World Leapers Book I: The Forest

The Horn

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River stumbled out from the hut and began waving his arms in wide circles, shouting at and charging towards the three scithrin that surrounded Grayson and Wisp. They whipped their heads around and hissed at him. The three shramana atop the scithrin shifted their attention to River. Their backs straightened and they tugged the necks of their scithrin towards him. All three began to slither and crawl towards River at once.

As soon as the scithrin pivoted towards River, Grayson crumbled to his knees. Wisp caught the Magister behind his armpits, keeping his body from collapsing to the ground, and looked with terror-stricken eyes towards the hut where Tink, Tamar, Aria and Terran remained. Between her and the hut were the three scithrin, and beyond them River, and just a few feet behind him, Enya. Wisp took a few feeble steps backwards, trying to drag Grayson into the concealment of the higher grass, then collapsed to the ground, panting for breath.

While Wisp struggled, River drew his arm back to hurl Falkum towards the first scithrin, but behind him, Enya screamed. "Wait!"

He called back to her. "Get back in the hut! Help the others prepare to circle our energies!"

But Enya had already arrived at his side. She placed her hand on Falkum to stop his throw, then stared deep into River's eyes, her face colored with new energy. "I can help." Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. River felt heat begin to radiate from her hand, through Falkum and into his hand. A light mist of steam formed around the orb as the heat grew in intensity. He began to grimace as he watched his hand turn bright cherry-red then a dark crimson.

Her eyes still closed, Enya spoke softly and confidently. "Now throw."

A split second after River rotated his torso back and hurled Falkum at the oncoming scithrin, the surface of the orb burst into flame, steam pouring in a trail behind the fireball as it accelerated. A resonating clap filled the air as Falkum slammed into the scithrin's chest, disappeared into the cavity of its torso, then emerged out the right ribcage in a violent eruption of snapped ribs, smoke, black saliva and blood. River brought his right hand above his head as Falkum came speeding back to him. The scithrin collapsed on the ground in a death scream, but the two behind it scrambled over the corpse and continued advancing towards River and Enya.

River opened his fingers and caught the orb, then howled in pain and dropped it to the ground. Shaking his scalded right hand, he grabbed Enya's shoulder with his left hand and pushed her body back around in the direction of the hut. "Run!"

She began to back away, then peered past the two scithrin at Grayson and Wisp. "What about them?"

River stopped. The scithrin were now less than twenty yards away. He looked at his burnt hand again, closed it into a fist, then raised it above his head. He opened his fingers and a thin sheet of water rose from the meadow grass. The scithrin stopped for just a moment, then stomped and splashed through it. River took several quick steps backwards. "We need to go!"

Enya straightened her shoulders, stood upright, and thrust both her hands towards the scithrin. Then she swept her arms to the side and a wall of flames came to life in front of them. The scithrin halted again as the sudden blaze burst from the ground in front of them. Her face already growing pale again, Enya began to run towards the flames she had created, calling back over her shoulder. "Make steam!"