Chapter 18 - Magnificent Shadows

There was a strange smell in the air that night, as if something were burning somewhere distant. They trudged through the woods along the foot of the mountains looking for any sign of an entrance to a cavern. With very little luck, Orin stopped his team at the only suspicious looking area around them. The trees were thin there, and from the forest floor you could look up the side of the mountain, where a strange ridge jutted from the rock wall.

"There." pointed Orin, as the group stared up toward the overhanging cliff above. "A steep path runs toward that ridge, and that's the only place I could imagine the cave being. Seeing how we've searched along the mountain from the river to the ridges to the west, and found nothing, this is our best guess…"

"Where's the path, then?" asked Duran, who looked around for some sign of passage to the ridge.

"I noticed it while we passed before, it's to the west a bit." said Orin, as he turned to lead them. "It shouldn't be hard to get up there."

They all followed somewhat unwillingly behind him. That smell was somehow putting a sort of fear into them, and not even they knew why. Even Orin felt strange at the moment, almost as if he were being watched closely from something deep within the forest.

The ridge was easily visible when they reached it, as the mountain ran a bit deeper into the forest in that area. It was almost as if the path was chipped away by someone, like they were making stairs in order to climb up more easily. They all moved slowly and carefully up the path, making sure they were close enough to the rock wall so they wouldn't tumble down the cliff. Orin was ahead of them, very far ahead, as a matter of fact. He turned a corner on the path, and disappeared behind part of the wall so that no one could really see him. They all came around the corner to see him waiting a few feet away for them.

"Almost there. Try and stay alert. I don't want anyone falling off here." said Orin, as he turned back to the path and moved onward along the mountain.

They finally reached the ledge, and sure enough, a large hole in the mountain led deep into a cavern, and eventually out into a valley to the north. The overhanging cliff was much larger than Orin had imagined. From the forest floor it seemed big enough for only a few people to stand on, but standing upon it now, he could see it was large enough for them all to lie one. And though it was upon a mountain, grass had sprouted upon it, as did a few lone flowers.

"We'll sit here for a bit." said Orin as he walked out onto the cliff, and peered out over Grans Island.

He could see the high, crumbling tower of Galam shooting up over the horizon, and even the very tip of the ancient tower behind Granseal. He was beginning to feel nostalgic at the sight of the tower, so he smiled slightly, and turned away from the sights.

"I'm…so tired." said Tess, as she yawned and fell back into the grass.

"Yeah…" said Vahn, who had only just reached the ridge with Ikara.

The night sky was beautiful. The stars and the moon glimmering down onto the rivers and the mountain side. Orin fell back near Tess and gazed up with her. He smiled again.

"I hope this cave isn't too deep." said Keith, who sat down on a large rock. "Who knows what kind of monsters are hiding in there."

"Well as long as we don't get lost and we stay together, we should be fine." said Orin.

Keith nodded, sat down, and looked out over the fields.

They were all quite for a few moments, enjoying the rest, the beautiful scenery, and the cool night air they were offered.

As Orin lye there, something caught his eye. A shadow jolted across the night sky, like an inverted shooting star, and it almost made him jump. He thought maybe he was just more tired than he thought, but he caught a glimpse of the shadow again, and this time, he jumped to his feet in and instant and grabbed the hilt of his blade.

"Orin!?" said Ikara as she stood from where she was sitting.

"What is it!?" asked Keith as he grabbed his bow and drew an arrow.

They were all tense now, looking to the sky to see what Orin had seen.

"Something…" Orin started, still looking to the sky. "There is something there. Something moving."

Then the smell came again. The smell of something burning, like someone has been making smoke signals below them.

"I don't see anything…" said Tess, as she looked from the sky to Orin.

"I'm sure it was there…I'm sure…" he said, still looking to the sky with frustration in his eyes.

"Don't be so tense, Orin." said Keith as he put away his arrow and sat back down. "You really need some rest…"

Orin shot a looked at Keith that made him shiver, and then Orin turned his gaze back to the sky again.

