Girl At War

Missing - 5

==Trevillion==

Trevillion Mathers was awakened early the next morning by hoofbeats. She groggily sat up and peered around. Amberly was still asleep beside her. They shared a bed. The front door slammed. Trevy clambered out of bed, trying not to wake her sister. Amberly rolled over and muttered something about thunder, but Trevy ignored her. Her father was talking low-voiced to somebody. She pulled her dress over her flimsy nightgown and ducked under the curtain separating her and Amberly's room from the rest of the house. She reached the front door as her father opened it. 

"Oh, sorry." he exclaimed as she ran into the door. She brushed it off, wondering who the unusually early guest had been. Her father looked at her oddly. His blond hair was ruffled from sleep, his clothes hastily put on. "Merena Kaleni wants to talk to you. You know, your friend's mother?"

"Yea." Trevillion frowned to herself. What did Merena want with her? It was always Eloyse she visited, not her mother. Her father held the door open, and Trevy slipped past him into the cold morning air.

Merena was there all right, sitting on a dark copper stallion. He was hot, and excited, evidence to having been run from the Kaleni household. Merena looked tired and worried. She leaned forward when Trevy walked out.

"Have you seen Eloyse?" her voice was strained and anxious.

"No." Trevy was puzzled. "Last I saw her was day before yesterday. We went riding. I've been busy and haven't gotten time to get over there." Her father stepped up behind her, putting a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

Merena looked crestfallen. Like her last hope had been shattered. Trevy stepped forward, feeling the woman's pain and grief, but not knowing why. And she asked.

"Eloyse vanished. She left us a note saying she went after Shyden. She took Damian and one other horse. She also left a note saying you were to keep Kennick until she got back. We haven't got a single trace of her, anywhere." Merena's heart was breaking. "She's just gone..." 

==Eloyse==

The runaway wasn't doing so well either. Eloyse knew she had to get to Shyden, she just wasn't exactly sure where he was. She was currently trying to head for the base where they trained the newcomers. She figured Shyden would be out of training by now, but they might be able to tell her where he'd been deployed to. Damian had a liking for the trail, and took to it eagerly. The backup horse she trailed was a dark bay named Regalis. 

She had left a couple hours before dawn. She had removed her coat shortly after noon, when she rode into a sunny area. Now, according to her mental map, she was over a day's ride from the training base. She went over her calculations for the twentieth time, figuring she would arrive there late afternoon the next day if she kept up her pace. 

The trail suddenly turned at a ninety angle, and kept going. Eloyse drew up, puzzled. "Great..." she muttered under her breath. Damian's ears twitched. "The trail had to turn, didn't it? Now I gotta find my own!" Damian, of his own choice, plunged forward into the brush. Surprised, Eloyse ducked under a branch. Regalis resisted, then reluctantly plodded along behind. They plowed through the brush for too long, then suddenly Damian stumbled and fell. Eloyse kicked free of her stirrups and threw herself away from the falling horse. She felt herself falling, falling. 

Damian wasn't that tall, was he?

Nope.

She hit the ground and lay still a short moment, gathering her scattered senses. She shakily sat up, hearing a groan nearby. Damian had just staggered to his feet. Regalis was nowhere in sight. Eloyse blinked. There was a nervous nicker, and her eyes swung upward. Ten feet above them stood Regalis, anxiously peering over the bank. Not twenty feet to Eloyse's left was a river.

"Okaay..." Eloyse sighed, rubbing her arm. "There's a drop-off there." She went over to Damian. He was standing still, head hanging dejectedly. He was carefully holding his right foreleg off the ground. Eloyse bit her lip as she examined it. She ran her hands over his leg, feeling for broken bones, and taking away the pain at the same time. Damian's head lifted. He was trustingly watching her with his blue eye. Eloyse stood up, deciding his leg was merely bruised. She could fully heal that. Bruises were easy to heal, open wounds were harder, and she couldn't completely heal broken bones. She gathered the healing in her right palm, feeling the power. It wasn't enough to see, however. She gently rubbed the stallion's leg, smiling to herself.

Finished, she looked up at Regalis, wondering how to get him down. He still stood there. "Regalis, come." she commanded. He flicked his ears toward her, but didn't move his feet. Of course. What horse in his right mind would jump off a ten foot bank? Eloyse mounted Damian and began searching the bank for a way down. This would delay her. She frowned. Oh well, she would have to live with it.

Nearly an hour passed before she found a place she could ride Damian up the bank. She was feeling rather impatient and grouchy by that time. She put him in a quick lope toward where Regalis had been. The other horse had followed them on the top of the bank as long as he could, but trees had eventually blocked his way. Suddenly Damian slowed drastically, and tensed up. He completely stopped and pricked his ears toward the north. Eloyse stared in that direction too.

"What-" she began, but was cut off by a faint noise. She fell silent, listening and looking. The noise grew louder as a speck grew in the distance. It was a plane, and a big one from the sounds. Eloyse comfortingly patted Damian. He had not been around planes much, and was getting increasingly nervous. Eloyse kept a tight rein as the plane roared overhead, not very high at all. The wind from its passing struck the two like a tidal wave.

Damian nearly ripped the reins in half in his terror to escape. Eloyse bit her lip, struggling to keep the panicked horse from bolting. The reins dug into her hands. Then the plane was gone, its noisy jets fading. Eloyse made a face.

"Go a little higher!" she shouted after it. "You've got no business scaring horses! And people," she added under her breath. Damian relaxed slightly, and Eloyse responded by relaxing a little too. She let go of the reins with one hand, examining the red marks. "Ow.. Damian, you're strong." She turned him toward Regalis's location again. That particular horse would probably be several miles away by this time. Eloyse growled irritably. A fact suddenly came to mind.

She'd never seen a plane like that before, ever. And she knew practically every plane in Shayvor, and the enemies's side too. That plane was different, completely. She narrowed her eyes in thought.

Different.

Almost as if it wasn't from Hopea at all.

Great, as if the two kingdoms in Hopea fighting weren't enough, now another world had to intervene!