NOVEL NEXT Chapter 41: New Companions
The distant rumbling of battle echoed throughout the next three days as we traveled through the wilderness. Like a distant storm that was always present, its power and intensity grew stronger with each passing moment before slowly fading into nothing, leaving us in an eerie silence. Isa had quickly recovered from her injuries; the Rejuvenate spell that the voice had taught me had done wonders on her body. So much so, that she mentioned that she no longer even felt the pain in her knees and back she had experienced over the past couple of years.
I couldn't tell if she was joking or not. Yet judging by her movements and acrobatics she'd perform at night to entertain me, I guess she wasn't. I guess I made her feel ten years younger—what an interesting spell. I thought as I watched Isa run up a tree and kick-off of it before doing a flip mid-air and landing gracefully on her feet.
She sighed happily as she bowed, and I clapped. She straightened up and came over to me, where I sat around a fire while rolling her shoulders.
"I hadn't felt this loose in ages." She smiled at me as she took a seat.
"I can tell you're bouncing all over the place whenever you get the chance," I said with a giggle as I checked our roasting Ganari Isa had hunted this morning. The large duck-looking bird smelt delicious as I prodded it with a stick and said, "Looks like our food is done. Ready to eat?"
Isa nodded and rubbed her stomach as she sat down, her fluffy tail wrapping around her waist like a belt. "Hell yes, I've worked up quite the appetite," she said, and I smiled widely.
I noticed that ever since I saved Isa's life a few days ago, she had loosened up quite a bit around me. No longer was she speaking to me like the child she once knew; instead, she'd been acting more like a big sister, an equal. It was a bit odd at first, but seeing her be so casual around me has been nice. She helped me take the large creature off of the fire, and with her knife, we carved it up into edible chunks.
The evening sun was setting in the distance, casting a warm golden glow over our makeshift campsite as we quietly ate our food. I enjoyed the peaceful tranquility of the moment, savoring every bite under the fading light as the sounds of crickets and other nighttime critters woke up. Now and again, a distant boom of a cannon was heard, yet thankfully, nothing escalated beyond that.
Yet as we finished our meal and tossed the bones aside for some scavengers to take, I wiped my mouth and asked, "How long do you think it'll be till we find this path?" I began to stow our leftovers away in the enigma bag.
Isa took a deep breath. "The path the voice mentioned is probably not far. Any further, and we'll be hitting the Alter River in a few more days. So, I guess we'll be seeing it soon. Have you heard from him again?"
I shook my head. "No. He's been silent ever since I helped you." I closed the enigma bag and looked at her. "I think I might've upset him."
"Why do you think that?" Isa asked before stifling a belch, which made her giggle and pat her stomach.
I sighed and smirked as I shook my head and shrugged. "I dunno. He originally wanted me to leave you for dead." Isa's eyes widened. "But I convinced him not to, and well… he said I reminded him of someone."
Isa frowned at first but then took a deep breath and shrugged. "I guess if he thought there was no way of saving me, I probably would've left myself as well." Isa paused for a moment, lost in thought. "Did he say who you reminded him of?"
I slowly shook my head, and she nodded. "Well, hopefully he isn't going to mope around too much. We may be further away from the monsters, but his early alert system has been very useful."
I nodded in agreement. "That is true, but there's another issue." Isa's ears swiveled in my direction. "He said he's been having issues finding some of the monsters. Apparently, when they're asleep, their souls go dormant, and he can't see them anymore."
Isa pursed her lips and laid back on the grass with her hands laced behind her head. "Well, that is a problem. So, we can't rely on him entirely." Isa took another deep breath. "I'm sure we'll manage, though. We've made it this far." She smiled at me.
Seeing Isa's smile, I couldn't help but return it and nod. "You're right; we got this." I said, getting to my knees, crawling over beside Isa, and lying down in the grass beside her. Together, we gazed up at the purple and blue sky; already, we could see stars appearing in the twilight, and for the remainder of that night, we watched the stars until, at some point, we both fell asleep.
