Shadow's hunt, part eight
#8 of Shadow's hunt
Here we go, the second to last chapter of Shadow's Hunt. As always, comments are appreciated. Hope you enjoy. * * *
Continued from part seven... For an instant the trio stood frozen, and the orange glow filled their gaze. But then, Shadow reacted faster than Jen had ever seen, pushing her out of the way. A surge of intense heat accompanied the burst of fire flowing from the dragon's open mouth, a heat that caressed her skin, singed her fur, but did not grab hold. Jen landed hard on her side, out of the line of swirling fire, the impact knocking the breath from her lungs. She felt something pop in her side, and a wave of pain forced its way into her body. She knew she had been injured, but injured and alive beat out burnt to a crisp by a wide margin. She managed to force herself to her feet and staggered a few steps towards a clump of fallen boulders that sat near the wall. She couldn't get any further though before her legs gave out with the pain in her side. The pain was like a knife, driving deeper with every breath. She went down to her knees and tried hard to breathe, but each time she tried, the pain lanced into her, making her gasp. A roar sounded behind her and she forced her limbs to move, crawling on all fours towards the boulders. But then, before she had made it halfway, she felt the hot breath of the dragon on her back and she turned over. Its head was poised directly above her and it was opening its mouth to snap her up. She wouldn't even have time to scream before its jaws came down. But it wasn't her time to die yet. The dragon suddenly jerked backward even as its teeth were about to pierce her skin, and its long neck turned back, looking along its body. Jen looked in the same direction and found Hul standing behind it, its silver tail in his arms. His face was bright red, his muscles were bulging, veins standing out as he yanked, pulling the huge creature back from her. It snapped at her, but she was just barely out of reach, its jaws snapping closed within an inch of her fur. Jen used the moments Hul had bought her and shot to her feet, sprinting towards the heavy rocks and giving silent thanks for the minotaur's great strength. The pain in her side blazed with every step, but her fear and adrenalin gave her the strength to carry on with her run. She dodged behind the largest of the boulders and drew in a long, painful breath, drawing hard on the cool air. Her side felt like it was on fire and she touched it gently, wincing as she did so. She had broken at least one of her ribs in the fall and she knew it was better not to move. But a sudden, horrible screeching sound made her sure that she couldn't remain still, and she braced herself against the pain, raising herself up so she could peek over the edge of the rock she was laying against. Hul was slumped against the wall, his imprint outlined in the stone. He had apparently been thrown against it by the tail whipping about, but he was stirring, despite the blood that trailed from his nostrils. The minotaur seemed tougher than he had any right to be, withstanding that which would have killed most people and keeping up the fight. At first, she couldn't see where Shadow had gone to, but there was a pool of black blood on the ground like an oil slick and a few silver scales floated in it. The dragon was weaving back and forth like it was looking for something, and then, a dark shape lunged past it and Jen recognized Shadow, his katana dripping with black. And then the dragon turned and she realized what the screeching sound must have been. It had a gash in its side that was leaking blood all over the floor, but it did not seem badly hurt. If anything, the wound seemed to have only enraged it and it was trying its best to catch the tiger. But Shadow was just too quick, darting here and there too quickly for the great beast to hit. "Hold still you little bastard!!" The dragon shouted as Shadow dodged one of its clumsy clawed hands. The creature roared again as Shadow delivered another slash to it, drawing blood. Another slash and the dragon finally got tired of searching for him. It sucked in a very deep breath and then breathed out, fire filling the space around it as it reflected off the walls. Shadow leapt up high, avoiding the fire that swirled around like a mist, but in so doing, he opened himself to the flailing wing membrane of the dragon. The wing caught him in the chest, tossing him against the wall. But Shadow was ready for the move. Without missing a beat, he landed a dozen feet from the floor against the wall in a crouch and launched himself backward, arcing in a flip and landing on the shoulders of the dragon. The large creature whipped its head around, trying to get at him, but it couldn't reach. Shadow began to strike again and again with his blades, carving into the dragon. It roared in pain and then flipped over onto its back suddenly, trying to crush the tiger, but he was again a little too swift for it. Shadow rolled free and came to his feet against the wall a moment later. But, as the dragon came up to its feet, Hul reentered the fight, bellowing loudly. The dragon turned its head just in time to find Hul's hammer descending against its side. But, for all of Hul's great strength, for all the force the hammer carried, an enchanted rune blade it was not. The hammer rebounded off its scaled hide with no discernable damage to the scales, but the dragon roared and flinched away from the blow. At the same moment, Shadow slashed at its other side, the enchanted blade passing through its scales like butter. Jen briefly considered just slumping down behind the rock and