THE ROLLALONG HILL DAY 2
Jinx sniffed at the air as Allen was trying hard not to look frightened by the cup in his hand. Nattalie tried so hard to fit in, and the more he tried to forbid her from magic, the more she snuck dangerously behind his back to try. She had no idea what the consequences might be if she actually drew the magic, and he planned to keep it that way. Allen gulped the last bit of water and held the glass out to Nattalie. His face became stone and his eyebrows became dark curtains over his eyes. “Someone dangerous is coming to our house.”
Natt felt Jinx’s hackles rise. The opposable claws that usually sat double jointed and tucked up into his thick brown fur slid out. He stood on his back legs, and now towering over her like the great fierce beast everyone knew as a Gnat, Jinx moved between her and the house ten feet tall and looking nothing like a friend.
Allen picked his axe up and grabbed Jinx’s neck slowly. “Make sure she stays here.”
Natt could feel static discharging in the air all around her father. All though her father did not draw the energy from the air too him intentionally, the ground sent it to him like a grounded circuit ready to discharge. The further he moved away from her the stronger it became.
Natt watched him go, never speaking a word. She had never seen her father as a wizard, but at the moment she braced herself for the ground to split open and flood the entire valley where the small town sat.
Allen knew that Jinx would not let anything happen to Natt, but the presence of decay and corruption was so strong in the fields to the south of his house he dared not take a chance. He could smell it moving closer, He could hear it searching for their home, and he could feel the ground ready to erupt at any moment at his call.
The Unitary council had been good for something, An old witch among them had shown him how to read the earth around him. She was not banned from the council as he was, but she had been moved to the lower ranks for merely suggesting the world had wishes if they would only listen to the very magic they used.
He had not built this house by hand, but his darling Maria had picked it out when they moved to Rollalong Hill after she had found out she was with child. He had memorized every breath the land took around them before Nattalie was even born.
It breathed a warning, strong and persistent. A stranger was coming and he had to meet it before it met Natt. Allen, like a quick stalking cheetah had gone through the long grasses and through the uncut trees before he began to doubt the message he was getting. He could have stumbled upon the fallen man if not for the stench that overrode his earth senses when he was five feet from him.
Dark magic leaked off from him like a vile smoke. It came up from his back in thick small plumes almost disguising the dagger from Allen’s sight. It was then that he realized the corruption was not from this stranger but the magical weapon stuck in his lower back. He could feel the energy in the ground seeping toward the man. The air sucked at the thick smoke, pulling at the darkness. All the power of the Earth that a man used to convenience himself was just the ability to give it purpose, the energy gave itself purpose and was trying to save this man, something he had never in all his travels witnessed. The land itself, without being asked, was trying to destroy the poison. Allen had to break his barrier. He had been holding it all away, and it was dangerous after so long disconnect from the energy to suddenly let it back in. Like a magnetic force all the accumulated bits would come rushing in once the gates were opened. The earth wanted this man alive. Allen had to help. He knew what to do, and the earth itself was asking of him.
From a long distance Jinx could see what was happening, felt it. He turned his head, much like an owl and looked down to Nattalie. “We go.” Natt hesitated and then in terror followed Jinx to her Father.
Before they had moved three steps, Jinx suddenly plopped down in front of her and put his large furry arms to the ground around her as if bowing. “Down friend Down!” Jinx did not have to tell her, she was already bracing herself in his giant grasp. Like a concussive explosion a blast of cold ran against Jinx and over Natt’s head. It felt like Jinx might be pushed over by it squashing her into a furry beast pie. She watched the wave ripple the ground. It formed a perfect crescent two feet in front of Jinx.
“Dad!” Natt leaped away from Jinx and ran. She did not care what was happening. She thought she heard Jinx mutter a curse at her father as she escaped, but he was more important to her then her own breath. Her father was all she had. Allen could hear Natt's body approaching and quickly created a sinkhole for the dagger to go into. He watched it fall and the hole seal back up. “From earth, to earth depart from death.” Allen turned to tell Natt everything was ok but was practically knocked over by her hug. She squealed when she realized there was a man laying on the ground. “Is he… is he…?”
Allen hushed her sternly. “No, he isn’t dead.” He hefted the body over his shoulders, and looked at Jinx sternly. "Try to keep her away next time friend."
Jinx growled playfully, and trodded ahead of them to the house. Strength in this land was not commonplace, in fact down right rare, and her father had been doing everything on their farm since she was born without magic. The townspeople would have a field day watching him pick the stranger up like a baby and carry him back to his house. Natt watched in awe, as she always did when her father did such feets of strength. Natt looked at the man's face as he lay limp in her fathers arms being carried up to their home. He was more handsome then anyone she had ever seen, even under the ghostly pale aura that washed over his features.
His nose was large and pointed, his jaw strong and thick. A few days of stubble showed where the form of his beard would grow. His dark hair flopped in short dreadlocks decorated in jeweled beads. It was almost feminine, but not on this man. Other then his ragged cloths stinking of the late summer heat he looked stately almost royal.
Nattalie ran ahead and opened the back porch door for her dad. She wondered if this was what her father called a ‘polotician’. If it was though, she doubted he would be helping him. “What is wrong with him?”
