Elemental Courage

by M. W. McDonald

  “Get here soon honey, we need you,” Dyaina said with a resigned tone.

  “Mom! What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

  “Put the pendant on honey, everything will be all right.” William pulled the necklace down over his head. It began to glow and pulse softly almost immediately. A few seconds after the metal touched his neck the air ripped violently. An opening to another world started growing at the other end of the room. It began as a diagonal tear in the air before stretching and expanding into an oval opening with white crackling energy dancing along the surface and around the edges. Through this portal was a world of pure energy. It poured its blinding light into the room. A horse-sized wolf of blue and silver streaks bounded out of the portal. At least William thought it was a wolf, it looked like a wolf but had a very long bushy tail- like that of a fox and very long ears that lay back flat against the animals head. The wolf had very distinct streaks of blue, silver and white fur that looked very soft but metallic at the same time. William could swear he heard a very faint type of wind-chime sound coming from the wolf as he moved. The storm now tore off portions of the roof and fed them to the funnel clouds getting closer and closer.

  Dyaina looked at the wolf and smiled, she nodded and spoke.

  “Get him out of here! We are out of time!” The unnatural screaming of the tornados was deafening now. Dyaina closed her eyes and crossed her wrists allowing the bracelets to touch. Her aura was radiating stronger from the bracelets as cloudy black forms began to pour into the house from every storm-created opening. The corners of Dyaina’s mouth curved upwards into a small smile.

  “You dare to attack us from the edges of a rainstorm?!” Dyaina’s eyes flew open glowing with elemental rage. “Feel the wrath of a true Water Enchanter!” Immense energy cascaded outwards from Dyaina like a tidal wave of force. The wave obliterated any portion of the home caught in it and repelled the shadowy invaders. The giant wolf jumped in front of William shielding him from the debris. The debris ricocheted off of the wolf with metallic “tinks” and thuds.

  “Get him out of here now, there are too many for me to have to worry about hurting him,” Dyaina said over her shoulder quickly before concentrating again.

  The wolf’s large amber eyes shone brightly, and it nodded once quickly. It lowered its massive head between William’s knees and lifted up quickly tossing William onto its back. William was forced to grab whatever handfuls of shackle fur he could grasp just to stay on the beast. The Wolf released a pained howl, and another rift opened with a flash of blinding light and crackling energy. The vapors moved quickly, as a unit, to block the breach. Countless mists swirled in front of the tear as the wolf ran right at them. Dyaina moved in a flash, running parallel to the lupine rescuer. She flourished her wrist, and the vapors were swept aside in a swirling vortex of water. William thought he saw the figures of hooded men in the whirlwind but couldn’t be sure.

  “MOM!” He looked back at his mother. Her back was to him; the rubble of the only home he had known for his 18 years was all around her. She was flanked by two massive tornados hovering in place spewing their black vapors at her. The bright blue light of her aura danced across the raindrops as she held her ground allowing them to escape. William’s vision was consumed by a burning white light and he felt as if his skin was being torn apart. Dyaina sighed in relief as she saw the rift close. Tears formed in her eyes at the thought of the life that now awaited her son. She turned the sadness inward, and it became rage for the people responsible.

  She stared down the two funnel clouds now groaning in anger at the failure of their mission. The vapors swirled violently, the glimmer of countless blades was revealed by the light from her bracelets. She lowered herself to one knee and placed her hands on the remnants of her wet carpet. She took a very long breath. Time seemed to slow; the vaporous forms of men and women now visible in place of the shadowy gases. Water from the ground and air rushed to her aid. She called all of it, leeching water from the clouds themselves. She closed her eyes and felt the familiarity of the energies at work. A tear fell down her cheek.

