The Dark World

Chapter 11: Look up!

Ezekiel

Cairn had wandered off somewhere and Marisoll had gone off to follow him, she had lost track of him but come back with his clothes in her hands. Mystic Zerena took them from her and started washing them ready for when he returned.

“Why would he take his clothes off?” Marisoll asked mystic Zerena.

“I’m sure he had his reasons,” was all she said and didn’t look at either us making me suspect that perhaps she knew more than she was letting on.

“Perhaps I should look for food now, we are all hungry, and we need our strength,” Marisoll said, but Cairn walked through the bushes dragging two deer behind him. He was sweating, and his eyes glittered with adrenaline when he said, “no need, I have food, and next time could you leave my clothes where I placed them, those damn bushes nicked me all over.”

He dropped the two deer at our feet and I gave him a dirty look, Marisoll didn’t seem fazed and simply took one and got to work preparing it to cook.

Cairn dropped down beside her, and she asked, “why did you remove your clothing?”

“I was hot?” He tried, she frowned at him, and he leaned back on his hands, his knees-up and legs spread displaying everything between them. I averted my gaze, “shut your legs, Cairn, we don’t need nightmares.”

He grinned back at me and did no such thing. “Nightmares about how inadequate you are down there compared to me?”

“F.uck you.”

“You wish,” he kissed the air at me and if not for the warning look from mystic Zerena as I moved to get up, I would have decked him one, or preferably ran my blade through him again.

Marisoll was sat beside him and I watched her struggle not to curiously look towards him and see what I was seeing.

“You are unusually comfortable being naked,” she said to Cairn.

“We were born naked so why not,” he replied.

“You still did not answer my question about why you were naked to begin with.”

Still leaning back on his hands, he shrugged, “it is easier to hunt without all the weight.”

She still wasn’t buying that story, but she let it go.

While we were eating, Cairn turned to Marisoll and said, “mystic Zerena cleaned your clothes?”

When she nodded, he looked to me, “you saw Marisoll naked?”

“None of your business,” I snapped, but he only smirked and said, “bet you liked it,” turning to her again he said, “am I right in believing Ezekiel kept glancing at your naked body?”

How embarrassing, I hoped my blushing did not show for I knew that is exactly the reaction Cairn wanted from me, to make me uncomfortable. Marisoll punched him in the arm, making him lose balance and topple onto his back.

I smiled, but he sat back up rubbing his arm and didn’t seem angry like usual, he didn’t try to cause a fight or argument and I wondered why he was in such a calm mood now.

We were just finishing with food when it started to rain heavily, lightening struck the air and the rain drowned out the fire we had built. Mystic Zerena stood up and rushed, “come on, let’s make shelter for ourselves.”

We used fallen thick branches and big rocks to create two makeshift tents, that was all we had enough for. Marisoll wanted to sleep with mystic Zerena but she made Marisoll choose either me or Cairn to sleep with.

“Why?” Marisoll argued.

“Because they are powerful knights, we will both do better in a fight with them beside us.”

“Because we are female?” Marisoll challenged.

Mystic Zerena kept her cool and replied, “yes and no, whether you like to admit it or not, males will always be bigger and stronger than us, you are an exceptional fighter, better than countless men, but these two are incredible fighters as are you and I do not think it weak of me to know my strengths, you would do far better with one of them beside you than me, I cannot fight all that well, and my magic requires long range a lot of the time to give me time to cast. Unless you are insinuating that they are not good enough to fight beside?”

Marisoll’s temper flared at the mention of males being stronger, she calmed at the rest of the words and at the end she looked resigned when she replied, “no, I know they are both equally good fighters and will be great allies to have my back in a fight. You are right, we could both use the added muscle during the night when there is always risk of an attack while we sleep.”

When mystic Zerena began walking towards me, Marisoll quickly joined my side and said, “I am not sleeping beside Cairn, he is a brute and I would not be surprised to find myself slain by him while I sleep.”

