literature

Darkstar: Chapter Four

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Chapter Four
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"This way," Cail said quietly, leading the woman towards the road. He pulled up his hood; it was still raining. He stopped for a moment, looking up and down the path, but he saw nothing except some guests hurriedly leaving the inn, and the muddy tracks of the two Tantalions heading east.

Cail crossed the road and the woman followed, but she slowed as they neared the forest edge. "Don't we want to stay on the path?" she asked timidly.

"No. They'll be looking for you there."

He heard her follow him into the brush, if hesitantly. Amid the trees, he relaxed slightly. Now that he was under the cover of the forest and no longer out in the open, he felt more secure. He began to head west, moving quickly.

Cail moved expertly around the bushes and roots, wrapping his cloak tight about him with his bad arm so it would not snag. He glanced back at the woman from time to time, and soon noticed that she was falling behind.

Cail snorted. Sivitel side indeed. Probably never even seen a forest before, he thought. He stopped in his tracks to allow her a moment to catch up; she nearly walked into him, being so intent on her footing. "Try to keep up," he said shortly.

"If you would walk a little slower," she replied.

Cail was mildly surprised at the edge in her voice, but sighed inwardly and slowed his pace. There was no sense in leaving her behind to be caught or eaten. He supposed he should cut her some slack. This was her first time on Trolis, and she was a woman. An Elf woman. It would not do to upset her, if she had high-ranking Elven relatives.

"E-excuse me," he heard her say, and turned in time to catch her elbow before she fell over a tree root. For an Elf, she was turning out to be rather clumsy. Life in the Sivitel side, he mused again.
"Thank you," she said after she had righted her footing. "Forgive me; what is your name? I'd like to know the identity of my rescuer." She took a moment to catch her breath.

Definitely not used to terrain like this. "Cail," he answered, turning back onto a path only he could determine.

"Cail?" she asked, parting branches as she followed. "Cail what?"

He fought back an impatient sigh. Escorting a woman through the woods was the last thing he wanted to do tonight. "Darkstar."

"I think I've heard that name before."

Cail didn't respond to her comment, but concentrated on the foliage before them.

"My name is Rinna-"

"Shh!" he said suddenly, whisking a hand to her mouth.

They stood still as stone. He barely breathed, and his dark eyes fixated on the shadows before him.
Around them, the forest was completely still, aside from the leaves that skittered, pushed about by the wind, and the rain that was still lightly falling. After listening for several moments, Cail removed his hand and continued on.

Rinna let out the breath that she'd been holding and opened her mouth to finish her introduction.
"No more talking," Cail whispered harshly, holding a hand up to silence her. "Move quietly."

She shrunk back into her hood and followed him without a sound. After some minutes of further travel, Cail thought he saw a light twinkling ahead, where the trees seemed to be thinning. He slowed his pace until he came to a stop. I didn't think we'd happened upon Lora already. Must be someone's camp, he thought.

Cail could tell Rinna tried not to flinch as he drew very close to her and whispered, "Stay here." He then placed a finger to his lips and silently moved into the bushes ahead, crouching low. He thanked the Maker, as he had hundreds of times before, for his noiseless feet as he made his way through the underbrush. He picked out broken branches from ones that were still springy; even though his feet made no sound, there was nothing he could do about the twigs under them. Any small snapping noise could mean death if the camp ahead turned out to be unfriendly.

The light became brighter and brighter; it was obviously the light of torches. Cail moved a broad-leafed branch slightly to get a better view, and his heart dropped cold into his stomach.

He replaced the branch slowly, and as quickly and quietly as he was able, walked back to where had left the woman. Soon enough he had her in view; she was crouching on the ground, wide-eyed. Without a word, he grabbed her arm and steered her north, in the opposite direction of the lights.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her stare at him, but he didn't speak, pressing his mouth in a straight, tense line. She opened her mouth to say something, but he glared at her, and she changed her mind.

They walked swiftly. Cail peered over his shoulder frequently. He knew that Rinna wanted to understand what was going on, but he didn't want to risk any noise, even at this distance. He suddenly took a sharp turn in the path, and Rinna uttered a small scream when something winged its way into her face. With one swipe of his arm, Cail batted the feathered creature away, and threw his hand over her mouth.

But it was too late; several more creatures erupted from the trees above them. Then, loud and clear over the flutter of wings came several shrieking howls.

Not hesitating a second, Cail seized Rinna's wrist and started to run. He didn't care about being quiet any longer; the Sevlow-Erem knew they were out here. The most important thing was to just get as far away as possible.

More screams sounded behind them as the two of them crashed through the undergrowth.

The Sevlow-Erem were fast and they were relentless. He and Rinna would tire long before the Ihreakin would. They needed a place to hide, or they would certainly die. Cail whipped off his hood and as he ran turned his head in all directions, studying the trees.

The woman followed behind, desperately trying to keep pace with him. She almost tripped as he abruptly veered east. "This way!" he called behind him.

The ground was getting foggier now; trees with thin curling branches dominated the area, although ones with enormous trunks and roots thick as branches were scattered here and there. Cail was particularly interested in the latter kind, and he kept knocking on their trunks he passed. In the summer, the trunks of these Lacusa trees were filled with a spongy, sweet-tasting pulp. The pulp was harvested by men and eaten by animals, and many of them should be empty by this time of year. They had provided him with shelter countless times.

There! Just ahead was a promising old tree.

Shrieks sounded loud behind them, reverberating around the forest. Cail took hold of Rinna's arm and pushed her ahead. "Head for that large tree!"

She did as he said and picked up her pace.