  “You will never touch my son!” Her voice filled the air as she landed on both knees for support, screaming with rage. Length-less tendrils of water erupted from her clenched fists, spiraling outwards in every direction imaginable. As the tendrils touched a vapor, it gathered them, like a magical adhesive they couldn’t escape from. She drew from every bit of essence she had. She willed her watery appendages to collect her adversaries quicker. They moved with a mind of their own. If an attacker got past the advancing tendrils of water and proceeded to attack her directly a tendril would appear from her body and collect the attacker in a flash.

  Her energy was waning from the tremendous exertion. She hadn’t practiced for so long that she didn’t have the reserves she was typically accustomed to. She knew she had to finish soon. She gathered what she felt to be the last of their assailants and forced the tendrils and their captives into a sizeable pure water bubble. The tendrils receded back into her fists. What remained was a floating bubble of massive proportions; the vapors dissipated and in their place stood hooded figures wreathed in black garments and swords. The only un-hooded figure was Takashi, she knew not his name but smiled at him and snapped her fingers collapsing the bubble on itself, crushing everything in it. Takashi was pulled violently to the center of the floating abyss screaming. When the water dispersed, there was no evidence of a battle. She couldn’t see a single body that had evaded her crushing water blossom.

  The clouds that once hovered black and ominous began to disperse. A peaceful drizzle signaled their departure. Dyaina sat there still on her knees. Her head lolled back as she enjoyed feeling the water droplets hitting her face.

  “I love you, William, forgive me,” She whispered as she fell forward, depleted of every energy reserve. Darkness crept into her vision swiftly. There was a quick flash of light and then she made out the paws of an enormous wolf running up to her as her vision went black. A primal howl of sadness filled the countryside.

  3

  William emerged from the portal screaming bloody murder. His skin felt like someone was putting matches out on every one of his frayed nerves. His rift wolf companion began to slow its pace as the light faded from his vision. The wolf’s long ears elevated from his massive head and turned every direction making sure there were no unplanned visitors. The pain for William, however, was beyond acute. It drained his energy as he tried not to pass out; he failed. His eyes grew heavy; his body was unable to produce enough energy to keep them open. He fell from the wolf’s back, the soft fur that he had held onto so tightly now slipped through his fingers before he landed on the ground with a thud and a shifting of dust. William noticed that the edge of each strand of fur was actually metal as it slipped through his fingers. “Odd,” he thought as the cold blackness of unconsciousness took him. The wolf’s long ears still alternated and rotated surveying the room as his tremendous tail wrapped around the young man protectively. William’s new friend sat on his haunches. The wolf and guarded his exhausted body.

  4

  “Hold on! You have to hold on, stay with me Dyaina!” He was screaming in his mind hoping that she could somehow pick up on it. Her eyes fluttered, struggling in an epic battle between life and death. She had used too much energy, used too much of her own life essence to destroy the would-be assassins. He knew it, knew she was close. He was the fastest of his kind, and her one chance was with him. He ducked his big head down and forced his legs to move faster than he could ever remember. He clamped his lupine jaws gently, but more firmly around her abdomen, and focused his will on protecting her from the pain of the immense crackling energies of the rift. His last thought, before willing the exit portal to open, was that he should not have sent his son to the beacon first. It’s too late for that now. The portal opened shredding the air in electrical energy as he passed through.

  With a soft metallic whisper of his unique fur, the man changed his form from a consid
erable rift wolf holding a blue dress-clad woman in its jaws to a moderately tall gentleman with the same woman now in his arms as he walked quickly to the sofa and set her down on it. He stood up and looked back at her for an instant.

  “Stay with me Dyaina, I will be back in a moment, please hold on.” He shifted back into his wolf form and in a blur was entering another rift. A few seconds later, he exploded out of the rift at break-neck speeds dragging an angry man about 5’8” and 180 lbs clad only in soapsuds.

  “Damn it, David! You have pulled some sick things in the past but rifting me through my shower takes them all.” The angry man said as he was trying to find his footing with soapy feet on a hardwood floor. He tousled his short dark hair with a soapy hand. He sighed feeling the shampoo still in his hair and continued.

