Miras Last (18 page)

“That doesn’t mean I can’t show them quickly.
I thought about it some last night, and I realized how foolish I
had been in thinking that they would not be able to fly themselves
to safety after they learn how.”

“Do you really think they’ll have enough
magic?”

At this, Morgo almost looked insulted. “We
have plenty of magic! You forget of all that we accomplished
underground when we weren’t worn out. You’ve just gotten used to
seeing the underground elves here in camp. What you have forgotten
is that there are roughly twenty underground elves using magic for
close to five hundred other elves unable to do magic. We are in a
constant state of being tired and as I’m sure you remember, makes
it extremely difficult to accomplish a lot.”

Tark watched as Galena turned several shades
of red, before bowing her head in shame. “I’m sorry, I simply
forgot. Would you like my assistance in instructing them in wind
use?” she asked, humbleness in her every move.

“No, Nina and I should be able to manage.
Your job is to keep the dark creatures away. Warfare is something
the underground elves have had very little experience with.
Generally only the guides for the tunnels learn how to protect
themselves.”

Galena nodded her head, but said no more.

Tark couldn’t help it; he chuckled at Galena.
She had gotten too big for her breeches and had been brought down a
notch. “Let’s grab some food and start heading toward the area
where we will be flying over,” Tark instructed. The elves as a
whole made their way toward the food tent. Tark dropped back to
talk with Galena while they walked though. “Will flying us break
the light dome?”

“Light can be broken by anything solid. It
just keeps the dark away,” Galena said, looking at the ground as
they walked.

“Still learning, huh?” Tark asked, referring
to what happened with Morgo.

“No, just forgot. I won’t make that mistake
again. I guess I just got used to being relied on by everyone
including the underground elves,” she said calmly.

Tark chuckled again, and looking over
Galena’s bent head, saw that Elenio was smiling too. He had always
liked him.

Tark sat down beside Galena while he finished
the last of his sweet bread. She was already staring into a bowl of
water with the image of the underground elves in it. They were
moving at a fast pace and would soon be arriving at the point where
they would need assistance. Galena set the bowl aside and looked
around.

“It about that time?” Tark asked quietly.

She just nodded her head and got to her feet,
adjusting her sword as she did.

“Are you nervous?”

“No, just ready to get started. I was never
very good at waiting,” she replied, smiling at him.

At this Tark laughed aloud and Elenio shook
his head, laughing as well.

“No, you’re not,” Elenio said, still laughing
at Galena as he pulled her into a hug.

Tark shook his head. Patient was never a word
he would ever associate with his little sister.

“Alright, everyone spread out, but stay
within this area. Line up several elves deep if you need to. It’s
about that time,” Tark shouted out. He prepared himself by taking
his blade out and twirling it around a couple of times.
Here
goes nothing
, he thought.

Chapter
Twelve

Galena felt the thrill of energy flow through
her when she pulled the Sword of Lumina from its scabbard. It may
not have looked like much, but Galena could feel the power in it
and it never ceased to amaze her. She twirled the blade around a
couple of times even as Tark and Elenio did on either side of her.
She saw Morak and his group readying their bows and arrows and
everyone else getting their own swords out. There was a nervous
feeling in the air and Galena wiped her sweaty palms on her
leggings.

The smiles faded from most of their faces as
they all prepared for the battle that was coming. The biggest
advantage they had was the element of surprise. Picking up her bowl
she brought along just for this little outing, she focused on the
image of the underground elves and found they had arrived within
view of the enemy. She saw dark creatures of every kind heading
toward them, evil grins on their faces. Looks of panic were on the
underground elves’ faces as they looked on in horror at the
advancing enemy.

