The black-furred animal drew his sword and pointed it directly at the group. He slowly walked towards them, and as he struck them, Thetra drew Slayer as fast as Arek had ever seen him do and parried the blow.
Then Thetra sliced one of the Entara’s horns off, much to its anger, as it yelled a savage cry. It scared Arek with its depth, as it had a very low sound.
“Surprise!” yelled Mordon as he jumped from the tree behind the Entara and brought his sword down hard on its head.
I didn’t even see Mordon sneak around the Entara. He is quite stealthy, thought Arek with a newborn satisfaction.
“Impressive,” said Thetra positively, nodding his head as if to say, “Not bad.”
The Entara fell to the ground, dead. Thetra looked at Mordon and said, “I have never seen you do that before.”
“That is because an Entara has never threatened me before,” replied Mordon with a smirk, then a smile.
“Let us continue the night hunt,” said Arek.
Mordon
THE FINAL SEARCH
Mordon became quite frightened of his abilities when he killed the Entara, for he did not know that he could do what he did.
They were out until midnight, when they decided they should turn back, for they were not finding any tracks or clues, and they all agreed they would search again in the morning, once they had gotten a healthy sleep and breakfast.
They turned around in their tracks and headed back in the direction they came, stepping in their own footsteps that were dimly lit by the torch Mordon had made with his walking stick and the help of matches.
Once they arrived back at the campgrounds, Mordon ran inside the building, hustled to his quarters, and plopped himself into his bed, and was too tired to even roll over in his sleep, not waking up until morning, once it was five hours past dawn. Mordon soon became aware that he had been awoken by the pots and pans of lunch, which meant he had slept through breakfast.
“Good morning,” said Thetra when Mordon entered the kitchen. “Or shall I say good afternoon?”
“Either one is fine,” said Mordon sleepily. He yawned, then climbed onto a stool. “So when do we go back out?”
“Arek and I have been waiting for you. We will search again immediately after lunch.”
“Alright.” Mordon stood up, stretched again, and entered the cooking area to get the plates, which he would set around the table.
“Thank you,” said Thetra as Mordon carefully set the plates in front of each chair so as not to break the delicate china.
As they finished preparing the meal, they all took their seats around the table, and the other survivors came down the stairs and sat down as well.
As Mordon ate the mealwhich consisted of venison, peas, chicken stew, beans, and a glass of waterhe wondered where the escaper had made off to, and who it was. He tried to remember everyone gathering around the final golem, and he tried to remember who was there, but was not sitting around the table at the moment, but no familiar face struck him, so he assumed it most likely was not one of Thetra’s comrades in the Council.
He explained his thoughts, telling Thetra that if it was someone from the Councilwhich was the group of men that had gone with them to face the intruder womanthen he needed to learn more about the members of the Council.
After a long silence, Arek said, “I think it was someone that joined at the very last second, like in the middle of the battle”
“But no one did join in the middle of the battle,” protested Thetra. “The latest someone would have joined would have been in the last set of recruits, and that was ages ago.”
“Aye,” agreed Mordon. “And it had to be someone strong, if they survived the whole battle, and I am not one for remembering neither names nor faces.”
That ended the conversation until the end of lunch, and everyone hurried on eating their food, for the searcherswhich was a larger group this timewere anxious to go outside and start looking for clues or evidence.
Once they exited the building, they decided which direction everyone would go. They split it up by the directions on Thetra’s compass, so two people went in each direction–north, south, east, west, northeast, northwest, southwest, and southwest. The two remaining stayed in the building.
Thetra
Thetra and Arek went together; going norththe direction the escaper most likely went.
They found nothing for a while, but after what seemed like about an hour, they finally found something. Thetra whistled, which meant for all the searchers to report to this sound, which was why Thetra blew the whistle every ten seconds, so the escapers making their way towards the sound did not get lost in the large area that they were searching.
After everyone had come to Thetra, he told them what he had foundmuddy footprints, the same size as Thetra and Arek’s.
“Who is it?” wondered Thetra. “Do any of you recognize the print or anything about it?”
No one responded, which meant that not one of the searchers knew who the print might belong to.
“I know it’s not one of ours,” said Arek, “because no searcher has taken this path yet, and it is not ours.”
“Aye,” agreed Mordon. “We did not come anywhere near here yesterday.”
“Do you think it was from the battle?” asked a searcher.
“No,” said Thetra. “It’s too fresh. You can see the print all too clearly for it to be days ago.”
“I agree,” said Mordon. “This has to be in the last day, or possibly, two days.”
“So you are saying this is the last survivor’s footprint?” asked Jordan.
“Yes,” replied Arek. “And we must track it all the way.”
“Should we check if it came from the camps first?” asked Satym.
“No,” said Thetra. “Let us just go. If we go back, the escaper might get farther ahead of us. That is a risk that I am not willing to take.”
“Me neither,” said Arek and Mordon, as well as all the others of the search party.
They walked off along the tracks, being careful not to step on the prints.
TRACKING THE FUGITIVE
As they followed the tracks Thetra could tell they were getting fresher and fresher, as if they were catching up to the escaper.
When they stopped to take a break, Thetra could hear the sound of running water, so he, Arek, and Mordon left the pack to go find the stream, bringing some glass cups that they had in their packs with them to fill up and give to the people.
They arrived at the stream to find that it was clear blue water, running so smoothly. Thetra felt an urge to try it, so he did. He filled up his cup and took a large gulp, then refilled it and did the same four more times until he felt he could not sustain any more liquid. He filled his cup once more to take back with him and started filling the other cups up for the others, as Arek and Mordon were doing.
When they finished filling the other cups to the brim, Thetra drank his seventh glass, and then refilled it, and they set off back to the group of searchers that were waiting for them.
