Peter and the Kuroneko (War of Contractia)

by Dixon, TJ

  Even I am feeling unwell and the elves are much worse. I am maintaining an air bubble around Nico Na’s head just like I would if we were underwater, but one is the most I can maintain. It would be easier underwater because the water would form a clear distinction, but maintaining an air bubble within air is much harder.

  Kai is leading us again but this time she has one of Hinata’s glowing stones. I am right behind Kai this time. Lucy is flying somewhere in the middle of our group to avoid getting squashed against the roof. Nico Na is directly behind me, and then in order it is Dairon, the five other elves, Hinata, Sor and Emi.

  Kai reaches the end of the tunnel and stands in a huge chamber. Covering the walls, floor and ceiling are the same grey stone bricks we saw in the shaft we climbed down and the room where we rested. I come out a moment later and gladly stand. The smell however is ten times worse now we are in the room, and my wind senses are completely messed up as a result. I barely maintain the air bubble around Nico Na’s head. The others are crawling out of the tunnel as I look at the huge glowing piles of earth and metal spread throughout the chamber. It is as bright as daylight except in the corner we are standing.

  “Mana ore.” Kai says happily sniffing the air. I knew she wasn’t affected but I didn’t realise it actually smells good to her.

  “Where’s the exit?” I ask seeing everyone is now out of the tunnel and that the elves look like they may vomit if they stay here too long.

  “It’s over here.” Kai says leading the way around a nearby pile of earth. Everyone seems just as eager as I am to follow Kai and hopefully get out of here quickly. Perhaps that’s why we don’t pay as much attention as we should do to our surroundings.

  All of a sudden I hear Sor scream. I spin and see a deep hole in the floor where she must have been standing. Bricks have been thrown everywhere and Sor is gone. My senses are too muddled to sense her and with my concentration broken I hear Nico Na gasp in shock as the air bubble breaks.

  Emi throws an ice shard into the air and looking up I see Sor in the grip of a giant flying bug. Sor, held in its grip, is struggling to maintain a pure magical shield. It seems even she is unable to port so close to the mana ore. The bug dodges the ice shard with ease. Emi is clearly concerned that she might hit Sor, so having missed the bug she now hesitates.

  The bug has a huge silver shell, four hinged silver limbs, two silver wings, a bright red tail and its neck and head are also bright red, other than its many sharp silver teeth. Its limbs hold Sor in place whilst it is desperately trying to eat her. Every part of the bug reflects the room’s bright light, so it is hard to look at without shielding your eyes.

  Suddenly the roof’s bricks near the bug are thrown aside as two huge earth hands reach out and tear off the bug’s wings. Then one grabs and crushes the bug’s shell as the other rips off the bug’s limbs one at a time. Finally it catches Sor as she starts to fall and places her back on the ground.

  “Sorry, forgot about the bug.” Kai says rubbing her hair and looking rather apologetic.

  “Whatever.” Sor says breathing deeply. There’s not a hint of gratitude, but she seems mostly concerned about catching her breath. The awful smell she is now breathing in much deeper also can’t help.

  “We should move on quickly or we’ll have to face worse than that.” Kai says.

  “Any chance of putting up that air bubble again?” Nico Na rasps.

  “Oh, sorry!” I say and it takes a bit of focus, but I manage to get it back up round his head.

  “Now let’s go!” Kai urges and so we follow her quickly, but pay a bit more attention to our surroundings this time. It takes a couple of minutes winding around piles of ore before we reach our destination. It turns out it is another shaft, but I can see the bottom this time. We might even be able to jump down this one, but it is probably safer to climb down the ladder or in my case use wind magic to float down. To my surprise however Nico Na actually does jump down. I float down quickly after him and everyone else climbs down.

  The tunnel only goes one way and is high enough for everyone to walk along this time. The roof, walls and floor are all grey stone now without a brick in sight. There is a shining white bar that extends as far as I can see close to both edges of the tunnel. The bars easily light the tunnel. Kai closes her eyes and suddenly a wooden box that looks a bit like a carved out tree stump appears in front of us. It has four metal wheels, each of which sits on top of one of the metal bars.

