PRINCE RIVER DONOVAN VS THE WARLOCK FOUNT

The old man waved his hand and a brilliant light flashed. Boo growled and dived forwards. Even before I realized what I was doing, I was in a forward roll position that ended with pulling Wilhelm down next to me.

"Get down, dog!" Ben threw himself forwards and slammed Ki down on the ground. The tower shook just a little, like it was threatening to crumble anytime now.

That's what you got for gluing your tower together with magic.

"Beta, you're killing me." Ki complained.

I saw it then, a sickle shape flash of light slicing across the room. It completely stabbed through a chunk of old stone wall, as if it were a penknife stabbing through a cardboard box. The sound though, "Shreeeeck!" The rafters shook and unidentifiable pieces were sprinkled over the circular room.

I shut my eyes and covered my ears in a bid to keep out the screeching and dust.

Someone's hand covered the back of my head, "Thank you, princess."

It was Wilhelm. I opened one eye and saw his side profile. He had one hand over my head, and with the other, he had pulled over a fallen shelf over our heads, "Please wait here, I need to bring the prince over to safety."

I grabbed the back of his jacket, "Stay down. He won't kill River."

Wilhelm's eyes widened. Then he regarded the situation in front of us again.

While Wilhelm and I were crouched under the shelter of a couple of overturned shelves, Ki and Ben were similarly pinned behind a fallen table across from us. The rest of the room - the wooden tables and shelves, and many pieces of colored crystals, everything in the room looked like it had been trashed.

I let go of Wilhelm's jacket when it looked like he wasn't going to dash out recklessly.

Only the Old Warlock and River remained standing, but the old Warlock was bent shriveled looking while River was posed like a young hero.

Now it was River's turn to emit the brilliant white light. I could do with a pair of shades right now. I mean, this brilliant white light effect was cool and all, but if these two were going to keep flashing like photocopiers without its cover on, it's gonna be inconsiderate to the bystanders.

"That's my heart!" The warlock accused, "Give it back to me boy!"

"Promise me first." River clutched the stone in his hand. He was floating and shining like some kind of god, "Promise me that you will let all my friends and I go and I will return this stone."

At this point, with River shining and floaty like some kind of god and the Old Warlock looking wizened and trembly, it looked like it was our win for sure.

"Of course, I will let all of you go." The old warlock reached out an opened palm to receive the stone, "Even though you have trampled into my lands, ruptured the flow of my magic over and over again, and wrecked my home... of course I will let all of you go..."

And the old warlock threw his head back and cackled loudly, "TO HELL!"

Another flash of light from the old man. No good! It was too bright, and we were already crouched on the ground. I was quite sure the light sickle would reap our lives this time round.

River flashed too, with a sickle of his own, and there was a clashing sound, not quite of metal, but it sliced and sizzled when the two sickles met, both sickle breaking at impact and their broken shards recoiling in all directions.

"Get down!" Wilhelm shouted.

I flared into full blade mode when Wilhelm forcefully pushed me flat on the ground, only retracting my blades just before realizing that Wilhelm was trying to shield my body with his. These bodyguard types never get it - using their bodies to cover mine only get in the way of me protecting myself properly.

Around us the broken shards screeched and tore through whatever their blades landed on. The shelf above us got cleanly sliced in half and collapsed on top of Wilhelm and me.

Call me pancake. I hope Ben and Ki were doing better.

Meanwhile, River and Fount remained standing in their faceoff.

"I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding!" River tightened his grasp on the stone, "My friends and I have come all this way to return your stone. Please calm down!"

"You foolish boy! I assure you there is no misunderstanding. You should know better than that!" The old man pointed his crooked finger at River, but it was shaking. Was it just me, or was the old warlock getting older really quickly?

"I won't let you hurt them!" River declared, "These are my precious friends!"

"Every time the old geezer casts his magic, he gets older!" Ben shouted over. Eh? So it wasn't my imagination?

And shouldn't Ben be lying low? Did he want another sickle attack - it was so fast that I didn't even see it till it passed. I dodged purely by instinct. And if I hadn't been pulled down by Wilhelm the second time, I'd have been slit into half by now.

Even if this old geezer look like he was one foot in the grave, his magic was not to be underestimated.

"How dare you call me an old geezer!" The warlock turned to rant at Ben, "You young wolves! I try and I try, but you just don't die."

"Keep trying and you'd be the one dead." Ben smirked.

Wilhelm took the opportunity to push off the shelf and free us. Oh. Was Ben purposing engaging the Warlock attention?

Ben would.

