Child of Time (54 page)

A rock clattered down further below the duo. Both
Kiyan and Sapphire instantly crouched and hid. Kiyan rippled out of
existence and Sapphire blended into the short trees they were in.
Scanning the hillside neither of them could see anything until a
small rodent caught their attention. As brown as the rocks around
it the creature peaked its long nose out its hole and tested the
air. Not detecting a threat, the rodent rushed out and began
gathering some dried grass that lay on a flat rock nearby. There
was a red flash and the once industrious rodent lay smoking in its
smoldering hay. Kiyan cringed when the drakken decloaked and walked
over to the rodent and ripped it in half. They could hear the bones
crunching from up the hill. Kiyan loosed a throwing dagger but
Sapphire beat him to the attack. Her arrow soundlessly found its
target and the drakken slumped over the still smoldering grass with
Sapphire's arrow planted in his spine. A last twitch released the
uneaten half of the rodent. Kiyan decloaked and walked down the
hill. Rolling the dead drakken over he retrieved the blaster and a
handful of plasma cells. He tossed the blaster at Sapphire with the
power cells.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” Sapphire turned
the weapon over with a criticizing eye.

“We might be in a fight when the time required to
grow new arrows or bend might be better spent on other
applications.” Kiyan showed her how to operate the gun. Her first
trial shot scorched a small tree nearby.

“This is a cursed weapon!” Sapphire looked horrified
at the poor tree's condition. Dropping the gun on the rocks
Sapphire approached the tree and extended a hand towards it. In a
moment the burn was gone and the tree was a foot taller than it had
grown in the last decade.

“Fire is the cursed element. Your fire is bad enough
but the destroying fire is cursed.” Sapphire glared at the
discarded gun.

“Why is fire cursed?” Kiyan was curious having
noticed that light and heat was provided by other means.

“It consumes without giving. Earth, water, life and
air elements can be bent without loss but fire consumes everything
it touches.” Sapphire turned down the hill. “Our forests would be
wasted and our skies darkened if fire was to curse our lands.”

“Fired isn't all bad. It gives warmth and light
and....” Kiyan dropped into silence as he tried to think of other
nondestructive use for fire.

“It gives heat by consuming matter. Its hunger would
destroy an entire forest if not controlled.” Sapphire felt
strongly, almost religiously about the matter. Kiyan decided not to
tell her he was a firebender himself. Instead he examined the cloak
on the drakken and found it to be unusable. It appeared to be grown
into the skin and connected to nodes throughout the body. His idea
of using it to help Sapphire turned out to be useless. Kiyan
focused until he saw his life bender overlay and scanned the area.
Seeing only the energy of a few more rodents and some smaller
animals living in the rocks and no sign of more drakken he began
moving down the hill. Sapphire followed quietly behind as she kept
her own keen eyes out.

They reached the bottom of the hill without meeting
more drakken. The valley they descended into was supposed to bring
them to the dark lord's encampment. Here the trees were taller but
were still thin. The characteristic of a tree who has a hard life.
Kiyan caught a glimpse of some dark shadowy energy moving an
instant before he rolled to the side. The blaster shot seared over
his head just before he released his counter attack. The well
balanced throwing blade spun through the air before embedding deep
in the drakken. The cloak failed and Kiyan saw a dark splash of
energy before the drakken died.

“They are even cloaking their energy, or drawing off
it to feed the cloak.” Kiyan frowned at this idea. “It made them
much harder to catch. It was like trying to see a shadow in a
shadowy forest.” Kiyan switched to feeling the air around them.
Expanding his mind he felt an absence of air among the trees a
short way to the right. Kiyan flickered back into sight a moment
with his finger to his lips and recloaked. His cloak dampened sound
so he was able to walk without fear of being betrayed. Feeling the
features of the drakken with his mind Kiyan stalked behind the
crouching beast. It was looking intently toward the tree that was
Sapphire while sniffing the air. Kiyan lunged forward and impaled
the drakken on his sword. Pierced in the heart the drakken lost his
cloak and let out a shriek. Kiyan pulled the air out of the
lizard's lungs leaving it silently gasping for air as it died.
Noticing too late that the nearly dead drakken was pounding on a
round plate on his chest Kiyan wondered what the beast was doing.
His answer came with an earth shattering explosion that impacted
Kiyan's shields and threw him into a tree. Standing up from the
shattered remnants of the tree that had stopped his flight Kiyan
brushed a few splinters off and glanced around.

