an accurate assessment of where they are." He nodded at her. Though he would rather they didn't separate what she said was logical.

"Spots and I will go on ahead with the packs then. Cloud—?"

"She need not come. I'll just fly over."

"Alright," he hesitated "Be safe." He added. Hoping she knew how important her safely was to him. She smiled.

With a simple spell, or at least simple to him, he shielded himself and Spots from view. He watched Daine fly off as a beautiful Golden Eagle. She soared high above horse and mage. "Trot, Spots." Daine had taught the gentle gelding to respond to vocal commands ages ago.

Horse and mage set off down the path, with Numair made his best effort to sit the springy gait. He followed Daine's progress between the gaps in the trees. "Canter, Spots." He commanded he wanted something smoother to sit. His thoughts began to wander as the winding path unfolded before them.

These—Skinners—as they were calling them, what do we really know about them? The man said that they resisted arrows. He would need to spell Daine's bolts, and hope that makes a difference. They already knew that they destroyed animals. The more he thought about it, the more he worried about involving Daine in this. Maybe I should just handle this alone. If she has no defenses, he did not want to consider what could befall her. He also knew that her welfare would distract him, something that could be deadly for both him and her. He would have gone on debating this, but something before him, something just above the trees distracted him.

The body of a young woman that he knew had been in golden eagle shape moments before. His breathe caught in his throat as Daine fell. He was caught. She was way ahead of him. There was no way that he could reach her, both physically and magically.

Where is she? He was growing frantic now. Where could she be? What if something has happened to her? What if she didn't shift back in time? The skinners—That thought was just to terrifying.

There was nothing left to do, but try to get to her. If something had happened, he hoped he would be in time. He didn't even hesitate with his command "Run, Spots." The gelding, however did hesitate as if amazed to hear the previously unused command. "Run, Spots." Numair repeated firmly and the easy going gelding gave him his best shot at speed.

There was a clearing ahead. The smell rotting flesh and vegetation unpleasantly reached his nose. A blessedly familiar Golden Eagle flew down to meet him. He hastily untied her pack so she could carry it in her talons to a sheltered place to change.

She came out, fully clothed with her face darkened by what she had seen. "Go on Spots," he heard her murmur to the horse, "get to somewhere safe."

Reaching for her crossbow, he handed it to her. He asked the question that had been weighing on his mind. "Can we beet them?"

She looked into his eyes. He trusted her completely. He trusted her to give him the truth, without any sugar coating, he trusted her to do her share in defense, and he trusted her with looking after him, as he would be looking after her.

"I don't know." She replied, true to his trust. "I've never seen the likes of these things."

He watched her draw her crossbow. Remembering his idea to spell the bolts he held out his hand, black and white magic already grew from his fingertips. "Give me that quarrel." Whispering a simple spell he added strength to the bolt that would, with any luck, penetrate the Skinner's defenses. He hoped it would be enough.

Daine set off down the road to where he knew their battle lay. The scene that unfolded before him was more ghastly than he had anticipated. Suddenly, he understood what had caused the concern in Daine's eyes. He was looking upon the village of Greenhall, or at least where it had once stood. Everything was destroyed, as if melted away by some sick power. Trees, plants, flowers, fruit, all had been striped down by this force. The situation was far more urgent than he had anticipated.

"Is it all like this?" He asked, afraid of the answer.

"Worse, there's acres of it clean back to the hills." They had reached a clearing, and there they were. Daine aimed at one of them, now was the time to test his magic, she loosed and the shot was true it went deep into her prey's head. Numair gestured at it and, to his satisfaction, it burst into pieces. Now he knew that they could overcome this; that they had not stepped into certain death.

Relief turned to horror as he watched the Skinner fragments regenerate. The new Skinners and their older counterparts was now headed strait for them. He looked at Daine, she was preparing another bolt. That would not be enough defenses against these monsters. In an instant he swept them back with a cloud of his magic. It was a powerful spell that required a lot of his Gift. He knew he should save his power for spells that would actually destroy, and he knew just the spell.

"I hope the owner of this orchard forgives me." He stretched his hands out and shouted a word of power. He commanded the earth before the advancing Skinners to open and swallow them and it obeyed. He ran to the edge. He was curious if they could climb. That could certainly make things harder.

"If I can seal them into the earth, that may be the end of it. I certainly hope so." The last part he said more to himself than to Daine. They peered over the edge of the crack. He had to do something. If they could crawl then the destruction of that orchard would be in vain. "I hate simply blasting them with raw power like this. There is always a spell to uncreate anything, though the consequences may be—oh dear." In fact they could crawl and he had to seal them now. He could not afford to waist magic. He would drain himself repeating the process. Reaching out, he jerked Daine behind him. He didn't want to hurt her, but he also didn't want her to be the first thing those Skinners reached. He used a second word of power. This one made the earth shake as it sealed itself over the advancing creatures.

He paused, suddenly he felt as if he could collapse. "Please Goddess, Please Mithros, let that stop them." Daine reached out to help him stand. He welcomed her support. "Grant a boon on Midsummer's Day—" Daine spun around. He had heard it too, something shot through the earth. He heard Daine cry out to him. He spun and watched her shoot an unmagiced bolt at the emerging creatures, it bounced off with no effect. He yelled out in old Thak, the creature liquefied. Perhaps that will stop them. Or maybe we will simply get another Skinner for every drop. He thought bitterly. He turned to give another the same fate, but more and more were bursting forth. They were surrounded.

Daine! His first thought was to keep her safe, to keep her close. From the corner of his eye he saw strange phantom hands reach out to Daine. Instinct controlled his body as he grabbed a hold of her waist. In the corner of his mind he knew that the skinners could have them at any second, but a stronger, more desperate thought kept running through his head. I can't let go! I can't ever let go!

The End

A/N: There you have it. Yes that is it, and you can't complain because its not like you don't know what will happen to them. Ok, so review if you'd like to. My editor is out of town and I'm running on a few hours of sleep so don't kill me for typos.

Replies

Tortalls Resident Wildchild: don't worry about it, its nice to get late reviews it reminds me to write. I'll IM you about the art thing.

Heather-marie: thanks so much for reviewing! Hope you liked the ending too.

Alex: I don't read HP on fanfiction, but I do on schnoogle. I'll make a deal with you, you get Draco, I'll take Aragorn and we can share Numy. Hmm…I should change my disclaimer, but I don't think I will.

Eunae: kudos to you for saying that I amused you. I think you were the only one.

BlueEpiks13: I would say that dancing was a little extreme, but I do that too, so I'm sorry bout the wait. thanks for the review!

Padfootz: that part seemed to be very popular. You too shall like the sequel to this

Narms Britton 44: yeah, I really messed up

Fantasizing Fluff: no, Daine was riding that other horse to get from wherever they docked the boat from Carthak to Corus, it wasn't her horse. Yes, I could never get rid of Cloud, she is exactly like one of my horses. I'm sorry about the hunting scene. I guess I got the two scenarios mixed up.

DaydreamQueenMisha: thanks for adding me to favs, and thanks for calling it one of the best DN fics, not sure I deserve that, but whateva

Kit 49: Daine said that she would not eat anything that she has been hunted as. But I was talking like squirrels or rabbits, not like deer or geese. No, this was the end, but the sequel will be fluffy so keep your eyes peeled for that.