Miras Last (4 page)

“I take it your meeting did not go well?”

“It went as well as could be expected, all
things considered. Morak says between him and his soldiers, they
have dispersed of a hundred or more torlics and narooks. Although
an earagos noticed them. They had to flee back to safety with the
giant brute hot on their heels. Morak said the giant didn’t even
try to chase them past the river, it just stood on its side of the
bank and laughed at them.” Tark pinched the bridge of his nose,
tiredness consuming him as he did so.

“You need to rest or you will be worthless to
us,” Taura said gently.

“How can I rest when I feel like I have led
all these elves to their death and with no sign of Galena yet? You
do realize they outnumber us ten to one.”

Since arriving, Tark discovered the scouts’
original reports of being outnumbered two to one were grossly
inaccurate. He had an army of roughly five hundred. Rau’s army
numbered closer to five thousand. The scary part, in Tark’s mind,
was this was less than half of Rau’s total forces. The rest of his
men stayed behind at Blackwell should Tark accomplish the
impossible.
Definitely, overkill,
Tark thought dryly.

“You still need rest,” Taura said
reasonably.

Tark looked at Taura, feeling annoyed, but
realizing she was right.

“Morgo can manage anything urgent while you
rest.”

“Wake me...”

“I’ll wake you if anything important comes up
or if anything changes. Now, get some sleep.” She stood, rolling up
the maps and tucked them up under her arm. Walking over to Tark and
tilting his face so she was looking directly into his eyes,
whispered, “I love you. Sleep well.” Taura kissed him softly and
walked out of the tent, closing the flap behind her.

He stared for some time at the inside of the
tent, reminiscing how his life had been just a year ago. If anyone
had told him he would be leading a small army into a battle against
Rau, he would have laughed and sent them off to a healer. Now as it
was, he was unsure of himself and desperate for Galena’s
return.

He awoke with a jarring crash when his chair
had tipped over, spilling him unceremoniously to the floor. Tark
looked around, startled and unsure of where he was. It took a
moment for him to remember he was no longer in his comfortable tree
house, but inside a large tent. Apparently, more tired than even he
realized, if falling asleep while in mid thought wasn’t a problem.
Shaking his head wearily, he slowly stood, stretching his arms and
legs in the process. He rubbed his eyes and walked over to his
bed.

The magic elves decided, reasonably, that
creating tree homes for everyone right at the edge of the
battlefield would be a poor use of their power and it would be best
if their energy were put to use on defenses and preparing their
weapons for battle. However, they created the large tents and
hammocks for the entire army, using materials they brought and
prepared specially in the village prior to coming here. It proved
convenient and useful when an entire camp with room enough for
everyone was constructed in a couple of hours. The underground
elves had come a long way in a short amount of time.

Tark sat wearily at the edge of his hammock.
It had taken him several attempts to be able to sit on the blasted
material without being dumped on the ground in an undignified pile.
Indeed, the first time he tried it, he found himself flying
backward and conking the back of his head so hard on the ground, he
saw stars. He remembered it had been quite some time for Taura to
quit laughing before she was able to ask if he was alright and then
to retrieve Morgo when he had trouble responding. He was getting to
be as bad as Galena. He managed to get his shoes off before
flopping back onto the hammock where he fell asleep almost
instantly.

Tark rolled over to his side, and bumped into
Taura. Lifting his head slightly, he looked around and saw it was
now night. Feeling slightly alarmed, he sat up waking Taura in the
process.

“Lie back down. We have posted guards and
they will be replaced every hour. There is nothing you can do right
now. Nothing has happened and no one needs your immediate
attention, so go back to sleep.” She rolled over facing away from
him before resuming her own slumber.

Tark looked at her, watching the slow rise
and fall of her shoulder, knowing it was unlikely she would
remember telling him any of this. Smiling and settling back down,
he closed his eyes and felt himself begin to drift off once more
when he heard a faint voice somewhere in the back of his mind. Tark
strained to hear it as it faded. The words came together in his
mind and he struggled to make sense of them until finally, it
clicked.

