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"Soon
we will find Lindel. She will have another cure,
I'm sure of it."
"I srongly doubt it Alyra. I will be blind
forever now. I will never be able to finish my
part in you'r mission." His voice filled
with dispair. "We will not have the final
link to save the magic that is our world."
He burried his head in his hands.
"Don't talk like that Daykin. She will have
another cure. She has to. It is what she does,
heal things."
His voice was muffled by his hands. He chanted
the healer woman's words. "When the night is
starless and the moon shines blue, If the hart of
white gives it's trust to you, then make the wish
for the amulet of true sight, it is your last
chance to regain sight. Then she gave a warning.
You must not fail or you will never see. The
world will be lost, lost into the void of
magicless dark. Then she looked at me Alyra, I
could feel it. She told me..."
Then he lept up.
"What is it?"
"She said that from the ashes, the cure can
be reclaimed! I have a chance!" Then he
began to run back to the place of the
destruction.
"Daykin, come back!" Alyra called after
him. As usual, he payed no attention. Her
companion's sightless silver eyes stared ahead at
a far distant point as he stumbled down the
hillside. He finally reached the smoldering
rubble that had been the small cottage. He began
to sift through the hopless rubble for the one
thing that could restore sight to his eyes. It
was when he had his back turned to the forest
that the dark man who had been hunting them
materialized from the forest.
Alyra was seized with the cold terror that always
accompanied the appearence of the man for her. It
threatened to choke her as she tried to scream a
warning to Daykin. All that came from her lips
was a strangled gasp.
Daykin never heard her. The man stood behind him
and cleared his throat, almost formally. Daykin
turned. The man forced Daykin to his knees with
the point of his sword. Daykin knelt in total
silence. His pride would not let him cry out for
help.
Alyra tried to run to him, but she couldnt move.
She wanted to knock the blade from the mans hand,
to force him to run away, but all movement was
denid her.
The hunter laughed. A cold cruel sound that spoke
of the love of blood, of killing, of pain. Then
he moved his long thin blade to Daykin's chest.
With one smooth motion, the hunter thrust his
sword through Daykin's heart. The blade emerged
from Daykin's back. The silver eyed boy gave a
cry of pain. The man tilted his sword. Daykin's
body slid from the the blade and crumpled on the
ground. Deep red blood stained the white tunic.
The man turned to Alyra for a moment. His icey
eyes peirced her for a moment before he turned
away and dissapeared into the forest from whence
he had come.
Alyra ran to the side of her freind. He lay in a
pool of his own blood. His unbroken silver eyes
stared up at nothing.
He did not breath.
His heart did not beat.
Daykin Moonseeker was dead.
Alyra stood over him for a moment, shocked beyond
anything. Then the pain erupted in her. Her
companion, dead. He had saved her life countless
times, and she his. They had been together
through everything, and now he was gone. Her
blood heated and boiled. She threw back her head.
A howl of aunguish ripped from the very soul of
her being. The cry promised vengence and
suffering to the killer of her bonded freind.
From deep in the forest, the hunter heard the cry
and felt deep fear. He began to run, but even as
he did he knew his days were numbered.
The figure that huddled by the body of Daykin was
no longer simply Alyra. It was full of pain and
hatred. For the first time, her eyes gitered with
cold black fury, any trace of gold was gone from
them. A single tear fell. The night fell silent
as Alyra shed her human form in exchange for the
body of a black wolf with black eyes.
"It is time to go hunting" she growled
as she stalked away into the night. |
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