Incarnation: Wandering Stars Volume One (27 page)

A brief flicker of movement
in the distance suddenly
caught his attention
.

Sariel stopped and peered through the congested throng of massive tree trunks.

Did I imagine it?

Just then, a flash of
dark, earthy skin
flitted between trees
to his right.
Something was moving
south.

Sariel
shaped
into his human form and start
ed
off
at a run.  Vines threatened to strangle him as he dodged between the undergrowth, heading southeast on a course that would bring him into contact with whatever was out there.  A few minutes later, he reached a clearing where thick grass grew up around a boulder.  Without breaking his stride, he
leaped
onto the side of the rock and scrambled to its top.  With his breath now coming in
heaves, he watched and listened, hoping that his prey hadn’t deviated from the direction it
had been
moving.

Just when he began to lose hope, he saw something else. 
This time, he was sure that it was more than one person.  They were
still
moving
south
and he
had been m
oving parallel with them
and was
now slightly behind.  They
were
quicker than he thought.

The People of the Trees!

Sprinting from his vantage point, Sariel dodged between bushes and quickly made his way through the waist-high grass
and out of the clearing. 
Under another stand of trees,
t
he
grasses gave way to wet
soil
and rotting leaves.  Though unpleasant, he moved quicker over this terrain. 
By the time he reached the next
clearing
, he was sure that he’d gained ground, expecting them to be directly east of him, perhaps a little to the south.

His eyes scanned the
opposite tree line and his ears struggled to hear over the beating of his heart.  But nothing was there.

Did I miss something?

Suddenly, he heard a faint scraping noise that sounded different
from
the other jungle noises.  It came from the southeast.

There you are.

Sariel
quickly
left the trees and crossed
another
meadow, swinging eastward to bring himself directly behind
his prey
. 
He quickly found that the
terrain they were
moving over offered easier passage than his own, which explained part of their speed.  The soil was compacted on either side of a stream.  And h
e was certain now they’d spotted him, which would explain the
reason for
their haste.

Skirting wide around a shallow pool, Sariel broke through the brush and stopped dead in his tracks.  There
, a hundred feet
before him
,
stood a gigantic
feline.  Even in its crouched position, its massive head was level with Sariel’s, while its back stood slightly taller. 
Its
pale orange fur was flecked with brown spots and a few vertical stripes running
along
its back.  The creature’s face was scrunched into a snarl, revealing a
massive jaw
of flesh-rending teeth, two of which were longer than Sariel’s
hands. 
The clawed
paws
of its forelegs were embedded into the soil
, r
eady to
propel the cat forward
at any moment.

Sariel
backed away slowly, keeping his eyes fixed on the large, golden orbs set into the animal’s face.
  If he tried to
shape
, the beast would kill him before he could even take to the air.

The cat lowered its body.

Sariel held his breath.

It sprang
forward.

Sariel spun around and
ran for the shallow pool where the stream jogged sharply to the east.  Leaping across the stream in one giant stride, he turned parallel to the water and sprinted as
quickly as his human legs would carry him.
He knew he could only stay ahead of the creature for a brief moment, and began
scanning the ground
for anything that could be used as a weapon. 
The sound of
water and
his own footsteps through the damp
, compacted
soil
was all that could be heard.
 
But
he knew the animal pursued him, silently and rapidly gaining ground.  A quick glance
over his right shoulder c
onfirmed this fear
.  T
he cat had already
closed half the distance between them
and was now approaching the stream from the south
.

Up ahead,
the
water
diverted around a jagged pile of stone.  Sariel surged ahead and grabbed a fist-sized rock from the ground
without slowing.

All of a sudden
, s
omething large and
covered in fur
burst from the brush on the
north
side of the stream.

Sariel lunged forward, bringing
his left arm around i
n a backhanded motion
, striking the rock against
the creature’s snout as it
passed behind him
.

In that instant, the
first cat
leaped over the
stream and the other animal
in an attempt to pounce.

Sariel
quickly ducked and rolled forward on the ground.  Coming to his feet with
most of his speed intact,
he continued running. 
He
was
now
aware of pain in his right shoulder and back that quickly escalated into a searing ache.  A few more inches and the cat’s claws would have stuck in his flesh and brought him to a halt.

