The Dragon's Claws

Chapter Five- We find a magic bow

 As Fafnir and I winged our way back to Nemus, the forest home of my race, I contemplated what the Priest could possibly want with Nate. The first and obvious answer was power. Nate is a very talented witch, with a specialty of blowing things up. Yeah, a powerhouse fond of pyrotechnics, not something you want against you.

The second answer was something I doubted but didn't dismiss completely. The fact that Nate was the one and only son of the Priest was a fact that, as far as my master and I knew, we were the only ones aware of it. My master, or more accurately, Rane, thought it might be a good idea to try to figure out the parentage of such a powerful witch, in case his unknown parents were in possession of power equal to, or very possibly greater than, his. Unfortunately, no one alive knew who his parents were, so we decided to look for clues that no one else thought to look for. In my first encounter with the Priest, my master broke into his mind and saw him bedding the woman we had earlier found out as being Nate's mother. We then came to the conclusion that, however terrible, we would never breathe word of his parents to anyone else; the information being way too dangerous in the wrong hands.

"I doubt anyone else has found out who he really is, Alex." Fafnir observed, voicing my own thoughts.

"I know," I replied as I patted him on the side, "but we can't discount it." He grunted in response, and we flew the rest of the way in silence, giving me time to ponder our situation and whether or not our master would know what to do about his sense of smell. As Fafnir flew, I realized I hadn't seen anyone, human or otherwise, on our flight.

"Something's stirring that might not be a good idea to poke," Fafnir said as I voiced my thoughts. "I feel as though dark and dangerous times are ahead of us. Just look back to the hunters to see that."

It took me a couple heartbeats to remember who he was speaking of. I had completely forgotten about our encounter with Kajeel back in the forest. "What do you think's going on right now over there?"

"Nothing good, I'll bet." He says with a slight growl that I took as understanding he still didn't forgive them for trying to shoot us out of the sky.

The rest of the flight went in silence, the only noise being the occasional hum from me or the huff from Fafnir. Eventually, I started nodding off, so I asked Fafnir to wake me when we got within five leagues of Nemus. After what felt like no time at all I was startled awake as Fafnir rolled in midair, not for the first time thanking the gods for my leg straps.

"What's going on?!" I yelled as my head spun from being righted again.

"Ambush, from below. They've got spells on the arrows to make them fly higher than they should be able to."

"So, flying higher isn't going to help, is it." I said, more of a statement than a question.

"I doubt it." He replied with a growl.

"Then let's show whoever it is down there why I got the nickname The Destroyer." I laughed, feeling the magic crawl up my arms, waiting for me to use.

"Gladly." He angled us down sharply and I got my first glance of what we were dealing with. 

Hunters.

I hate hunters for many, many reasons. First and foremost, they're thieves, humans that have stolen elven magic-work and use it to do whatever they want. Small, as groups go, but nonetheless annoyingly difficult to take out. They usually specialize in shield and precision spells, making them a you-know-what to deal with while in the air. Lucky for us, my specialty is destruction magic. For them, not so lucky.

"Dive straight at them, try to make them scatter!" I yell over the wind, "I'm gonna set a ring of traps around them." As Fafnir continued his dive, I set a tight ring of mines around the Hunters, just waiting for them to spread out. I also used a little shadow magic along with my destruction magic to make an invisible cloud of mini explosions to wear out their shields without them knowing.

As soon as Fafnir got within a hundred feet of them, they did exactly what I had hoped they'd do, and without their shields, they exploded into nothingness as the first mine triggered the rest in quick succession. Within ten seconds, all that was left of the Hunters was a neat trench around a bow with a dark golden glow.

"I don't like the feeling coming from that thing." Fafnir warned as we landed outside the ring.

"You're right, but we can't just leave it here." I responded as I approached the bow curiously.

"Is the box still in the saddle bag?"

I mentally facepalmed as I remembered the box my master had told me to bring, with absolutely no explanation as to why I should bring it. "It's all we got, I guess." I replied with a shrug as I dug around in the bags, trying to find the long, black box with spellwork along the rim. "Aha! Gotcha!" I easily jumped over the ten-foot trench to where the bow was lying.

"Don't touch it. Levitate it into the box." Following as he advised, I opened the box and, backing away, gently moved the bow from its resting place on the ground to the box. No sooner had I placed the bow down that the box snapped shut and sealed itself, becoming a solid black box.

"Um...what the hell just happened?"

"It would appear that the bow activated whatever spell was on the box."

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." I laughed as I punched him on the leg lightly.

"We should probably start heading back." He smirked as he turned around and slapped me with his tail.

"Hey! You useless reptile, you did that on purpose!" I shake my fist at him laughing.

"I have not the slightest as to what you're talking about. Now hurry up and get on, or I'm leaving your wingless ass here."