Chapter 5

Icy water bit at my cheeks as I ran down the slope towards our cottage. My boots have long since soaked through and the rain made the trail treacherous. My feet kept slipping in the mud and I had to fight to keep my balance. The trail was rather steep to begin with but after much struggle, I somehow managed to escape the storm. I could tell that it was magic, probably Isayah’s. The magnitude was incredible, the storm easily encompassed 2 or 3 miles around that cave and dark grey clouds stretched for several more.

While the actual spell seemed to have calmed down after half an hour or so, the storm clouds did not disappear and they continued to shower the mountains with freezing sleet and small half frozen droplets. The cabin came into view and I hurried in, Isayah told me to stay here after I’d packed some necessities. I first lit a fire in the stove as my clothes were sopping wet and I’m sure Isayah would be in the same state.

As far as “necessities” went, we didn’t have much. Even though we lived here all my life, Isayah made sure to drill evacuation procedures into me. We would only be able to bring whatever it is we could carry, we weren’t going to use roads after all. It pained me to leave this mountain, but I knew Isayah wasn’t going to change his mind. After I finished packing food, hunting tools, and camping equipment I sat down at the fire to wait for my brother to return.

~~~~

It was already late by the time I woke up. The fire had died down to embers and my clothes were more or less dry. I must have been tired. Oh shit! I ran outside to check the time. The sun was only minutes away from setting and the sky was filled with orange and pink clouds. The rain had stopped and the clouds had dispersed, revealing the largest rainbow I’d ever seen. It would have been beautiful if I wasn’t so panicked right now. Why the hell wasn’t Isayah back yet? Did he get caught by the humans, they did look pretty experienced.

I was torn between obeying my brother and staying put, or following my gut and going out to search for him. No one knew better than me how scary Isayah could be if I didn’t listen to him, but what if he was injured? Even if we didn’t get along that well, he was still my only family and friend. I made up my mind. But no, Isayah would likely be fine, I was far more worried about what happened to the humans.

I snatched my rucksack, filling it with some medicine while I was at it. I wasn’t the strongest person, nor did I know how to fight, but I was confident in my potions. I did have my knife, but if it came down to a battle, I’d be better off using magic or poison.

I couldn’t help but feel frustrated though. Isayah always just tells me to trust him and everything will be fine, but then he goes and does things like this. I’m almost certain he’s just hunting or something, but I had to be sure.

“Besides,” I reassured myself. “I bet the humans have already left the mountains.” Spurred on by anxiety, I set out on the mountain trail for the third time in the past two days. This whole situation was getting old though. I promised myself that after we got back, I would give myself a well deserved bath.

~~~~

I sighed to myself. I’m back at the cave but there is no sign of Isayah or the humans, which was suspicious in and of itself. The fact that there were no signs, like none at all, gave me the feeling that someone covered them up. I went down to where I last saw the horses and found that a bit of the slushy snow had a reddish tint. Isayah probably killed the horses so the humans wouldn’t have the means to escape.

I knew Isayah, he most likely sent me away during the storm so that he could kill the humans. And he no doubt thinks I wouldn’t suspect him as long as I didn’t see him do the deed. My goals haven’t though. I’d be grateful if Astrid and Devin were to come out unscathed, however, I wasn’t so against the idea of silencing the other humans. They didn’t seem as likely to keep our secret.

Maybe it was due to my semi-hermit lifestyle, but their lives mean very little to me. Come to think of it, if I can find the humans, perhaps I’ll find Isayah too. Yesterday, I told Astrid about a place they could go if they needed better shelter or if the cave was compromised by monsters, it wasn’t very far and it also had a pretty good vantage point for scouting the terrain. But the best thing about it was that it was incredibly hard to find unless you knew where to look. I learned my lesson, so I pulled up my hood to cover my ears before continuing on.

Very little of the fort remained. It was no more than one side of a crumbling outer wall and a partially collapsed keep. I approached slowly, cautious of the crossbows I’d seen earlier in the day. Prophetically, I heard a crack and jumped to the side. A bolt was embedded right in front of the ground I’d been standing on. It looked as if the shooter never intended to hit me.

