1.      Part Two / Chapter One

The winds blew across the Below Lands bringing the whisperings of the people to the ears of the Wind Folk high in their Home Lands among the clouds.  Curses spat in anger against the wind and the Runners and their Riders who did not bring the changes needed.  One place had cloud cover, another scorching heat, another rain.  None had what they needed in the quantity they needed and the Wind Folk were afraid to venture out for fear of their lives. 

 

Small squads are allowed to ride the winds, but the below lands are accustomed to full squadrons stampeding through the clouds and wind chasing water through the sky.  But there is none of that.  Water stays near the coasts and wind stays high above the earth.  The elements are afraid of mixing with each other too much because of the magic that seems to bind them to the below lands when ever they do.

 

This means over time the young Wind Folk are not making alliances with the young of the other Folk, nor are they frolicking in the skies.  Wind maidens do not tease Earth lads reducing them to trembling piles of flesh in the fields as they gallop off on their waiting Runners leaving trials of laughter behind them.  Nor are Water maidens being whisked off by the Wind lads so that their brothers must give chase on their stormy steeds of thunder and lightening, while their tears fall upon the earth and give it the moisture it needs for the crops to grow.

 

There is drought and flooding in the lands, wind storms, sand storms, hurricanes, cyclones, tornados where they do not belong: everything is out of balance, especially in the Home Lands where the Rider Capitan Gelary has been left in Regency to the Wind with no Heir to be found.  He still remembered that time, sixteen years ago when things had begun to go wrong in his world.  That time when he had a chance at keeping his Queen safe, his King safe, or at the very least, the heir safe.  But he had failed.  Failed them all, and now he was failing the Wind Folk. 

 

They were dying.  As a race, as a people, there were fewer and fewer each turning of the moon.  Fewer children were born, fewer foals brought to term, fewer bondings made between the two.   Maybe keeping the people trapped in the clouds had been a mistake, Gelary thought.  Maybe he should take them down and band together with one of the other Folk out there.  Surely there are doing as poorly against whatever this foe is that keeps us trapped in our home. 

 

However Gelary is unsure.  He has always had Aralin to tell him what to do, and Aralin’s last order to him was to keep his people safe.  Safe.  Gelary did not know how to protect them against the war raging below and the magic that was rumored to be part of that war.  So he did the next best thing.  He kept the people safe by keeping them together.  With the exception of the Out Riders, no one left the Home Lands.  No one.  When parents rode they did so with the knowledge that they may not see their children again.  Children knew and when they went to stay with their Elders that it could be permanent.  The Home Lands had been robbed of more than it’s Royal family.  It had been robbed of it’s joy.  Gelary did  not know how to give the Wind Folk back their joy and that saddened him even more so in this time of war and magic. 

 

Each time the Moon Bridge opens the Out Riders file out, and one Rides on alone.  Each time Gelary hopes for a report that the Mages have retreated to their Under World, or Aralin has been found and is being brought home, or Parya.  But each time the bridge closes and the Rider remains in the Below Lands. 

 

2.    Chapter Break

 

Aen and Erel head out with the orders in their hand with no direction but the general direction which Laird Razzan sent them in.  They knew there were no horses for them to pick up, and they knew they were not to come back.  He had done all he could to protect them as it were by getting them out from what ever enemy he saw them as having even if they never knew they had one. 

 

All their lives they had heard rumors of Runners and Riders and now to know they could have Rider blood in them, and their horses could have Runner blood in them.  Aen was tempted to push Inval to a full run.  It was something his mam had always forbade.  Now he wondered why.  Erel argued with him telling him it was a silly idea.  They did not know the land and they did not know the enemy.  “Were you never listening when Thrat tried to teach us about strategy?”

 

Aen shook his head.  “Nay never.  I could not get me head around it.”

 

“Well let me give ye the most simple of lessons.  When someone of more learning gives you advice take it.  The Laird had his reasons for wanting us gone.  Now we are gone.  We do not know if that means someone will be coming after us, or if he just did not want us around his family anymore, or if his family would not tolerate us with his passing.”

 

“Lady Tzaskela never did like any of her brood coming near ye and me, that be true.”

 

“Well Kaben could keep his distance from me as well, that snotty nosed lairdling.”  Erel looked at his brother.  “Do you think they will be well under Kaben’s leadership?”

 

“Most like Lady Tzaskela will be doing the leading until little lairdling Kaben grows himself a pair and stands up to her.”

 

“He is not yet.”

 

“And, doubts me he ever will, she growed him the way she wanted him to go and good Laird Razzan did nothing to stop her.”

 

“Maybe there was nothing he could do to stop her.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean what if it was her he was a’feared of on his death bed.”

 

“Why would the man be a’feared of his own wife, Erel?  That makes the least sense of anythink you have said thus far.”

 

“It makes more sense than what you have said about our father being a Rider.”  Erel teased.  However Aen shot him a dirty look. 

 

“Then explain to me why his good and mighty Lairdship would suggest any such think might be possible?  Explain to me how we can both hold the Fire?  Both of us.  One thing I did ask about the other Riders in the stable was how their children be birthed.  Know what they said?”

 

Erel shook his head.

 

“Same as any other.  Couldn’t tell a Rider from a human until the day he climbed on the back of a trained Runner.  Been wondering about things, like why would mam never allow me and ye to ride Arorn?  Me thinks it must be due to the fact they might know we be Riders.  But if we be Riders why would she be wanting to keep that a secret at the Laird’s Keep?”

 

“What are you suggesting, Aen?”

 

“Oh, just that maybe our father took us in when our mother left us.”

 

“Do you think?”

 

“I do.”

 

“Then what does that all mean about the Flame?”

 

Aen shook his head.  “That me not be knowing, but me be thinking, and surely it will come.  Me thinks there be somethink in the desert Laird Razzan needs us to see or do, and then we can come back and see the Keep set right.”

 

Erel agreed.  It was not the best plan they had devised, but it was the only one they currently had, and some plan was better than no plan, even if the plan was a bad one.  As they traveled Erel recalled the day Thrat came to take them away for their apprenticing:

 

White Space

 

They had turned twelve summers when their mam called him into the hut where they had lived for as long as Erel could recall.  He and his brother were wild as the horses their mother bred for the Laird, although Erel was the more sensible of the two most of the time.  Aen seemed to have his head it the clouds, especially here of late.   

 

“Erel, be a good lad and watch after Aen.”  Pya told him.  “Ye be needing each the other before long.”

 

“I will Mam.”

 

“I be telling ye,” a tear escaped her eye, “for reasons o’me own, the both of ye be apprenticed to the Laird’s stables.  Aen be a bit daft at times, so ye must promise me Erel, ye keep your brother with ye, until your growed.  Go, both o’ye with Thrat to the Laird, tell him I did me duty by ye.  Them two hawses belong to ye and Aen, and ye may breed them,  but whate’er ye do, do not be racing them hawses, the foals kin race, but never Kaos and never Inval. Do ye un’erstan?” 

 

Erel nodded, even if he did not understand why it was so.  She moved over to one corner of their hut and pulled out a pair of bags. 

 

“This be yours, and that be Aen’s.  Wear them with pride and know yer mam loves ye.”  No sooner than she finished speaking did Thrat show up for their weekly lessons.  Laird Razzan required all his servants to be able to figure and know their histories.  Aen had met him on the trail looking for the answer for the logic puzzle Thrat had given him.  They had both managed correct answers, however, Aen’s answer, as usual, was the more interesting of the two.

 

Aen trotted along side Thrat and his horse,  Arorn.  He knew better than to ask for a ride although other than Huet, Arorn was a mighty fine piece of horseflesh.  His mam would never allow either he nor Aen to ride Arorn or any other horse than Kaos and Inval.  She always said, “They be yer hawses, how do ye be thinking they be feeling if ye be riding another?”

 

It weren’t long and they were turned around a string of horses in tow, the two boys sitting their own mounts as if they were born to them, and they were.  Thrat was in the lead his great hulking frame leading the way back to the place of their birth and the unknown.

 

Aen chattered endlessly about how fun life in the keep would be with Riders and Runners and the such like.  Erel did not hold to that kind of thinking.

 

 “Get that silliness out of your head, Aen, mam be sending us away and now we must be going to the Laird.  There be hawses to deliver, and the mating to oversee, and so many other things.  Promise me you will keep your head near the ground at least until we’re settled at the keep.  Please.”  Erel pleaded with his brother.

 

“Aye.  Not another think will me think about the Wind, but I can not help but to think that it speaks to me sometimes.”

 

Erel ignored him.  If Aen was not seeing images in the fire, he was hearing voices on the wind.  Most people thought he was as daft as their mother, but the Laird had placed them all under his protection before they were born, so no one would harm him now.  Besides, he was the better of the two with the horses, daft or not. 

 

White Space 

 

When they arrived within sight of the hold the holderkin began to stare.  Erel disliked so many eyes on him, but sat Kaos proud like.  Kaos was nearly 15 hands, and Inval a hand taller still. 

 

“Why they be looking a’we like that?” Aen whispered.

 

“Me be not knowing.”  Erel looked over at his brother and did not see anything wrong with him.  He was a mite bit dirty, but there was a lot of dust twixt the hut and the hold.  His silver white locks were pulled back in a braid except where they were too short, and then they curled up in ringlets around his face and neck. The tunic was reasonably whole, and what was not was patched.  Erel pushed a stray lock of his own raven black hair out of his face, tucking it behind his ear.  He was glad it was not one of the white strands, they embarrassed him even though his mam said they should not.  “Ye be looking al’right to me.”

 

Aen chuckled.  “T’is not at me they be staring.”

 

The two boys reached the Hold proper during the evening meal. Erel and Aen were escorted into the Great Hall after taking the horses to the stables and putting Kaos and Inval in stalls for the time being.  Stallions were not allowed free run. 

 

In the Great Hall, the Laird and Lady were seated at the head table with their two sons and two daughters.  There were several other tables where the household and everyone connected to it ate. 

 

“What is this?” The Laird asked.

 

“Surrah, me be Erel, an’ he be Aen.  We be come to ye on the word o’we Mam.  She be given a message to ye.”

 

“Who is your ‘Mam’?” The Laird asked.

 

“She be the hawswoman.  Be bringing your stock, we did.”  

 

“A horse woman, you say?”

 

“Here at the time of the birthing of me brother and me.” Erel nodded. “We have the foaled mares that be yours, and two stallions.”

 

“The daft horse woman?” Razzan asked. 

 

Aen smiled and nodded. “Aye, that be we mam, daft.”

 

Erel grinned. “She be telling me to be giving ye a message.”

 

“And what would that be?”

 

“That she be done her duty.” Erel was not sure what the words meant, but the look on the Laird’s face made Erel think they were not a good message.   The Laird stood and walked toward Erel. 

 

“Did her duty did she say?”

 

“Aye.”

 

The Laird cupped Erel’s chin with his hand, and turned the boy’s face to get a good look at him, then he repeated the procedure with Aen.  With a satisfied grunt the Laird asked Aen.  “Do you know horses like your mam?” 

 

“I do.”  Aen’s voice was soft, barely above a whisper.

 

“Well, to the tables then, you look as if you could use a proper meal.  We will talk afterwards.” 

 

  White Space 

 

When the Great Hall cleared out the Laird came over to where the boys sat still eating. He sipped a cup of mead and explained to them what their mam’s duty to him had been. 

 

The Laird told them his name was Razzan, and they were to address him as Laird Razzan.  Aen explained about how their mam wanted them to breed their horses, and Razzan thought it was an excellent idea.  In less than a ten-day their lives had been turned completely upside down.  The transformation from wild-boys to holder kin took longer, but when the first mare went into foal a year later the boys were respected around the stables and among the Riders.

 

Note: everything up to here is a flashback in the wrong POV but it will be reworked to fit this section.

 

 

 

 

White Space 

 

Over the course of the next few days they stopped in various places and noticed that the people, Below Land humans, are frightened of anyone they do not know.  They also notice a slight wind at their backs, a gentle breeze that comforts Aen as he rides along.  Erel has learned to pluck a lute in the stables and pulls it out now while Aen sings along, the two boys travel quite happily for a ten day or so.

 

About mid day of the next day they see a good sized company of men and beast moving perpendicular to the path they were upon.  Unsure of what to do, they turn their mounts and run them back the way they came taking the other fork in the road at the last forking.  Beginning here, they are trailed just in sight and no closer until they reach the desert.  Their tails do not follow them in the desert, but every time they try to come back out of it for water or food, their company is there, waiting.

3.    Chapter Break

Finally giving up on losing them, Erel decides they will go into the desert.  Their water bags(?) are full, they have grain, and some food.  They have their bows. 

 

Erel is confident that they will survive this, is this not where Laird Razzan sent them?  He would not send his own sons here to die, now would he?  Or would he? 

 

“Are you sure you want to do this Erel?  It is a good defensive move right?”  Aen is nervous about leaving grass and water behind.

 

“Yes it is a defensive move I guess you could say.  There are only two of us, and there are a lot of them.  So we only have to carry water for us, not the gallons upon gallons they would have to carry, and we have no carts, so we can move differently.”

 

“If you are sure, then let’s go.”

 

They broke camp after only a few hours sleep, planning to ride hard during the night then find a place to hole up for the day, with one to watch as the other slept.  They had never really played soldier with the other boys, their mam wouldn’t allow it, but they had listened.  Well Erel had at least, to the stories told by the older soldiers.  They might not have the skills but they were willing to try.

 

White Space 

 

The two boys stared out over the sands as their mounts ambled forward.  The beast stood some twenty hands tall at the shoulder with coats the color of the sand that surrounded them and manes and tails that flowed like molten moonbeams. 

 

They both wore a long flowing garment that resembled a tunic but was fuller and longer with not too snug fitting pants and a hooded headdress.  When the taller of the two stood his soft-soled boots could be seen, it allowed them to ride astride comfortably, while remaining cool in the hot of desert travel.

 

Dawn was still at least an hour off, then they would have to stop for water and for shade during the hottest part of the day again, if they were going to survive until either their quest was resolved or they gave up.  To the dark headed Erel it seemed neither option was a viable one.  Most like they’d end up worm fodder first.

 

Some very well meaning old woman had told Aen a story about the Wind Runners who used to come through her little village at the last place they stopped.  They had helped her husband chop firewood, and for it were fed good country food and tales of the past.  “Not much longer ago than ye two laddies me a’born thinks.” The woman had said.  Now Aen was trying to puzzle out why Laird Razzan, whom he fully suspected was his father would be sending him to the Wind Folk who were known to live in the desert they were now in.  It made no sense.  Unless the Wind Folk were to help him and Erel reclaim the Keep from Tzaskela.  He was tossing this thought over in his mind when Erel interrupted him yet again with his protests over the probability of the existence of the very beings Aen thought they may be brethren of.  What were Fire Folk but elemental brothers of the others?

 

“There be no such thinks as Wind Folk, Aen.  They’re just a myth.” 

 

“Thinks ye Wind Folk be naught but myth, but Laird Razzan said a Rider might had sired ye and me, and on his death bed he sent us here, it be me intention to find out why.”

 

“Mam be a daft lass, and Laird Razzan, well, me thinks he wanted an easy transition to Kaben’s rule and ye be knowing it, Aen.”

 

“It be a good think, then, mam be a daft lass, or ye be worm fodder long time made into somethink useful again.”  Aen turned to face Erel.  “Now, do ye be coming, or do I go on alone?”

 

“Ach, it be me heart breaking, ye son-o-a-warty-frog, but ye be knowing I would not let ye be haven this adventure alone.  If there be Wind Runners,” Erel grinned from ear to ear, “me be wanting to see!”

 

The two boys rode side by side as they had since they were big enough to scramble on the backs of horses.  The big beasts were not easy to master, but each had, and at a very early age.  Then again they had an unfair advantage as they spent their first years exclusively the stables where their Mam tended the horses. 

 

White Space 

 

Erel smiled.  “Aen, we need be finding shelter soon.”

 

“Aye, look there.”

 

“Erel looked where Aen pointed and sure enough, there were a few of the small broad leaf trees that meant water was nearby.  In due time they arrived at the oasis.  Dismounting, they unsaddled the horses and set out their feed.  They had plenty of feed yet for the horses and still some food left for themselves besides what they were able to hunt in this barren wasteland.  “Hand over your three toes; I’ll dress them.”

 

Aen handed over the large rodents he had shot at dawn with his small game bow, then set about to make a fire.  Half of the three toes would be charred and eaten immediately, while the other half would be wrapped tightly in a broad leaf and placed in the sand for baking while they slept.

 

While the three toes were cooking the boys tended the horses in the shade, combing their silky fine coats to a shimmering perfection.  When they had combed as high as they could reach, the two horses folded their long legs under them, soon the horses were settled and they could eat.  Later, they would eat again and continue their journey.

 

White Space 

 

“Do ye think we be finding them, Erel?” Aen asked finally.  They had been traveling now for seven ten days, each day, at the hottest part of the day, they always found shade and water, but their supplies were gone, and if they did not hunt they would not eat.  There had been no game for two days, and they were beginning to worry about the horses.

 

“We can only go on, it be too far to be turning round now.”  Erel was still skeptical that they would find Wind Runners, and it seemed they were traveling in circles, but he was determined to stay with his brother, whatever fate had in store for them. 

4.   Chapter Break

Each month it was becoming more and more difficult to send out a Rider as they were becoming fewer and fewer.  When Aralin had left him the regency of the Wind Folk he could have mobilized several thousand seasoned Riders astride well conditioned Runners, now Gelary could cajole a few hundred Riders to his call and most of them untried in true battle if it came to it.

 

When women saw a pregnant mare they shied away from her rather than trying to curry her favor like they would have in the past.   In the nearly sixteen years since their king had been missing, the towns were empty, the streets that once shimmered in the light of day, were covered in filth.  Children were quiet and withdrawn.  This was not the city of a happy people and Gelary did not like what he saw. 

 

Unable to do anything else to protect the Wind Folk he decided on a course of action that might save them, because if they stayed here they would surely die.  He called Refat into Aralin’s library.  Even after all this time it was not his own, but still Aralin’s. 

 

Refat came to his Capitan’s call, curious as to what they could not discuss at the stables or in the great hall which was where nearly everything else was discussed.

 

“Refat, I want you to Ride out this time and access the situation.  Report if the Mages have gained power or if there is opposition we can join.  You are to report back here by the next full moon.”

 

Refat looked at the Capitan. “I will not go.”

 

“You will go Refat.”

 

“No, I will not.  You have dozens of others you can send.  My wife, she is about to give birth,  Blearan…” Refat shook his head again.  “No.”

 

“I would not ask you if I did not need your honest opinion, Refat.  I need to know if we can survive this.  If not, then we will have to surrender.  I ca not see us holding out much longer.  For the past three years we have not gotten past the edge of the desert for any supplies, we can not grow enough to feed us.  There is still gold in the treasury though.”

 

“And the children can not eat gold.”

 

“Exactly.”

 

“And if I do not come back?”

 

“I will protect your children as if they were my own.”

 

Refat nodded.  He did not like the assignment, but he understood the significance of determining if the scourge had been driven back by the other Kings or if it was time to give up and pray for the best.  Refat went to the chapel and knelt before the alter and prayed.  Then he went to face his wife, and explain to her that he was going to die.  Because that is what the winds were whispering about… death, death on the wind.

 

White Space 

 

They had left the Hold on the night of the full moon and arrived at the desert a few days past another full moon.  Tonight the moon would be full again.  They had been gone eight full ten days now.  There was something different about this day and night’s chase.  The Mages had not stopped harrying them all since the night before, so much so that the boys slept on their mount’s backs.  However, they knew Inval and Kaos were tiring and this pace was going to be the end of them all. If something did not change. 

