[Mkguild] Nunly's Lutins - part 5

[Mythril Vulpes]

                          Nunly's Lutins

                         by Mythril Vulpes


------------ Part 5  - The Escape  --------------

  Mock was plodding along with the rest of the Hi Ho Hock tribe. He looked
up as the tribe turned again to follow a tiny path up a steep hill, and
grunted. His hiking partner Goom looked up and gave a tired grunt in reply.

  "The hard way" Goom grunted out, the words seemed to force themselves out
of his lips.

  "Why always the hard way?"

  Mock turned to him and said "The map says go this way. We go this way.
So far. no fighting.  Not easy, but no fighting is good. Chief says only a
couple more days.  Hang in there Goom."

  Mock gave a small tired smile and continued, "You know when we get there
the Chief will drop and we sleep for days."

  Goom smiled at his remark, "Yeah, Chief hates hard work. Hiking is hard. He
lay down soon, and me too." He looked ahead "Hey, where'd the path go?"

  Mock looked ahead and could see the map the chief and the mage were
holding. The line that showed the path they were taking was almost at the
glowing spot on the map. Both the chief and the mage were pointing down
the hill toward a valley, gesturing wildly. Then the chief motioned them
all on, and they struggled through a small gap between boulders to follow a path
that started down the hill. With each step they took, they could feel the slope
of the hill pull them down, but the leaders took small steps, keeping the line
moving at a safe pace.

  Mock and Goom started down, but both were tired and just wanted to get to
the bottom.  Like the rest of the tribe, they were used to plopping their feet
down whenever they were walking, so the effort of staying in line and going
slow was trying enough on level ground, but the sloping trail took an extra
toll on their mood.  Soon all of the Lutins were bumping into each other as
they tried to push those in front along.

  After far too long, they reached the bottom where they began following an
actual road.  The Lutins spread out on the road, stomping their feet and
bumping into each other just because they could.

As the tribe traveled the dusty road, Nunly turned to the Chief and pointed
to the dust behind them.

  "That cloud of dust we are stirring up is a dead giveaway."

  The Chief winced at the term dead giveaway, but nodded his head in agreement.
"Blooka, Billa, scout ahead. If you see anyone coming, report back. Seewee,
scout for anyone coming up on our rear."

  The Chief noticed Nunly's questioning look. "These are our three fastest
scouts. They can outrun horses if they have to. We'll know if anyone is coming
for us." He stared at the dust cloud overhead, his worried look in distinct
contrast with his confident talk. "We hurry."

  The line moved forward, but came to a quick halt again when Blooka came
running back. "Humans coming toward us. They are heavily armed, and
there is no where for us to hide ahead."

  Before the Chief could reply, Seewee came up at a run and started shouting:
"A large force is coming up from the rear. It is still far enough away they
can't see us, but there is no chance to go that way without them seeing us."

  Nunly looked forward and back, but could see nothing. He looked at the Chief
but the Chief just looked back and shook his head, and then pointed to the map.
Nunly sighed and shook his head, but opened the map anyway. Concentrating on
the map, Nunly's only thought was safety, some place the approaching armies
would be unable to find them. The line on the map moved as he stared at it,
flipping around on the map like a worm trying to get away from a bird.

  Suddenly, the symbol on the map that they were moving toward flashed, and
started to slide across the map to a new position. The symbol moved in
a straight
line, but then seemed to curve upward. When it was moving straight up,  the
symbol stopped, started moving back down the map towards it's original line
of movement. Then it started curving back toward the way it came from.

  The symbol stopped, and reversed it's course again, As Nunly and the chief
watched, the symbol repeatedly would move toward a spot on the map only
to curve away from it.

  Yammi started to laugh. "It looks like it is playing Chief of the Hill
with someone."

  Nunly snorted. "Why would some point on a map play Chief of the Hill?
Besides, that point seems to be in a valley, not on a hill. It's more like
some think wants to keep it out."

  Nunly squinted his eyes at the map. "Or maybe wants to hide."

  Nunly proceeded to concentrate on the map harder, focusing his thoughts
on somewhere to hide. The symbol seemed to shiver on the map, and then
started moving toward it's goal. As it started to slow, Nunly concentrated
harder, his concentration fueled by the incoming riders. The symbol shivered
harder and harder, and then with a start moved a bit on the map and halted,
glowing with an intensity that all found difficult to look at.  The line
showing the path they were to take flipped a bit, and then showed them the way.

  "There" Nunly pointed toward a gap that was barely visible in the hills.

  "The map showed a new location that way. If we hurry, we can just get into
that pass before the others get to us."

  "Tribe, YO!" screamed the Chief, leading the charge to the pass. Nunly was
left behind in the dust, and struggled to catch up, but slowly lost ground.
With a curse, he cast a spell on himself, and suddenly was moving twice as fast
as the fastest Lutin. Soon, he was in the lead again with the Chief.

