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Sorry for the delay guys!! Ran into unforseen complications. Prepare for a LONG chapter. *reads stuff*

@emma-walker

😮😮 It is not an easy thing to make a cliffhanger that actually gets to me. Good job.

@skylarynn

Wow. Okay. Don’t root for wyverns. Got it.

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Chapter 3

 

Gryphons wheeled in the sky above the burning village, several dropping like the eagles they so resembled. More of the creatures prowled about the ground, their riders having dismounted. Uldorian foot soldiers were scattered thinly throughout, both within and without the burning village which lay below the two children, at the bottom of the slope where they now stood.

Kaleiva’s heart thudded in her ears, and hardly had she had time to register what she was seeing when she saw Culvin begin to run again. Toward the village.

She dove after him, barely managing to snag his arm before he was gone. “Culve!” she shouted as they both fell to the ground. “Culve, no! Don’t go down there!”

Culvin was on his feet in a moment, pulling away from Kaleiva, and leaving her in the dust. “Get back in the trees, Kaley. Get as far away as you can. I’ll find you; just don’t follow me.”

Kaleiva propped herself up on her elbows, and puffed a strand of hair out of her face. Her eyes flashed as she looked up at her brother. “And where are you going?”

Culvin turned away from her as she stood, preparing to run but not ready just yet. “I’m going in.”

Kaleiva grabbed his shoulder, not bothering to brush the dirt from her hands or skirt, and turned her brother so that he faced her once more. “They’ll take you,” she hissed at him, trying to force the panic out of her voice. “Don’t go.” Her voice cracked. “Please.”

Culvin took her face in his calloused hands, then embraced her. “I have to find Mother and Father. And the others. They’ll know what to do. The Dually raiders don’t know we’re here, so that gives us an advantage.” He paused a moment. “If I’m not back by nightfall, get to Ardov. That’s where Grandmother Nurys lives.” Then, before she could object, he pushed away from her and charged down the slope.

Kaleiva pushed her dirty dark-brown hair out of her face and behind one ear, and followed him, staying hidden as best she could.

Hardly was she halfway down the hill when she was enveloped in the cloud of smoke emitting from the village.

Coughing and rubbing her stinging eyes, she kept on.

The smoke grew thicker, and before long, she could hardly see her hand when she waved it in front of her face.

Out of nowhere, a charcoaled structure — likely one of the barns in or near the fields — loomed before her, and Kaleiva ducked aside, dropping to the ground to find her way by touch. By now, she could feel the heat of the flames consuming the village. The earth was black powder, and hot against her skin.

It was then that a strong wind began to blow, chasing away the gray, foul-smelling fog. Coughing and blinking rapidly, Kaleiva stood, finding that she could see, albeit rather blurrily at first.

The azure sky was tinted with a disgusting orange-yellow, and the sun was more red than gold.

Fire crackled to her left, as well as straight ahead, and she found that she could see the flames, smaller than she’d thought they would be, devouring the half of the village furthest from her, the nearer half already having burned itself out.

How long has the fire been going?

Then she heard footsteps. Heavy footsteps. They were accompanied by the metallic clink of armor.

Kaleiva dropped to the ground, rolling against one of the blackened houses.

An Uldorian warrior, his armor encasing his muscular frame as snugly as a glove, strode past her, not so much as glancing her way.

He was followed by four more, two dragging an unconscious Marv man between them, and the other two each lugging a young child. Uncle Jendar, Mendia, Kaldir. . . Kaleiva realized with shock. She lay lower upon the warm earth.

Her heart thudded in her ears until she could hardly hear anything else.

Mendia was barely breathing, as far as she could tell, and Kaldir’s eyes were alarmingly unfocused.

When the five Uldorian raiders and their prisoners had passed, Kaleiva lay still, wondering what she ought to do.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed as she crouched there; she lay in fear, knowing exactly what would happen if she was seen, and was aware of little else.

Suddenly, a hoarse soft cough sounded, and Kaleiva flinched, startled, then mentally screamed at herself for reacting. Then, after several minutes had passed with no sign of either an Uldorian raider or a Chiv Gryphonrider, she realized that the sound couldn’t possibly have belonged to an enemy. It sounded as though it was that of a. . . child?

Slowly, Kaleiva moved to her feet, straightening slowly, and looking around warily. Then, in a quick burst of speed, she ran from her hiding place to the shadow of another building, this one little more than a burnt husk of a farmhouse.

