Rashemen Book 2

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The wind caught Delinos's pan and flipped him up and over. He landed on his neck and didn't move.

Kelvados gasped, but the brothers agreed a long time ago that if one of them were to fall, the other would not help until they were out of danger.

 

Delphinae instinctively began firing arrows at the whirlwind, and it wasn't until those arrows were flung back at her that she realized the futility of her actions. The three arrows streak back at her, and she manages to dodge all but one, which pierces through her armor and her left shoulder. Her bow falls from her now-useless hand and clatters on the ice, but Del quickly sets to work trying to unstring her bow with her one functional hand.

 

Jex's cloak whipped around his body as the wind tore at him. He had his head buried into his chest, and was forcing himself to stand against the windstorm.

"Sepp, you have to use the power of earth against the wind. You and Atten will lead the group to victory now!" He shouted into the wind hopeing that his voice wouldn't be lost in the storm. "None of our abilities can help, we can't fight air!"

 

Sepp squinted his eyes to try to keep the stinging ice crystals and gravel out of them. It was no use. He closed them tight to keep from being blinded. The wind was starting to pick his whole body up, and he felt with his senses for any rocks or stones to touch and take their heaviness from so he wouldn’t be blown away, but the air had left them stranded in the middle of a large stretch of nothing but ice. He felt himself lifted off the ground and blown head over heals.

He flailed his arms about for something to grab onto, and his left hand bumped into something. He hung onto it for his life, and the wind blew him hard into the ground. He opened his eyes a little, and saw that he was hanging onto Atten’s cloak. Atten was still sitting on the ice sled, clutching the Earth’s Heart, staring with a haunted gaze at the windstorm.

“Atten!” Sepp screamed at him. “We’ve got to do something.” Atten’s only response was to shiver. Sepp looked around at his friends. Delinos was unmoving on the ground. Del was bleeding. Jex was yelling something at him, but he couldn’t hear him above the roaring of the wind. Nakia was trying to stay on the ground, but even as Sepp watched, she was picked up and would have flown off if Alexi had not jumped up and grabbed her as she flew over him.

He put his arms through Atten’s to keep himself from blowing away, and as he did so, his hand touched the Earth’s Heart. It was beating, visibly, and Power cursed through him. Somehow, Jex’s words came back to him on the wind, something about fighting the whirlwind with the Earth. When the air beat at the mountains, their defense was to endure. Yes, gravel and dust blew away, and over the ages the water and wind ground the mountains down to hills, but the bedrock remained, enduring the ages.

Just as the wind rushed at him and Atten with renewed strength, enough to blow the both of them away, he turned himself and Atten into living granite. Quickly, using the Power of the Earth’s Heart, he reached out and turned all of his companions into granite as well. Were he in his right mind, Atten would probably tell him that it was not safe to take any of the Power of the already weakened Earth, but if he didn’t, all would be lost. Now at least they were all safe from the whipping wind.

But it didn’t go away. It kept blistering them with ice crystals and dust and gravel. Sepp took a chance to listen to it, and could hear it howling at them, “Die! Die! Die! Die!” It seemed to be all that it was saying or thinking. What were they going to do?

He thought back to Ma’s basic lessons about the wind. The natural wind blew this way and that, apparently at random, but actually it was moving warm air to where it was cold, and cold air to where it was warm, depending on how the sun warmed up the earth differently in different places. Some wind creatures had a mind of their own, and blew whereever they desired, but most winds actually followed the chaotic laws of global thermodynamics, something that had made Sepp's head ache when Ma tried to explain it to him. Could he use that knowledge against this creature?

Maybe if it got cold enough in this area, a quite large area, the wind creature would not have any energy to move, and would die, or at least go away. It was the only thing Sepp could think of. He started to draw the cold out of the ice at the farthest reaches of his senses, and concentrate it in their immediate area. Again, the Power of the Earth’s Heart was the only way Sepp could have done it, but before long, the whole area within his sight was COLD. Utterly cold, well below freezing, yet still the wind creature vented its fury at them, although it did seem to be moving a little slower. He had to defeat it! All this effort could not go to waste, to warm up, turn everyone back to flesh, only to be ripped apart by the wind was not an option.

