Book 1: AIR

CHAPTER 6:

THE SKY BISON

Aer jumped. She threw her arms rapidly into the motions she had previously gone over she leveled out. She felt the air catch beneath her and send her flying, even though it was not as controlled as she had hoped it would be. The bison seemed to have perfected the art in spite of their massive bulk, why was it hard for her. She threw her head back to check on the others. She motioned for them to follow but they looked hesitant. She closed her eyes and twirled her arms faster. She kicked out her legs and did what could only be briefly described as a sort of somersault in the air. He friends jumped and were caught upon her air currents, the energy working harder to keep them aloft. "Don't worry. I'll handle this," Aer called back to them as she took off towards a nearby mountain. "I think I have a good idea on where to go."

"I hope you do, air head." Long-hin called to her as he looked unsure as to how to act when being carried by the wind. Jip leveled herself out and watched Aer's motions carefully. She began to move them, slowly at first, in the same manner. The air strengthened and the group flew swiftly towards the mountain Aer was attempting to steer them towards. They barely made it to a cliff on the edge of it. Aer and Jip could not maintain proper height just by using their hands.

"That was a workout." Jip said as she clutched a hand to her shoulder. An had already moved over to Aer and was awkwardly massaging her shoulder blades for her.

"Quite." Aer replied as she shied away from Kan. "I think if we had some sort of device to help us control the air currents properly it would be easier."

"Because we can do that." Bakiko said as he looked around to find his brother.

"Maybe. You never know." Jip told him. Bakiko stopped to glare at her and walked off with a snivel.

"So, where are we?" Kan asked Aer as he stared at the familiar mountain top.

"I think you would know." Aer said as she ushered Jip away from the edge and towards a small hollow in the mountain.

"Why should I know?" Kan asked.

"Yeah, he just sits around all day." Long-hin replied. "Not much up there but stupid emotions."

"Shut up." Kan shouted to him.

"I'm just saying that we all saw them." Aer responded. "This is where the bison were."

"Oh, so we went from the soldiers to the beasts. Great, I'll go get some spikes for Kan's bar-b-que." Aer gave him a look. Kan, surprisingly, had a smirk on his face.

"I'm sure Kan can control himself enough." Aer spoke on Kan's behalf. "Besides, I'll make sure he doesn't do anything to them. Now, I think they should be higher up this mountain."

The men were ready and packed for leave. Word had not yet come in on the case of the girl in the north and the boy still had to be located. Zhong would leave the assassins to their jobs and would focus more energy on the band of kids that had just flown out of his grip. "I want this entire squadron down this mountain in three minutes or you can all kiss your knees good bye." The men increased in speed. Zhong's cloak was wrapped tightly around himself, hiding his dusky armor. A private ran up to him.

"Sir, if you don't mind, I believe that we should just meet up with the fleet down by the water. It's only a few hours journey and with more reinforcements we can surly drive those kids back."

"No." Zhong said coldly to the private. "The reinforcements will march to us. I am changing our strategy." Zhong walked on, scratching the scar on his chin as he went. "I want to surround every mountain due east of here. If you have any sign of them, do not surround that mountain. I want to attack from the sides, not from bellow."

"As you wish, general." The private said as he gave a small bow and walked away. He looked back at the men. He heaved a sigh at the amount of walking he would have to do and looked to the sky. He saw something move above him. "He grabbed his telescope and held it to one eye. There were people on that mountain. "General, I think we got them."

Aer was the leader of the group as they walked along the pathways that led to the top. They were wide from the large pedestrians before them and had many rocks in them for the group to trip over. "How much further to the beast's lair?" Bakiko asked.

"I don't know." Aer said. "I've never actually been on this mountain before," she finished dryly.

"Do you think they'll accept us?" Jip asked as she held Aer's hand.

"I hope so. They can't possibly be hostile."

"Or they could and we'll be ripped to shreds." Long-hin said as he got a slight grin on his face. Kan elbowed him in the stomach. "Oh, so mister recluse actually wants to keep little Jip's hopes up."

"I just don't want you and your dumb jokes right now." Kan said dryly.

"Aww, come on. You're a softy under all that defense. Admit it." Long-hin put a hand on Kan's shoulder. Kan brushed it off. Aer gave a caring look back at Kan. Their eyes met and Kan gave a small shrug. Aer smiled faintly and kept walking. They reached the top of the pathway and their mouths dropped. There were a series of rocks caves with open sides. Large and distorted stone pillars, formed by years of erosion, held up platforms of earth and housed the bison. They were massive. Many were up due to the commotion on the opposite mountain and troops of small little calves were running about, the smallest of which was up to Kan's chin.

A mother bison saw the party first. She sent out a large growl and the others turned to the intruders. Large males lumbered over with surprising speed and ground their teeth. "I had hoped you were joking." Bakiko shot into Long-hin's ear as he pushed his little brother behind him.

"Well, never take back a joke I always say." Long-hin chuckled in the face of danger.

"I'll take care of this." Kan whispered as a burst of flame appeared in his hand, summoned by the energy within him. Aer shot out a hand and caught him.

"Don't provoke them." Aer hissed at him. Kan shunned her off and created more, preparing to fire on them. Before he could though, Aer had moved in front of him, fumbling with her bag of food. She reached in and took out an apple. She bowed and held the apple out in front of her as an offering to the bison. The males stopped and their faces contorted into amazement. They looked at each other. The alpha-male than stepped forward and approached Aer. She looked up to see it getting ever closer. Kan, unable to sit there and see the best get closer to Aer, but his hands back up, causing the earth to shake a little and water form on his hands.