The cough came again. Whoever had made the sound was inside. After a silent few moments of inner debate, Kaleiva slipped inside the charcoaled structure.

The inside wasn’t nearly as charred as she had expected it to be after seeing the outside; patches of recognizable wood still remained, and all at once she realized whose home it was.

It was her own.

The cough sounded again, from behind a fallen beam. Kaleiva, doing her best to quell her nerves, stepped over to it and peered over. There, lying upon the ground, between a fallen beam and the blackened wall, lay Enara.

For a full moment, Kaleiva only stared, forcing herself to comprehend that she really had just found her little sister. Then she heard heavy footsteps outside, accompanied by clanking armor, and knew that she couldn’t hesitate any longer. She grabbed the moaning little girl and held her close, clapping a hand over her mouth, then dodged into the shadows. She waited until the sounds had grown further away, and then leaving her little sister upon the ground, peeked cautiously out of the doorway.

Nothing.

Picking up Enara again, she left the burnt house and ran back through the smoking half of the village, up the slope, and then into the woods. As soon as she reached the trees, Kaleiva bent down and laid her little sister behind an oak’s thick trunk, then turned back toward her village.

Culvin. He might be an idiot, but she couldn’t just leave him. He was her brother.

Kaleiva looked back down at Enara. The little girl was nearly unconscious, but her eyes focused just slightly upon her. “Kal. . . Kaley?” she whispered hoarsely. “Is th. . . that you?”

Kaleiva’s heart felt as though it had snapped in two. “Yes,” she answered softly. “Yes, it’s me.” She looked once again toward her village, then back at her little sister. “I’ll be right back, En.”

Before Enara could protest — or perhaps she was too weak to do so in the first place, and that was why Kaleiva heard nothing — she ran back down the slope, this time taking no care to remain hidden, for she doubted that there was time for that.

Hardly had she ducked into the cluster of burnt houses that had been her home when, from far above, she heard a screech, animalian, neither eagle nor lion, but some hybrid of both.

She dropped to her stomach on pure instinct, and rolled into what little cover the nearest structure could afford. Curling up in the ash and charcoal, Kaleiva looked up at the sky warily.

The smoke rising from the still-burning half of the village had begun to dissipate, revealing the winged menaces overhead more clearly. A shiver ran down her spine as she realized that her chances of finding her brother and getting out again safely were dwindling rapidly.

One gryphon let out a squealing cry and dove, but not at her. Kaleiva looked in the direction the birdlike creature was focused on just in time to see a dirty boy dodge into the shelter of a burnt-out building, but it was too late; he’d been seen by his enemies.

Culvin. Kaleiva was on her feet in a moment, not heeding the fact that her one chance for escape might be slipping away. All she knew, all she wanted to know, was that her twin brother was in danger, and she was the only one left who could help him.

She began to run toward him.

The gryphon’s burly rider leapt out of the saddle as soon as his mount was near enough to the ground, landing easily and running at Culvin. He pulled the boy from his hiding place and when he struggled, slammed his fist into his head to knock him out, then slung him over his shoulder and remounted his gryphon. The animal returned to the sky high overhead.

Kaleiva skidded to a stop. She could feel tears rising, and the pressure of sobs building in her chest. No.

She didn’t notice the rush of wings above her.

Raaaayaak!

Fear flooded Kaleiva as the squealing cry of a different gryphon echoed through the air, and the creature itself swooped down at her from far above, its rider wielding a spear. He thrust it at her with deadly accuracy but she managed to dodge — barely. The gryphon screeched again and dove for her.

Kaleiva didn’t think. She simply acted. Diving for the discarded spear, she pulled it from the ground and whirled around, throwing it at her attacker in a desperate attempt to defend herself.

The Gryphonrider saw the spear coming too late, and as his gryphon beat its wings maniacally, trying to reverse its downward momentum, the weapon embedded itself in the animal’s feathery chest.

The gryphon shrieked, and dropped like a stone, falling to the ground several feet away, dead, its rider pinned beneath it and struggling to free himself.

Kaleiva fled, running for the forest. Halfway up the slope, she stopped and turned to look over her shoulder. No longer could she see Culvin, but she knew that by now, either he was dead or among the prisoners. Fighting back tears, she looked ahead again and continued on.

Enara, after all, could not survive on her own.