Aaralon grunted in annoyance, "There's nobody here!"
"Where did everyone go?" Keira whispered, "Would they leave us?"
Deyna spoke up, "It looks like from this piece of clothing either some of the girls got unnaturally frisky or they were attacked by... something,"
Aaralon sighed inwardly. So this wasn't the greatest punishment after all. They were stranded without any supplies in a forest that probably housed things worse than bats and unicorns.
"We need to make a camp, I don't want to fight whatever was here in the darkness. Eventually someone's going to have to look for us," Aaralon wasn't too sure on the latter, they weren't the greatest in the academy after all. They could just be assumed dead and left here to rot.
"I'll look for supplies that may have been left in the clearing over there!" Keira called out, happy to assign herself the easiest job ever. She sprinted through the undergrowth, her black dress making her quickly invisible in the moonless sky.
"I guess I'll set up the spare tents I have," it was a half lie, he only had 1 spare tent, but he didn't want to tell the girls that.
"Firewood?" Deyna supplied. Aaralon nodded. She leapt over a high bush and Aaralon listened until the noisy girl stopped shaking through the ivy floor.
With several basic incantations, the tiny packet in his pocket became an impressive nylon tent, just large enough for three to four people.
He smirked, the previous worry and frustrated bitterness fled from his thoughts as images of Keira and Deyna's delightful excursion danced in his head.
--
Keira eyed the camp grounds suspiciously, her glowing form illuminated the ground around her and allowed her to find several spare packets of instant food. Besides that, the grounds were eerily deserted.
She came to a half as she noticed something curious in the ground. It seemed that not all of Lywena's students had not left without making tracks. What gave her goose-bumps though was the fact the tracks were made by someone being dragged roughly across the grass. It was now clear someone or something had been here and had abducted her entire class! A wave of dread washed her melancholic attitude.
Although frightened, Keira was attached to many of her classmates. Many hadn't teased her... intellect like others had. She formed tight bonds with many of them. Especially Deyna and Sabrina.
She swallowed her fear and followed the tracks. Although the tracks of someone being dragged died quickly, a pair of large footprints continued where the other tracks died.
After ten minutes of marching through the dense forest, she came to an end. A small camp was set up with several large and brilliant fires igniting the air.
Her eyes travelled along the tents and used her special magics to look beyond the thin canvas veil.
A black-robed and bald man in his early twenties slept soundly. In the second tent another man of similar physique and stature slept too. In the third tent a witch slept, evident by the strange glow that also hung... shortly after sexual arousal.
The figures that were sound asleep didn't concern her though. It was the mindless minions that stood watch in the center. Several were decrepit skeletons of fallen soldiers, but two of them were hideous minotaurs. Freshly revived from the dead. Their hooves were large enough to make the prints she had recently followed.
"Where are my friends?" she thought painfully.
A creak of rusted iron drew her attention to several iron cages off to the eastern edge of the camp. Some were suspended several feet off the ground while others sat ponderously on the ground.
The dim light of the fires allowed Keira to instantly recognize some of her classmates. They were all evidently frightened. Hope swelled in her and she began to slithered over to the cages, careful to watch the reactions of the necrotic guard.
Keira whispered at one of the captives which she immediately recognized as a girl named Alicia.
"Hey! Alicia!" Keira whispered as loudly as she could.
Alicia snapped over and caught Keira in the eyes. Her eye lids froze in place.
"How can I get you guys out of there?"
"D-d-don't, run, it's not safe here! Get away!" she stammered, "The monsters there..." she shuddered violently and muttered curses, "You can't save us, just get away! They do... terrible things... three of us tried to escape and they... they..." She was about to break down into pitiful tears when the sounds of an undead guards make its rounds near the cages reached Keira's ears. |