Chapter 29: I Won't Give Up
Taranee sat around for about a half an hour before the others had woken. Taranee walked over to the others and helped each of them up off ground and smiled. After the others had time to wake up fully, Taranee got looks from the others. They were about to ask Taranee if she is ok but Taranee cut them off before the others could say anything. "I'm fine, lets get moving, the longer we stay here the worse things will get." Taranee said pushing forward with the others right behind her. They had been walking for about two hours when a noise was heard off in the distance and getting closer by the second. Taranee quickly said something in elfish. The others just looked confused as they couldn't understand what Taranee had said. Then everyone noticed a faint blue glow and then another and another. "They are a group of elves called Elf Seekers. They were a secret group of elves hand picked by the gods. They kill elves and then steal their gold and other treasures. That's if they run into any elves on the way to their objective." Taranee explained.
"So why does a god care about money?" Irma asked as the group gathered up next to each other and went back to back.
"They don't, the gold is just a bonus. The gods only care about death. If a god wants someone dead the elves kill them. That's the gods' objective, the gold is the elves. Aerti gave me a spell in order to see these killers. Neither of us thought we would have to use it though." Taranee said hitting a blue figure running around with a fire ball. The figure started wailing and started to shrivel in size and its body went into a spasm. "They are incredibly weak creatures which is why they are so fast. So keep your focus keen." Soon the elves were jumping up into the trees and jumping from tree to tree. One by one the elves fell from trees. One managed to sneak around and stabbed Hay Lin in the arm. Taranee immediately flipped around and shot a ball of fire at the elf which hit it in the arm making it stumble backwards giving Elyon time to hit it and kill it. "Hay Lin!" Taranee screamed as she rushed to Hay Lin's aid. "You ok?"
"It hurt's so badly." Hay Lin breathed out, her voice shaky and broken up. Tears sliding down her face quickly and onto the ground.
Elyon went around and quickly pulled out the knife causing Hay Lin to scream. Elyon looked at the knife and found it glowing black and no blood on it. "Taranee, look at this." Elyon said walking around Hay Lin and toward Taranee who had patched up Hay Lin's arm with heat. "Tell me this isn't what I think it is." Elyon said worriedly.
Taranee looked at the knife and found it hard to breath. Taranee then grabbed onto Hay Lin and pulled out an arrow and slice the cut back open. Black thick goop came out of the cut. Then it slowly started making its way up from the cut. Taranee let a tear slip from her eyes and then knocked Hay Lin out and then laid her on the ground. Taranee grabbed some arrows and took the heads off of a few and then made a knife out of it by molding the arrow heads together. 'Sorry Hay Lin.' Taranee whispered to herself.
"What's going on?" Irma asked worried and confused. Elyon pulled Irma aside and explained everything to Irma.
"Irma, that knife is a death knife or better known as Paer Tylaes Shadi or Death Monger Blade. Anyone who gets so much as slashed across the finger will die within a few minutes unless that part of the body gets amputated before the spread can begin. It starts off slow but then rapidly speeds up." Elyon explained.
Irma looked in the direction of Hay Lin and Taranee. Blood could be seen pouring onto the ground but soon stopped. Taranee had then started digging a hole. Irma could only think of two things, Hay Lin died or Taranee was going to bury Hay Lin's severed arm. Irma turned away and began softly crying for her friend as did Elyon.
Taranee looked at Hay Lin who had a look of great pain on her face and Taranee couldn't blame her.
It hadn't been more then five minutes after Hay Lin lost her arm that she had woken up. Hay Lin looked around pain fully apparent on her face. She tried to reach up with her left hand but found that she couldn't. Hay Lin could only assume that her arm fell asleep. "Hey everyone, what's going on?" Hay Lin asked looking at her friends sad faces. "What?" Hay Lin asked seeing her friends' confused faces. The three then looked at Hay Lin's left arm or at least where her arm should have been. This confused Hay Lin and so she looked at her arm and found it wasn't there. "What happened to me?" Hay Lin asked freaking out now.
Taranee then explained what had happened slowly to Hay Lin so as to let her soak it in. "I'm truly sorry Hay Lin, we all are." Hay Lin just sat there shocked and distraught. The others then left and let Hay Lin think.
Hay Lin couldn't do anything but think at the moment. 'What am I gonna do, what will Eric think of me? Will he still like me, can I still be a guardian.' Hay Lin's thoughts ran rapid in her mind which put her into more depression and then she looked over to her friends and thought of Will and Meridian. She realized that she couldn't just sit there and so she got up slowly. She knew she couldn't fire arrows anymore but that didn't mean she could use them for something. Hay Lin walked over to her friends and spoke up. "Hey, what are we waiting for, we need to keep moving." Hay Lin said sternly. "I refuse to give up just because I can't fire arrows. I thought about this for twenty minutes and the fact is I have people who need me. Am I depressed still yes, but I have to keep moving." Hay Lin said with a tiny smile on her face even though it was forced.
Irma stood up and smiled happily. "That's my girl; you can't keep a good guardian down." Irma strained a smile.
"I would love to keep moving but it's getting to late to keep moving, let's just rest here for the night and move early tomorrow. Besides, Hay Lin needs to regain her strength anyway." The others agreed and set up a small camp.
Irma then thought of something. "Why can't we just fly above the trees?"
"The air is toxic above the trees." Irma nodded and then they laid down for a rest.
Hay Lin then began thinking some more and a genuine smile crept onto her face. 'Eric liked me with braces; he'll like me regardless of the situation.' Hay Lin thought and fell asleep with a big smile on her face.
A/N: Another chapter down, hoped you enjoyed it and please review. Thanks too all those reading and reviewing.