Allen sat the man on the homemade hammock. She had spun and woven the basket for it herself and was painfully pleased that something she had made could be of such important use for once. Allen hushed her , "step back to the door Natt." The air began to move around them. She had rarely seen him do magic, and was struck by the effortlessness. It simply happened, by mere thought her father was creating some kind of barrier around the stranger.
Allen hated to do it all in front of Natt, but there was no choice. If she had not been so strong willed, he would have kept magic from her for the rest of her life, and in this instance barred her from entering the house. The world wanted this man to survive, at least part of the world did, and he was not going to disobey. “He has a fever from the disease that struck him down.” Allen finished creating the cool air sphere that would surround his patient and put his hands over the mans chest. He was one of two living sorcerers that could create the self sustaining spheres. The other was a Relic Beast. “Nattalie, you must stay away from him until I find out who and why he is here. I’m going to have Jinx take you away.” Allen could feel Natt’s fear and disappointment even from within the magical barrier.
“No!” She begged, “I am seventeen father, I can help.”
Allen struggled to be stern with her. “No Natt, there is no time for this, you can not be here when he wakes. You must go.”
Natt stared at the her fathers crouched body. If she could just use magic she wouldn’t be so helpless. “This is all your fault!” She held back angry tears. Allen could not be sure she was yelling at him as she ran to her bedroom to pack.
Allen checked the barrier and the man one last time and stood. He had to put his block against the magic back on before the intoxicating power crept too much further into his veins. Every time he had let it loose it got harder to block it back out. The floors creaked and the walls almost seemed to expand as he forced it all away and out. It was like pushing against a hurricane wind. Allen cringed at the thought that he might have to do this again some day soon.
Nattalie stood at her door watching, her pack and saddle made specifically for Jinx with his feeble guidance sat on her shoulder too heavy to bear. The sting of the straps practically cutting into her soft shoulders was welcomed when she saw her father struggle to push away the gift she so much wanted to have. She could always feel the magic in the air and earth disappear when she was close to him, and now she knew what she had always suspected. He was forcing it away. It was not a choice to be away from it like he led her to believe. Her father was pushing the power away, constantly every day. Nattalie wanted to feel sorry for him but refused to give him pity when he kept so much from her. “I’m ready, where is Jinx?”
Allen steadied himself, sure she had seen him. “Go find him. Tell him what has happened, he can take you to your Aunt’s house, she is safe enough.” He did not want to look at her. When she was angry all he could think of was her mother. Maria would be scolding him for being so cold. She would tell him to stop being a statesman and be a father. But he could not afford to. He had seventeen wonderful years of being a father, and he felt blessed by the Earth for giving him such a long time without the war, but it was time to go back, and this man was going to tell him why.
Natt still stood with the door in her hand watching her father pull up a chair to sit next to his prisoner. She did not want to leave. The thought crossed her mind that she could talk Jinx into hiding with her in the barn, but she knew Jinx could pick lies out of a massive crowd of thieves as easily as she could separate a basket of blue and red berries. She saw Jinx heading up from the north field, it struck her as odd since they had been in the south, but Jinx did many things she could never understand. She quickly looked back inside where her father stared sadly at her from his perch. “I love you Dad.” and she ran off before she could hear him say “I’m so sorry baby.” With that he finished his most difficult layer of spheres.
Jinx galloped even more happily when he caught sight of the saddle. They would not be taking the main roads because after all, a young lady riding a Gnat around like a horse would most definitely cause trouble for everyone in the family. As she looped and buckled the seat onto his solid frame Jinx asked with his ears pricked almost higher then his twisty horns, “Where?”
Nattalie sighed once more before she climbed easily onto the gnat, “Aunt Hannah’s.” Jinx took a few steps toward the house sniffing the breeze before trotting off into the fields toward the Great Yellow Forest.
Allen waited two days for the man to stirr. The fever had broken hours after Allen had removed the dagger, but his brain had taken a bit longer to shrink back down from the swelling. The natural course of things always healed better then when magic forced it, another thing the Unitary Council had scolded the witch Ramelda for, but she still taught Allen. It had saved their daughter from a rather infectious case of Gumble Bumps when she was a child. When Maria was pregnant she had caught the disease and only allowed for comforting magic to sooth the blister like sores all over her body. She wanted her baby to never have to get the disease and because she had been a medical skills magician she knew that by fighting it off instead of forcing it away her unborn daughter would be protected.
Maria was more gifted in her skill with the magic. Allen had always been able to overpower anyone, but on the first day of his tenth level sparring class at Unitary he was put up against a beautifully raven haired woman with sun drenched skin and short almost minature frame. It did not take long before Maria had him blinded, bound and struggling for air under her gorgeous hold. It was love from then on, and only two years of war before Allen was kicked out of Unitary, and Maria quit to go with him.
For a soldier of this rank to make it as far as the Yellow forest carrying that weapon lodged in his back had to be a message. A message of war. Jinx would have seen an army when he scouted at night, so this man had to be alone. There was no way for him to travel through that many territories with that injury without a timed barrier. Allen would soon find out how and why.
