She was drifting off to sleep when suddenly she became acutely aware of
the crystal orb. It was in the
bags that were still laced across the saddle. Flindra hadn't thought of the crystal since she had left
home. Without thinking, she
reached into her saddlebag and found the sphere. She immediately felt an intense vibration as she clutched
the crystal in her hand. It was as
if the orb was suddenly pulsating with life.
The night was dark, but the sphere reflected enough starlight to
glow. Flindra felt the familiar
pull of the orb and found herself looking into its depths. The vortex of colors radiated through
her mind until it was nearly painful.
The face of Kewero appeared after a flash of blinding white light.
"Make haste and leave your camp. There is great danger!
Use the crystal to guide your way through the darkness." A sense of urgency accompanied the
words into her mind.
Within the span of a few moments, Flindra had saddled Deru, tied her
belongings behind the cantle and was on her way. She moved the crystal from side to side and noticed that it
glowed faintly when pointed due north.
The orb was glowing with an internal light and not, as before, with
reflected starlight. Despite the
darkness, Flindra galloped Deru in the direction indicated by the orb.
She had traveled for about a league when the entire ground trembled and
groaned. Flindra was nearly
unseated as Deru stumbled. The
horse regained his footing and continued on at a dead run. He was just as frightened as his rider
was.
Turning in her saddle, she looked back and saw that the entire area
surrounding her camp was ablaze.
The fire reflected in the sky creating the illusion of a second
sunset. She muffled a scream in
the back of her throat for an overwhelming horror overtook her as she
fled. She wondered what power
existed that could turn night into day.
Flindra now looked at the crystal in her hand. It had turned blood red - she could sense feelings of
outrage and anger emanating from the sphere.
The smoke from the fire finally overtook her and she gagged in its
choking coils of dense vapors. The
fumes possessed an odor that she couldn't immediately recognize. It almost smelled like scorched dirt
but it was far more intense. Then
she figured it out. The smoke
carried the scent of life burning.
It was a smell of burning hair and flesh and green things and damp
soil. The body of the world had
been assaulted.
A league farther on, the smoke finally dissipated and Flindra felt it
was safe to pause and get her bearings.
She slowed Deru to a trot and then to a stop. He strained at the bit and was eager to get away.
"Easy old friend," she cautioned in a soothing tone. "We need to find out where we are
supposed to go. It won't do us
much good if we run right into another trap."
First, she closed her eyes and bowed her head in reverence. "Thank You, Spirit, for keeping me
safe. Somehow, I sense Kewero is
Your agent tonight and You warned me through her. Thank You."
She opened her eyes and noticed the orb no longer glowed when directed
north. Flindra guessed it would
shine when pointed to the east since that was the direction to the pass over
the Greyfell Mountains. Instead,
it glowed when she rotated it to the west. She reined Deru in a westerly direction and urged him into a
trot for he could keep up this gait for hours. She wanted to go faster but she couldn't run him into
exhaustion. As frightened as she
was she couldn't abandon good judgment in her hurry to escape.
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