Chapter 5

Danny had barely made it a mile before he heard the sounds of horses pursuing him. He cursed and tried to turn invisible, but the power flickered out after a few moments. He'd used it to the max that his human form could withstand in the barracks. He tried transforming again; the rings formed at his waist but then flickered out.

Soon, he heard the sound of men yelling at him. One threw a spear that Danny barely managed to duck under after hearing it whistle through the air. He was swiftly encircled by the men on horseback. Some brandished weapons at him, but others were curiously unarmed. Among them were the two dark figures he'd seen in the storeroom; one dismounted and approached him.

"Huildr!" one of the weaponless figures shouted. Danny yelped as an invisible force bound his arms and legs, rendering him immobile. In a panic, he let ectoplasm stream to his eyes and saw that there was script tightly encircling his wrists and ankles. In that case, he could burn it away. He let ectoplasmic fire flare from his hands and feet, scorching the script away just as the hooded figure reached him. The figure jumped back with a screech at the ghostly green flames.

"Ssssso, Hissss Majesty wassss correct. You are indeed ssssomething we have never encountered before," it hissed. "Regardlesssss, you cannot escape now!"

"Oh yeah?" Danny challenged, eyes flaring. He crouched slightly before jumping as high (about thirty feet) and as far (about fifty feet) as he could, leaving the encirclement behind. He heard more shouting behind him as his pursuers scrambled to catch up. He took off running, this time enhancing his legs with ectoplasmic energy to speed up and outrun the horses.

"Thrysta vindr!" he heard. He glanced behind him and just managed to get a glimpse of a sphere made of script before it impacted with his head forcefully, sending him sprawling to the ground. He heard the clatter of hoofbeats as he was ringed again.

"Ssssstuborn," one of the hooded figures commented.

"You've got no idea," Danny panted, still defiant. He wasn't beaten yet. Ectoplasmic energy pooled in his palm before he thrust his hand forward. The ecto-blast, while weaker in human form, was enough to send one of the hooded figures tumbling from its mount with an earsplitting screech.

Danny ran forward, turning intangible and sliding through several pointy weapons aimed in his direction, and jumped onto the horse the figure had fallen from. It reared before Danny was able to direct it forward with his admittedly sparse knowledge of horseback riding.

While the horse was galloping away, Danny felt a metaphysical hand reach for him, causing the hair on the back of his neck to stand straight up. The hand wasn't nearly as strong as the one he'd encountered in the castle, and it seemed to have a different signature coded into it, but Danny was sure he didn't want it getting ahold of him. But he didn't have a chance to react – the horse was going too slowly – before the hand enveloped his mind.

Danny screamed as he felt the invader trying to take control of his body. He grit his teeth and angrily stole back control of his limbs before they could command the horse to stop. The invader tried to overwhelm him, swamping his mind and sending thorny vines spiraling into the depths of his consciousness and memories.

It wasn't the first time someone had tried to control his mind. It wasn't even the tenth time someone had tried to control his mind. Danny had quite a bit of experience dealing with mental invaders. He'd learned from Frostbite how to channel his ectoplasmic energy to protect and defend his mind after the nth time he'd almost been taken over.

First, he needed to get rid of the invasion. He let ectoplasmic fire burn away the grasping metaphysical vines and force the presence away from his mind before constructing mental walls made of ectoplasmic ice. He heard a scream behind him as he roughly forced the invading presence from his mind. He felt another couple of hands attempt to breech the icy walls he constructed, but the metaphysical cold had them withering away within seconds.

Unfortunately, while he was distracted by the metaphysical invaders, the other riders caught up with him. Danny barely managed to turn himself intangible when one tried to stab him through the ribs.

Then things got worse.

Danny heard an earsplitting shriek coming from behind and above him. He managed a quick glance upward to see a horrifying thing diving down towards him. It looked like the cross between a pterodactyl and a dragon, with leathery wings, a beak, and four legs. Danny turned intangible one last time as the thing reached him and snapped its beak straight through him into his stolen horse's spine. He went tumbling head over heels over the dead horse's head and came to a rolling stop some feet ahead. He groaned in pain and hoped his supplies and the egg weren't too squashed.

"Ssssurrender!" one of the hooded figures screeched. The pterodactyl-cross landed, making the other riders' horses skittish, but it also completely blocked the way back to Gil'ead. Another one screamed and landed ahead of him, blocking his path forward. And since they could fly, he couldn't jump over them like he had earlier.

With his intangibility and invisibility taxed to their limits – an inconvenience he had to deal with in his human form – and unable to transform, he had two more cards to pull. One was flight, which would probably see him meet the same grisly fate as the horse at the beaks of the pterodactyl things. The other, he could stand his ground and fight. He would have to time it carefully, but if he focused the rest of his energy into producing ice… Yes, that could work.

Danny crouched on the ground and breathed. It was significantly harder to call upon his ice powers in human form – something about them being damaging to the human physique – but he could still do it.

