Another Short Storeh

The Forest Fugitive

A sound was heard in the forest a ways off from the search party. A few of the men turned to look for the source, but after several minutes spent straining their eyes, the group moved on. When the men had walked nearly thirty yards from the edge, he slipped out.

He walked across the dirt trail, careful not to make a sound. If he made a noise, they would turn and spot him and he was in no condition to run at the moment. When he was halfway across the road, one of the townspeople stopped and studied the woods for a long while. He lay flat against the ground, hoping the eyes of the man hadn't caught his swift movement. Apparently the search member was only studying a break in the trees, for he resumed his search with the others soon afterwards.

A sigh escaped the fugitive's lungs and he slowly lifted himself off the ground. Several seconds later he was across the path and into the forest on the other side. His hobbling steps frustrated him, but he had to be patient and wait for his leg to heal. A few moments later, he was leaning against a tree trunk, catching his breath. His legs couldn't take him any further, no matter how much he was willing to force them. With a rapid swipe and a hollow thud, his claws sank deep into the trunk and he proceeded to pull himself up into the tree.

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Coming home from a good night's hunt, an owl landed on the branch leading to it's hole. It peered into the darkness at the shape blocking its way when a solid fist slammed into it's body, sending the bird flying above the trees, and then landing without the slightest motion to control its path.

The fugitive was wide awake now that the ugly bird had startled him. He lifted off the branch and maneuvered his body so that he straddled the large limb. Torchlights could still be seen through the branches below as the townspeople desperately tried to find their lost holy boy. He would have let himself fall asleep again had the thought of his position in the daylight not come to mind. There was no way he would let the men find him snoring away in the upper branches of a tree. With aching muscles and a hissed oath, he worked himself down the branch, holding on with his arms and swinging from side to side. Many times he transitioned from tree to tree before he fell.

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This time he did not stay unconscious quite so long. With a start, he brought himself to a sitting position and scanned the area. He didn't remember a thing about this part of the forest other than how red the tree looked in front of him. Of course the tree wasn't red, he was just so fatigued that he blacked out. The urgency of his escape immediately came to mind again, and he managed to climb to his feet.

With surprise and relief, the fugitive felt his legs grow stronger by the minute. Soon he was jogging stealthily through the woods and over small bluffs. A wide stream flowed before him and he jumped over it with gleeful ease. With a smile on his face and a newfound store of energy, he made his way through the woods and out to the fields beyond.

The waves of land and grasse befor him caused him to pause in his sprint and take the beauty of it in. The moment didn't last very long as he picked his spirits up again and continued on his trek to the edge of the hills. A few minutes later, he found himself at the base of a shallow slope. One lone sapling guarded a formation of shaped rocks and a pile of wood. The fugitive dug at the earth beneath one of the plant's larger roots and soon he held a stone key. With apprehension, he fit the carved stone in between two cracks in the rock formation and turned. A sharp crack was heard far and wide as the wooden structure snapped under the weight of one of the stones. When everything was settled, there stood a stone pedestal with a blue sculpture on top surrounded by several large, hollowed-out stone blocks laying on the ground.

The fugitive took the idol and fastened it around his belt with the leather strap looped through a hole in the idol's forehead. Immediately thereafter, a sense of extreme strength and vigor coursed through his body and the surrounding area. A leap enabled by the magic held within the sculpture sent him flying through into the night sky, well above the treetops of the forest. He did not stop there, however. With a quick turn of his body, the beast changed course, directly aimed at the village fires within the woods.

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The two-story tower at the edge of the village was being manned by a child tonight since every man in the village was out looking for their lost link to the gods. He was trying to be wary and look in every direction, but this was his first time in the tower and he was frightened by the height. He would look between the floorboards of the platform every once in a while to make sure he didn't slip between, no matter how unlikely that was.

It was during one of these spells of fear that the blue speck appeared in the sky. He had seen it before then, of course. It looked like a very bright star and so it caught his attention, but his anxiety was more important in his mind and he quickly looked away.

The star grew ever larger and it drew more and more attention. Few women were outside that night for there was little protection with their men gone, but those who did sit by the village fires were taken aback by the sudden appearance of the bright blue star. The children playing outside looked on in amazement as green flares burst forth from the star like embers in a fire. Their wonderment soon turned into fear as the object grew in size more rapidly and many fled to their homes.

The few bold onlookers who watched the beast descend upon their village were among those who saw him last.

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As he neared the reddened huts of the village, the creature changed position and brought his arms back behind his body. With a powerful thrust of his arms, twin jets of green fire burst out of his palms and landed onto the outermost hut. The terrified occupants ran out of the building, alight with green flame, and collapsed outside. The rest of the village ventured from their relative safety long enough to see their friends scorched to death. With the speed of a herd of deer, the villagers flew from their abodes and slipped into the woods.

Seeing the fear his magic instilled in those who saw him, the beast landed in the middle of the village in ecstacy only a god could know. He walked toward the largest of the dozen buildings in the clearing and stepped inside. A shrine to the goddess of rain was set up within the temple and he peered into a cauldron holding various herbs.

A flood of memories filled him as he stared into the vessel, front and foremost of which was the young man the humans were looking for. The demon had enjoyed fighting a battle of magic with the boy, but he knew more of the arcane arts, and dark magics always win when the light is contained within a novice.

He also remembered how sweet the boy's spirit tasted and how he hid the body within a gorge just outside the village. Along with this memory came that of the demon's unfortunate encounter with a planebear. The spirit had sensed the boy's magic fading and so it came to protect the young master. It was too late to save him, but it at least tried to avenge the human's death. The demon escaped, however, when he slipped into the bear's plane and out again before the spirit was able to get back itself.

He suffered a terrible injury, nonetheless, and was ashamed when he realized he could only save himself by using the humans' lowly magical artifacts. Still, the idol was powerful enough to save his own magic and that was quite impressive for a human relic.

The demon sat pondering over the death of the young holy man and the events of the past few days when he backed out....

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This time he awoke entangled inside a pile of logs. The demon tried to crawl out to no avail. He wrenched at the logs and broke a few of them, but still he was stuck in the pile. Dumbfounded and trying to remember how this may have happened, the demon ended his struggle and focused on using his magic. His body glowed blue and then the bright green flames jumped from his body, igniting the wood andnot moving him even an inch.

The beast was still amazed at his predicament when a familiar face appeared before him. It was the holy boy.

The young man began to tell him of the planebear and how ignorant the demon was of the location he chose to bury the boy's body. It happened to be next to a portal to the astral plane and the bear was able to drag his body through it. Once there, the boy's spirit and his body were reunited and bacame whole once more. The bear taught him magics he never could have used before then and when he finally left for his home dimension, the young holy man was more powerful than even the demon.

The boy snuck behind him after following the beast's fiery trail and he let loose an array of spells and incantations that knocked the demon out, bound him, buried him and wounded him underneath the bonfire pile.

Upon hearing this, the demon was so infuriated that he managed to break one of his arms free of the spell, but it was too late. The magical flames the boy unleashed were stronger than his own and he could not combat them.

The demon was sent back to the underworld to be used by the Dark Lord in a few hundred years, much too late to seek revenge on the holy man that conquered him.



The End


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