Chapter 3
Hieronymous finished the last of the runes for the summoning circle and carefully placed the piece of chalk in his side pouch. He looked up at a worried Petunia. "I can't tell you when I will be back. Time moves differently in that area of the Otherworld." He thought on it for a while. "If you scry you might be able to tell if I am still alive. You won't see much, just hints of my presence. My father used scrying to see if I was alive last time. Heaven forbid he lose the only heir to the house of Grabiner." A sardonic grin crossed his face.
"Do be careful. I don't want to be needing a new member of the faculty any time soon." She smiled warmly at him.
"Well then." He cleared his throat before muttering a string of incantations. The ward around him began to glow in earnest. The air in the middle of the ward began to blur and shift like the beginning of a mirage. "Take care of the students for me. Make sure Mr. Danson gets demerits sometime during the first week of summer school or he won't take it seriously." With that odd comment he stepped through the Spiral Gate and vanished.
Petunia slumped the moment the ward stopped glowing. "Spirits protect him." She said softly before she waved a hand and erased the circle from the ground.
Drawing a deep breath he opened his eyes. He was on the edge of the Wastes. A great forest ran along what could be called the west edge of the Wastes while there were cliffs to the north. To the east and south the Wastes stretched on for hundreds of miles. He invoked his chameleon cloth garments and pulled the hood all the way over his face. He would appear to be nothing but a shimmer on the horizon for those who tried to look at him at a distance. If they were closer he would blend in as long as he did not move too fast. He used track scent to see if he was anywhere near where Setsunai had traveled. He could smell a myriad of beings who have wandered along this part of the Wastes hugging the edge of the forest. He caught a scent he knew well and it chilled him to the bone.
"Violet?" He whispered in shock. He shook his head. She was lost never to return. It must be a trap. How the creatures of the Otherworld love to play cruel games. He forced himself to ignore that scent and moved in the opposite direction of where it went. He caught the soft scent of sandalwood and vanilla lip gloss buried under the strong odors of ash and amber.
The corner of his mouth quirked up and he turned in that direction. "There you are." He thought to himself has he followed the trail. There was only one set of foot prints but he knew she was probably carried physically or by magical means. The land stretched in front of him endlessly. Dead and charred shrubs dotted the landscape. Bleached bones poked through the red clay of the land while gritty wind whipped around making the air hard to breathe. Harpies circled high in the sky in the distance. Their shrieks mingling with the angry howls of the wind. Small creatures scuttled from shrub to shrub in cautious bursts of speed in attempts to avoid the gaze of what might be hunting them. He pressed on. Not reacting when a harpy dove down from the sky and snatched up a small furred creature in the middle of one of its frightful runs from one shrub to the other. It was gone before he could get a good look at it. It appeared to be even uglier that what the texts had said.
There was a change in footprints here. The ground was scuffed in one area like something or someone was dropped. He scanned the area to see if there was anything else. Some silvery blonde hair was caught on the shrub nearby and there were a few drops of blood. He stood still for a moment before he slowly crouched and reached out to touch the blood. It was already hardened under the sun but the scent was still there. It was Setsunai's.
Hieronymus cast a green spell to boost his strength and speed and quickened his search. He could tell that there were other beings in the area and he did not wish to draw their attention. There were additional footprints joining the original set. Goblin by the look of them. They were drawing in from the sides at random intervals. Like small streams joining a river. The trail of footprints got wider and more muddled the further he followed it. Then her scent vanished. He stopped and turned in a slow circle taking in his surroundings. It didn't appear that anyone veered off here. He used Awareness to reach out and see the unseen.
He could sense the small creatures living in the ground and hiding in the shrubs. He could also feel an illusion behind him and to his right. He gently probed the illusion with his power testing its strength. It dissolved with little effort but revealed a greater danger. He dodged and rolled to the left just in time to avoid a giant barb piercing the ground right where he stood. He righted himself carefully and faced the beast that had almost ambushed him.
It was a large manticore. Body of a red lion, face of a man. A bat winged terror with the stinger of a scorpion. If he were to come into contact with any of the poison he would be paralyzed and swallowed whole. Hieronymus snarled with anger as he grabbed one of his prepared scrolls. He dodged the beast's attacks as he pushed energy into the spell contained within the vellum. The vellum turned molten gold and dissolved into a pile of ash as the spell was released. The manticore stiffened and it made an inhuman scream as its body began to crystallize. It jerked its tail towards Hieronymous in an attempt to shoot another poisonous barb at him. Instead of a barb flying to hit its mark the tail snapped in half and fell to the red dirt with a hallow thud. It struggled to move as its joints began to fuse together. Hieronymus had another spell at the ready and blasted the creature with a powerful shock-wave that made the beast break into a thousand pieces. Before the last piece could hit the ground he had re-invoked the garments and was on his way past where the manticore had been lying in wait.
"That went better than last time." He thought to himself and he relocated Setsunai's trail and hurried on his way. Harpies were already circling where the manticore had fallen. Their fearsome cries screaming in the wind.
I was unable to work on this story week due a death in the family. I hope this feeble chapter will appease you all :) Please leave comments if you can, they motivate me to write.