A loud explosion followed by trembling earth shocked us both awake as the sound of a single, massive cannon echoed across the river. This was not the first time this had happened, so we quickly got to our feet and kicked out the fire before grabbing our bags. Yet, despite almost becoming routine, my heart still raced as another explosion sounded off someplace to the northeast. Overhead, the sound of whistling air caught my attention as artillery shells screamed past us before being followed by another distant boom.
The army is shelling the enemy again from over the river. I thought as Isa, and I grabbed our gear and began to move. Voice guy, are you there? Are there any monsters nearby?
No response. Dammit, please don't be asleep or something!
Still no response.
"He's still gone," I said to Isa as we quickly marched through the foliage and continued westward.
"It's okay. As of now, I don't think we need him," she said, just as a distant howl of a fighting machine alerted us to their proximity.
I cursed under my breath as more artillery shells zipped overhead, each one causing me to flinch slightly as we continued moving. I bit my lower lip as Isa helped me over a log, and as we turned to rush through a large set of bushes, we gasped as an older gentleman broke through the thicket beside us and crashed into us.
Isa and I yelled as the man accidentally rammed into her, and the two of them went tumbling down. I screamed out for Isa and reached for her as the two of them landed in the mud and dirt. Isa got to her knees; her face was covered in mud, but thankfully she seemed to be okay. She looked at the man on the ground, whom we both saw was carrying a child.
The man, who I saw was an elf due to his long, pointed ears like mine, gripped the silent child with trembling hands, his eyes filled with a mixture of fear and shock as he looked at us. The kid he held was motionless; I could see by her pale face that she was still breathing, yet shallowly.
"S-sorry… sorry…. Sorry…" The man repeated this as he got to his feet and flinched as more artillery screeched overhead.
Isa held her hands up. "It's okay; you're okay." She wiped the mud off her face and tried to smile reassuringly.
The sounds of distant screams caused my ears to twitch, and I glanced northward. Machinegun fire echoed as more cries of fear came our way, along with the sounds of roaring fighting machines.
"They're taking people… taking… taking away… making… more… at factory!" The man spoke, his voice heavily accented. He trembled as he gripped the unconscious girl in his arms. "Run. I must run… away. Get away!"
I looked at the man and saw that the girl looked to be my age and was wrapped in a white and red blanket. Or what was supposed to only be white? She's bleeding. I thought. The girl is injured.
"She's hurt," I said, pointing to the kid in his arms. "We need to get her somewhere safe. I-I can maybe help her."
Isa glanced at me and back towards the man who was already turning to leave, and she reached out to him. "Mister, wait, we can help you." Another howl from a fighting machine, one much closer this time, startled us as more screams from victims made my blood run cold.
"No time!" The man shouted over the sounds of chaos, his voice filled with urgency and fear. "Must run, get away!"
We heard sounds of movement through the trees around us as other refugees began to appear. I turned around to see a man in a dark suit dragging a woman in a white dress along. The woman was sobbing uncontrollably, and the man's face was pale with fear as his bowl hat fell from his head.
I felt my stomach drop as I looked back at the older gentleman as he gripped the young girl tightly and began to run through the trees. Isa turned and grabbed my hand tightly as the distant thumping of a fighting machine began to move toward us. The sound of falling trees and snapping wood made my heart hammer against my ribs as we followed behind the man.
Around us, more people fleeing from the carnage up north began to come into view. A vast number of individuals running from the invaders rushed through trees; among them, I saw soldiers. Men who had dropped their guns and were also running for their lives along with us.
"Get to the river!" I heard a distant man shouting desperately. "To the river!"
"Wh-what's happening? I thought we were ahead of them?!" I cried as I ran alongside Isa, confused and scared.
"I don't know!" She huffed as we continued behind the man carrying the child.
