Out From the Shadows

Out From the Shadows

Chapter 2

To The Astral Plane And Beyond!

I woke up that morning more on an instinctive basis, rather than a cognitive one. That was one of the perks of being empathically bond to a biologically time-regulated creature: some of their habits tend to rub on you, and that includes waking up at a set amplitude of the sun in the sky, no matter how tired you might be.

Even though I was now standing on both my feet and going through my morning routine, my intellectual capacities were still at their minimum due to my exhaustion from yesterday’s work. After having dressed up, I only realized that I was trying to brush my hair with the back of the hairbrush after 5 minutes of trying to comb it unsuccessfully.

I dumbfoundedly stared at myself in the mirror of my vanity, sighed, and began the process of brushing my hair with the right side of the tool. There were deep rings under my eyes attesting of my exhaustion.

“This is going to be a long day...” I thought. “At least I got two free days ahead of me, since the library isn’t opened the 9thand 10th day of the Tenweek.”

The prospect of such free time was boosting my morale up, and I finished my routine with a newfound energy. As usual, my breakfast was already waiting for me on my desk in the library. I ate it in the quietude of the vast room that was devoid of any presence but mine. It seemed my familiar had already left the place; she’s quite the early bird.

I found what was left of the rabbit carcass I gave her yesterday, namely squeaky clean bones. I made sure to put them on the plate along with the remnants of my breakfast, and put the plate itself on one of the reading table for the next domestic to take it away.

I took a deep breath, and began working back on the matter of creating a teleportation portal. I took a quill and a scroll, and wrote a short, but comprehensive list of what was to prepare before attempting to cast the spell, helping myself with peeks inside the Magus’ Compendium’slong paragraphs about the process, and adding along some more personal notes.

“-With salt, make a confinement circle on the ground. (Should prevent the magical energies from leaving the circle’s vicinity while the shaping is in progress)”

“-With a white chalk, draw runes inside the circle. They should be shaped in a fashion that goes inward to the very center of the circle. (That will force the energies to meet at the center of the circle, to form the portal itself. I should probably get help from a runes-specialized book to do it right.)”

“-While shaping the spell, focus on the place that should be set as the point of arrival. (As a starter, I guess I should focus on trying to get inside my own room. This isn’t too far away, and won’t put me in trouble if the spell is successful.)”

“-Prepare an incantation to do it efficiently. (The shaping process seems extra-long, so I will prepare an incantation with some length to make up for it.)”

]“Much more clear now,” I said cheerfully, while reviewing the scroll I just wrote.

I did some research over the rune pattern to use by getting help from an annex book, and found an example matching what I was looking for in it. I left it open at the corresponding page, putting it on the ground in a clear space with no carpet.

After rummaging through my desk’s drawers, I found some white chalk I could use to draw the runes, and a pouch of salt. Those being commonly used in the magic domain, I always had them at the ready, along with plenty other of the most common components.

Having made a circle with the salt big enough that an average man could lay inside, I went on with the process of creating the rune pattern with the white chalk. One small inconvenience was the fact that the floor was made of stone, so I had a hard time seeing the salt circle. That made the rune drawing a tad more complicated than it had to be, but I didn’t think it was going to be a problem in the end.

While I was tracing the runes, the sound of powerful wings flapping announced the arrival of my familiar near the tower, and indeed, a few seconds later, I saw a golden eagle entering the library by one of the opened windows. After landing on her perch, she looked around the library in a royally indifferent manner. She eyed me for some time as I was working on inscribing the runes on the stone floor.

After a few minutes, she asked, “What is it you are doing, half-elf?”

My guess is that she was more interested to know why I wasn’t reading a book, as I was usually doing at this hour. I learned that birds had their habits at certain points of the day, and they hate it when something deviates from them.

However, I answered with honesty. “Working on a teleportation spell.” I knew that she didn’t quite understand what that was about, but I liked toying around with her lower knowledge.

“So in order to do it right, I have to create teleportation portals first.”

Over the years that she had been my familiar, she had gained a lot on the intelligence side. It was quite hard for her to understand most of mankind’s concepts and words when our bond was so fresh. However, due to our closeness, and with the help of the empathic link we shared, she began getting more and more intelligent to the point that she now could comprehend most dialogues we went through, and form somewhat complex sentences herself - well, it’s a relative complexity considering she’s an animal. But in the end, there are still some words and concepts that are obscure to her.

She probably knew that I was trying to play with her, but for once, she decided to go along, which surprised me. “And what does that do?”

I replied while still working on the task at hand. “It is a magically-powered portal that allows anyone to go from point A to point B simply by crossing it.”

“Hay? Bee?” I felt her confusion at the mention of this. I mentally applied a palm to my face for using an analogy that didn’t work on someone who couldn’t read.

“Let’s say it allows to travel great distances in only a step... Or a wing flap if you prefer,” I said, trying to simplify the description for her.

I felt that she was genuinely intrigued by that fact. “How practical... For once, your magic interests me, half-elf.”

While I was finishing my work on the runes, she started to preen herself out of boredom. Rarely had she been intrigued by my work on magic, but it wasn’t the first time. She already showed interest in some of the illusion tricks I could perform, even if it was only toward the most ‘flashy’ ones.

Illusion magic is what I work on the most. Simply put, it was the only school of magic that I could put to good use in this castle. By “good use” I meant “playing tricks on some of the castle inhabitants,” since this was one of the only source of entertainment I could get. Until now, by using deception, I’ve never been caught.

