Chapter 6 Shadows
The wind gained strength as it blew across the clear farm lands
while the snow fall above Aelkeep thickened, constantly replenishing
the lush carpet of white the wind loved to twirl. Evening, a cold and
biting one had come to then denizens of Aelkeep but they did not fear
the icy teeth and howling winds that hid in the darkness. Why would
they? The people of Aelkeep were a hearty enough people that, if some
unknown aberration came in the middle of the night with a gnawing
hunger and the urge to bite, then the people would be inclined to
bite right back. Lamp lighters employed by the town watch carried
torches dipped in specially treated waxes along with other magically
powered devices to help light the lamps scattered around the city.
The lamps were also treated with an alchemical wax to help keep the
fires burning until the light of day touched them or doused by other
means besides that of the wind. The faint glow the candles put off,
warmed some hearts and souls while it filled others with slight
annoyances of memories long past. "Graven, hurry up! We are
almost at the Inn. Come on slow poke." Graven who was filling
the role of beast of burden, had been drug around the city
practically all day by Talya and was loaded down with boxes or bags
that contained alchemical reagents along with gifts for shrines.
Graven had just about enough of the foolishness but for his own sake
he persevered through it. "Give me a moment to adjust my grip.
You do realize that we have been running around the city all day
without a moments. How is it that you have such energy to burn?"
Talya smiled at him and chuckled a bit. "Alright then, we'll
slow down since the big, strong man needs his rest ha ha."
Graven smiled slightly as he knew that she was only joking. She was
enjoying herself with the company she hadn't seen in years and to his
astonishment, Graven was also enjoying himself to a degree, whether
he wanted to admit it or not . It felt very nice to have someone to
talk to on a somewhat even ground but Graven did not let his emotions
gets the better of him. Quite the opposite spectrum, more or less
reigning them in and keeping them far away from Talya. Graven thought
to himself as he looked up towards the lanterns "Who knows
what she would do or think if she knew about the real me. It would be
best that she never gets to attached." “Graven, hey
what's...?” Talya noticed that Graven had stopped moving and had
seemingly froze in place. The orange and yellow aura that the lantern
exhumed thinly covered Graven. She looked closer and noticed his eyes
reflecting the flames that danced in the wind as the snow swirled
around him and left without a nod. For a moment Talya caught herself
looking over Graven from top to bottom, studying every part of his
body with a slight blush and the turn of her cheek. She gripped her
cloak near her heart, turned back and took a few steps closer to
Graven. “Graven...” He slowly turned his head down towards her,
his face half illuminated by the lantern glow. “Yes Talya?”
“I...I...wanted to...say that..!” Talya's eyes flashed wide open
for a moment as if a thunderous noise had roared from behind and
frightened her. She quickly turned around, reaching into her cloak
for an unknown object. She began to breathe deeply and at a rapid
pace while looking from side to side but she couldn't see anything
out of the ordinary. A perplexed look came across her as she looked
down at the ground. Inquisitively she knelt down to the snow covered
street and put her hands on the ground for a moment, focusing
intently on something that could not be seen or heard. Graven looked
slightly puzzled at her behavior and knelt down beside her. "Talya?
What's wrong? Are you feeling alrig-" "Shhhh!" Talya
quickly interrupted as she kept her palms on the ground. With her
eyes closed she opened her senses and channeled them through the
ground. They raced through the streets along the snow and wind until
they were met with what one could only describe as a gargantuan
shadow. Her senses pulled back to her again, her face immediately
becoming pale. Graven knew immediately that something was amiss and
put his hand on her shoulder. “Talya. What is going on?” "I
can feel something...dark...full of hunger and malice...headed this
way. It is massive Graven." Graven looked around for a moment as
Talya had done before but couldn't see anything. He closed his eyes
and with a few quick gestures, focused all of his energies into the
area around him to try and sense or detect anything with his magic.
He was quickly bombarded with small incantations from local magicians
and other small happenings in various homes, no large surges in
magical energies. “Something massive with no trace of magic huh?”
Graven decided to follow Talya and put his hands to the ground. He
poured a small amount of magic into his fingers to heighten his
senses for a short moment, concentrating. "thump....thump"
a faint tremor could be felt that was slowly growing in intensity as
Graven rose up from his position, swearing that the snow had shifted
for a moment. "The hell?" Talya stood up rather quickly and
stared in the direction the vibrations were coming from. "I
think it would benefit us if we found a safe place retreat to or to
watch from. Perhaps up on the roof of one of the homes or in one?"
Graven smiled with a nefarious grin. He'd been dying for a chance to
stretch his magic in the sense of muscles since he had left his home
some weeks ago. Graven also thought that this might give him the
opportunity to either make some quick koriya and gather some much
need materials for his craft in alchemy, depending on what was making
the tremor of course. "Personally, I think we should invite it
out to dinner since it ruined my initial plan of taking you out
somewhere nice. Let us see what this something is, what it's up to
and take the date from there, what do you say my dear?" Talya
looked concerned at the thought, that this was a bad idea but she
nodded in agreement and followed Graven towards the tremors. Hoping
that whatever shadow she had seen that was making the tremors would
not pick up their scent and hunt them through the city
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