Miras Last (5 page)

Elenio jerked his head once in response to
this. They continued eating in silence until they finished.
Deciding that it would be pointless to create a bed just for a
couple of hours, they slept on the ground that night.

The next morning rays greeted Galena and
Elenio as they continued their race through the forest. They ran
on, determination and the knowledge that they may not make it
before the crash from the energizing hit them, kept them going at a
relentless pace. They continued through the day once more, sleeping
a couple of hours during the night and starting before the morning
dawned on the third day. It was halfway through this morning, when
they heard the sound they dreaded. The clash of swords and the
sound of creatures dying. Looking grimly at Elenio as they raced,
Galena picked up the pace and ran faster than she ever had. Tark
was out there.

Chapter
Four

Tark stood in front of all the elves, eyeing
the enemy across the stream with a fierce determination. Morak’s
archers sent word that the dark beasts were preparing to strike
that morning. It was a fact Tark already knew from Mira’s warnings
the night before. Morak and his group were hidden strategically
throughout the valley hills, posed and ready to strike from afar.
Tark looked back and saw Taura eyeing the torlics and earagos with
distaste and hatred. Morgo stood on his other side. He too looked
grim, but ready, passing his sword from one hand to the other.

It was what they’d been training for and yet,
Tark felt sorely lacking. There had not been any word or sighting
of Galena. That morning, before the sun even peeked above the land
of Tomiro, Tark instructed Morgo to pull up an image of Galena. As
far as they could tell, she was running at an incredible speed with
Elenio close to her. However, as far as their exact location, they
could see nothing other than they were in the woods somewhere. Even
knowing she was on her way wasn’t exactly helpful.

Tark took his blade out of the scabbard and
glanced down the row of elves on either side of him. He saw several
scared faces, but many more wore expressions of the deepest
loathing. There were plenty of signs indicating they were nervous,
such as the relentless swaying back and forth as well as the
continued glancing to the left and right at their neighbors. Tark
expected nothing less and even had to stop himself from displaying
the same nervous manners. He felt as the leader, he should display
a calm demeanor, even though his insides continually threatened to
explode from him.

Switching his blade to his dominant hand, he
regarded the torlics in front of him. They sneered at him, pointing
and laughing openly at them. The earagos, standing a little ways
off, looked menacingly at the different elves. As far as he could
see on the other side of the bank, stood monsters. There were
narooks, earagos, torlics, and every other imaginable dark
creature, all prepared to attack at a moment’s notice. Blades
glinted and flashed in the weak morning light. He watched as they
shifted and moved, anxiously awaiting for some signal telling them
they could charge. When he glanced around at his own smaller army,
he felt his heart sink. They covered roughly the area directly
surrounding their side of the bank and no more. They needed more
help, but there was none to be had. If they somehow survived this
ordeal, it would be by the hands of the gods.

Somewhere in the distance, he heard the first
dark creature bellow a loud battle cry, causing the rest of its
comrades to respond in kind, as they charged across the stream
toward the elves on the other side.
Here we go
, he
thought.

Tark ran toward the oncoming Torlic and met
him head on, swinging his blade out and up, burying it deep within
the great brute’s vivid, red belly. Pulling it out, he blocked the
next oncoming sword, before spinning around and taking the leg off
the creature attacking him. Everywhere he turned; there was another
dark creature attacking one elf or another. Eyes searching, he
quickly found Taura and his heart swelled with pride. She was
holding her own and others’ as well. His father would have been
pleased. She twisted around, cutting the hand off a narooks, and
beheading another with the same swipe. She caught his eye for a
moment and smiled briefly before thrusting her sword into the leg
of a Torlic charging her.