The bison back up and Aer shot Kan a look. Kan backed down again and the creature stepped up to Aer's outstretched hands. It sniffed the apple and looked it over. It sniffed again.

It took the apple in his mouth and ate it. It then licked Aer, causing her to fall backwards. It nuzzled her and gave a lour roar. The others loosened and the calves went back to their games. The alpha stayed around the group as they got comfortable with the pack.

"That was a gutsy move." Kan whispered in Aer's ear as Jip went off to play with the calves. "How did you know an apple would protect you?"

"I didn't." Aer replied as she patted the alpha. "It just seemed that was what would happen." It nuzzled her and turned back to the pack.

"Well, at least they're friendly." Jip piped in as she chased a large calf around Aer and Kan. Aer laughed and waved as Jip and the calf were off again. Kan remained indifferent. Aer frowned at him and put his arm around her.

"I know you aren't used to letting people in, but why not start now?" Aer looked at Kan who avoided her gaze. They heard a whistling sound and a rocket spared into view. Its read tail illuminated the colony and a loud roar rose up from the bison. The alpha lunged forward and spun around. It slammed its tail down and a large gust of air flew into the rocket and sent it backwards into another mountain. More whistling was heard and more rockets shot up from the other side.

"Oh come on!" Long-hin complained. "Didn't we just do this?" Kan grabbed Aer and threw her to the side as two more bison swatted the rockets away.

"I think it's time to move again." Kan said over the sound of more whistling.

"I agree." Aer said as she watched the bison's tails. "Make sure Jip is okay. I'll make sure the others are set for travel. Try and find a safe way to fly out of here." She took off, grabbing the sack of food off the ground and running to Bakiko. Kan looked around and saw Jip huddled with the bison calves in a large group, the mother bison trying to protect their young. Kan pushed his way through the bunch and picked Jip up. He put her forcefully under one arm and made his way to the edge of the encampment.

Zhong made eye contact with him. He and his army were less than a mile down on the other mountain adjacent. There was still a considerable gap between them yet they could still make out each other's face. Zhong thrust a hand up and the rockets went straight towards them. He ran backwards with Jip jostling under his arm. The rockets exploded and some columns collapsed. "Are we ready?" Kan said as Jip struggled free. Bakiko and Ran-fo were surprisingly calm and Long-hin had the usual smirk on his face.

"Ready when your girlfriend gets back." Long0hin said as he nodded towards the left. Kan turned to see Aer create a wall of air, sending the next volley of rockets back. He arms were doing circular motions and her concentration was fixed on defense.

"I'll get her!" Kan said dryly in the face of this danger. He thrust Jip towards the group and ran towards Aer. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm helping them out." Aer said as she made another motion towards a rocket and a current of air swatted it back.

"Why not just do this?" Kan did a jumping punch and a rock ledge popped out behind the stations and rocks pelted the soldiers. "It's actually much easier."

"Stop it!" Aer cried as she spun around and created an air shield for them as another rocket bounced away from them. "Fighting is not always the best answer."

"But running away is?" Kan asked as he hurried Aer towards the rest of the party.

"Notice that these bison aren't attacking violently?" Aer asked as she threw her arms on Kan's shoulders and gestured to the bison who only prevented the rockets from doing damage. "I know you don't care much for anything, but please honor my way of doing things." Kan shrugged her off.

"And where are we supposed to go?" Kan asked as they walked back over to the group.

"Wherever there is little to no fire."

"Than I suppose we will be going that way." Long-hin said as he pointed a finger to a small ridge that was left open.

"Than follow me." Aer said as she turned to Jip.

"Like last time?" Jip said with a small frown on her face. She got up from where she had sat down and walked to Aer's side. Aer threw an arm around her in a sisterly manner and nodded. They threw their arms out and began the paces again. They sprinted hard to the ridge and jumped, supporting the others as they also jumped behind her.

The flight was easy enough. They heard a groan from the alpha-bison as they departed. Their way out was right between two cliff ledges. Aer motioned to it and Jip followed her command. They steered towards it.

"They are getting away again, sir." One of Zhong's men said. "Are we going to go after them again?"

"No. They're running ends now." Zhong said as he bent down and picked up a spear. He tied a green cloth to it and waved it in the air. Up on the cliffs, his men responded.

"You had another plan?"

"Of course." Zhong said as he lifted a hand to his scared chin. "Kids go wherever there isn't any trouble."

The men raised a large, almost invisible net between the cliffs, where the kids were heading straight for.

Jip saw it. "Aer! They have a net!" In her panic she stopped her movements and gazed down. If they kept going they would be ensnared. If they stopped completely they would plummet to their doom. Retreat was not an option with the rockets still attacking.

Aer was panicking. She felt Jip's support die and saw the net raised in front of her. She closed her eyes and gave a small cry. She was swept up from behind and felt herself fall back onto something. She was jettisoned towards the net, which gave was easily. She felt the fur beneath her but it still had not registered what had happened.

The alpha-bison had flown in at the last moment and caught the group. It flew straight through the net, which the soldiers could not hold against the bison's weight. They were soaring again, off into the night. Zhong let out a loud roar when he saw them slip through his fingers again. He raged around the ranks, cursing and kicking rockets as he went back to his tent.

"Thank you." Aer said as she hugged the beast's head. It groaned in reply and flew away from the mountain ranges, towards some islands due north. They were safe, but for how long?