Sepp reached into his connection with Nakia and Jex, and pulled power from them. Then he pushed his senses into all of the companions, and their magical items, letting Power flow through him and out, out, out, to the edge of the ice field, where now a raging river was pouring into a valley, creating an immense lake, and pulling the COLD back to here.

All was still. Sepp became aware of silence. Stillness. Nothing moved. Not even the tiny hearts of the ittybitties of granite that he and his friends were. He wasn’t even quite sure how he was thinking, but he was. A pile of dust and ice crystals lay in front of him and Atten, all that was left of the wind creature. It was as cold as it was possible to be.

How long had it been like this? A second? A minute? An hour? A day? A year? An age? Sepp had no way of knowing, and as a rock, one second was like the next century, so who really cared. Slowly, awareness of victory came to him.

They had won! They would continue on and return the Earth’s Heart!

Slowly, he gradually brought the temperature of their surroundings back from the absolute coldness it was down to. It wouldn’t do to have them crack like the mountains in the ice and sun. Eventually, they were all at a temperature that would permit life, and Sepp turned everybody and their items back to their original states as flesh and metal and wood and cloth.

Sepp let go of the Earth’s Heart and looked into Atten’s eyes. “Atten, we made it! We survived!” Again there was no response, just the haunted look.

He walked over to Delinos, who was still prone on the ground. He touched his body. He wasn’t sure if Delinos was dead, or just was slower to warm up and revive than the rest of them. “Kelvados, come quick! Help me with Delinos. Delinos, wake up! Can you hear me?”

 

Nakia and Alexi gradually returned to normal. Nakia slipped thankfully to the ice. She was aware of what Sepp had done and felt triumph. She was right! Sepp certainly had the power and wisdom to become a mighty halfling leader. Prehaps the greatest of them all. It was her duty and honour to remain with him even if the only help she could give him was to enhance his power.

Her large eyes gleamed as she looked around. The air creature had actually blown them nearer the volcano. Now it was only a short distance away.

She looked at Atten. She was concerned about him, he seemed so unaware of the world around him. Were they losing him to the Stone? She walked over to him. "Come Atten, we are close now." She pulled on his tunic and began walking towards the volcano. Atten followed her but in a dazed, unknowing way.

 

Delphinae unfroze, looked around, and then unhurriedly restrung her bow. Gradually memory came back, and she recalled why she was using only one hand for the task. When she finished, she examined her wound. Finding that the arrow had gone clean through, she snapped off the shaft of the arrow where it entered her shoulder. Then she braced herself, reached around to the back of her shoulder, and pulled the rest of the arrow out with a grunt.

Del's left arm still hung uselessly as she grumbled, "Can we go now? I'm getting a little tired of all these interruptions."

 

Jex felt drained. His body had taken more abuse in the last few days than he had in years. He was still feeling the effects of fighting the water elemental and haveing to face the air elemental so soon afterwords was tough. "Next time you are going to turn me into a statue Sepp, give me a little warning."

 

Kelvados slid over to Delinos, knowing that Delinos was dangerously close to death. "Delinos," he whispered, "you have to wake up. We need to move." He spoke a short prayer to Shar, with words like "always faithful" and "favored servants".

After a few minutes, Delinos opened his eyes. "I..I saw her. She helped me," He got up, "and she warned me of Huiy'Trej. He is close now. We must move." Delinos strode towards Nakia and Atten, almost with a new vigour and flow.

 

Sepp knelt on the ground next to Delinos. He reached into the drow’s body to see if he was alive, and what sort of damage he had suffered. He was closer to death than to life, and his vertebrae was cracked. Worse, a sliver of bone had cut into his spinal cord. It was one thing to be able to sense the damage, quite a different thing to be able to heal it. Healing Jex’s punctured lung after Delinos brought him back from the dead was hard enough, and there he was relatively rested and had Nakia’s and the mushrooms’ help. He was totally exhausted right now, and there was no life in the barren ice fields to draw from. He was just trying to figure out how to tell Kelvados that there was nothing he could do for his brother when a strange presence passed by him and knelt next to Delinos.

