There was a small mountain before her, so small it wasn't a mountain, but too large and rocky to be a hill. It was more like a really large stone, or heap of stones. Standing over the solid mount was an enormous figure. It expanded the leathery wings and arched the slender neck with pleasure. The beast flapped the wings several times before allowing itself to rest on all fours. The dragon's scales glimmered a pearly white, with a slight silvery touch, under the gentle caressing of solar rays.
The magnificent beast glanced on Yolei's way. It seemed to ponder something for a second, second in which Yolei trembled with fear and prepared all her arsenal of weapons. The young girl ignored whether this creature was noble or terrible, and didn't know if it was going to attack her. Seconds after imagining the situation if the dragon attacked, the beast stretched, leapt up and flew in the opposite direction, vanishing behind the rocky formation.
The girl sighed with relief, but an emptyness seemed to crawl into her soul. That dragon, it was the biggest creature she had ever seen, and was white, and amazingly beautiful. Suddenly she was reminded painfully of Izzy, and she realized she was forgetting him. The deep passion, the determination of finding him, the desire of becoming a dragon, it was still the same, but she could barely remember him any more. There was just a flaming copper blurr in her mind, where only a pair of black eyes seemed to focus. It wasn't enough since those eyes faded to become a pair of well known blue violet orbs.
"Yolei?" a very familiar voice said from the depths of the woodlands.
"Silven!" the mage exclaimed turning to stare at the blond elf appearing, carrying a dead fawn on his back.
"You are awake!" the boy exclaimed, dropping the fawn on the floor and rushing to embrace Yolei in a tight hug.
"How much time have I been asleep?" the woman inquired curiously, returning the embrace and staring at Silven with a light blush.
"For about three weeks. You don't learn magic in one night, Yolei." Silven told her very seriously, although it was obvious he had been very worried.
"Well, I had to learn magic fast if I wanted to deffend myself!" Yolei said placing her hands on her hips.
"But mages take years to learn? Anyways, I could have protected you!" Silven said, staring at the woman incredulously.
"How? With a bow and an arrow? With your elvish charms? I can protect myself, thank you!" Yolei snapped crossing her arms over her chest.
"I have more weapons than that, but if you want it that way..." Silven snapped angrily, glaring at the woman.
"Really? Which?" Yolei questioned, staring at the elf curiously.
"Hu? Well... nothing important." Silven commented blushing, turning around to pick the dead fawn from the floor.
The lunch had been silent and not very eventful. Silven kept glancing painful looks at Yolei, only to retreat the gaze as soon as Yolei looked up at him. It was odd to her, but something seemed to be bothering the elf, something that was tearing him from inside. There was a pained, worried look as he glanced thoughtfully at the piece o roasted meat on his hand. The elven boy ate with craving, but there was this distraction as his mind was elsewhere.
"What is wrong?" Yolei inquired, clearing her throat and breaking the silence.
"Oh? Nothing..." Silven said, glancing up only to look away sadly.
"Come on, tell me!" Yolei pleaded, staring at the boy with a large, curious smile.
"Stop being so nosy! Nothing is wrong, all right?" Silven snapped harshly, "Ride on your horse, we still have a couple of weeks until we reach the coast." The boy ended, standing up and heading towards the chestnut stallion.
The woman obeyed silently. It wasn't like her, but she had never been treated to harshly by the gentle and noble elf. All the way, there was a strange look in his eyes, like a deep suffering tearing him inside. The chestnut stallion was always ahead of Yolei and her black, freisian mare by a distance of a dragon or two. Shaking her head, Yolei patted the mare's glossy neck and sighed, staring at Silven with worry and annoyance.
"You look worried..." said the red stallion all of a sudden.
"I'm not, Red Fury." Silven said dryly, as if this was completely normal.
"Master Elf, I am a horse, and I know what I talk about. What worries you?" the young, flaming horse neighed vividly, tossing his head up and down.
"Look, Fury, it really is nothing!" Silven snarled, tensing and tugging at Fury's rein rather abruptly.
"Ouch!" the horse snorted, shaking slightly at the pain in his mouth, "I think I know it." He suggested tentatively, careful and softly, avoiding another tug.
"What would you know? You are just a horse!" Silven felt tempted to pull at both reins at the same time, but it would stop the horse and he was not willing to meet Yolei.
"Precisely Master Elf. You love the girl, don't you?" Fury asked in silent, slow words, trying to cause as less impact as he could.
