Chapter 16: Gore crows suck!

Arielle walked again out of thedankcave her leather boots crunching in the fresh spring grass, She was looking again for Hannah, she wanted to tell her she was going to put on the Charter skin. Since when she was in the Charter skin she was unrecognizable. She looked around for a bit, taking in the fresh pine smell of the forest while looking for Araya, Hannah and perhaps Kyril. She loved the sweet smell of fresh water and was soon drawn to it, where she promptly tastes a metallic tang on the back of her tongue. Her brow furrowed in concentration, where had she tasted that before? She pondered just as she looked up and spotted the two rotting crows,

"Free Magic, Necromancer." She said and unsheathed her sword slowly as to not make a sound and draw the Gore Crows' attention.

The crow closest to her turned its skeletal head, as that was all it was since flying had just sent the feathers and rotting flesh flying off the skeleton so that was all that was left, it didn't even remotely resemble a crow anymore. She hissed something in a strange language, perhaps draconic and the crow dove down at her, she readied herself preparing for the strength that some necromancers infused with their gore crows.

Though she didn't notice it at the time, the other crow was flying away to go tell its master. Arielle hit the crow with the blunt of her sword, its fragile bones just barely held together by magic shattered and it fell crumpled to the ground. A dark form like a shadow slithered away, the spirit the Necromancer had infused with a dead crows body in some strange ritual, It was crawling back to the other crow, trying to rejoin the other half(by the looks of it.) of its spirit.

Hannah had finally found Kibeth she was nibbling on the fresh grass near a small stream, actually more of a trickle. Araya shifted back into a wolf and smiled greedily as she spotted a rabbit hole near the stream, she ran over to it and stuck her nose in the hole, her ears twitching. She jumped out and started digging furiously, something darted out of the hole, or it tried to and Araya pounced on it biting its neck killing it immediately.

Kibeth snorted in disgust,

"How barbaric!" She exclaimed. Araya looked up, and smiled almost sheepishly (if that is possible for a wolf) blood dripping off her maw. Kibeth shook her head tossing her mane from side to side.

Hannah looked up and saw a skeleton bird flying into the now bright sky, she shut her eyes and shook the image out of her head, she felt like she was going to throw up.

Kibeth tilted her head as did Araya who was burring the carcass of the rabbit, since she wasn't really hungry.

"A skeleton, flying," She stuttered.

Kibeth whinnied and looked to the sky, tasting the metallic tang she ran under Hannah throwing her onto her back they galloped to Arielle.

Arielle sat on the ground near the pile of bones and feathers, running dirt through her fingers, just letting it slip away 'just as she had the crow.' She thought cursing under her breath for her stupidity.

Her thinking was interrupted by Kibeth galloping through the brush and almost hitting Arielle, but she managed to dig her hooves into the ground enough to slow down and not hit her. Hannah was holding on to Kibeth's mane looking a bit scared.

"It got away," Arielle said bluntly and stood up walking to the cave to get her Charter skin. Hannah got off Kibeth just as Araya trotted through the large gap in trees that Kibeth had made,

"Hmmm, not bad, for a horse" She said rather smugly and sniffed the pile of bones. She sniffed once or twice before a rather large sneeze issued from her mouth. She shook her head and yawned walking over and sitting next to Kibeth, who snorted in disapproval. Araya ignored this and lay down her head on her crossed paws obviously bored. Arielle emerged a few moments later as a red tailed hawk. Araya nodded,

"So let's go, Ill follow your lead," She said and shifted to a raven.

Arielle nodded and Hannah mounted Kibeth while Arielle flapped her mighty wings and took flight cawing with the joy that such a simple act held. Kibeth galloped down narrow trail while Hannah held on for dear life as the two birds sped ahead.

Aliha walked through the forest her eyes veiled by the darkness her heart held, she looked no older than sixteen but looks were deceiving weren't they? She was about twenty, years didn't matter to her anymore, just trying to stay alive, and that's all that mattered. Cleverly hidden by the rain sodden cloak was a bell bandolier, the bells of a necromancer rested in their pockets each of their tongues carefully stilled. With her hood up she walked through the forest dragon hide boots crunching on the grass , she had sent wolves after the escapee orphan, they were of course dead, made to reanimate by a nightmarish magic called Necromancy. They obeyed every command she issued, and she loved it. She loved the power, the just pure free power. She was once a Charter Mage, but she saw that the Charter was falling and so she turned to Free Magic, and now she was hooked.

Authors Endnote: Sorry about how long it took, I was grounded so erm...yeah...uhh thats it. I have another chapter waiting to be typed so ummmmmmmm itll be here soon unless I get grounded again.