Sepp felt Delinos’ vertebrae slip back into place, and the spinal cord miraculously heal itself, then saw Delinos’ body shake a little as his spirit jumped back into it. He felt the strange presence give him a friendly tussel on his head as it moved away from Delinos, who jumped up and was off towards the volcano.

Sepp shook his head in wonder, trying to see into the dream-voyage world as the presence left this plane. He stood there thinking about it for a minute, then jogged to catch up with the rest of the group.

As they neared the volcano, they could see flames making their way down from the smoky top, dancing over the black, chunky rocks of hardened magma, and out over the ice to meet them.

“That makes sense,” Sepp said to the others as the flames moved towards them, sometimes joining together to form bigger flames, sometimes breaking apart, so that they never could tell if there were more than or less than about thirty of them. “The fire elements opposing us wouldn’t risk fighting on the Earth, so they’re going to attack us while we’re still on the ice.”

Sepp drew the two green daggers Nakia had given him. “Jex, you asked that I ask you before turning you into a statue again, so I’ll ask. I’m not going to become stone, but I’m going to soak up as much Coldness from the ice as my daggers and metal armor will absorb. That should give me some protection from their flames, and make my daggers give them some hurt as well.” He let the daggers drag against the ice, and channeled Coldness into them and into his elven chainmail.

“If any of you want to put Coldness into your weapons or armor, just touch my daggers with them, and I’ll channel it into you,” Sepp told the group. Several of them, maybe all, did so. Sepp didn’t notice exactly who, he was focused on the approaching flames. He quickened his pace and stepped out in front of the group a ways.

“Fire!” he yelled at the flames. “Go back to your friend the volcano, where you have lived in harmony with the Earth. Water and Air could not stop us, and neither will you! We WILL return the Earth’s Heart, and balance to all things, as it is meant to be. Who ever, or what ever, is telling you to attack us is lying to you, and leading you to your deaths! We WILL NOT be stopped!”

Several of the flames wavered in their advance, and a few actually returned towards the volcano, but then a larger one charged them with renewed vigor, quickly followed by the rest.

“So be it,” Sepp said with a grim determination. “Your deaths will not be on my conscience.” He turned to look at his companions. “When we are through them, we will be on the Earth of the volcano, and there will be no stopping us then. Let’s finish this quest, once and for all. Alexi, stay with Atten to make sure he survives the fight. The rest of you, follow me.” He turned and ran towards the flames, fog flowing from his freezing daggers as things started to warm up around him.

 

The heat from the flames stung Atten's eyes. This was the element he feared the most. The destruction caused by fire was the most uncontrollable damage for forest life. Atten had always grown up knowing the in built fear that all trees had for the devouring power of a flame. Was there any animal that could stand up to fire on its own?

 

Jex felt chilled the link ands rivets of his armour were rimmed with frost and his blades were cold in his hands. He wasn't sure how long the cold would last against the fire. But if it did some damage it would be a good thing,

Wrapping the makeshift mask from the fight with the Mycoids around his face again the half drow followed Sepp into the firey fray.

 

Maron tapped Delphinae's uninjured shoulder as she moved past.
"Should I heal that?" she asked, pointing to her wound. "You don't really want to be fighting with only one arm. I can cast a spell to ward against fire if you like as well?"

She cast the spell anyway, and a brisk chill set over them, and the enarby flame's heat seemed to vanish, replaced by the cold settling over them.

"So, do you wish to be healed?"

 

Nakia realized that none of her bullets would harm the fire elementals. She saw some shards of ice. Grabbed them, broke them up and started slinging them at the elementals. They did some damage but not enough.

If only there was some way to get a large piece of ice into their midst.

 

"Aye, thank you Maron. Though I've not seen much of you lately, you are a most welcome companion." Delphinae began to stretch her arm as it healed under Maron's ministrations and smiled at the lack of pain. "Many thanks, my good Avariel. But now I think we both have a part to play in this little drama of ours. May Sune be with you."

And with that, Del sprinted off to join the fray.

 

Delinos picked up some shards of ice and hurled them at the fire. He was a little shaken from seeing Shar. Her eyes were etched in his mind.

Kelvados had gotten his blades cooled and ran at the flames. The ash and smoke flew into his eyes and they watered, and he swiped through the flames.