Silven tensed inmediately, which resulted in a slight tug of the rein. The elf's legs pressed against the horse's sides, making him ignore whether he wanted to maintain pace, accelerate or go slower.
"I don't love her!" the elf snapped in a high pitched voice.
"Are you sure?" Fury asked more valiantly this time.
"Even if I did, it would never work!" Silven yelled angrily at the stallion, "I'm not... like her!" the boy finished with a moan.
"That is obvious!" Fury comented, "Yolei is going to give up her humanity for that dragon, what would you sacrifice for her?" Fury said calmly, turning his head just to glance at the elf.
"Wait a minute..." Silven said all of a sudden, staring with a scrutinizing gaze at the horse's amber eyes, "I think I know you!" he added trying to reach that figure hidden in the darkness of his mind.
"Impossible, after all, I'm just a horse..." the horse finished returning the chestnut face forward and falling in a dead silence.
Silven knew better than to try get something else out of the animal's mouth. Misteries like this, sentences without meaning, prophecies and all of those voodoo things were on the order of the day here. When someone decided he had said enough, it was like trying to persuade a Master at an RPG game to tell you who the baddie bad guy was. Most likely you would just get another puzzle to try and solve.
"I wonder what they are talking about..." Yolei inquired placing a strand of violet hair behind her ear.
The black mare, Nightmare, simply snorted, and pulled on the reins slightly, before continuing her calm, lazy pace. It was almost as if she was speaking, perhaps commenting that it was nothing important, but Yolei couldn't place her finger to it. Suddenly the black, pointed ears, pricked and fell backwards, and Nightmare raised her head to turn it and stare behind. It was as if a heavy foot had stepped on a slender twig, and it had snapped in two. Yolei was alert as well, staring behind and expecting to see anything pounce on her. It was obvious that her imagination was wild about that topic.
Trashing, storming out of the foliage with an explosion of leaves and branches, various creatures came out. They were skinny, but as tall as a human, and bearing large clubs on their hands, and small swords. They were dirty, untidy, and dressed with rags. The skin was slimy, thick and wrinkled, like old leather that has been living under the rain for a very long time. The creatures yelled through their fanged mouths, shrieking in a way that didn't seem to affect their pointed ears.
"ORCS!" Yolei yelled all of a sudden, kicking Nightmare's sides and urging her forward.
The black mare sped off across the ground, tearing it with her enormous hooves. Various drops of water were beggining to fall from a thick, cloudy sky, itching at the contact with bare skin. Silven pulled on Fury's reins and turned to look at the approaching mare, followed by a very large group of orcs, approximately thirty or forty orcs. Without thinking twice, Silven prepared an arrow and fired it before human eyes could see. The well aied weapon hit one of the closest orcs between each eyebrow.
Yolei was not so cocky and experimented as to let the horse's head loose while she fired the various spells she had learnt. However, there was a specially small beast hanging from Nightmare's tail, making her slower and more annoyed and bad tempered at each step. Without even allowing Yolei a second opinion, the mare threw one of her hind legs and kicked the orc off her tail. The reaction to this manoeuvre was the exceeding slow down of the animal. The orcs were catching land rapidly, and the mare was barely starting her frantic gallop.
"Earthquake!" Yolei extended both hands at the orcs at conjuring the spell.
A rather large creek opened right before the orcs, deepening slightly, yet not growing much in width. Many of the orcs fell right through it while the rest managed to jump over it and avoid a sure death. It wasn't a very spectacular spell, but it turned out useful, and granted Yolei enough time to gallop at full speed away from the monsters. Now the rain was pounding ore furiously, and the black sky threatened with a torrential storm.
Once the black mare had passed next to the red stallion, Silven kicked and urged Fury forward, towards the retreating black shadow. Fury was easily closing ground between the two of them, hence approaching Yolei and the larger, heavier, freisian mare. Silven leaned forward over the chestnut neck and began whipping Fury with the remaint of the reins, making the animal gallop at much more speed.
"Follow me!" Silven bellowed over the sound of thunder, motioning at Yolei to come after her.
With a nod, the woman pulling lightly on the mare's reins, hence making her go slower to allow Silven and Fury to pass them more easily. Silven tugged at the left rein softly, making Fury turn and penetrate the thick foliage, evading the marked path and entering an ocean of darkness and dense vegetation. With slight reminiscense and hesitation, Yolei followed. It wasn't like she had an option, since she would never survive in this world alone.