  “What the hell do you want-“He cut himself off when he saw the drenched woman, beautiful but pale as a ghost on the sofa in front of him.

  “Help her,” David sputtered, trying to hold it together.

  “But I don’t know what-“ David cut the soapy man off again, his head instantly shifting to his wolf form in anger, bellowing:

  “HELP HER Brian!” His brilliant blue-silver hair rising as he yelled. David shook his head side to side and eased his face back into its human form.

  “Ok, Ok calm down,” Brian said holding up his hands trying to soothe a man who was not known for his anger. He stepped towards Dyaina quickly and checked her wrist and neck for a pulse, looking worried.

  “Is she going to be ok?” David asked, worry thick in his voice as he paced back and forth only a few short feet away.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You can do something for her, right?”

  “Maybe, we will see. First, you have to do everything I say, and you must do it quickly, Dyaina only has a few minutes left.”

  “Whatever you need,” David was willing to do anything to help. He needed a purpose; sitting on his hands was not an option right now.

  “I need the largest container of water you can find. Second, I need a towel.”

  “Why the towel?” David asked quickly as he fired up his sense to rift at a moment’s notice.

  “Unless you want this woman’s first sight upon consciousness to be my business as it were, I suggest you bring one.”

  Energy erupted into the room in a flash and David was gone. Brian sighed and shook his head. Seconds later, David jumped back into the room in a heap, steam coming off of his body, dragging a plastic kiddy pool and a blue Smurf’s towel. The logo on the pool was all but unreadable, the rift energy melted a large part of it away. He threw the towel at Brian and dragged the semi-melted plastic to the side of the sofa. The remaining water in the vessel steamed from its passage through the rift. Breathing heavily, he looked expectantly at Brian.

  “What? Couldn’t find anything bigger?” Brian said wrapping the towel tightly around his waist obviously close to laughter. “You do realize I meant a large bowl or pot right, perhaps from your kitchen or bathroom? Where did you get this anyways?

  “A Seattle suburb I think,” David huffed, out of breath.

  “But we are in New York.”

  “Yeah, I know, you’re right. I should have gone farther. How about I pop over to San Diego for a fish tank at Sea World?” Brian smiled at the humor.

  “Nice job on the towel, I used to love this cartoon as a kid.” Brian stifled a laugh and wrapped the towel tighter around his waist and knelt next to Dyaina to avoid being mauled by one of his closest friends.

  David let the comments pass as he saw Brian start to work. He didn’t know who else to turn to. The last Archmage Khorynn had hunted her people to near extinction, and most shamans were in hiding now after hundreds of years of learned habits. This meant that shamans were hard to find in the best of times, and one with medical experience is rarer still. Brian fit both of the requirements and David was immeasurably grateful for their friendship.

  “Is there anything I can do?” David asked anxiously, his fists opened and clenched as he paced.

  “Yes. Talk to me.”

  “But you need to—.”

  “I know what I need to do, but re-establishing her life essence is a lengthy and tiring process,” he said admitting to himself that his night was far from over. “And I’m not going to work in silence. I never could. “ Brian slowly put his hand in the pool’s water, which began to churn and glow.

  “Better start talking David,” The blue glow started climbing Brian’s arms and traveled across his chest and down his other arm and into Dyaina’s abdomen where his hand rested.

  “What do you want me to say?” David asked obviously more intent upon the health of the woman than on his shaman friend.

  “I don’t know,” Brian snapped sharply. “How about we start with who she is and how she got this way.”

  “She is my wife.” Brian stopped suddenly as it registered.

  “I have known you for as long as I can remember, and that is a long time. I never knew you had a wife.”

  “I haven’t, at least not in a very long time.” David mused, still distracted. Brian moved his hand to Dyaina’s forehead as his left remained in the pool, energizing its waters. The soft blue glow continued to traverse his body and pass into Dyaina as he turned the energy from the water into a power she could use. Brian grimaced as he felt just how empty of life force she really was. Whatever she did had emptied her out completely. Most, if not all, shamans these days wouldn’t allow themselves to get this drained especially if it meant their lives.