The man woke suddenly nearly flipping out of the hammock. He caught himself with a quick gesture to the ground trying to use magic. To the mans terror the magic did not come when summoned and he had to roll back with grace to keep off from the pine hardwoods. He looked at Allen next, not in fear but with gratitude. “I made it.” His accent was eastern and Allen was struck by his informal posture. Allen had been dismissed from Unitary, but not stripped of his rank. “You are the Admiral?” The man steadied himself and set his feet firmly down. Allen waited patiently.
“It is a long story Admiral but your family is in terrible danger.” Allen sensed no deception, even without his magic Jinx had shown him many ways to see lies without it.
“I knew that much. What I want to know is why they sent you, and why you tried to bring disease into my home.” The soldier hesitated then, picking out his words carefully. “You will not lie to me.” The young sergeant still paused. “It may be plenty heard amongst the men that I don’t use magic, but don’t be stupid. I haven’t lost any aptitude or ability.”
It then came gushing out of the man like a release valve on one of Allen’s great uncle’s inventions. His uncle too had tended the earth and found no use for magic unless his own two hands were incapable. “Sir, they wouldn’t tell me why, I tried to find out. They threatened to kick me out if I didn’t come here as quickly as the wind would carry me and tell you to bring your family back to headquarters.” Allen took a deep slow breath trying not to panic and run straight out of the house to find Nattalie. “Then this dark stranger pulled me rate out of the sky!”
Allan stopped him, “You’re a sky glider?” It was a very hard skill to learn and teach. The soldier sent to him was probably more valuable to the Unitary then three admirals.
“Yes sir!” What now Allan could tell was a kid not much older then Nattalie beemed proudly. No wonder he was a sergeant. “Sir the man that stabbed me with that diseased dagger, he said….” The boy swallowed a thick breath of air.
Allen prodded him on. “Tell me.”
“He said you had three days to give them Maria or everyone in this town would die, and then he stuck that diseased thing in me and said that if I could not find you in two sunstrokes the spell of holding on it would release.”
Allan smiled relieved. It must of startled the sky glider to see it. “Maria…”
“S…. ssir?” The sky glider looked as if he wanted to get as far away as possible, maybe even back to the man that stabbed him rather then sit in the room with the crazy Admiral and his anti-magic field.
“It’s ok sergeant, you can stay here until you’re a bit more rested for your journey back. I however have a dark magician to kill.”
The boy quickly began to protest. “I can’t go back without you and your family, they’ll strip me of rank!”
“Give me your name sky glider, they won’t touch your rank when I’m done with them.” Allen was still trying to hold up his barriers though he knew soon enough he would have to ask the earth for forgiveness and unleash it.
“It’s Jax sir, Jax RiShad.” Jax wanted to ask more questions, but with all that had happened began feeling weak and ready to fall over in the hammock.
“Jax, just stay here for at least a week.” Allen stood and walked toward the fireplace. He reached down and found a hidden latch below the floor boards in front of it. The boy rested back down into his daughters hammock and lay quietly while Allen pulled out a large folded package. “If the townspeople try to stop in, don’t answer the door, and don’t speak to them. They are nosey cutt-throtes and would have you trapped here under civil arrest for months.”
Allen unwrapped a dark green cloak trimmed in gold, a dull dagger with priceless metals lining the hilt, and a small sack of divided herbs Ramelda had given him when he departed the Unitary capitol. The herbs he shoved deep into his cloak pocket before he put his running boots and brace belt on.
“Sir, I’m a seer too…” Jax was told never to divulge this to anyone. What good was a spy if anyone knew that he had the power to see through deception. “The dark man knows about your daughter.”
Allan practically dropped into the cubbyhole turning to Jax. “You are sure. I have to know.” Allan grabbed the boy shaking him, “You’re brains be bashed against your skull if you are holding anything back!”
“No sir!” He grabbed Allan’s forearms to brace from the shaking. “The Unitary Council doesn’t even know, they thought it was just you and Maria.” Jax became frightened, even without magic the Admiral really could pull him limb from limb with little effort. “Sir, just that dark man I fear for your daughter, he even knows what she looks like.” Jax had stored that image especially safe inside. She was so beautiful and the aura that glowed about her was so pure of earth and water that he knew she was far more special than even Maria was to the council, and somehow to him.
“I have to go sky-glider… One day is all that is safe for you here… Please warn the town if you can get it through their thick skulls. I have to get to my girl.”
Jax nodded, “Yes sir!” Allan heaved a bag of dry goods over his shoulder and put his hand to the earth outside of his door, Jax hollered from inside now trying to stand and free of Allans anti-magic. “Is he really going to destroy this town?” Jax saw now, not just with his seer ability, but with every fiber of himself that the man calling to the earth in front of him was the most dangerous man he had ever met.
The house shook off seventeen years of dust and clutter from anything attached to it’s body when Allan released his power again. Jax had fixed the air beneath him out of instinct and watch the ground, and even trees off in the field threaten to jump from the bindings that held them. Allan looked back at him and simply said , “As long as I’m breathing, he will have no air.” It was an old military promise that was reserved for the order to commit to war. Jax kneeled on the floor now done shaking.