letting her wound rest, but the fight wasn't as one sided as it had first seemed. The dragon was barely injured at all, and although it seemed to be bleeding an awful lot, it had plenty of blood to spare. And now it was mad. The dragon thrashed around wildly in rage, trying its best to slay the warriors who were harassing it, and its claws were getting close to catching them. Jen knew her blades weren't going to do much against that hide, and she fervently wished she had managed to hold onto her bow, but she had lost it somewhere between the first gout of flame and her sprint to the boulders. She still had most of her arrows, the quiver holding them in place well, and she scanned the battleground for her weapon. And there, near to the dragon's tail, she spotted it, and miraculously, it was still intact. She gathered herself for a sprint, but, as she shifted so she could run, her body betrayed her. As she tensed to sprint, her side exploded with horrible pain. She crumpled as her body protested to her motion and she fell against the stone, her face contorted by pain. As she slumped to the stone, Shadow's eyes met hers and in an instant, she knew that he knew what she had intended. And, moments later, Shadow was in motion again, diving around its thrashing tail. One of its legs nearly snapped the bow like a twig when it lunged for Hul, catching the minotaur around his waist with a clawed hand, and then Shadow was there. He snatched up the bow and threw it towards her with a swift motion. She tried to catch it, but she was distracted by the sight of the dragon's tail finally catching him, striking him square in the back. Shadow folded with the impact, flying end over end through the air and landing on the floor meters away. It looked to have been only a glancing impact, but still, he wasn't moving... Without her attention on the task at hand, the bow fell out of her reach, far enough away that she would have to move to get it, and in her current state, she didn't think she could manage it. But before she could make a decision either way, Hul bellowed in rage and swung his hammer hard, catching the dragon on the forehead as it came down to devour him. The dragon released him instantly, reeling backward from the blow. Hul moved in quickly, striking again and again with his hammer, driving the dragon back. Jen looked at the fallen form of the tiger as he lay on the stone floor, and then her gaze was drawn back to Hul. The minotaur's chest was red with blood, and he was weaving back and forth drunkenly, but despite every injury he had sustained, he was still fighting. A new feeling filled her, a feeling of utmost determination. If Hul could fight on after all that had happened to him, then she could do no less. Taking a deep shaking breath, she prepared for the pain and crawled quickly towards her bow. When she reached the weapon, she took it up and turned, drawing herself up as straight as she could. Hul was battling the dragon with all his strength and the creature was thrashing back and forth, trying to get at the minotaur while he pummeled it's wounded flesh with fist and hammer blows. Jen knew that her bow would not pierce the creature's scaly hide, and even if it could, her arrows would not do much damage to a creature of that size. It would be like trying to kill someone by stabbing them with needles. But, she reminded herself that even needles could be lethal if they hit the right spot. But the one and only spot that her arrows could possibly do any good was the dragon's black eyes. But with the dragon thrashing around like that, the shot was impossible; it would take nothing short of a miracle to hit her target. She despaired for a moment and then, a second later, she remembered something her tutor had said, when she was learning to fight back in the village. The man who had taught her in the use of the bow had been a matchless archer, never once missing his target. He had told her once that there was no such thing as an impossible shot; all it took was the proper focus. Putting her doubts aside, she knelt on one knee and turned her bow to the side. One impossible shot would be hard enough without trying to duplicate it. So she removed a pair of arrows from her quiver, laying them side by side on the bow, separated by one of her fingers. But she did not draw the string back, did not sight on the dragon. Instead, she took everything coming into her mind and discarded things one by one. The pain in her side, the roars of the dragon, her fears for Shadow; none of it was important in that instant, and all were banished out of her attentions. All her mind became focused on her target, the baleful black jewels that were the dragon's eyes. They were her whole world, her whole existence. She let her hands drift as she had been taught, let them take aim for her. Her mind would guide her better than her eyes. She ceased being the archer holding the bow. Her eyes narrowed, her attention becoming finer, sliding along the shaft of the arrows towards her target. She felt the shape of her arrows in her mind, knew every grain of the wood, every feather in the fletching. Her focus became even finer, her knowledge of the arrows increasing. She could feel the razor's edge of the arrowheads, and, in the instant that she saw the points in her mind, her hand loosed the bowshot. The moment the arrows left her bow, the world came flooding back, agony exploding in her side and she cried out in pain, but she traced the arrows on their path through the air with her eyes. The dragon had trapped Hul in its claws once more and its head was coming down swiftly to bite him. Time slowed down as it came down and she watched