Chapter 14
That night I was just settling down underneath my cloak to sleep when a loud high pitched wail broke through the air. What the hell was that? I sat bolt upright and glanced around only to see everyone jumping to their feet, the women instantly packing up the campsite whilst the men got in fighting stances before the five who had collected me and Nate the other day walked to the trees before dissolving into blackness. Oh, now I realise where I heard that sound, it's the early warning system.
One of the women grasped a bucket of water and doused the fire so that I was engulfed in darkness.
"Nate?" I whispered. My voice came out a bit panicky. What can I say I've never been ambushed before or been on the verge of being caught by people who would kill you without a seconds thought.
"Ari don't worry I'm right here." Nate said from beside me. I reached my hand out searched for his. I found it and gave it a squeeze in thanks. I went to let go but Nate just kept hold of it. He pulled me round and kissed me on the lips with such intensity that when he broke away I was gasping. WOW.
The sound of a twig snapping under someone's foot caused my body to stiffen and my head to snap towards the sound. I waited patiently for another sound to signal what was going on and who was invading our camp.
Bang. The silence was interrupted by a gun going off and was immediately followed by a gasp as it hit someone behind me. I felt anger rush to me; there is no way they are taking us down like we are animals they can exterminate. I knew we were surrounded but I didn't care. I called on fire and willed it to take solid form and was not surprised when a bow made entirely of fire appeared in my hands a second later. I raised the bow and pulled an arrow that had simultaneously formed in my other hand, into place on the string of fire. I pulled back the string and then thought crap I can't see them but now because of the light from the bow they can see me.
"Nate? I need you to tell me where to aim; I'm sure if you can read my mind you can read theirs so I'll fire and you use your powers and direct it towards a target. Got it? Good." With that I released the flaming arrows which flew through the darkness and turned abruptly after a second, immediately imbedding itself in a target.
Another arrow appeared on the bow as soon as the previous one was released I pulled back the string but another bang went off and a whiz went straight past my head missing me by millimetres.
I cussed a few times. That was too close for my liking. "How the hell do they have guns anyway?" I said aloud.
"What the hell is a gun?" Nate asked from beside me.
"The thing that just went bang is a gun. I'm afraid to say it's a horrible contraption from my world." I replied my voice grim. I just hope magic is better than fire power.
All of a sudden the trees rustled from all around us and I heard dozens of boots rushing towards us from all directions. Oh crap. This really is an ambush. The boots didn't pause but I couldn't see where they were so I grabbed the arrow of the bow and thought of it as an orb before launching it into the air. It hung steadily above camp so that it was entirely illuminated and I could see that all of the sorcerers were in a circle their backs facing inwards all of them wearing a look of pure determination. In the centre of the sorcerer circle laid Ingrid who was clutching her side, her face contorted in pain. Now I am seriously pissed off, she is too nice to hurt.
I growled and focused on the gun in each of the ambushers' hands, i willed the fire to work its magic and seconds later all of them dropped their guns with a yelp. Serves them right, guns are just cheating. The ambushers took this as a signal to rush forward. They unsheathed swords that had been hanging at their sides and began to attack the sorcerers.
I immediately transformed my bow and arrows into a flaming sword and rushed forward to meet the attackers with Nate at my side. He didn't have any weapons he just waved him hand and 2 of the men who had been charging at him flung into each other before sailing backwards into a tree. That's my man.
I snapped round when I heard someone groan in pain behind me in time to see Ryan being run through with a blade. Oh no you don't. I shrieked a cry that was filled with intense anger and allowed a fireball to form in my hands. I watched at Ryan's attacker's eyes widened. I allowed the fireball to get a few times bigger before I launched it at the man who stabbed Ryan. He immediately became engulfed in flames and began shrieking in pain. I called upon the wind element and used it to push the screaming man into a tree so that he was knocked on conscious. I then used water to put him out. What? It smelt horrible.
I suddenly heard footstep running towards me and then something whistling through the air. I jumped to the side but not far enough as I felt something stab into my arm. I turned to pull it out and saw that it was a dart. Oh shit. I immediately began to feel drowsy my limbs becoming heavy.
"Nate..." I whispered before my eyelids became so heavy that I could no longer keep them open and my whole body became limp so that I dropped to the ground with a thud.
© Katherine Pocock 2009