Once everyone had swigged their glasses of water, they continued tracking the fugitive, being careful not to spill any of their leftover water on the footprints, for the water would only make them muddy and fill them in so they could not see them, which Thetra was against doing.
Once Thetra knew they had walked at least fifteen leagues, they stopped and took a breather. Thetra knew that they were so close to finding out who the survivor was. He knew they almost had solved the conflict the remainder of the army had been dealing with for the past few days; and Thetra knew that he was about to either make either a new friend or a new enemy.
While they were resting, most fell asleep, for it was evening, and there were about two more hours of daylight left, which meant if they didn’t hurry on their search, they would be out in the dark, looking for someone they did not know where to find, but only had a good idea.
> When everyone had woken, there were only twenty more minutes until dusk, so they started running alongside the footprints, not stopping until they found the culprit.
They had only gone a league or so when the footprints led them into a small group of trees, where Thetra went inside first, followed by Mordon, then Arek, and the rest of the search party.
As Thetra walked into the cluster of trees, he smelled the faint scent of pines, which meant that the trees were the same as the type of tree that were in Toage. He felt a strong longing for home, but knew his only home was Destville.
He drew Slayer and cut through some of the thick leaves. Once he cut through most of them, he came face-to-face with a wide brown trunk, which he bumped into, much to his embarrassment, for he was in front of his friends.
He walked around the trunk and saw something he was not expecting. Only ten feet in front of him a man about his age was standing with bandana over his mouth and some of his face, hiding not only his expression but also who he was.
Thetra pointed Slayer at him as if he were challenging him. The stranger drew his sword and pointed it back. The duel had begun.
UNDER THE BANDANA
Thetra lunged forward at the fugitive that had been hiding all the time he had been looking for him. He was going to teach him never to hide from his fellow soldiers, if he lived, which Thetra hoped he wouldn’t.
After what seemed like hours to Thetra, the others helped him fight the soldier, and not long after they had him pinned to the forest floor.
“Give me one of those berries!” Thetra yelled to Arek over the screaming of the escaper. “If it’s poisonous, he dies.” The screaming became louder.
Arek picked one of the blue berries with the black core off a nearby tree, and Thetra examined it. It was an exact replica of the one he had found while running from Warvé.
“Time to die,” Thetra whispered to the fugitive. “I shall give you five minutes for you to stay under my knee. This may be the last five minutes of your life, or maybe you won’t die until you turn eighty-five years old. But today, you are going to learn a lesson. I will be sure of that.”
Thetra knew the five minutes would pass quickly. But he was wrong, for it seemed like ages. The only way he knew it was five minutes was because Satym was counting, mumbling the seconds. He reminded himself to thank her later.
The five minutes finally ended when Thetra heard Satym yell out loud, “It has been five full minutes!”
“Thank you,” Thetra told Satym, “for counting. I had lost track.
“Are you ready?” Thetra asked, now addressing the fugitive. “Today may be your final day of life.”
To Thetra’s surprise, the escaper nodded.
“Open your mouth,” demanded Thetra. The escaper obeyed. Thetra paused for three seconds, then dropped the berry into the fugitive’s mouth.
After ten seconds, nothing had happened. Even after five minutes, no reaction had occurred. By then, Thetra lifted his knee, and the final survivor stood up. He took a lot of deep breaths, his chest breathing in and out.
“Flyr!” yelled Thetra, and he thought of fire. Flames spread across the open area in the center of the group of trees. Everyone gathered around Thetra and the survivor stepped back so as to avoid being burned, for the fire destroyed everything in its path.
“Té!” exclaimed the fugitive, and the fire died down until there were only sparks, which were quickly put out by the jet of water shooting from the escaper’s hand.
He knows magic, Thetra noted.
A chant started to rise from the rest of the searchers. “Kill him! Kill him!” they yelled, trying to help Thetra, but they were only failing, for the chant made its way into Thetra’s thoughts, and as he was developing strategies, he soon forget them, for all he could think about was the yelling of the army.
After a while, Thetra had the enemy pinned against a wall of rocks which was about six feet tall, so the escaper was about six inches away from the top of the wall.
The fugitive was smart, and he jumped over Thetra, for he had a height advantage. He landed back-to-back with Thetra, but they both quickly turned around. Thetra swept Stabber across his chest, and he ripped open the escaper’s shirt, but he did not get deep enough into his skin. The only evidence was a thin jagged line across the man’s chest.
The man growled in anger, then lunged at Thetra, punching him in the chest, which knocked him to the ground, leaving him unable to breathe for a while. Once he recovered his breath, the escaper was on him, swiping his sword to and fro, like a snake striking and then recoiling, but he did it over and over, until Thetra saw that his chest was covered in blood, and there was not a square inch of skin, for it was all red blood.
Thetra yelled in agony and stood up. Although his chest was immobilized, and he could not feel it, the rest of his body was capable for striking his enemy.
Thetra stabbed the man in the stomach, then jumped back, and wished he had a shield so he could dodge the man’s blows that he could not block with his own sword.
Finally, Thetra had the escaper pinned on the floor once more, and he was surprised he was able to do this, for he was left weak after his chest injury.
Thetra spoke, “Listen, I am going to find out who you are right now. If I know you, I am going to have to make a big decision about whether I should kill you or not, but I am ripping that bandana off your forehead in five seconds.”
Satym started the countdown. “Five...four...three...two...one...”
Thetra ripped the bandana from the man’s forehead, revealing the very face he least expecting.
Lying in front of him was the Lost Survivor. But now he knew who it was.
The Lost Survivor was Youtren Morchadsson, the cousin of Thetra and Arek.
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends