by Rachel Danielle, age 14

« CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 4 »

“Leave me alone Kim,” I ordered. I was riding my bay charger, Lightning, towards the forests, and I’d already come into my first battle. And the enemy was Kim, along with her friends. Or minions I suppose you could call them.

“Don’t be so cranky,” one of them said. Her name was Penelope.

I kept walking. I didn’t have time for their childish games.

“What are you going to the forests for?” Kim snorted. “You aren’t looking for a unicorn are you? You know that forest is loaded with griffins. You would never make it.”

“Leave me alone,” I repeated.

“So Garret’s life is in your hands now? He’s as good as dead!”

I struggled not to listen to her. I tried to tell myself she wasn’t worth the trouble. But her whiny, annoying, babyish voice and way of speech gnawed at me.

“Are you wearing his sword? Ha, that’s a good joke. Face it, no one can save your precious Garret. My mother made me visit him, as if I really cared, and while I was there he wet himself! He’s gotten that weak already. He’s beyond helping.”

“KIM!” I snarled, turning my horse to face her. Lightning was a big horse, and I think I startled her at first. Anger erupted inside of me like flames and I could feel a hot flush crawling over my face. I wanted to take her dirty-blonde hair in hand and shove her face into a pile of manure — that was what I wanted to do… among a whole lot of other things.

I shut my eyes. Great One, I internally prayed. Help me calm down.

Because the Great One was the only one that could calm me down at this point.

I took a deep breath and turned Lightning away in the direction of the forests, thankful that I’d been given the strength to press on. I didn’t need to waste anymore time on Kim.

I was embarrassed for Garret. But I knew it was true. He hardly had any control over his body anymore. The Death was in control.

“Not for long,” I whispered to myself. I looked down at Lightning. “Right boy?” I said. “We’ll find the unicorn. I know we will.”

I hoped we would. I prayed we would.

We rode to the edge of the forest, and halted, staring warily into the trees. The northern forest was gold this time of year, and the sunlight illuminated the trees so they didn’t look dark as they usually did, but they still looked eerie.

If I was afraid of trees, there was no way I was going to be able to do this. I swallowed hard, and urged Lightning forward. He went calmly on, unchanged, and it was encouraging. Lightning wasn’t afraid.

We rode on for awhile, without any sign of danger. But then we came to a clearing, and a shadow swooped across the ground. I looked up in time to see a gleaming griffin, a second before his talons were thrust into my side, knocking me off of Lightning.

Breathless, I hit the ground. Lightning reared and staggered backwards. I scrambled to my feet, pulling my hand to my throbbing side, before reaching for Interceptor. My hand was bloody. The griffin’s talons had pierced through my clothes and my side.

The sun was in my eyes, and it glinted off of Interceptor when I pulled it from it’s sheath, making me squint.

The griffin swooped towards me, yellow eyes wide and wild and excited at the prospect of a good meal of human flesh.

I was close enough to Lightning to mount and flee. Lightning could outrun the griffin. But if I couldn’t make it past this single enemy, I would never make it into the forests.

I pulled back Interceptor, ready to thrust it forward in a joust. The griffin swerved last minute at the sight of the sword. I swung the sword, and heard blade slice across flesh. The griffin’s blood poured and he squawked, writhing so hard against the pain that he knocked me to the forest floor. The air was pulled from my lungs in a rush. The griffin was not injured enough to die, but he was in pain. He took to the skies, fleeing. Fleeing from me!

When I got my breath back the first thing I did was laugh. I wasn’t sure why I laughed. Perhaps it was from the victory, perhaps from the relief. I didn’t know. I got up on my feet.

“What happened?”

I turned around and saw Mirriam standing there, eying my wound.

“Met up with a griffin,” I said. I was still struggling to get my breath back to normal. “He’s gone-injured-he fled.” It was hard to speak in complete sentences. I wiped the blood from Interceptor on the side of my trousers and sheathed it.

She smiled. She looked beautiful in a flowing green dress, bodice embroidered and stitched with gold. It hardly seemed the type of clothing to wear into the forests, but I knew Mirriam wouldn’t ruin it. She was too graceful to get her dress caught on branches and burrs and things like that. “You bested him!” she said. “Well you won’t have to worry about griffins anymore.”

She held out her hand, and on her palm something glittered. It was a little glass bottle that looked like a perfume bottle, capped with a jeweled cork. In it was contained a sort of liquid.

“What-?” I stammered in awe, taking it. The liquid glowed lightly.

“I can’t exactly tell you what it is,” Mirriam admitted. Elves had their secrets.

“But it will protect you from griffins. Most won’t dare come near, but if they do, open the bottle. If they have any sense, they’ll flee. If they’re dumb enough to come closer, they’ll be poisoned within moments. Then they’ll flee — and they won’t get very far.”

I nodded, slipping the delicate little bottle into my pocket gratefully. She gave me something else — a book. I flipped through the pages to find that they were blank.

“Garret has one too. It will allow you to write to each other.”

I’d heard of books like these. They were fairy-made.

“Thank you so much Mirriam,” I said. She had her white horse with her, Snow Flake. The mare walked up to Lightening and nuzzled his neck.

“You’re welcome,” Mirriam said. “Now let me take care of your wounds, and then we’ll have something to eat.” She saw that I was about to protest. “Don’t worry. Garret is holding on really well. He won’t pass before his warrior’s return.”

“But–”

“You need to get your strength up. And after we eat I’ll walk you part of the way.”

She had me hold my tunic away from my side while she put sweet-smelling herbs on my wounds.

I winced at a sudden, strong sting, but when the stinging subsided I felt a cooling relief. She bandaged the herbs in place.

“If you’re still out here tomorrow, take the bandage off around noon time.” She said. I wondered what she meant by ‘if you’re still out here’. Did she mean… if I found the unicorn by tomorrow? Or if I died by tomorrow? I tried not to ponder on the meaning for too long.

Next we ate. Mirriam had practically brought a feast, which I had no protest to. I was hungry. I’d brought my own supplies, but Mirriam insisted I eat what she brought. She knew best. There were elvish foods as well as a few foods I recognized. Bread that was still warm, no doubt made by Garret’s mother who made wonderful breads; cheese, jerky, dragon scale flakes (which I didn’t like), and cloud cream. I was surprised and pleased to see cloud cream. There was nothing like it; creamy, foamy, wonderful cream that was supposed to be for topping, but tasted fine on it’s own.

When we were finished I mounted Lightning and Mirriam mounted Snow Flake. True to her word, she rode with me into the forests.