"Princess, please prepare. I believe your beta might be buying us and Prince River time to position for the attack." Wilhelm whispered.

With Wilhelm the human warrior, it was always these little things - the way he understood so quickly what was happening around us. The way he walked, so that his footsteps were quiet even in heavy boots. The way he angled his head respectfully, or observed our expressions quietly, or whispered from where he stood, perfectly confident that I would have heard him. All the little nuances that gave me the feeling that he had been running with wolves for a very long time.

Then again, it wasn't just because of the length of time, Wilhelm must be one of those humans who had a natural gift with wolves. There were fools who had lived with wolves all their lives and still stumbled and tripped over the most basic wolf etiquette - such as the shining one still levitating in mid air.

"Stop!" River yelled so that the Old Warlock's attention was returned to him. At first I had hoped that River had some kind of attack, but the guy only implored, "Can we just talk this out? Why must anybody have to die?"

Oh great! I don't think we can leave this fight to River. I'm not even sure if River understood we were in a fight.

I got on my feet, my hair flared back in all its bladed glory. One of my blades was half the length of the others, a visible reminder of just how sharp the Warlock's sickle was. This had to be the first time anything cut through my hair in its blade form.

"Wilhelm, get behind me. Do not strike at his attack." I lifted the half blade to show him, "I doubt your sword would withstand it."

"Understood, Alpha." Wilhelm dropped behind me, "I will await the right opportunity."

Yes. That would be for the best, but whatever time Ben was trying to buy us was up, no thanks to River.

The old warlock rose to mirror River, levitating with a bright light, "Return my heart boy!"

"Only if you promise not to hurt my friends!" River insisted.

"Fool! What friends?" The warlock threw out another dazzling flash of light. This was the moment I wish our weekly training sessions had blindfolded fight training.

I told Flynn we should try training blindfolded after watching it on TV, but he had only laughed it off.

"That's just TV, Sam." Flynn said after he was done laughing, "If we trained blindfolded like that in real life, we'd just end up with pointless injuries."

"But what if I am attacked when I can't see?" I persisted.

"Then get down, take cover, mindlink for help, and run away the first chance you get." Flynn answered like the sensible adult he was.

Unfortunately, sensible advice didn't apply in the Warlock lands. I mean, we did get down and take cover, but we couldn't mindlink now - and like hell I could run away without River.

The warlock released another bright light, but this one shot out beams that took off the rafters from the tower, as well as poked holes into all the walls around us. I'm not sure how I escaped. It was so fast - literally the speed of light, so fast that I hadn't even moved a millimeter. I was just lucky to be standing exactly where I was. Another two blades off my hair was sliced shorter, but at least I had four limbs and all my appendages.

"Are you alright, Princess?" Wilhelm inquired.

"Yes. You?" I turned slightly.

Wilhelm nodded and sounded completely regretful, "Yes, because I was behind you."

I laughed, "That was lucky."

Ben and Ki was less lucky. Ben's arm was bleeding (but it was still attached.)

"Just a flesh wound." He reassured me. Ki was glowing over Ben's arm. I noticed his side of his jacket was ripped, but I saw no blood or injury where his ribs were exposed. He turned to smile at me, "I managed to dodge most of it, just barely though."

But now River was mad, "Why?"

River's light shone to flood the space around us, was that a healing spell?

"Why did you do that old man? We came all this way - and my friends, they had risked their lives to get me here - just to return your stone to you... So why? Why do you insist on attacking us?"

"I wasn't attacking you." The warlock countered at once, "I was attacking them."

"They are my friends!" River yelled, "If you attack them, you attack me!"

"Friends?" The warlock scoff, "You are a fool to call them your friends. This bodyguard of yours, is he not paid to protect you? And these wolves - isn't is obvious that they followed you here to take my heart for themselves?"

"Do you know what all powerful wolves want?" The warlock continued, sneering at me and Ki and Ben as he spoke, "What all powerful wolves want is MORE POWER."

"Don't let them fool you boy." The more the warlock spoke, the more work up he got, "My heart is a magical treasure beyond compare! They would kill their own flesh and blood to get their hands on this stone."

I don't know... I mean, as far as magical treasures are concerned, I had the Ring of Idonia, and I was pretty sure that it was far superior to an old warlock's heart. Grandma Luna had said that there were wolves who would kill their own kin to own it, but no one had tried to kill me for it yet.

These kind of treasures... they were really the most troublesome kind.

"Now boy," The old warlock grunted, "You may not know this, but within that stone encapsulates all my power! But the wolves here all know that. Do you think they would just hand over this power to me?"

Actually, yes. That was essentially what we were doing.