as the arrows spiraled through the air. The path her arrows were taking through the air seemed like they would miss their targets, but, at the last moment, the dragon looked right towards her. And then, suddenly, time returned to its normal flow and everything came flooding back. The dragon was roaring loudly in agony, its head thrashing around, black blood spraying everywhere. And then, she caught sight of what had happened. Against all odds, she had pulled it off. Her arrows were buried up to their fletching into the dragon's skull, gouts of black blood spraying everywhere as the dragon writhed in its death throes. Hul was suddenly freed by one of its convulsions and he stumbled over to her side, narrowly avoiding one of the flailing clawed hands. The pair watched the dying dragon for a moment before both turned back to where Shadow was laying. The tiger was starting to come around, stirring as they knelt by him. "Are you alright?" Hul asked, wincing as he got down on one knee. "I'm okay," Shadow replied, shaking his head as if to clear it. "I think. Did you get him?" "Jen did." Hul replied, using his hammer to push himself back up to his feet. Both Jen and Hul lent Shadow a hand and worked together to help him up, both of them wincing in pain as they did so. When the tiger was on his feet, he stood bent over slightly, one hand on his back where the dragon's tail had hit him, wincing. He tried to straighten up, but a loud pop sounded from his back and he stopped, remaining bent. Jen held a hand to her injured side, the other one holding her bow at her side. Hul was trying to staunch the bleeding from his nose by pinching above his nostrils, and he had picked up a limp somewhere in the fight. All together, the trio were battered, bruised and in pain. For a moment, they stood together looking at the dead dragon, a silver pile of scales and black blood. Shadow looked at the arrows sticking from the dragon's eyes and he managed a smile, looking at Jen. "Incredible shot Jen." He said, then he turned and looked at the pristine glittering jewel that sat on its plinth and he grimaced. Though the stone around it had been stained black by the blood, no blood had touched the gem. "I hope that was it. I don't think we can survive another one." The tiger approached the plinth again, moving slowly, wincing at each step. Jen and Hul followed him, looking at the jewel with trepidation. "Now, how do you suppose one gets the jewel from where it rests?" "Maybe this hollow has something to do with it." Hul stated, tapping the spot he had discovered with a finger, leaving a bloody mark on the stone. Shadow nodded and bent over, blowing dust from the spot and feeling it with his finger. "Feels like something is engraved here." He said, again speaking almost to himself. Jen looked at the hollow and cocked her head to the side. There was indeed a symbol engraved inside the small hollow, a symbol that was so familiar to her... And then she realized what it was. It was the symbol engraved by tradition into every building of her village since it had been founded. It was also the symbol that emblazoned the charm that Cyr had worn all his life. Shadow appeared to have the same idea. He reached into the neck of his tunic and removed the small black charm from around his neck. The black stone had the same symbol standing out from its surface, perfect and unblemished, though it had been passed down within his family for many generations. He smiled, brushing the symbol with his thumb. Then, he tugged the cord from the stone and discarded it before setting the stone into the hollow. It sealed perfectly to the plinth, as if it had always been a part of it. The only trace that remained of the stone was the hole through which the cord had passed. The moment the two became one, a wave of light flashed over the gem and the plinth and Shadow reached out slowly. And this time, when his hand touched the stone, it slid along its surface instead of passing through as it had before. He took the stone in hand, lifting it from the plinth where it had rested for so long. "Its incredible." He said, his eyes sparkling with power and wonder. "I can feel its power through my fingers. I can't begin to imagine who could have been powerful enough to make something like this." "Can we get on with this?" Jen asked. "I want to get out of this cave and this valley." "Good plan." Shadow replied, tucking the stone into a pouch at his side. The trio made their way slowly from the cave and back out into the sunlight. Once they were all seated on the logs of their former camp outside the valley, the stars out above them in the sky, Shadow rummaged in his pack until he came out with a cloth wrapped bundle. Jen watched him curiously as he unrolled it on the ground, revealing various vials of potions, held to the cloth by strips of leather. The tiger removed three small vials that appeared to be filled with nothing but water and then re-rolled the bundle. He then reached into a pouch and carefully took out a packet that looked like parchment paper. And before Jen could wonder what was going on, he had torn the top off the packet and poured its contents more or less equally into the vials. The solution within turned bright scarlet and Shadow swallowed one vials worth, waiting only until the solution had settled a bit. When he had swallowed, he offered the other two to Jen and Hul. "It's a healing potion." Hul stated, speaking for Jen's benefit. He took the one he was offered and swallowed it all in one gulp as Shadow had done. Jen shrugged and took hers as well. She tipped the vial into her mouth and nearly gagged. The fluid contained within was