Kendra yawned and stretched, rubbing sleep crusties out of her eyes and looking around. The sun had come above the horizon shedding pale orange light over everything that wasn't shrouded in shadow. Bracken was leaning up against a tree, his long silver hair falling into his eyes. Warren lay sprawled on the ground fast asleep, his ankle elevated by a bundle of blankets. Knox slept on his side his hair poking out from the top of his blanket. Tempest lay curled up in a ball like a cat. Mara was nowhere to be seen; however, the knapsack was open. Kendra bet Mara had gone down to get something. In the center of their unofficial sleep circle, there was a small fire burning made of young branches with stones wrapped around it as a barrier.
"Morning Kendra." Bracken greeted, his gaze landing on her.
"Ya, you too" Kendra returned, rising to her feet, and stretching, "Any sign of the others?"
"No, Mara and I did extensive searching, but no results."
"Where is Mara?" Kendra asked, hoping Bracken would confirm Kendra's suspicions.
"In the knapsack, trying to change her bandages," Bracken responded, Kendra, nodded. He continued "And I think we should keep trying to find Seth and reach the dragon temple, despite our less than ideal odds. Even if we are doomed, we should still try." Again, Kendra nodded, the more she thought about it the less hope she saw. Their current group was two teenagers—one with no experience—, two usually very capable but seriously injured adults who really belonged in a hospital, and Bracken who had no injuries. The rest of their group was missing and possibly dead. Kendra did not want to think about that.
Mara emerged from the knapsack. "Do you want me to cook something over the fire?" Mara asked, turning to face Bracken. Kendra noticed in Trask's absence Mara now turned to Bracken for instructions.
"I would normally say yes, but we are not going to linger long, and we don't want to leave a trace. We can make sandwiches on the trail." Bracken answered.
"Do you want me to wake the others?" Mara asked.
"Sure, we better get moving," Bracken replied, Mara went over to Knox, and Kendra went to wake Warren. Kendra noticed that Mara was trying as hard as she could to keep her face out of range from any form of impact that Knox could cause.
As Kendra knelt next to warren she said, "Warren, time to get up we have to go." Warren grimaced and sat up. "How's your ankle?" She asked.
"Not looking so hot" Warren admitted. Bracken and Kendra helped Warren stager to his feet and do a one-foot bunny hop over to Tempest, who reluctantly admitted Warren on to her back. Mara brought Knox over. Kendra noticed that even though Mara's eyes had shadows under them, she looked a little more rested than last night and her eyes were no longer bloodshot.
"How'd you sleep?" Warren asked Mara.
"Three hours is enough." She replied, picking up the knapsack and swinging it over her shoulder.
"Sounds like high school all over again." Warren joked lightheartedly; Mara raised an eyebrow at him. "What? Haven't you ever stayed up almost all night to complete an assignment?" Warren asked.
"Warren, I never went to high school," Mara replied
"What?" Warren exclaimed
"Lucky," Knox murmured
" I was raised on a magical animal preserve that was hidden from humankind for obvious reasons, hundreds of miles away from all human contact. I obviously was not in the public school system. I was homeschooled by my mom. There was no record of me anywhere until I got my first passport forged when I joined the knights." Mara answered.
"That makes a lot of sense," Warren muttered, Kendra nodded, her parents had been homeschooling her and Seth since they moved to Fablehaven.
"Did you get to drop out of public school since you moved to Fablehaven?" Knox asked turning to Kendra.
"Yup, my Mom has been homeschooling me and Seth." Kendra replied.
"Maybe Mom would homeschool Tess and me if we stay at Fablehaven. Or go to some cool magic school like Hogwarts." Knox said.
"The Knights of the dawn actually gather semi often for school like classes and training, I help teach now and then, I could take you, Knox, when I recover." Mara offered.
"Cool." Knox agreed
"Can I come to?" Kendra asked, not wanting to miss out on something cool like that, but feeling a little childish as she asked.
"Sure," Mara agreed, " but we have to survive this first."
"Fine, we survive this, you recover, then you take me to cool knights of the dawn stuff." Knox accepted, "Deal," Mara agreed.
"Let's move out." Bracken said, "We've already been here too long."
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Tess loved the treehouse; she would have slept in it if her parents had not said no. Tess had used most of her spare time there when she wasn't spending time with the fairies or making her relatives the little bracelets the fairies had taught her how to make. She had also found an old puzzle that resembled a fairyland palace. She worked hard to pass the time, but it was not the same without the others, her cousins, her brother, and her friends.
