The Air Howlers Book I ✔

14

Thirty feet away.

Ki summoned a whirlwind of air and launched it against the Shadow Walker. It seemed to work. The Shadow Walker seemed to fighting against the wind, buying them both some time.

Shouts could be heard coming from behind them. She heard Sarko barking orders, probably to the soldiers and for once she was glad that he had brought them along on the trip.

"Ki!" Emmie's voice carried easily over the wind.

"We're good!" Ki yelled back, keeping her focus on her target, not wanting to try and split focus in case it failed. She hadn't mastered it enough to be sure it would work every time.

"Spread out around them," Sarko barked and in her peripheral vision, Ki saw the soldiers come around them, enclosing them in a semi-circle.

"Sir," Thatch began, turning his attention to Sarko who was now by their side, watching the Shadow Walker with a grim stare. "My fire did nothing. I hit it and it did nothing." He sounded frustrated, annoyed even.

"It takes more power to take one of these creatures down, which was why they had so much trouble with them in the past." Sarko patted Thatch's shoulder. "Am glad that you called for help instead of taking it into your own hands." He said this last part with his eyes focused on Ki and he probably already knew it had been her idea to call for help and not take on the Shadow Walker by themselves.

"Howlers, connect!" Sarko's voice triggered something in Ki's powers and she somehow knew that the only way to get rid of this thing was for the four of them to connect, to obtain Aether. She opened her mind and immediately felt the others; Emmie's felt calm and solid, Ori's was pulsating like an ebbing sea and Thatch, well Thatch's was almost like a fiery chaos.

Once they were connected, they all lined up in a semi-circle like the soldiers behind them. The first proper test since they'd been chosen. This could define our futures, Ki thought before she shook all unwanted thoughts from her mind and focused solely on the task at hand.

The Shadow Walker approached with dragging steps and Ki estimated that it was now only twenty feet away. Much too close for her liking.

"Let's roll," Thatch said and Ki felt him in her mind, her body slowly warming to his gift. An image of a dust storm appeared and she knew what Thatch wanted her to create. She lifted her hands, feeling her gift follow and the wind whipped around them, kicking up dirt and dust from the ground. Turning her hands slowly clockwise caused the dust to swivel around, gaining speed until a perfect dust storm was dancing in front of them.

"Here we go," Thatch muttered and suddenly the dust storm was on fire. The heat from the flames made Ki take a small step back. She wasn't the only one; Emmie had taken two steps backwards, wanting to be out of reach, though between Ki and Thatch, they'd be able to avoid any burns.

With a final push, Ki sent the flaming dust storm towards the Shadow Walker. It engulfed him completely, leaving a walking torch that kept walking towards them.

"Em?" Ori's voice sounded worried, but they all knew what was left to do. Emmie lifted her hands, a frown appeared on her face and the earth trembled beneath them. The street split open in front of them, bigger than Ki had seen Emmie make before and suddenly Ki felt her power draining, which had never happened in training before.

"Eat dirt," Emmie said just as the Shadow Walker fell into the crater, hurdling down into nothingness. Emmie clapped her hands together and the earth moved back together, but not without leaving broken houses and a large tear down the center of the street.

Ki felt the connection snap and instantly started gasping for air. Now she felt weak and drained.

"What? Why do I feel like I just spent the whole day running?" Ori said, struggling to catch his breath, even though he hadn't used his gift. Ki nodded, feeling the exact same way.

Sarko appeared next to them, eyes on the crater. "Sometimes, if one of you need more power to use their gift, you can extract it from the others." At this he turned and looked at Emmie. "But you must be careful. Take too much and you essentially drain them for their life energy."

"I couldn't really control myself. I just knew I needed more for the crater to be deep enough so that thing wouldn't reappear." She looked around at the others, her eyes ending on Ki. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was possible."

Ki walked over and simply hugged Emmie. She didn't know what to say. The fact that they could extract energy from the other three seemed more dangerous than useful.

"We should return to camp," Sarko said and they all walked back to the edge of the village where their horses were.

It was an uneventful ride back to Warrior City. No one spoke and Ki kept noticing that Thatch was watching Emmie. He caught Ki watching him in return and sent her a forced smile and went back to watching the road ahead of them. Ki made a mental note of keeping an eye on both of her fellow Howlers.

Days later, when they reached the gates of Warrior City, they immediately noticed something different. A buzzing of murmurs from the townsfolk. Sarko rode ahead and when he came back he had a strained expression on his face.

"Sir?" Ori said hesitantly. Sarko sat up a little straighter in his saddle and addressed them all.

"It appears that Prince Rylan has returned to camp. Best not keep his Highness waiting."