A loud crash and boom caused the ground to shudder as a massive tree fell behind us. A deathly howl caused my heart to leap with fear and my mind to fill with panic as the roar of a fighting machine came right behind us. With a hard yank, I felt Isa nearly rip my arm from its socket as the two of us tumbled to the ground off to the side behind a fallen log. I screamed though I was silenced as Isa pulled me close and clamped her clawed hand over my mouth.
"Shhh!" She hushed me as two more people ran past us, then came a middle-aged man who sprinted past, yet suddenly, in a flash, a massive, clawed tendril shot forth and clamped around him. The man let off a shrill scream as he was yanked upwards into the air.
I couldn't control myself as I screamed into Isa's hand and tried to pull away as I watched the man be whipped around the air a few dozen or so feet off the ground like a ragdoll as a massive crab-like machine came stomping into view. Unlike the other fighting machines, this one was wider and held two massive cages on its rounded back. Cages filled with screaming, helpless people.
Men, women, children, and the elderly. Farmers, soldiers, and even wealthy individuals of all races screamed and frantically pulled at the iron bars as the massive monster brought the dangling man over one of the cages and dropped him inside after it opened.
"Somebody help us!" A woman screamed at the top of her lungs. I could see her gripping the bars and shaking them, her face red and tear-stained. "Gods help us! Please—" Her voice was drowned out by the machine's horrific roar as it continued to stomp past us as it continued to knock over trees and crushed bushes. Thankfully, it did not notice Isa or me cowering beneath the log as it pursued the others who fled ahead of us towards the south.
My heart raced frantically, my body quivering as tears ran down my face. The picture of the woman burned forever in my mind as Isa released me, yet I could hardly breathe. I was sucking in the air, but I felt like I couldn't let it out.
"Luna, breathe. Luna…" Isa whispered.
We could still hear them—the dozens of people screaming for help. I covered my ears.
Shut up. Shut up!
Isa wrapped her arms around me and picked me up off the ground. I closed my eyes as I felt her carrying me somewhere, hopefully away from the nightmare I had just witnessed.
Yet eventually, after several minutes, the sounds faded, and I felt myself calming down, and Isa placed me back on my feet.
"They're really taking people," I muttered softly. "Why are they taking them? Where are they taking them?"
Isa took my hand gently and continued to walk briskly. "I don't know," she said softly. "I know just as much as you do, Luna."
Once again, we heard rustling through the bushes, and this time Isa drew the pistol and spun around, aiming it at whoever was following us, we heard a sharp gasp as I turned to see the older elven man and child from before.
"Don't shoot!" He hissed. "Friendly. I friendly."
The man was still carrying the wounded girl as he cautiously stepped towards us. Isa sighed with relief and raised the gun.
"You could've called out to us," she said sternly. "I could've killed you accidentally."
"Sorry." The man said it huskily. "Machine too fast. I hid, like you. Saw you run, I chose to follow."
I had never heard an accent like his before. I noted. Where is he from?
Isa nodded, and the man stepped forward. "You said you help me? Little Anne, she hurt. Badly," the man said pleadingly. "Shot she was. Mag bullet hit her."
Isa looked at me, and I gulped. "We should try and find a place to hunker down. Away from here." I suggested it shakily, and I took a few breaths to calm my nerves. "I can see about looking at her."
The man shook his head. "No time. She bleed lots," he said desperately. "Medicine. I need medicine." He looked toward Isa's bag. "You offered. You have medicine?"
Isa took a deep breath and looked at me. "Do you think you can focus for a short time? The thing went south while we went west; unless it turns this way, we should be good."
I took a deep breath and nodded. "I-I think I can." I turned to the man. "We have something better than medicine. We have magic."
The man's face lit up with relief. "Magic? Oh, thank gods. Haha…" He laughed as his eyes teared up. "Please, come, come. I set her down." He moved past us and towards the base of a large kefner tree and gently laid the pale elven girl down. It was here that I got a good look at her.
