Galena woke early the next morning as she always did, feeling well rested and more at ease than she had the day before. She had begun to see hope in their plans when she reasoned with Elenio about their commitment to each other. She realized she’d known all along Mira’s reasoning, but hadn’t really thought about it or voiced her theory until the previous night. She now felt more prepared, ready to battle whatever was coming.
She sat slowly so as not to disturb Elenio, who was still sleeping peacefully next to her. She looked intently at him, the worry she always felt within him, was erased from his face. She knew this was hard on him, but didn’t know any way to make it easier. She reached out and gently moved a stray strand of hair from his eyes. He sighed deeply, but continued to sleep.
Lifting the blankets, she climbed out of the bed and crept over to their packs. She dug around for some sweet bread that had been given to them the day before they’d left, and broke it in half. The bread was similar to the sweet bread they had at home, much to Galena’s delight. It had been her favorite to eat whenever she got the chance. It reminded her of a simpler time when she felt more free and bolder. Tears stung her eyes, even as pride filled her heart as she remembered her father and Melan. She knew they would be proud of how far she’d come.
Thinking of her family, she decided to check on Tark while the morning was still calm and peaceful. She dug a small hole in the ground by their campfire and thought of water filling it to the brim. The water rose to the very edge, shinning clear, without a ripple. She thought of Tark, remembering every detail of his being and before her, he appeared in the water. She grinned and sighed, seeing him sleeping so peacefully was comforting to her. He lay on his belly, head turned to the side, and one arm dangling over the edge of the bed in the treehouse. She could almost hear the snores coming from his open, drooling lips. She clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing aloud and waking Elenio. When she saw Tark next, she would be sure to describe in detail, exactly what she saw the first time that she checked in on him.
Dismissing the water while chuckling silently to herself, she stood and began to stretch. Stretching was not something she’d done often in the past, but she found comfort in it the last couple of weeks. She found she was able to think during this time, connecting thoughts that otherwise eluded her, and she felt more at peace with the world. Moreover, it seemed to help stretch muscles that resisted stretching, and strengthen others she didn’t always use when training. She went through the complicated routine she’d developed since she’d taken up this practice, until she had to call it to a momentary stop at the persistence of Twoit’s pacing. The ferret wanted out of their protective circle in order to hunt for her food that day.
Galena grinned and continued to twist her body in different stretches, releasing the barriers at the same time. She felt the cold the fire had been warding off, rush in and set her teeth to chattering. As soon as Twoit went a ways into the forest, Galena put the barrier back up for the sheer warmth from it.
Elenio sat up groggily when she replaced the protection, blinking rapidly as he looked around. His thoughts betrayed him in his confusion as he’d temporarily forgotten they were in the outdoors once more. Galena grinned and walked over to him, not finishing the routine she’d created, but sensing she would not be able to continue anyway.
“Good morning,” she said, sitting down beside him.
He rubbed his eyes sleepily, letting a huge yawn escape. “Morning already?” he asked groggily.
“Unfortunately.” She continued to sit and watch him as he slowly woke up. He’d never been a morning person, where she relished the early morning and the freshness it promised.
It never ceased to amaze her just how long it actually took Elenio to wake himself up. The quickest she’d ever seen him move was when they were children and she’d thought it would be a great idea to dump a bucket of water on him. He went a week without talking to her after that.
Showing mercy, she got up, retrieved a couple loaves of the sweet bread, and handed them to him along with a flask of water.
He grunted gratefully and bit into one of the loaves. “How far away do you think the next village is?” he asked around a mouthful of bread.
“Amrick said there was one a couple day’s journey from their village if we continued heading to the west.”
They had not been specific about where they were heading, only that they were in search of a cave. Amrick knew they were heading in a western direction, but she was the only one they shared this with. Galena, Elenio, and Tark all felt this would help to keep torlics from being able to follow them easily.
