A Trickle of Soulfyre

Chapter 22 - Welcome

The night grew deeper and darker around Lyrani, the stirrings of the creatures within it like the grumbling of a ravenous belly. Her hair had never stood so on end in the darkness before. Then again, she had never been in a night that was so unfamiliar, so alive with strange and inconceivable creatures of enchantment.

Lyrani could see her surroundings perfectly, all the little rocks strewn across the path that would crunch under her boots if she were to step on them, all the gold-leaved trees rising from writhing roots to canopies that blotted out the teasing, twinkling stars. Still, it confused her when every turn the young gnome led her down took her to a winding dirt road within the forest that looked the same as the one they had just left behind.

Lyrani couldn't be sure that her gnome guide wasn't just taking her and her party in circles. She didn't know his name. She didn't even know enough of his language to ask him what it was.

Behind Lyrani, Revenus let out his weariness in a long, low growl. Meiyla showed her exhaustion in the short, sharp breaths she drew in time with her quick steps as she kept up with the gnome. Lyrani kept on, even though her calves were spasming with fatigue and all she wanted was to sit down and not get up for the rest of the night.

Even so, Lyrani glanced back at her team. She was the senior agent, the one with the most missions under her belt. She was responsible for her junior agent and their griffins. They trusted in her and her choices, but she couldn't help but wonder if she had made the wrong call by following this gnome whose intentions she didn't know.

This did seem like a dangerous neck of the woods with vicious dragons popping out of bushes and worse creatures hidden within them, no doubt. The young gnome had spared Lyrani and Meiyla a fight with a magical reptilian beast of unknown species, but the senior agent had no way of knowing if the little man was just tiring her party out before he fed them to something bigger and scarier that this forest harboured.

Surely such a round, childlike face couldn't mean malice. Surely someone who was leading them into a trap wouldn't do so with a little pom-pom bouncing at the tip of his hat, but the realm was a place of disguise and deception.

Nash had told Lyrani once that he initially thought her too pretty to be an assassin. It would be no less than she deserved to be disarmed by a cute, seemingly helpful murderer. Perhaps he wasn't even a little gnome but one of the many foul-spirited shape shifters who roamed the wild.

Lyrani clenched her free fist. The shadows rose at her sides, ready to rush to her defence should she command them to do so.

She allowed the gnome to lead her and her team along for a few more moments. Revenus's paws dragged in the sand. Even Meiyla and Killoam were barely pulling themselves past the trees.

This was enough. Lyrani's group was tired, and what was more, they had no idea where they were being led and if it would indeed be safer than the forest that had tried to devour them tonight.

Just as Lyrani was about to slide her hand out of the gnome's firm grip and thank him for his time but refuse any further help, they arrived at a small door in the ground. Lyrani may not have noticed it peeking at her through the sand scattered across it if it wasn't for her gift of night vision.

The door led into an underground lair with little windows peering out of the soil and chimneys moulded from mud and puffing scentless smoke. It looked so warm and cosy inside that Lyrani's misgivings left her mind. All she wanted was to be behind that door, out of the coldness of the night, safe from the forest's appetite.

The gnome stopped and looked at Lyrani and her team. He cocked his head then veered from his path and away from the door Lyrani longed to be behind, babbling in gnomish. Even though she couldn't understand him, her feet reluctantly trailed after his.