Elora watched in silence as Nyal trained again. He'd woken up with the sun to do so. He'd accidentally woken her not long beforehand with his movement, but as long as he wasn't too loud, she didn't mind it that much. She needed to get up anyway, they needed to get moving as early as possible. It was too dangerous to stay in the eastern woods much longer.
Ragen and Mikhail had woken up long before she did, according to Nyal. They'd gone off in search of food and would be back soon. She thought back to their conversation the day before. Despite knowing now that her father didn't care much for his creations anymore, the couple still cared about what he thought, for a reason Elora couldn't understand. Since then, they'd both been quiet.
She sighed and stood from her place at the foot of the tree. Nyal stopped what he was doing when he saw her move. "Everything alright?" he asked, his brow crinkling in worry.
"I'm fine," she said and frowned at him. "If you want to train properly, you need to actually fight something."
Nyal shook his head. "I'm not dragging something out from the woods to fight, not when it could attract other," he said.
"That wasn't what I was suggesting."
"What were you suggesting?" Elora felt a smirk pull at her lips as she gathered a tiny bit of her magic. She smacked it into his back and nearly laughed at the confused grunt he let out. She didn't hit him too hard, just hard enough for him to notice. He shook his head again. "No, not happening," he told her, pointing his finger at her.
"Why not?" she asked and hit him with her magic again. "We both need to train. We needn't go too hard on each other. If anyone gets too badly injured, just heal them." She hit him again. "Come on, fight back."
"I'm not-" She hit him in the face then and he glared at her playfully. "Fine." He gathered the water around him and raised his eyebrows at her expectantly.
Their magics clashed together in almost silent. Water fell to the ground in small droplets and was quickly picked back up again by Nyal. Elora made a wall in front of her, stopping any water from passing by. She danced to the side and flicked her wrist in Nyal's direction. Darkness snaked like a thick mist behind him.
It wrapped around his ankle and pulled him to the ground. He grunted and glared at her. She held in a laugh and pulled her magic towards her again. She gasped when water splashed against her chest and sent her stumbling back. Nyal jumped to his feet and turned all his water into ice. He launched it at her and she created another wall.
The ice slammed against the wall. She took a deep breath and sent her wall outwards so that it flew straight into Nyal. He fell to the ground again with another grunt. "This is hardly fair," he said as he stood.
"It is completely fair. You just need to fight back," she replied. He wasn't going to get better if he didn't put up a proper fight. "The Zlohiel are much stronger than I am, Nyal."
"I know," he said.
They danced around each other, their magic flowing around the small space they were in. Darkness and water slammed against the trees and ground as their pair dodged and weaved their way around. Her burned and injured wings screamed in pain as she went flying back into the trunk of a tree, the cold burn of ice against her chest.
Nyal cursed at her reaction and dropped his water into the grass. "I'm sorry! Are you okay?" he asked, panicked.
She said nothing as he rushed towards her and kept a straight face when her magic knocked him to the side. "I'm fine," she said. He glared at her jokingly and stood. He gathered his water around him as she pulled at her magic.
She stopped in the middle of their small space and stared as Nyal gathered more and more water around him. He pulled it from the grass, from the trees, from the dew drops that hung in the air. It swirled around him like a vortex. She could barely see his face through the twisting mass in front of her.
She'd never seen him do something so powerful and beautiful before. As far as she knew, warlocks hadn't been able to do what Nyal was doing in centuries. It reminded her of Corpius, her friend from so long ago. He'd been able to do similar things.
"What is Veridun are you two doing?" a voice called. Ragen and Mikhail reappeared from between the trees, the former carrying the dead body of a rabbit in one hand. It was strange to see an animal, even if it was dead. She had gotten used to them not being there in the week or so they had been running through the woods.
Nyal dropped the water back to the ground and it splashed against Elora's ankles. "Training," he said with a shrug. "We were being careful."
"I hope so," Ragen said.
Elora couldn't take her eyes away from the rabbit. "Where did you get that from?" she asked.
"We made snares last night," Mikhail said. "We weren't really expecting to get anything though. But hey, now we have more food."
Elora only nodded, a little bit grateful that they could eat something other than plants and berries for once. She helped them pack away the berries and other food they had been given, trying to find a cloth to wrap the rabbit up in. She pulled on one and a familiar book tumbled onto the grass. She blinked rapidly, she had almost forgotten the book had existed.
She picked it up gently, staring at the thick book that held the only answers she had available. Tucking it under her arm, she knew she would have to save it for later, for there were other things to attend to. She watched Ragen and Mikhail pack away the food, the book under her arm a comforting weight.
Nyal wandered over to her and she watched him out of the corner of her eye. "Are your wings alright?" he asked. "I didn't mean to hit you so hard."
They twinged painfully when she moved but it wasn't anything too serious. "They don't hurt any more than usual," she answered. "I'm fine."
"If you're sure," he mumbled and watched Ragen and Mikhail pack. Elora put the book back where it belonged, despite how much she longed to hold it. A quick nod at the two men and they were on their way. She glanced over her should at Nyal, who stared listlessly out to the horizon.
"Come, Nyal," she said. "We have to get moving."
He said nothing, only followed after Ragen and Mikhail. She sighed, stretched her wings as wide as she could before she too walked after the trio.
A quick check in the air that morning by Elora told them that they would come to the end of the lush forest before it turned dark if they moved fast enough. She didn't know what they would do at night however, with no trees to hide in from the Zlohiel. They'd have to find some other way of getting shelter, lest they are killed in the middle of the night.
They would be getting close to the south if they weren't already there. She didn't know anymore. With no roads or landmarks in the dense trees, it was hard to tell exactly where they were. If it weren't for the sun she was sure they would have gotten lost a long time ago. She hadn't flown through this part of Veridun in a long, long time.