She was about my age; judging by her ears, she was a pureblood elf and had long, beautiful red hair. Her skin was pale, though most likely from blood loss, and she had partially open and pretty green eyes. Her blood-soaked hand was covering a cloth around her lower abdomen, which I guessed was a bandage around the gunshot wound.
I gulped nervously as I approached her, my mind trying to remember the words of the spell I used on Isa. As I drew nearer, the girl, Anne, as the man called her, slowly shifted her eyes to look at me. Showing she was somewhat conscious right now.
"Hello," I said to her shakily.
"I thought you do magic?" The older man said this to Isa, who shook her head.
"Nope. Luna, here is the little wizard." She pointed to me.
I kneeled beside the girl. "I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to place my hands on your wound, okay?" I said, and Anne simply blinked slowly and let off a shallow breath.
I reached down and moved her bloodied hand off the stained bandage and grimaced. I didn't even need to peel the bandage away to see how bad it was; my stomach churned at the gory sight, and I wanted to puke right then and now.
Yet I kept it down. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and tried my hardest to focus. I reached out with both hands, hovered them over the injury, and began to imagine the wound healing itself. I took a few deep breaths, focusing on each inhale and exhale as I cleared my mind. Deep within my belly, I felt the surge of energy come forth. The pleasurable sensations of power radiated through me gradually as goosebumps began to form up and down my body.
I heard faint gasps behind me from the man and Isa as I began to utter the words of the spell, Rejuvenate. Doing my best to recall each word, I stammered a little bit, yet thankfully the spell held as I finally ended and called upon the power, "Rejuvenate!" The green swirling pixies around me burst forth! Ascending upwards before coalescing into a tight ball and descending back down towards the injured girl.
The ball of energy pressed itself through the bandages and into the wound, and Anne let off a squeaky gasp as I heard the sounds of her flesh stitching itself back together. Yet not just around the gunshot wound. The scrapes, bruises, and other cuts on her body also began to mend themselves back together, and after a few moments, the girl was panting and groaning softly as the color began to return to her flesh.
Suddenly, the man cheered something in a language I didn't understand. It was familiar yet different like English mixed with something else. He then swapped back over to Maurich and said, "Amazing! I never saw magic before. I see magic, but not done like this, let alone from someone young." He clapped his hand, though Isa turned to him and brought a clawed finger to her lips.
"I know you're happy, but not so loud. We're not in the clear yet." She hissed, and the man raised his hands and apologized.
I shuddered as the pleasurable aftershocks of the spell casting caused me to quiver, and I smiled and said, "It's done. I did it!" I quietly cheered.
I saved another person!
I heard the man come up behind me and get down beside me. I suddenly felt him take both of my hands, and I turned to face him. I saw him smiling widely at me as he shook them. "Thank you! Thank you! You saved my niece! Thank you! I, Oscar. Forever in debt."
I blushed deeply as Oscar shook my hands over and over. "Y-You're welcome." I smiled faintly. "I-I'm always here to help."
Oscar nodded as he turned to his niece, Anne, who was roused back to conscience and looked around confused.
"Wh-where are we?" The girl asked in fluent Maurich. "Un-uncle?" She looked at me and then at Oscar.
The man laughed happily and quietly as he scooched towards the little girl and grabbed her hands gently. "I am here, Anne. Right here." He giggled gleefully. "Kind people, they help us!" He gestured to myself and Isa.
Anne looked confused but smiled gently upon seeing her happy uncle and shifted with a grunt as she leaned in and hugged him. The man returned her embrace and held her tightly.
Yet this touching moment was short-lived, as the distant howl of a fighting machine brought us back to the present. Isa stepped forward and said, "We know a way across the river back behind friendly lines. You can come with us."
Oscar looked over his shoulder and said, "We have no direction. We follow you anywhere."
Well, that was easy. I shifted nervously as I stood up alongside Oscar, who picked Anne up.
"Lead way! I follow!" He nodded as Isa began to jog ahead with me behind her, and soon our new foreign companion and niece joined in as the fighting machine's thumping grew louder and louder.