Hunted

by Paul Eslinger

  Another muffled peal of thunder masked the sound as I rose up on one elbow and focused on setting magical guards. Soon, my enchanted squirrel sat on the ground at one end of the sheltered region with its beady eyes watching for the slightest hint of movement. It would mimic the hiss and chitter of a real squirrel if anything disturbed it. Moments later, a huge enchanted puma sat beside Ara’s feet, its tail twitching back and forth as it also watched the small clearing.

  The two magical guards would notice if anything came close, but we were in such a confined space they couldn’t see very far. I needed something that could see farther. Memories of an eagle that had nested in a tree close to our house came back with full force. I raised one clenched fist and slowly spread out my fingers. An enchanted eagle as tall as the puma appeared above my hand. It spread wings twice as long as my arms and tilted forward, gliding through the screen and then rising up in the air. Somehow, I knew it would perch on the top of the tallest nearby tree.

  Ara had already settled down with one edge of her sleeping fur covering her face. She pushed the fur aside and shifted over on her side, facing away from the cliff. She jerked, grabbed the sleeping fur closer with one hand and pointed at the puma with the other one. “What’s that?” she hissed.

  “A magical guard,” I said quietly. “I didn’t think you could see it.”

  “Is it real?” she asked shrilly between panting breaths.

  “Calm down,” I said and laid my hand on her shoulder. “It’s magical, an enchantment. It has some of the traits of a real puma, but it doesn’t eat.”

  Ara shuddered under my touch. “What big teeth and claws.”

  I tried to sound convincing. “They’re for our protection. No one can creep up on us while they’re watching.”

  “They?” she asked. “Is there more than one?”

  “Only one puma,” I said and then pointed down by Trey’s feet. He seemed sound asleep. “There’s also a squirrel.”

  She sat up and looked in the direction I pointed. “I see it. It’s kind of cute. How can I see it in the dark? Is there anything else?”

  “There’s also an enchanted eagle outside,” I said and then gave a huge yawn. “I’m so tired I can barely think. I’m going to get some sleep.”

  I roused several times during the night and ran a quick magical scan. The enchanted guards sat at attention with their eyes moving and tails twitching, but gave no signs of approaching intruders. The Hunter was still over at our previous campsite and his emotions indicated he was very unhappy. No other intelligent creatures were anywhere close except the villagers, all of whom were inside out of the storm.

  The wind quit blowing and the rain stopped just before sunup and the change in sound woke me. Lingering clouds masked the moons and I decided to keep the shield in place until the others woke. I checked for the magical presence of the eagle and was surprised that it was circling above the canyon rather than perching on a tree. However, it didn’t give any sense of alarm.

  Before long, Ara shifted and sat up. She yawned and pushed back her tangled hair with both hands. “That was a short night, but I have to get up.”

  “Okay,” I said, feeling the same way. The guards and the shield vanished in an instant when I shut down the flow of magic.

  A short time later, we gathered around the packs. I gestured in the direction of the creek. Last night it had murmured, but this morning it was swollen like an overstuffed leech and gave off a sullen roar. “It will be difficult to travel today. The creek is so high we can’t cross it here.”

  “Sure, we can,” Trey replied, pulling a bag of oats from his pack. “But let’s eat a decent breakfast first.”

  Ara frowned and spoke to him like he was a small child. “The rain soaked all the wood and tinder. We can’t start a fire with everything wet.”

  “We don’t need a fire,” Trey responded. “Reuben can heat the water and oats in each serving bowl even without a fire.”

  Ara swiveled and threw me a disbelieving look. “You can do that?”

  “Yep,” I said with a wide smile before turning to face Trey. “What do you mean we can cross the creek? We’ve had two bad incidents trying to cross high water in the last three weeks.”

  “I wasn’t planning on wading through high water,” he said with a grin. “You’re going to push down the old snag that is leaning towards the creek and we’ll walk across on it.”