However, I still know some spells from other schools for the sake of diversity, and because some of them were taught to me by my mentor.

After a few more minutes of inscription, the runes were finally drawn on the floor. They formed an exact replica of the illustration in the book I had at my side. Satisfied with my work, I playfully tossed and caught the white chalk in my hand while I walked to sit back at my desk. Casting the chalk aside, I began thinking about an incantation I could use for the spell.

Many mental attempts and corrections later, I finally had what I thought was a good incantation, and I tried to recite it.

“Conjuro ego ex hoc... magicae vires uiam... forma... locum potestate... ego cupio. Possit ad transitum... aperta tenent donec... traicere ut destinatum, nemine prohibente... a vires externae.” I said out loud, staggering as I was trying to imprint the words in my mind.

Following multiple retries, every time going faster on my recital, I was able to repeat the words without any errors or slowing down on the words.

I reviewed once again the list of the requirements for the spell to be sure I had not overlooked anything, and was happy to see I was finally done with everything. I rubbed my hands together. “Now, the fun part begins...”

Before I had time to even get myself ready for the spellcasting, I got interrupted by my familiar. “What is this ‘fun’ that you speak of?” she asked.

“It is when you... Uh...” I was at loss of words. Trying to describe what ‘fun’ was seemed a difficult task when speaking to an animal. I finally chose to simply say, “It is not important. I was talking to myself anyway.”

She didn’t pursue the matter, and simply watched me from her perch as I got back to work.

I went to stand in front of the runic circle, adopting a relaxed posture. Since this spell required a lot of energy, I had to clear my mind of any emotion to prevent them from overtaking the spell shaping process, leading to potential problems.

I closed my eyes, and breathed deeply in and out for a few moments, focusing on nothing but the feeling of the air entering and leaving my lungs.

Now that my mind was devoid of any other thoughts, determination was the only thing I felt. I slowly raised my hands, trying to capt as much ambient magic as possible. The energies were gathering inside my body, and I began to shape the spell in my mind. While reciting the incantation in a drawn out and imperative tone, I tried to focus on the destination of the portal.

My room.

I mentally visualised my bedchamber, and added my personal feelings of the place to complete the whole intellectual image.

Slowly, a magical flux began to emanate from my body, and visible particles of condensed dark-blue magic began to travel from me to agglomerate themselves inside the runic circle.

I kept a steady influx of magic, and the whole circle was soon entirely filled with eerie dark-blue particles of lights, that were going up to eight feet tall. I was pouring more and more energy into the circle, forcing the magical forces to compress themselves at the center of the circle as they followed the rune pattern that was now glowing with a bright white light as it was forcing the magic to its midpoint.

After straining for a few moments, repeating the incantation as long as necessary, I was starting to feel myself slowly reaching my limit. Streaming so much energy out was taking its toll on me, and my consciousness was wavering, kept only by sheer force of will. My determination was starting to vacillate, as I was starting to think I probably couldn’t keep up with the energy required for the spell. Right when I seriously considered the idea of aborting the spell casting process, I felt a thought coming from my familiar in the back of my mind.

“Shiny.”

Whatever was happening, it had to be an interesting light-show for her to enjoy it.

I dared to open up my eyes - still focusing all my senses on keeping an unfaltering flow of magic - just in time to see that the gathering of magical energies was so dense at the center of the circle that the forces collapsed on themselves. As it happened, I heard a distant sound that could be best described as an explosion, and I felt a faint shockwave of magic emanating from the circle, which was probably greatly reduced by the presence of the salt barrier.

I was now staring in awe at a 7 feet tall pitch-black fissure located at the exact center of the circle. It was surrounded by crepitating dark-blue sparks of pure magical energies. Just as I was recovering from the shock of what had just happened, and that my thinking capabilities were now returning to me, the fissure was slowly shifted color, going from void-black to...

Grey?

Brown?

Multiple colors were now interweaving inside the fracture, slowly forming an image. When it stabilized, I could discern what looked like... my bedroom?

Yes, it definitely was my bedroom on the other side of the portal.

When this realization hit me, saying I was happy would have been a grave understatement. I bursted with unbridled joy, yelling “Yes!” - or similar words that express general acknowledgement multiple times nearly atop my lungs while performing some kind of victory dance, completely ignoring the heavy exhaustion that was washing over me. In hindsight, it would have probably been weird if someone saw me at that very moment. Well, I’m not counting my familiar, since she probably just didn’t care about human weirdness. She doesn’t really have much comparison to judge my behavior as strange or not, nor would she care. But I would have probably died of shame if someone else was able to witness this. Hopefully, no one else was in the library at this moment.

When my joyfulness finally receded enough for me to focus on the present time, I began staring at the portal for a moment, partly basking in the accomplishment I felt for having been able to pull that spell off, and also giving myself some time to recover from the strain the spell casting had put me through. I closed my eyes, and channeled the few remaining forces I had in me to keep myself standing. When I opened them again, I had gathered my lasts remnants of resolution, and was feeling ready to try to cross the portal.

“Care to join me on this incredible and epic journey to my bedroom?” I asked to my familiar, with maybe a slight exaggeration regarding the proportions of the travel.

She seemed to ponder my offer for a moment, but quickly decided to join me and took off from her perch. She landed on my right shoulder, her talons hooking up on a heavy leather patch present on my mage robes at that spot, which was made especially to prevent said talons from tearing my flesh.

