*Pursuit*

Katri burst into the slumbering camp, fear written across her face.1

“Shae!” she cried, shaking her half-elven brother awake. “Shae, get up! They’re right behind us! We’ve got to go, now!”2

“What?” he cried, sitting bolt upright. “Wake the others, I’ll start packing.”3

Katri rushed across the camp to the only other humanoid, the elf Elijah. 4

“Elijah! Wake up! We have to go, now!” She paused just long enough to make sure he got up, and then went to the fourth member of their ragged band. “Rhynna,” she called to the unicorn. “Rhynna, we must leave immediately.”  Elijah, busy packing, called to Katri,5

“How far behind us are they?”6

“Only a couple of hours at the most. We have to put some more distance between us before they wake,” Katri replied. They gathered everything quickly and started off at a rapid pace.7

Katri, Shae, Elijah, and Rhynna were fleeing for their lives from a large human tracking party. Their three races were part of a larger group known as the Exotics, which besides half-elves, unicorns, and elves, included dragons, centaurs, fairies, ogres, goblins, griffons, and many other species. The humans were vastly more numerous than all of the Exotics, mostly due to the fact that they hunted and killed most of them on sight. The humans hated and feared them all. The half-elves Katri and Shae were twins, hidden away at birth by their elven mother, and forced to fend for themselves after her death when they were fifteen. They met up with Elijah and Rhynna and lived in hiding for five more years before being discovered and forced to flee. They had heard rumors of a place known as the Sanctuary, a magically hidden refuge for the Exotics. No human had magic, and only those with the power could see through the illusion placed on the building. Unfortunately, they had no proof that it actually existed, and only a vague idea of where it was supposed to be located. With no other options available, they ran that way in the vain hope that they might find it. 8

“I thought we had lost them yesterday,” Rhynna said, frustrated.9

“So did I,” Katri replied grimly, walking alongside the majestic beast. “But I used the FarSeeing spell and I Saw the tracking party. It was definitely them, and they weren’t very far behind.” Elijah, overhearing, cursed softly.10

“How do we even know we’re not running towards nothing? This Sanctuary may not even exist. All we have to go on are rumors and a riddle,” he said. Rhynna turned her head to face him, her sapphire eyes stern.11

“Because it is our only hope, and I for one prefer to keep believing rather then to give in to despair,” she said firmly. Elijah frowned.12

“Shae,” he said thoughtfully, “let me hear that riddle again.” The half-elf pushed a lock of golden hair back and obliged.13

“Through the dragon with wings out wide,14

and east to the stony tree.15

Follow the instructions of the written guide,16

To find the Sanctuary.”17

“The dragon with wings out wide…” Elijah mused. He was silent a while, thinking, and the group continued onwards. The land grew higher around them as they journeyed, as if walls had sprung up on either side. Then one appeared in front of them, covered in vines. It was a dead end. They stopped.18

“Now what?” Katri asked, glancing around. Shae looked at his companions. They all looked weary and exhausted. They had been running for three days now.19

“We rest,” he said firmly. “We might as well. There must be more distance between us.” Rhynna lay down on the soft moss.20

“Sounds good to me,” she said. Elijah, however, seemed restless. He picked at the vines and wandered around. Katri, exhausted, took Rhynna’s idea and lay down. She promptly fell asleep. Shae decided to stand watch, since nobody else was. He walked a little ways off, sat down, and invoked the FarSeeing spell to see where the humans were. To his shock, he found them no more then half an hour away. He snapped out of his trance and rushed back. Seeing Rhynna, he called,21

“The humans are coming! We’re trapped!” She jerked to her feet in alarm.22

“What?” she gasped.23

“They’re half an hour away. We’re trapped down here. If we go back the way we came, they’ll have us for sure,” he said urgently. Just then, Elijah gave a cry and started ripping vines off the rock cliff. “Are you insane?” Shae cried. “What are you doing?”24

