Helnion was looking though Salis' bag. There were lots of neat things inside, but did not know how Salis had carried all of this herself with her still being so small. She looked at the small daggers, the various things Salis had put together that she had no idea what they did, the now soggy clothes, and the multitude of magic orbs.

These orbs were what she had kept looking in here for. She thought she could use them to help get rid of the people chasing them. She knew that she did not need to use the crystals as they had taught her from a young age to use magic, but concentrating tired her faster than just putting her energy in an orb that did all the work for her.

Helnion took out a fire orb. It was the only one she could see that she could see taking out a carriage. She did not have enough magical energy to use it for long, but she hoped it would help.

Helnion got bored waiting for the black carriages to catch up. She had dozed off with Salis waking her up a short time later. The carriages were now close. By now the sun was well up and she could see as well as she ever would.

She looked closely at the front carriage and saw him sitting on the roof. It was the man that had been in the carriage before. The Bad Kitty. He did not scare her. She would put the talking cat that had become a man down as a fond memory if they lived through this.

The man had seen her too. He did not look happy. She did not care. She just wanted him to go away and for her to go back to her life at school with Salis.

“Will you stop if I ask nicely?” the man yelled at her.

The carriages were still a distance away. Helnion was still drowsy. She had not had a very good dream and wanted to see if she could go back to sleep and try again.

She had not come close to dozing before Salis called to her again. Helnion was getting grumpy. She had tired of sleeping on a soggy seat and from being in this confined space. It was all their fault. She had to make them go away somehow.

She looked back out the door. The black carriages were now almost upon them and had moved around both sides of the carriage. There were now figures in black on the roof of each carriage. The man was on the roof of the one closest to the door.

Helnion picked up the fire crystal again. She wondered how far she could shoot flames from it.

“Salis, how far?” She held out the fire crystal.

Salis looked at it. “How far? Not very. It also only goes up,” Salis thought for a second, “Put it in the tube in my bag with a wind crystal.”

Helnion immediately remembered the tube. It was almost the same as the one they had shot those rotten vegetables and fruit out of only a little smaller and had room for two crystals.

It was easy to find the tube. The top was sticking out of the bag. She also quickly found a wind crystal.

With the tube in her hand, Helnion walked back to the door. The carriage with the man on it was very close now and it would only be another few minutes until it would be close enough for him to jump onto theirs again.

“Have fun,” Salis said in her always emotionless voice.

Helnion climbed onto the roof of the carriage. They were all close and in a few minutes she would have more than the man to worry about.

The crystal orbs looked to be high quality. While she did not have as much magical energy as Salis, she could almost match her for output. If only she could have Salis' concentration and she would be formidable at magic.

Helnion had gotten distracted again. She had noticed the figures all stand and prepare to jump. They were now close enough for her to torch the carriages, but it was too late for that. The cat man jumped.

It was mostly reflex as there was no way her mind had yet registered what the movement was. Helnion had reflexively spun towards the jumping man and put her magical energy into the two orbs in the tube.

There was a sudden heat, and she heard air moving quickly. The tube was shooting fire. The man was now also on fire and at the moment he had landed Helnion took advantage of his shock and her damp clothes and ran into the now flaming man, knocking him off the carriage.

“Bad Kitty!” Helnion yelled at him as she watched him hit the water.

Helnion was proud of herself. She smiled and did her best evil laugh, which Salis had taught her to do at times like this.

Distracted again. Movement pulled her out of her celebration. The other carriages were now close enough for the others to jump onto the roof with her. The flame tube would not fool them again.

The next closest man jumped onto the roof. Helnion shot fire at him but he had a shield of wind ready and the fire was blown harmlessly away from him.

The tube was no longer any good. Helnion would now have to rely on her abilities and what magical energy she had. She knew some good techniques, but she did not have the magical energy and was still sleepy.

Helnion realized something. They were over a river. Water manipulation was easy. She just had to use it before they did.