  “Peter, sit in it.” Kai says and summons a second one. “Nico Na in this one. What are you both waiting for?”

  “Why are we going to sit in it?” I ask bewildered.

  “It is much quicker than walking. It should only take a couple of minutes and the smell of the ore will be behind us. If you’d prefer to walk though…” Kai says impatiently.

  “Surely magic that powerful could be detected.” I say with a frown.

  “I only use magic to create it. The magic isn’t that powerful.” Kai says.

  “So how does it move?” I ask.

  “I just give it a push and gravity does the rest.” Kai says.

  “What is gravity?” I ask confused.

  “It’s the reason you don’t normally float around without wind magic.” Kai says with a smile. “My father told me about it. Apparently a dwarf figured it out after a huge emerald he was mining fell on his head.”

  “And this gravity isn’t magic?” I ask dubious and confused by her explanation.

  “Not a drop of magic in it. Now get in the box unless you like the smell of mana ore as much as I do.” Kai says.

  “Ok.” I say seeing Dairon shoot me a pointed look. Soon everyone is in a box very much like the one I am in.

  “Keep your head down unless you want to lose it. I’ll tell you when it is safe to get out.” Kai says and as I put my head down she pushes the box I am in. It slowly starts to move. I could walk much faster than this. It gradually picks up speed though and all of a sudden I feel it jump up into the air and fall back down. As it falls back down however it races forwards and I feel the wind blowing past me.

  Looking up without raising my head I see the grey stone roof pass quickly by. In places it is lower than other places so I can easily see how I could lose my head if I didn’t keep it tucked safely inside the box. The smell is soon gone. It is a while later when all of a sudden I come to a dramatic halt.

  I sense a huge pile of broken stone directly ahead blocking the way. For a moment I am sure my box is going to tear apart, but with a hasty wind shield it somehow remains sufficiently intact to avoid killing me. The crash is deafening though and I sense people around me. A lot of people at that. I can’t afford to wait for Kai to tell me it is safe and the box has clearly stopped so I jump out of it away from the metal bars. As I do so I see Nico Na’s box crash into mine tearing mine apart.

  “Get out away from the tracks!” I shout seeing the next box hurtling towards his. I sense a powerful fire attack and throw up a wind shield. At the same time I pick up a stunned Nico Na with wind magic and throw him away from the box and tracks just as the next box wrecks the one he was in a moment ago. I do the same for a startled Dairon without weakening my wind shield. “Dairon, save everyone else!”

  “Ok!” Dairon shouts back at me and I turn my attention on the enemy currently attacking me.

  The fire mage is a human with black skin and enchanted red robes. I notice five other black skinned men in the same robes running towards me. We are in a large chamber with lots of humans and cat people holding pick axes and shovels staring at the scene in clear shock. They each have a red collar around their necks and I sense it is slowly draining their magic, so even if any are mages they will not be able to help. These flames are not a problem though. They are weak, or at least they feel it to me.

  I strike with lightning and each blast knocks out an enemy mage. Fire strikes from behind me but I easily sense and shield it. Turning I blast the four mages behind me too. By the time the enemy are taken care of
, all my comrades are safely out of their boxes. The boxes are wrecked but I don’t care about that. We are safe and seem to have just found the Kuroneko’s people. I assume that must be who these miners are.

  “Nico Na! I thought you were dead!” A human man with black skin and hair, wearing only torn grey shorts exclaims running up to Nico Na. He has fresh burn marks all over his body, as well as scars that look much older.

  “Ara Kii!” Nico Na exclaims and pats the man on his head.

  “Kii…” I say frowning, thinking of Yu Kii. Ara Kii looks sharply at me.

  “If you’ve heard the name Kii before, do you know Haru Kii or Yu Kii?” He asks in a rush without taking a single breath.

  “Yu Kii is the name of a friend of mine at the academy. She was a miko from the Kuroneko Mountains.” I say

  “Is she safe?” He asks sounding a little relieved already.