He stood the for a while, looking up for any sign of movement. There was nothing. He tried to calm himself, and so he went to the rock wall and leaned against it, his eyes still fixated on the night sky. Nothing much happened afterward. Everyone dug out a cot and sat on it, and they built a fire from a few logs Duran had lugged along with them. They all began to talk, and they listened to each other's stories intently.

Keith told them about his great uncle, who he had only met once when he was young. He had gone away to leave in a distant place on the mainland called Thornwood. His uncle had been a silversmith who lived in Granseal for a long time, and had created a memento for Keith before he left. Keith pulled out a sleek, silver figurine of an archer and passed it around to them, and they all looked at it in awe as the firelight gleamed off it.

Then Tess told a story. One about something everyone wanted to ask about, but never did. She told about when she was young, and her father had been part of the New Galam Colonies that had lined the plains of Grans Island years ago. Her father was a mercenary at one time, and in memory of his past, he tried to train her to fight like a ranger using rogue tactics. She learned very little, but her father was determined to teach her his fighting skills, and to make her follow his customs. And so, like his own blue tattoos that went from his ears to his cheeks, he tattooed blood red markings around her eyes to mark her as a trained rogue. Her father died a few months later, but she had the marks to remind herself of his determination to mold her.

Duran said little, but listened to the rest of them intently. He seemed very reluctant to tell about those who had only recently passed.

Ikara, on the other hand, told about how she had come across the art of elemental magic's. Upon a visit to the woods outside Granseal with her mother, she caught sight of a strange man practicing his skills. He had managed to conjure an incredible firestorm across the grassy field, one that released the fiery spirit of a serpent. The dragon like creature swam amongst the falling fireballs and roared loudly as it moved along. The man let down his spell, and the spirit evaporated along with the flames. Ever since, she had been obsessed with the study of the elements and magic spells. She even read up on other techniques that called upon a hailstorm to rain down upon the enemy, and the calling of masses of dark clouds that shot down bolts of blue electricity.

Vahn had fallen asleep, as he was still quite weary, and Orin was a bit dazed, so he remained leaning against the wall, distant from the rest of them. He had lowered his eyes to the fire, and was feeling dizzy and tired. Finally, he fell away into sleep, leaning there against the hard wall.

Only an hour or so past before a pain shot through his arm. He had slid a bit in his slip and was now digging his shoulder into a jagged rock the jutted from the rock wall.

"Damnit…" he said, as he rubbed his arm and pushed himself off from the wall.

Everyone was still talking, seemingly oblivious to anything but their conversations. Orin looked at all of them and grinned a little. It was good to see no one had much of a problem with the other, apart from Duran and Keith's regular scuffles. He decided they had rested enough, and called out to them.

"I think we should go. We should get through this cave within an hour or so…" he said, though he was really unsure of how deep the cavern went.

Nevertheless, he felt it best that they moved on before they got too comfortable where they were.

Duran stood with the rest of them, all of them seeming happy to be moving along again, and he said: "Onward, peasants!!"

Both Tess and Ikara giggled as the threw their bundles onto their backs and walked toward the caves entrance. Keith simple looked at Duran.

"Who are you calling peasants, little man?" said Keith, as he began to laugh.

"Watch those ears, we don't need anyone losing any eyes tonight." retorted Duran, as he began to laugh, too.

"Okay, okay. Let's get going." said Orin, who was smiling at Duran's last comment.

Tess shook Vahn awake, and he stood out of his cot reluctantly and folded it up. They all proceeded down into the dark, an extra shadow following close behind them.

The cave seemed endless. It was dim inside, and they were lucky that the ceiling of the cavern was close enough to the top of the mountain so that the large holes let the moonlight through.

"It's so dark in here! I can hardly see my own feet." said Duran from the back of the line.

"Just make sure you stay up with us. Call if you start to fall behind." said Orin, who stood up in front with Keith.

Their whispers echoed through the cavern, and it made them feel uneasy. Every footstep gave away exactly where they were to any kind of creature lurking in the shadows.