Cutting down two more attacking creatures, he
looked out of the corner of his eye and saw Morgo taking on a giant
earagos with the help of Fala, Hasa, and Weila. Fala struck
repeatedly with brute strength, while Hasa and Weila became the
winds of destruction they were known to be. They slashed, swiped,
and moved all before the earagos could think to swat at the place
they’d been. Wherever Morgo’s sword struck, caught flame
immediately causing the earagos to become angrier and rasher with
every moment. Arrows pelted its back from different directions
above and burst into flames when they became imbedded into its
flesh, causing it further pain. It had been Tark’s idea to cause
the arrows to catch fire as soon as they met flesh of anything, but
Morgo took the thought a step further and decided it would also be
beneficial for swords to be embedded with the same kind of fire.
This idea took hold immediately and with the help of Pangoro, they
accomplished this task in a little under a day.

Tark hacked down a narooks and two more
torlics, blood spraying him from every direction.
We’re pushing
the enemy lines back. We’re holding our own,
Tark thought with
grim satisfaction.

A savage smile alighted his face and he cried
out a wild battle cry before attacking a torlic that was retreating
slightly. He jumped up and swung out, taking the head from his
shoulders as he did so. He landed lightly on his feet, the head of
his victim laying uselessly beside him, the body crashing down in
front of him. He heard the sound of an earagos crashing behind him.
Apparently, Morgo and the others were successful. The air around
him was filled with the scent of blood and gore. Everywhere Tark
turned, he saw evidence of it. From what he could tell by a quick
glance, none of his elves were seriously injured in the fray.

It was then he heard screams filled with
panic in his mind before he heard them fill the valley all around.
Fear surged through his stomach and he felt the air in his throat
constrict painfully. Looking up and around, his nightmare became a
reality. A smiling earagos held his prize, Taura, by her neck. She
scrabbled with the giant fingers that squeezed tighter with her
struggles, causing her to still and focus on saving her own life.
Tark tried to send calming thoughts to his love, but her mind was
filled with fear. To his dismay, panic took hold and he found
himself sprinting toward her at full pace. The earagos must have
caught her from behind. She was facing Tark, her eyes full of
fear.

Tark leaped into the air, intent on taking
the head of this giant beast, but crashed into a wall of blackness.
He fell to the ground, his body throbbing painfully from the
impact. Morgo was getting up beside him and moving every bit as
slowly. He apparently saw Taura’s situation as well and was
attempting to come to her aid too. Tark got up quickly, but found
he could not move. His arms and legs were held tight by the same
blackness he’d crashed into. An icy feeling crept around his neck
and squeezed menacingly as he struggled to free himself. He could
feel the life draining from Taura, but could do nothing to
help.

Looking around as much as the icy blackness
around his neck would allow, he saw every elf within sight seemed
to be in the same predicament. Even the archer elves, so carefully
hidden, had stopped shooting. To his relief, the enemy had also
stopped fighting, but they stood staring at the sky. A great, black
cloud unlike anything Tark had ever seen formed above the earagos’s
head.

Tark watched in horror as every shadow within
the valley raced to the sky to join with the ever-growing, black
mass. It stretched its smoky tentacles in every direction until the
once blue sky was dark. Directly above the earagos, a giant face
took shape. Its massive, black eyes the size of dinner table tops,
peered down at the elves before smiling cruelly at them. It held
the essence of fear itself and Tark quaked in spite of himself.
Glancing toward Morgo, he saw the same fear there on his features.
Dreading what was to come; he returned his gaze back to Taura and
continued his struggles against the shadowy hands trapping him. He
would not give up.

“Behold your future!” the face of Rau
bellowed, indicating the struggling figure of Taura bellow.

If Tark’s hands had been free, he would have
covered his ears in pain. As it was, he had to take the full force
of Rau’s voice. It was deep and menacing, causing the rocks
surrounding them to shake and shatter with the sheer volume of it.
He groaned in pain, feeling his ears pop ominously.

“You are nothing compared to me! Did you
really think you could come even close to defeating me? What chance
did you have if your ancestors in their prime could not win? I will
crush the life from you like this elf.”

Tark’s eyes rolled back; the pain of his
eardrums bursting caused him to black out momentarily. He felt the
hot stickiness of blood and other fluids flowing from his ears and
down his neck.

“Fools, first I will deal with you and then I
will deal with those you left behind, thinking them safe,” the
giant being spat out in disgust.

