Arrows flew through the air, turning the two black panther-like creatures into pincushions. The first one collapsed barely ten feet in front of Jade. Hatred burned in its eyes as its claws reached for her, even as it entered the land of the dead. The second, not having been charging like the first, didn’t even make it within twenty feet.
“It’s the beithiche.” The horror and awe in the man’s voice was evident. “We survived the beithiche.” His whisper came clearly to her, though at least he was quiet enough that he shouldn’t alert anything...that hadn’t already been alerted by the fight. Shoot.
“Whatever it is, we need to move, and quickly.” Jade waved her hand, using wind to pick up the two beasts. She ruthlessly yanked the arrows from their hides, storing any that were broken, pulling the blood from those still intact, and quickly handing them back to their owners. She used wind to grab as many other arrows as she could sense that missed, which was easier given that she’d enchanted her own earlier and could see them with her mana sense. The beasts themselves disappeared into her storage ring. Thankfully, she’d expanded it before they left.
Examining the thicket of growth in front of them, she knew if they tried to pass through it, they wouldn’t be getting out of this spot anytime soon. Letting out a soft growl of frustration, she shook her head. “Never mind. It’ll take too long. Don’t yell when I lift you.”
There were a few questioning looks, but they understood a moment later as her wind lifted them up. As soon as they were all in the air, she clumped them together and created a wind platform bubble. She could feel the extra exertion it was costing her, but ignored that in favor of quickly leaving the area. They shot through the air like a wind bullet, and only when they were probably a mile away did she slow down, lowering them to the ground once more. The forest floor was less overgrown than the one they’d left, thankfully.
As soon as they were on the ground, she let her wind bubble drop, immediately pulling a smoothie mix from her ring and drinking it while absorbing light. Probably realizing the strain she’d put herself through, no one was stupid enough to suggest that they travel the whole way like that.
She was starting to hate these woods, and she hadn’t even seen her true enemy yet. Heck, she almost wished the next things to attack her were those winged whatevers, simply so she could tame them and use them as transportation. I really hope I didn’t just jinx us… Never mind. It would be best if they could get to the nest without any more encounters. They had to be getting closer, right?
The only problem was…she wasn’t totally sure they were still going in the right direction. Sure, she’d traveled in as straight a line as possible, but they could still have easily gotten off track, especially in that last bolt through the woods. Eyeing the people who were also taking a breather and checking over their equipment while keeping watch on their surroundings, she nodded to herself.
“I’m going to go back up above the canopy.” When Marcelle glanced over at her questioningly, she shrugged. “I’d rather double check that we’re headed the right direction than get too far off track.”
Looking thoughtful, Marcelle nodded. “Hurry back, and be safe.”
“Always.” She replied cheekily, showing some of her normal good humor. She had to keep her attitude up, because she was the figurehead of the operation. If she started to become negative, it would leak into the team. Optimism was key!
Lowering her gravity, she started to run vertically up the tree trunk they’d stopped by, keeping her momentum up and using wind to boost her. She kept running, dodging branches as she got higher, until finally she jumped free of the treeline and into the sky, her momentum shooting her up as she looked around.
She was glad she’d come up, seeing as how the patch they were aiming for was about a mile southwest of them. Of course, had they kept going straight, they would’ve hit another patch in about 2-3 miles. She hadn’t realized they were that close together. It worried her a little bit. Especially when she noticed that beyond her target, probably 4-5 miles away, was another patch. All she could hope for was that they didn’t have some alarm like a giant bell to ring and alert the others to come help.
Sinking back to the canopy, she clung to the tree and sucked light in again until she felt completely recharged, which took about five minutes of both absorbing the light and eating food she pulled out of her ring. When she was full, she dove from the treeline, enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing past her face in the freefall, slowing herself when she hit about fifty feet from the forest floor.
She alighted on the ground, gathering the people around her as she quickly erected a wind wall to keep in any sounds they made. “So, good news and bad news. Our original target is about a mile that way.”
“How far is a mile?” One of the men asked, and she mentally berated herself yet again for not getting their names before this.
Then she processed his question. They didn’t know how long a mile was, but hadn’t they described...leagues? They’d used leagues. She shook her head. “I have no idea what your equivalent is. Like five thousand feet? Basically, the distance we just traveled in my wind sphere.” They seemed to understand her approximation of that, at least, so she went on. “Anyway, the place we want is about one mile that way, there’s another one straight ahead of us, probably two to three miles away, and behind the target, maybe another four miles, is another bad area.”
“In other words, we could run into them at any time.” One of the other men chimed in, and she nodded.
“Exactly. We have no idea if those bad areas are directly on top of their lairs or not. Not to mention, they could have a sentry. Basically, from this point out, be very careful and try to make zero noise.” There were nods from everyone, and Jade looked at Marcelle to see if she had any last things to add.
Marcelle grinned a little viciously as she spoke, “Let’s kill them all.”
“Except for the prisoner I need.” Jade chimed in quickly.
“Right. Kill all except one.” Marcelle’s grin was grim.
“And stay alive.” Jade added her second point, which had several of the men rolling their eyes.
“Of course, Mom.” The group chuckled a little at the friendly ribbing, while she pretended to be affronted.
She gestured to the wind wall. “Okay, I’m taking the wall down now. Silence from here on.” Again, there were nods in response, and she let the magic drop, then began to carefully lead the way, grateful that this part of the forest wasn’t as dense. Granted, it meant there were fewer hiding spots for her people, but also fewer spots for the mesmer.
She glanced up at the trees, then sighed inwardly, stopping. She glanced behind, then motioned that she was going to go into the treetops, and they were to continue forward. If there was a scout or patrol, they’d likely be up there, and she wanted to be able to catch them before they warned the others. They seemed to get the idea, and started forward as she lightened her gravity once again and started racing silently up the tree trunk.
Making sure to keep them in sight, she landed lightly on the lowest branch and began to walk above them, watching the surrounding trees for any signs of movement or danger. Seven trees later, she spotted the tainted trees in the distance. She winced as someone down below stepped on something that cracked. To her, it sounded like the roar of drums announcing their presence. The group below was scanning their surroundings as nervously as she was.