“I indeed want to experience this ‘teleportation’, half-elf.”

I affectionately scratched the corner of her beak, and said “Then, let’s try this together!”

I turned back to face the portal, and began to walk slowly towards it. I solemnly said aloud, “That’s one small step for me...” I made a dramatic pause, and made another step. “But a giant leap for my...” *CRACK* “...studies...?”

It all happened in a split second. I barely had the time to realize what had happened. I had stepped on the salt circle, making a crack in the barrier that was holding all the magical energies inside the circle. When I understood this, I only had the time to say “OH DAM--” that all the energies that were previously trapped inside the circle made their move to escape the prison they were in.

And guess which way all the energies tried to escape?

That’s right. By the crack I just formed by stepping on the salt circle. The very same crack I just happened to be in front of.

A powerful torrent of magical energies washed over me, doing its best to escape the runic circle. I tried to defend myself by putting both my hands in front of me, but I had not enough willpower left to try to fight such a flood. Even if I had been in possession of all of my capacities, I highly doubt I would have been able to do anything against such an outburst.

Due to the amount of magical power traversing me at this very moment, my body made its defensive move.

I blacked out.

[...]

I woke up to one hell of a headache. I rose to a sitting position and began to rub my temples, trying to understand why I was hurting.

Still oblivious to what had happened previously, I opened up my eyes, preparing myself to be hurt by the sunlight or any other light sources bright enough to increase the headache raging in my brain, but instead, I saw nothing but clear silvery skies in all directions.

My mouth was agape. The sight extended above and below me. I realized I wasn’t even standing on anything solid, mildly floating in the air, but it didn’t feel like I was falling. I was simply drifting here.

I began panicking, looking around me frantically for any option to escape this place, and put myself to safety, but there was nothing except the wild argent yonder all round me.

“Oh damn! How the hell did I get here!?” I asked in a pathetic attempt to get an answer.

Of course, nobody answered my question, and I could do nothing but stare into the great nothingness extending all around me, startled and confused.

Trying to remember what had caused me to be here, it only took a few seconds for the memories of what happened to come back in full force. “The portal spell... and then... I miserably caused it to fail by breaking the salt circle.” I said to myself.

I tried to pound my right fist on the ground to vent off the rage of having made such a terrible mistake, but it simply went through the air, much to my disdain. I then tried to stand up - but quickly found it was a rather futile task, considering the lack of ground, so I finally decided to go back to my train of thoughts.

“Then, the energies rushed through me and... Oh, so this is how I ended up here? It does explain a few things... but it doesn’t exactly tells me where I am...” I thought.

I tried to look in every possible direction for clues in a much more attentive manner than before, but there was only the same silvery sky pattern extending as far as I could see, except for one small detail that I noticed in the distance.

A brown shape was approaching. As it drawn closer, it looked like it had wings, flapping them to head in my direction.

It didn’t take me long to put the two and two together.

It was my familiar.

She probably had been drawn to this... Plane? Realm? Along with me. I am not even sure how to call this place, however I was relieved she was still alive. As she was coming closer and closer, I started feeling her emotions via our empathic link.

Freedom and wonderment were the most predominant feels I was getting from her. They contrasted with my own feelings of insecurity and uncertainty.

Since she still had quite some distance to cover to meet up with me, I began to think of a plan to return home. I opened up my senses to the magical energies of the place, to know how much power I had at my disposal. I was a bit surprised to feel that magical energies were literally saturating the place, so I guessed using magic wasn’t going to be a problem here.

I first thought of re-opening a portal to get out of here, but there was a massive flaw to that plan. I had not the necessary materials to make a runic circle, and even if I had, I couldn’t exactly draw runes in the air. And that’s even assuming I could remember the shape of the runes to draw.

There was the possibility of simply casting the teleportation component of the spell on myself, without turning it into a portal. However, I didn’t really liked the fact that I could end up stuck in a wall - or whatever else solid object - should I fail my casting.

After weighing over all the possibilities, it seemed like teleporting was the only option I had, but I really, really didn’t liked it. This had so much possibilities of backfiring...

By the time I had resigned myself to cast the spell, my familiar had caught up with me, and she landed on my right shoulder.

“I really do like this ‘teleportation’, half elf. There is so much space to fly,” she said. I could feel her heart pounding strongly from the intensity of her flight. She really seemed to enjoy herself here.

“Too bad there are no preys here,” she added with a hint of sadness. “It would have been so easy to hunt them in such an open space.”

“Unfortunately, as much as you enjoy this place, we have to leave. I don’t know where we are, and even if there are no immediate dangers, I have no intent to stay long enough to find out.”

She turned her head to face me with a questioning glare. “Wasn’t the point of ‘teleportation’ to bring us here?”

I sighed, not wanting to go in details over the matter. “Not exactly. We indeed teleported somewhere, but not where I intended us to be.”

She probably felt my uncertainties toward the place at this point, because she simply replied “Oh,” followed by“Then how do we get out of here, half-elf?”

I didn’t need to be asked twice. “I will teleport us back home.”

Without wasting any further time, I began to cast the teleportation spell, and focused its effects on ourselves, rather than letting it out to create a portal. I was very surprised when the spell shaping process only took me mere seconds to complete. I didn’t even had time to recite the full incantation I used previously.

It was probably due to the magical energies saturating the place, so I didn’t really put much thought over it.

