Tranquil Fury by P.G. Thomas Page A

his cloak, a wagon stood in front of him. He ran inside, “Quick gather our stuff, load the wagon, we need to… ” Mirtza saw Ryan and Zack standing, “What happened here?”
    “We thought you brought the healers by last night. Zack and Ryan both got up this morning after being healed,” Eric said.
    Mirtza’s tone conveyed the new sense of urgency, “I was not here last night. We do not have time to discuss this right now. Gather everything important and load the wagon, NOW! Where is Lauren?”
    As Eric started to gather the chests, he pointed, “She has been camping on the far side of the forest.”
    Mirtza headed off into the dead forest, “I will go get her, WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW.” He went through the forest yelling out Lauren’s name, until she answered him, and he followed the sound of her voice, and then saw the sunlight from the ripped tarp. He walked up to the rip, pulled out a knife, tried to cut the tarp, but his knife would not pierce the fabric, it was magic, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”
    Lauren was startled, “It was raining. I wanted to clean myself, I was upset, and so I hit the thing with a dead tree. It ripped. Don’t get so excited.”
    This is what I heard, this is why riders come, they don’t know what or who they are looking for, but they know something is up. You don’t go to all of this effort, and just let somebody destroy it, “ Get to the wagon, we have to get out of here, NOW!”
     “I don’t—”
     “What have you done? This.” Mirtza grabbed the torn tarp, “Because of this, riders come, riders that I do not wish to meet. MOVE! GET TO THE WAGON NOW!”
    Lauren grabbed her pouch and tri-wood staff, and headed to the wagon. He reached for the staff, but Lauren pulled it back, “Impure Trickster, please does naught touch which does belong to me.” Her pupils were dilated wide open, the iris, nothing more than a small coral ring that contained her large black orbs. She stepped closer to Mirtza, “Does thou understand?” Lauren was not yelling, but her voice seemed different, authoritative.
     The surprise and shock registered on Mirtza’s face; her eyes, voice, and words. It was as if he was talking to a different person. Trickster was a term he had heard before at school, had heard how the elves did not consider the magic students to have talent, that their magic was impure. How would Lauren know that? When Mirtza got to the wagon, everything was loaded, Eric was helping Ryan navigate the ditch, and the other three stood, looking at the dust cloud headed towards them. “They use magic, they travel too fast.” Mirtza reached into his cloak, pulled out the multi-horse amulet, added the fourth, threw it to the ground, and waved his cloak over it. Four horse-like creatures, each with eight legs in a wagon harness stood before them.
    “Dude, do those horses have eight legs,” asked Zack?
    As Mirtza hitched the harness to the wagon, he commanded, “Get in now, and hang on.” The boys got in the back, Lauren in the front, and Mirtza yelled to the team of horses, “To the Dark Forest.” He did not have to crack the reins—the horses bolted. “We will head to the Dark Forest, as we should be able to lose them there,” and the countryside was a blur, as the only thing that remained in focus was the dust cloud that followed them in the distance.
    No one was sure how long they traveled—or how quickly. It was late in the afternoon when they saw another huge forest come into view. It was like watching a video on fast forward, becoming larger and closer by the second. As they approached, the horses slowed down, before coming to a dead stop just outside of the forest. Mirtza got out of the wagon, waved his cloak over the horses, and they then became a gold amulet. As he bent down to pick it up, he placed the oxen amulet on the ground, and made them materialize with his cloak. The image of appearing and disappearing livestock was quite unsettling to the six.
    They had