Allan had not taken his hand from the Earth. Up from the ground had come a large armored head, the mole worms up here had known Allen was tending the earth and had agreed amongst themselves to keep an eye out for his family. They too knew of the Admirals great power, and unwillingness to harm the earth using it. Allan addressed the mole worm quickly, “I need to use the tunnels. A very evil man is after my family and ready to start war, I can not track him above soil.” The Mole worm looked like he was nodding and vanished beneath the surface. Allan said only one more thing before jumping down the hole. “One day Jax, then fly north.”
Jax was in a daze still wondering what had just happened. North wasn’t the direction of the unitary capitol. This Admiral was not as tame as the council had led him to believe. Jax really wished there was a way to disarm the devices that blocked seers. Almost every high council had one hidden on their person, and he would have been able to gladly give up his rank and never have left the capital in the first place if he could have seen through them.
Nattalie and Jinx traveled comfortably most of the day. Jinx was so pleased to be out running the woods free that he glided over any obstacle the woods could throw at him. Natt held on and tried not to let the anger at her father ruin the most amazing gift the Gnat was giving her. Riding a Gnat was not like riding a horse or a carriage. This was a feared untamable creature between her legs that was bringing her closer to the glory of earths power then she would ever be able to touch. She was sky-gliding. Nattalie put her arms up in the air as they lept over a riverbank fifty feet to the other side. Jinx landed smoothly and slowed to a halt sniffing the air.
“Down.” Jinx shook her off gently and pointed with his front paws at the cave ahead.
“Why are we stopping? Aunt Hannah’s house is still a whole day away!” Jinx stood and smelled at the air. “What is it Jinx?”
Jinx stuck his big wet nose to her back and pushed her toward the cave. Then he turned suddenly and pounced into the thick brush on the other end of the cavern. He came back through in a huge racket carrying a large six legged doe from the wood. The things neck was unnaturally bent backwards in his jaw.
Jinx seemed to smile mischievously through the blood on his long razor sharp teeth. “Hungry!”
Nattalie nodded and started looking for dry wood to build a fire with. She started to feel mad at her dad again. “Any four year old.” She heard herself shout, “I can’t make fire because he won’t show me!” Natt still picked and stacked firewood. He had given her a device to create fire with. He told her that a great uncle of hers could make anything, without magic and this was to travel with her if she had to go anywhere outside of town. She already had it in her pocket that morning when she started the stove up for breakfast.
Jinx was right, it was time to eat.
After the giant claws stripped the kill of it’s knatted fur, the opposable claw came back out and swiftly made small chunks of steak out of the under belly for Nattalie. Jinx growled playfully at her and threw the meat from the tip of his claw when she turned. Blood splattered on her fine brown shirt and down to her grey slacks. “Jinx!” Nattalie tried to remember that the gnat’s sense of humor was much different then her own. “Thank you Jinx.”
Jinx proudly nodded, and then clamped down with a great sucking noise into the belly he had just cut the steaks from.
Nattalie ate, and waited for Jinx to finish grooming before she climbed into his long relaxed belly for a nap. Jinx was clearly purring and ready to take one himself. After looking once more around and sticking his long wagging tongue out into dirt to grab a last porcel of flesh, he lay his head down and closed his eyes for sleep.
The two woke shortly before dawn approached and decided to keep going for the night and rest again in the day. Jinx was more of a nocturnal creature and did not have to speak for Natt to know his preference toward night travel. He glided smoothly enough that she dozed for hours by strapping her hands under the saddle. The sun cascading through the tree tops strobed over her eyelids as Jinx ran. It woke her from a steady doze and she soon realized that Jinx was not merely dashing, but on a high speed run. His heaving and panting had not disturbed her as she slept but now she became concerned. “Jinx,” She struggle to move her hands out of the wrist straps, “Jinx why are you going so fast, we can stop Jinx.” Jinx ignored her and looked quickly to his left and then fatigued turned in a jerk to the north.
Nattalie could not fathom what would make Jinx run till exhaustion, but she now felt dreadful fear creeping under her skin. “Jinx, what is going on?”
Jinx grabbed a small rabbit up in one gulp as he jumped a small crick. Gnats had fast metabolisms and if they had been running all night the rabbit wouldn’t be nearly enough to keep him running for much longer.
“Danger.” was all Jinx would say.
“But Aunt Hannah’s house is the other way Jinx.” Natt braced herself for another jump.
“Al say move north. Danger.” Jinx snapped at another critter, what could have been a large squirell, and missed. Nattalie thought she heard him snorting at himself.
Nattalie remembered her father had shoved some dried winter dust bread in the saddle when they had stored it. Made with the small yellow flowers that popped out of the snow under elder trees, the bread was extremely full of nutrients and remained preserved for years. She carefully hung on to the handle that latched around Jinx’s front and reached back into the oversized pocket for the food.
Gnat reached back his long tongue as he ran to scoop it out of her hand. Nattalie tried to form a water globe for him to drink, but was unable to sustain even a drop in movement. Jinx tried to comfort her. “Not far. Rest not far.”