Meanwhile, Cail bent low to the ground, searching for the burning stones that formed near the fog-trees. He was soon rewarded when he spotted a clump of narrow rocks protruding from the ground, dark colored and crystal-like in formation. He jiggled a large one back and forth, kicking it hard with his boot to dislodge it from the ground. He grasped it with both hands and at last went reeling backwards as it broke free.

He saw the woman had stopped, waiting for him. He raced towards her, gesturing widely towards the tree. "Get inside the tree! Go!"

She ran to the tree he had indicated, but obviously didn't understand.

Cail skidded to a halt in the dead leaves beside her, and held up the rock he had broken from the ground. He swept it along the edge of his sword, and it burst into flame. With agility that boasted of years in the forest, Cail swung up into the branches of the large tree until he found a hollow branch wider than he was. He stuck the burning rock into the tree to illuminate its insides. The tree, just as he had hoped, was completely hollow. He dropped from the branch to Rinna's side and gave her the torch, then returned to his perch and lopped off the branch near its origin, to reveal a gaping dark hole.

He sheathed his sword. "Hand me the torch and climb up! Hurry!"

Rinna lifted up the burning rock to him, wincing at the heat, and Cail took it from her. She began to climb the tree, until Cail extended a hand and pulled her up to his branch. "Hurry, get inside."

"Inside?" she echoed, glancing in confusion at the tree.

He stuck the torch into the hole where the branch had been. "It's hollow. There's a root network all the way down - you should have plenty of hand holds. Hurry-" his voice was cut off by a shriek, fearsomely loud.

This noise prompted Rinna to do what he said, and she wriggled into the hole, finding dirt-covered roots on the inside of the bark.

"Head down, until you reach the bottom. Hurry."

"How far is the bottom?" she asked, hesitantly moving downwards. "I can't see a thing."

With an impatient snarl, Cail stuck his head and one arm into the opening and dropped the torch. Rinna watched as it fell some distance, sparking, then landed on soft earth below her. It illuminated the entire tree from the inside, and she could indeed see a complete crisscrossing network of roots and branches, lining the insides of the tree. Now that she could see, Rinna moved down quickly, followed closely by Cail. It was a few minutes before they both reached the bottom. Cail extinguished the burning rock when he touched down, and he heard Rinna gasp as they were enveloped in utter darkness.

"C-Cail?"

"Be quiet; they'll be here any instant."

Sure enough, within moments they heard muffled scuffling noises above them, mixed with the occasional shriek or whine. Bits of earth and twigs dropped onto them from above as the walls of the tree trembled.

The Sevlow-Erem were right on top of them, but from the sound of their angry screams, couldn't locate their position. It seemed that around the strong, sweet odor of the Lacuna tree, they had difficulty picking up their scent. They heard the demons claw the earth and the base of the tree, but after some minutes of doing so, a faint shriek sounded, as if a great distance away. The rest of the pack - it was hard to tell exactly how many there were, from the many replying screams - moved away from the area, following its sound.

Unmoving in the darkness, Cail waited for a good space of time before hefting himself back into the root network. He motioned for Rinna to stay put, although he wasn't sure if she could see him in this darkness, and climbed back up to the sawed-off branch through which they had first climbed into the hollow tree.

He lifted his head just enough so he could see through the opening, but he saw nothing but the skeletal trees and the thickening blue fog. He withdrew back into the tree, and again made his way down through the root system.

Without warning Rinna, he slid the narrow rock along his sword blade and their eyes were pierced by bright firelight. Without a word, he began to picking up small twigs and leftover pulp material scattered here and there around the base where they stood. He piled them up and lit them ablaze by lying the rock in their midst. It burned hot and smokeless. Cail folded his legs under him and sat.

"I assume they're gone?" Rinna asked after a few moments, settling down on her cloak.

Cail nodded, feeding more sticks into the fire.

"Why didn't they find us?" she asked.

His dark eyes rose to fix on her own. "Who are you?"

She hesitated a moment before answering; his blatant disregard of her question and his unnerving stare caught her off guard. "I told you, my name is-"

"I'm not asking your name," he interrupted, his voice harsh. I'm asking who you are, where you're from, and why those demons are after you." Cail watched as her mouth snapped shut, her jaw jutting out slightly in a flush of anger.

"I am the daughter of Alphaios and Marie Centauri-"

"Why are they chasing you?"

"I don't know."

"Don't lie to me, Miss Centauri. Ihreakin don't hunt so extensively without a reason."

"Well, I suppose it's reason enough that I'm Elven-"

"I know that."

"How-"

"I know an Elf," Cail replied. "Easy to recognize if you know what to look for. That's the only reason no one turned you in back at the tavern." He took a deep breath through his nose and settled against the back of the trunk, his eyes still on her. "Being Elven is a good reason to be hunted. But they said you stole something from them. Is that true?"

"I-"

"And why come to Trolis?"

"Trolis?" she repeated the word as if it were new to her tongue.

"Trolis. The planet Trolis." he shot her a strange look. "You don't even know what planet you're on?"

"Well I-"

"Have you lost your memory or something?" Cail asked, leaning towards her.

"No, I haven't. And why are you asking me all these questions?" Rinna cried. "I mean, it's pointless since I can't even get a word in, but all I need is for you to get me to a city with a starship that can get me out of here. I can pay you, and then you can go back to your own life," she said sharply, and hid her face in her knees.

Cail stared at her head, his mouth in a firm line. If you weren't an Elf… he thought irritably. "Fine," he said shortly. He rolled onto his side so his back was to her and shut his eyes.

You've got the Ihreakin hunting you again, Cail. More running, more wounds, more sleepless nights. And for what? Another soul in need of rescuing? A pretty face?

Just another fine mess you've gotten yourself into.
Chapter Four of Darkstar. I would greatly appreciate critique and comments, especially on this chapter.
© 2010 - 2024 Silvre
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