  "After we enter the pass, the valley will open up. The map shows a trail
leading off to the right.  We take that and try to hide our tracks."

  The tribe moved quickly as they entered the gap. So quickly that they kicked
up an even larger plume of dust that was easily visible to anyone who knew what
to look for. Nunly knew that they could be easily caught in the narrow valley,
but had no idea what to do, and no time to think of anything else, so he
just ran faster.

  The tribe rounded a bend in the narrow valley, and with a view of a
waterfall ahead, Nunly abruptly stopped. While the tribe came to a confused
crush behind him, Nunly whipped out the map and stared at it intently. Then
he glanced around before fixing his gaze on a thin passage into the side
of the steep hillside.

  "Chief" he cried, "Everyone into that passage. Go as far as you can. I can
cover our tracks, but Make sure NO ONE stays behind!"

  The chief looked confused, but motioned to crack and roared something. The
tribe started moving in the direction he pointed, but were unable to move
quickly since the pass was only wide enough for 4 or 5 abreast of the smallest
of the tribe.

  The chief urged his tribe to move faster. The narrow passageway bothered
him for some reason. Perhaps it was the way the walls of the hillside
rose up above him. Rising high into the sky, they towered over him, dark
and brooding masses, resembling twin watch towers, protecting the path.

  The chief swallowed hard, wondering if the towers were protecting the
valley from intruders, or keeping something in.

  Nunly stood beside the opening in the hill, hoping from one foot to the
other, turning his attention from the way to they came to the path the
Lutins were traveling. Finally, as the chief followed the last Lutin in,
Nunly began a strange dance back and forth across the opening.

  Nunly's gyrations were not without reason. As he seemed to twitch aimlessly,
he was actually putting down row after row of leaves. Not just any leaves,
but leaves from the Fire Rose.

  The Fire Rose is a dense bush that when fully grown had thorns capable
of injecting a poison that burned like fire into any living thing
unfortunate enough to brush against it. The branches of the Fire Thorn
are among the toughest in the world, so no animal would consider it
food. And while it was unable to spread outward at a speed faster than
an inch or two a year in very good growing  conditions, it did have roots
that grew deep that allowed it to regenerate itself quickly, seemingly
overnight,
making a living fence that was perfect for keeping anything in - or out.

  When Nunly had danced his way thirty feet into the passage, he stopped
and looked back. The ground was covered in leaves, except for an
geometric path through them. Nunly nodded with a tight smile,
and then quickly dug into this pack to bring out one of this magic mirrors.
look around to be sure no Lutins were hanging back, or anyone else was there
to see him,  he faced the leaves and held the mirror that was just a frame
at his side. He took a moment to clear his mind, then started to sing.

  The song was light and quick, and held the memory of growing things in the
spring.  As Nunly sang, the leaves quivered on the the ground.  When he
finished the song, the leaves slowly quieted down.

  Nunly sang the song a second time. As soon as he started singing, the leaves
started quivering again as soon as he started singing. At the song progressed,
the leaves actually started dancing upon their stems. When Nunly finished
the song, the leaves slowly fell back to earth, all of them with their
shiny side up, and pointed tips pointing directly at Nunly.

  Nunly brought his had up so that the mirror was held in front of his face.
He started repeating the song for the third time, his voice flowing through
the mirror. As he sang, the leaves jumped on the their stems, and started
dancing. As the song swelled, the leaves danced and dug into the ground
with their stems. Soon, the leaves grew tall on stems that flowed up from
the ground.

  The stems started branching out as they grew taller, until they passage
was choked with Fire Rose twenty feet tall.  As Nunly reached the climax of
the song and the plants reached their final height, Nunly thought he could
could hear a faint voice whispering, but he could not make out what it said.

  The spell complete, Nunly's hand holding the mirror dropped, and he stopped
singing, slowly sinking to his knees.  He knelt on the ground exhausted, and
didn't move even when he heard a large number of horses pass through the
valley just 30 feet away.

# - # - #

  From behind a rock outcropping, the Chief slowly and quietly backed
away from Nunly.  He was impressed by the spell Nunly cast, which was far
and away the most powerful spell the Chief had seen Nunly cast.  But the
Chief could see that Nunly held something in front of his face the third
time he sang the song, and that it seemed to be the reason the spell was
so strong.  What ever the Nunly had held, it was obvious Nunly did
not want anyone to know about it. The Chief had learned long ago that when
someone had a secret, and you found out about it, it was usually more
useful to keep secret the fact you knew about the secret than to keep the
secret itself. And this was a secret that the Chief knew Nunly would be
most unhappy about anyone learning.

  The Chief watched Nunly slowly drag himself to a sitting position and
put the strange device together with two other similar pieces in his pack.
Watching Nunly move showed that performing magic at this level took a
lot out of Nunly. This weakness was also something the Chief knew Nunly
would not like to become well known, so before anything gave him away,
the Chief slowly slipped behind the outcrop and was silently on his
way to join his tribe.

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