“The dragon!” Elijah cried excitedly. “The dragon with wings out wide!” By now, enough vines were down for Shae to see what he was talking about. A dragon was carved into the rock face, its wings spread.25

“But the riddle says through the dragon,” said Katri, who had woken up. “How do we get through that?”26

“There must be a hidden door,” said Rhynna. “Start searching!” A few minutes later, no one had found anything, and they could faintly hear the barking of the tracking dogs the humans used.27

“We’ll never find it!” Katri said in despair, slumping against the dragon’s claw. “This thing is huge!” There was a sudden grating sound, and a door slid open in the dragon’s belly. Katri stared; open mouthed, and Shae burst out laughing.28

“Come on!” he called, and led the way through the door. On the other side was more forest, but now they had a direction.29

“East!” Elijah said, and the bedraggled band moved on.30

“I don’t understand how they’re moving so damned fast!” Katri complained to him a little later. “They should have been half a day behind, not half an hour. It doesn’t make sense!”31

“You’re right,” Elijah agreed. “At this rate, it won’t be long until they catch us. The dragon ought to slow them down until they can figure out how to open the door, though, so we’ve bought a little time.” A dog barked behind them. Katri paled, and stared at Elijah, who froze. “Or maybe not,” he said slowly. 32

Another bark, closer. This time, Rhynna and Shae heard it too. “Run!” Elijah yelled. They broke into a desperate run, as swiftly and silently as possible. As they ran, Katri muttered words to a spell. A bow and some arrows appeared for her to use. They ran up a steep hill, and some of the humans were in sight by the time they reached the top. She turned, nocked an arrow, and shot. A human male in the lead cried out and fell as the arrow seemed to sprout from his throat. Shae turned also, a bow in his hands, and felled the other human in the lead. The others slowed their pursuit and backed up as the twins let fly a deadly barrage, Elijah soon joining in as well. The humans got organized quickly, however, and soon were returning fire, but not before at least six lay dead. 33

“Get down!” Shae shouted. Elijah and Katri threw themselves flat, and Rhynna backed up until she couldn’t be seen from below. Katri nocked another arrow, cautiously sat up, and fired. It struck one of the humans in the leg, and he collapsed. Suddenly, a searing pain exploded in her shoulder, and she tumbled backwards from the impact. Looking over, she saw an arrow embedded in her shoulder. She gasped at the pain. “Katri!” Shae cried in horror as he saw her fall. He rushed to her side. 34

“I’m…all right,” Katri gritted out. “We have to get out of here, keep going.”35

“Rhynna,” Shae called. “Can you bespell one of these bows to continue shooting anytime they get in range? You have the strongest magic of us all.”36

“Aye, I can and will,” she replied. “Lay yours down there and I’ll do it.” 37

She touched it with her horn and it glowed briefly, then faded. “That should do it. Let’s go,” she said. Shae helped Katri to her feet, one arm around her for support. Elijah dropped his own bow and joined them as they hurried off as best they could. As they left, he heard a twang and a faint cry from below. The spelled bow was doing its job. They continued until nightfall, and, hearing no sounds of pursuit so far, decided to stop and make camp. Shae gently lowered Katri to the ground, and knelt to examine her wound.38

“How do you feel?” he asked her. She smiled weakly, her face drawn and pale.39

“ Just fine, thanks,” she said. His mouth twisted in a wry smile.40

“Liar.”  About a quarter of the arrow was in her shoulder. “I’ve got to get this out, you know,” he said. She closed her eyes, and nodded. He grasped the shaft firmly and pulled. Katri cried out with the pain, but the arrow was out. Shae quickly applied pressure to the wound to stop the bleeding, and she moaned. “I know, I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Rhynna, can you tell if it’s infected?”  he called. She trotted over and placed the tip of her horn on the area around the  injury. 41

“It is,” she said grimly. “Those humans put some kind of mild poison on their arrows.” Shae cursed. 42

