Magic
At first light they awoke and quickly packing their belongings, mounted the horses and set off at a fast gallop towards the forest. Both were lost in their own memories, Nate excited at the prospect of returning home, and Rain nervous and unsure about meeting Nate's kin as well as others of her race.
They were so distracted that neither noticed the nervousness of the stallions or Silver's alert and cautious stance that was normally a warning of danger, it was because of this that they raced unprepared, straight into a trap. Suddenly they were surrounded by men with evil grins on their faces. Rain let out a shriek as Darkmoon reared, but it took less than a moment to calm him enough for her to safely slide off his back. She crouched low with her bow strung, and a snarling Silver at her side. Nate had no trouble controlling Shadow and was dismounted and prepared to fight in one swift movement. He was only slowed by his worry for Rain and cursed his own stupidity for not paying attention to their surroundings.
Nate after a quick glance at Rain to make sure she was safe began to examine their enemies and turned pale as he realized who they were facing. He contacted Rain through mind speech, "Rain, listen to me, these are evil mages, magic users, and even though our combined power is greater than theirs this will still be a hard battle. I think we may be close enough to summon some of my kin. I need you to call on the animals, preferably hunters and predators that can inflict physical damage that will slow the mages and break their concentration." Can you do that?" Nate asked her.
"Yes, I will try my best." Rain replied.
"Be careful," they both thought at the same time.
There were seventeen mages in total and even though they were mostly of the lower ranks there were a few of them who would put up a hard fight. However not many wizards would face two very powerful elves, their proud elfish stallions, a very large snarling wolf, and the countless large predators that were slowly gathering around the young woman, who seemed to be able to control them, even without words. One animal that she called seemed to be slightly smaller in size and build than Silver but was pure white and had the grace and agility of a cat, the strange creature was beautiful. "I think I will call you Frost," Rain said silently.
When the mages realized what was going on, they decided to swiftly attack and with a single word from one of the mages lightning bolts shot out of thin air to land just inches from Rain. Then on an unspoken signal the predators sprang towards the mages, with Rain racing among them with Silver at her side. Nate froze for a second at the magical beauty of the scene before him, a single beautiful elf racing at a group of mages accompanied by a pack of predators of every shape, size, and breed.
However he did not wait long and before Rain reached the first line of mages, Nate mounted Shadow in one graceful leap and raced forward, firing his bow straight through one of the mages as he approached. Five mages turned on Rain but with her knife now drawn she was skillfully darting forward and then twisting away from the mages swords and knives. Rain's speed was making it impossible for the mages spells to actually touch her.
Nate saw her and began to rush forward to help, but then he saw Silver and Frost on either side matching each other leap for leap, slash for slash, and he know that nothing would happen to Rain while even one of them survived. However he kept an eye on her as he quickly attacked and dodged spells and knives alike. Nate was reluctant to use his magic as he would first have to unshield it and then he would be revealing how powerful he really was, which would be dangerous for both him and Rain.
Nate needed to make sure Rain was alright so he went into a meditative state where his body was still fighting but his mind was focused on Rain. Her opponents now numbered only three, the two unlucky ones being dragged away by the summoned predators.
Rain was beginning to tire and the strain of using her magic to repeatedly heal her summoned friends was beginning to show in her actions. "I cannot do this for much longer but I must, I must survive," she thought as she stumbled. Suddenly one of the mages caught her off guard and with a flick of his knife made a long but shallow gash down the left side of her face just missing her eye. Nate had to use all of his self control not to rush to her aid. He took his anger out on one of his two remaining opponents, using a small amount of his magic to hit the mage with a fire spell, burning the man to a crisp that even the animals would not touch.
Rain, was furious that she had let her guard down and even more furious that the mage who had got in a lucky hit was no older than her and seemed overjoyed that he had finally been able to draw blood. "Well, I think its time to repay the favor," she thought to herself. Holding both Silver and Frost back with her mind she told them, "No, the young one is mine."
Her companions glared murderously at the young boy while telling him in mind speak, "You are lucky my master is here or I would tear out your throat." The boy visibly paled as he looked into the eyes of the large wolf, and was terrified at the almost human intelligence that he could see in them. The wolf's sapphire eyes were almost perfect matches to the woman's he realized, and as Rain sprang forward those eyes were the last thing he ever saw.
Nate saw the boy fall and realized that it was done, they had won. He raced over to examine Rain's wound but she would not let him, and would not use her power to heal it until every animal that she had called upon was healed, and all the dead were buried. Upon examining the cut he realized that even when she healed it that it was going to scar due to a spell on the blade yet when she healed it, the scar, instead of ruining her stunning beauty seemed to add both her beauty and to the mystery of her past.
