“If that’s only the second one to be killed and it’s that big, what the heck are we going to face next?” Kajn asked, looking at the giant elemental’s remains.
“Don’t muck about just build me a fire so we can melt some snow to pour on this thing. Remember we haven’t destroyed it yet.” Vanor walked over to the remains and poured a large canteen of water over what was left of the clay-coloured pieces of the elemental. She realised she had underestimated the size of the creature but she could work with that.
The grey was definitely dead and her pack was strewn about on the snow. While the snow was melting in the cook pot she stowed her gear in her backpack and walked back to the fire.
“Looks like this will be a little harder than we thought,” Kajn said as she approached the fire.
“Yeah, but only fire and wind to get through, should be easy enough if we keep our heads,” she said with a rueful grin. “The grey’s gone so looks like we’ll be walking for a while.”
Kajn looked thoughtful for a moment and then replied, “There’s a village not far away, we could get another horse there.”
“Sounds fine to me, as soon as we’ve completely destroyed this creature we’ll head there.”
They could smell the smoke long before they got there. They had passed two farms so far that were burnt to the ground complete with all animals and humans. It was as if a great forest fire in the heat of its flame just rolled down to the farms and devoured all before it; only a path remained of burnt blackened earth devoid of any life. They had followed that path to the town and it was still blazing with a wind accompanying it that pushed the fire quicker and with more ferocity than either had ever seen.
“Looks like the last two have joined forces,” Kajn murmured to Vanor. Vanor was not really listening but entranced by the fire on the roof of the inn. It seemed to be a different colour and shade to a normal fire. The roof at that moment caved in and then the fire elemental stood up as Vanor gasped. It was the height of a three-storey building with red skin and flame-coloured eyes. It had hair of grey smoke and vivid flame that floated in the strong wind. It seemed to be preoccupied with something screaming within the inn and had not noticed Vanor or Kajn yet.
“Keep an eye out for me for the other elemental while I see what I can do with the fire,” Vanor whispered to Kajn, although the noise from the flames, falling timbers and screams from the few remaining villagers would have drowned out normal speech.
The Old Man had enchanted her weapon and armour but she was not sure if it would work with such an opponent. As the fire elemental was busy with its back to her, devouring something within the inn, she decided to at least try. The outer stairs were mainly intact and she raced up them to get to the roof. Flipping herself onto the roof from the railing, she meandered through the fire to the edge of the fallen timbers, and looked down to the crouched fiery form that was playing with a burning human screaming in terror.
She prayed that the enchantment would work on her armour as she decided to leap onto the back of the elemental with sword drawn above her. It seemed to take forever to reach down to its back, but within a moment she realised that it had noticed her, and turned swiping her with one sweep of its flame-enshrouded arm into what was left of the barn wall. Her trousers and shirt were on fire and she quickly rolled to put it out holding her sword close to her. The elemental came towards her and picking her up like a feather examined this small “insignificant”human who dared to defy it.
Vanor’s clothes were on fire again and she felt a deep burning pain in her back. But she ignored the pain and with one powerful sweep of her sword amputated the two fingers of flame that were holding her, and fell amidst flame and ash to the floor. She rolled as she landed putting out the flames on her singed hair and clothes. Now she was angry. “These were my best work gear!” she yelled at the bellowing elemental. She needed to get out of the inn quickly as it was starting to fall apart. She raced to the door passing the dead human who was now burnt beyond recognition. Kajn was yelling at her but the strong wind ... now she realised the wind elemental was here. She had an idea.
Watching Kajn battle the tornado with a sword almost made her laugh but she realised she must act soon. The inn made one last groan and collapsed as the fire elemental followed her out as she backed up to Kajn. “When I yell ‘now’ dive to the ground,” she screamed at Kajn over the noise of the wind.
She leapt out towards the fire elemental and attacked with such strength and power that it even surprised her, but she was desperate and this was her only chance. This human was ducking, weaving and slicing and it stung when it hit. Nekvar had always been in control and this puny female was hurting him. He, with the power of the gods, had always given fear to humans and yet this slight of a girl was giving pain.
“I must destroy her,” he determined, as his rage overtook him and he became engulfed in flame. Vanor stepped back from the heat and hit again forcing the elemental to fight back. Ducking, rolling and weaving away from those fire-starting hands, she moved with a swiftness caused by desperation. The elemental did not notice that Vanor was moving it closer and closer to Kajn. With a quick thrust to its midriff that evoked a satisfying roar of flame, Vanor was back to back with Kajn.
The fire elemental charged in rage at Vanor, wanting to get rid of this pesky human who could hurt so much. It had never been hurt before and it did not like it one bit. “Now, Kajn, now!” Vanor yelled above the roar of the wind and the crackling of the flames. Nekvar was surprised when the puny human grovelled at his feet but then realised his mistake. His sweeping arm had gone through the wind elemental and then he felt pain so unbearable. And then nothing.
Kajn and Vanor had to cover their ears when the explosion rocked the earth and cracked the air. They both tentatively looked up, let out a whoop of delight and gave each other a gleeful hug. “We did it! We did it!” they cried as they were showered in ash, soot and dust.
“Ow, Ow, Ow,” Vanor whimpered as Kajn let go of her. Her adrenalin had slowed down and now her body was giving a very large protest of pain.
“You’re hurt,” Kajn, looking concerned, stared at Vanor. Her hair was badly singed and her clothes were in tatters, so much so that only her chain mail was intact, although even that was blackened and dented.
She had a very deep burn down one arm and across her shoulder and as Kajn laid her down on the ground she started to shake all over. “This was a good plan wasn’t it?” she laughed. Kajn now knew what to do and asked her to rest. He lay down beside her holding her in his arms and prayed that he could help.
The world turned white and Vanor lay at his feet. He gently picked her up and carried her to the temple. The steps leading up were steeper than he remembered and he stumbled on a step but kept his hold on Vanor. When he reached the top step he was met by the tallest light being and without a word the being guided him to the altar. He was asked to say “goodbye” and with much effort reached out and said, “Goodbye for now, Vanor. I love you.”
He stopped at the top of the temple and looking around to try and stop the tears from falling, he noticed huge different-coloured gems cut into the top of the temple windows. Each gave a different beam of light that started to move towards Vanor and then a giant force pushed him out of the temple and the world turned white again. “Damn, I wanted to watch that,” he mumbled.
Reaching up to the black to get his water flask, Kajn heard Vanor moan. He raced back to the clearing where he had laid her down to rest and found her sitting up holding her head. “Are you okay, Van love?” Vanor turned to him and he stepped back as her eyes had turned into purple flames. She looked confused but replied, “Just on a high, but I’ll settle in a moment. What’s the matter with you?”
“Ummm, your eyes are purple. Oh but they’re returning to normal