horribly bitter, but she forced herself to swallow it anyway. It burned all the way down and, though she expected to feel better immediately afterward, there was no change whatsoever. "These potions take a while to work." Shadow said, wincing as he tried to straighten up. "By dawn, our wounds will be gone." "If these potions take so long, shouldn't you drink the Breath of Life soon?" She asked and Shadow shook his head. "The problem with most healing potions is that they take so damn long to work." Hul said, answering for the tiger. "As long as the wounds won't kill you before it takes effect, they can heal anything, but therein lies the problem." "But the Breath of Life is different." Shadow continued. "It works instantly and even the most grievous of wounds are healed by it. It is one of the reasons that it is so valuable. But, I don't want to chance the effect being diminished by wounds, so we will wait." The trio fell silent and stared up for a while, resting their injuries. After about an hour had passed in silence, Jen spoke, her mind filled with the events of the day. "I still can't understand how we got into the cave." Jen said. "I keep going over it in my head and It doesn't make any sense." "Well, if you recall, the inscription on the door read 'When the hidden blood of the master of war is spilled within, the way forward will open and the soul render be loosed.'" Shadow stated and Jen nodded. "Well, 'the Master of War' is another name for Moontiger, one given to him by his followers." "Wait, wait, wait." Jen said, holding up a hand. "You are descended from Moontiger?" "Yes, but it goes deeper than that." He said. "Do you remember how I told you that the day we were separated, I fought the brigands to a stand still even though I didn't have any warrior training? Well, when the moontigers rescued me, they said that they had hoped that I would come with them. That bothered me for years, but I didn't find out what they meant until after the blood trials. I had just finished healing from the wounds I had gotten in them when Master Nethis came to me at night, telling me to follow him. He took me to a shrine outside the walls of the academy. It was a place where a statue of Moontiger stood, a shrine to the great warrior himself. To my great surprise, the face on the statue looked a lot like the face I saw in the mirror. Then Master Nethis told me that before Moontiger did not die at the academy after having trained three generations of the greatest warriors in history, as many believe. In fact, he vanished to the west saying that one day he would return. He never returned. It seems that he had fallen in love and he founded our village so his descendants could live in peace, so that they were not born to the life he had lived. The necklace that allowed me to retrieve the gem was his, passed down through the generations of my family. But I am unique of all that have born his blood over the many generations. I am not just one of his descendants, I am Moontiger reincarnated." As they had been talking, the sky had begun to lighten, and then, when the sun lifted above the rim of the world, Jen realized that her body did not hurt anymore. The sting of the wounds inflicted by her dark twin and the burning of her broken rib had faded while they had been talking. Shadow smiled at the sun and stood, straightening up slowly. He stretched, and finding himself whole and well once more, he sighed, reaching into the pouches at his belt. With one hand, he took the small vial of potion from its resting place, and the jewel in the other. But he did not drink the potion yet. Instead, he looked at Hul and the huge minotaur nodded. Then the tiger held the jewel out to Jen and she looked at him in horror, knowing what he intended. "I can feel it within the stone," He said, looking at her steadily. "I cannot use it on myself." "No." she replied, looking pleadingly at Hul and then back at Shadow. "No. I will not do something that could kill you. I just got you back and I won't be the one to take you from me again. Not now." "Jen, you have to do it." Hul said. "I can't wield the stone, for there is no magic within the Minotaurs. It was a consequence of breaking the dragon's oppressive powers in the war of the dragons. Dorian the Strong was able to free himself from the dragons only because their magic could find no hold on him after he relinquished it. Because of that choice, while most other beings have enough magic to use it, we do not." Jen shook her head once more, looking into the eyes of the man she loved. His emerald eyes held a look of such weariness and hope that she felt her resistance beginning to give. He longed to be separate from his friend, longed to be whole again. Both of them did. At last, with a trembling hand, she took the gem from Shadow's hand. Even as her fingertips touched it, she could feel the vast power within it, so vast a power that understood at last what the stone was capable of. Shadow nodded and then unsealed the vial, quickly drinking the golden fluid contained within. He swallowed, and a golden light suddenly flooded out from him, outlining every hair with brilliant gold. And then he nodded to her. She grimaced and instinctually took hold of the stone's power, bringing it to bare on the tiger before her. Bright tendrils of many-colored light came from the stone, wrapping themselves around the tiger. "Whatever happens Jen," He said, his voice sounding strange under the influence of the power that wrapped about him. "I want you to remember, I love you. I always have. Thank you." And then, the light surrounding him grew brighter and brighter until Jen was forced to shield her eyes...