It was refreshing to have such thick ceiling of leaves over their heads. The thick rain that had been pounding violently, painfully, was nothing but a refreshing shower over their heads. The two horses had to slow down noticeably, since visibility was feeble, and the ground was so densely covered with vegetation it was imposible to know where they were stepping. Unfortunately, the orcs seemed to be venturing into the jungle like woodlands, which urged the two friends.
"We must cross the river now that the rain just started, or the currents will drown us." Silven comented glancing at the woman with glossy, violet eyes.
Yolei simply nodded while trying hard to breathe in large gulps of air. The muscle at her right side of the waist was puncturing her as if being pierced with flaming needles. This feeling was beggining to crawl up her side, reaching her breast and threatening to extend throughout her right arm. The exhaustion was filling her rapidly, and she wasn't sure for how long she would be able to resist.
"Hold on..." urged that silent whisper, that gentle, female voice she had heard the night she met Silven.
It was like a comforting hug that boosted something deep inside Yolei. It filled her with a renewed strength she hadn't known she could have. Still feeling the deep, burning sensation, Yolei stood very straight and urged Nightmare forward. The mare obeyed without any reluctance, tossing her head up and down as if agreeing with her rider's command.
It didn't take long for the two young riders to reach the river. It was more like a small stream with a rather large bank. Easily, Yolei deduced that the river must grow during strong rains, until covering the totallity of the bank. At a light gallop, the two horses descended the sandy beach. Fury felt his hooves slip lightly, and Silven pulled on the reins to aid him gain some balance.
The water was slightly wild and violent, moving rapidly and beggining to grow. Still it wouldn't be more than knee deep for the two equines. Gathering some speed, the two horses leapt over the water, trying to skip as much distance from the other shore as possible. Only a couple of metres away did the horses landed, penetrating the cold water and snorting at the stones. The chestnut stallion felt his right hoof slightly sore from a very nasty and unexpected impact with a stone larger than he thought. Easily, the two horses cleared the stream and galloped up the bank again, being hidden by large, bright green leaves and thick trunks.
The two animals and their riders began to climb a much steeper slope, and the bushes became less dense only to be replaced by a bed of moss and gentle grass. A ceiling of tall trees still covered them, guarding them from a very intense rain. Yolei stopped hearing the guttural yells and gurgles of the orcs. The sound of rain pounding on the leaves, the hooves stomping and tearing the moss, and the heavy breathings, nothing else could be heard in the jungle like forest.
"I think they are leaving!" Yolei gasped through laboured breaths.
"Go on!" was Silven's concise and urgent answer, a hint of fear in his voice.
Yolei was not going to question his priorities, not when exhaustion was about to finish her off. Nightmare was also very tired, and her steps began to wobble lightly as her tounge fell out of her open, foamy mouth. Fury was not much better, to make things worse he was limping from the right, front hand and seemed to be making an enormous effort not to fall down. Minutes later, Silven dismounted with a jump, not even stopping Fury who nearly fell off as he lost balance completely. The horse's knees ended up on the moss, but he stood up easily and fast.
"What is going on?" Yolei inquired alarmed, pulling Nightmare's reins and dismounting.
"Go, hide!" the boy hissed at the horses.
The two animals obeyed with a neigh and a tossing of their heads, and galloped off into the foliage. Without even waiting for Yolei to recover her breath, the boy gripped her wrist firmly and pulled her towards a mat of firm, thick bushes. The girl was about to protests when the shadows and the darkness engulfed the two of them. It was nothing but the entrance of a large cave, so big that the ceiling could not be seen. Silven placed her against the stone wall rather violently, and covered her sitting figure with his body, acting like a shield.
"Silven, the orcs have left. What is...?" the woman tried to question before being cut off.
"Shhh, don't speak." Silven's voice was fearful.
As much as Yolei couldn't understand this behaviour, she obeyed. Probably because of the fear she was feeling, or simply because she was exhausted. Anyways, she wouldn't have to wait long to see what made Silven so preocupied.
To Be Continued...
AN: Ok, there comes another chapter. Sorry I took so long to update. To be honest, I stopped writting it because nobody read it, so I thought it was stupid to focus all my energy on a story nobody was reading. Anyways, I have another reason, Serious Misplace, Proyect Matrix (finally!), To Live A Life, The Wiccan, and a future, short story called The Car!
Well, a couple of chapters more to go, I believe.