The spell was now ready to be released. I focused on the place I wanted it to bring us to. Since I wasn’t sure how the teleportation would work over an unknown distance, I focalised my destination over a larger scale of things.

I mentally visualized the castle of my parents, surrounded by a dense forest. Then, I projected the image of the library, and focused on it, while still imagining the castle around it. The shelves full of books, my messy personal desk, the reading tables... I tried to imagine them clearly into my mind, and I tried to focus my arrival point right behind my desk.

Then, I released the spell.

I suddenly felt myself being dragged out of reality by a very powerful force, forcing all the air out of my lungs. It was like being attached to something that was going at a very high speed. I didn’t see anything because I had closed my eyes by reflex. Just as abruptly as it started, I went to a full stop, feeling solid matter under my feet.

Teleportation sure was something when you are conscious.

I took a deep breath, and took in my surroundings. I was... In a castle for sure...

But only one problem...

This castle was in ruins.

I was indeed in what looked like a library, but it had been torn apart by age. All the shelves were toppled over, sometimes overlapping one another, left here at the mercy of the elements.

Books were littering the floor everywhere, some of them missing lots of pages that were scattered all over the place, in a pattern that undoubtedly was the effect of winds. All of them were now rendered unreadable, probably due to extensive exposure to rain, like the crumbled ceiling suggested.

Some of the walls were missing huge stone chunks, allowing me to see the forest surrounding the place I was in. The whole decor was bathed in an afternoon light and the few walls that were still holding on were nearly entirely covered in vines.

At first, I feared that I had been somehow sent in the future, long after the passing of my family and their descendants, but one detail brushed off that harebrained theory. I was at ground level, whereas the library in de’Arnise was located inside a tower.

“This is not our home,” remarked my familiar.

“It sure isn’t,” I added. Even though the teleportation obviously failed, I hoped we had landed somewhere close to de’Arnise.

I really started thinking that I should not have trifled with the portal and teleportation magic without the help of Dahrim, seeing how I was really getting in trouble for this...

I thought about using my teleportation spell again, but due to how my last two attempts turned out, I wasn’t sure it would be a good idea, considering I could end up in a more dangerous situation. Also, I had already drained a good chunk my mental resources by casting it twice. I couldn’t be sure I would be able to cast it again until I get some rest, even if the second casting had been merciful on my power reserves, due to that strange silvery place’s energy saturation.

My current situation left me with no choice but to explore the immediate surroundings for any assistance I could get.

“Can you scout around for landmarks or people?” I asked. “Come back if you see any sign of civilisation. This might be our only chance to get back to our home.”

She acknowledged with a slight nod of her head, and took off in the air, disappearing over the treeline surrounding the castle I was in. The fact that she ‘nodded’ to acknowledge my order didn’t escape to me. Yet another human trait she probably learned because of our bond.

Meanwhile, I began to explore the place I itself, trying to look out for clues as to where I was. The library I was in was clearly deserted, so I felt comfortable to rummage through some of the books that were laying on the ground, trying to identify the language used, as it would be a good start to know what region I was in.

Unfortunately, it seemed like none of them were spared the continuous assault of the elements, as they all looked lavished, with not a single ink drop remaining on any of the pages.

I moved on and decided to explore the rest of the place - which looked very much like a castle - for anything that might help me.

Whenever I entered a new room, I made sure to hide my presence by channeling a spell on myself. It is an illusion spell that greatly reduces the chance for anybody to even notice I am here, by tricking the subconscious of all nearby beings. Basically, it makes them think that my presence and any sound they hear from me are only mundane things, which should not even be thought about.

But this spell has its limits, and does not work when the persons affected by the spell already know I are here, or if I do something obvious in front of them, but it is quite useful to make people forget about myself, or make them not acknowledge my presence right away, which may get me an advantage should I stumble upon something or somebody that seems hostile.

However, it turned out this precautions was a bit of an overkill as there was no one else in this castle.

 None of the rooms I went in were spared the passage of time, all of them looking like nobody had visited this area for centuries. I found what looked like a throne room, along with what remained of what appeared to have been fine decorations throughout it, probably for a royal family of some sort. I saw three thrones aligned at the far end of the room, all of them heavily adorned. It could have been beautiful if not for the fact that everything was tarnished by the passage of time.

Some of the ornaments could have looked like symbols of gods, but none of them matched the exact blazon on any of the gods I knew. Even though I am not worshiping any of the gods myself, it doesn’t hurt to know which ones exists, and the domains they govern.

The sun, the moon, and stars were the most commonly used shapes on the decorations. There was also a lot of stained glass windows throughout the room, but most of them had been shattered in some way, rendering the image they once shown impossible to see.

Except one.

I cautiously walked toward the unbroken window to have a better look. It was showing a grey horse-like animal from the side, in a charging stance, with plains and a mountain as a landscape around it. The particularity of this being was that it had wings on its side, and a long horn on its forehead, much like a crossbreed between a unicorn and a pegasus. I had no idea how to call such a creature, since I had never seen, or heard about one.

Unicorns are revered creatures among wood elves and any close-to-nature beings, such as druids, but they rarely ever show themselves, preferring to hide in the coverage that their forests have to offer. They are known to share social interactions with fey-like creatures that inhabits their forest, such as pixies and dryads, but they won’t hesitate to use the mystical powers at their disposal if the forest they live in would somehow get threatened. Contrary to popular belief, such creatures are sentient, and have intelligence rivaling those of most humanoid races. Some are even said to be capable of speaking the common language, but we don’t exactly have a lot of proof to convey that theory.

