Once More, Unto the Breach

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

    Chapter 11

I drifted back awake, pain fluttering around the back of my
head. I whimpered, reaching back to touch my skull. I
received a stronger flair of pain, but not as bad as it was
before.

Looking up my eyes focused on the pair of people in front of
me. One of them was Sora, who was actually there, and not
one of the delusions I was having before.

The second one was what shocked me. She was an elf, one of
the few I had ever seen. She looked like a young girl, so I
guessed she was maybe in her thirties or more. Long brown
hair that draped down her shoulders, the tips of her ears
pushing though. She also seemed to be the source of what
light was in the cave.

I slowly raised myself up into a sitting position. The elf
looked at me, whipping some blood from her face. She then
turned to Sora and said something in a slightly chirping
bird-like language. Sora responded back in the same tongue.

That must of meant that she didn't have a translator, at
least that was the leap of half formed logic I made at the
time. Her world wasn't part of the council, at least as a
full-verse, if she was she would have had some sort of
translator working in one of the basic universal languages.

Suddenly something suck into my mind. "Sora!" I said and
jumped over to hug her.

She gasped, not having expected that. She was shocked but
finally hugged me back. "Miss me?" She asked with a slight
smile.

I shook my head, winching a bit as I did so. "They said you
had been killed."

She gave me a smug look. "The solders were to scared to kill
me, so they threw me down a bottomless pit. Then sounds like
they lied about it."

I rubbed the back of my head. "Yes, I went down that pit
myself. Though it's not as bottomless as they would like to
think."

She paused for a second as the elf said something. "Oh yes,
Fox this is Jadin." She said.

I nodded to the elf. "Welcome, though I think you find that
you've landed yourself in a huge mess."

Jadin looked at Sora, and she gave her a short translation,
the elf gave a quick response.

"She said that she guess as much." Jadin then said something
else. "She also said she doesn't even know how she got
here."

I let out a low whistle. "Oh shit... that's might be even
worse."

Jadin continued to speak, and Sora continued translating,
"she was hiking when some kind of vortex of light opened in
front of her and sucked her in. She woke up here."

I groaned. "She's a natural..."

Jadin gave Sora a puzzled look as my comment was translated,
though after a second she smiled, quipping something out.
"She also said that you should thank her for healing you, it
saved your life."

I frowned. "How?" I asked, feeling the back of my head, the
pain was slowly fading. I suddenly felt dumb for having
asked that. Here this lady is, glowing magically, and I
wanted to know how she healed me.

"The back of your skull was cracked."

I winched a bit. "I though it was just a concussion, and I
thank for it them. I'm also glad she was here, it was...
convenient." I actually didn't like it at all myself. It was
_too_ convenient for my taste, with that and the anti-power
spell.

Sora passed it on, then looked back at me. "Why did you ask
if it was me?"

I rubbed the back of my head again. "I was getting
delusional. Seeing and hearing things that where not real."

She leaned forward. "Such as?"

I shook my head, and frowned, "that's it really." It
actually wasn't it, I just didn't want to tell her what I
had been seeing as I found that I unnerved me a bit.

She sighed, pulling her wings around her body. "Very well
then, how long have you been down here?"

I glanced at my watch. "About an hour I think." I said,
realizing that it was actually working (it hadn't been
before). With a quick press I turned like light-band on, it
activated, sending a flash of light down the tunnel. I
turned it back off after a few seconds.

"What was that about?"

I stood up, shaking my head as I was suddenly dizzy. "Just
checking something. I think we should get going, we have to
get back to the castle as fast as we can. We don't have much
time anymore."

Sora stood as well saying something to Jadin. She stood as
well, saying a long string of her language to Sora. Sora
brightened up instantly. "She can find us a way out!"

I looked at both of them. "Why hasn't she already?"

The response was quick. "She said she has, but meet some of
the local population and freaked, she came back here." There
was another pause. "That was about a week ago."

I smiled. "Smart lady, if she can get us into the valley
this will be a lot easier then wondering around hoping we
can find the way ourself."

"She thinks she can."

I clapped my hands lightly, and turned the light-band on.
"Just have her point the way then."

* * *

"How is the translation going?" Kalie asked as she entered
the dinning hall.

I whipped some ink from the fur of my paws. "Slowly. Ken was
right, this is some kind of dragon repellent spell. I'm just
not sure how to expand it, or how we can to do it with-out
him."

She sighed, "We may have no choice, he's getting worse. I'm
considering going back to get a special forces team from
Prid, or at least a doctor."

"That's illegal." I said in a semi-monotone as I wrote down
more of the scribe's dictation from the actual notes on the
spell.

"I know," Kalie said with a sigh, sitting down next to me.
"But unless we can get this spell done, I would be willing
to forfeit my life."

I frowned. "Even assuming Ken does recover enough to do the
spell what then? We still have a few thousand solders that
will arrive in a day or less."

"Get as many as we can out of here and surrender. Unless we
can come up with something better before then."

I set the pen down and waves to the scribe to stop, wiping
my paws off again. "So, how is Thrysten?" I asked, trying to
change the topic.

She shook her head. "She isn't doing very well. I think she
ripped off some of the muscles around her shoulders."

The conversation faltered at that point. Finally after a
minute had pasted I spoke again. "How can we do this spell
with out Ken?"

She leaned forward a bit, "I think there might be someone
else who can do cast it."

That suddenly cheered me up, I smiled a bit. "Who?"

Kalie gave me a hard look, the kind people always get before
they deliver some bad news. "I think you can do it."

I jumped back a few inches. "What?! You've got to be
kidding, I can't do magic! What I did for Fox was all
pre-done and pre-made. I just had to go though the motions
of the spell."

Kalie shook her head. "You do not 'just go though the
motions' with any kind of magic. You either have the talent,
and it works, or it just doesn't work."

I growled, not wanting something more to fuck up my life.
"Fine, if you say so! But even if I can do magic, I can
_not_ do something like this!" I waved down at the paper in
front of me.

She nodded. "No, you can't, not directly. You don't have
enough skill, control or power. But Ken does. If you can
find some way to connect to his mind, telepathicly or though
other means, he can do the spell, but though your body."

I leaned back slightly in my chair. "This is not what I
need."

"There's not much of a choice, if you can do this you must
do this."

I sighed, leaning forward and resting my head in my arms.
"Fine, fine if I can do any kind of magic I'll try it."

Kalie patted me on the back. "You can Oriana, remember
that."

I nodded, raising my head. "Get me Ken's satchel then."

She stood, and started out, then stopped, looking back over
her shoulder. "You haven't said what happened to Fox, and
Sora."

I sighed. "I last saw Fox diving into a pit, and Sora is
dead."

"Then so be it," she whispered, and walked out of the hall.

-----

This story is (c) 1997 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.