Rise of Kings

Chapitre Quatre

"Lily, I found a chest!" Acorn hopped to a patch of ferns where a chest was hiding.

"Great job!" The blue and grey she wolf replied. The other two adventurers padded over to where the white rabbit was standing proudly.

Alcove, the black wolf with the complete set of phantom armor, walked over to the chest and opened it first. "It's just gems, guys."

"Good enough for me!" Acorn replied, scooping up his share of the gems eagerly. Alcove didn't take any of the gems. He didn't need them.

After they had gotten their prize, the group of adventurers padded swiftly down the trail that led to a phantom outpost.

There's something wrong here, Alcove thought to himself. He shook off the feeling and kept walking.

His sister, Kersi, walked beside him. "You okay?" she asked.

"Fine," he replied. They kept walking until Kersi suddenly stopped. The group came to a halt. "I hear something," she whispered.

A rustle to the right of the group caught Alcove's attention. He silently drew his sword in caution, as did the others. "Who's there?" he called, his deep voice echoing suspiciously through the glen.

"You shouldn't have come here," an ominous voice, like deep static, growled out through the ferns. Clouds covered the sun, too quickly to have been natural. The animals looked to the sky in confusion.

Alcove's eyes remained fixed on the area where the voice had come. "Who are you?" he asked, fear lacing his tone.

"I am the stuff of your nightmares," the voice replied. Suddenly, two deep purple glowing eyes emerged from the undergrowth. Alcove's heart skipped a beat, and he raised his sword in fear.

"Stay where you are," Alcove warned, his voice trembling.

"So you can do what? Hit me with a stick?" the voice snarled. "I think you've done enough of that already." Alcove and the others back away from the clump of ferns the voice was coming from. The sky continued to darken.

"Well, Skrilliant, I think it's time to take back what they've stolen, don't you agree?" Another voice growled out through a large clump of undergrowth, directly to the right of the adventurers.

Suddenly, out from the ferns padded two wolves. One was a massive, scarred old wolf with purple spikes running down it's back. It wore a twisted crown of silver. The other was smaller, but pure black and had purple horns sprouting from it's head. It appeared to have no tail, just a glowing, pulsing purple mass that looked like the night sky. The two wolves approached slowly, their heads down and their ears forward. The smaller one had a vicious snarl on it's face. They walked with a macabre confidence in their steps, the eerie glow of the hidden sun casting strange shadows across their profiles.

The wolves carried a look of death about them, but the adventurers couldn't move.

Skrilliant, the king of Phantoms... Alcove thought, petrified. We're not going to come out of this alive.

Skrilliant padded forward ominously, his magical tail glowing fluorescent in the dim light. Why aren't they running? he thought, confused. He took another step toward the group of animals, Memorian following shortly behind him. The adventurers stood, shaking and unable to move. With a start, Skrilliant realized that it was Memorian. He was casting a spell, immobilizing the Jammers. He whipped his head around and snarled at the elder wolf.

"Why are you doing that?!"

"Doing what?" he replied innocently. Skrilliant scowled at him.

I can feel that you're casting a spell, he thought to Memorian.