Pegasi are also very rarely seen in the civilised parts of the Faêrun, but they indeed exist in some temperate forests, and very high mountains. These creatures tend to avoid any interaction with other species, but they are known to be able to understand the common language, even if they are not capable of speech themselves, making them only slightly more intelligent than regular horses. Their ability to fly due to their wings makes them near impossible to catch, and there were only very few cases throughout history where a pegasus served as a mount, because of their untamable behavior.

All these informations got me to think I was indeed somewhere in Faêrun, probably in an nature-worshiping civilization, but it is only speculation as I was lacking some data to be a hundred percent sure of this. It was probable that this pegasus-unicorn picture had a symbolic meaning for the race that inhabited this place.

Unfortunately, I still had no certitude or even enough material to take a guess on my current location.

As I looked around for other details, I wondered what led this castle to be abandoned. There didn’t seem to have been any pillage going on, as the presence of valuable elements throughout the place can attest. So, what led the people living here to suddenly go away, and just leave this place without bringing any of the materials...?

I didn’t had the time to pursue my reflexions further, as my familiar came back, entering the throne room by flying through a breach in the demolished roof, and landed as usual on my right shoulder.

“I saw some homes that look like those of your kind, half-elf. They are a bit far away, but we should be able to reach them before the night. I clearly saw activity from afar.”

So there was indeed a civilization nearby. My hopes of returning home were faring better with this new piece of information.

“Let us not waste time then, there is no point staying in this place any longer.”

In fact, I would have probably enjoyed studying the remnants of this civilisation to get some clues, but I didn’t want to still be in this desolated place when the sun would have set. Also, I had no resources to sustain myself, and I didn’t exactly want to starve to death because of my curiosity. However, I would probably ask for permission from my father to come back here and study this place with an escort, once I could get back home. I am quite sure I haven’t read anything about this kind of civilisation.

This led me to consider what my inventory was for this journey, but unfortunately, I quickly realized I had mostly nothing but my clothes, and a coin purse hanging on the side of my belt, containing a good amount of gold pieces that I gained when renting the books of my library.

Finding some kind of tavern to eat at and pass the night was going to be my first priority. Then, I will try to find directions to the de’Arnise castle, and maybe get a better way of traveling than just walking.

When I thought about it, it was the first time I ever got out of the de’Arnise castle by myself, and right now, I felt like a character in one of those fantasy stories, going on an epic journey to fulfill their quest of good. I was even probably going to go to a tavern! The most popular place of all the fantasy stories I’ve ever read! With bards chanting the exploits of local heroes while people share drinks and...

“Why this sudden excitement, half-elf?”

… Was I being so obvious about that?

Of course, I sometimes forgot that she could feel my emotions, just as I feel hers.

“Don’t worry about it. Let us be on our way.” I said, to drop the subject.

However, I couldn’t help but keep a grin plastered on my face as we began our journey.

We exited the castle by what seemed to be the main entry, and I was grateful that the heavy double-doors had been kept open, however I couldn’t help but notice an odd structure before we went out. It had 5 metal bars radiating out of a main stone structure that ended in cone-shaped displays. It seemed obvious that there were once objects held in these displays, probably relics of some kind that were used in a sort of ritual.

But, I didn’t stop to find out more about this strange construction, I would probably have all the time in the world to study it if I could get back home, and get an escort to come back here later. I followed the indications that my familiar was giving me, leading me out.

She led me to follow a dirt road going out of the castle. I hadn’t been walking for a whole minute that the first complication of my travel appeared in the form of a bridge. I probably wouldn’t have cared much, if it wasn’t for the fact that the bridge looked like it was on the verge of breaking apart should I only slightly step on it. It was made of ropes and wood planks tied precariously together, and held in place by two rocks on each side of the ravine to secure the ropes.

I took a peek to what was awaiting me should I fall off, and it wasn’t exactly comforting. Below the bridge was a ravine so deep that I couldn’t see the end. It looked like a beast with its jaws wide opened, awaiting for an unfortunate traveler such as me to fall off.

I swallowed at the sight, and suddenly I decided that adventuring wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. When the hero of a book crosses a bridge such as this one, they make it sound easy to do. But being in front of one in reality wasn’t exactly endearing.

“Are you going to wait here for long? There is nothing to be afraid of,” my familiar said. “Look.”

She took off my shoulder, and flew over the bridge, landing on the other side of the ravine, on one of the rocks that had some ropes of the bridge tied to it.

I facepalmed. How did I not think about that? I definitely should use my wings to fly over the bridge!

Oh wait.

I don’t have wings.

“Sure, let’s just wait until I grow a pair of wings. They should appear any minute now.” I said ironically, folding my arms.

I only felt uttermost confusion coming from my familiar.

I sighed. It wasn’t even funny. She couldn’t understand irony, and even though she’s quite intelligent for her specie, she still isn’t quite on the level of mankind.

“Alright... I can do this.”

Bringing a cautious step to the first plank of the bridge, I slowly shifted my weight on it to test the waters. The ropes and the wood plank held good, though they manifested their annoyance to my presence by emitting a slight creaking sound. Otherwise, the whole structure seemed stable enough, despite looking precarious.

