Jungle

The Intruder

I woke up abruptly to the sound of the front door unlocking. My heart beat faster and I cast my mind out to the person at the front door. I couldn't recognize their mental signature. This person was a thief, or worse.

I slunk out of my chair and drew on my magic to make me invisible. It wasn't perfect invisibility, but it was good enough. After some rest and food, my magic was stronger than normal, so I knew I could do a great deal of sneaking around without worrying about suddenly becoming visible in front of someone with a gun. Or a wand.

The front door creaked open and a masked person crept into the house. Judging from the person's build, he was a male human. He also had a wand, which he kept held out in front of him like he was expecting a curse to come down on him any time. The wand set of alarms inside my head. Wands were dangerous. Wands meant business. Wands were more difficult than guns to avoid, because you always knew what happened if you got shot. With magic, things were trickier. Because I wasn't human, some spells didn't have any effect on me. Some spells treated me like a human. And others went crazy, doing things to me that wasn't at all part of the caster's intention. No one knows why my kind is like this, but theories abound.

But I wasn't interested in theories. I was interested in catching that thief with a wand that came to my house in the middle of the night when anyone in their right minds ought to be sleeping. Except for me.

The thief crept steadily towards the secret room. I followed, invisible and soundless even to my enhanced hearing. The thief paused at Sarah's door. Then, carefully, he used his wand to open Sarah's door.

My mind was bursting with confusion. What did he want with Sarah? But I knew I couldn't afford to find out. For all I knew, he was planning to kidnap her, murder her, or worse. I focused my magic and touched him once on the shoulder. Immediately, he stiffened, his muscles frozen by my magic. With a wave of my hand, I lifted him off the floor and floated him away from Sarah's room. I then shut Sarah's door with a wave of my other hand and I guided the thief away. I sent him out the front door, but not before knocking him good on the head. Hopefully he would remember nothing of what happened to him, but even if he did, he never saw me so I was still good.

I then released his muscles and closed the front door. I locked it and then went to sit down in the armchair. I fell asleep there, knowing that I would still know if the thief tried to return.

Two months ago...

The man in the dark suit looked up from his coffee when he heard the cries of an elf. A she-elf this time if its voice was any indication, a bit squeaky but definitely feminine. But the man had learned long ago that you cannot judge an elf's gender by their voice.

An aide hurried into his office. "We've got one of the rebels, sir. But if we want anything useful out of her, it will have to be soon. She's dying."

So this elf is a she-elf, the man in the dark suit thought to himself with a smile. He was getting better at this, it seemed. "Bring me our Adept, then. What room is this rebel elf being put in?"

"2B," the aide replied.

"Send her there. And make sure no one harasses her this time." With that, the man in the dark suit walked out of his office and headed to the solitary elf cell 2B.

A few minutes later, the Adept was ushered into the room. The Adept's sightless eyes were fixed on a spot in front of her face and she held her wrinkled hands in front of her, searching for something solid to hold onto. Her hair was cut very short so her pointed ears were exposed, leaving no doubt as to what she is.

The man in the dark suit was wearing gloves, so he was able to grab her bare forearm and guide her to the stone slab where the dying rebel elf lay chained, her dark eyes sparking defiance at her captor. A bowl of water lay next to her head, the only medium this Adept could project a mental image onto. Blood pooled underneath the she-elf's torso; judging from the amount of blood, she was a goner. Her eyes widened when she saw the Adept. "No!" she gasped, her voice burbling with some liquid, probably blood.

The man in the dark suit smiled cruelly. He then placed the Adept's hands on the she-elf's temples and both stiffened. A hazy image began to form in the bowl. It appeared to be the picture of a field or something like that.

"Look for what she's hiding!" he hissed in the Adept's ear.

The Adept's blind eyes turned a weak silver color as she probed deeper into the she-elf's mind. Different images flashed by on the bowl of water, none of them making much sense. The she-elf's breathing had almost stopped. His time was running out.

Suddenly, a clear image appeared on the water. It was a face, a face of a young elf girl, one with black hair and dark brown eyes like this she-elf. The man in the dark suit was disappointed. This she-elf was a mother and had a rebel daughter. So what? But as the she-elf gave her last, dying breath, the image flickered and started to fade, but not before the man in the dark suit saw the elf child's eyes turn silver.

The man in the dark suit had called a meeting. All eight of the head Trackers looked at him, wondering why he had summoned all of them at once. He paced behind his chair, looking both worried and pleased, like a cat that had gained permission to chase a hawk.

"I know you're all wondering why I have called you here today," he said. He then stopped his pacing and leaned over his chair, his hands grasping its back. He looked at them all with intense eyes. "I have learned of an Adept."

The Trackers all murmured amongst themselves. The Trackers hunted down elves, mostly rebels. But sometimes they were called upon to track down an Adept. Mostly these Adepts were small children just gaining their powers and not very dangerous. But occasionally there was an Adept that slipped through the cracks, such as the girl he had seen in the bowl. Such creatures were extremely dangerous and often had to be killed on sight.

"This will not be an easy job. The memory I saw was quite old, at least five years old. So this Adept will not be one of the small children you often find yourselves chasing. Our Adept tells me that this one was sent away a long time ago with no restraints."

The Trackers shifted uneasily. They had been afraid of this. The man in the dark suit then looked at them all. "I'm counting on you. Try to bring her back alive... but you may kill her if you have to."

The Trackers nodded and then rose from their chairs. The meeting was over.