  Chapter 28 – Pleasant Interlude

  I was still tired from a short night of sleep and Trey’s idea that I could push over a tree seemed so ludicrous that I glared at him. “How am I supposed to do that?”

  He looked rested and his voice was cheerful. “We both watched a woman heap up a big pile of dirt and rocks and also cut down trees without touching them. You can do it the same way.”

  “That’s not the way it works,” I protested.

  “No?” Trey lifted his eyebrows before he bent down and picked up a rock the size of his fist. He drew back his arm as if he were going to throw the rock at me and then continued speaking, “You can push aside this rock if I threw it, couldn’t you?”

  I hesitated and began to think about possibilities with the tree instead of dwelling on negative thoughts. “Yes.”

  He dropped the rock and brushed his hands together. “You’re getting better with the protective shield, but we, you actually, need to keep working on doing new magical things.”

  Ara had been standing next to the packs combing her hair. She tucked the comb back in her pack and interrupted us, “I’m hungry.”

  “Please set out three bowls,” I called back.

  “I’ll take the cooking pan and get water from the creek,” Trey offered.

  Ara and I poured oat groats into each bowl and we were ready when Trey came back with the water. He grimaced as he held out the pan. “The creek is muddy from the rain. The water is dirty.”

  I bumped the heel of my hand on my forehead. “We should have set the pan out last night and let the rain fill it while we were sleeping.”

  Trey set the pan on the ground by the bowls and stood there with his hands on his hips. Ara leaned close and peered in the pan. “The dirt will settle if we let it sit for a while.”

  “We’d still taste it,” I grumped.

  Trey whirled around and pointed at me. “You can clean your hands and clothes using magic.”

  “Yes,” I agreed, even though he hadn’t asked a question. I stretched my hands out and looked at the dirt and stains I had picked up from pushing aside grass and bush limbs while we walked. I focused, using magic, and the dirt dropped away from my hands.

  Ara stepped closer and examined my hand. “You’re clean,” she exclaimed and then looked at me with her hands upraised. “Can you do the same thing for me?”

  “Of course,” I said. Moments later, dirt dropped from her hands and more oozed from her clothing in little puffs of dust. I shifted focus and magically cleaned Trey as well.

  “Thanks,” he said with a huge smile and then pointed at the pan of water. “Now, take the dirt out of the water.”

  Mother’s efforts to remove a stain or spilled food from my clothes were some of my earliest memories of her. Using magic to do the same thing the first time had been second nature, not requiring any new ideas. Mother had sometimes boiled water to make it clean, but most of the time we simply let it sit and scooped off the top layer.

  I rubbed my chin and stared at the water, trying to think about how I could make it clean. Both Ara and Trey stood silently watching me and I could feel their eyes studying me rather than the water. The water and dirt needed to separate, even I could figure that out. I reached for the strong magic, making sure I diverted part of it into helping hide what I was doing from other magicians, and focused on the water. The water turned cloudy and then into fog thicker than the densest fog on a cold winter morning. Moments later, the fog disap
peared.

  Ara stepped in front of me and leaned closer to look at the pot. A peal of laughter rang out as she straightened and wiped tears of merriment from her eyes. “You separated out the dirt,” she exclaimed.

  “Let me look,” I insisted.

  She stepped back and pointed at the pot. The water was gone and a thin layer of dirty sludge remained. I drew a quick breath and snorted. “Oops.”

  By this time, Trey was also laughing.

  I glared at them and snatched up the pot. “I’ll do it right next time. Just stay here and don’t bother me.”

  The roar of the creek smothered other sounds and helped me focus on what I wanted to do. I knelt on a rock and scooped another pan full of water after rinsing out the dirt. The pan went on the rock beside me and then I focused the magic on it again. To my disgust, exactly the same thing happened as before.