I felt confident enough to go through the first half of the bridge, even if it was ever so slowly, taking my time to test the woods planks on every step. However, once halfway there, I realized that should the bridge decide to fail me at this very moment, I wouldn’t be able to reach either side on time to save myself.

At this thought, my hands began to shake, sending vibrations through the ropes they were gripped to, and that made the bridge oscillate slightly. This added even more fuel to my fear, and my whole body began to tremble uncontrollably, making my advance on the bridge near impossible.

I also made the terrible mistake of looking directly into the abyssal maw below. I was paralyzed by sheer terror, unable to move any muscle, aside from the parts of my body that were irrepressibly shaking.

My teeth were now clattering and I felt despair seeping into my very being.

“I will never make it past this bridge.”

“I will not be able to ever reach this village.”

“Half-elf?”

“Why delay the inevitable?” I thought.“There is no way I will ever be able to return home.”

“Might as well give up now. It will probably make things painless.”

“Half-elf?!”

I contemplated the black void below. It was so easy to end it right now... All I had to do was to let go of the bridge... I would probably not feel anything... It would be swift, and merciful...

As I was staring intently in the ravine, something suddenly snapped me out of my state.

I suddenly got stripped of my emotions, leaving me disoriented and confused for a moment. With a newfound clarity, I took a moment to think about what had just happened, but I couldn’t understand how I could had gone in a state of mind where jumping off the bridge would seem appealing.

I looked at the end of the bridge, and saw that my familiar had her eyes closed, just as if sleeping, but still keeping herself balanced on the rock she was on.

“What is going on?” I asked.

I didn’t get a response, and my familiar was still unmoving. I wasn’t feeling anything coming from her anymore.

Something was definitely wrong.

It was like if our empathic link had been severed. Even if she had been asleep, I still should have been able to capt her emotions. So, there was something else going on. I felt like I had lost an important part of myself, and void took the place of the link.

I felt empty.

I traversed the remnant half of the bridge as fast as I could, while still being cautious about not slipping off it. I kept an eye on my familiar as I progressed toward the safety of the ground, but there was no signs of her moving.

As I finally stepped on the earth, I sighed, slightly relieved to not have to worry about falling anymore. However, I didn’t lose time, and I immediately went to see what was wrong with my familiar.

I didn’t had the time to reach her that she suddenly opened her eyes again. The empathic link came back in full force, and I was slightly destabilised, but somehow happy to feel that the link was back, and the emptiness I felt earlier was washed away.

“Let us get out of here half-elf. There is something very wrong with this place. We should not stay here.”

I had to agree with her. What had just happened was weird, and I didn’t want to risk experiencing something like that again. I had chills running down my spine just thinking about the ordeal.

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” I said, and I promptly began to walk away from the bridge, probably slightly faster than what was necessary; but I wanted to put as much distance as possible between it and us. I occasionally took a peek behind me, fearing something might happen there while I had my back turned.

My familiar followed me, flying a few yards above, well over the trees, often doing circles to scout in the immediate vicinity. I felt she was trying to protect me.

It was a relief that the bridge was now too far to be seen when I once again checked behind me, so I adjusted my pace to a more steady and comfortable one.

We kept going on, following the road as my familiar was indicating me to. The road itself was heavily surrounded by the forest, and I hardly could see anything in between the trees and the others natural obstacles. The canopy was slightly reducing the overall brightness inside the forest, despite the sun still being high in the sky, but I was able see at a comfortable distance, thanks to my elven heritage to see in low-light environments.

I had to say, being able to walk all by myself, without an over-securing guard escort was a new experience to me. The trees were passing by as I walked, and a small breeze was filling my lungs with fresh air, adding its own flavor to the freedom sensation I was feeling right now.

It was a bit strange... But liberating at the same time. No more of these invisible shackles holding me in de’Arnise castle. I was not even forced to go somewhere precisely. I could make my own choices if I wanted to...

These thoughts gave me a new perspective about the world around me. A world of infinite possibilities was there, waiting for me... I wonder why I never had a second thought about all that.

Well, actually, this liberty had a price. For now, I was still without anything that I could eat, nor did I have any place I could safely sleep at. I didn’t even know where I was, which was quite... Problematic.

So I continued to march onward to this still unknown ‘town’, hoping I could get some help and directions to go back to my home. I wished they had comfortable rooms in a tavern there, but I guess it didn’t really matter, as long as I could at least sleep somewhere.

After walking a for about an hour, I was starting to get exhausted. My legs were hurting, my breath was erratic, I was thirsty, and my mind could only focus on the pain caused by these facts.

I had never covered so much distance by foot. Most of the time, if had to go somewhere outside of the castle, we would go there by using mounts or carriages, and the escort would always bring the necessary supplies to eat and drink while traveling.

I really wasn’t used to these traveling conditions, and it was taking its toll on me, especially considering the lack of water. I thought about it for a few minutes while walking, and decided that I’d fix this problem by doing something right out of a fantasy novel.

“Can you try to spot a river, or anything I can drink off nearby? I am really thirsty here,” I asked to my familiar while she was still flying in circles above me. I was that desperate that I would drinked off anything, as long as it was liquid.

She answered nearly immediately, “There is one lying a few yards in front of us. Just continue to walk, you will inevitably have to go through it, as it cuts through your path.”

I guessed that was good news for me. The promise of being able to soon clench my thirst was giving me the metaphorical energy to continue going forward. Strangely, it also made the pain I was feeling earlier to fade to the background. It was still there, but much more bearable.