 

“Erel, do you see that up ahead?”

 

“It looks like the sky is cracking.” It seemed blood bathed the dunes the way the sunlight struck the sand at dawn and dusk.  For the ten minutes that it lasted neither boy moved awe struck as they were, then they began moving again.  Sand dust swirled around them and the runner beasts.  Erel readjusted his hood to cover his mouth and nose, protecting himself from the silty air. 

 

Aen thought not for the first time that his mam knew what she was doing when she made them these outfits.  They kept them cool and the sand stayed out of their face when they rode.   Sometimes he wondered where she was and what she was up to. 

 

“Yes, that.”

 

“I see it.  What do you think it is?”

 

“Somethink that were not there before.  Me thinks it might be the Wind Folk.”

 

“Aen, you can not be serious.”

 

“I can, and I will go, are you coming?”

 

“I am.  Let’s ride.”

 

It was then they heard the pounding of hooves behind them.  While they had sat and watched the Moon Bridge form. The mage’s army that had been following them was closing the distance to the bridge with Aen and Erel caught in the middle.

 

White Space 

 

Refat saddled Blearan his pale Runner with the least restrictive equipment in the stable.  He was sure the mages could tell a Runner from a horse and he did not want to give them a chance to get a second look at Blearan. 

 

Behind him the Out Riders had assembled.  He would be going down first.

 

The Out Riders crossed the Moon Bridge to reach their post. Refat rode at their head as he planned to take off from mid bridge. However, he saw a cloud of dust in the distance that indicated riders and sounded the alarm.  Stray riders this close to the Home Lands on a full moon was cause to worry for the Wind Runners, especially now that their defenses were so low. 

 

Capitan Gelary sent the usual warning, roused the winds, and deployed Refat astride Blearan, alone, in the event this was a ruse.  The Wind Runner took to the wind the captain called; Rider and Runner one in their movements as it should be.

 

White Space

 

 “Bloody dune, Pregnant moon, Hide children, hide! Tonight Wind Runner’s Ride!”

 

The words came unbidden into his mind.  Erel turned and looked at Aen.  His silver eyes showed their whites in fear.  “Ye hear somethink?”

 

Aen nodded sweat dripping off his brow. The wind whipped around them spraying sand before its unseen force.  Kaos shivered under Erel. 

 

“Ride! We be having no where to hide!”  Aen shouted as he kicked Inval.  At an unspoken command Kaos followed until both animals where at a full run across the sands.  Hot wind and sand enveloped them Erel could not see as far as Kaos’ ears.  Trusting Kaos to follow Inval, Erel lay nearly flat along Kaos’ back and withers, his legs drawn up tightly to help keep his precarious perch. 

 

White Space 

 

“Faster, Kaos, faster” Erel silently begged his mount while he buried his face in his runner beast’s neck. Kaos’ mane whipped around Erel’s head as Kaos complied, lengthening his stride. Erel’s head thrummed with the pounding of hundreds of hooves on the sand, then the world went black as stars exploded behind his eyes. 

 

White Space 

 

Aen felt the wind whip around them causing his hood to fall over his face.  He wanted to be able to see where they were going, but could not in the sand anyway.  It just did not matter. Survival mattered. He urged Inval to that end.  Survival was most important.  He heard Kaos and Erel behind them on the left.  He silently begged Inval to go on.  The heat was intense, suffocating.  Sand clogged his nose and mouth even with the hood down and he dared not open his eyes.

 

White Space 

 

Kaos and Inval lengthened their stride, their hooves sparked the sands and glass flew as they caught the wind.  Racing for their lives and the lives of their bonded the two Runners merged with the elements that forged their Riders and took flight for their virgin voyage.

 

 

5.    Chapter Break

Refat guided Blearan with his knees and thighs rather than with the reigns.  The Runner knew what to do, they had practiced this numerous times.  Riding the wind, Refat returned to the sands behind the stray riders below. 