“Time to go,” she shouted, throwing her bowl
down as she did. Creating a great gale of wind that whipped around
them, she brought the group high into the air. She felt the wind
pick her up and send her flying high above the flames where she
could clearly see the enemy picking up pace toward the underground
elves. Looking from side to side, she saw she had been successful
in bringing the other elves with her. She caused the wind to push
them forward and over the blazing flames. The flames stayed where
they were at Galena’s command and let the elves pass harmlessly by.
She brought them down on the other side and in the midst of the
enemy who had not noticed them for their attention was still on the
retreating underground elves. Galena picked up Morgo and Nina with
the wind and sent them soaring over the heads of torlics, earagos,
and many other creatures. She placed them gently within the midst
of the underground elves.
That caught the dark creatures’
attention,
Galena thought grimly as an earagos she had been
running alongside turned and looked at her, shock written on his
face.

“Hello,” Galena said, smiling broadly at the
shocked monster. She swung her blade up and around, burying it deep
within the creature’s calf. He roared in pain, stopping and turning
to attack Galena. “Have I gotten your attention then?” She switched
hands and twirled around. The earagos swung his giant club at her,
missing her shoulder by just a hair. She twisted out of the way and
around him, before the giant burst into light. “Forgot about that
did you?” Galena said sarcastically.

She turned to see where Elenio and the others
were and saw that they were doing very well holding their own. “See
what a good night’s sleep can do for elf morale,” she said to no
one in particular. She spun around, taking the head of a narook and
cutting the arm of a passing torlic, both creatures erupting in
light. She watched as Elenio flipped up and over a narook that was
swinging his long fingers in Elenio’s direction. Landing behind the
creature, he stuck his sword into the narook’s back. Using his
foot, he kicked the lifeless body off before turning to see Galena.
She smiled at him as he joined her in the fight. With backs turned
to each other, they engaged several more creatures, Galena sending
bolts of lightning in areas that were elf free as well.

She spun around swinging her blade at the
advancing enemy and found her sword blocked by Morgo’s own, “Oops,”
she said blushing slightly.

“They’re ready,” he said simply, before
blocking the blade of a torlic that had joined in. The torlic
however, made no further attempts at attacking, but fell over, an
arrow sticking up from his back.

“Hmm, seems like I forgot to add fire power,”
Galena said, piercing the side of a dark creature that she had
never seen before.

“That makes two of us,” Morgo grunted while
jabbing his own blade through the stomach of another torlic. “Keep
the flames in check while I guide them over.”

“Go,” Galena shouted, eyeing two earagos who
were stomping their way over to her. Elenio cut one in the foot,
before spinning around and cutting deep into its leg. The giant
roared, trying desperately to find the attacking elf.

“Down here, you great brute!” Elenio called
savagely, before burying his sword deep within the back of his
other thigh. The earagos swung his club around uselessly, always
several seconds too late. Elenio spun around, jumped, and cut into
the creature’s hide with every move, finally forcing the creature
to his knees.

Enthralled at the viciousness of Elenio’s
attack, she almost forgot to control the flame and at the last
moment, remembered. Not a moment too soon from what she could see.
The second earagos had also watched his own comrade fall to his
knees before remembering that he was supposed to be attacking
Galena, but just as he remembered, Galena pierced his leg with her
blade. She could still see the surprised expression on his face
after light replaced his form. She smirked, but her victory was
short lived as two more dark creatures approached. Not wanting to
waste time on them, she waved a hand causing them to burst into
flame. They staggered around into other dark creatures, causing the
fire to spread to whomever they touched.

Galena turned her head just as Elenio landed
the killing blow to the earagos. He turned to look at her, a grim
look on his face. She nodded her head at him, understanding his
need for revenge. She turned to check on the progress of the
underground elves and saw they all made it safely over the firewall
and some of the dark creatures thought their chance had come and
were trying to make it through the flames as well.

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen,” Galena
said quietly to herself. Using the wind, she sent those creatures
flying high in the air where bolts of lightning shot down
destroying them.

Tark came up to her at that point, his own
clothing covered with blood from the enemy and grinned at her. “You
don’t do anything half way, do you?”