Soon enough, I was able to hear the sound of the rushing water from afar, which was a bit later completed with the vision of the river itself, crossing right through the dirt road, just like my familiar had told me.

As I saw the river, I made a run for it. Literally. All pain had now receded as I focused on my one and only objective of the moment: Drink. I began closing the gap between the river and me, every footstep of my run bringing me closer to the salvation promise that was the clear liquid.

I wished I could just fly there, like my familiar would have done herself, but I was slowed down by my inefficient and ridiculously weak legs.

It was only a few steps away...

And then, here I was, right in front of the river’s bed. I fell on my knees, completely forgetting about my self-image for the moment being, and I let my head go right through the torrenting water.

It was fresh.

After having refreshed my head, I started drinking by joining my hands as a makeshift cup, using them to drag water to my mouth.

Being finally able to drink was a relief. I did not try to hold myself back as I drank my way to sate my thirst, doing my best to take in as much water as could, and as fast as possible.

I was midway to get yet another handful of water when I heard her say, “Half-elf, watch out, behind you!”

I suddenly felt a primal fear coming from her as she warned me. I did as she asked, quickly turning around to look behind myself.

That is where I saw it. A few yards away, on the right side of the road, still a few feet inside the forest. A very large bear was there, sniffing the air in my general direction. It was a bit more than half as tall as me on its four, and would very probably be taller than me if it was to stand on his back legs.

My sudden movement seemed to have attracted his attention, and it stood there, watching me intently, looking like it was trying to gauge my reaction.

We were both unmoving, looking dead right in each other’s eyes. Silence was growing more and more oppressing, disturbed only by the occasional burst of wind, and my heart was starting to pound heavily in my chest. My mind was blank at this moment, and my senses and instincts were all screaming “Run!”. However, something told me that if I just started to run right now, that would probably trigger the bear’s reaction to chase me.

My own fear was further growing to a point that it was becoming unbearable. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to hold the gaze of the wild bear for much longer.

Luckily for me, I didn’t had to.

It all happened in a split second.

I heard a screeching cry, and even before I had time to realize where it came from, a brown blur descended from the sky at a very high speed, and collided with the bear’s head.

The bear growled ferociously after getting hit, the impact making his head forcefully hit the ground, probably heavily damaging his jaw. I realized the blur was my eagle’s, as she made a second dive to hit the animal.

Before the bear could even react, she made her second attack, and her beak struck the bear’s left eye. The bear roared in agony, and tried to riposte with his right paw, but she dodged gracefully with a flap of her wings.

“Run! Now!”

That is when I heard her command that I realized it was indeed a good time to run away from the danger that the bear was representing. I had been so hypnotised by the fight that happened before me that I had completely forgotten about myself.

Not wasting any more time, I turned around, and ran to flee by the only path I could go in this current setup: through the river.

The water wasn’t really high once I set foot in it, as it was only going halfway up to my knees. I went through it, one step after another, as the rushing water was opposing a fierce resistance to my advance.

At this point, I could only hear the fight between the bear and my familiar, in the form of growls and screeches coming from behind me. She was obviously trying to buy me time so I could get away, and I tried my best to honor her will.

As you could guess, my pants, robes, and shoes were dripping wet as I reached the other side of the river, but I didn’t exactly had the time to care about that.

“Flee from the bear if you can, I am through the river now!”

I hoped she would not take more risks than necessary to save me.

When I said this, I saw her burst through the canopy, flying over the forest, out of range of the beast. She spotted me, and flew in my direction, flapping her wings to quickly cover the distance between us. It seemed she was unscratched from the fight before.

The bear started to give chase, running after me on its fours, but unfortunately for him I had a very good head start, having already crossed the river while he was still on the other side. I didn’t know if he was going to be able to cross the river, and I didn’t intent to stay to find out.

I could clearly see from afar that its left eye had been pierced, forcing it shut while blood was pouring out of the closed eyelid. The bear was probably very angry at this point, so I made my best to escape from it, running for dear life along the path that was now in front of me.

I ran for a few moments, not even stopping to catch my breath; and god knows I would have wanted to, because my lungs were burning from the effort I was deploying to continue forward.

My familiar was now in front of me, flying high, as if she was guiding my path.

While running, I risked taking a peek behind me to see if the bear was still following, and what I saw was very unpleasant. Not only had he already crossed the river, but he was even rapidly gaining ground.

Things were not looking good for me at all, and I redoubled my efforts to run away. However, it only served to exhaust me faster, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun the bear in the end.

Still doing my best to put as much distance between the bear and me, I suddenly had the idea to use magic. I worked my whole life to learn it, and I completely forgot to use it the moment I need it the most. I would have stopped to facepalm if my life wasn’t heavily threatened right now. Instead of this, I focused on letting out a flux of power while running, and soon enough, five red orbs of arcane energies materialised around me, following me in my course.

Once I had gathered enough energies inside the orbs, I went to a full stop, and turned to face the bear. It was still charging swiftly in my direction, and there was only a few yards left between him and me. The orbs were now emitting audible and visible sparks of energy, and were as big as my fists.

It was probably going to be my last stand, and I made sure to put as much magic as possible inside the orbs, focusing intently on saturating them. It was me, or him.

“Take that!” I said, as I pointed my finger in direction of the bear.