  “What’s wrong?” David asked as he saw worry knot Brian’s forehead.

  “Nothing,” Brian lied. “I’m just concentrating. Keep talking. How did this happen to her?”

  “She was protecting someone.”

  “From what and who was she protecting? She feels like she had quite the reserve of energy available to her; I can feel the emptiness where she stored it. It had to be a big someone.”

  Brian moved his hand back down to her stomach and continued to work. Sweat formed on his brow. Her reserve, the inner storage center of sorts, was cavernous and massive. He felt like he was trying to patch a crack in a massive dam with a piece of chewing gum.

  “She was protecting our son,” David wondered now about his son; he had sent Michael to the beacon first and had yet to check in on him. He prayed that his son had remembered to protect his passenger this time. It wasn’t pretty the last time he had a rider.

  “They were ebon blade assassins, the assassins of Khorynn, I think. It’s been ages since I caught their scent. From the look of the devastation, I would say a couple hundred.” Brian lifted his head out of shock rather than necessity.

  “A couple hundred?!” He exclaimed, the blue glow traversing his body stuttered and then leveled off to an even flow as Brian gathered himself again “That’s unlikely.”

  “Well she was probably out of practice,” David said off-handedly watching the infusion intently; he tried not to notice the wide-eyed expression of his best friend.

  “Out of practice?” A couple hundred assassins of Khorynn as practice? Most shamans can’t handle a typical blade wielder solo, never mind a duo, but a throng of them working in tandem? Just who is she?

  “What is her name, David? You had better tell me the truth, I play poker with you, and I will know if you are bluffing.”

  “Her name is Dyaina, Dyaina Vrastal,” Brian’s face went ashen and his hands shaky. The blue energy dimmed and waned as the man struggled with grasping the reality of who he was trying to heal.

  “The Dyaina Vrastal who was present at the binding of Khorynn?” Brian’s tone spoke of someone who not only didn’t but instead, wouldn’t believe him. David continued anyway.

  “The very same.”

  “But she was destroyed in the battle that ensued from the binding,” Brian said, sounding more like a question than a statement. David looked at him with his now stoic amber eyes, not answering his rhetorical question.

  “
You mean…” the situation hit Brian like a punch in the chest. His voice caught in his throat and swelled to an uncomfortable lump. He swallowed his hesitation and continued.

  “I am trying to save one of the first enchanters of water, the very person my element is named after??” David nodded in response.

  “True, you water shamans weren’t called shamans of Vrastal before she came along; it was so much harder to pronounce.” David smiled weakly as he remembered the old days.

  “She didn’t want the honor of course, but when you are supposed to be dead, it tends to be rather difficult to come back and say no thanks. She helped seal away Khorynn, and for that alone she made tremendously powerful enemies.”

  Brian had so many questions to ask her, he wouldn’t fail. He couldn’t, he modeled his entire life around the stories of her sacrifices, and now she was in front of him fighting for her life. He renewed his infusion with earnest, determined to save the life of what was ultimately his unknowing mentor.

  “So what was Michael doing to attract the assassins?” Brian pulled the conversation back onto the rails of sanity.

  “It wasn’t Michael,” David responded.

  “You said your son-,“ suddenly it dawned on Brian. “You have another son too?” He knew the answer and left the question hanging in the air.

  Brian didn’t rest, the infusion continued as the night drew on.

  5

  William struggled to open his eyes, but he was sure someone had tied his eyelids to his toes. He heard rustling off to his left and felt movement as he became more aware of his surroundings and felt a thin blanket draped over him, it was a little scratchy, possibly wool. He also felt springiness beneath him which he figured to be a mattress of some sort. He tried to move his body, and he froze as he heard muffled voices getting closer. They were a good few yards to his left. He strained to listen to the conversation.