Don't Lose Focus

Watching Alaron battle Taran from afar nearly caused Aurora's heart to beat out of her chest. When the Guardian and female scientist finally made it into the underboat, the Empress finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But her happiness was short-lived. For after Taran used his tattered clothes to wrap his leg and stem the bleeding, he banged into the hull of the ship. When his battering of the vessel did not yield results, he turned and began to fly right towards Aurora, Alvar, Gandr and the sibling pair.

The one-legged monster dove right next to their shelter and picked up a boulder in his arms. "If I cannot have her, then no one can," he screamed into the air.

Then, gripping the boulder with both hands, he hovered over the underboat and launched the large rock at the metal watercraft.

"No!" Aurora gasped as a clang reverberated towards her ears. If she could hear it, then it must have been nearly deafening to the two inside the small space.

"He made a dent in it," Alvar said with a slight frown. "It won't hold up too long if it stays on the surface like that."

"What can we do?!" The Empress envisioned her son drowning as water filled the strange boat. She had been submerged in water. It would be a horrible way to go.

"If they end up swimming, then I will go after them as best I can. Until then, we just have to watch." Alvar licked his lips nervously. He did not like feeling helpless.

"Blasted fool. I'd like to throw a rock or two at him," Gandr spat angrily.

As the monster turned back towards them, the group all ducked from the peep holes to avoid being spotted. Exactly how good was the bat's eyesight?

Taran made the trip back to their outcropping of rocks. He chose one on the outskirts of their shelter, causing the stones overhead to shift slightly. Fortunately due to the intensity of his mission, he did not seem to sense the six beings close by.

"I think the boat is moving!" Jaymes's nervous excitement burst the silence as he peeked through a crevice to view the lake.

It was true. The underboat was moving at a snail's pace, but it was moving.

"Do you think that Taran dislodged it or do they have some kind of control?" Aurora had no idea of how such a contraption worked, and since none of the people with her had any knowledge, the question was mostly rhetorical.

Eliana hazarded a glance through another opening. "It was likely started along its journey by Taran's efforts, but I do think based on the lack of drift that they have some sort of mechanism to guide it.

The Empress hoped that the slightly younger woman was correct. If they had control, then they had a chance of making it to safety.

Another boulder, which was taken from farther down the shore, was thrown with fervor at the submerged watercraft. The clang sent a splash of water in to the air which hit Taran injured leg. He hissed at the water as if he were not the one who had cause it to rise to such a height.

After a high swoop, Taran landed on his knees right next to the hideaway. Those inside held their breath. All of those, except Yumeto, who had regained consciousness just a moment before.

"Help! I'm in here! Someone, anyone HELP!" The shrewd scientist bellowed.

Taran snarled, but did not seem interested in the man's pleas. He took to the sky once more with a rock and dented in the hatch with a strategic strike.

Alvar brought his knife to the scientist's neck. "Try that again and I will end you." Yumeto gulped, silently accepting the cloth which was promptly shoved in his mouth.

"It's sinking!" Jayme's squealed. Three others rushed to peek back out at the lake. Jaymes was right. The round hole into which Alaron and Dania had entered was now below the surface.

Eliana's eyes swirled. "The boat is meant to do that though, right? I don't think Taran caused it to sink or we would be seeing bubbles and possibly debris. No need to panic about that yet, but I do think we have a new issue!"

Taran's descent was coming down directly upon their heads. He landed on top of the structure, causing the rocks to shift and grind. Gandr lifted his hands and closed his fists, trying to fortify the structure lest it fall.

For the moment, they were safe. Taran reached for the rock below him only to find it suddenly cemented to the two beside it. He tugged at it for a moment before trying another and then another.

He hissed. "What sort of magic is this!"

Realizing that the rocks were made into a dome, Taran began to scratch at the strange melded stone. Then he sniffed at the air, which was rife with garlic. A twisted smile came to his face.

"That scent cannot mask you and it does not bother me!" he bat sneered. "I know you are in there." Taran had heard muffled yelling before, and now he realized that it was coming from within the stone structure.

Who could be out here, watching the battle from afar and gauge the progress? Taran could only think of one person.

His mind finally snapped. The anger, the bloodlust, the overwhelming urge toward destruction… Taran gave into it all.

The abomination began tearing into the stones with his remaining clawed foot and clearing the debris with his mangled hands.

With a crazed look he found every weakness in the structure and exploited it to get inside.

Within, Gandr was sweating. "He's very strong," the halfling told them. His voice was even but Aurora could see that he was beginning to panic.

There was only so much the Empress could do. "Hold on as long as you can. Alvar, ready your sword to stab at Taran if he gets through. I order both of you on your honor as part of the elven court to protect Eliana and Jaymes first."

"But Your Majesty!" Eliana cried.

"I made the mistake of letting you come. I will not let you come to harm due to my poor judgment. Protect them," she repeated to the elves.

The two males looked at one another. They did not like this development at all. Under normal circumstances, they both should have been capable of defending all four people inside the shelter, but the creature was neither human nor magical. Gandr's magic was being depleted at an unnatural rate from Taran's onslaught, and he had already used some of his reserves getting around the camp.

That left Alvar to bear the brunt of the problem.

"Your Majesty, I will protect all of you. If I don't make it, tell Brinn I am sorry." Alvar rushed out of the door of before any of them could react.

The elf moved onto the beach with blinding speed and called out to the monster attacking the tiny stone fortress.

"Hey Stumpy! I came out. What do you want?!" Alvar smiled in spite of himself. It seemed Brinn's name-calling had rubbed off on him at least a little bit.

Taran looked up and trained his gaze on the he-elf. The two black voids sent a shiver down Alvar's spine. They were so deep and boundless that Alvar wondered if there were eyes there at all. The madness of the potion was truly terrifying.

The taunt worked, for the abomination stopped his digging against the rocks and spread his wings. Lifting from the ground, he reached out his remaining talon toward the elf.

Reflexively, Alvar filled the air with wind to repel the bat. He had not really thought before he acted, but it had worked against other flying foes.

"Magic wielder!" Taran wailed in a sonorous screech. It echoed through the trees. Though he was not in his right mind, it seemed at least some of his thoughts filtered through. "I'll destroy you!"

The abomination took to the air and picked up a small boulder close to the shore. Then he hurled it at the elf with malice.

Unwilling to expend too much of his magic to redirect the rock, Alvar ducked out of the way. He tried to pull the wind out of Taran's lungs to slow him down, but the creature was too large and quick moving for Alvar to get a meaningful hold on his air.

Like a perpetual catapult, Taran continued to hurl boulders at the elf. Alvar dodged the strikes, luring the angry predator away from those hiding in the stone hovel.

However the closer he got to the tree line, the harder it was to continue to back away.

Taran lobbed a stone high into the air, giving Alvar plenty of time to hide away from the shards of the pulverized rock, but when he looked up, the he-elf realized he had been tricked. The flying abomination was already steering back to the stone dome.

Picking up a much larger rock, he dropped it from a dizzying height onto the shelter before taking to the sky and disappearing into the sun. The stone hideout shook under the force of the blow, shifted, and collapsed.

But Alvar never made it there to help. For although he had taken his eyes off of Taran, the monster had not done the same. The bat crashed into Alvar from behind and forced him to the ground, then the leader of the abominations lifted a fist-sized stone in his hand...

...And hit Alvar's head.

The elf's helmet dented against the blow. A trickle of blood ran down Alvar's forehead. Suddenly the he-elf felt like he was on the deck of a swaying ship. He lifted his hand to retaliate, but it swiftly dropped to the dirt.

Slowly his eyes shut.