Original Stories Fan Fiction / Fables/Fairytales Fan Fiction ❯ The Elementalists ❯ Twenty-one - Hyrrokkin ( Chapter 21 )

The ogre loomed over them, taking one large step forward, making him within ten feet of the four. “Well,” murmured Ilias, “I have heard that ogres have a weak spot. I can't recall where it is, though.”

 

Florian cursed under his breath. `It's hard to believe that someone as smart as him forgets things too,' he thought bitterly. “We'll have to do this a different way then. Will spells work against him?” he asked. Ilias nodded. “Here goes nothing, then.” Florian brought his hands together, his pointer and middle fingers pointing straight up towards the sky. He muttered a curse and instantly, a purple-black smoke was surrounding the ogre.

 

Chi and Feng instinctively covered their mouth and noses, afraid the poisonous smoke would affect them as well. “Don't worry,” said Ilias, not holding his own breath. “Florian put a barrier around us so the poison wouldn't hurt us.” After making sure they could sense the barrier, the two girls put their hands down.

 

The ogre wobbled backwards, coughing and waving his big arms around. But once the smoke cleared, the ogre looked angrily at Florian. “You've made me very angry!” it shouted, taking the club on his back into his hands. “Now you're gonna pay!” It sluggishly swung its old, rotted wooden club towards the group. The four jumped out of the way, feeling the small earthquake the force of the swing had caused rumble beneath their feet.

 

“Damn,” cursed Ilias. “They weren't kidding about his strength, I'll give them that.” He took out his bow and aimed, but the ogre had already struck again. Barely able to jump away from the swing, Ilias cursed at the fresh cut on his face. `He's faster than normal ogres, too,' he thought viciously. He pushed himself back up and dodged another swing, jumping up into a tree. Chi was using her Earth wielding powers to move the ground around, making the ogre stagger vulnerably. Once it was steady enough, Ilias quickly aimed and shot an arrow straight at the ogre's head. Upon impact with its eye, the ogre shouted out in agony.

 

“Perfect shot,” he muttered, jumping down from the tree. The ogre looked extremely livid now. “Uh-oh.” He stepped back as the ogre roared furiously.

 

The ogre swung his club aimlessly, nearly knocking Florian's head off. Cursing, he cast an illusion spell, mirroring their images so the ogre would think they were on the other side.

 

The ogre fell for it, turning around to swing at the nonexistent figures. Feng powered up her spiritual energy, forming a large ball of white energy between her palms. When the illusion faded away and the ogre slowly turned around, she threw the ball of energy straight at it's head, knocking him out.

 

After checking two or three times to be safe that he was completely unconscious, Ilias called for Captain Skyler on his communicator. “Captain, we've knocked out Hyrrokkin the Ogre. I take it the Ministry will handle it from this point?” he asked.

 

“Ah, yes,” replied the Captain, stroking his chin thoughtfully on the other end of the conversation. “I'll send officers over immediately, and they'll take him away to the jail. There's a portal a little north-west of your current position, so they'll be coming through there. Once they've taken the ogre through, close up the portal right away.” Ilias nodded and shut the communicator.

 

Once all four of them had caught their breath, they sat down near the ogre. Florian had tied it up with rope they stored in the pack. “Well, is anyone hungry?” asked Ilias, leaning against a tree and unpacking a loaf of bread.

 

 

Guren snarled in annoyance, being hounded by his fellow companions. “You shouldn't have said it like that, you know!” exclaimed Kai irately. “Feng killed her own little sister when she first used her true powers.”

 

“Yeah,” agreed Candis, equally angry although she looked quite grave. “And I… I burnt down an entire village once, when I used those powers. You may have it bad, but you don't know how hard it is to live with that. Killing innocent people just because you can't control your own powers…”

 

Guren winced, the girls' guilt and shame swarming through his head. He staggered, causing them to rush over to him. “What's wrong with you?” asked Eryk, shaking Guren's shoulders. “Hey! Don't pass out on us!”

 

Guren awoke roughly half an hour after he had passed out, finding himself being carried on Eryk's back. He blinked a few times, absorbing the environment and his strange position. “Um…” he mumbled, his limbs tingling from his sense of touch rushing back into him.

 

Eryk grumbled, “'Bout time you woke up. You've been out for a for a whole half hour!” He stopped, dropping Guren onto the ground, not bothering to help him up. “Don't pass out like that again. You're not exactly light.”

 

Guren growled lowly, standing up and dusting his pants and coat off. “Oh? You're not as strong as you make yourself seem, then,” he commented, stuffing his hands in his coat pockets and walking past the rest of the group.

 

It was nearly sundown and the four still hadn't sensed the copycat demon. Frustrated, they decided that it would be best to set up camp early and continue their search the next day. They ate their dinner of bread and water, then talked amongst themselves about strategies to defeat the copycat demon once they found it.

 

Tonight, it was Candis's turn to be on guard. Though it was no problem for her because she was wide awake anyway. She sat against one of the trees they camped next to, staring up at the night sky. `I love the night,' she thought to herself, her eyes scanning the dark sky until they found the brightly lit moon. `The moon is so beautiful.'

 

She flinched when she heard someone sitting up, groaning exasperatedly when she saw that it was only Eryk. He was sitting up scratching his head, his eyes tired. He looked at her with a blank expression on his face. After a minute of his staring, she whacked him on the head. “Why are you staring at me like that?” she demanded. Blushing, Eryk rubbed the back of his head where she had hit him.

 

“Dunno,” he muttered, looking away. He paused for a long moment, creating an awkward silence between the two. Finally, he asked, though tentatively, “Have you ever heard that saying, `in order to be loved you must love in return?'”

 

Candis tried not to let her mouth hang open, but the random question had honestly surprised her. “U-um, yes, I've… heard it before,” she stammered, looking down into her hands resting on her lap. Eryk sighed quietly as he lifted Candis's face back up to eye level. She tried to hide her face, for her cheeks were now burning up.

 

“Er, Candis…” he started, moving closer to her. She was stuck, unable to move; paralyzed, almost, although she willed every limb in her body to lean back. Eryk's face inched closer to hers, until their lips were mere centimeters apart…

 

Kai bolted up out of her sleep, gasping with her eyes wide. “Did you feel that?!” she asked frantically as Guren, too, sat up. “It felt like an earthquake…”

 

Blushing, Candis and Eryk moved far away from each other, hoping their little moment went on unnoticed. Candis stumbled across her words as she replied, “Y-yeah, what was that? I wonder if it's that ogre, or maybe even Chi…”

 

“I doubt it,” said Guren, rather resignedly. He sighed and laid back down, saying goodnight once more.

 

“Do you really think we should just brush this off?” Kai asked worriedly. “I mean, it could have been another demon or a monster for all we know.”

 

Guren rolled his eyes, sitting back up. “If it makes you feel any better at all, I feel no emotions nor aura coming from anywhere surrounding us. Only you three's. That was a real earthquake, my dear,” he answered, mocking Ilias's overuse of the pet name `dear.' “The ones that are usually caused by shifting of the rocks. Faults, I believe they're called.” Once again he laid back down, rolling over to face the trees as he left the three to once again yell at him for being sarcastic.

 

Kai glared at him for a while, then shrugged it off and decided to go back to bed as well. After all, she didn't sense any unnatural forces either.

 

Candis sighed in relief, leaning her weight back onto the tree. Eryk murmured a small goodnight, and went back to bed. `What on earth was that?' she asked herself, her cheeks growing warm as she recalled the previous event. `It's as if he was about to…' She let her thoughts trail off, though it still bothered her in the back of her head.