“Are you alright?” Sapphire recovered from her shock
and was checking Kiyan over. Kiyan felt annoyance from Luke and
laughed when Sapphire glanced at Luke's bracelet with an expression
of impatience.

“I'm fine.” Kiyan leaned over and picked up an
undamaged power cell at his feet. Energy arced into his implants
charging most of the stores depleted by the blast. “Luke, you
should come out so Sapphire can worry about you instead of me.”
Sapphire burst out laugh at that and Luke's bracelet melted and
dripped to the ground. In a few seconds Luke was standing in front
of them.

“That wasn't funny.” Luke looked annoyed at
Sapphire's laughter.

“It actually kind of is if you could see your face.”
Sapphire tried to stop laughing but another glance at Luke set her
off again.

“Come on you love birds, we need to get moving.” Both
of them colored at Kiyan's words but they followed. A few giggles
could still be heard but soon it was silent as they moved through
the woods. Up ahead Kiyan sensed another drakken. Slipping into
stealth both Kiyan and Luke stalked their quarry. The explosion
must have alerted the scouts that a hostile intruder was among
them. This drakken was taking extra care to mask his noise as he
crept forward. Kiyan was slipping around one side of a tree while
the drakken peered cautiously around the other side when Luke came
in for a strike. The drakken detected the attack and avoided most
of it only sustaining a minor gash on his shoulder. Luke lost his
cloak in the meantime and the two grappled in mortal combat. It
appeared Luke didn't have the strength in his nanite construct that
the drakken had. Forcing himself apart from the fight the drakken
drew his blaster and unleashed a few rounds into Luke's torso. Luke
stumbled backward and looked down at the hole in his chest. Light
could be seen through it behind him. The drakken nearly dropped his
gun in surprise at seeing the mortal injury ignored by Luke.

“Now I'm mad.” Luke dissolved into a cloud of nanites
and engulfed the drakken. The sound of thrashing and strangled
screeches could be heard from the silver mist for a moment before
silence followed a dull thud. The silver mist condensed into Luke's
form standing above the twisted remains.

“It took you long enough.” Kiyan had decloaked
meanwhile and was leaning against the tree.

“You didn't offer any help.” Luke glared at Kiyan.
“Besides you know how hard it is to maintain a full construct with
few enough nanites to take the form of a bracelet?”

“Boys! Control yourselves.” Sapphire looked down her
nose at them before smiling and shaking her head. They walked in
silence as Kiyan monitored for more drakken. “This tree isn't
right.” Sapphire paused as they passed a stand of trees. This one
was larger by a couple times than any of the others. It looked like
it had survived several storms and was scarred to prove it.
Sapphire examined it for a moment before laying a hand on it.
Cracks in the bark formed and it began to twist out of a spiral
shape. As the strands returned to a straight shape they could be
seen to be several vines that had grown in a ring and twisted
together. Inside could be seen the remains of a drakken that looked
like it had been wrung like a wet towel.

“It’s fresh.” Kiyan noted half out loud.

“A forest elf is near.” Sapphire scanned the woods in
a fruitless attempt to find the elf. “We need to move.” Almost from
force of habit the vines returned to their former shape when
Sapphire released them. Silently walking through the woods on the
valley floor they came to a clearing. Sapphire pointed to a thin
tendril that stretched tight across the narrow path. Picking up a
small dirt clod she tossed it into the center of the clearing.
Instead of bouncing off the needle strewn ground like expected it
passed through the ground leaving a small hole behind.

“This area if full of traps.” Luke stated the same
thing everyone was thinking.

“This just got interesting. I can look for traps but
then I would be missing the drakken.” Kiyan pondered for a moment.
“Let's go up the side of the valley a bit and see if we can bypass
this mess.” They acted on the idea and climbed up the steep
hillside until they could look out over the valley from a good
distance up. Here they weren't molested by anymore traps or drakken
as they traversed the hillside. Without hindrance the party made
good time and soon reached the mouth of the valley. Here the
scrubby stunted forest was left behind and a vast sandy waste
stretched ahead. They paused in the edge of the forest and scanned
for threats before they stepped out into the open. The warmer dry
air was immediately noticeable as it settled off the mountains in
an adiabatic wind.

