Chapter five

The silence was stony.

 Tallix wasn’t used to silence in general. Even when he’s alone he is banging on a piece of metal or even just singing out loud, but he could handle calm silence. 

 This was not a calm silence.

 The merman, who Thalene had finally gotten to admit was named Sirion, was riding the back of Pyth and glaring at everyone, Calicka was walking behind Thalene, Tallix strongly suspected she wasn’t flying because of Thalene’s position, and Tallix?

 Was not quite sure what he was doing. He was, as his mother had put it, just barely in his teens, and when you consider how elves marked the passage of time, he was probably as useful as Pyth was, maybe Pyth was more useful since he could breathe fire now that Tallix was thinking about it.

 Calicka suddenly broke away from Thalene and shot straight up in the air. Sirion grabbed onto his weapon as if he thought that the fairy would go after Pyth again, which if Tallix was being honest was a fair assumption.

 Instead the fairy sent a bolt of something, Tallix forgot that they were a species that could use minor spells, which brought to mind the question of why she had not done that earlier, into the shadows.

 

 There was nothing.

 And then…

 “ROAR!!!!”

 An identical creature from before came running out of the shadows and surprise, surprise, it tackled Calicka. 

 Was it the same creature as before or did it just bear a very very strong resemblance? He didn’t know which one to hope for/

“I know you’ve said you don’t know what they are but they seem to have something against you.” Thalene commented something that Tallix wanted to comment if given the chance.

 Calicka couldn’t glare at his mother because she was too busy trying to buck the huge creature off of her, so all Thalene got as a result for her comment was a grunt.

 Sirion made a clicking noise with his tongue and Pyth suddenly body slammed the creature, getting it off of Calicka, who probably had a few new scratches but at this point it was hard to tell.

 Tallix watched his mother, his middle aged, prefers to stay at home and live the quiet life mother, pick up a rock  and throw it at the creature for good measure.

 Yeah, Tallix was starting to really believe he was useless. 

 “What in Molianal was that thing?” He could, however, ask questions. And he could cheer them on. Those things were helpful, right?

 Calicka turned to him, probably with a retort that she already told him she didn’t know, when the creature rose up again, this time knocking Sirion and Pyth out of the air.

 Okay, Tallix could do this...he made weapons on a daily basis, (don’t tell his mother!) he should be able to find something he can use as one.

  As he finally grabbed one of Sirion’s disregarded spears, there was an eerie quiet and a bright flash of purple light that encased them all.

 Tallix was accustomed to darker places so he wasn’t really able to see, but he was told later that it had turned the creature into ashes, which were then blown away.

 He heard a thump behind him which made him whirl around and try to use the spear. Just because the creature was destroyed didn’t mean that they were out of the woods just yet.

 He earned a laugh from the being behind him, who wore the cape and medallion of the sorceress/sorcerer. Her hair was long and dark, but that’s the only really distinguishing feature about the newcomer. Her face was entirely obscured by a blue mask, eyes included.

 While his other “companions” noticed the newcomer, they got into attack poses which was really stupid because everyone knew the only way you could defeat a sorcerer/sorceress was to be one yourself! But you could put up a fight he guessed...

 However, the newcomer just held up one gloved hand. “A Corruptican.”

“A what?” Thalene spoke first.

“A Corruptican, that’s what that thing was.”

 They all made eye contact but it was Tallix, who was still standing only a few inches from the sorceress, who dared to ask the question on everyone’s mind.

“And those are…?” They seemed like something they should really know about.

“I’ll tell you all after we get out of the open and find a place to camp.” It didn’t escape anyone’s notice that she had said “We”, but before anyone could make a comment or a protest, she had turned her attention fully to Tallix.

 “You'll need a bit more practice if you want to use that thing.” She took the spear from him and even though he could not see her face, he knew she was grinning.

 He shot a glare at Calicka when she laughed at that.