She wanted to pull out the book and read as she walked, but she knew she would get lost in both its content and the memories it would produce. That was something she couldn't afford to do at that point in time. She needed to concentrate on where they were going. She needed to keep her eyes and ears open for any threat to their safety.
Although, she could sense it in one of their many bags. It was the last thing of Corpius' she had left. Most of his other possessions had gotten lost or destroyed long ago, killed by time. Nyal had found it before they set off on their journey together, hidden away in the library of the Dreevan Warlock Guild of Protection building. With everything that had happened, she had forgotten all about it.
Holding it was a temptation she could hardly resist, like holding chocolate in front of a child. All she wanted to do was open it and read the words written by a man she had missed for centuries. He had died not long after the first battle with the Zlohiel, a sickness she could no longer remember the name of.
"I don't know if training me is actually going to do anything," she heard Nyal say and turned to face him.
"Of course, it would," she replied. "Even just a little bit helps. What else are you going to do?"
Nyal scoffed, "I don't even know if it's going to do anything to help, Elora. They're too strong for us."
She said nothing, but she was sure he already knew that she agreed with him. She had been thinking it since that first night when they were huddled in the trees, listening to the roars and the screeches of the monsters she was meant to keep locked away.
"Well, there has to be a way to get rid of them, the Ancient Ones, right?" Mikhail asked ahead of them, apparently listening in on their conversation.
"The only way we could find was the Gate," Elora explained. "Which took both my magic and the magic of many powerful warlocks to create."
"And I thought only Yararanje could create new things," Ragen said.
I allowed you to do so.
"Yararanje uses the same magic we do," she told him, ignoring the voice. Memories of long ago flashed through her mind. "Essentially he is the most powerful warlock in the realm. With enough concentration and power, we were able to create the Gate. However, I believe Yararanje helped us just a little bit."
"Why help then and not help now?" Nyal asked in a growling voice. He glared up at the sky as if he could the powerful god through the leave and clouds.
Because -
"Because he no longer cares for us the same way," she answered quickly, not wanting to hear what her father had to say. She knew she wouldn't like what she would hear. "We have disappointed him."
"So, we're going to have to fix this ourselves," Ragen added.
"Yes."
"Can we?" Mikhail questioned.
"I don't-" She said and sighed. "I don't know. I'm nowhere near as powerful as I was or should be. Neither are any of the warlocks I know. For years we haven't had to fight beings like this, we've grown weaker. I don't know if we'll be strong enough to rid the realm of evil a second time."
To her, there was no hope. To her, the realm was all but lost. To her, the Zlohiel and Gaizma had already won. She had just shown that to them, her companions. Shown them how little hope there was. They were quiet, haunted expressions on their faces and for once Elora actually felt bad for what she had said.
"We have to try, don't we?" Nyal asked, always the optimist it seemed.
"Of course, we do," she replied, glancing down at the grassy floor underneath her feet. "Isn't that why we're going to Riba? To find something?"
"To find what?" Ragen asked impatiently. "What could there possibly be that wasn't found the first time around?"
She looked down at the book tucked under her arm. Corpius had been born in Riba before it was even known as Riba. It could be that he left something behind there that she had missed. If it had even survived that long. There was always a chance, Corpius had been a smart man who would have made sure the realm was as protected as it could be.
She went to say as much, only to be interrupted by a nearby roar. The four of them froze, looking in the direction of the cry. Somewhere to her left
"What in Veridun was that?" Ragen demanded, his voice in a low growl.
The monster roared again and Elora felt herself grow pale, a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Dragon," she muttered and took a step backwards.
The dragon bellowed once more and this time she saw the flash of orange deep in the forest. It was getting closer and closer with each cry. She thought back to the fight at the Gate. She had barely survived against a hybrid and she had help from Ragen at the time. How were the four of them meant to face off against an angry fully-fledged dragon?
"What do we do?" Mikhail asked, face full of fear. He had already begun to transform, hair and claws forming in the blink of an eye.
"We run."
Another flash of orange flame came flying through the trees towards them, the wood and leaves going up in a burst of flames. Elora turned on her heels and bolted, grabbing Nyal's hand to tug him along. Next to her, she could see Mikhail full transformed into a big brown wolf. Ragen was sitting on his back, pushing powerful gusts of air around them, moving vines and branches out of their way.
If it weren't so obvious, she would have swallowed them in darkness. It was too bright for such a move. The dragon would spot them easily. Instead, Nyal pulled on his water, making a rippling wall behind them. He knew without her saying anything that outright attacking the dragon would only bring it's attention to them.
She heard a whoosh of air as more of the forest went up in flames, feeling the heat at her back. It took her back to the fight at the Gate, reminding her of the immense pain she had felt when the hybrid burned her wings.
It hadn't taken the dragon long to realise they were there, chasing after them with all its might. In it's half human, half dragon state it was too big for the cramped forest, crashing into trees every few steps. Most cracked and toppled under the stress, others were blown apart in an explosion of flames.
Nyal spared as much water as he could, shooting pointed pillars of ice behind him, joining with the darkness Elora continued to blast backwards. One stuck in the shoulder on the scaled beast, making it cry out with a howl and a burst of orange fire. She ordered them to go faster, watching Mikhail carry Ragen far away from them.
They ran and ran and ran, water and air and the occasional burst of fire rushing around them. She wasn't sure how far or for how long they had been running, or if they were even going in the right direction anymore.
Launching more darkness behind her and dodging under the low hanging branch of a tree, Elora hoped that they could escape the dragon's sight soon. She wanted to tell Nyal to go on ahead, to catch up to Ragen and Mikhail. She wanted to tell him that she would hold off the dragon, that she would keep him safe. She couldn't get the words out of her mouth.