A sound was ringing in her ears and Jade sat up in the tent. Acantha was in the tent opening, she was shouting at her. But Acantha’s shouting was not what had woken her, Jade thought. Another loud explosion shook Jade wide awake as adrenaline pumped through her body and she jumped upright.
“We’re under attack!” Acantha screamed at her.
Jade ran out of the tent and watched the mountain being lit by exploding firework. Was that the Mikadosh’ doing? But they were in Chroma territory. Jade looked towards the mountains and she could make out tiny goblin shapes. Then a flurry of shadows fell out of the sky, picking up the goblins and lifting them up in the air. Jade heard the predatory screech of a giant birds as the goblins fell down from high above.
“The Sndus,” Acantha said awestruck.
“Look!” Jade pointed to a masked figure that appeared out of thin air and quickly disappeared again. They had seen this before in Randora lands.
“This war is not just between the Chroma and the Sndus.”
“We cannot stay here,” Jade looked for a quick hiding spot. They really were in the center of the catastrophic fight. Acantha was breaking down the tent, as if they had time for that. Jade breathed in as slowly as she dared and forced herself to think clearly. She knew of a way to provide them shelter, an old magic that she had learned, but had yet to use. If it would work, it would surely keep them safe. But it would take her time and she would have to focus. She breathed, slowly and kneeled down, placing a hand on the ground below her, feeling the earth, not just the surface, but the hard rocks underneath. She just had to focus. Another deep sigh as the seconds ticked away, with her inner voice she requested the earth to provide them shelter, if only for a few hours. She felt something, a connection like fingertips reaching out for her toes, she welcomed the sensation and let it flow through her feet, her ankles, all the way up through her body. Then, when she felt it held her whole, she grasped back at it, closing the connection and feeling warm energy through her body.
“Jade!” Acantha screamed with a panic struck voice.
Jade opened her eyes and saw firework coming right at them. Was it meant for them? Was it astray? Jade let go of the questions popping up in her head, which was easy, since she was used to ignoring questions. She was focused on her task and grabbed onto the connection as if grabbing a stretched out hand, then, she pulled and everything around her went dark.
***
Morn hopped off the rainbow into a beautiful oasis. Not even the forest surrounding the Grove had such lush vegetation, trees and shrubs carried wildly colored fruit or flowers and the grass tickled softly under their feet. For a moment there, Morn considered whether they had died and gone to heaven. They were disturbed in that thought by a soft, gentle voice that Morn found perfectly befitting of this paradise.
“Dakka, I was waiting for you.”
Morn turned to find an elf woman in a white dress, though her skin and long hair were pale, she reminded Morn of a rainbow. The woman frowned in what Morn took for confusion.
“But, you are not one of mine, are you?”
“Indeed I am not, I am Morn of Truepath.”
“I am Iris, mother of the Chroma, so tell me, why are you here, Morn?”
“I am here to help the Chroma with the war, they said they were in need of Dakka.”
A thoughtful look crossed Iris’ face, this time Morn felt a bit uncomfortable, her eyes seemed to investigate the orc’s yellow skin for further clues.
“Very well, I will let you fulfill the task that is meant for my Dakka.”
Morn failed to ignore a tremor in the pit of their stomach. The Chroma and them were allies, Morn could trust Iris.
“I will make you something, but to be able to use my gift, you will need a boomstick.”
Morn could not help themselves from grinning. This was what they had hoped for.
***
“What?” Acantha’s voice sounded clear now that the sounds from the fight were gone, “Where are we? Jade, are you there?”
“Yes,” Jade cleared her throat, “We’re safe.”
“But ho-“
Everything around them started rumbling, rocks fell from cracked stone above them. A soft thud and yelp could be heard as Acantha fell to her knees. The thundering crackle stopped while dust remained to seep from the ceiling.
“Where are we?”
“I’ll keep us here for an hour or two, the fight should be over then.”
“Where are we, Jade?”
“We’re underground.”
Acantha was quiet, which Jade expected was because the dryad was figuring out which question to ask next. Jade sighed.
“I know, you didn’t know I could do this. I know, you’re wondering why I didn’t tell you. There’s lots of things you don’t know about me. Heck, I bet the same goes for you. We work together but that does not mean we have to know everything about each other. The only thing that you should know is that I would do everything in my power to protect you, Morn and the rest of our clan.”
Acantha remained quiet, which started to annoy Jade. She wished the spawn would just resume her normal activity and start asking questions based on wrong assumptions. It took another minute of silent agony before Acantha said something.
“I can breathe in water.”
“What?”
“You’re right, there are things we don’t know about each other. You shared one of your secrets in order to protect me, so I share one of mine. Aoda had of the elves teach me a ritual to breathe under water.”
“Eh-“
“I thought that could be useful. Also, I can summon spirits, you know, a bit like how Aoda uses her guides, but then with spirits.”
“Wow, ok, that does sound useful,” Jade didn’t know what else to say, automatically she ignored the questions that arose in her mind and she went back to focusing on keeping their shelter intact.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.