“We’ve got to wash this out. Hand me a damp cloth?” he asked.43

After tending to Katri, Shae thought back over the events of the day. “How could the humans have found the way through that dragon carving so fast?” he asked aloud, pacing the clearing. “They don’t even know that we went through it.”44

“Well, where else would we have gone?” Rhynna pointed out. “It was a dead end, and the vines were all over the ground, revealing the carving.”45

“But they still shouldn’t have gotten through so quickly!” Shae said, scowling. A though occurred to him, and he paused in his pacing. “Unless-” He spun. “Who was the last person through the dragon?” he demanded.46

“Elijah,” said Rhynna. “Why?”47

“Elijah!” Shae called. The elf emerged from the surrounding tees with a canteen of water.48

“What?” he asked.49

“Did you close the door in the carving once you were through?”50

“No,” Elijah said slowly, “I assumed it would close on it’s own.”51

“But you didn’t check to see if it did, now, did you?” Shae asked.52

“No, I didn’t.”53

“Well, there we go,” said Shae angrily. “That’s why the humans caught up. You left the door wide open.”54

“Now, see here-” Elijah began heatedly.55

“It’s your fault that they found us and Katri got an arrow in her shoulder!” Shae yelled.56

“You don’t even know if that is what really happened!” Elijah retorted. “You’re just looking for some one to blame for your poor leadership!”57

“My poor leadership?” sputtered Shae. “I didn’t see you jumping forward to take charge! Someone had to!”58

“I didn’t take charge because you wouldn’t let me! You had to do things your way! You wouldn’t listen to my suggestions!”59

“Because they were ridiculous!” Shae bellowed.60

“Oh, like leaving our hiding place before the humans found us and chased us out! Searching for the Sanctuary without a hunting party on our trail! Yes, that sounds ridiculous, that does!” 61

Shae’s green eyes flashed with fury. He opened his mouth to respond angrily when Rhynna interrupted.62

“And yelling like this will soon have every human in the forest descending on our camp,” she said calmly. Shae shut his mouth, and his shoulders slumped. 63

“Not that it matters what we do,” he said hopelessly. “The humans will catch us anyway.”64

Elijah glowered at him and muttered something in Elvish that Shae didn’t understand, and then stalked catlike out of the clearing. Shae watched him go in silence, glaring at his back.65

“You know,” Rhynna remarked into the quiet, “that really was uncalled for.”66

“What would you know, spikehead?” Shae demanded viciously.  Rhynna looked hurt, and he immediately felt bad. “I’m sorry, Rhynna,” he said, his anger slipping away. “I didn’t mean that.” He turned and stared out into the dark trees, his eyes bleak. “It’s just that we’ve been running for nearly four days now, and every move we make, every bit of time we gain, the humans are still right behind us.” He looked at the unicorn. “I don’t know what to do,” he said in a voice so soft, it was almost a whisper. “I’m scared.”67

Elijah pushed his way through the forest, scowling. Sitting in a tree helped to calm him, so he picked one and swung up into its branches. Funny, he thought. This bark is really hard. It almost feels like-like stone!  He almost fell out of the tree when he realized. East to the stony tree! We found it! His anger evaporated in the face of his excitement.68

“Stony tree!” he called, tumbling down to the ground, yet landing gracefully. He ran back to the clearing. “The tree! Made of stone!”  Shae looked up, his eyes full of rekindled hope. 69

“It is?” he asked. Elijah nodded. “Wonderful! Do you see any written guides?” 70

“It’s too dark now to make anything out. We’ll have to wait until morning to look for that,” Elijah said. 71

“All right. Your turn for first watch,” Shae replied, then paused. “’Lij?” Elijah turned. “I’m sorry.” The elf shrugged. 72

“Don’t worry about it,” he replied. 73

Shae checked on Katri again, only to discover that she was unconscious. His forehead creased with worry, he gently bandaged her shoulder as best he could, then settled down for sleep.74

