"Is this safe?" Starlight murmured quietly, her voice high with nervousness.
"For now. Don't worry—I'll protect you if anything happens," Griffin promised.
Starlight nodded, and Griffin led his group through the light barrier after the wisp leader. The other wisps followed close behind, their glows still quite bright and full. Taru flicked his head back and forth, trying to see all the wisps at once, but stayed obediently next to Night Shade's side.
The trees pulled away after a few minutes of walking to reveal a fairly large copse where six other Elder were gathered.
If a fight breaks out, we are screwed, back up or no, Griffin realized nervously.
It seemed like the majority of this band were Elder more than capable of fighting. Most of the male wisps were muscularly-built. Only one was thin, but when Griffin gazed at him a little longer, he noticed that the Elder had snake fangs and an unsettling gleam in his eyes. The female wisps looked just as dangerous, especially a tall one with a cougar tail, clawed hands, and observant, tawny yellow eyes. The only non-threatening Elder in the entire band was a female wisp with light blue eyes and tan brown fennec fox ears. A child of hardly a year old was sitting in her lap, most likely the wisp's child since they looked exactly alike, save for the shades of their eyes. In front of these two was a wisp with yak horns, extremely long brown hair that obscured his face, and a purple glow. This wisp appeared to be telling a story.
"With an echoing boom, the gates were closed and locked. The great sylph..." The storyteller trailed off as he noticed the arrival of his bandmates and their guests. "Catharsis! You're back! What was the trouble?"
The wisp leader motioned at Griffin's group. "Nothing yet. Only a band wishing to swap news." To Griffin he pointed at an open spot in the grass. "Feel free to sit."
Griffin nodded his thanks and sat, subtly motioning for Night Shade, Starlight, and Pounce to do the same. Taru curled up next to Night Shade and plopped his head into her lap. Catharsis chose to sit a noticeable distance away, close to the mother wisp and her child. His followers remained standing.
"What news do you bring, spriggan?" Catharsis questioned shortly. His tone was pleasant, but Griffin could detect a sliver of distrust flash briefly in the wolf-eared wisp's eyes.
"My name's Griffin," Griffin introduced. He paused, hurriedly trying to think of something to say. "Um, keep an eye out for a rogue spriggan named Feral. He has been purposefully killing entire bands and now leads his own band called Shadow band."
"We know," Catharsis said. The squirrel-tailed wisp snickered.
"Oh." Griffin cleared his throat. "Well, something else to look out for is traitor Elder."
Catharsis's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"
"Humans have been hiring Elder to help capture other Elder," Griffin explained.
Catharsis relaxed. "Ah. Those Elder. They're only threatening when it comes down to one on one combat. When they're up against an entire band, they can do nothing. Anything else, spriggan?"
"Griffin," Griffin corrected through gritted teeth. He glanced down at the black bracelet around his wrist. Be strong. Don't let him push you around. "Just one last thing, wisp. I would like to add a new Elder to the list of top-wielders. She's a naiad called Flood," Griffin finished.
"Do you even know who's all on the Top Wielder list?" the squirrel-tailed wisp snickered again.
Griffin turned and stared unwaveringly at her. "Yes. Do you?"
YOU ARE READING
The Land of Green and Gold Part II: Silence
Fantasy*On hiatus until the rewrite for book 1 "Flight" is finished. Also note that chapters 1-19 are being rewritten and will actually form the final part of book 1* Long ago there were humans and a magical people called Elder. The humans despised the El...
