The Land Set Aflame

Chapter 59: The Path

Chapter 59: The Path

As always in this forest, there was magic everywhere. Fairy magic, shadow magic, and even fire magic, filled the air. And yet, Leofric could see no patterns that gave him any meaningful insights into what Myndrith was doing to direct their path, or what direction they were heading.

Certainly, the growing haze of wildfire smoke in the air was an indicator of what was ahead of them. Leofric had already covered the entire party with a spell that would protect them from fire, but he still felt insecure.

Svenden and Callyndia hadn't spoken to one another since they'd started moving again. They had just saved each other's lives, but things between them were still complicated, it seemed.

Leofric looked over towards Kithana. She had healed up surprisingly well since that last battle: the lines of shadow had burned away, and her body was back to its vibrant orange color. Her hair-flames were dancing in the air like real flames, and she looked positively beautiful.

She looked back and smiled at him, that awkward smile that wasn't quite right, yet somehow still perfectly expressed and encapsulated everything he loved about her.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"I just feel incredibly grateful to have you by my side still," he said, "In spite of everything we've been through. I almost lost you."

Her smile grew deeper, and there was even a hint of human-like embarrassment as she looked down.

But the sound of a particularly loud twig snapping ahead drew Leofric's eyes away from her and towards the path ahead of them. Svenden was nocking arrows, and Callyndia was scanning the forest.

"What was that?" Leofric whispered.

No one answered. Not that Leofric had expected anyone to know the answer.

Suddenly, a tree to the right seemed to burst into flames that quickly grew to consume it in its entirety. Leofric turned to look, and his magic sight was overwhelmed with the glare of fire mana in the air.

"That's not a natural fire!" he announced as he shielded his eyes from the brightness of it.

"It went up too fast for that," Svenden agreed.

"What does that mean?" Kithana asked.

"There's a fire spirit about," Leofric replied as he reached his hand cautiously into his bag to locate the pouch of spirit dust.

"A rogue elemental?" Callyndia asked, "Here in Mellesh?"

"Seems like it," Svenden confirmed, "But where is it?"

Leofric suddenly felt a flare of magic again, this time behind them. He turned, expecting to see another tree set ablaze. But instead, he saw a strange fireball rolling along the ground, leaving behind tiny droplets of flame in the dry underbrush as it sped past.

The fireball itself rolled across the path ahead of them, then suddenly stopped and pivoted, delaying for just a moment before barreling rapidly towards them.

"Look out!" Kithana cried.

The party all dove to the sides as the fireball rolled past. With his magic sight, Leofric glimpsed the outline of a face in the fireball, wailing as if in anguish and confusion as it pointedly attempted to burn them all alive.

Svenden had that magical bow out quickly, and he tracked the fireball's retreat, loosing a three-arrow volley in that characteristic style of his. One of the three arrows hit the fast-moving fireball, and it stuck momentarily before transforming into a tiny burst of fairy magic that dispersed back into the forest.

But the arrow hadn't passed completely through the fireball. That meant that this was no ordinary fire elemental: it was solid. Or, at least semi-solid.

The wild elemental kept moving, losing only a single step to the surprise of the arrow's impact before rolling away. As before, it suddenly jerked back in the party's direction and rushed at them for another pass.

Leofric began digging for a handful of dust, but had to pause and sidestep again as the elemental rushed past again. He could see waves of fairy magic undulating out from Callyndia's body as she attempted to shield herself and the rest of the group with a charm. The fireball did veer away from her, but Svenden still had to sidestep to avoid it.

Again, the archer tracked his target. But this time, as his arrows shot towards fire spirit, the ball of flame suddenly launched upwards, towards the tree canopy, evading the missiles and snaking through the canopy.

It paused momentarily up there, then burst with another gout of flame that enveloped the canopy of the tree it inhabited. The dry branches and their sparse pelage of dangling brown leaves all instantly caught fire.

The flame spirit then dropped from the trees again and bolted away from them. Kithana rushed after it at inhuman speed.

"Kithana, wait!" Leofric called after her, but he was too late to stop her.

Svenden started after Kithana. "I guess we know where the smoke is coming from!" he called as he hurried away.

From his vantage point, Leofric watched the two blazing balls of flame zip away, then rush in a wide arc around the near horizon. They moved with such speed that he couldn't fully understand what they were doing. But he did start to notice how patterns in the ambient mana were reacting as the two elementals sped through the forest.

Some of the mana patterns seemed to arrange themselves into the vague forms of human-like entities. Woodlands spirits. One of them was apparently screaming in panic at the flames that were consuming the nearer tree. Another was watching the elementals blur about with anxiety on its face.

Callyndia was standing not far off, also trying to keep up with the race that was going on.

"Lady Sablesong!" Leofric whispered urgently, "Do you see them?"

She pointed towards Kithana and the other elemental. "Over there!" she said, "We should get Kithana to slow it down, if she can."

"No, not them," Leofric said, "The woodland spirits are out and about! Look!" He gestured towards the tree, and Callyndia followed his gesture.

Through his magic sight, Leofric could see the tree spirit turn to look at Callyndia with pleading in its incorporeal eyes. To Leofric's eyes, it had the rough appearance of a human woman, with long hair that flowed like water on the air.

"She needs our help!" Callyndia said, rushing to the tree, "Protect the tree!"

Leofric looked anxiously at his love as she sped about through the forest in pursuit of the rogue elemental, and Svenden as he tried and failed to keep up, repeatedly aiming his bow but hesitating to loose his arrow.

Then, Leofric sighed and let go of the handful of dust he'd grabbed, reaching instead for another packet of spell ingredients.