Kiyan knelt and placed a hand on the sand in an
attempt to see the surrounding earth better. Unfortunately the sand
only offered fuzzy glimpses a few dozen paces at the most.
Switching to air bending didn't help much due to the fluid nature
of the element. Sapphire sank to the ground and all but disappeared
into the dust. Kiyan and Luke flickered out of sight as they turned
to look where Sapphire was looking. At the edge of the forest was a
single uncloaked drakken. Sapphire drew an arrow and leveled it at
the drakken. Kiyan touched Sapphire's shoulder making her hold the
shot.

“It’s injured.” Kiyan whispered when he saw the
staggering gate of the creature. The drakken passed within a few
dozen paces and they saw the sharp limb impaling the drakken's
abdomen.

“It has to be going towards a camp of some kind for
aid.” Luke whispered when the drakken had dropped over the other
side of a sand dune. Sapphire's cloths were almost a perfect match
for the gritty red sand that surrounded them and Luke and Kiyan
were nearing invisible as they took up the trail. The drakken must
have been in pain but it staggered on for miles into the searing
waste. Their persistence finally paid off when they crowned a sand
dune and saw a small group of drakken dragging the injured drakken
towards a shelter. Under the shelter made from grey cloths stood a
thin but taller drakken.

“That must be the dark lord.” Kiyan scrutinized the
dark lord as best he could from the distance. A scream ascended
into the air as another drakken ripped the limb from the injured
drakken. They held a small device over the wound that glowed
brightly until the flow of blood stopped. It looked like the dark
lord was asking some questions when he stood up and sniffed the
air.

“YOU BROUGHT THE VILE CREATURES TO MY CAMP!” The roar
could be heard over the distance. Seeming to pull a shadow out of
thin air the dark lord split the offending drakken in two with one
swing of the shadowy blade. “KILL THEM.” At this command every
drakken in the small valley turned and began running up the sand
dune towards the startled watchers. Kiyan drew his sword as an
arrow flashed past his ear impaling the first drakken in the
charge. At this several of the drakken disappeared into thin air.
Kiyan cloaked before loosed a few of his throwing blades and
charged the next standing drakken cleaving him with one blow.
Spinning he impaled another drakken. Withdrawing the blade he
blocked a punch and beheaded another drakken.

Sapphire was raining the approaching drakken with
precisely aimed arrows. Being the only visible target the main part
of the drakken visible or not decided to neutralize her first. A
couple noticed the dead and falling in their midst and warily
searched for the invisible attacker. Sapphire dropped as many as
she could and relinquished her bow for a rod when they drew closer.
The first charged her with a roar and made like to throttle her
with his bare claws. There was a sickening pop and crunch as
Sapphire landed a solid blow on the side of the drakken's head.
Eyes still locked open the dead drakken toppled over. A couple more
drakken determined to avenge their fallen comrade and also charged
forward in their fury. One staggered back from the force of
Sapphire's blow and the other one was sinking to the ground dead as
a thin silver blade withdrew from its throat when Sapphire turned
to deal with it. Seeing this a few were blinded by rage and drew
various medieval weapons while a few more intelligent ones drew
blasters. The melee drakken closed in before the blaster carrying
drakken had a chance to take aim. A long thin thorn grew out of
Sapphire's bracelet and impaled a sword wielding drakken as she
brought her rod down with a crashing blow to another's head. Still
another couple fell to Luke's nanite blades. Unable to defend
against the randomly appearing silver blades several more fell to
Luke while Sapphire's clothes burst into life. Seeds stored all
over the suit sent out tendrils that strangled or pierced any
drakken that came within range.

Kiyan was having more difficulty making kills now
that they had isolated him and surrounded him. Somehow the drakken
could sense his movements and retreated beyond his sword point. A
few fell to his throwing knives but more took their place. Finally
getting tired of the dance, Kiyan put away his sword and decloaked.
Shooting a flood of icy flamed from each hand he spun. The
spiraling waves of icy fire left a ring of frosted statues gleaming
in the sun. A couple more blasts finished the last drakken that
remained shelter from the initial blast. Kiyan shoved aside a
couple of the drakken statues in time to see a silvery force field
ripple around Sapphire. The dozen or so drakken were oblivious to
Kiyan as they tried to vaporize Sapphire. Kiyan could feel the
force field feeding off his energy supply so he assumed it was
Luke's work. The last of drakken parted under Kiyan's blade or
froze in a blast of cold and the force field dissolved. Sapphire
was holding up her wrist where Luke's bracelet was still glowing
with the energy it had channeled.