Starfall :
The Wizened chronicles
Axea groped the darkness that enveloped him,he wasn’t afraid of the dark but fear still writhed in his gut. Mustering his senses Axea stopped himself from staggering aimlessly, breathing in the crisp, damp air of the morning he stilled in peace.
Tough leather scraped his fingertips as they brushed his pouch, as always they found their way to the metal emblem. Tracing the cross as it swooped into a looping circle that made its way around the cross twice before it split at the bottom in two straight lines that formed a box around the cross and circle.
Unclasped, Axea felt a rush. He dipped his hand slowly into the leather pouch and as always the wispy tendrils wrapped themselves around Axea's slender fingers. Pushing his hand deeper into the pouch he fleet the cold touch of a gem, he held it in his palm like a ball gripping it as the wisps swallowed his hand.
As he stood there his heart beat rose from the anticipation, a feeling of falling burst free with in him, as if dropping from a great height unexpectedly, Axea let the wisps of the gem set fire to his blood. The power coursed through his veins like wild fire, searing and scorching yet underneath it was an energy that roared like a lion, Axea felt alive.
The darkness was cut away in an instant, light smoked from his eyes allowing him to see as it dissolved the darkness in smoke. The world around Axea became foggy as the fire in his eyes exuded smoke that illuminated the world around him, flexing his hand Axea contained it in a sphere around him,letting him see just a few feet in every direction around him.
“okay, calm down Axea old boy. You can do this, you never had trouble before there’s no reason why yours have trouble now.” Axea mumbled into the darkness.
He took it slow at first, stepping over rocks and broken trees, fighting his way through the previously undisturbed brush. Progress was slow but he had expected that, no one had traversed the Boar hill grove in over a hundred years, not unless they used the beaten path which was known to only a few, Royal guards mostly as they escorted traitors to the Black halls. A hellish place for heretics and traitorous marauders and the Wisened.
Hours ticked by and Axea had enhanced his smokescreen from a few feet to fifty. His mind less alert than before, he wasn’t sure if it was from sleep deprivation or the strain of casting.
Axea dipped into his leather emblem-ed pouch again and let the wisps merge with him some more, it was a pleasant and unpleasant feeling, the feeling of sun kissing your skin twinned with the sharp sting of burning. But after awhile the bliss of it drowned out the pain, it was easy to become addicted to it. The sheer injection of fire into his veins was intoxicating, each breath sucked in was hot even though the air around Axea was frigged.
As the ground leveled Axea increased his pace, pulling his energy into his limbs, setting his muscles alive, though the savage lick of flame was there searing at his muscles the feeling was different than before, a tingle and shock ran through his muscles with the fire. As if lightning had struck him, the world began to flash past, as if what ever force that held him back, pushing down on him had eased.
Thoughts dragged themselves slowly through Axea's mind, half formed thoughts rose and faded to black as he raced through the boar hills. Must make it before dawn. Must make it before dawn. Axea thought to himself, trying hard to keep the one thought in his fuzzy mind.
His body darted instinctual to the right at an almost unrecognizable cross roads, though he hadn’t been to the boar mountains before, in his studies he had seen maps of olden roads and had memorized them. Sailik had laughed her sweet laugh at his strange behavior of trying to memorize maps and other details others thought trivial. But she never stopped him, she always sat by him late into the night as he tore through page after page, reading and rereading every detail. And had brought him herbal tea frequently through the day to keep him fresh.