"Get him!" he distantly heard someone yell.

Danny breathed in, out… and let go. He felt the chill he'd been building in his core expand past his body, past his bag, and materialize as a wave of cold that assaulted his pursuers. He heard screams and a glass-shattering shriek before there was silence.

Danny opened his eyes. There was a circle of frost around his feet extending twenty feet in every direction (his range was much, much larger in ghost form). Horses' hooves were frozen to the ground. Icicles dipped from swords and the pterodactyl-cross's beak.

Then, all at once, noise seemed to come rushing back. He heard terrified oaths from the soldiers who'd been pursuing him, ice freezing them in place but not quite covering their faces. He heard cracks as the hooded figures attempted to break free of their icy cages. Finally, he heard high-pitched noises coming from the pterodactyl things. He saw cracks starting to form in the ice holding them down. His eyes widened. They were using sound to break free of the ice!

Danny staggered to his feet, light-headed from the exertion of producing so much ice in human form. He stumbled around the pterodactyl thing blocking his path forward, barely out of reach of its free neck and snapping beak. He limped forward as fast as he could manage, breathing hard. He needed to put as much distance between himself and his pursuers as he could.

He got a half an hour head-start before he heard leathery wings flapping behind him. They'd broken free of the ice. Danny had no more cards to play. He was caught.

But then a feeling in his core caught his attention. He'd been having problems connecting to his powers ever since he'd woken up drugged, but now he could feel his ghostly core clearly, without obstruction. He concentrated and summoned the familiar rings around his waist. They swept up and down his body, changing his fragile human form into his much tougher ghostly one. It was just in time, too; he whirled around, feeling refreshed, and sent a blistering ecto-blast at the pterodactyl creature, which had gotten way too close for comfort. It screeched as hot plasma met its mark and forced it away.

Sighing in relief that his powers were fully back online, Danny leapt into the air, forcing all the power he could into his ability to fly. He shot into the sky as though out of a cannon, wind whistling past his ears. Once he deemed he'd reached a high enough altitude, he slowed, then stopped, hovering and waiting for pursuit.

He waited for ten minutes. There wasn't any. He'd finally shaken them.

Danny relaxed and turned his attention to the egg. He carefully pulled it out of his pack and examined it. It didn't have any new visible marks on it. It had probably been treated reverently, if it was so valuable.

He heard the egg chirrup, the first time he'd gotten an audible response from it. It radiated happiness at being back in Danny's possession but was not terribly happy at how cold it was and how hard it was to breathe up so high. Danny didn't really feel temperature in his ghost form but could tell that most creatures would find it very cold. He dipped down a few hundred feet to where it was warmer and where there was more oxygen.

When Danny looked down, he was doubly glad his powers had decided to come back online when they did. He'd fled across a moor between the city of Gil'ead and a giant lake; in fact, it looked like he'd taken off almost at the lake's edge.

Orienting himself with the sun, Danny began coasting across the lake, heading north. Hopefully, he'd be able to make it to the lake's far shore before he began to tire.

Danny flew for hours through the sky, his ghostly tail stretching behind him. He enjoyed the breeze in his hair as he flew over the lake. Finally, by sundown, he saw the far side of the lake. By the end of the lake, he saw the beginnings of a gigantic forest stretching to the horizon with towering trees that could put redwoods to shame. He also saw trails of scripts twining around and through the trees, reaching out towards the lake. They seemed very old and benign, so Danny let them be as he landed and exhaustedly transformed back into Fenton. The script faded as the ectoplasm drained from his eyes, but Danny could swear he still felt the lines of script brushing up against him. It was a strange sensation – not bad, just strange.

Danny trekked far enough into the forest as the light faded that he couldn't see the lake anymore and then, with the last of his strength, flew up into one of the trees, nestling in the vee between one of the branches – large enough that Danny could lay down comfortably – and the trunk. He pulled out some dried fruit and jerky from his pack and hungrily ate. He'd expended a lot of energy that day.

Danny could barely keep his eyes open as he finished chewing his jerky. He clutched the egg close as he drifted to sleep in the forest of Du Weldenvarden.

Yay, Danny's finally made it to Du Weldenvarden! Wonder what's gonna happen next…? It's a bit short, but this felt like a good place to end it.

Just imagine there's a little stretch of land between Gil'ead and Isenstar Lake. I totally messed up with my map-reading skills. Oh well.

So, I was originally going to have Galbatorix himself show up and force Danny to hide at the bottom of the lake, but I decided that Galbatorix probably wouldn't have been able to make it to Gil'ead quite that fast. Also, it felt too early for the big bad to make an appearance. The Ra'zac were spatially closer. I ditched Danny hiding in the lake because I doubted the Lethrblaka would be able to keep up with Danny going at top speed, especially after breaking free of the ice.

Thanks for all your favs, follows, and reviews!

-HM