Jinx sniffed at the air as Allen was trying hard not to look frightened by the cup in his hand. Nattalie tried so hard to fit in, and the more he tried to forbid her from magic, the more she snuck dangerously behind his back to try. She had no idea what the consequences might be if she actually drew the magic, and he planned to keep it that way. Allen gulped the last bit of water and held the glass out to Nattalie. His face became stone and his eyebrows became dark curtains over his eyes. “Someone dangerous is coming to our house.”
Natt felt Jinx’s hackles rise. The opposable claws that usually sat double jointed and tucked up into his thick brown fur slid out. He stood on his back legs, and now towering over her like the great fierce beast everyone knew as a Gnat, Jinx moved between her and the house ten feet tall and looking nothing like a friend.
Allen picked his axe up and grabbed Jinx’s neck slowly. “Make sure she stays here.”
Natt could feel static discharging in the air all around her father. All though her father did not draw the energy from the air too him intentionally, the ground sent it to him like a grounded circuit ready to discharge. The further he moved away from her the stronger it became.
Natt watched him go, never speaking a word. She had never seen her father as a wizard, but at the moment she braced herself for the ground to split open and flood the entire valley where the small town sat.
Allen knew that Jinx would not let anything happen to Natt, but the presence of decay and corruption was so strong in the fields to the south of his house he dared not take a chance. He could smell it moving closer, He could hear it searching for their home, and he could feel the ground ready to erupt at any moment at his call.
The Unitary council had been good for something, An old witch among them had shown him how to read the earth around him. She was not banned from the council as he was, but she had been moved to the lower ranks for merely suggesting the world had wishes if they would only listen to the very magic they used.
He had not built this house by hand, but his darling Maria had picked it out when they moved to Rollalong Hill after she had found out she was with child. He had memorized every breath the land took around them before Nattalie was even born.
It breathed a warning, strong and persistent. A stranger was coming and he had to meet it before it met Natt. Allen, like a quick stalking cheetah had gone through the long grasses and through the uncut trees before he began to doubt the message he was getting. He could have stumbled upon the fallen man if not for the stench that overrode his earth senses when he was five feet from him.
Dark magic leaked off from him like a vile smoke. It came up from his back in thick small plumes almost disguising the dagger from Allen’s sight. It was then that he realized the corruption was not from this stranger but the magical weapon stuck in his lower back. He could feel the energy in the ground seeping toward the man. The air sucked at the thick smoke, pulling at the darkness. All the power of the Earth that a man used to convenience himself was just the ability to give it purpose, the energy gave itself purpose and was trying to save this man, something he had never in all his travels witnessed. The land itself, without being asked, was trying to destroy the poison. Allen had to break his barrier. He had been holding it all away, and it was dangerous after so long disconnect from the energy to suddenly let it back in. Like a magnetic force all the accumulated bits would come rushing in once the gates were opened. The earth wanted this man alive. Allen had to help. He knew what to do, and the earth itself was asking of him.
From a long distance Jinx could see what was happening, felt it. He turned his head, much like an owl and looked down to Nattalie. “We go.” Natt hesitated and then in terror followed Jinx to her Father.
Before they had moved three steps, Jinx suddenly plopped down in front of her and put his large furry arms to the ground around her as if bowing. “Down friend Down!” Jinx did not have to tell her, she was already bracing herself in his giant grasp. Like a concussive explosion a blast of cold ran against Jinx and over Natt’s head. It felt like Jinx might be pushed over by it squashing her into a furry beast pie. She watched the wave ripple the ground. It formed a perfect crescent two feet in front of Jinx.
“Dad!” Natt leaped away from Jinx and ran. She did not care what was happening. She thought she heard Jinx mutter a curse at her father as she escaped, but he was more important to her then her own breath. Her father was all she had. Allen could hear Natt's body approaching and quickly created a sinkhole for the dagger to go into. He watched it fall and the hole seal back up. “From earth, to earth depart from death.” Allen turned to tell Natt everything was ok but was practically knocked over by her hug. She squealed when she realized there was a man laying on the ground. “Is he… is he…?”
Allen hushed her sternly. “No, he isn’t dead.” He hefted the body over his shoulders, and looked at Jinx sternly. "Try to keep her away next time friend."
Jinx growled playfully, and trodded ahead of them to the house. Strength in this land was not commonplace, in fact down right rare, and her father had been doing everything on their farm since she was born without magic. The townspeople would have a field day watching him pick the stranger up like a baby and carry him back to his house. Natt watched in awe, as she always did when her father did such feets of strength. Natt looked at the man's face as he lay limp in her fathers arms being carried up to their home. He was more handsome then anyone she had ever seen, even under the ghostly pale aura that washed over his features.
His nose was large and pointed, his jaw strong and thick. A few days of stubble showed where the form of his beard would grow. His dark hair flopped in short dreadlocks decorated in jeweled beads. It was almost feminine, but not on this man. Other then his ragged cloths stinking of the late summer heat he looked stately almost royal.
Nattalie ran ahead and opened the back porch door for her dad. She wondered if this was what her father called a ‘polotician’. If it was though, she doubted he would be helping him. “What is wrong with him?”
