Another adventure for Derek and Liam... Challenge: The story must have an air-spirit in it.
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Our bosses had put us on a rescue mission. That should have been my first clue that it was dangerous.
The hostage was a cloud nymph. Liam worked with her clan to make a tracking spell to find her. Luckily, she hadn’t been taken far outside the state line. Unluckily, she’d been taken by Hades witches for a ritual.
“So, they wanna burn her at a stake, absorb her ashes, then mix them in blood to bring light into the Underworld?” Liam asked me.
I lowered the binoculars. “Yeah.”
Liam dropped his head onto his arms. “Not awesome.”
“Nope,” I said. “Which is why we need to rescue her.”
“Yeah, but how?”
“Distraction. You get their attention, I sneak in and get the nymph.”
He frowned. “Sounds like a bad idea.”
The witches started chanting louder. “We don’t have time for good ideas, kid. Let’s go.”
The night sky and the intensity of the ritual made us less visible to the witches as we made our way down the hill. The nymph struggled and cried against the post she was tied to. Liam split away from me and I ducked lower, taking out the knife in my vest. I watched the six Hades witches continue to chant. Their leader, a broad, bald guy, used some magic to light a torch. The nymph cried louder.
Then Liam caused an explosion.
A huge fireball ignited on my right, getting the attention of all the witches. The leader shouted at his followers to go see what happened. I wasn’t worried about Liam still being there. He was smarter than that.
Once the six followers left, I made my move.
I’d hoped to sneak up on him, but he saw me out of the corner of his eye. He whirled and threw a binding spell at me. It would’ve paralyzed me if I hadn’t tucked and rolled at the last second. I came up in a crouch, the leader roaring at me and aiming a kick at my head. I caught his foot and drove my knife into his leg.
He shouted in anger and pain, but I got up and kicked him. My foot hit his ribs, making him stumble but not fall. I rushed him, punching his torso. He snarled and twisted sharply, forcing my hands away from him. He tried to punch me, but I drove the heel of my palm into his chest then finished him off by roundhouse kicking him in the head.
He wasn’t getting up, so I took my knife back and walked over to the nymph to cut her free.
“Did you see that?” Liam’s voice called.
I looked up at my brother. He was grinning from ear to ear.
“That’s probably the biggest fire I ever made!”
“You do love showing off, kid.” I looked at the nymph. Her eyes found mine, relief making them glow.
“Thank you,” she said.
Didn’t seem like much, but some days a simple thank you is all you need.
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Only 9 more days until NaNo! I'm almost ready. I know I keep saying that, but I did some test writing this morning. I stress: Test writing. I'm not getting too attached to the scenes I'm playing around with because I'm almost definitely going to change them. But I need to test writing as Derek so I can better understand how his mind works.
Also coming up in 9 days is Halloween! Aka the best non-holiday ever! I'm still thinking about what to do for that day's challenge. I might write an AoL short since it's been a long time since I've written anything Leon and Jace related... Unless someone has a better idea? I'd love to hear what you'd like to read for a monster story on Halloween, so leave a comment in the section below! :)
Amy
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