Dawn found Flindra creeping stealthily through the dense
grass of the swamp south of Ladh. The
grass was taller than she was so Flindra had a hard time seeing what was
ahead. This swamp grass was like nothing
she had ever encountered. It was as
sharp as a knife along the edges, which made for difficult travel. The ground beneath the grass was soggy with
stagnant water and the area reeked of rotting vegetation.
Flindra had examined the area with her crystal orb before
she had left her cot this morning. She
knew that before them, a mile into the swamp, was a higher area that was free
of the swampy waters. Along this ridge,
the swamp grass gave way to a dense growth of briar bushes and small
trees. The higher area might provide a
place to quarter troops. What she
couldn't understand was why anyone would want to hide troops in this awful
place.
Sergeant Leitho was following a few paces behind her. She could hear the sucking sound that came
whenever he pulled a foot out of the muck.
Lieutenant Kalmyk generally assigned him to accompany her whenever she
was sent ahead to scout. She suspected
it was his way of providing an element of protection for her.
Flindra saw several birds take to flight and instinctively
dropped to the ground. She heard Leitho
doing the same. As she lay in the mud,
he slowly crawled up to her.
"See anything?"
he whispered.
"Birds," Flindra replied in a whisper and pointed
to the area where the birds had left.
They lay still for several more minutes and heard nothing
more. Flindra was about to get up when
she felt a warning pulse from the crystal orb, which was tucked beneath her
tunic. This was a new occurrence for
her. The only time she had experienced
anything remotely similar was the time she had triggered the Ansu trap when she
was seeking Kewero.
The crystal orb was obviously sensing some danger. If Leitho hadn't been there, she would have
pulled the sphere from her tunic to see if she could project her mind to the
danger. Since she didn't have that
option, she instead concentrated on directing Rigga's power shield in front of
her, being careful not to overlap her sergeant in the aura. She needed to find out who or what was out
there.
Rigga's aura didn't encounter anything but a few small
animals hiding in the grass. Flindra
still couldn't explain the warning.
There must be something out there she simply wasn't picking up with the
power shield.
Flindra started to move, inching forward on her
stomach. The short hair on her back stood
up with a wave of nervous fear that passed through her. She breathed deeply to calm herself and she
was using every ounce of awareness she could muster.
The early morning sun was
just high enough in the sky to start shining in the grass. Flindra saw a momentary reflection off
something shiny. She froze again and
forced her eyes to see - to see something, anything. A ray of sun broke through the grass and the
object reflected again
No comments:
Post a Comment