Galena began cleaning up their camp area while Elenio finished his morning meal and continued the process of waking up. Twoit came trotting into the area outside their protective ring as Galena was replacing her boots. She brought the barriers down just long enough for the ferret to cross and then replaced them. The chill creeping up on her in those short few moments. Today really was going to be a very cold day. She strapped on her belt and sword and then put on the warm wrap. Leaving this nice warm place would be brutal. She really didn’t like the cold.
Elenio came up beside her, retrieved his pack, and put on his things. He stood waiting while Galena took the moment to retrieve their blankets and make the bed into a tree. It grew quickly, but Galena stopped it when it reached the same height as the other trees. She didn’t want it to be obvious she had been there by creating an overly giant tree.
The leaves on it turned a flaming shade of red and orange before turning brown and falling to the ground. When she was finished, the tree looked as if it had been there for some time, growing with the others that surrounded it.
“You’ve gotten really good at that,” Elenio said, admiring her handy work. “It’s fascinating the way the wood and pieces seem to stack on top of each other. Do you imagine how each branch will look or just think of it growing?”
“I never thought of trying to place different branches in different areas on the tree. I just think of a tree growing at a fast pace and it does. But trying to shape their natural structure is an interesting thought.” Galena pondered the possibilities that could arise from having branches placed in strategic locations on the trees while she scooped up Twoit and held her in her arms for a moment so she could scratch her head. The ferret turned her head this way and that, guiding Galena’s fingers to just the right spot. Finally, having received enough love, she scrambled up Galena’s arm and into the open top of her pack.
They traveled for several days, stopping late in the evenings to camp for the night and start again in the morning. They went through another village, which had so far, not seen any monsters. However, the villagers had heard rumors about the torlics and other creatures roaming Tomiro in search of elves. Galena found the news that Rau was now sending out earagos as well, to be quite disturbing. These were giant creatures ranging from twenty to sixty feet in height. Their bodies were blue color, their hair and eyes were black as night, and they had jagged teeth. They were rumored to be cruel to everything including other earagos. They were incredibly strong and very hard to kill, but rarely seen.
They normally stayed in the eastern part of Tomiro where it was dry and hot, their bodies better able to handle those conditions compared to the cold and snow Galena was used to. In the past, Rau only used their brute strength for important matters, or ones that would require too many of his torlics. They could easily get the job done and the crueler the job was, the more they enjoyed it. The fact he was sending them out to look for her meant he was finally beginning to take her seriously.
Galena felt an urgency she hadn’t felt before learning this news and after declining a feast, requested a brief meeting with the village elders so she could discuss what Tark was trying to do. Much to her dismay, the brief meeting lasted the majority of the day and went far into the night, finally ending with the elders deciding to send elves to Corista to begin training. They decided to wait until the next day to start recruiting warriors though.
Galena and Elenio left shortly after everything had been decided. They wanted to continue on for they’d wasted almost an entire day in endless debates and Galena felt anxious to be on her way. She couldn’t help feeling like if she didn’t find the sword soon; it would be too late. It would not be long before Rau joined the hunt.
They traveled through the remainder of the night and much of the next day, not even stopping to eat, but eating as they went along. Galena kept up a relentless pace, her anxiety keeping her moving. It was late that evening when she sensed Elenio stopping, weariness and hunger flowing through his mind. She turned to see him standing, hands on his hips, clearly indicating he was not willing to go another step.
“We need to stop. I’m dead on my feet.” Elenio sat heavily on an old fallen log. He looked drained and tired, just as Galena assumed she looked. They’d put a good distance between them and the last village they crossed, but the urgency was still there, threatening to overwhelm her. Although at this point, she wasn’t sure if it was an anxiety over getting to the sword or running into dangerous creatures. If she was being honest with herself, she believed she could go the rest of her life without setting foot into Mira’s dreaded cave. The idea of running into earagos or worse, had her pacing where ever she stood. Thinking about this, she decided it was definitely the idea of running into dark creatures when there were only two of them that had her feeling so tightly wound. In truth, she knew she would be able to handle whatever came, but she did worry she wouldn’t be able to protect Elenio. She hadn’t realized how much she depended on Elenio and Tark watching out for each other as much as they watched out for her. It was disconcerting to her that she may miss a vital death stroke and not be able to heal Elenio in time.