  “I think so.” I tell him. The other people nearby are forming a big crowd around us.

  “We should deal with any more guards quickly.” Lucy says bringing me back to my senses.

  “You’re right.” I say with a nod.

  “What will you do after that?” Nico Na asks.

  “Once the guards are dealt with we should send everyone home through the portal.” I say with a little trepidation.

  “Leaving us stranded here?” Nico Na asks.

  “Yes. Anyone who wishes to leave, other than Lucy and Hinata, may do so through the portal.” I say.

  “You need me to call the Kuroneko.” Nico Na reminds me.

  “I can do that if you remove this collar. The enchantment isn’t strong but it prevents me using even the weak magic required to break it.” Ara Kii says.

  “Guards first.” Lucy says urgently. I sense what must be the exit to this chamber based on the flow of the air and everyone’s aura.

  “Lucy, Dairon, Nico Na and Kai with me. Everyone else start releasing the collars or deal with the prisoners.” I say and use flight magic to race towards the exit before any enemies can escape, or worse.

  It is much easier than I could ever have imagined. The guards are all really weak and soon I have them all rounded up and unconscious. The miners are all within the one large chamber, so we easily gather them completely together and open the portal. It leads to the Hoshi land and is a Hoshi family heirloom. The Queen would have objected if we had asked her for a portal that could bypass Portalis and jeopardise Contractia should it fall into enemy hands.

  The people we just freed, other than Ara Kii, go through first. Once they have all passed through to safety I have the prisoners, elven and human, pass through too. The portal is about to close when Nico Na grabs Sor and Emi, jumping through with them. I am not surprised, because I asked him to do it. Sor is of course more than surprised, not to mention angry.

  The portal is closed now, leaving just me, Ara Kii, Dairon, Lucy, Hinata and Kai. Six of us against an army of elves and we have no way home. What could go wrong? Actually I suspect the Kuroneko can send us home, but if not we will need to come up with a new plan. Lucy doesn’t seem bothered though, so I suspect she anticipated this would happen despite planning to fulfil our part of the deal after the Kuroneko had helped us.

  “Drakes.” Kai says urgently as she points towards the exit and then turns away from it. “Everyone follow me quickly.”

  I use flight magic to follow as everyone else runs after Kai. Kai suddenly stops and taps on a section of the grey wall that looks no different to the rest. It opens like a door and we quickly dash through into a large grey tunnel. The door closes behind us plunging us into complete darkness until Hinata takes a small stone out of her pocket and enchants it with the usual purple glow.

  “They’ll never find this tunnel.” Kai says with a smile.

  “I hope you’re right.” Lucy says. “Where does it lead though?”

  “You want to get to the Heart of the Mountain, right?” Kai asks with a smile.

  “Yes.” Lucy says.

  “Well it doesn’t lead there.” Kai says disappointing us. “But if we follow it and cross to a different tunnel at the right point we can get there. We should move on a bit and rest before we attempt to cross. That will be the one point where we will be vulnerable. Everyone, follow me.”

  We walk behind Kai and the tunnel, already high enough for Kai to stand upright and wide enough for five to walk side by side, gets higher and wider quickly. You could soon have ten or so side by side and you could get another Kai standing on her head. If you had another Kai and her balance was good enough.

  After a while Kai stops and tells us, “We’ll rest here. We should get some sleep and make sure we are at full power. We’ll reach the Heart of the Mountain within an hour of setting out from here if all goes well and if we’re not killed trying to cross to the correct tunnel.”

  “I hope we’re not killed!” Lucy exclaims. “We’ve come this far so it would be a waste to get killed like that. Are we really that close though? It doesn’t feel like we’ve travelled that far.”

  “We travelled a long way in those boxes. If we hadn’t been stopped we would have arrived more or less at the Heart of the Mountain. That’s where the dwarven furnaces were, so they sent the ore there in wooden carts a bit like the ones we used.” Kai says with a grin.

