The Windcaster [Fantasy/Adventure | Featured | Complete ]

Chapter 52: One Gain and One Loss

A terrified scream escaped from Tia's mouth, which was then swallowed by the raging wind.

The snow moved slowly, rippling throughout, almost like a very viscous, fluffy wave.  Its appearance was very deceiving. Tia could almost convince herself that the tumbling white mass would do nothing more than give her a cold and worsen her vision by turning into mist, but all her senses were screaming for her to run. She could sense the extraordinary power crashing down the incline.

"Come on!" begged Tia, tugging as hard as she could at the child. She dug her heel into the snow, but she could find little resistance and her foot kept slipping. It was one step backward with every two steps forward. Painfully slowly, Ninlil slid out, motionless. Tia panted, slipping her arm under the crooks of the child's legs and snaking her other arm beneath the shoulder blades and heaving her off the ground, hurrying back up the hill.

All that filled her ears was the bellow of nature, and each step she took made her feel like the avalanche was just behind her, forcing her to move ahead. Her heart raced beyond recognition. She could see nothing; she could hear nothing. All she had to guide her was the steady incline telling her she was moving uphill and the insatiable, relentless torrent of energy was behind her.

Ninlil was getting heavier by the second. Tia had gone numb and cold all over and the weakness was spreading down her limbs. Her legs began to drag across the snow. She knew she would not escape at this rate. She gritted her teeth.

I will not give up here! she thought fiercely. She slipped the girl to the ground stiffly and shuffled around, keeping her eyes closed and pinpointing the distance between them and the tumbling snow. No, there was no way they could have escaped at their pace. They were but seconds away from being buried.

She slid the staff from her back with frozen, gloved fingers and planted it in front of her. With a quick, smooth blast of Wind, she temporarily dispersed the whirling, blinding mass, returning her some sight at last. One look told her enough. The speed was quite incredible; it had seemed so slow and groggy from far away, but standing merely metres from it, Tia knew she stood no chance of fleeing.

She glanced at the unconscious, skinny child lying on her side in the snow, her heart palpitating. Neither of them stood a chance. If it was up to the Tia from a year ago, she would have fled, even if the chances are bleak. Now as a previous apprentice of hard-hearted Master Marduk and one of the last Windcasters of Dernexes, she knew her responsibilities stretched beyond just her own welfare. She had obligations. The people of Abaddon relied upon this path for water. They relied upon her. She needed to stay.

The whirls returned, clouding her vision once more.

Her knees shook. This was madness. She quivered as the terrible force rushed closer and closer. She had no means of stopping an avalanche!

Her only weapon was the Wind. Her panicking mind went blank. What could she do? What did she know? Nothing. Nothing! There was nothing she could Cast that could help them run faster.

No. Her mind clicked. There was nothing that could help them run, but there was something she could try to stop the avalanche.

She calmed her breathing, forcing her pulse to slow and her thoughts to become coherent. She recalled the translated text from the Book of Wind: the first and only spell she had managed to decode. She steadied her nerves, aligning her energy with the Wind.

She could do it, she told herself. She had never had trouble learning Casting skills. If she kept calm enough, she would be in control. She breathed, in through the nose and out through the mouth. Her right hand gripped her staff tight and she kept her green eyes upon the flurry of snow, now only feet away.