After about a half an hour's walk, they began to see a dim, red light glimmering far ahead.

"The exit…?" said Ikara as they approached it.

They all looked at the sky, which was still quite dark, and there was no sign of the sun for many hours.

"No…" said Orin as the crept closer and closer. "Someone has a lantern or has started a fire or something."

With those words, the burning smell hit them once again, this time, it was stronger than ever.

"Blegh!" said Tess as she held her nose. "Smells like someone's cooking rotten meat!"

They came around the corner of the cavern to see a large fire centered in the middle of a large, open area of the cave. It was almost 4 feet in diameter, and the smoke bellowed up through the holes in the ceiling. Upon the fire sat four spinning kabobs of meat, each of which was dripping blood down into the flames.

Seven devils stood before them, all of them looking exactly the same. They all had dark red bodies, and large folded wings. They had pointed ears and sharp fangs, and they stood crouched over the fire, seemingly waiting for their meals to finish. Their claws and fangs gleamed with the bright orange lights of the flames.

"Devils…" whispered Ikara, as she stepped back from the sight of the creatures.

They all stood with the mouths spattering drool onto the ground as they awaited their bloody feast. As Ikara backed away slowly, preparing to fight if they caught sight of them, she tripped over her feet and dropped her iron staff as she fell backward. The loud clang echoed through the cavern, and the devils quickly turned to face those who had invaded their home.

They all growled angrily, and approached them slowly, claws outstretched and wings spread outward.

"Get ready…" said Orin as he drew his sword.

They all drew their weapons and moved forward into the open area of the cavern. Vahn stood behind them all and helped Ikara to her feet. Both she and Vahn remained in the back, as they were currently the frailest. One of the devils hissed loudly and brandished its claws with a sly, fang filled smile. Then one charged, claws thrashing about, and it was heading toward Keith.

With a grin, Keith drew back his arrow and let it fly through the devils skull, throwing it backward and making it screech like a bat. The rest of the devils charged now, as the battle had official begun.

Orin caught one of the beasts in the wing with his sword as it leapt toward Tess, and his blade sliced through the devils wing it was paper. It fell to the ground, and turned toward Orin as the joint in its wing began to spurt blood. It thrashed at Orin angrily, almost at a blur, but just before it brought up a razor sharp talon toward Orin's face, he thrust it threw the devil's chest, and drew it back as it exploded and became ash.

Another of the devil, that had caught Vahn and Ikara off guard, ripped at the both of then angrily, as the both of them backed up slowly. There wasn't a single opening for Ikara to conjure and attack with her flames, and Vahn was only just fast enough to blocked the slashes with his rod. Duran leapt in from behind and belted the imp to the ground with the butt of his axe, and then brought it strait through its torso before it even hit the ground. It fell to the ground in too parts, and then exploded into two small piles of ash and dust.

Tess had been holding off an imp, which was amazingly keeping up with her movements, and dodging every blow she threw. She charged toward a wall and pushed off with all her strength, rocketing herself feet first into the ceiling, and then back down to the ground behind her foe, where she landed perfectly and with ease. It turned to slash at her again, but was stabbed in the temple by her dagger before it could turn full around. She drew it out, and spun around to see Keith being charged by another of the devils.

He was not so quick this time, as the imp dodged an arrow to the chest, and launched itself at his head. It slashed its claws through his face, and knocked him backward into the wall of the cavern. Four large parallel gashes ran from the left of his forehead, across his nose, and down to his right cheek. He tried to stand but was blinded by the flowing blood that ran down his face. Before it could leap forward again to finish it's enemy, the devil was sent flying into the rocks itself by a ball of flames. Keith turned his head to see Ikara standing, arms wide, before he fell unconscious.

The final two devils were attacking Orin, before Duran stepped in and held one of them off. Duran was too slow to fight back when he was face to face with one of the creatures, and could do nothing but hold up his axe defensively to dodge the onslaught of the imp's steel-like claws.