  “That would have been handy. It really is a pity the path was blocked. You’re right though, we should rest here.” Lucy says and then looks at the rest of us with a frown. “It may not be very comfortable here, but try your best to rest and recover your magic. We will want to be at full power when we reach the Heart of the Mountain, because there will almost certainly be enemies there even if we don’t meet any more before that.”

  We all take Lucy’s advice and try to get some rest. This hard stone floor though is the most uncomfortable place I have ever slept, or more to the point, tried to sleep. We can’t use magic on it to make for a more comfortable bed, because it is heavily shielded by magic. Dairon or Kai could use magic to create a bed of sorts, but it would use a lot of magic and even with the shielding might be detected. At least it isn’t going to affect my power as that is way above my natural limit already. It would still be good to be physically recovered though and the others need to recover their magic power.

  “Peter…?” Ara Kii asks quietly sounding very nervous. He is laying just a couple of feet away from me. “Yu Kii… Is she happy in Contractia?”

  “I think so. She shares a room with Rin so I don’t see as much of her as Rin does, but I certainly get the impression that Yu Kii is happy. Yu Kii tends to be fairly reserved and her aura often seems a bit nervous, but she has lots of friends and she seems to enjoy herself most of the time.” I tell Ara Kii.

  “Is Yu Kii doing well enough to graduate safely?” Ara Kii asks.

  “She’s in the top class now, so I can’t imagine her having trouble graduating, especially since we all help each other out.”

  “Yu Kii’s in the top class? I know she is good at earth magic, but she must have done well at all the elements to get to the top class.” Ara Kii says sounding a bit shocked and very happy.

  “She’s still mostly an earth mage, though a damned good earth mage. She’s not bad at the other elements, but she isn’t great at them. We got to the top class because of a competition.”

  “I hope she doesn’t find the top class too hard.” Ara Kii says sounding worried.

  “She’s not alone so she’ll be fine.” I assure him.

  “I hope so.” Ara Kii says still sounding just as worried.

  Chapter 16 (Peter)

  A couple of hours at least must have passed since I finished talking to Ara Kii and I am still unable to sleep. I know how important it is to do so, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Actually it makes it harder. It is always hard to sleep when I know I must do so, and that is doubly true when I am this uncomfortable. So for now I am just lying here thinking in the fading purple light.

  Sor would certainly have tried to port us home when the
time came, so I am glad I sent her back ahead of us. She would certainly have attempted to, but she would most likely have failed. The attempt would certainly have crossed the line and wrecked her magical senses. She would also have slowed us down, but I could have lived with that.

  There was really no need for Sor or Emi to be here in the first place, though they certainly helped us whilst they were here. It was right to send them back. We needed either Ara Kii or Nico Na, but not both so it gave me a good reason to send Nico Na back too. I would probably have preferred to have Nico Na than Ara Kii, but it shouldn’t make too much difference and there was no point keeping both of them here.

  Lucy may not have said it but the chances of our dying are very, very real. I trust she has a plan, but our enemy are powerful and even if we defeat David, what next? I wish I hadn’t dragged Hinata into this, but our plan depends on her now. It was David though who really dragged her into this when he had her mother killed.

  Eventually I do fall asleep. Nobody wakes me but when I do wake I get the impression everyone has been ready for a while. I stand and stretch my legs in the gentle purple light. Hinata must have renewed it because it was starting to get dim when I fell asleep.

  “Is everyone ready?” I ask after walking to and fro a few times. Everyone stands looking a bit grim and nods. They don’t seem to want to use words right now. “Well Kai, lead on then.”

  Kai doesn’t answer but does lead the way through the dark tunnel lit only by Hinata’s purple glowing stone. Right now there is only one way, but it isn’t long before the tunnel splits. It splits three times before reaching what looks like a dead end.

  “There are enemies outside. Lots of human mages and drakes. They don’t know we’re here, but it would be a very tough fight. Even if we won, we’d probably use most of our power.” Kai tells me.

  “Then we wait here until they move on.” I say with a sigh. We are so close to our goal so it is really frustrating to just have to wait. “How far once we cross to the other tunnel?”