Now that the animals were on
the
north side of the stream, Sariel jumped across to the south side and kept running, heading blindly into a thick tangle of
vegetation
.
The vines
slowed him considerably and he grasped wildly at the tendrils, ripping and tearing through them as he pushed his legs to the limit of their strength.

Unexpectedly,
the vines gave way to open air.  Sariel had only an instant to notice the stream falling over the edge of a cliff before his body did the same.  Instinctively, he
s
haped
to his angelic
form.  Just before hitting the rocks fifty feet below, he extended his massive wings and felt the lift of the air
beneath
them.  As he pulled up, the
distorted surface of the
pool below
him spread outward in the sudden gust of wind. 
He quickly gained elevation and
banked to the
south, coming about to see two giant felines
st
anding on the edge of the cliff and
a third
coming behind them.

T
he
three animals
began to shimmer until they took on angelic
forms
.

Circling back to the top of the cliff,
Sariel
came to rest on the opposite side of the stream where it widened before plummeting over the edge.

Over the sound of the waterfall, one of them shouted. 
“
Are you a Speaker?
”
 
H
is golden eyes and striped skin tones still held the same appearance as his animal form.

“No,” Sariel answered.

“You wear an Iryllur form, yet you
can
s
hape
.”

“Yes,” Sariel answered.  Although it was uncommon for
Myndar
to serve as soldiers, it wasn’t unheard of. 
The surprise in the eyes of these Shapers indicated that they’d been away from the Eternal Realm for a long time.

The angel on the far left looked more
intensely
at Sariel than the others. 
H
is mouth and nose
were
covered in blood.  “You
were
not
with
Semjaza.
  I don’t recognize you.
”

“No,” Sariel replied.
  “And I take it you’re not with him either?”

“Not anymore,” the third one spoke.  He wa
s slightly darker than the others, though with similar features
.

“Who are you?” the first one asked.

Before Sariel could answer the one on the left spoke again.  “Why were you chasing us?”

“
I didn’t intend to.  I was looking for
the
Aytsam
.  Sorry about the rock,” he offered
.

The Shaper wiped a hand across his face and looked at the blood in his palm,
apparently
unaware until this moment that he’d been injured.

“
Sorry about the claws,”
the one in the middle replied. 
Judging by bod
y language, he was their leader.

Sariel nodded in reply, flexing his back
and feeling the associated pain and wetness from the blood.  “It’ll heal
.
”
 
Even though there were three of them,
he
could see that they were intimidated
in the presence of a soldier
.
Sariel held up his hands
.  “Can I come across?”

The leader
glanced at the other two, then
nodded
.

Sariel
slowly
spread his wings and jumped
into the air
, then glided effor
tlessly across the stream to land gently next to
the Myndarym
.

“We didn’t know anyone else was here,” the injured one stated.

“Neither did I. 
I came here on my own. 
I’m Sariel,” he replied, extending his hand.

The injured one looked suspicious at first, then slowly grasped his hand, clearly uncomfortable with the entirely human gesture of
greeting.
  “
Jomjael
,” he replied
.
  “And th
is is
Tamael
and
Batarel
.”

“
The
Sariel
?
”
Tamael
asked.

“Yeah,” Sariel admitted
cautiously
.

“We’ve heard of you.”

“Oh
,
” Sariel
said
. 
“Most of what you’ve heard is probably exaggerated.”

Tamael
smiled, his golden eyes now softened with humor.  “I know the
Iryllur
ym
deal with the enemy on a regular basis, but I doubt they’ve picked up lying as a habit.”

Sariel
just raised his head slightly. 
“Where are you all going?”

T
he three Myndarym became very quiet and exchanged glances with each other.

Sariel had already pieced together the situation.  His question was more of a formality.  But they were clearly
still
trying to keep it a secret. 
“I’m
only ask
ing
because you might need another pair of eyes on Semjaza.”

Now the Myndar
ym
were still.

“Your falling out must have been pretty bad,” Sariel guessed.  “Now you’re camped
somewhere
up north and keeping a watch in case he wants to retaliate.”

Finally,
Tamael
gave in.  “You’re quick,” the leader admitted.  “We did have a falling out, months ago.  He’s not to be trusted.”

“I can imagine,” Sariel replied.

Tamael
looked reluctant
.  “And we could use your help.”

“
Of course,”
Sariel
answered, folding his wings behind his shoulders.  “
I’d be glad to
help.
”