Excerpt from Alexan’s Fourth Journal, Tour of the Singing Plains.

That was a wonderful experience.

A blue-eyed Siren by the name of Verily has attached herself to my small party. A friendly sort, although she lacks the flowery speech of her peers. She asked to come with us and I told her I’d think about it if she could find someone to take me out flying on a glider.

Instead of finding me someone, she showed Katarcs how to make a glider and took me flying herself. Girl knows how to drive a bargain.

Unnamed Talkarn

“Truth borne from jokes,” Tal sighed.

He’d never liked the old Erlkin saying about how describing bad luck could make it come to fruition, and Tal liked it even less when it happened to him.

Tal paused as he looked down the bridge to the bough he least wanted to visit. The foliage on this branch was as thick as it came, creating tunnels, arches, paths and bridges that made the limb a maze in a tree of mazes. The perfect place for a dangerous monster to hide and hunt. And just to make things even more fun, at this time of night, it was a maze of shadows.

They had been running all day and nearly all night. Tal’s eyes hurt from infusing his eyes with mana. Holding an enchantment wasn’t going to be the problem there though. His feet felt sore and his legs felt like jelly. And of course, he couldn’t quite get a handle on his breathing anymore.

Nolsa wasn’t much better. Like him, she was damp with perspiration and her breathing came in ragged gasps.

“That’s what you get for tempting fate,” Layessa replied. There was no sting to her words, her tone was one of sympathy and worry. She just wanted to add a little levity to the moment.

“Let’s go,” Nolsa nudged Tal from behind.

Tal nodded his head and started downwards.

“Have you stopped?” Layessa whispered as she withdrew into the rucksack.

“What?” Easil asked.

“Oh, Easil,” Layessa’s whisper went from worry to fear.

Tal didn’t have a chance to ask what was wrong.

“Stop right there!” One their pursuers called out. The sound of multiple hooves on the wood behind them suggested yet another pair had joined up with more on the way. Last time he’d looked there had been six wardens approaching from various directions. That number was increasing far too quickly. Repeated flares had allowed the Erlkin to bunch up and surround Tal and Nolsa, limiting their avenues for escape.

Not for the first time that night, Tal started to run. His feet thumped on the wood of the bridge with Nolsa’s hooves clattering after him. The angle of the bridge was hardly the worst they’d endered while exploring the tree, but it was still enough to put a proper fear of falling into Tal’s gut. As if he hadn’t been afraid enough before stepping upon the bridge.

Fortunately they’d already talked about what the four of them needed to do when they were across to the other side.

“Come back here!” The warden shouted from behind them.

Running with near disregard for their safety down the blessedly-wide bridge, Tal paid the demand of the warden no mind.

Arriving at the base of the bridge to the next bough, Tal was unable to stop with all the momentum he’d picked up. Instead, he adjusted his path slightly to grab onto a large branch before he would tumble into a dip in the twisted surface of the bough. Nolsa wasn’t much better for being able to stop, but instead of grabbing onto something to use as a break, she chose to leap directly over the crevice in front of Tal.

Tal’s heart was beating faster than he thought possible. His lungs hurt and he desperately wanted something to drink, but there was no stopping here. Still, Tal wasn’t going to make that jump. Erlkin were just more agile than him overall. Tal scanned the area around him and quickly moved to the left where another twist of wood turned the crevice into a tunnel that disappeared downwards into the tree.

Tal took off jogging to catch up with Nolsa. She caught him as he jammed his foot into a dip in the wood.

“I’ll guide you,” Nolsa whispered, taking his hand in hers and pulling him into the tangle of the dark wood.

“You think it knows?” Tal asked with worry as he let her take the lead.

“They aren’t deaf,” Layessa asked from her hiding spot. “It definitely heard us crash.”

“Did the wardens follow us?” Tal whispered. “I didn’t think to look.”

“They weren’t happy about it, but yes they did,” Layessa answered.

“I wish I knew how to fight,” Tal’s voice cracked with frustration. “Then we wouldn’t have to run all the time.”

Nolsa squeezed his hand. “Training would never have been allowed. Now shush, follow me this way, and step carefully, the floor here is not safe.”

Tal concentrated on placing his feet carefully, squinting in the darkness to spot the subtle difference between a different colour of wood and an actual pit or stub of a limb. He wasn’t entirely successful, but with Nolsa’s help and his own focus he managed to keep from falling or calling out.

“I found them!” a woman’s voice called out. “I can see their warmth!”

“That’s just what we needed,” Nolsa said, her voice as conflicted as Tal felt.

Nolsa’s comment wasn’t one of sarcasm. They’d been counting on the Erlkin using an enchantment to find them in the tangle. It’s what came after that made the decision feel so terrible.

Nolsa pulled Tal away from the Erlkin who’d spoken. She dragged him until an arch of limbs and brambles, then pulled him through a small copse of branches. They did their best not to disturb the tree around them.

Looking up, Tal could just barely see the shadow of the main trunk ahead of them. Nolsa was steering them towards the core of the tree as they’d planned. The hope was that they could find a way to scurry past the wardens if their ploy was successful.

A sudden shout of alarm and fear came to no surprise for Tal and Nolsa. It was the same voice of the Erlkin woman who’d claimed to spot them. The problem was how close it was.

