Feather

It was night time and for the first time in decades Sephir was not there to torment her. Leylia felt weak which meant Sephir had used up his own reserves and now relied on hers and the forest’s.

She had barely been released from her winged form when her knees buckled beneath her and she fell in a messy heap on the wet shore. In the back recesses of her mind she knew a terrible battle was raging somewhere in the forest and Sephir was at the centre of it.
Suddenly there was a terrible howling of pain and agony from all around her. Naiads had surfaced all across the lake and they were screaming and crying, tugging at their hair. She heard the unmistakable heart rending shrieking of the dryads and many others.

Leylia gathered up energy from she did not where, and shakily stood up. It seemed Sephir had caused much more damage than she had realized over the years; he had drawn on the power of almost every creature in the forest and had thus twisted their minds with dark magic.

I must find him, Leylia thought taking a few shaky steps in Sephir’s direction. If he continues fighting whatever it is he’s fighting not only will he die but so will most of those under his control.

“We’ve found her! Over here!” Leylia turned around tiredly at the sound of jubilant voices. Moon elves surrounded her, most still rich with their natural magic untainted by darker strains. Good old moon elves, she thought. One can always rely on them in the end.

“What took you so long?” she whispered and opened her arms wide to be embraced by a weeping Loushi.

“Lady Leylia,” said a youngster in her twenties at her elbow. Leylia recognized her strong thoughts, from that day when she had first met Kian.

“How may I assist?” Leylia smiled sadly and took the girl’s hand in her own. The girl’s beautiful eyes were haunted and one could see she had been crying.

“I am Yin, healer in training, Lady. Right now, as you’re no doubt aware of, Sephir is fighting his natural enemy, an unsealed dark elf by the name of Kian. I believe you’ve met him before…?”

The smile faded from Leylia’s face and she grabbed the moon elf’s shoulders with both hands to keep herself from collapsing again.

“Unsealed you say?” And when Yin nodded her assent the blood drained from Leylia’s face. “Indeed, it is his natural enemy, I had never given it a thought that he would be the one to end all of this. Silly naïve moon elves! He would do more than end Sephir’s reign! He would be the end of us all!”

“But he said that the seal would burn itself out in a few hours, surely he can’t…”

“A few hours is more than enough to wreak havoc with a transformed body!” And as the full enormity of the situation sunk in, Leylia told the elves to form a circle and to join hands.

“With your permission I need to draw some of your power for what lies ahead if I’m to save us. For a few hours you will be weak and tired; please hide in that time. Seek the dark elves in their forests, explain what is happening and have them spread the word. If this situation does get out of hand we’ll need help from the sorcerers in their cities. You’ll know when it’s safe to return.”

And a few minutes later, static with magic, Leylia flew towards the battlefield of two terrible monsters.

She recognized Sephir immediately, his wings bristling behind him as he fought a creature so terrifying Leylia lost her will for a few seconds and hid herself. What made it so terrifying was not only its hideous jagged appearance, but it’s brute force. It had flattened ancient oaks and pines near it, once mighty beings that had towered over all. The battlefield was now a desolate area marked by fires and more flattened greenery. The destruction was immense and Leylia mourned for all the life that had gone hence.

“Leylia! Get back!” Sephir had noticed her presence and for a moment had turned his back on his opponent. Then suddenly with a brutal roar of mindless rage the monster charged and swung out one massive paw and sent Sephir flying into the night sky and he fell soundlessly into the thick undergrowth hundreds of metres away.

Leylia ignored the urge to find him and save him from this blood lusting monster. Maybe she could save him from further pain but she could not go to him. Never again would she choose the weak way out.

“Kian!” she shouted and the monster stopped in its tracks. Had it recognized the name or merely discovered there was another thing to kill? Another thing to distract it from its pain? Leylia tapped into its thoughts as it turned dark eyes on her. It’s amber pupils were slitted, surrounded by black shadows that raced along its surface.

Pain. And a frightening response to kill. That was all she understood from her very brief race through its mind. More would’ve overloaded her own. She was shivering and sweating when she withdrew from the complex lethal labyrinth that was the creature’s consciousness. Somewhere, somewhere in there was Kian and she had to reach him.

She had to reach him in the ten seconds it would take the monster to reach her. If she even had that long.

She had barely known the dark elf boy, but she knew he had been…she knew he was brave, impulsive but good hearted. Above all he was brave. Was he worth saving? Or should she just end his life here for him before the curse consumed him?

“I hope you’ll forgive me,” she said to the night air.

Kian

Lavi?

You must break free from the darkness, Kian. You can’t hide away in a time like this.

You have no idea what it’s like…I’m not sure who I am anymore.

You are Kian, my closest friend, the kindest and bravest elf I ever knew. You are stronger than this…I had thought that you would be the first to fight against the curse.