Allen sat the man on the homemade hammock. She had spun and woven the basket for it herself and was painfully pleased that something she had made could be of such important use for once. Allen hushed her , "step back to the door Natt." The air began to move around them. She had rarely seen him do magic, and was struck by the effortlessness. It simply happened, by mere thought her father was creating some kind of barrier around the stranger.
Allen hated to do it all in front of Natt, but there was no choice. If she had not been so strong willed, he would have kept magic from her for the rest of her life, and in this instance barred her from entering the house. The world wanted this man to survive, at least part of the world did, and he was not going to disobey. “He has a fever from the disease that struck him down.” Allen finished creating the cool air sphere that would surround his patient and put his hands over the mans chest. He was one of two living sorcerers that could create the self sustaining spheres. The other was a Relic Beast. “Nattalie, you must stay away from him until I find out who and why he is here. I’m going to have Jinx take you away.” Allen could feel Natt’s fear and disappointment even from within the magical barrier.
“No!” She begged, “I am seventeen father, I can help.”
Allen struggled to be stern with her. “No Natt, there is no time for this, you can not be here when he wakes. You must go.”
Natt stared at the her fathers crouched body. If she could just use magic she wouldn’t be so helpless. “This is all your fault!” She held back angry tears. Allen could not be sure she was yelling at him as she ran to her bedroom to pack.
Allen checked the barrier and the man one last time and stood. He had to put his block against the magic back on before the intoxicating power crept too much further into his veins. Every time he had let it loose it got harder to block it back out. The floors creaked and the walls almost seemed to expand as he forced it all away and out. It was like pushing against a hurricane wind. Allen cringed at the thought that he might have to do this again some day soon.
Nattalie stood at her door watching, her pack and saddle made specifically for Jinx with his feeble guidance sat on her shoulder too heavy to bear. The sting of the straps practically cutting into her soft shoulders was welcomed when she saw her father struggle to push away the gift she so much wanted to have. She could always feel the magic in the air and earth disappear when she was close to him, and now she knew what she had always suspected. He was forcing it away. It was not a choice to be away from it like he led her to believe. Her father was pushing the power away, constantly every day. Nattalie wanted to feel sorry for him but refused to give him pity when he kept so much from her. “I’m ready, where is Jinx?”
Allen steadied himself, sure she had seen him. “Go find him. Tell him what has happened, he can take you to your Aunt’s house, she is safe enough.” He did not want to look at her. When she was angry all he could think of was her mother. Maria would be scolding him for being so cold. She would tell him to stop being a statesman and be a father. But he could not afford to. He had seventeen wonderful years of being a father, and he felt blessed by the Earth for giving him such a long time without the war, but it was time to go back, and this man was going to tell him why.
Natt still stood with the door in her hand watching her father pull up a chair to sit next to his prisoner. She did not want to leave. The thought crossed her mind that she could talk Jinx into hiding with her in the barn, but she knew Jinx could pick lies out of a massive crowd of thieves as easily as she could separate a basket of blue and red berries. She saw Jinx heading up from the north field, it struck her as odd since they had been in the south, but Jinx did many things she could never understand. She quickly looked back inside where her father stared sadly at her from his perch. “I love you Dad.” and she ran off before she could hear him say “I’m so sorry baby.” With that he finished his most difficult layer of spheres.
Jinx galloped even more happily when he caught sight of the saddle. They would not be taking the main roads because after all, a young lady riding a Gnat around like a horse would most definitely cause trouble for everyone in the family. As she looped and buckled the seat onto his solid frame Jinx asked with his ears pricked almost higher then his twisty horns, “Where?”
Nattalie sighed once more before she climbed easily onto the gnat, “Aunt Hannah’s.” Jinx took a few steps toward the house sniffing the breeze before trotting off into the fields toward the Great Yellow Forest.
Allen waited two days for the man to stirr. The fever had broken hours after Allen had removed the dagger, but his brain had taken a bit longer to shrink back down from the swelling. The natural course of things always healed better then when magic forced it, another thing the Unitary Council had scolded the witch Ramelda for, but she still taught Allen. It had saved their daughter from a rather infectious case of Gumble Bumps when she was a child. When Maria was pregnant she had caught the disease and only allowed for comforting magic to sooth the blister like sores all over her body. She wanted her baby to never have to get the disease and because she had been a medical skills magician she knew that by fighting it off instead of forcing it away her unborn daughter would be protected.
Maria was more gifted in her skill with the magic. Allen had always been able to overpower anyone, but on the first day of his tenth level sparring class at Unitary he was put up against a beautifully raven haired woman with sun drenched skin and short almost minature frame. It did not take long before Maria had him blinded, bound and struggling for air under her gorgeous hold. It was love from then on, and only two years of war before Allen was kicked out of Unitary, and Maria quit to go with him.
For a soldier of this rank to make it as far as the Yellow forest carrying that weapon lodged in his back had to be a message. A message of war. Jinx would have seen an army when he scouted at night, so this man had to be alone. There was no way for him to travel through that many territories with that injury without a timed barrier. Allen would soon find out how and why.
