Loss of a Faithful Girl

Chapter2: Light My Strength

I turn to face Gary and Elrik with a tear running down my eye and nod in agreement to start our journey.

"Finally," Gary starts unrolling the paper his holding "This is the map of the Mocrat Forest that I took from the church." Gary inspects the map for a few seconds and then looks at us. "The trails around these woods are confusing, but I see a clear path out of the forest toward Prospero."

"Gary should be able to take care of the monsters that inhabit the forest." Elrik points out. "He deals with them on a daily basis as they try to attack town from time to time. However I fear that the leader of the wolfazes, Raltz, could be in this forest."

"Wait." I begin to worry and want to ask a few questions. "How do you know that the monsters are being led by another one? And will we face their leader as we go into the forest?"

"Well," Elrik tries to address the questions fast to avoid wasting any more time. "I am not sure for certain, but studying the behavior of wolfazes (wolf like creatures) they usually tend to seek food for their leader, like bees for example."

"Let's stop the chatter and get moving." Gary starts to march towards the entrance of the forest. "The later it gets, the sooner night will fall on us. The last thing we want to do is camp in the middle of a forest full wolfazes."

After our discussion, we proceeded into the Mocrat Forest. (Gary and Elrik join the party)

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MOCRAT FOREST

The forest is surrounded with tall green trees all around us. There is a trail of paw prints on the muddy floor. The last attack from the wolfazes was a few days ago in a rainy day, but Gary had stopped them and chased after them into the forest and came back about an hour later, saying that he had lost his way around and was lucky to be out. The forest doesn't have a defined dirt road for travelers' which makes the trail around it much harder to figure out. The only tool that we have that can get us out of this forest is Gary's map.

"Alright, let us not waste anymore time and get this started." Gary said, leading in front, as me and Elrik follow right behind him.

We stroll around the forest following Gary and hoping he is going the right way and suddenly we reach a valley. Gary stops and straightens out his arm to his right, signaling for me and Elrik to stop and not move any further.

I am confused to why the sudden stop, since we have to get out of the forest before nightfall. "Why are we stopping? What happened?" I blurt out loud.

Gary suddenly turns around and stares at me. "SHHH." Gary said in a whispering voice. He points at the bottom of the valley. There is a pack full of wolfazes sleeping.

I go into shock and suddenly I am being touched on the shoulder by Elrik and nods at me trying to say everything is going to be ok. I look over at Gary and he moves his arm directing us how we will get around the wolfazes and in the end pointing at a bridge. So we start moving with caution around the valley to reach the bridge and across it as quickly as we can go without making any noise; trying to stay close Gary.

We arrive at the bridge and we notice a wolfaze is sleeping at the other end. Gary stops and tries to figure out what we could do to get across without alerting the presence of the beast.

"We can't get across this bridge without alerting the wolfaze." Gary whispers with a cautious voice. "There is no way around it according to the map; we have to engage them in battle as soon at they wake up. The only problem is that the wolfaze will alert the others as soon as we try to go near it. They can detect enemies in their sleep; and well… you get the picture."

As Gary was trying to figure out the upcoming battle, the wolfaze wakes up and notice our presence and as he gets to his feet he starts to growl. The wolfaze lets out a howl to wake up the rest of the pack to alert them about the intruders. We are in shock and in surprise that I start to look down into the valley and find that all the beasts are walking and taking aim at us with their vicious eyes. They stare at us, possibly imagining the different ways they are going to eat us up.

There is no way out, we are in trouble and Gary needs to come up with something fast or we will die. Suddenly Gary yelled out loud "FOLLOW ME!" and immediately starts running towards the end of the bridge, where the wolfaze that alerted everyone is aiming at us and ready to attack. "Make sure you don't look back L.E., for that second if you they will make a meal out of you." Elrik said to warn me.

We all make haste across the bridge running with all the stamina that we have. The wolfaze starts to sprint towards us and the pack at the bottom of the valley try to get themselves to the top and attack us from behind. To avoid flanking we rush to the wolfaze waiting for us at the end of the bridge. Gary jumps into the air and spreads his arms out like a bird. Energy gathers around Gary with a red symbol in front of him and suddenly yells out "FIRE." The energy channels through the symbol and a ball of fire is shot at the wolfaze. Gary lands on his feet past the wolfaze and the ball of fire starts to burn up the beast and killing it. Me and Elrik jump pass the dead wolfaze and try to catch up to Gary and continue running passing through the bridge. As soon as we get across the bridge Gary said: "Keep running. I will catch up with guys later." The rest of the pack of wolfaze keep coming and are now sprinting across the bridge. Gary charges up again for another spells and yells out "Fire" as me and Elrik keep run further into the forest.