“Who the hell are you!?” The shout rang out over the ruined wall. I saw a crossbowman huddled against the rain. He was perched on a bit of rubble near the main entrance to the keep, well over 300 feet away.

I clambered over to a tree for cover before shouting back. “My name is Elias, I know Astrid!” There was a long silence, long enough that I almost thought he didn’t hear me.

“Come out slowly, hands up, and face visible!” I warily poked my head out from behind my hiding spot, half expecting a bolt to find its way into my skull.

Nothing came, so I stepped out with my arms high above my head. I eased my hood down a bit so they could clearly see my face but not my ears. Two soldiers stood at the entrance with Astrid right behind. “Elias!? It really is you!” She pushed between the two guards and looked me up and down. “I told you he was a kid, why the fuck did you shoot at him.” Astrid punched the guard in the arm. To his credit, the guard did look a little embarrassed.

I quickly said, “It’s fine, it's not like he was aiming to hit me.” They all looked a little surprised that I even noticed.

“So Elias, you didn’t happen to see an old guy and some horses back there?” Astrid gestured towards the trail of my footprints coming from the direction of the cave.

“Umm, I didn’t find anything besides some blood.” I didn’t lie, even if I knew what probably happened to the ‘old’ guy.

“It was crazy!” Astrid ignored what I said. “A storm broke out this morning out of nowhere. My guess is that the horses were scared off.”

I shifted awkwardly as she continued her story, “Old man Gaius told us to leave him and the others behind, he said the storm was caused by magic so he was going to try and dispel it.” She paused to catch her breath. “You live around here right?”

“Yeah, ever since I remember.”

“Is there some sort of monster that can use such large scale magic?” She came forward and grabbed my arm, pulling me into the shelter of the keep.

I mumbled, “I don’t think that was a monster.” The guards were forced to stay outside with a glare from Astrid. Looking at their crestfallen expressions, I felt somewhat sorry for them.

Once inside, I saw Devin over a small cooking fire. He was roasting a hare, which meant that their supplies were likely with the horses. Devin looked up and his eyes widened in surprise. “You’re…”

“I’m Elias.” I cut him off, “Nice to meet you properly this time.” I hadn’t realized before because his body was so weak, but I could sense mana leaking out of him.

“Ah…” He tried to stand up but instead banged his head on the collapsed ceiling, making the whole building rumble in response. “Fhhhhhh…” Astrid and I stood over him as he clutched the rapidly rising goose egg on his head and struggled not to start swearing.

I coughed and Astrid suddenly let out a hoot of laughter, “You’re so stupid, Devin!” She wiped her eyes and turned to me, “Well, as I said before, that oaf is Devin, he’s my best friend.”

Devin kept one hand on his head and held the other out towards me, grinning. “Nice to finally meet you.” I stared at the hand for a moment and realized that he wanted me to give up my weapon. I pulled it, sheath and all, off my belt and slapped it into his hand.

Both Devin and Astrid looked stunned. “No, no, no… He just wanted a handshake.” I didn’t get it, he wanted me to shake his hand? Why? Devin must have noticed my confusion, “It is polite to shake hands with someone when you’re first meeting.” Oh, so it was some sort of human greeting.

I sheepishly took my knife back and shook his hand lightly. “I never really met other people before, so…”

Devin let go of my hand and shrugged, “Well, enough of that. I really wanted to say thank you.” Devin bowed his head deeply, “Astrid told me that you had patched me up, and Gaius said that the poultice on my wound is what saved my life.”

“It wasn’t all that, if I had a proper alchemy station, It probably wouldn’t have left you so weak.”

“For real? You could probably make a decent living as an alchemist.” Devin sat back down to adjust the position of the rabbit, “Speaking of, why are you living up here anyway?”

Astrid slapped a hand on his mouth, “That doesn’t really matter, right? Haha.”

Devin raised his hands in an ‘I meant no harm’ sort of fashion. “I figured it was because you were studying herbs or something, I didn’t mean any offense.”

“Hah… It’s alright Astrid.” I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my finger, my alarm magic was tripped. “Wait here!” I ran outside and saw what it was. Oh god. It was Isayah.