Editing Kanimaeli - Spirit of Air (section)

==Hunted==

We returned to report back and hear what the others had discovered, but now we needed to stay for the remainder of the day and rest overnight. Once more, I kept watch as the sun set and the others settled down. It was only an hour later, though, when I heard sounds approaching from the north like barking canines. There were a dozen, perhaps more, and there was an excited note to the barking so I thought they might be following our scent. I woke the others, anticipating trouble... well, except for Xlotl as he was invisible and not moving!

As the creatures started getting closer we could see that they were small humanoids, and had a loose line stretched from west to east advancing on us chaotically. I called out in Common Elemental, but there was no response, so I tried just Common. There were a few isolated voices in response, but their cries of "we're coming" and "we're going to eat you" were hardly reassuring! Xlotl had woken at some point and now spoke, making me jump, likening the creatures to the ones we encountered in the old temple under the control of the Saloroc.

There were lots of them out there, but Antinniera was not intimidated and ran forward screaming like a banshee! Well we certainly had their attention, and she was quickly surrounded by the small creatures trying to stab her with rusty daggers. They seemed to be struggling, though; perhaps they were as surprised as we were by the sudden charge? Pi stepped forward and somehow caused a pile of horrible stinking meat to appear! Well, that reeked! I hoped the creatures found it slightly less revolting than I did. I moved forward, trying to scare them off by asking where their masters were, and warning that they didn't want to fight us as we were their betters. They obviously felt that there were enough of them to overpower us, though, as it made no impression on them.

Xlotl used dweomer to better effect, saying that we were their friends, and had even created food for them. Some, perhaps half a dozen, did stop and cocked their heads at Xlotl quizzically. I tapped one sharply on its head with Storm, shouting "stop it!" I was trying to subdue them, and was surprisingly successful as it fell unconscious with just a single tap!Antinniera swung her halberd over the heads of the horde trying to surround her, perhaps trying to intimidate them as well, but there were still more coming from the darkness. I shouted "this is what happens when you don't listen", caving one's head in with another blow from Storm.

Pi joined the fight, and as his hammer connected with a foe there was a massive shock that ripped through the ground and out from the impact. I felt it even though I was twenty yards away, one foe was pulverized and another mortally wounded, whilst one staggered backwards in pain. Even Antinniera was hurt by it, putting her off her own swing. Xlotl was farther back and unaffected, and he used his mind to stop four foes in their tracks. I had been surrounded, but was able to strike one down.

Pi kept swinging, thankfully not with quite the same impact, although he nearly destroyed one foe with a crushing blow. He was stabbed in the side, but shrugged it off. Antinniera cut straight through one, then a second, and accidentally killed the creature I had knocked unconscious earlier. There was a lot of momentum in her blow!

There was another group moving about in the north, but I couldn’t see much in the darkness, it was controlled by someone, though, as we heard a horn sound from their direction. The sound wasn’t that deep, but it carried well in the darkness; we wouldn’t be able to stay here for long! Antinniera was surrounded again and seemed to suffer more than the rest of us as several daggers made small cuts – individually weak but starting to add up. I was still trying to encourage the ones nearest me to take more interest in the food rather than us, shouting that they should “go eat”. I knocked another one out with a sharp blow to the head, saying “Back! Stop it!"

Antinniera swung her halberd again, cutting clean through two of them in one swing, finally embedding the blade in a third and killing them too! Pi smashed one's head in with a powerful blow as well, both holding our left flank securely. Unfortunately, the violence did seem to affect some of the creatures that had been enamoured to Xlotl, snapping them out of their momentary pause. I knocked another one out, still telling them to stop,  but it was clear that trying to avoid too much violence wasn’t going to work. Antinniera was hit multiple times again as more creatures filled the gaps she was creating, although Pi smashed one of them down.

Xlotl warned of more threats to the north as two horns answered the initial signal – we really needed to leave but were too heavily engaged. Antinniera cut through just about every foe near her with two big swings of her halberd, and she was surrounded by bodies of the fallen. Pi swung and there was another shake of the ground as the creature he struck exploded into bits of goo! The effect was so strong that it even hurt Pi, and I was glad that I was some distance away on our right flank.

