Wolf Child

V

"Mirdaff?" Kilfer tried to seek a reply, but there was still silence.

He sighed. He was already so close, and when he was just so near to Mirdaff, he stopped speaking and Kilfer could only rely on his senses to guide him and where he felt Mirdaff's pulsating lifeforce was. Yet with every throb, his lifeforce seemed to be getting weaker and weaker, and it felt as if it would stop altogether even when the slightest of winds blew.

Then a roar stopped him in his tracks and he stood rooted to the ground. It was so loud it rocked the tunnel he was walking in and seemed to be coming from the darkness in front of him. A dragon. A cave dragon. Kilfer thought, then immediately corrected himself, for those that lurked in caves and fed on mice were much deadlier than any of the rest. Another roar echoed in the distance, and Kilfer feared for Mirdaff's safety and felt his lifeforce. It was concealed within another cave, yet something told him that it was far more dangerous in the cave than it was to be with the dragon.

Slipping towards where the tunnel widened to a grotto Kilfer tensed, and he glanced from behind a stone wall. There it lay, the fearsome beast covered in plates of gold and fiery amber lava erupting from under his throat with its every breath, ravenous and deadly.

Kilfer surveyed the monster from its tail up, and to its body until his eyes glanced at its vermillion eyes for that very brief moment, and it turned towards him, glaring at him. Right after the moment their eyes met, Kilfer whipped his head behind the wall, but a moment too late. Kilfer knew it already saw him, and from the way the ground shook Kilfer could sense that the monster was gaining on him.

"Save me please, Ferhia. I trust you, my sister," Kilfer squeezed the box and placed it in the ground lightly, and stepped out from behind the wall, and finally, he could see the dragon as they faced each other.

Kilfer reached out to the surroundings and pulled on the rocks, and it easily gave way, a huge chunk of rock breaking away and sailing towards the dragon, but it simply broke into tiny pieces and rained down harmlessly down the scales the moment it impacted them, while the dragon glowered, its jaws widened and from behind his throat crimson light flared, and flames licked the air out of his throat towards him. He leaped aside, behind a boulder, but already felt the heat sting his hands, and when he glanced down his forearms they were burnt, charred and numb.

"You shall never escape me," The dragon spoke, its raspy voice like a thousand claws scraping a wall, "You are merely delaying the inevitable."

When Kilfer peeped over the boulder, the dragon was just in front of the boulder, slowly advancing, right about to pounce, every indestructible scale heaving with power and madness, it seemed as though it was totally unable to be slain -- until he saw the throat of the dragon. It's only weakness. The dragon used its throat to eject fire, its most powerful weapon, yet it was the most vulnerable spot. The only soft spot that could be harmed.

"Aid me," Kilfer whispered and hoped Ferhia's spirit would help him, and broke a long, thin piece of stone and aimed, while the dragon inched closer. 

Thirty feet.

Twenty feet.

Ten feet.

Kilfer hurled the stone shaft as hard as he could, and it plunged itself deep into its throat. The dragon paused in its tracks and tensed. For a moment both human and dragon stopped moving, and the gargantuan creature crashed to the ground, its eyes unmoving and staring at Kilfer, but its slow breaths told Kilfer that it is still alive, but only injured.

Grabbing Ferhia's box, Kilfer scrambled towards the opening which he felt Mirdaff was and felt for Mirdaff's lifeforce within. It was still there, but so weak and fragile that showed how near Mirdaff was to dying; it was simply dull throbs that he could not feel without pausing to focus. Yet he felt something more within the opening, much powerful and concentrated magic from within that was crushing Mirdaff, both his lifeforce and his mortal self.

Kilfer gathered all his magic and forced it into the entrance, letting it rush into the dark void beyond. He was still surprised how his magic had grown since the day he left the Lair for the Swamps, and now he could even let his magic take a form of itself, as golden wisps of velvety strands that were powerful enough to resist the magic within the void in front of him now.

The magic reached out to Mirdaff and tugged him slowly out of the darkness within. Finally, Mirdaff appeared, his face pale and white and his eyes closed, and Kilfer bent down and placed a palm on his icy cold forehead, and the magic entered him, the magic of warmth and life that he knew would exhaust him out but he still continued, watching silently as the thin wisps of golden magic entered Mirdaff and disappeared beneath his skin, and soon he could feel the warmth returning, his hands started to move and his eyes fluttered open.

"Where are we?" Mirdaff sat up and glanced at Kilfer.

Kilfer paused to think of what reply he should provide, and in the end, Kilfer decided not to answer his question directly, "We are safe. There's still a journey ahead of us, we'd better be quick."Mirdaff nodded and stood, and the duo left the grotto, while Kilfer turned back for a brief moment to study the opening to the void and shuddered. It was unnerving that even such weak magic could prove fatal to a human-like Mirdaff, and he could not imagine how much harm the darkness and The Ghost from beyond the veil could do to all the mortal creatures living in this world.

"Here!" Mirdaff jabbed at a wall, and Kilfer noticed light emanating out of it. Finally, they would be about to escape this labyrinth of destruction, and he broke a larger part of the wall for them to climb through. Finally, they were free, even though suspended on a ledge Kilfer felt comfort to be out of the darkness. Yet the terrain beyond seemed alien. The snow-capped landscape was totally different from the greenish forests and canyons that they saw before they entered the labyrinth, but they could still make out where they were and inched forward slowly. The dim light from the sun, covered mostly by the mist and snow was still overhead and they still had a couple of hours to get to a resting place before night arrived. The mountains they stood on were still alive for quite a long time until they sailed the wind across the canyon to another mountain where a blizzard was still howling in vicious demeanor.

"Mirdaff," Kilfer staggered behind a rock and the other followed suit, and Kilfer took out the map with shaky hands, "Where are we now?"Mirdaff studied the map and pinpointed a place, quite near to their destination, "Here, this is called the frozen wastelands. Nothing lies here except for blizzards and the never-ending cold, that means we should be safe from any bloodthirsty creatures or whatsoever."

Kilfer thought about it. To get back to the warmer side of the mountains they would need to journey across three mountains again, and there was a possibility that they could get eaten by dragons, but even the colder path seemed shorter and less deadly from the map, one question still remained: Would they be able to survive the cold?

Kilfer noticed both Mirdaff and himself had the color of their cheeks were drained, and if they continued they might not survive the cold. His magic allowed him to control physical objects, but to the extent of summoning fire or ice or doing anything of that level, Kilfer could not."I don't think that would be a possible way," Kilfer shook his head, "The cold is dangerous, and the ice is more likely to freeze you than warmth is to harm you, Mirdaff. We cannot continue with this route. "But it's longer that way!" Mirdaff protested, but the moment he spoke another icy cold gust blew across their faces. The duo shuddered and Mirdaff fell silent.

After a long moment of staring blindly into the white landscape, the last rays of the sun dipped below the horizon. It was nighttime, and it was already useless to continue their journey so they laid down to rest, but in such a harsh temperature they woke up countless time in the middle of the night to find out that the snow had covered them to their waists and they had to brush it off. Yet, in a ragged dream, Kilfer seemed to hear Mizervon calling out to him above the wind of the blizzard, "Come, child. Come to me, come..."

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