Blades of fire and hearts of ice

Helping to Escape

Nari and Nice leade me through the winding path of the woods. We walked in silence. Again, perfectly fine with me. 

After what seemed like eternity, we finially reached the clearing where Snow was fast asleep. I looked around for Ash, but he was nowhere to be seen. Great. He probably woke up and went looking for me. 

I hoped the Sky Elves had not found him and take him. Why were they after me anyways? Well, I would find out later, first I had to find Ash and get out of here with Snow. 

Nari, Nico and I began calling for Ash, but tried to stay quiet. Nobody wanted to be found by the elves. While we called, Snow woke up. She stood up and walked around slowly. I hoped that meant she was feeling better. Well, if dragons are anything liek dogs, then that should be true. We needed to get out of here the moment we found Ash. 

We kept calling his name for ages, but Ash was nowhere in sight. Nari aproached me. 

"Do you have anything of his? I could perhaps try to track him with his aura" Nari told me

Hope sparked inside me. I nodded and ran over to his bag and pulled out the water bottle he had been using. 

Nari took the bottle and placed it on the soft moss under our feet. She knelt in front of it, closed her eyes and muttered under her breath. Nico came over and watched his sister in awe. 

He leaned towards me and whispered "Nari is doing a tracking spell, its one of the most difficult spell to master... She has tried for ages, she finally got it a couple days back." 

I looked down at Nari and gasped. Her hands were placed firmly on the ground and were glowig a soft green. The glow spread to the bottle and formed into a glowing, holographic-like vine and grew forward. 

Finally, Nari opened her eyes and gasped. "Come, follow the vine, it will lead us to your friend" 

The three of us ran behind the glowing vine, between trees and bushes, finally, the vine slowed its growth and stopped behind a bush. We ducked behind the bush and peeked out and gasped. 

Ash was tied to a tree, struggling to free himself. Next to him were two Sky Elves, gaurding him. In front of him were the same gang of elvees who had captured me, sitting around a fir. The leader had a brused nose and was sharpening a weapon. I felt a little bit of pride at that. I had brusied him when I headbutted him. 

My pride quickly dissolved when I realised the all the elves were holding weapons. Finally, after a few minutes, the leader spoke to his restless gang. 

"The princess will take the bait, and this time she will not escape. Do not worry." He grinned before continuing "We will get revenge on the royal family and the lord with pay us handomely" 

Next to me Nari snarled. "We have to get him without you being seen" She exchanged a glance with Nico and nodded. "Nico and I will go, you wait here" 

I immidiatley shook my head. "No" I said firmly "I am coming to help, I won't be seen, I swear... Just give me a weapon or something, I will cut the ropes holding him, you just distract the guards" 

Nico protested "But they want you here, you can't be seen"

"I will manage just fine"

They both saw I wasnot going to change my mind and nodded. Nico handed me a sharp rock and a flask of black goop. 

"Dip the tip of the rock into the venom, it will cut through the ropes easily, but make sure it does not get on his or your hands"

Nari and Nico nodded and climbed up a tree and moved to the next one, then began throwing tiny fruits at the gaurdes, who then moved away from the tree, at gaurd. They had taken the bait. Now I just had to get to Ash. 

I stuffed the flask into my pockt and held onto the stone, I'm pretty sure it would tear my pockets. I darted behind trees and finally got to the tree Ash was tied to. I whispered behind him, "Don't freak out and don't get startled"

Then I pulled out the stone, dipped the tip in the flask and began cutting the bonds. I undid his hands first, with a bit of difficulty then cut the ropes holding his feet in place. Thnakfully, Ash was smart enough to hold his pose, so that the elves did not realise he was free until he could defend himself. 

The bad news? Nari and Nico were running out of fruits and Ash's weapons were away from the tree. To get them, we would have to reveal ourselves. Ash had a solution the the latter. 

He slowly turned his palm towards his weapons and concentrated hard. His knife slowly floated to towards him, glowing a slight red. The bad news (again)? The elves noticed.