 

His Runner never slowed in the dust the two riders were kicking up.  Flashes of Fire sparked where the Runner’s hooves hit the sands.  The beasts were Runner stock, but the riders were not trained Riders or they would have known what to do.  As it was, their Runners were spooked and headed straight for the Moon Bridge.  Captain Gelary saw the riders turn and head directly for the bridge.  He deployed two more Out Riders who took to the winds immediately.

 

White Space 

 

Refat signaled Blearan to not give chase.  Runners.  They were rogue Runners and so long as they were chased they would run.  Best to let them come back on their own.  Then he could question the two children who rode them.  He intercepted the two Riders Gelary had deployed and stopped them from giving chase.

 

“Rogue.”

 

“Rogue? Are you sure?”

 

“Certain, there were children riding them.”

 

“Did we see fire?”

 

“Yes, I think they were Fire Riders on Wind Runners.”

 

“That does not bode well.”

 

“Only if they are bonded and learn to wield the power they have.  I would not want it.”

 

Kaos shimmered on the wind rearing right in front of Blearan who rears in response, and before Refat can get him under control again, Blearan turns to give chase.  The other two Riders turn also, why let one person have all the fun?  This is when they see the army headed to the Moon Bridge.

 

“I think he was trying to warn you.”

 

“I think so too, but why?”

 

“Maybe they are rogue, and maybe they are not, but we will not be finding out until we can face the dawn.”

 

“Aye.”  Refat then signals Blearan to attack.  Blearan happily agrees.

 

White Space 

 

When Capitan Gelary sees the Army nearing on the Moon Bridge he calls up to rally all the Riders.  Everyone who is able mounts and comes pouring down the bridge because now they are fighting for the Home Lands themselves.  Half grown boys fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen years old come down as well, they had been raised around the stables the most of them even if their mother’s had not been happy.  These boys were bonded in the first year or two after Parya’s absence, but were yet untried.  Mostly they stay at the base of the bridge as a last line of defense, although the Elders had one more and very drastic line of defense they could deploy. 

 

Erel and Aen have both been trained to fight from horseback and now with Kaos and Inval protecting them with heat they are drawing up from the sands it is easier.  Also the intense heat causes Glass shards to fly and they tend to stick in all the wrong places.  Erel and Aen have no control over most of what they do, but they do manage to hold their own in one corner.  Right in front of the bridge.

 

When a group of the enemy breaks through, Aen attacks.  Erel rally’s for help and it comes in the form of the boys who had been thinking they were helpless in protecting their home, but here were two strangers who were taking out the enemy and protecting them.  Kaos will not allow Erel to get too far from Aen, he remembers his promise to his sire, always protect Aen above all, even though he still does not know why he had to promise it.

 

Together they learn the enemy bleeds red blood like everyone else.  Screaming like mad men, or at least like daft boys, Erel leads a charge from one side while Aen is among the troops behind him.  Refat and Gelary do not know who these two boys are but they are grateful for the help against the Mages, especially when things really start to go badly.

 

White Space  

 

 

Earlier he was wearing only the clothing his mother made him, now, he rips off the burned clothing, his saddle was left at their last camp site due to the interference of the mages right along with the blanket that went under it.  Now he rode Inval bare back to bare arse.  Clutching the molten silver mane in on tight fist Aen dug in with his heels and Inval reared.

 

Pain rips through him, and with it voices call out to him.  He is not sure what it means or if he is willing to trust it.  The voices whisper ‘burn them, burn them’ in his mind.  Aen closes his eyes trying to fight the voices and there is the Flame, ready for him to call.  With one hand wrapped in Inval’s mane he thrusts the other into the Eternal Flame and casts it to the wind.  Fire flew from Inval’s hooves and Aen’s fingertips as Aen and the fire became one. 

 

A firestorm ensues. 

 

Of course he can not control it and people flee.  The Out Riders to the winds, swirling near the bridge, but unable to get up it.  Some of Erel’s gang get up the bridge followed by a goodly number of the troops they had hoped to keep away. 

 

There is fighting on the bridge and just on the other side of the bridge in the Home Lands, Erel is among those fighting, but once the Riders make it into the Home Lands they stop fighting.  They are disoriented, and they lay down their weapons.