This time, Tark was relieved to find the
voice sounded muffled, as if it was underwater. He heard Rau
chuckle mercilessly.

“I shall begin with this one.”

Tark watched with a horrified feeling as the
earagos holding his love, begin to squeeze harder. Taura kicked and
thrashed, her movements becoming weaker and weaker. Tark tried to
yell, but the shadow at his throat prevented him. He saw Morgo
twitching beside him, his face red from concentration, but to no
avail. Rau prevented them from any means of escape or the ability
to fight back. Tears streamed down Tark’s face while he continued
his fight against the shadows, he would never give up. Taura’s
voice begin to fade in his mind as her life started dwindling away.
He fought harder. He had to get loose. The shadow around his throat
tightened until he could no longer breathe himself. Catching
Taura’s eye, he watched her even as she focused on him. He was
determined he would not take his eyes off her until he himself
passed into the Land of the Gods.

* * * *

Galena raced through the forest, following
the sound of the swords striking one another. Branches and brush
reached out at her from all directions, scratching every exposed
body part and pulling at her clothing, but she took no notice. She
had to get there before something happened to Tark or any of her
friends. On she ran, the sounds of battle getting louder with each
step. She heard Elenio crashing through the forest somewhere behind
her, but she didn’t stop or even slow to check where. She had to
get there. They needed her. Mira warned her that her timing was
essential; they would not succeed without her. On she raced, the
grunts and shouts encouraging her forward. She sped past the last
tree and into the clearing before the valley. She could see a hill
rising up just before the valley edge ahead of her when all went
quiet. It was an eerie kind of silence. One that sent chills down
her back and caused the hair on her head to prickle
uncomfortably.

“Behold your future!” boomed an incredible
voice.

Galena stopped dead in her tracks, clamping
her hands over her ears at the first syllable.

“You are nothing compared to me! Did you
really think you could come even close to defeating me? What chance
do you have if your ancestors in their prime could not win? I will
crush the life from you like this elf.”

Galena pressed her hands over her ears even
harder, but even that couldn’t stop the terrible voice from making
her ears ache. She crouched low to the ground, trying to hide from
the voice that echoed all around and even seemed to vibrate within
her chest. She glanced around at Elenio and saw that he too was
covering his ears. He grimaced at her when the booming voiced
called out once more.

“Fools, first I will deal with you and then I
will deal with those that you left behind, thinking them safe. I
shall begin with this one.”

Panic took hold of Galena then as she thought
of all the elves below. Risking her hearing, she removed her pack
and throwing it to the ground where she crouched; she got up and
raced toward the hill. Coming to the edge, she halted and took in
the sight below. On one side of the stream bank were hundreds of
elves all in various states of being held by something unseen,
although Galena had a good guess at what was keeping them from
attacking. Across from the elves as well as intermingled with them
were thousands of dark creatures. There were torlics, narooks,
earagos, and other horrifying creatures. They made the land and all
their surroundings appear black and frightening. Above it was a
dark, shadowy mass. It was in this that Galena saw the face of Rau
and knew where the voice came from. She clenched her fists angrily
as she took in the whole of the situation. She watched for a moment
as the face that covered the entirety of the battlegrounds, smiled
wickedly down at an earagos. It had to be the same one Galena
assumed would be crushing the life out of an elf as Rau instructed
when Galena realized with a jolt, the elf swinging lifelessly from
its clutches was Taura.

She pulled the Sword of Lumina from its
scabbard, readying it for what was to come. Instantly, she felt the
tingle of energy flow through her from the blade, making her feel
even more alive than her energizing magic had.
This could be
addictive,
she thought to herself. Causing a great gale of wind
to pick her up, it followed the image in her mind, sweeping her
over the heads of all the elves within the valley. She saw eyes
from everywhere widen in response to her sudden appearance as she
flew past them. Smiles begin to appear on otherwise fearful faces
when they realized who it was. Flying faster than she had ever
tried before, she crossed the valley in a matter of seconds,
slowing only when she neared her target. Stopping the wind
completely when she was within a foot of the looming giant, she
landed gracefully in front of him.