  I rinsed the dirt out of the pan again and scooped it full of water. It was sitting on the rock beside me before a new idea formed. I threw the water back in the creek and set the empty pan down beside me. I focused on pulling clean water from the creek and having it end up in the pan. Moments later, a thin funnel of fog reached up from the creek and touched the rim of the pan. Before long, the pan was full of clean water.

  I rocked back on my heels, immensely satisfied with the clean water, when a new thought hit me. I had focused on the water rather than the dirt, even though I did it the other way when I cleaned dirt from my body and clothes. Intrigued by the idea, I emptied the clean water into the creek and scooped up dirty water.

  This time, I focused the magic on the task of removing everything from the pan that wasn’t water. I heaved a sigh of relief when dark sludge rose from the water, flowed over the edge of the pan, and ended up on the ground. I leaned forward and looked in the pan. The water was clean and so clear I could see through it to the bottom of the pan. The inside of the pan had been a dark color, but now it was lighter in color and gleamed smoothly.

  A broad smile crossed my face when I carried the pan of water back to Ara and Trey and held it out for their inspection. “Is this clean enough?”

  “Yes, that’s wonderful” Ara squealed in delight and clapped her hands. “You’re appointed full-time dishwasher.”

  “Oh, great,” I said as my delight faded. Mother and Ara had always done the dishes, although I had helped a few times after Mother died.

  “Don’t look so disgusted,” Trey said with a grin. He held up one hand and snapped his fingers. “I think you can learn to clean out a cooking pan that fast. You’d be done by the time you could stack the dishes back into the cupboard.”

  The suggestion made sense and my mood lightened. However, a concern started growing in the back of my mind. We needed to find a place where we could live for the winter, and we needed a supply of food. The moment of concern passed while I heated the three bowls of oats.

  We finished eating before the sun rose above the neighboring hills. I took a deep breath of frustration when Ara spread three dirty spoons and bowls out in front of me. She pointed at them with a sly smile. “Can you clean them?”

  I considered refusing and then thought about the way she had phrased the question. If I said no, she would smile and clean them, leaving the implication that I couldn’t figure out how to use the magic. If I said yes, she would smile and gesture at the bowls, implying I should prove my abilities.

  Instead of answering, I reached for more magic. Without crusted food, these bowls would be easy to clean with water. I pulled on the magic, directing it to clean the bowls and spread the small amount of food on the bush beside us. Moments later, the bowls and spoons were spotless.

  “Thank you,” Ara said and picked them up. She held them in her hands and looked at me with an expression of interest. “Can other humans do the same kind of things with magic?”

  “Father said that anything you can do, you, or someone else, can do using magic. However, other humans, except maybe the people carrying sapphires, pull the magic from their bodies rather than from under the hills. It makes them tired really fast.”

  Ara’s eyes grew intent as she studied my face. “You used to get really tired.”

  I nodded. “Yes. Zephyr taught me how to reach strong magic while we were staying in the cave on the way to Glendale.”

  “I wonder why?” she asked softly. She fingered the sapphire she was wearing under her blouse and then turned away without waiting for an answer.

  Trey pointed out the dead snag when we started down the trail. It leaned so far out over the creek it looked like it should fall without a push from me. “That’s our bridge. Can you push it down?”

  “How do I push it?” I asked, knowing they would both have suggestions. I had thought more about magic while eating and made more entries in my mental book about magic. Even though Trey and Ara couldn’t do much magic, they were both very creative with ideas I could use.

  “Just like you push a person,” Ara said quickly.

  “Or a rock,” Trey added.

  “That’s a great idea,” Ara gushed. “Trey, why don’t throw a rock up by the top of the tree? Reuben can push on the tree at the same time he pushes the rock.”

  “Sounds good,” I said. I set my pack aside while Trey picked up several rocks from the edge of the creek.

  Trey moved back beside me and looked up at the tree. “Are you ready?” he asked.

  “Ready.”