Cairn snarled at her, “I’m not that petty or cowardly, if I kill you, I want it to be in a fair fight.” He stalked off to his makeshift tent with mystic Zerena sighing and following behind.

I gave a small smile to Marisoll and climbed into ours. I laid down and watched her struggle to keep a fierce face on, she wasn’t doing very well and was acting bashful and clumsy, almost tripping over her own two feet, she kept fidgeting with the rings in her hair and then a loose string on her clothing, in the end I tugged her down beside me and made her lay down.

“Relax,” I murmured.

She nodded, and as the rain lashed down outside, I noticed her shivering slightly. “Are you warm enough?”

“I am ok,” she whispered into the dark, and then gave a little yelp when a rain droplet bounced off the floor and hit her nose. Laughing softly, I pulled her in against my body and held her, her back against me, nothing inappropriate, just holding her to keep her warm and away from the edge of the makeshift tent so rain did not keep hitting her.

It seemed to relax her, I felt her body grow lax against mine.

I didn’t try to talk to her, I did not think she would appreciate that when she was trying so hard to be this fierce warrior, I knew she must be hating showing such vulnerability.

I do not know how long I lay there, but I eventually fell asleep. We both woke to Cairn shaking us awake, “get up, now.”

“What’s going on?” Marisoll asked sleepily.

“The darkness is spreading across, we need to move,” Cairn replied.

She crawled out of the tent and I followed behind, the rain had slowed to a drizzle. Marisoll looked confused, “if we are to battle the dark lord then won’t we be walking into the darkness anyway?”

I lightly touched her shoulder, “it is best to leave walking into it until the very last possible moment, it won’t be good for our minds nor our bodies.”

Mystic Zerena came over and said, “I have some potions to help stop the darkness turn our bodies, but the spell only lasts twenty-four hours, so let’s save it until absolutely necessary.”

We gathered up our things, Cairn and I put our armour back on over our clothes, Marisoll put her chest piece on, and then we gave one last look towards the darkness behind us, its shadow ever spreading across the land and the buildings as it crept ever closer.

As we traveled across the lands I struggled to drown out Cairn and Marisolls bickering and arguing, I wasn’t even sure what they were arguing about, but I was coming to realise that with them two anything was a good enough reason, they hated one another passionately and more than once mystic Zerena had to intervene before it turned into a physical fight. Again.

I was walking along when they were at it again, Cairn was taunting her about something and she pushed him so hard he fell into me, I pushed him too, and he fell to his knees, grabbing my arm and yanking me down with him.

We were in the middle of wrestling one another when a deafening roar in the sky had us stop and look up at the sound. Circling us high up in the sky was a dragon.

We both jumped to our feet and ran behind mystic Zerena and Marisoll as they looked for cover.

We found a half standing building and hid behind it, there was no roof to protect us, no rooms to hide in, just two walls were all that remained standing.

Once we were behind it, I looked around the corner and up at the sky, the dragon had been touched by the darkness, there would be no chance of reasoning with it. It was a rarer dragon too, not your typical fire breathing dragon, this one was a wind elemental.

Darkness touched or not it was not stupid, it knew where we were hiding. I took in its magnificent form, it was all black the edgings of the wings grey, it circled the sky, its powerful wings beating the air and creating a wind.

Mystic Zerena got to work on her potions, if we had to fight such dangerous foes, then she could create a potion to bring us back to life if we were killed, it brought us back instantly so we did not have to wait hours, but it was not a spell she liked using unless absolutely necessary.

I saw Marisoll looking up at the dragon wide-eyed and asked her, “have you ever seen a dragon before?”

Without taking her eyes away from it, she whispered, “in person? Never.”

“Are you ready for this?”

“I’m afraid,” she admitted.

Cairn came up beside her and grinned, “well, you know what they say don’t you? Feel the fear and do it anyway.” He slapped her on the shoulder, stood up and like the absolute impulsive psychopath he was he ran full on out there, withdrawing his sword as he did so.

I shook my head, looked at Marisoll and shrugged my shoulders before getting up and joining him.