Chapter 3: Flames

The first thing Rhen noticed when she came to, was that it was slightly warmer than before.

The second thing she noticed was the intense pain in her left arm, where the beast had slashed her with its claws.

She gritted her teeth at the throbbing pain, and slowly opened her eyes.

The warmth she was feeling came from a campfire, which cast a nice, orange light on the surrounding trees, illuminating the small clearing her brother had apparently brought her to.

Rhen let out a small groan as she sat herself up, only now spotting Victor, who was sitting across from her, on the other side of the crackling fire.

"Don't sit up too fast. You lost quite a bit of blood." he said, grey eyes glancing to her.

She turned her gaze to the wounded arm, and found that it had been bandaged from elbow to wrist.

"It's deep..." said her brother,

"Can you move your fingers at all?"

She attempted, and let out a yelp as a sharp pain shot up through her arm.

"No..." she said, wincing and then shooting a glare at the wounded limb.

How completely annoying.

Victor let out a sigh and stood up. He walked around the campfire, and then held out a hand towards her.

"We need to find you a healer. All I could do was bandage it to stop the bleeding. It won't prevent the wound from getting infected."

Nodding once, Rhen took his hand and let him help her up, minimizing the effort, and thus the pain.

"Gods, it hurts." she said, the stinging, burning feeling of the wound both worrying and annoying her.

"Whatever was that... creature?"

Victor shrugged lightly at the question, before turning around to leave the clearing - and the nice, warm campfire he had built.

"We cannot waste time. The moon here shines a powerful light, and it will be easy enough to navigate through the woods. Surely, there is a village or a settlement nearby - hopefully with a healer who can treat you. A swordswoman with only one arm is inferior."

Rhen scrunched up her nose at that as she slowly caught up to him, glancing back at the fire with longing. She did not look forward to the cold.

"Aunt Kornari only has one arm, and she has kicked my ass more times than I can count during training."

Victor scoffed.

"Kornari is an accomplished soldier, sister. She has many years of experience. You, however..."

Rhen cut him off: "Alright, alright. I get it."

Despite the situation, she couldn't help but smile. Just a small smile.

Had she and her brother ever spoken this much before?

Suddenly, she remembered how the wolf-beast had been thrown off of her by something looking like... fire?

"Victor, did you... cast a spell? On the beast, I mean."

"Of course. Did you think I would run up and punch it?"

"No, no... I'm just surprised. I thought you could only cast minor incantations. Not something like... uh..."

"A flamestrike, Rhen. It's called a flamestrike. And it is a minor incantation. You have simply never seen me cast it before, as it has never been necessary."

Rhen nodded at that.

That spell had likely killed the wolf-beast, or at the very least knocked it out. Maybe her brother was a little more talented at using magic than he let on.

They walked in silence for a while after that.

The pine trees around them loomed like dark giants, and the snow-covered ground was illuminated by the light of the moon, making it easy to see - just as Victor had said.

As she walked, left arm hanging, her thoughts wandered;

The mystery of what had happened so far bugged her. It was like a nightmare. This place, whatever and wherever it was, had to be far from the northern woodlands where they had been just hours earlier.

How was such a thing even possible? It had to be magic of some sort... but even Victor, who she knew had studied magic for years, did not seem to know about this.

If they could find a settlement, however, then they could send a message to their family.

And then, everything would be sorted out for sure.

Their father would send soldiers to come get them, or even go himself.

The two of them were going to be okay.

The thought made her calm down somewhat.

After some time walking in the cold, they finally arrived at a dirt road that seemed to cut through the woodlands, leading to... well, somewhere unknown.

Though she was freezing, Rhen let out a relieved sigh.

Victor stepped out onto the road and gazed along it, seemingly trying to decide which way to go.

"Let's go towards the moon." said Rhen, and pointed down the road with her good hand.

"The road that way leads directly towards it, and if we keep it in sight, we will have an easier time figuring out when the moon goes down and allows for the day to begin."

Victor scratched his beard, and shook his head some.

"You haven't noticed, I see."

He turned to look at her, and went on:

"In the time we have been here, which amounts to a few hours now... that moon has not moved at all."

Rhen blinked at that, and looked towards the luminous sphere in the night sky.

"But that's-"

"Impossible." he cut her off,

"Everything about the situation is impossible, sister. The fact that the moon is not moving, however, makes it possible to navigate by it. So yes... you are right, in a way. We walk towards the moon."

Rhen nodded slowly and sighed.

How had she not noticed such a vital thing? She was the one who had gone hunting with their father, after all. And not only once.

Then again, nothing about this was normal... and the thought of potentially permanent night?

That only made it even more strange, so how was she to know?

Silenced for the moment, she rubbed her upper arm for a little bit of heat, and followed her brother as he began walking along the dirt road.