Chapter Sixteen Peak Foliage Rising

Chapter Sixteen Peak Foliage Rising

Elloren Guryev

Northern Dyoi Mountain Range

Alarm blazes through Yvan’s and my Wyvernbond, my Errilor Ravens and the raven on Ariel’s shoulder letting out distressed

CAW s as I catch Yvan’s violet-fire eyes across the ledge, sounds of shock rising, everyone clearly searching for a reason Vogel

would so abruptly free us by withdrawing his Shadow net.

With the brightening blue sky no longer obscured by the net’s faint striations of gray, confusion pounds through every thudding

beat of my heart. A low growl erupts from Diana’s throat, the central bonfire’s multihued light illuminating my sister’s battle-tensed

posture, her claws flicking out with a sharp snick just as dawn breaks.

Spectacularly.

Sunlight rays out over our world, every leaf more intensely overtaken by fall’s kaleidoscopic riot of color, the Eastern Forest

having tipped to near peak foliage overnight.

The Dyoi Forest’s amplified light power floods my lines in a euphoric, spangling rush, sparks of color igniting across my

vision. All thought momentarily scattered, I glance toward my Dryad’khin—all our eyes lit up with chromatic light. And our

dome-shield’s runes... they’ve all brightened and are raying out prismatic luminescence.

I look to Rivyr’el as the rainbow Elf touches his silver stylus to the expansion runes marking our shield’s base, multihued

dragonfly kindreds flitting around his tall frame, the contact of stylus to rune triggering a spray of chromatic sparks.

“Well, my Dryad’khin,” Rivyr’el announces, caution flashing through his eyes, “it would seem our shield’s expansion runes are fully charged. We’re ready to expand this shield over the entire East right now .” The tension in the air gains ground as Rivyr’el’s stylus tip hovers over the rune. “Just say the word,” he states, “and

I’ll unleash the spells.”

“I sense the energy of anticipation in Vogel’s Shadow,” Hazel notes, ropes of misty Darkness encircling both him and Wrenfir

beside him.

“It’s a trap,” Ariel hisses. “Vogel wants us to shield the East.”

“But why ?” Ra’Ven questions as he scans our color-flashing shielding.

“There’s unknown danger in this,” Vang Troi succinctly levels, her swords unsheathed and flashing Noi-sapphire light.

“That might be true,” Sylvan interjects, “but there’s an even greater danger in not shielding the surviving Natural Matrix

of the East and bringing all the people of Noilaan and Zhilaan into alliance with the Forest.”

“There could be some threat from within,” Queen Freyja warns, a low growl rumbling through the huge grizzly bear beside her.

“Something that Vogel wants under an expanded dome with us.”

“Whatever it is,” Wrenfir bites out, scowling, his bobcat kindred emitting a low snarl, “we’re running out of time.”

“We have to meet the threat head-on,” Soleiya insists.

“I agree,” I call out, lit up with warrior determination and foliage power.

“As do I,” Yvan states, his wings snapping open, his core fire flashing hot through our bond. “We expand the shield and fight

through whatever Vogel throws at us.”

Raz’zor’s vermillion fire burgeons, scorching through our entire horde’s fire, a large portion of it encircling Oaklyyn, who

stands next to his human form. “We will meet the Magelings with fire and claw and ripping teeth,” he growls.

I sense Oaklyyn’s rise of foliage-amplified elemental power, all of it streaming toward Raz’zor, sparks flashing between them.

Silence descends as Sylvan surveys us all, dawn’s light gaining ground. “Prepare your weapons and your power, Dryad’khin,”

he commands as his flinty gaze turns lethal, brighter sparks of color flashing through it. “It’s time to go to war for Erthia.”

“Ready, Dryad’khin?” Sylvan asks us all from astride one of Alder’s giant eagles, Iris behind him, all of us assembled on

the great ledge, readying ourselves for rapid flight east.

I’m seated on Errilith, the rest of my flock gathered around me, Soleiya and other allies astride them, a living branch gripped in my hand. My Errilor are still as Death, their Darkness winding around us in misty tendrils. Yvan is poised beside Errilor and me. Rafe, Diana and the other Lupines, and the remainder of allies without flight, are carried by Wyvern-shifters and Alder’s eagles.

Yvan exchanges fiery looks with me and his mother as we wait to rise as one.

Bring the war , Raz’zor growls through our horde bond, Oaklyyn astride his huge dragon form, his vermillion fire searing across my vision

as he sets his red-fire eyes on Vang Troi.

Vang Troi sits atop Naga, her runic blades unsheathed, her penumbra of sapphire power gathered around her as she meets Raz’zor’s

vermillion gaze before turning to Rivyr’el, who is poised on giant eagleback near our shield’s base, his silver stylus raised.

“Shield the East!” she calls out to him.