The man woke suddenly nearly flipping out of the hammock. He caught himself with a quick gesture to the ground trying to use magic. To the mans terror the magic did not come when summoned and he had to roll back with grace to keep off from the pine hardwoods. He looked at Allen next, not in fear but with gratitude. “I made it.” His accent was eastern and Allen was struck by his informal posture. Allen had been dismissed from Unitary, but not stripped of his rank. “You are the Admiral?” The man steadied himself and set his feet firmly down. Allen waited patiently.
“It is a long story Admiral but your family is in terrible danger.” Allen sensed no deception, even without his magic Jinx had shown him many ways to see lies without it.
“I knew that much. What I want to know is why they sent you, and why you tried to bring disease into my home.” The soldier hesitated then, picking out his words carefully. “You will not lie to me.” The young sergeant still paused. “It may be plenty heard amongst the men that I don’t use magic, but don’t be stupid. I haven’t lost any aptitude or ability.”
It then came gushing out of the man like a release valve on one of Allen’s great uncle’s inventions. His uncle too had tended the earth and found no use for magic unless his own two hands were incapable. “Sir, they wouldn’t tell me why, I tried to find out. They threatened to kick me out if I didn’t come here as quickly as the wind would carry me and tell you to bring your family back to headquarters.” Allen took a deep slow breath trying not to panic and run straight out of the house to find Nattalie. “Then this dark stranger pulled me rate out of the sky!”
Allan stopped him, “You’re a sky glider?” It was a very hard skill to learn and teach. The soldier sent to him was probably more valuable to the Unitary then three admirals.
“Yes sir!” What now Allan could tell was a kid not much older then Nattalie beemed proudly. No wonder he was a sergeant. “Sir the man that stabbed me with that diseased dagger, he said….” The boy swallowed a thick breath of air.
Allen prodded him on. “Tell me.”
“He said you had three days to give them Maria or everyone in this town would die, and then he stuck that diseased thing in me and said that if I could not find you in two sunstrokes the spell of holding on it would release.”
Allan smiled relieved. It must of startled the sky glider to see it. “Maria…”
“S…. ssir?” The sky glider looked as if he wanted to get as far away as possible, maybe even back to the man that stabbed him rather then sit in the room with the crazy Admiral and his anti-magic field.
“It’s ok sergeant, you can stay here until you’re a bit more rested for your journey back. I however have a dark magician to kill.”
The boy quickly began to protest. “I can’t go back without you and your family, they’ll strip me of rank!”
“Give me your name sky glider, they won’t touch your rank when I’m done with them.” Allen was still trying to hold up his barriers though he knew soon enough he would have to ask the earth for forgiveness and unleash it.
“It’s Jax sir, Jax RiShad.” Jax wanted to ask more questions, but with all that had happened began feeling weak and ready to fall over in the hammock.
“Jax, just stay here for at least a week.” Allen stood and walked toward the fireplace. He reached down and found a hidden latch below the floor boards in front of it. The boy rested back down into his daughters hammock and lay quietly while Allen pulled out a large folded package. “If the townspeople try to stop in, don’t answer the door, and don’t speak to them. They are nosey cutt-throtes and would have you trapped here under civil arrest for months.”
Allen unwrapped a dark green cloak trimmed in gold, a dull dagger with priceless metals lining the hilt, and a small sack of divided herbs Ramelda had given him when he departed the Unitary capitol. The herbs he shoved deep into his cloak pocket before he put his running boots and brace belt on.
“Sir, I’m a seer too…” Jax was told never to divulge this to anyone. What good was a spy if anyone knew that he had the power to see through deception. “The dark man knows about your daughter.”
Allan practically dropped into the cubbyhole turning to Jax. “You are sure. I have to know.” Allan grabbed the boy shaking him, “You’re brains be bashed against your skull if you are holding anything back!”
“No sir!” He grabbed Allan’s forearms to brace from the shaking. “The Unitary Council doesn’t even know, they thought it was just you and Maria.” Jax became frightened, even without magic the Admiral really could pull him limb from limb with little effort. “Sir, just that dark man I fear for your daughter, he even knows what she looks like.” Jax had stored that image especially safe inside. She was so beautiful and the aura that glowed about her was so pure of earth and water that he knew she was far more special than even Maria was to the council, and somehow to him.
“I have to go sky-glider… One day is all that is safe for you here… Please warn the town if you can get it through their thick skulls. I have to get to my girl.”
Jax nodded, “Yes sir!” Allan heaved a bag of dry goods over his shoulder and put his hand to the earth outside of his door, Jax hollered from inside now trying to stand and free of Allans anti-magic. “Is he really going to destroy this town?” Jax saw now, not just with his seer ability, but with every fiber of himself that the man calling to the earth in front of him was the most dangerous man he had ever met.
The house shook off seventeen years of dust and clutter from anything attached to it’s body when Allan released his power again. Jax had fixed the air beneath him out of instinct and watch the ground, and even trees off in the field threaten to jump from the bindings that held them. Allan looked back at him and simply said , “As long as I’m breathing, he will have no air.” It was an old military promise that was reserved for the order to commit to war. Jax kneeled on the floor now done shaking.