 

Sepp twisted and turned, slashing and dodging as the fires tried to burn him up. He was next to Jex, and through the connection he had with Jex he became aware of something. Just as his preferred element was the Earth, and Atten's was the plants and animals of the forest, Jex had a preferred element too, where he was as agile as a fish in water and as graceful as a bird in the air.

Jex's element was Battle.

Sepp rolled on the ice to avoid a firey blow, then watched Jex in awe for a moment as the half-drow did a double slice through a large fire, extinguishing it with his frozen blades. The fire he was fighting took advantage of Sepp's distraction and struck his face, singeing his eyebrow and some hair. The pain yanked Sepp's attention back, but rather than wince at the pain, as he might have before, he felt what Jex did with pain, using it to refocus his energies on the fight, glorying in the joy of battle.

Sepp thrust a dagger into the fire in front of him. He felt almost all of the Coldness run out of it. He rolled backward away from the fire, just as Jex cut it in two. Sepp took the moments respite to create a new channel for the Coldness from the miles and miles of ice into his and his friends blades and armor. He nudged a few wayward links in the chain, so that the Coldness would continue to flow without his constant attention. He knew that with all the channelling of heat and cold he'd been doing of late, he was causing some severe imbalances in the local environment, and vowed to set things right as soon as he had the chance.

Then three fire things came at Jex from different sides, and Sepp lept forward to stab one, well, maybe not in its back, since he wasn't sure if it had a back, but at least in the side where it wasn't paying much attention. Jex finished it off with a quick flick of his left hand blade. "Thanks Sepp," he said with a wink of his eye. Then he was off into the fray again.

Sepp followed him, totally caught up in the joy of battle now. It was a different experience, not worrying about whether he lived or died, just fighting for the fun of it. This was the way to live! Or maybe die, Sepp thought, as he slipped in one of the many puddles that were forming and a fire pushed down his mouth and burned the top of his lungs.

"Ow, that's gonna be bad for me," thought Sepp as the pain kicked in. But once again, he turned the pain into anger at his enemies, dousing the fire with water from the puddle.

In a few seconds, he was back up on his feet, coughing out smoke. Looking around, he noticed that there were quite a few fewer fires than there had been at the beginning of the fight. He saw his friends engaged in the battle, and thought that there was nothing better in the world than fighting for your life with friends at your side. With a silly grin stuck on his charred face, he rushed back to the fight.

 

Sepp was right. Jex felt most at home when he was fighting. Even though the enemy now wasn't orcs, goblins or any other of the beasties he had fought over his 55 years. He found that with the enchanments Sepp had provided on his armour and weapons the fire fell as easily as anything else. Sure Jex had a few burns and his eyes were running like a waterfall in spring, but he was enjoying himself.

After slicing through another of the elementals Jex stepped out the fury for a moment. He needed to gather his wits, and catch a breath that wasn't smoke. He felt lightheaded and wasn't sure if it was the battle lust or smoke inhalation.

 

"How many more is there?!" Delinos yelled, exasperated. He slashed through a few more, and then cast a shield around him.

 

Delphinae had been trying to get a clear shot, but the combatants were moving too randomly. "Oh, to the Abyss with this." She set down her bow, being sure to mark the spot, and seemed to vanish as her cloak blended with the icy surroundings.

All the companions heard was a brief whisper, "raxolla", before she reappeared behind a large elemental and plunged a shimerring arrow directly into the creature's back. Energy surged through both the creature and Del, resulting in a shock wave that destroyed the elemental and two other small ones nearby. Delphinae herself was flung a good fifty yards into the air before landing heavily on the ice and sliding the short distance remaining to her discarded bow.

"Ow."

[ October 29, 2005, 05:01: Message edited by: Felinoid ]

 

Atten felt completely helpless. None of his powers were of any use against fire. His only job here was to protect the Heart until a way through could be found. He concentrated his thoughts and tapped into the small thread of the living force he could detect. He managed to form a tortoise-shell like shield around himself and the Heart and he curled up inside to wait. He wondered what Darwyn would have done if he were here. Probably conjure up a rainstorm or something.