Orin was doing the same, doing his best to avoid the imp's blows with his blade. He got help from Tess though, who jumped in from behind and drove her dagger into the devil's back, and ripped it threw its skin before drawing it out. It turned to face her in a rage, and had it's head taken off by Orin in an instant.

Vahn had gotten over to Keith's side and lifted his staff to heal him, but was stopped before the light had been emitted from the tip of his rod. Something dark entered the room and knocked his weapon from his hand, sending it flying backward across the cavern.

Orin and Tess helped Duran to finish off the last devil, simply by attacking it while it ripped at Duran wildly. They turned as the sound of Vahn's rod hitting the cold rocky floor of the cavern met their ears. It was silent now, besides the cackling of the fire, and the was no movement whatsoever.

"What happened…?" asked Ikara, looking puzzled.

Orin moved over to the rod cautiously and picked it up off the ground. There was nothing suspicious about it, and after he looked at it carefully, he shrugged his shoulders and looked at Vahn.

"Here." he said, as he tossed it back to its owner.

He caught another glimpse of a shadow creeping along the wall, and when he turned to see it, it rushed silently across the wall and disappeared within an instant.

"There it is!!" he yelled, pointing to the now motionless shadow that had stopped and become one with one of their own shadows.

It was as if it were hiding behind them, but it wasn't really there. Like a ghost that clung to the shadows of others for protection.

"It was there…!" gasped Tess.

She pointed to Ikara's shadow, where the figure had disappeared. Ikara turned and backed away from the wall she stood near, keeping her eye out for any sort of movement.

Vahn gave it another try, and this time the light emitted from his rod and grew bright as it merged with Keith's body and began to clear the wounds on his face. All that was left when the light subsided was four small lines across Keith's face, but the blood had disappeared.

With that light, though, came something else. From the wall where Ikara's shadow had been painted, the shadow of another figure stood on the wall, visible now by a glowing white outline. It jumped forward off the wall, like it had jumped off the pages of a picture book, and taken on a 3-dimensional shape. It was completely black except for it's white outline which was slowly subsiding. It seemed to look at each one of them, until finally it revealed itself.

The black that seemed to have been ink on its body slid off and to the ground slowly, revealing a girl's face and body, and her torn robes that where rapped tightly to her. It also revealed a large set of fury black wings and a tail, and what looked like looked like horns that sprouted from her forehead, and curved backward over her head in an odd way. She had two fangs protruding out from under her top lip and it made her look almost like a cat-girl. Her feet where bare, but she had not claws, only humanlike toes and semi dark skin. She had a single green tattoo that ran from her ear to her cheek, and her hands where equipped with sharp claws.

When all the black had disappeared from her body, and she opened her red eyes and looked at them, they backed away in awe. For one, she was very attractive, even for something as odd as she may have seemed, and though her cloths where quite ragged, the rest of her seemed quite well kept. Her hair was strait and her skin was naturally tanned, her skin looked smooth, and her body was perfectly curved.

She shot a look at Vahn first, who stood in the corner by Keith, looking at her in awe.

"You." she said angrily. "You messed everything up, you bastard!"

She was obviously angry, and obviously a devil, or at least partly one, but her voice sounded like that of a normal human girl. None of them had ever heard a devil speak before.

"Who…what are you?" asked Duran crudely.

He still had his axe ready to attack if she made any false moves, and wasn't even taken aback by her appearance.

"What do you care, dwarf!" she said turning to him, her wings fluttering as she grew angrier. "This is my home, and you killed my friends! For that, I'll feed you to the wolves!"

Orin's eyes widened as she unfurled her black wings and bared her teeth, with were sharper than a normal human's, and her four fangs stood out most. Her eyes were still blood red and as the shadow of her wings fell over them, they all sensed the danger that stood before them.

Before she could launch an attack, though, Vahn felt a strange sense of calm over himself. Something had changed, but he couldn't understand what it was. There was something inside of him that was keeping him standing strait and without fear. He raised his staff, and before the devil girl could make a move, Vahn's eyes widened and he thrust his left hand, and the rod in his right hand, into her direction.