Following my telepathic command, the five arcane orbs suddenly went flying as fast as arrows in direction of the animal. They closed the gap in a mere second, but three of them missed the bear by a few inches, and dispersed on the ground. It seemed like the bear had sidestepped them in his course, however, the last two striked true.

The bear got severely wounded, as the presence of deep lacerations and burns on his fur and skin could attest where the two arcane missiles hit him. And it probably hurt him a lot, considering the heavy roar he let out after the impact.

However there’s one little detail about the situation that I didn’t really enjoy...

It did not stop its onslaught in the least.

If anything, the bear looked even more determined to kill me right now, his only eye reflecting all its rage toward me. He continued to charge at me at full speed seemingly unphased by the impacts he had just sustained, and unfortunately for me, he was only a mere yard away now.

I only had the time to prepare myself for the imminent impact, crossing both my arms in a defensive position in front of me, and hoped for the best.

I had to say, I wasn’t prepared at all for what happened next. I had never really experienced heavy pain, or sustained heavy damage on myself.

As the bear crashed into me, I heard, and felt my ribcage crack loudly. The pain I felt this moment stunned me for a few seconds, as I was sent flying away a few feets by the force of the impact.

Landing on my back forced the air out of my lungs, making me groan, as I tried to catch my breath. I insist on the word ‘try’, because everytime I tried to breath in, it made my lungs hurt like they were burning from the inside.

The bear didn’t stop there, and I saw him approach me. He raised on his hind legs, his intent made clear, as he was preparing to strike me with his right paw.

I knew I wasn’t going to survive this. I had to do something, to protect myself from being gored out. But I could only watch in horror, and futilely put my right arm in front of me in an attempt to mitigate the blow.

Time slowed down, as the bear’s paw was slowly, but surely, going to strike me. That would very probably be a fatal blow.

I didn’t want to be killed. Not like this. Sure, we all die someday, but I never had the chance to experience anything outside the castle by myself. Would the first time I could go out on my own also be the very last? Could it end, just like that?

Something clicked in my mind at this instant.

I couldn’t just sit there. I couldn’t just watch myself being taken away by death without doing anything. I would not let my life - all that time passed studying magic, all that time learning about the world around me - go to waste that easily.

I let my emotions drive my thoughts, and body. If I wanted to live, I had to survive this fight.

I had to come out winner of this confrontation.

What I needed most right now was protection. Drawing from my last reserves of energy, I focused it on creating a shield. It appeared just in front of my extended hand, a purple globe materialising all around myself.

The globe solidified just in time, and as the bear’s claw impacted on it, it bounced away, just like a rubber ball would do on a wall. However the protection globe I had just created was too unstable and too fresh to hold against such a mighty blow, and right after the impact, the fragile shield did what unstable magic does the best:

It exploded with a loud bang, emitting a powerful shockwave around me as the very magic it was composed of dispersed in the air. For once, that spell mechanic worked for me, instead of against me, as I don’t even count how many times I had been on the receiving side of this side effect when failing my experimentations with new spells.

The bear got cast-off a few feets by the magical outburst, and he collided with the nearest tree head-first. I slowly rose to my feet completely ignoring the massive pain I was feeling in my torso. Step after step, I closed the gap between the now-stunned bear and myself. Rage was the only thing that was present in my mind, and adrenaline was rushing through my veins, making me feel unstoppable.

He was not dead, I could tell because of his rising and falling breast. “Now, you will regret that,” I said, as I began invoking one last spell.

I continued to walk slowly toward the bear, and I put my right hand in front of me, palm-up with my fingers pointed to the sky. I should not have been able to cast that last spell in a normal situation, given the fact I had already spent way too much energy. However, something drove me to push even harder on my limits. My hand was engulfed in cracking yellow flames, and a visibly red orb appeared in the center of my palm.

“...Dodge this.”

I hurled the fireball toward the bear.

I have to say, now that I think about it, I am not very proud of what I did that moment, and I don’t want to go into details of what happened next. However, in the heat of the action, killing the bear had appeared like a mandatory step toward my survival.

In retrospect, I had stunned him, probably for a long time considering the speed at which he had collided with the tree, and I was still alive. I could have left right then. But I didn’t. My emotions and instincts drove me to kill that creature when there was no need for it. I really don’t know what had took me to do such thing that day, but it happened.

That was the first time I had killed something with the real intent of doing so. Somehow, it did not really affect me, just like if it had been something out of the ordinary. I guess the fact I wasn’t really controlling myself contributed to that.

After I had done my deed, there were only ashes remaining of my foe, and a scorched, still fuming area around it. I turned away, grinning slightly, somehow satisfied with what I had done at this moment.

I limped my way back to the dirt road, ever so slowly. I had no more resources to continue walking, and my whole body was now aching. This fight had me exhausted physically, and I had probably over-used my mental resources. Adrenaline started to fade away, and it stopped inhibiting my pain a few moments later, making it come back in full force. However, I tried to go toward the city my familiar saw earlier. I could probably rest there...

Only a few more steps, and I couldn’t hold it anymore. My legs gave in, and I collapsed on the ground, on my side. I felt mentally very empty. I just stared at the ground. I could not think about anything.

The blurry form of my familiar landed in front of me. I felt sadness coming from her, but I could not understand why. My mind was so foggy...

I stared at her, as I was losing consciousness, blurr beginning to gather in my eyes.

With one last effort of will, I told her this.

“Please, save me.”

Then, there was only darkness.