  He gave a grunt of exertion and threw the rock as high as he could. I waited until the rock neared the top of the snag. To my disgust, the only thing that happened was the rock changed direction away from the trunk of the tree.

  “Let’s try again,” Trey said even before the rock he had thrown hit the ground.

  I pushed harder with the magic this time, and the rock exploded into a puff of dust. The tree stood unmoved. “That didn’t work,” I muttered.

  “You’re focusing on the rock rather than the tree,” Ara observed. “Maybe Trey can hit the tree with the rock, so your push on the rock is also a push on the tree.

  Five throws later, the tree was still standing. Trey wiped sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand and spoke without looking at me. “Maybe this isn’t going to work. I thought you could do it.”

  Even though his words were kind, I felt bad that I hadn’t met his expectations. I turned and looked at the tree more closely. Suddenly, I knew I could use a magical axe to cut through the trunk and make it fall. I pointed at the tree and spoke, “I can do it another way.”

  “What way?” Ara asked.

  “Cut it down with a magical axe,” I said.

  “Just like an enchanted puma?” she asked.

  I squirmed while trying to make a mental comparison. “Sort of. But the axe isn’t an animal, it just cuts wood.”

  Trey stepped closer and interrupted Ara’s next question. “Think about it, Reuben. Do you plan to cut the tree like that woman Talindra cut trees while fighting the Vassago?”

  “That’s the idea,” I replied, unsure why he sounded so serious.

  Trey pointed back toward Glendale. “What will the Hunter think if he sees a tree cut in that way?”

  “Oh,” I said, feeling foolish. “It was a terrible idea. Let’s go look for a place where we can cross the stream.”

  We turned down the canyon, heading towards the road. The road was in sight before we found a place where we could hop from rock to rock across the engorged stream. I made another magic scan before we started walking along the edge of the road but no one was within a half day’s walk of our position. Even though we walked on grass, the rain had softened the dirt enough we occasionally left footprints.

  We crossed several more streams during the morning, but none of them were swollen enough from the rain to cause a problem. In the middle of the afternoon, Ara raised her head and sniffed the air. “I smell smoke.”

>   “There should be another small village not far ahead,” I replied. “Zephyr said there was one about every day’s journey between Glendale and Falkirk.”

  “Can we buy some bread?” Ara asked. “I don’t have flour and yeast, so I can’t make any.”

  “I have yeast,” Trey added.

  “How about flour?”

  “No flour,” he answered.

  “We’ll buy some,” I said, unable to stand the look of disappointment in Ara’s face.

  “Where did you get the money?” Ara asked.

  I sighed. “Uncle Inigo gave me a little money when he sent me off the first time. He told me to use it to buy clothes for the winter. At this rate, the money will be gone before cold weather comes.”

  “We’ll find a way to get more,” Ara said cheerfully.

  Her concerned expression didn’t match with her cheerful words but I didn’t comment. Instead, my eyes followed a moving dot over the hill that was quickly growing larger. Before long, Sorcha landed underneath the spreading limbs of a huge oak tree not far from us. She stepped behind the tree and then her wings and tail disappeared. Moments later, she stepped out from behind the tree, once again in human form and wearing a cloak.

  “Good afternoon,” I said when she stepped close.

  “Good afternoon,” she replied and looked from face to face. “You have made good time. You are half a day ahead of the Hunter.”

  “Thank you,” I said, deciding not to tell her I knew where the Hunter was.

  “He has been known to travel twice the distance of other men in a day when he was in a hurry,” Sorcha said.

  Ara shook her head. “Does that mean we need to walk half of the night again?”

  “That’s my recommendation,” Sorcha said. Without another word, she turned and headed toward the tree. She shifted into dragon form as soon as she reached the drip line of the tree.

  Ara twirled a long lock of hair around her finger as we all watched the dragon take off, gain altitude, and turn toward the ridgeline. “She was weaker in human form than she was the last time she talked with us.”