The rod burst forth a strange set of white beams, each about a half of a foot long, and they encircled the enemy, and curved around her tightly. They sliced and slashed through her skin and drew blood, the beams moving around at an amazing speed. Vahn didn't know what he had done, but he stood in amazement as his newfound skill dissipated and left the devil girl lying on the floor, covered in small gashes.

"Woah…" gasped Duran, looking at the creature who had been prepared to wipe them all out. "What was that…?"

Tess smiled widely.

"That was easier than I thought!" she said while grinning.

"I'm not sure…" started Vahn, he was still surprised at himself. "…what that was."

Orin sheathed his sword and moved toward the devil's motionless body cautiously.

"She's a devil." said Orin, who looked puzzled. "But she's a girl, too. Is she…"

"…half-blooded." said Vahn as he walked toward her. "It's the only explanation. Devils don't look like this. She has too many human features…"

"And what about the other things we've battled. Those dark soldier's on the field." said Duran. "They looked to be humans, but they disintegrated just like a devil would."

"I'm not sure. All I know is that this girl is half-blooded." said Vahn confidently.

Orin looked over at Keith, who had regained consciousness and was getting to his feet.

"Are you alright?" asked Ikara, as she helped him to stand properly.

"Fine, fine." replied Keith. "Little bastard caught me. Those guys were quick."

He looked over to the girl they were standing around, and his eyes grew wide.

"Wha…what the hell is that!?" he said as he moved toward the girl.

"She attacked us. Vahn managed to knock her out." said Orin.

"HE knocked her out?" asked Keith, seemingly bewildered. "And he gave her all those wounds alone?"

"Yep." said Duran simply.

"Are you sure I'm really awake." said Keith, as he looked at his hands with wide eyes.

Tess laughed a little and so did Duran, but they all grouped around the girl more closely to examine her.

"Strange." said Vahn. "Her wings are covered in black fur, and yet there is no fur on the rest of her body…"

"I guess that's what happens when you're half-blooded." said Duran.

"What's this…?" said Keith, as he drew something from the devil girl's satchel, which ad fallen off her waist and lye next to her.

Keith held out a gleaming ruby-like stone, and it glinted, almost as if it was on fire inside.

"Let me see it." said Vahn, as he snatched it up.

"Hey! I found it!" said Keith as he grabbed back for it, but Vahn pulled away.

"It seems like some sort of ruby." he said casually, as he examined it. "Maybe she stole it off someone…"

Tess snuck up behind Vahn and quickly yanked it from his hands from over his shoulder.

"Like that!" she said laughing.

Vahn wasn't very amused.

"I'd rather we not bother her." said Orin. "Put it back and let's go. I don't want her to wake up and try to finish what she started."

They all nodded, and Tess fell behind to put the gleaming stone back into the girl's satchel, but instead, she shoved it into her pocket and ran to catch up with the rest of them.

The cavern exit was a decent distance from the large center of the cavern, and by the time they reached the outside, the sun had begun to rise. They walked out onto another ledge that hung over a valley that ran for as far as the eye could see.

"We've made it." said Duran, as the multicolored horizon came into his view.

No one said anything, they just looked out over the strange area that they had never seen. Nevertheless, the scenery was beautiful.

"To the east." said Orin, as he looked out over the hills. "On the land's end, where the water meets the shore, we'll find Nazca."

They all looked at him, puzzled a bit. Then they realized what it must have meant for Orin to have made it this far.

"And when we get there, and we get a ship to Parmecia, I hope we'll find what we're looking for…" he said, his eyes wide and blank as he stared off into the strange sky of the morning sunrise.

"That's right." said Ikara.

"Yeah." agreed Keith, his eyes gleaming.

Duran and Vahn both smiled as they looked off into the rising sun, and Tess smiled as well, as she plopped down into the grass to watch as the overhanging clouds parted, and made way for a new day. As the sun hit the back of the mountains, and shot a ray of light in there direction, they squinted as the rays hit them and molded around their bodies, casting to the ground three pairs of magnificent shadows.