The following morning, they awoke early and made a cold breakfast, not daring to make a fire lest they be seen. Rhynna and Elijah began the search for the ‘written guide’ while Shae looked after Katri. She was still unconscious, and her forehead was hot. Shae muttered a nasty word under his breath. A fever. They had to get her help, and soon. 75

“Shae, Elijah!” Rhynna called. “I think I found it!” Shae got up and went to her side. Carved in a large boulder were words of some sort, but unlike anything Shae had ever seen.76

"It looks like that's our written guide," he agreed, “but it’s in a language I’ve never seen before. It almost looks like Elvish, but it’s different.” Just then, Elijah joined them. Glancing at the strange words, he gasped.77

“This must be it!” he breathed. “It’s written in an ancient form of Elvish. We haven’t used this form for thousands of years.” He knelt and traced the letters with his fingers.78

“Can you read it?” Rhynna asked anxiously. 79

“I’m not sure,” Elijah said slowly. “I used to know it well, but that was a long time ago. It will take a while, but I think I could do it.”80

“The question is,” said Shae, “do we have a while to spare? Rhynna, how long do you estimate that spelled bow to last?” She tossed her mane and glanced at the sun.81

“Perhaps another half hour, if that,” she replied, “and that’s assuming it’s lasted this long.”82

“Elijah, you start working on that translation,” Shae ordered. “Rhynna, you FarSee and take a look at the humans. Try to find out how they move so fast. I’ll see what I can do for Katri.” Rhynna settled down, folding her legs beneath her. She closed her eyes and went into the light trance needed for the spell, chanting the words as she did. Her skin tingled as the spell went into effect, and she suddenly seemed to be above the forest looking down upon it. Seeing movement ahead, she went to investigate. The humans, for once, were still where they left them, having been unsuccessful in getting past the deadly arrows. They had put up a couple tents, and it appeared that their leaders were inside one discussing the situation. Rhynna swooped down to watch. Two men were inside, and they were arguing. A tall, brown haired one was saying,83

“They cannot be up there still! It must be some sort of evil magery that keeps those arrows flying. I tell you, they left long ago. We must find a way up that hill so we can know our next direction and use the captured spell.” He flourished an amber stone that glowed faintly from within. The other man, dressed in a green cloak, said,84

“I mistrust all things of magic. Whether they be there or gone, I would rather not use the transport spell. My men are excellent trackers. They caught the sprite we ripped this spell from in a days time! Surely this group will be no different. Let us use our skill, not evil magic, to catch our quarry.”85

Rhynna had seen enough. She broke her trance and opened her eyes to their own camp.86

“Shae,” she called, “I found out how they cover so much ground so fast. They’ve found a way to take spells from magic users and encase them in amber to be used when needed. They have a transport spell, but they need to know the correct direction before using it. They did not appear to have any other spells.” Shae frowned. 87

“This is evil news. Whom did they take the spell from?”88

“A sprite,” Rhynna replied. Shae’s face cleared.89

“Oh. Well, then we have no need to fear. Sprites have the weakest shields of all the magic users. I doubt they could penetrate my shields, let alone yours or Elijah’s.”90

“Speaking of Elijah,” Rhynna said, turning to the elf, “how are you faring?” 91

“I have the first few words,” he replied. “They read, ‘follow the water around the statue’. That’s all I’ve gotten. I can copy the rest and work as we travel,” he offered. “We should use this time to our advantage.”92

“Good idea,” Shae replied. “Rhynna, can Katri ride on your back? I fear that she cannot make it on her own.”93

“Of course,” the unicorn replied graciously. Shae gently lifted the unconscious half-elf and placed her on Rhynna’s back. “Elijah, you should ride as well, to support Katri and to be able to concentrate on the writing.”94

“Why thank you, I will,” Elijah responded, surprised. Unicorns hardly ever tolerated a rider, let alone two. He mounted, and gently slid an arm around Katri’s waist to keep her from falling. “Now let’s follow that stream we found last night.”  They walked along the stream for a long time without seeing a statue and Elijah was beginning to fear that he had somehow mistranslated the ancient script when they rounded a bend and saw it- a dainty centaur female carved in stone. 95