Allan had not taken his hand from the Earth. Up from the ground had come a large armored head, the mole worms up here had known Allen was tending the earth and had agreed amongst themselves to keep an eye out for his family. They too knew of the Admirals great power, and unwillingness to harm the earth using it. Allan addressed the mole worm quickly, “I need to use the tunnels. A very evil man is after my family and ready to start war, I can not track him above soil.” The Mole worm looked like he was nodding and vanished beneath the surface. Allan said only one more thing before jumping down the hole. “One day Jax, then fly north.”
Jax was in a daze still wondering what had just happened. North wasn’t the direction of the unitary capitol. This Admiral was not as tame as the council had led him to believe. Jax really wished there was a way to disarm the devices that blocked seers. Almost every high council had one hidden on their person, and he would have been able to gladly give up his rank and never have left the capital in the first place if he could have seen through them.
Nattalie and Jinx traveled comfortably most of the day. Jinx was so pleased to be out running the woods free that he glided over any obstacle the woods could throw at him. Natt held on and tried not to let the anger at her father ruin the most amazing gift the Gnat was giving her. Riding a Gnat was not like riding a horse or a carriage. This was a feared untamable creature between her legs that was bringing her closer to the glory of earths power then she would ever be able to touch. She was sky-gliding. Nattalie put her arms up in the air as they lept over a riverbank fifty feet to the other side. Jinx landed smoothly and slowed to a halt sniffing the air.
“Down.” Jinx shook her off gently and pointed with his front paws at the cave ahead.
“Why are we stopping? Aunt Hannah’s house is still a whole day away!” Jinx stood and smelled at the air. “What is it Jinx?”
Jinx stuck his big wet nose to her back and pushed her toward the cave. Then he turned suddenly and pounced into the thick brush on the other end of the cavern. He came back through in a huge racket carrying a large six legged doe from the wood. The things neck was unnaturally bent backwards in his jaw.
Jinx seemed to smile mischievously through the blood on his long razor sharp teeth. “Hungry!”
Nattalie nodded and started looking for dry wood to build a fire with. She started to feel mad at her dad again. “Any four year old.” She heard herself shout, “I can’t make fire because he won’t show me!” Natt still picked and stacked firewood. He had given her a device to create fire with. He told her that a great uncle of hers could make anything, without magic and this was to travel with her if she had to go anywhere outside of town. She already had it in her pocket that morning when she started the stove up for breakfast.
Jinx was right, it was time to eat.
After the giant claws stripped the kill of it’s knatted fur, the opposable claw came back out and swiftly made small chunks of steak out of the under belly for Nattalie. Jinx growled playfully at her and threw the meat from the tip of his claw when she turned. Blood splattered on her fine brown shirt and down to her grey slacks. “Jinx!” Nattalie tried to remember that the gnat’s sense of humor was much different then her own. “Thank you Jinx.”
Jinx proudly nodded, and then clamped down with a great sucking noise into the belly he had just cut the steaks from.
Nattalie ate, and waited for Jinx to finish grooming before she climbed into his long relaxed belly for a nap. Jinx was clearly purring and ready to take one himself. After looking once more around and sticking his long wagging tongue out into dirt to grab a last porcel of flesh, he lay his head down and closed his eyes for sleep.
The two woke shortly before dawn approached and decided to keep going for the night and rest again in the day. Jinx was more of a nocturnal creature and did not have to speak for Natt to know his preference toward night travel. He glided smoothly enough that she dozed for hours by strapping her hands under the saddle. The sun cascading through the tree tops strobed over her eyelids as Jinx ran. It woke her from a steady doze and she soon realized that Jinx was not merely dashing, but on a high speed run. His heaving and panting had not disturbed her as she slept but now she became concerned. “Jinx,” She struggle to move her hands out of the wrist straps, “Jinx why are you going so fast, we can stop Jinx.” Jinx ignored her and looked quickly to his left and then fatigued turned in a jerk to the north.
Nattalie could not fathom what would make Jinx run till exhaustion, but she now felt dreadful fear creeping under her skin. “Jinx, what is going on?”
Jinx grabbed a small rabbit up in one gulp as he jumped a small crick. Gnats had fast metabolisms and if they had been running all night the rabbit wouldn’t be nearly enough to keep him running for much longer.
“Danger.” was all Jinx would say.
“But Aunt Hannah’s house is the other way Jinx.” Natt braced herself for another jump.
“Al say move north. Danger.” Jinx snapped at another critter, what could have been a large squirell, and missed. Nattalie thought she heard him snorting at himself.
Nattalie remembered her father had shoved some dried winter dust bread in the saddle when they had stored it. Made with the small yellow flowers that popped out of the snow under elder trees, the bread was extremely full of nutrients and remained preserved for years. She carefully hung on to the handle that latched around Jinx’s front and reached back into the oversized pocket for the food.
Gnat reached back his long tongue as he ran to scoop it out of her hand. Nattalie tried to form a water globe for him to drink, but was unable to sustain even a drop in movement. Jinx tried to comfort her. “Not far. Rest not far.”
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