She comes. Prepare yourself for the battle
is about to begin.

Feeling extremely unsettled with the prospect
of fighting the next day, for he was sure that was what Mira meant;
he rolled over and wrapped a protective arm around Taura before
drifting off into a fitful slumber.

* * * *

Galena sat up with the first rays of light
shining on her face. Flipping her blankets back, she swung her legs
over the edge of the bed and lowering herself to the ground,
grabbed a bowl from her pack, and filled it with water. Thinking of
Tark, she saw him surrounded by different elves, among them were
Fala, Morgo, Morak, Nina, Taura, and several others she did not
recognize. It looked like they were inside a large tent, which made
sense considering what Mira told her the night before. The army of
elves would have surely left the village and were now on their way
to the battle for which Galena must be present at if they were to
come out victorious.

Putting down the bowl, Galena reached for her
pack and created several loaves of bread, cheese, and some fruit.
Most of it she put back in their packs, but left out a couple small
loaves for their morning meal. Shaking Elenio awake before she
pulled off the blankets to pack as well, she tossed him a loaf of
bread, which he barely caught.

“What’s the rush?” he asked before yawning
widely.

“The battle is about to begin. Tark has
already started toward the army Rau sent out.” She shoved the
blankets into their packs, and grabbing Twoit around the middle,
placed the tiny ferret on top of her blanket, and flipped the flap
over.

Elenio sat up, looking alarmed. “How did you
find that out?”

“Mira told me in a vision and then I checked
in the mirror waters.” Galena strapped the Sword of Lumina to her
waist. Bending over, she retrieved Elenio’s blade and tossed it to
him. He caught it with more success than the bread and quickly
prepared himself to go as well. “I hope you slept well because we
have a great deal of ground we need to cover today.” Galena looked
grimly at Elenio who returned the look, biting off a chunk of bread
as he did so. Sweeping his arm in a wide manner, he bowed his head,
indicating he expected her to lead the way.

They alternated between walking and running
through the entire day and into the night. Never stopping as Mira
suggested. Galena told Elenio of her latest encounter with Mira,
and found he was just as disturbed by the goddess’s appearance or
lack of appearance as she had been earlier. The urgency she felt
was catching and Elenio pushed on as well, both hesitant to even
stop late in the night to sleep for a couple of hours.

“We have to or we’re not going to get very
far tomorrow. If I remember correctly, we still have a couple days
ahead of us until we reach the valley Mira indicated they would
be.”

“I know. I just hate the thought of Tark
going into battle without us, or I should say without me. I still
have some revenge I’d like to take out on those great hulking
beasts for the strangle hold they put on me,” Elenio said, a
faraway look on his face.

“I already took care of those,” Galena said
smirking. She put the protective barriers around them while
creating a bed for them.

“Well, we can’t all be hugely powerful so
I’ll have to take my revenge on the ones I come across and pretend
they’re the same ones.”

Galena rolled her eyes at this statement. She
bit off a piece of cheese and climbed into the bed, not even
bothering with a blanket. The days were starting to get warmer.
With the ring of fire and air hut, it was almost too warm. Elenio
climbed in beside her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her
close to him. Galena threw an arm around his waist after she
stuffed the rest of her cheese in her mouth. She chewed quietly,
listening to the sound of Elenio’s breath becoming slow and
regular, assuring her he’d fallen asleep. The words of Mira rang
through her mind as she too drifted into slumber.

Much sooner than she would have normally
arose, Galena sat up, the urgency she felt the day before increased
tenfold. She assumed this was a feeling sent from Mira because it
served as a convenient wake up call. Judging by the dim light
surrounding them, it was just before dawn.

Shaking Elenio gently until he began to stir,
she once again made ready for their long journey.
If we can keep
the same pace as we did yesterday, we might make it to the battle
on time,
Galena thought.