Nolsa yanked Tal sideways into the crevice of a massive burl. The great lump of wood provided several small little gaps for them to wiggle into.

Hooves clattered on wood as a pair of wardens ran past, in the direction from which Tal and Nolsa had come.

Moments later the real monster came out. Pushing itself along with its coils and hissing at its prey, the pale wyrm slithered past. Its serrated scales scratched at the wood as it moved. It was at least as big as the one encountered in the tree.

“It’s a wyrm!” someone shouted from behind.

When the wyrm had moved away Nolsa pulled Tal out of his hiding spot.

A flash of light illuminated the world around them, but only for a moment. Harsh yells and shouts sounded out behind them as the wardens started dealing with their most unpleasant surprise.

Nolsa started moving with Tal in tow-

And ran smack into another warden chasing the pale wyrm as he came through a hedge of branches. Surprised by the impact, the warden pointed and yelled, “You!”

Nolsa stepped back, and Tal jumped forward, smashing his shoulder into the surprised Erlkin and knocking him down. This time Tal gripped Nolsa’s hand tight and took off, just as the warden’s partner came through the hedge after him.

“We’ve found them!” the second warden shouted as they gave chase.

Branches whipped past his face and Tal stumbled a few times over hidden knots. His breath was a painful rasp in his throat. Nolsa recovered herself and caught up with him, taking the lead and pulling him through the tangle. Tal could feel the slope of the wood underneath change as they approached the side of the bough and Nolsa quickly had to adjust to avoid them falling off the side.

Tal hadn’t been thinking when he’d started running, but now that they’d started moving again, he realized his mistake. He could hear the shouting and crashing of the fight that had started between the wyrm and the wardens. More flickers of light flash through the foliage of the tree as the wardens fought the monster ahead of them.

The clattering hooves behind Tal were getting louder. The shouts ahead and to his right were getting closer.

[Chos** ***, **mp!]

Tal’s head jerked up. He knew that sound!

[G* ft and j*!]

Tal almost ate wood. His foot caught a loop in the wood and he stumbled for quite a few steps, only barely keeping his feet, but fetching up against a thick branch as a result.

Tal turned in time to see the two wardens catch up.

“You can’t run forever,” spoke the second, an older Erlkin with mostly black hair and backswept horns.

The message sounded in his head again and Tal looked at Nolsa. “Can you hear it?”

“Hear what?” Nolsa asked.

“My dumb luck!” Tal answered honestly, then took off towards the slope. “Just trust me!”

“What are you doing?!” Nolsa screamed.

The wardens shouted as well, but Tal wasn’t paying attention anymore. There was a screech of something else and the shouting of the wardens changed from anger to alarm.

Tal found a thick branch that had dreams of being a bridge of its own, but had nowhere to go. Running up the limb, Tal didn’t hesitate as he ran up the dead-end path.

[Now! Jump right!]

Tal jumped.

Nolsa screamed. So did Layessa.

A wedge flew out from the darkness, directly underneath Tal. He pulled Nolsa close as they dived towards it. The front of the wedge dipped, and before Tal could fully process what was happening, it was matching them as they fell. They were coming up on a very solid bough, very quickly.

Tal reached out for the dark thing underneath them and grabbed the edge of it. A glider! A giant version of Layessa’s kite!

“Grab it!” Tal shouted at Nolsa, she’d pulled herself close to him and had yet to open her eyes. She looked, and she grabbed.

“Hold on you crazy idiots!” a gruff old voice shouted with anger.

The glider lifted, the nose rising as it struggled to avoid smashing into the tree limb under them. Tal felt a rush of unnatural wind kick up, adding an extra bit of life.

“Grrrraaaagh!” the voice shouted.

The glider pulled up and Tal involuntarily clenched his eyes as they whipped through the smaller branches sticking out from the bough.

Tal expected to die.

Fortunately that didn’t happen.

“Are we alive?” Layessa called from Tal’s rucksack. He couldn’t believe his relief at hearing her voice.

“No wonder you got away from Darisen! You’re Incarnates-be-damned crazy you damned chosen!”

Tal opened his eyes as the angry voice of an elder male shouted at him. Just in time to see a shadow hawk land on the very tip of the glider and crouch low. A ripple of mana pulsed out from the bird, surrounding Tal and Nolsa and then extending past Tal’s feet and probably around the whole glider.

[Crazy enough to listen to voices in his head, but that lack of hesitation saved him,] Tal blinked as the voice of the sentinel came from the bird.

“You told him to jump?!” the pilot complained from under the glider where he couldn’t be seen.

Tal laughed weakly. “It’s good to hear your voice again,” Tal said to the sentinel.

[Again? Have we met before?]

“We can talk later! We’re going down to the roots and escaping into the trunk while we’ve got a head start!”

The wind rushing past almost carried away her words, but Tal could still hear her, as close as she was. Nolsa’s voice shook as she poked him in the chest, “Tal.”

“Yes, Nolsa?”

“You understand I’m not a person of violence, yes?” Nolsa asked him.

“Yes, Nolsa.”

“When we get down from here, I’m going to hit you.”

“... Yes, Nolsa.”

End Chapter