 

White Space 

 

Gelary unfortunately is very near Aen when this happens.  He disappears from sight rather quickly, but Refat and a few of the others (to be named later) manage to get the winds under control and because sand does not burn well, the fire went out quickly as well.  What did not was squelched by hand.

 

There are wounded from both sides laying all over the sand.  Wounded including Aen, who is scorched and abraded from his own storm.  He is worried, he can not find Erel.  Refat notices that many of the ‘horses’ the army rode were actually Runners, and where there were Runners there were usually Riders, and while he could not tell a Rider from a human, the Elders could. 

 

Aen looks across the carnage and asks a young Rider if the wounded could be taken to where they could be treated and he nods.  That’s when only the Wind Riders and Runners are moved.  Aen says no, and indicated everyone must go up.

 

Refat does not want to argue, but the boy did save their lives, and he did have questions for him.  However he might had told him no, except at that time Aen’s body had enough and he crumpled.  Once he was down, his Runner came over to him and stood protectively nearby.  His ears laid back as he squealed(?) at the Moon Bridge.

 

White Space 

 

At the very head of the bridge where they could just be seen, one Mage stood in his emerald vest and crimson pants.  Erel was facing him on foot, behind him were the Elders and the children.  Refat attempted to call the winds but he was unable.  The Elders had picked up weapons from the fallen Riders although many of them were too weak to wield them properly.

 

White Space 

 

Erel stands his ground with everything the mage throws at him.  Eventually, he focuses fully on the task at hand barring out all other things from his mind and there just beyond the Mage his the Flame.  He breaths deeply and feels it’s heat, the fire ran through his blood thickly burning away all doubt in his mind that there were Fire Folk and Wind Folk and most likely Earth and Water Folk as well.  But right now it was the Mage that required his attention.  He pressed him with the sword, the Mage fought with magic, but Erel was unaffected.  He felt some of the things flow around him, one passed through him, but none harmed him.  He pressed forward again, and gain.  Now he had the mage backing down the Bridge.  He wanted the Mage dead, not free, and he had the suspicion that if he reached the sands he would be lost.

 

Erel is so focused on the Mage he does not see the mage’s troop on the other side of him.  He does however see the splattering of blood just before he feels it on his face.  And he does see the astonished look on the Mage’s face as his heart’s blood is lost to the thirsty desert.  Erel looks at the man who killed the Mage, but sees no malice for himself there, it’s a good thing too, because that is who catches him when he falls.

 

Refat sees how the Mage’s troops give up the fight and are disoriented after he dies and suspects they were not there by choice.  For this reason alone he allows all the wounded who can survive the move to be moved to the Home Land.

 

White Space 

 

Gelary is found laying face down in the sand, his face a blackened char, frozen in a scream of agony.  Refat is not sure what to do now about the leadership, he will have to ask the Elders.  However until then, he is the new leader and he does not want it.

 

White Space

 

Cool. Wet. Erel struggled back to consciousness. A breeze caressed his abraded face stinging it.  Then there was wet.  His hands felt heavy and wet.  He tried to move, but his body would not comply.  Someone was putting something soothing on his injuries, but who?  He and Aen did not have anything for the sand abrasions or they would have used it days before. 

 

“They are waking up.”

 

Erel heard someone groan.

 

“I see. Stay here, I’ll bring him.”

 

In the distance he heard a familiar whiney, Kaos.  Recognition pulled Erel back from where he had hidden himself, and he opened his eyes a sliver.  Silver light flooded his eyes, the moon. But it was so close, he argued with himself, it should not be that close.

 

“Kaos?” He heard himself speak. “Wind Runners be coming.”

 

“Things are fine, boy. Quiet now.” A gruff male voice responded.  “Dawn is coming, can this one move?”

 

Erel was confused, he wanted to ask questions, so many questions, but he held his peace and was quiet.

 

“He may fall off his Runner.” The other voice responded.  “Do you think they are?”

 

“Aye, they are, but whose?”