She heard Elenio groan as he rolled over and
sat up. Swinging his legs over the edge, he stretched his arms high
into the air while yawning widely. Galena watched him grimace when
he stood.

“Oh, I’m stiff,” he moaned more to himself.
He continued to stretch his legs and arms, bending this way and
that in order to stretch the tired muscles in his back.

Galena thought of the muscles repairing
themselves from running the day before and quickened up the pace of
it, so relief replaced the grimace Elenio wore just moments before.
She did the same to her own muscles, the same relief buzzed through
her own body.

“Are you up to getting energized again?”
Galena asked while she packed their belongings.

“Are you kidding? With the workout we had
yesterday and the two hours of sleep last night, I wasn’t sure how
far we would make it today. I think that’s a great idea.”

Nodding in agreement, Galena thought of life
giving energy flowing into their blood. Instantly, she felt more
alive, her senses were more alert. The blue sky looked brighter and
the trees surrounding them were richer brown. She took a deep
breath and noticed even the air smelled sweeter. Galena felt she
could run for hours, days, or even weeks. Looking at Elenio, she
saw the same alert expression on his face.

He smiled at her and reaching down to grab
his sword and scabbard, strapped them around his waist as Galena
collected the rest of their things.

“Remember this won’t last forever, so we need
to be someplace safe when we come down from the energy burst.”
Galena looked around and seeing the direction of the sun, headed
off at an incredible sprint with Elenio on her heels.

That day and the majority of the night, they
covered twice as much ground as they had the day before. Galena
believed she could go on running through the night and the next
day, but Elenio proved to be the voice of reason on this
matter.

“We could, but the crash that’s going to
follow this huge burst of energy will be even harder on our bodies.
We have to rest for a least a short while and get something to
eat,” he responded to her unspoken thoughts.

Galena was annoyed, but agreed, knowing he
was right. Grabbing Twoit from her pack, she put the ferret on the
ground. She noticed the ferret was still half-asleep so she
proceeded to get the food and campfire ready.

Elenio grabbed a couple pieces of fruit from
his own pack, tossing an apple to Galena, which she nearly missed
because she hadn’t been paying attention.

“Hey, next time warn me,” she said grouchily
at him.

To which he tossed another apple at her,
succeeding in smacking her in the back of the head. She turned to
glare at him and found him smiling broadly down at her.

“Ooops.”

“Ooops this,” she said under breath. Standing
quickly, she flung her hand in the air, directing the wind up and
under Elenio, and raising him high into the air. She directed the
air toward a tree, noting the reaction Elenio had by covering his
face with his arms, and yelling for her to put him down all the
while. Instead of slamming him into the tree as he obviously
thought she was about to do, she made the wind deposit him on the
highest branch that would support his weight. Keeping the wind
there and ready in case he should lose his balance, she looked up
at him and returned his previous smile with a wide one of her own.
“Have fun getting down.” She turned and walked back to the
campfire, retrieved the apple he had hit her in the head with, and
took a giant bite before sitting down to watch Elenio’s slow
progress climbing out of the tree.

After a short while, Galena gave in to
Elenio’s grumblings when he got half way down from his previous
position. She sent a gust of wind to help him the rest of the way
to the ground. She had the wind drop him on his butt though, making
her feel better about giving in and helping him in the first
place.

“You used to be a lot more fun before you
used magic for everything,” he said, still wearing a sour
expression on his face.

“Like I said before, a lot more fun for you
maybe, but I’m enjoying it this way.” Galena crawled over and sat
down beside him, handing him a piece of sweet bread.

He ripped off a chunk, still glowering at the
campfire. “Do you think, if you defeat Rau, and you had better beat
him, I’ll be able to do magic too?”

“I don’t know. I’ve thought about it, but I
don’t know the answer. I guess we’ll find out if we succeed. I’m
trying not to think that far ahead. It feels like I’m setting
myself up for failure if I do.”