The Spirit Wilds: Magic of the Green Sage (Fall of the Sages Book 1), стр. 47

15

Tuni

The hike back to Tuni’s home was a grueling one, because she was still exhausted from the previous day’s battle with the knights and the rock golem. She wished that things didn’t have to go down like that. So much death, needless death that could have been avoided if only the knights would have listened to Gayla and stayed out of her way.

Now they were dead, and Tuni saw their blank, lifeless faces every time she shut her eyes.

The fight made her want to see her mom and sister again. She would continue to apprentice with the sage, though, learn all she could. The fight had shown her the realities of the sage’s life, but it didn’t scare Tuni away. She wanted it more than ever. The sage saved people, saved spirits and animals too. She wanted to be a part of that.

She just wanted to see her family and friends again, let them know she was okay, and that she loved them. And to tell Mom how sorry I am.

Gayla walked beside her, whistling a jig as she skipped along, her staff stretched across her shoulders, arms over the top of it. She looked so much like a girl Tuni’s age then, and not like the thousand-year-old magical being that she was.

“You’ve been awfully quiet, my dear,” Gayla said with a smile and an arched brow. “Something on your mind?”

Tuni kept her eyes ahead. She swallowed hard. “I’m just thinking about the fight. About…about those knights.”

“Hm. I understand. It’s hard to see death, especially when it could have been avoided. I’ve seen it far too many times, more than any living person on this earth probably, and it still hits me hard.”

Tuni nodded. It wasn’t exactly reassuring, but knowing that this all powerful being felt the same made her feel a bit better.

They walked on in relative silence for a few more miles. Gayla could have magically teleported them to her village at any time, but Tuni had declined the offer. She wanted to return as she’d left—on her own two feet, her own strength. No magic. Gayla understood and had insisted on accompanying her. Tuni hadn’t protested, since she could probably help explain some things to her mother.

Before long, the surroundings grew familiar to Tuni. A shriveled old mushroom she’d carved her name into. A grove of gold-leafed yuta trees, the largest of which had a rope tied to it that she and her friends had swung from as kids. She was almost home.

But as they approached, the air felt off. It was cold, too cold. And it was absolutely silent. No chirps or chitters or the low giggles and words of sprites. Nothing. The wilds were…well, wild. They were always teeming with life and sound and activity. When things went silent… That meant something very bad.

“Something’s not right,” the sage echoed, as if reading her thoughts. For all Tuni knew, maybe she could.

Suddenly, the ground shook, and a boom resounded from ahead. Then, a bone-chilling roar cut through the air. It made every hair on her body stand straight up. It sounded unnatural, evil. She’d heard the roar of beasts and spirits all her life, but this was something else. This sound made her want to weep and run and hide and never see the light of day.

And it was coming from the direction of her village.

“What was that?” she asked in a harsh whisper.

Gayla was completely still, her eyes sharp and forward. Her grip on her staff was so hard her knuckles were white. “I haven’t heard a sound like that in a very long time.”

“But what is it?”

“A demon.”

Tuni’s skin rippled with gooseflesh and her veins ran cold with ice. She’d heard stories of demons—monstrous beasts of pure malice and evil, those that could only be summoned into their world from another plane—but that was all she thought they were. Stories. For an ancient sage to tell her that they were real? Frightening.

That also meant there was one by her village. No…

Oh gods, no…

Tuni took off at a sprint for home. Gayla yelled for her to stop, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t run from this.

As she approached the edge of the forest, birds, mice, small sprites, and all manner of other creatures fled in the opposite direction, their distress and fear rolling off them in palpable waves. But still, she would not stop. She would keep going, even if what she was about to see would break her heart.

She had hope, but then she broke through the tree line and saw her home.

It was like the mountain town, only worse. The houses and shops of her village were nothing but piles of smoldering rubble. There were some screams, but not many. She saw the baker stagger through the fields, blood dripping down his face. Old Mister Javen hobbled south, the limp body of his wife in his shaking arms.

Those were the only people Tuni could see, the only people moving, as she kept running. But the demon… Oh, she could see the demon.

It was a towering monster of ink-black skin, and as she got closer, she felt as if the skin was moving. It had a smile as wide as an ox cart and a body as wide and tall as a house. It was the most terrifying thing she’d ever seen, but she still ran toward it. Thoughts of her own life and safety flew out of her mind. All that mattered were her mother and sister.

She came around the smithy, now rubble, careful to keep herself out of sight of the monster. Nearby, the demon let out an ear-splitting cry and destroyed another wall or roof with a boom. That was accompanied by a