Seven Realms

Chapter 10

"What is that?" I jumped up.  Caelan grabbed me by the waist and pushed me behind him. "Ogre." Caelan hissed through gritted teeth, "Which means he's not alone. Do you know how to use a weapon?" "I'm good with a bow, and I'm good with daggers." Caelan sent a high pitched whistle to his horse. "Can you shoot from horse back?" "No, I've never tried." I admitted feeling my heart in my throat. Caelan threw me the bow and quiver of arrows before handing me a roll of daggers. I already had the first arrow nocked while I aimed and adjusted to the weight of the bow. "I'll keep them away, shoot whatever moves. Aim only for the head or the heart. And whatever you do, don't run, goblins love a good chase."

My knees begin to shake and a phantom pain shot through my shoulder at the mention of goblins. I was no longer that 12 year old girl though, and now I knew how to protect myself. Caelan tore through the field towards the ogre and I could see the heads of the goblins barely visible through the high grass. We were greatly outnumbered and if I was going to change the odds I needed to be able to see the ugly beasts. I climbed up onto a branch of the tree to get a better view, they were surrounding Caelan and my eyesight zeroed in. I let loose a barrage of arrows, one after the other I took down beast after beast. Three goblins broke away from the crowd and began their charge towards me. I nocked three arrows holding them between each space of my fingers as my father had taught me and let them fly. Each arrow hit their mark.

Caelan had taken down the ogre while I had finished off the last of the goblins. I jumped down from the tree to begin retrieving my arrows when a dark streak blurred my vision. I fell back against the tree trying to fight off the foul creature before it could sink its teeth in me. Releasing a dagger from my belt I slid my blade clean through its throat and sent its head rolling to the ground. "Elise!" Caelan rushed over to me pulling me off the ground and searching me for wounds. "Tssss" I hissed pulling my hand away. A deep gash was cut into my palm. "I'm ok, I just cut it when I fell against the tree." I said reassuringly. "Well little hawk, it seems I underestimated you. You do seem to have some useful skills after all ." He said looking around at all the goblins.

"Caelan?" I asked bringing his attention back to me. "Hmm?" He was still distracted by my archery skills. "How long has it been since this tree produced water?" I asked staring down at a small puddle forming at my feet. "The lake dried up centuries ago when the Unicorns left." He answered turning back now curious about my question. His eyes followed the direction of my gaze and all he could do was stare in bewilderment. He looked back at the tree where the water began trickling down, and circled around it inspecting it for signs of foul play. "What exactly happened when you fell?" He asked me now inspecting my hand sending small sparks through my veins. It was really hard to concentrate when his touch effected me so much I pulled my hand away from his and began retrieving my arrows not wanting him see the blush on my cheeks. "Nothing happened, I was knocked back by the goblin and I guess I put my hand out to catch my fall and I cut it on the bark. I actually didn't even know I had cut it at all." I replied giving him a sideways glance.

Caelan helped me retrieve the rest of my arrows and we packed up in silence. The puddle had continued to grow as we were putting our things away and Caelan seemed a million miles away. Before getting back on the horse he turned to me and put two daggers in my belt but left his hands resting on my waist a moment too long. I looked at him confused by his actions. He opened and closed his mouth several times before he spoke as if weighing out what he was about to say. "The rest of this journey is going to get very dangerous for us the Darkness will now be searching for the person who brought the Great Tree back to life. Unfortunately for us, not only are you the person that brought the tree to life, you also have the stone of destruction in your possession. The Darkness has many spies and they are in all forms this journey would be difficult under normal circumstances but now he will be hunting you. We will ride like the wind to the realm of Kyedune, I have friends there that I can rely on in a time of need."

He lifted me on the horse and positioned himself behind me once again. I didn't have time to scoot away from him because the moment he was seated he sent us into a full fledged gallop and my back fell into his chest and my hands dug into his thighs. I felt a slight rumble in his chest to indicate he had done that on purpose so I dug my nails in a little harder.