I didn’t…I fought…I…

Kian, Kian. There are always different paths to consider…You did not have to become a monster to kill one. Great men harness the power of that which they most abhor and control it. Weak men fall prey to its strength and forget what they were fighting for.

I’m tired, Lavi. Leave me alone. Nothing more can be done…

Where is the Kian I knew? Will my death be in vain? Fight and live for my sake Kian. You still have much to live for…

And in front of Leylia, dimly dusted by the moon’s glow, the monster halted, clutching it’s head in pain and whimpering faintly. It sank to the ground and started to howl.

When she approached it, it growled threateningly but made no move to stop her as she knelt down next to it.

“Sleep now,” she whispered and tugged on the weathered threads of her own magic that still remained.

The monster gave out one final groan trying to fight the spell but it’s form had already begun to dissolve and distort. Leylia drew the small vulnerable form of the dark elf’s closer to her, the boy shivering in the cold, but at least no nightmare fevered beneath his closed lids.

But her mind was elsewhere. In spirit she held the hand of her captor to her heart and wept ghostly tears over the torn and bloody features of her greatest enemy. Sephir stirred, sensed her presence and threw one last bitter smile in her direction.

“Don’t let them find my body,” was all he said as she felt his pulse stutter and die.

~~~~~~~

Braam gently carried Kian’s body to the cave the moon elves had set out for those injured. Half a dozen of them hurried here and there tending to either their own, or to dryads, and other various nymphs that had suffered when Sephir had drained them to fuel the energy needed to fight the unsealed monster.

“Kian!” Yin, stumbled towards them and took over the role of nursemaid which Braam gratefully relinquished into more experienced hands.

As she set him down on a pallet clucking over his wounds and slight fever Braam shuffled his feet uncomfortably and looked at her sidelong.

“Tashayin…” he began but the moon elf looked up crossly.

“Call me Yin, I’ve told you before, any friend of Kian’s is a friend of mine.”

“Alright then…Yin, listen. When I found Kian he was barely conscious. He…he didn’t know
who I was. He didn’t even recognize his own name. I had to give him a sleeping draught so that he would stop upsetting Yosk. Yosk loves him like a brother and it tore him up to see Kian like that.”

Yin was quiet, her braids partially hiding her face from view as she bent over a gash in Kian’s arm.

“Maybe it’s better this way,” she finally whispered and Braam ran wavering fingers through his hair. “Now, the memory of his dead friend will stop plaguing him and so will any guilt he felt he had in her death. But most importantly,” she paused to slip thread into a glinting needle “he won’t remember how that curse ravaged his mind and stripped his sense of self.”

“I hope you’re right,” Braam said then quickly changed the topic, “Have they found that storyteller yet? That Leylia, or whatever she’s called?”

Yin shook her head as she cleansed Kian’s wounds. "I haven't been informed if they have yet or not‒”

“Braam! Yin!” both of them looked up to see Haung waving at them furiously from the entrance of the trees.

“Come quickly! There’s something you HAVE to see!”

“I can’t leave Kian,” Yin darted an anxious look at her patient and then a longing one at Haung where he was joined by those dark elves and moon elves not busy.

“I have a feeling this is something more connected to your tribe than to mine,” Braam said smiling tightly as he knelt down next to Kian. “I’ll stay here with him; I trust you won’t be long.”

“I won’t,” Yin said smiling gratefully and rushing off towards Haung’s retreating figure.

A few seconds later Yosk joined Braam and they both looked down at Kian not really seeing him.

“So,” Braam whispered “Did you see her?”

Yosk looked around to make sure no one was close enough to hear them and then nodded. “It’s kind of ironic: she was a storyteller and her ending was poetic. They can’t find Sephir’s body, did you know that? But there she was, a frozen statue of solid ice clearly bending over someone.”

“Good thing then that we didn’t know her,” Yosk continued after a period of stillness with
only Kian’s ragged breathing at intervals “because I for one am eternally grateful I’m not a moon elf, about to step into that glade.”

“Kian will become friends with us again right? He’s still Kian…” Braam said with sudden vehemence.

“I’m sure of it, deep down he will still be our thick headed, kind Kian,” Yosk smiled reassuringly at Braam. “Hopefully he’ll have a fresh start away from the pain of his brother’s death…from Lavi’s death and this whole curse situation. He deserves it.”

“He’ll heal along with this bloodied sanctuary.” Suddenly Yosk looked down and his fingers alighted upon one single perfect black feather.

“Hey, look. This isn’t from any bird I know,” he said frowning, his expert hunter’s mind scanning over images of all the hundreds of birds he knew.

“Where’d you find that?” Braam asked taking the feather from his friend.

“It was in Kian’s hair…watch out!”

But too late did Braam tighten his fingers around a feather that was no longer there. They watched as the wind swept it away, far out of reach.