dark.
A mouse could not have heard the Old Man’s footsteps as he walked into Vanor’s room. He found them arm in arm asleep in the comfortable old chair with both swords at their feet. Looking at them he realised that this may be the last time for a very long time that they would be at peace without something haunting them. He came out of his reverie and with a “hmmph” said, “Time to get up you two, there’s work to be done, monsters to kill and general ‘saving the world’ type stuff.”
After explaining the scrying failure of the demon the previous night, he told them what he had seen before the demon’s face had turned to him, and the scrying pool had burst into a shower of stones and water.
“He is strong and located not far into the north province. There is a short castle possibly going underground, but is distinctive by the red wall, well half a wall, on the south side. He seems to be partially magical, although how much I’m not sure, but is intent on killing you Vanor.”
“You are strong now both physically and mentally and should be able to defeat him but the earth elementals may be harder to kill. According to legend, if one elemental is killed the other three gain the slain one’s strength. Here is a ring for you to call me when you are in front of the Mora demon, which is distinctive by its red jewel at the third eye region. I may be able to help you with him but I need to do more research. It appears indestructible, but I have some tricks which may work.”
“Tell me again Old Man why, if it cannot be destroyed, you are sending us?” The Old Man’s eyes looked sad but he replied, “It will destroy every warrior in the land if not stopped and it has to have a way of being destroyed. You both are the strongest and quickest I have. Now you have to leave soon before he recruits more demons or monsters, but don’t forget to destroy the elementals first.”
The black snorted and pranced as Kajn searched the woods on his left for any sign of danger. Either the black was just misbehaving or there was real danger off in the dark wood, but by the look of the plumes of steam and the terrified look that the black gave he knew it must be the latter. Vanor had sensed the presence too and had stopped her grey to stare at the woods. Her horse was showing the same terrified look as the black; Vanor was having a hard time trying to control the grey enough to stay in the saddle, as it just wanted to flee.
Kajn eased the black beside Vanor and looking towards the wood they both saw it at the same time. “My God, look at the size of it!” Vanor exclaimed as she jumped from the saddle, grabbing her crossbow as she did so. The grey, having been relieved of its burden, wheeled in terror being held only by the reins that Kajn had grabbed. Kajn’s immediate response would have been to turn tail and run, but he controlled that urge and knew that they must destroy this beast. “Obviously the earth elemental,” Vanor said as she drew her crossbow from its holster. Automatically she loaded her normal bolt and fired.
Rising to its full height, the giant earth elemental towered over the forest spilling trees and dirt in its wake. Thirty feet high with a great girth, eyes ofjade green and long spikes of teeth, the monster put despair in both Vanor and Kajn. Vanor’s bolt bounced from its massive bulk, but shaking herself with resolve Vanor replaced the useless bolt with the bolt that the Old Man had given her.
With the sound of crashing rocks and trees, the elemental moved towards the two warriors with a speed that defied its massive weight. With one blow of its arm it wiped the grey from the snow like a chessboard piece and the reins were torn from Kajn’s grasp.
The black obsidian bolt slid easily into the shaft and when the giant turned towards Vanor, with calm and determination she fired. The bolt slid quietly into the heart of the beast and the green eyes flashed once. As Vanor watched, the bolt and its surrounding area turned light grey like potter’s clay and spread across its body. With a look of astonishment the elemental turned solid and then started to crack and crumble.
“If that’s only the second one to be killed and it’s that big, what the heck are we going to face next?” Kajn asked, looking at the giant elemental’s remains.
“Don’t muck about just build me a fire so we can melt some snow to pour on this thing. Remember we haven’t destroyed it yet.” Vanor walked over to the remains and poured a large canteen of water over what was left of the clay-coloured pieces of the elemental. She realised she had underestimated the size of the creature but she could work with that.
The grey was definitely dead and her pack was strewn about on the snow. While the snow was melting in the cook pot she stowed her gear in her backpack and walked back to the fire.
“Looks like this will be a little harder than we thought,” Kajn said as she approached the fire.
“Yeah, but only fire and wind to get through, should be easy enough if we keep our heads,” she said with a rueful grin. “The grey’s gone so looks like we’ll be walking for a while.”
Kajn looked thoughtful for a moment and then replied, “There’s a village not far away, we could get another horse there.”
“Sounds fine to me, as soon as we’ve completely destroyed this creature we’ll head there.”
They could smell the smoke long before they got there. They had passed two farms so far that were burnt to the ground complete with all animals and humans. It was as if a great forest fire in the heat of its flame just rolled down to the farms and devoured all before it; only a path remained of burnt blackened earth devoid of any life. They had followed that path to the town and it was still blazing with a wind accompanying it that pushed the fire quicker and with more ferocity than either had ever seen.
“Looks like the last two have joined forces,” Kajn murmured to Vanor. Vanor was not really listening but entranced by the fire on the roof of the inn. It seemed to be a different colour and shade to a normal fire. The roof at that moment caved in and then the fire elemental stood up as Vanor gasped. It was the height of a three-storey building with red skin and flame-coloured eyes. It had hair of grey smoke and vivid flame that floated in the strong wind. It seemed to be preoccupied with something screaming within the inn and had not noticed Vanor or Kajn yet.
“Keep an eye out for me for the other elemental while I see what I can do with the fire,” Vanor whispered to Kajn, although the noise from the flames, falling timbers and screams from the few remaining villagers would have drowned out normal speech.
The Old Man had enchanted her weapon and armour but she was not sure if it would work with such an opponent. As the fire elemental was busy with its back to her, devouring something within the inn, she decided to at least try. The outer stairs were mainly intact and she raced up them to get to the roof. Flipping herself onto the roof from the railing, she meandered through the fire to the edge of the fallen timbers, and looked down to the crouched fiery form that was playing with a burning human screaming in terror.
She prayed that the enchantment would work on her armour as she decided to leap onto the back of the elemental with sword drawn above her. It seemed to take forever to reach down to its back, but within a moment she realised that it had noticed her, and turned swiping her with one sweep of its flame-enshrouded arm into what was left of the barn wall. Her trousers and shirt were on fire and she quickly rolled to put it out holding her sword close to her. The elemental came towards her and picking her up like a feather examined this small “insignificant”human who dared to defy it.
Vanor’s clothes were on fire again and she felt a deep burning pain in her back. But she ignored the pain and with one powerful sweep of her sword amputated the two fingers of flame that were holding her, and fell amidst flame and ash to the floor. She rolled as she landed putting out the flames on her singed hair and clothes. Now she was angry. “These were my best work gear!” she yelled