The man in front of her had a knife pulled out. She could see in his eyes he did not mind killing her. She did not want to die, so she had to be quick.

A great jet of water burst from the river. It hit the man in the back and flung him towards Helnion who jumped out of the way with a squeak.

What Helnion had not expected, besides not realizing the man would be pushed in her direction, was that the jet of water would also hit the carriage the man had just jumped off of and knock it into her carriage. It was all Helnion could do to not fall off of the roof.

Two more men jumped on the roof. Helnion could feel one of them, maybe both, use magic. A large jet of water came at her from the river and a jet of fire came from the other at her. She knew she could only avoid one of the two. Water hurt less than fire. She did not have time to make a shield of water so she would have to make one from wind. She did not know if it would be strong enough to stop the fire.

She had been in time. An invisible wall of air formed in front of her. The fire hit it and was blown up and away from her.

The water came moments later. The wall of wind did nothing to stop it. It hit her hard. Helnion soon flew off the side of the carriage, but before she could hit the water below she hit the side of the carriage that the first man had jumped off of. The force of the water was strong enough that instead of just bouncing off of the side she burst through the wall.

Helnion felt sharp pains all over her body as the broken wood from the wall pierced and cut her skin. She had been lucky. Despite the pain she had not fallen in the water, which would have been worse. She had not been worried about not being able to swim but leaving Salis alone.

Helnion could still fight. She did not know how injured she was, but she could still move. At the moment she was safer than Salis and the enemies would probably ignore her for the moment. Except for the man driving the carriage she was now in.

This would hopefully be an easy fight. It was one on one and she did not have to worry about driving a carriage.

The man had already pulled out his short sword. There was no way he had missed her entrance. Helnion did not know how well she could fight him, but she would try.

Helnion grabbed a sharp piece of wood and stood up painfully. She then noticed something by her feet. It was the tube with the fire and wind crystals in it. She did not want to use it inside the carriage and wind could not directly kill someone, but she still had to thank Salis. While throwing vegetables at people from the air canon they had to be careful with what they had shot so they would hurt nobody. What she would do now was the same as shooting rotten vegetables but with more deadly ammo.

Helnion tore a piece of her shirt off and put it around the end of her sharp piece of wood and shoved it inside the tube. She pointed the tube at the man driving and got ready to fire.

There was a sudden gust of wind. The driver had summoned of a wall of wind to protect himself. Helnion did not know if the piece of wood could make it through the wind.

She put her magical energy into the wind crystal. She heard a thump and saw the piece of wood slightly embed itself in the man's back. Helnion then took the opportunity and jumped at the man.

She easily cleared the raging wind of the wind shield and landed on the man's back. Helnion grabbed the piece of wood sticking out of his back and pressed on it with all her weight.

This was enough to get him to release the controls. Helnion had only seconds to defeat him and take over before the carriage would hit the water.

Helnion jumped off the man. She had no physical weapon to fight him with and even if she did, she could not see herself beating him. It was also too cramped in here to use magic effectively. She would have to go outside.

She backed up to the hole she had made in the wall. She could see the river outside and saw that she still had time before they hit the water.

The man was not following her. In fact, he sat back down at the controls! He was more concerned about driving than her.

She needed to get the man away from the controls. The air cannon was too weak so, since she couldn’t think of anything else to do to him, she would have to do something from the outside.

She climbed out through the hole. Like most carriages, there was a narrow platform that ran down the side. She walked down the platform and stood beside the door.

She heard a bang behind her. It came from their carriage. The door was hanging open and she could see two men inside and there was another on the roof getting ready to climb down. Helnion did not know what made the bang, but it meant that she needed to hurry even more. She no longer had the time to try to steal this carriage. Salis needed her help more now.

There was not much distance between her and their carriage. She could make it across if she boosted herself with wind…

Helnion felt Salis' energy. It seemed Salis was at a good time to use her power as Helnion soon saw a huge jet of water appear under their carriage, launching it into the air and shattering its wooden frame nearly breaking it in two.