Elrik and I run for five minutes before we stop. We have no idea where we are and just completely exhausted. Elrik starts to look around to see if he can find a way out of the forest while the sun starts to set.

"We are almost out of this forest." Elrik starts to talk for the first time after the attack at the bridge and is now trying to take the lead. "You know, although I might not have the map, I did get chance to study it back in the church, just in case something was to happen like right now. I think we just have to make a few more turns and we will be out before night settles in. I am sure Gary will be fine and I trust him; is it best that we leave now and reunite with him at Prospero." Elrik said in a confident voice and gave a cheery smile that made me feel comfortable and at ease. We begin to walk once again through the rest of the forest at Elrik's side. (Gary leaves the party)

Half an hour later we finally reach the exit of the forest and sit to relax for a few minutes as soon as we see the open field. "Well L.E., we are finally out of that forest, I hope Gary is safe." Elrik said in a concerned voice, hoping that his partner in crime is not dead. "Alright, Prospero is that town right over there." Elrik points at some houses that have their light on; to the north of our position. "We are close, let's move."

"Ok." I reply with a tired voice in agreement.

We take a few steps into the meadow and we hear a big growl from within the forest. Me and Elrik look back into the woods worrying if Gary is safe. As we turn around to keep moving towards Prospero we see a corpse flung in front of us. I am scared out of my mind and rush to inspect the corpse, but it was only the body of a peasant. Elrik immediately turns around, in relieve is not the body of Gary, and see the wolfaze pack leader, Raltz.

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BOSS FIGHT: RALTZ

Raltz is at least double our size and it is the most terrifying thing I have ever seen. His sharp teeth full of hunger and grey fur all around him. His eyes pinned at us and ready to attack at the slightest move we make.

"Alright L.E., everything is going to be ok." Elrik said the calmest voice for this bad situation. "All I need you to do is shoot an arrow right at his eyes."

"Are you crazy?" I exclaim while trying to keep my voice low. "What makes you think I am good at aiming, I only do archery as a hobby… you want too much from me."

"Well, if you don't at least try we will die right now. So the choice is yours. I will distract him while you make the greatest shot of your life"

"I don't know about this…"

"It doesn't matter now, ready?"

"No…"

"GO." Elrik yelled out loud to get the attention of Raltz.

The wolfaze goes straight to Elrik, sprinting at full speed. Is this priest demented? How can he just recklessly do this and now he is going to get himself killed and then that monster is going after me.

I am in shock and just stand here thinking that my journey is over and because I am going die. Why me? Why did you send me on this death sentence Noah? Don't you care about your daughter?

While being in thought, Elrik manages himself quite good against Raltz. He casts his spells with white symbols, probably from the healing side of magik; after all he is a priest. However there is an athletic side to Elrik. The way he dodges the beast, while jumping so graceful in the air, to avoid getting bitten. There is more to this man that meets the eye.

I decide to get my act together and defeat Raltz so we can reach Prospero. I go into my backpack and pull a wooden arrow. I reach for my bow on the side of my belt and set myself up to make the shot. I line up my arrow with my bow and pull the string back while holding the end of the arrow and keeping my position.

"Elrik!" I start yelling at the top of my lungs to get his attention to let him know that I am ready. "Let's do this!"

"Good job L.E., I knew you had in it you"

"Bring him here and we'll settle this."

"You got it."

I notice Elrik trying to sprint towards me, being followed by Raltz right behind him. While making his way towards me I take aim at the monster that is trying to make a meal out of us.

Elrik passes by me and whispers in my ear "Good luck" and now I have a clear shot at the wolfaze. I let go of the string and the arrow flies towards Raltz.

The lapse of time that takes for the arrow to hit the beast was intense. I put all my hope into that shot and wish we will make out alive. The shot lands in the beast, but it lands in his forehead, which just bounces off from him and making Raltz continue on his pursuit for me and Elrik.

Time stops for me and I wonder to myself why. Will this be my end? Why here? Why now? I see this beast coming towards me and I just kneel with my head down looking at the grass. My hands grip into the ground and I say to myself: Is all over… this is how my journey ends…

Chapter 2: End

A/N: This is NOT the final chapter of this story. It ends in a very tight spot where L.E. doesn't know what else to do and just breaks down. How does she live? Well you have to wait for the next chapter to find out P

P.S. plz post reviews of this story, this is my first fic and want to know how its going.