Tess, to help with her boredom and distracting herself from worrying about her family, was currently working on a small bracelet. It was blue with light purple, she was making this bracelet for her mom, blue and purple were her mom's favorite colors. Tess hummed a little tune as she worked, weaving little blue beads into the tread, Tess liked all of the tunes that fairies had shown her but one of her favorites was from a fairy named Shiara, the fairy had a funny accent and was really helpful, she was one of Tess's favorite fairies, though she still wished that she could ask Kendra or the others about the fairies. Grampa knew a lot about the fairies here but not as much as Kendra, Kendra seemed to know a lot if not all of them by name.
Tess almost wished she had gone with the others, but she had seen enough to know better. As much as Mara tried to hide it from her Tess saw every time Mara was in pain or when her shirt would lift a little bit when she stretched and reveal bloodstained bandages. Tess saw the stress and sorrow that surrounded them. She had even seen a person die! Tess knew that the others thought she was too little to be let in on this stuff, but she thought otherwise, she only wished she could prove it. ###############################################
Seth had kept the sword and showed Raxtus the fallen weapons, he had hoped that the dragon might be able to track the others kind of like a dog. Turns out Raxtus could do no such thing, but they had found three groups of footprints each headed off in a different direction. They had followed a set that Raxtus guessed was Kendra and two adults. Seth had agreed, and now he was currently walking alongside Raxtus as quietly as they could through the undergrowth, continuing to follow the trio of footprints. Raxtus stopped suddenly. "What's wrong?" Seth asked coming to a standstill next to the dragon.
"Look there," Raxtus gestured, Seth following his gaze, saw a small ravine running through the path not 10 feet in front of them, the gorge was about 5 feet wide. Two sets of footprints crossed over but the third went right down and was replaced with one footprint instead of two on the other side of the ravine.
"What do you think?" Seth asked Raxtus.
"It looks like someone failed to jump the gap and injured a foot." Raxtus coincided," Keep a lookout, I doubt they are moving fast anymore." He added.
"Then let's hurry up before the tracks fade or get rained away." Seth encouraged picking up his pace and leaping over the ravine stumbling when he landed. Raxtus soared over the cleft and landed next to him.
They continued to follow the footprints, then it just got confusing, the three and a half sets of footprints joined with another pair, at least they thought it was a pair but one of them had decided to walk in a million circles and another set kept wandering off and coming back.
Raxtus followed several trails that just kept doubling back. Seth poked around the spot that looked like it might have been a camp, someone had tried to clean up the best they could. He found no fallen weapons here. However, there was shredded fabric caught on trees and rocks as well as some string near a large rock. Seth had also found quite a few drops of blood here and there throughout the camp supposedly from the injured team member. He kept looking for more clues, some of the footprints were faded by now, but the clearest set lead away from the spot, there were four different sets of human prints along with what Seth thought he recognized as a griffin. But weren't there five people? Seth realized that someone was probably riding the griffin. He waved Raxtus over and showed him the prints.
"These seem like the newest set, let's follow these ones." Seth proposed.
"Alright" Raxtus agreed, Seth wished that whoever they were following would just stay still for about 24 hours or however long it would take for Seth and Raxtus to track them down. But Seth had his doubts, these guys where obviously efficient.
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Knox was starting to get used to the endless hiking through the forests. They had walked in silence most of the time, exchanging brief conversations now and then, but trying not to attract attention, Knox had no clue if they were succeeding or failing.
The day was warm and clear, not a cloud in the sky, the air smelled fresh and sweet. Warren and Kendra sat astride Tempest; Bracken walked beside them. Mara was on Knox's right, her dark eyes scanning their surroundings. She had barely spoken other than the usual explanation of various questions. Out of Knox's peripheral, he saw Bracken stop in his tracks and tense up. Knox whipped around to see Bracken clearer. He was staring up ahead and a little to the left with frozen eyes.
"What is it?" Kendra asked keeping her voice low.
Bracken motioned for them to be quiet. "Sh, you might want to run," He whispered.
"Why?" Knox asked
"Ronodin, and our friend from last night." Bracken said, drawing his sword, "I don't think he saw us, yet, if we are quiet, we might be able to sneak past." Almost immediately after Bracken had finished talking Tempest started to screech loudly, Knox flinched, they were all going to die.
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The bear-like wolf burst onto the path, Tempest reared throwing Kendra and Warren to the ground. Warren cried out in pain as Kendra landed on top of him. Kendra winced at the cracking noise she heard before her head smashed against Warren's skull and everything went blurry.
She heard unclear commotion followed by voices and a few unintelligible curses, presumably directed at Ronodin. The conversation escalated to yelling and fierce growling. She heard desperate shrieking and the yelling increased.
Kendra had no idea how long the tumult went on before her senses cleared. She arose and took in the scene. The lycanthrope lay motionless a dagger implanted into it's forehead. The wolf abomination also had three throwing knives embedded deep into its hide.
