'96...97...98...99...100' And with that I took a spontaneous turn to the left.
'1...2..3...' I knew this would lead me nowhere. At the next hundred I would turn right, hopefully finding someone in the process. But there was just nothing here, especially not at this hour.
'If only I would've taken someone at the village. I certainly got too greedy. Anyone would have been better than this. Maybe the mayor...'
'33...34...35...'
'Nothing will come from lamenting now. I should just keep looking... oh that's a cave.'
I came to a halt. For the first time since my departure from the village, I took in the surrounding nature. It was actually a really pretty forest. The cloudless night made it even better. A light gust played through the leaves. I could even hear an owl somewhere around here. The full moon shone brightly in the sky and lightend the night up, if just a little.
'It's strange that this power doesn't let me perceive the owl's presence. After all this effort, It could have done that too...Anyway, let's take a look in that cave.'
Naturally, the cave was even darker than the night, but i could still see fine in here as well.
Sadly, it was empty.
'I really am desperate huh? Well, then there's no use in lingering here. I should just go on.'
Just as I was about to leave the cave, something caught my eye. There was a human skeleton lying in the farthest corner of the cave. I didn't pay closer attention to it at first, but it seemed to hold onto something.
'Well, what do we have here? Let's take a look...'
If someone were to enter the cave at this moment, they would have noticed a faint glow coming from the skeletons right hand. But of course, nothing else there would have drawn in their attention.
'Wow, not that bad. Certainly, that's way to valuable to just rust away here. Even though the enchantment is to strong for that to happen... that being said, it's not like I could take it with me. Whoever might find this will be quite lucky. But the people living here would not pick up on that.'
I left the cave and continued on my aimless way.
'Have I already given up? That really was not worthwile.'
'1...2...3...'
---
"Looks like he went in that cave. And out. And in that direction."
"He gone?" 'That guy..'
"Yes. But not long ago. We have him now."
'Finally, can't wait to get back to castle. The way back will take long enough'
"Then let's go guys, what are we waiting for?"
And we ran off again.
---
'And a right turn... This is boring... I am basically waiting for them to catch me... I have to do something, right?... It's worth a shot. The will definitly see this... doesn't matter. But what to sacrifice... walking on water doesn't seem necessary... sound's about right.'
Ripping out a part of yourself and completely destroying it is as painfull as it sounds. It's like cutting of your own arm and pouring acid on the wound, followed by a feeling of complete emptiness. But what came after that made it up ten times. I felt energy coursing through myself like I haven't in a very long time, maybe ever. Getting hit by a lightning was nothing against this. I would know.
'Let's go out with a bang.'
I channeled all that power below me, pressing it against the ground and finally released it, catapulting myself several hundred feet high into the air.
'Refining this would have been so much fun. The power is immens, but without further meassures it's just a really hard push. A nice pocket trick, but it won't kill anyone worth killing.'
While I was up in the air, I quickly looked around, memorising the area and locations around me.
'The village is to the left. And not that far off. I really need to work on turning, it looks like I was running loops around the village... but that's not important. There seemed to be a really faint light in the distance, somewhere to my right. Whoever is still awake will get the suprise of their life.'
---
'Come on, how far can he still be ahead now, I want to get this over with.'
'Ahhhh, when I get home I really want to take a bath. It's not like this made me sweat, running around in the woods for weeks just makes one dirty. Right. Ahhhh and I will eat sooooooo much. Weeks without a nice and juicy dragon steak and this guy is still drawing it out. Man, when are we dooo-'
And suddenly, Milton just stopped.
My head was imediatly clear. My right hand went straight to the sword on my hip, while I was burrowing my heels in the ground to stop. Once I stood still I was in position ready to battle.
My entire body was as tensed and I was ready to snap out at any moment.
A quick look over to Adam and I saw that he reacted the same, maybe a bit slower than I did.
I also saw Milton just standing there, looking up to the sky.
"Milton, what happened?" I didn't directly snap at him, he must have a reason for this. But my tension seemed to carry over with my voice.
"Relaxe you both. I just saw him."
"What?! Where is he?" 'And why are you so relaxed when saying that?'
"Still a fair bit in front of us. But that's not the point. He was in the air. Fivehundred feet at the minimum."
I was perplexed. How did he do that? He can not jump or anything like that. But he hadn't left any parts on the way for a while now. I assumed he was out of those. So why does he still have the power to do that?
'Is it the power he has been holding on to? But that still doesn't seem impressive enough to be that. The ones on the way here could have done a lot more than that.'
"Doesn't matter what that was.", Milton said, "We shouldn't let him get ahead anymore."
No more words were needed that those. We all simultaniously started running again, Milton was the leader once again, right on that guys trail.