I tried shouting into the darkness to call off the dog creatures, as we were for Admir, but there was no response. I shouted to the others that we needed to get out of there, caving in the skull of another foe as I did so, but wary that the pile of food Pi had created was now gone and more would soon be on me. Pi had cleared his foes out now, and Antinniera backed off to help Xlotl, cutting one foe in half from top to bottom. I was in danger of being overwhelmed, so I used a thunderburst to force them back and get away. The force of the Air was catastrophic for most of the creatures, though, with four almost exploding as the pressure broke their bodies, one staggering back and collapsing, and another staggering slightly while looking shocked. I didn’t wait to see what they did, though, I just ran for it!

There were many more foes visible just to the north now, certainly too many to stay and fight. I was intercepted by one as I ran, its blade just turned away by the feathers in my cloak. Pi ran up to the last one bothering Xlotl and smashed it into the ground with a single swing. I managed to twist and cut the throat of the one that intercepted me and carry on my run, avoiding having to worry about Pi’s hammer if he came to help me! I was scratched by one foe rushing up behind me, but it wasn’t too bad. Antinniera was there to deal with them, thankfully, cleaving the foe in two again!

We all started running south, away from the masses we could now see were closing in on us. I used the Air to move quickly away, which did work but I noticed that there was a weak force to the east trying to draw strength from the Air I was using. We kept moving south for about an hour at best speed, managing to pull slowly ahead of the army behind us. Pi transformed into a massive owl so that he could watch our back in the darkness. I was able to catch glimpses of what he saw when I concentrated, and there was a three-mile wide front of clumps of the dog creatures being driven south by Saloroc. They stretched into the forest to the west, but avoided the dead forest to the east by at least a hundred yards. He also saw flashes of fire many miles to the east.

Eventually we reached the river, which we heard before we could see it as the flow was quite quick here, going from west to east. Pi appeared and dropped a rabbit as an offering in front of Xlotl, who gulped it down quickly! He flew off again to the south, but quickly returned looking very agitated! I got closer to him and reached into his mind, seeing some of what he had seen.

There was a line of hills that rose sharply straight from the south bank of the river, and they were dotted with more of the dog creatures and Saloroc. They seemed to be waiting in cover, presumably to ambush us as we tried to escape our pursuers. It was clear that the river was the only way to escape. Antinniera gave her book of spells to Xlotl to hide away to keep it safe from water damage, and then dived into the water! Xlotl was comfortable in the water, obviously, and Pi could fly above it. I made use of the lapis lazuli ring, which was amazing; the Air cushioned beneath my feet and I was able to move freely on the surface of the water, comfortable and dry.

We moved quickly to the east, and thankfully the dead forest didn't close to the river for some distance beyond the boundary with the plain behind us. There was a point about six or seven miles farther on, though, where the river ran in the shadow of the dead trees. Pi glided down and landed seamlessly on my shoulder to warn us, although communication was difficult - we would have to agree some sort of code. We landed on the north bank for a few minutes to consider our options, wary that there was light in the sky now and the sun would soon be visible.

Pi went to scout south as we moved down river until we were a few hundred yards from the dead trees. Apparently he had a sense of unease as he flew up, but also a sense that there was food there! We crossed to the southern bank, reasoning that it would be harder to spot us there, but waited for Xlotl to investigate the water ahead. It was clear to Xlotl that the Water didn't like the line of the forest, and he noticed that the flow tended to move Xlotl towards the south bank. There was a natural buffering effect, though, where he sensed that the water was hemming in the forest with a point of equilibrium roughly in the middle of the river. Although the water hurried past that choke point, it slowly opened up again further to the east as the forest retreated.

While Xlotl was gone, I reached out to sense the Air, noting that the source of Air here was from the south east and that there was a dead zone to the north east, which made sense. To our south, south west and west the Air was lively but flowing gently east to west. It seemed the forest was disrupting the expected flow from east to west based just on the elements. Xlotl returned quickly to say that he had found a way forward, and all we had to do was hug the south bank as we progressed. We flowed with the water, noting a sense of foreboding as we got close to the dead trees, but felt safer as we progressed.

We were tired now though, having pressed on through the whole night. As the river rounded a corner we saw the Water open up into a huge lake. We were in full daylight now, and could see a familiar island climbing out of the water on the horizon, with a structure that we presumed was the old temple upon it. There was smoke rising from the island from different places, with fiery shapes moving in the Air. The dead forest was still to our north, stretching as far as we could see, and the hills lined the shore to the south. There was a spit of land nearby, though, that was flatter and offered a position we could defend while we rested.