His silver aura surging, Rivyr’el touches his stylus to the shield’s largest expansion rune and begins murmuring a series

of spells.

An audible rumble rises in the air and builds like a storm, sparks of multicolored light crackling along the edges of my vision.

A great, Erthia-rending SNAP has us all flinching, our rune-linked magic more powerfully siphoned toward our shielding.

We let out a collective gasp as bright streaks of prismatic light ray through the entire dome-shield, the shield’s runes flashing

every color as the eastern half of its mammoth expanse rises and punches out over the entire Eastern Realm.

A tense silence descends, my heart in my throat as I tighten my hold on my living branch, a firestorm gathering in Yvan’s

palms as we brace ourselves for Vogel’s countermove.

But... nothing .

Just autumn’s spectacular foliage spread out over the East in a carpet of glorious Life and light, the leaves rustling in

the cool breeze, the energy of alliance in them.

“We fly southeast to the Wyvernguard!” Vang Troi booms, thrusting her sword up.

We launch into the air, the full power of the autumn Forest rising with us. Yvan’s dark wings thrust mightily down from where

he soars beside Errilor and me, his fire power and mine twined tight.

We traverse the rocky peaks of the Dyoi Mountain Range, flying from its western side to its eastern expanse. Awe widens my eyes as Trystan and Vothe’s long, lightning-flashing dome-shield arcing over the Zonor River’s expanse comes into view, the Vo Mountain Range just beyond. The Zonor shielding sits a distance below our mammoth Eastern Realm shielding, the river’s protective barrier encasing the entire Zonor and its adjacent Forest from north to south, as far as the eye can see.

I sense an unfamiliar energy and call out to Yvan, “There’s more than just Trystan and Vothe’s power in this shield.” My power

empathy activates more fully, reading golden lightning intermingled with Trystan and Vothe’s blue and white magic.

We soar down toward the Zonor River, and a bolt of my brother’s power spears toward their shield from below. A broad oval

opening forms, and we all fly through it, the gap crackling closed behind us, three figures coming into sharper view on the

riverbank below—Trystan, Vothe, and a winged and horned white-haired female Wyvern with Vothe’s same onyx hue. Golden lightning

flashes through her eyes and my power empathy immediately traces the shield’s gilded lightning energy to her.

“Reshield the Dyoi wilds right now !” Trystan bellows as we descend, and I register in a split second my brother’s newly Vo-blue hair, his ears now slightly

pointed like mine, and his skin’s hue morphed to the same shimmering deep green. An incandescent silver half-moon mark newly

blazing from the inner edge of his shoulder.

A jagged alarm strikes through me as I take in Trystan’s expression, my younger brother’s eyes full of urgency. Trystan is

never this rattled, even in a crisis, and Vothe’s and the elderly Wyvern woman’s expressions are just as dire.

“We’ve shielded the entire East,” Ra’Ven calls out to them as we land, a chorus of thumps sounding. “The Dyoi Forest is safe—”

“No it’s not !” Vothe growls, blue-and-white lightning spitting through his gaze. “Throw a shield around the Dyoi wilds immediately !”

“We can’t,” Oaklyyn vehemently counters. “We linked the bulk of our power to the East’s shielding. We don’t hold enough additional

power to fabricate another shield at the moment.”

“Then contract your shielding back in around the Dyoi wilds!” Trystan insists.

“There’s no contracting our shielding,” Mavrik says. “It took days just to charge it with enough power to expand it!”

Vothe rounds on him. “They’re going to siphon all the Dyoi Forest’s power and use a portion of it to strike down our Zonor

shielding and consume this River’s power, as well! Then they’re going to use that siphoned power to form the most powerful

storm band Erthia has ever seen !”

Confusion ripples through my Dryad’khin allies’ linked power.

“The Dyoi Forest is safe ,” Sylvan insists. “The entire East is now shielded .”

“Have Vogel’s forces gotten into the East somehow?” Yvan demands of Vothe, the fire in our bond whipped into high alert.

“It’s not the Magedom that’s the immediate threat to our wilds,” the elderly Wyvern woman cuts in. “The threat comes from

our side !”

I’m hit with an invisible wave of power, its electric energy raising the hairs on my skin. I glance up, my pulse leaping as

a line of sapphire runes blast into being along the half-destroyed Vo Mountain Range’s apex, our shield’s ceiling far above

it. A dark mass of storm power explodes from the runes, and we all flinch. A storm band forms and then rises along the range’s

apex, potent energy spitting and flashing through it.

“That’s Zhilaan Wyvern power,” Vang Troi murmurs as she narrows her eyes at the consolidating storm band, “shot through with

Noi siphoning runes.”

Vu Trin soldiers soar out of a small gap in the storm band’s base to fly toward us, the Zhilaan Vu Trin Wyverns in dragon

form, Noi Vu Trin soldiers astride them.

The magic of Noilaan and Zhilaan united.

Against us.