“Now, what did father tell us about an
injured creature?” Galena asked, blocking an oncoming blow from a
torlic before sticking her sword into its gut. She turned to face
Tark as the light bursting from one creature blinded the one Tark
fought.

“An injured creature can still kill an elf,”
he grunted as he took the head off the blinded monster he was
fighting.

Morgo came flying down between them, hacking
away as he landed on Galena’s right. Nina landed lightly on his
other side. She too was cutting down a torlic as she landed.

“Have we had enough fun?” Morgo asked as he
finished off a torlic.

Galena stopped, frozen in horror as she
realized a problem with their initial plan; she had no way to
distinguish between a friend and foe when flying them up and
away.

“Umm, Morgo do you have any ideas on how I
can distinguish who is an elf and who is a dark creature?” she
asked, hacking down a narook while sending a torlic flying through
the air.

“Yeah, look,” Morgo responded as he swung
around, blocking the blow aimed at his side.

“Brilliant, so how about when I’m trying to
pick up everyone with the wind. I have no way of telling who is an
elf and who is a dark creature. I can only sense a body and by the
time I figured it out by using its size and shape that creature
will have moved on.” That their caught attention.

“Hmm, didn’t think about that beforehand. I
think it’s time we brought our troops to you,” Morgo said, looking
around at all the fighting bodies.

Weila, Hasa, and another pair of elves were
busily occupying an earagos some ways off and Morak could be seen
fighting a narook with a sword, his bow strapped across his chest.
Further off, Galena caught glimpses of other elves fighting against
the tide of darkness that kept creeping in, but she was proud to
see they weren’t backing off.

“Start telling the elves to come to me. I’ll
grab them when I can.”

Tark, Morgo, Nina, and Elenio nodded their
head in unison. Tark and Elenio headed off in different directions,
fighting their way toward their comrades. Morgo and Nina stayed
behind and to Galena’s amazement, began to fly elves one at a time
to where they stood. Galena was impressed, but knew they would only
be able to bring so many before collapsing. Reaching out as they
struck a combined deathblow to the earagos, Galena scooped Weila,
Hasa, and the other elves up with one swipe. She almost dropped
them, when as one Weila and Hasa flipped so that their feet were
pointing up and began to strike at the enemy from above. She had to
give Tark credit for choosing them. Those two were ruthless when it
came to fighting.

Galena brought the four over to where she
stood and quickly explained what was going on while she
concentrated on bringing another handful of elves over. Hasa and
Weila wasted no time, but quickly got to work protecting Galena,
Morgo, and Nina while they worked on bringing over more elves.
Morgo flew Fala and two others over before collapsing to the
ground. He was awake, but he was also useless now. Nina had also
hit the ground, but she was out cold. Seeing the condition of them,
Galena sent them flying over the wall of fire before continuing
with the task at hand. Elenio and Tark had been successful at
retrieving elves as well and were on their way back with several
elves in tow. They were making a path of their own back to
Galena.

“I can pick the rest up from the sky,” Galena
said to Erna who was blocking a blow from a torlic that was aimed
at Galena.

He nodded his head wearily; sweat running
down from his brow.

“Up we go.” All the elves surrounding Galena
and the ones that were making their way toward her, were swept up
in the wind. She managed to pick up a couple of torlics as well,
but with a wave of her hand sent them flying.
Wish I had had
that idea a little while ago,
she thought dryly.

Apparently, Elenio had the same thought
because he shouted “Umm, hello! You could have saved us a lot of
trouble by doing that in the first place!”

“Yeah, I didn’t see you offer any suggestions
when I asked earlier,” she called back.

To this, both Elenio and Tark rolled their
eyes with exasperation. Galena sent them flying over the wall of
fire while she brought more elves soaring into the sky. Anything
evil and dark she sent flying in the opposite direction. Finally,
after what seemed like an incredible amount of time to Galena, she
could see no more elves. Sending a few lightning bolts in the
thinning mass of darkness, she shot over the fire wall, landing a
little harder than she intended on the elf side.