“Now what?” Rhynna asked her passenger.96

“The entire first line reads ‘follow the water around the statue until you come to a row of large rocks’,” Elijah replied. “These people sure have a thing for stone.” Shae managed a weak grin at that. He felt completely drained, and was very worried about his sister. Her fever was worse then before, and she had yet to regain consciousness. The white bandage was soaked with blood. 97

“We’d better get there soon,” he said softly. “Katri needs help badly.” What seemed to be an eternity passed before they reached the row of rocks. “Elijah?” he asked. The elf frowned. 98

“It says ‘go through these by using-’ and I can’t figure out the next word!” he said, frustrated. 99

“Well, I hate to hurry you, but the humans are on our trail again,” Rhynna interrupted.100

“How far back?” Shae demanded.101

“Not long enough,” said Rhynna wearily as a dog’s barks echoed through the forest.102

“Elijah?” Shae asked.103

“I’m trying, I’m trying! Um, tussal? Tuggel? Tunnel! That’s it! ‘by using the tunnel-’ ahh, the tunnel under the third-” he paused, frowning fiercely in concentration. The barks grew louder, more excited. 104

“Third what, Elijah?” Shae cried. An arrow whistled overhead.105

“Holly bush! The third holly bush!” 106

Shae whirled, frantically seeking the entrance as more arrows flew by.107

“There!” he cried, pointing. “Rhynna, go! I’ll help Katri, the tunnel’s too low for you both to fit!”  Elijah slid off of the unicorn’s back, gently lifting Katri down as well. Rhynna ran for the opening.108

“I’ve got her, Shae,” Elijah yelled. “Follow Rhynna!” They bolted for the tunnel entrance. Shae reached it first and ducked through.109

“Hurry, Elijah!” he called urgently. The slender elf was having a hard time carrying the heavier half-elf, and Shae could see the humans approaching, swords drawn. As the onslaught of arrows grew heavier, he darted back out and draped Katri’s limp arm around his shoulder. Together, he and Elijah carried her to the relative safety of the tunnel. “Quickly, through to the other side,” Shae said. Elijah paused, looking back.110

“Wait,” he said. “I think there’s an illusion.” They watched as the humans approached the tunnel entrance, but didn’t see it. The man in the green cloak shook his head, bewildered. Shae sighed, thankful beyond belief. 111

“We’re safe,” he said, relief coloring his voice. He gazed ahead, where he could see light. “Come on! What are we waiting for? Our Sanctuary awaits.”112

As they exited the tunnel and joined Rhynna, Elijah drew in an astonished breath. Spread out before him was the most beautiful scene he had ever imagined. The tunnel emerged onto a rock overhang. Underneath rushed a gurgling brook, spanned by a copper bridge. Lush green grass grew right up to the foot of a huge building. A half circle in shape, with a tower in the center, its walls were glistening white, it’s roof gold. The top of the tower was round with a silver sun on the front. A spire gracefully twirled to a point atop of that, reminding Elijah of a huge golden unicorn’s horn. Behind the building, a sparkling waterfall cascaded endlessly from a high cliff. Late morning sunlight slanted through the trees, bathing everything in a warm glow. As they stared at the scene before them in awe, a figure emerged from the building. It was a dryad, one of the many Faerie races. She crossed the bridge and joined them.113

“Welcome to the Sanctuary, my friends. Won’t you come inside so we may tend to your wounds and needs?” she said. Seeing Rhynna glance nervously over her shoulder, she laughed. “You have no need to fear pursuit. You’re safe here.”  She beckoned. “Come. This one needs care. We have many remedies for her inside.” Exhausted and bedraggled, yet hunted no longer, the little group followed eagerly. Elijah grinned, his first in days.114

“Safe…” he whispered happily to himself, and entered the Sanctuary. 115