Looking toward the west and then back at Elenio, who had begun to massage his feet, she sighed. She felt frustrated, but knew they needed to stop and rest before they would be able to go on. She couldn’t help looking around her just to make sure nothing had crept up on them as they decided to make camp for the night. It seemed to her that every day they went without defending themselves, was another day the enemy could surround them.
It would almost be better if they attacked us so I would get over my nerves, she thought, shaking her head slightly.
Cutting off a twig from one of the bare walnut tree branches, she stuck it into the ground and proceeded to grow a bed. She didn’t try to make anything elaborate as she normally did, feeling it was a waste of her time and thoughts at this point.
Elenio looked up, sensing her mood and sighed. “I know we need to go, but we...” he stopped for a moment, apparently thinking about what he had just said before he continued, “let me rephrase that. I would be worthless if we kept going without a least a short break. I just need a couple hours of sleep and a decent meal, then we can be off again.”
“I know. I just feel uneasy. Like something bad is about to happen.”
“You do know we’re on a dangerous quest to find a sword that no elf has been able to retrieve since Mira created it and stuck it in a dangerous cave, only to turn around and try to put an end to the tyrant who has enslaved us for thousands of years, right?”
Galena grinned sheepishly at him. He definitely had a way of summing up things. Shrugging in resignation, she handed Elenio some food from the pack and proceeded to collect wood for their campfire. When she had a blazing fire going, she took Twoit from her pack and placed her on the ground. The ferret yawned and stretched, looking sleepily around as she did. She stopped suddenly midway through her inspection, her nose furiously twitching, smelling all around her. With a terrified little scream, she raced back to Galena’s pack and dove into the open top.
Galena stopped what she was doing and looked around. Elenio put his food down as well and searched the wooded area around them. It was twilight and there were shadows all around, but nothing else appeared to be in sight. Galena strained her eyes while she listened to the forest. It was silent. She stood, putting her hand on the hilt of her blade and began to walk to the edge of their campsite. The woods were growing darker with the setting of the sun, but nothing was stirring. The unease she’d felt before, grew in intensity. Elenio was up too, his blade out and ready in his hand. He was heading in the opposite direction as Galena. He moved slowly and cautiously. Galena turned to him, drawing her blade as she did. She took a step toward him, moving slowly as well.
“I don’t –” Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. It was like something was clutching her neck tightly, strangling her. Eyes wild with panic, she felt herself being lifted off the ground by an invisible hand. Her fingers searched for the invisible force that was slowly suffocating her. Elenio raced to her, his own eyes filled with horror. He looked her up and down, but not able to help, as he was unsure what had her. In that instant, Galena saw what he saw in her mind and thinking of the floating lights the underground elves had, she thought of the brightest light she could imagine. Bolts of the fire hot lightning that raced across the sky and lighting up the land on the darkest night, filled her thoughts. The light she produced was so blinding, she had that to close her eyes against it. The force that held her let go and she was sure she could hear a faint scream somewhere in the distance.
Once released, she fell to the ground with a thud and the light disappeared. Elenio, who had closed his own eyes as well, ran to her and picking her up by the arms, looked her up and down, checking for any injuries.
“It’s gone,” she said, massaging her sore neck.
“What happened?” he asked, his expression still looking puzzled.
“I think Rau found me.” She grimaced slightly as she attempted to swallow. If he had held on any longer, she felt he would have broken her neck or crushed her windpipe. As it was, she had to do some minor healing on herself to repair her bruised and now swelling throat. Satisfied with the results, she tested it out by swallowing once more. No pain. “I do believe he’s starting to take me a little more seriously if he has joined the search.”
“How do you know it was him? I saw nothing but shadows...”
Galena saw the connections being made even as she thought through them herself.
“Shadows. He can use the shadows.”
“Yep. How well do you think you can sleep with bright lights?”
“I’ll sleep just fine.”