Mara was laid on the ground weakly stirring near the beast. It's leg's we're a bloody mess along with one of the arms. Tempest and Knox were gone, Bracken was facing Ronodin, both held swords.
"Now that your beast is dead care to settle this evenly?" Bracken asked his swords held steady. Ronodin almost looked uncertain for a second, most definitely having a flashback from the last time he dueled Bracken. To Kendra's horror, a sly grin spread across the unicorn's face. Ronodin morphed so fast Kendra could barely blink before the unicorn charged forward, his orange mane whipping against his dark grey coat. Kendra suddenly realized, Ronodin was not charging Bracken, he was charging her!
Kendra tried to doge the charging unicorn, but she was too late the unicorn was only a foot or two away. Kendra closed her eyes and used her hands to shield her face, tensing, expecting to feel the lethal horn pierce her chest any second.
She heard fierce neighing followed by a thump. Kendra dared to open her eyes and shrieked at the sight that awaited her. Bracken's unicorn form lay in front of her a deep wound piercing his side, Ronodin stood triumphantly over his fallen cousin preparing to use his bloodied horn to issue a killing blow. Kendra saw a flash of metal as a dagger flew out and embedded itself in the side of the dark unicorn. Ronodin reared and thrashed.
"Your sword Kendra!" Mara shouted, rising weakly another dagger in hand. Kendra had completely forgotten about the weapon strapped to her waist until now. As Ronodin turned around to charge Kendra again, she drew her sword a resounding clash echoed throughout the clearing as metal made contact with horn, Kendra saw that she had chipped the horn but did not fully sever the tip.
Mara shouted encouragement, but Kendra could not make out what she had said. Ronodin neighed, thrashing and rearing trying to use his front hooves to pulverize anything in sight. Kendra slashed her sword again making a deep cut in Ronodin's front leg. The unicorn squealed in agony and galloped into the trees. Kendra threw down her sword and rushed to Bracken who still lay motionless. Mara half limped half stumbled over to Kendra and Bracken
"Good job Kendra." Mara praised clapping Kendra on the back, Mara had a black eye and deep claw marks on her the lower part of her left leg, her right arm was shredded and bloodied.
"Is he ok?" Kendra asked nervously.
"I don't know, stomach injuries are unpredictable, I can get a better look at him when he turns human again. I doubt he will get infected" Mara assured, "Can you keep an eye on him, I can't treat him well while he's in his horse form." Mara continued, "I need to go check on Warren, and find Knox, I told him to go hide with Tempest," Mara said,
"Sure," Kendra agreed, Mara limped off to check on Warren.
Not long after Mara left Bracken started to stir, with a flash, the unicorn was gone replaced by the Bracken Kendra knew, but now his shirt was torn, and silver blood covered his abdomen.
"Bracken," Kendra whispered, her voice cracking.
"Kendra," Bracken mumbled weakly, his lips barely moving.
"You, you, saved me." Kendra said, taking his hand in hers and caressing his palm.
"I would do it all over again," Bracken stated, gazing into her eyes.
"Why did you do it, you shouldn't have." Kendra insisted, Bracken looked into her eyes.
"I love you, Kendra," Bracken replied.
"I love you too." Kendra broke down into sobs.
"Don't cry, I will be ok, you saved me, Kendra. You saved me." Bracken assured squeezing her hand in his. His tone was soft and comforting.
"I guess I helped," Kendra acknowledged managing a weak smile.
"You where amazing."
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Knox had stayed hidden until now, he had Tempest with him. Mara had told him to flee when things had gone downhill. It had started with a lot of trash-talking, mostly between Ronodin and Bracken. Mara would chip in and roast Ronodin every opportunity she could. Then things got ugly, Ronodin told them to leave because he had "Important business."
After they had refused, Ronodin had said he would force them out, the wolf thing had attacked, the last thing Knox had seen before Mara had screamed for him to leave had been, Kendra and Warren had been knocked out after Tempest had bucked them off, The unicorns had been sword fighting and Mara had nailed several shots at the wolf with throwing knives. Her leg had gotten all scratched after she had failed to dodge a blow from the beast's mighty claws.
Knox had been told that they would come for him when the fight was over, but no one had come yet and he was getting worried, had they all been killed? Had they been eaten? Knox tried to tell himself that everyone was fine. But he had his doubts.
Great now he was being a worry wart like Kendra. Knox heard the swishing of footsteps through the undergrowth. Knox turned around expecting to find Mara or Bracken. It was not Mara or Bracken...
Thank you to all of your feedback and comments, and thank you Katie for your wonderful reviews of every chapter!