The Vacant Throne: The Legend Of Kairu Vol 3 by Tim McFarlane

awhile.”
    “ Okay,” I
smiled.
    The distortion rose
over the horizon bringing with it some peace as we furthered
ourselves away from our failure. As we drew closer to it, I noticed
a bond of magic form between the distortion and Cathy. The bond’s
magic was powerful and I could feel the ripples through the Spirit
Plane.
    Cathy started to look exhausted with
every step closer. She had dropped her hands from her face and they
dangled lazily by her side as she struggled to keep her eyes open.
I grabbed her arm and threw it over my shoulder to help stabilise
her before she could fall over.
    “ Thanks,” she said
weakly.
    “ How are you holding
up?” I asked.
    “ I can feel the
Spirit Plane calling me home,” she replied dreamily. “It’s tempting
me. It has been so long.”
    “ But your dream is to
live on the Physical Plane,” I countered, trying to snap her out of
her daze. “Why would you want to give it up?”
    “ I don’t,” she
replied. “The Spirit Plane is just the home of souls. All souls
long to go home, it’s where we belong.”
    “ Okay, time to get
you as far away from here as possible before you decide to become a
philosophy teacher,” I said to her, moving faster.
    “ You’re so funny,”
she said overly happily, touching my face with her free
hand.
    “ Not as funny as you
at this moment,” I smiled.
    We hurried away and
as the bond weakened, Cathy regained her strength. Bill hadn’t seen
what had happened as he was too busy scanning the field for killer
frogs or flying field mice or whatever Archanion would throw at us.
Cathy straightened up and was moving on her own before the bond was
finally broken.
    I performed another
scan of the area and picked up a group of wolves in the distance. I
was shocked to see the creatures this far out of Balendar, but like
for every creature, the call of the Spirit Plane was too much to
ignore. These wolves would be vicious and much deadlier than the
foxes from our last trip.
    Their minds grew
excited as they picked up our scent. I counted a pack of six wolves
and turned my head towards their energy to catch them coming over a
hill in the distance. The energy grew feral at the sight of us and
they were approaching us quickly.
    “ We have incoming,” I
called out to the group.
    Cathy spun around with a smile on her
face. “I’ve been looking forward to testing out my new skills in
battle.”
    “ Are you still loopy
from the distortion?” I asked.
    “ Not anymore,” she
said, staring in the direction of our attackers.
    Bill rushed to be in front of Cathy
with his shield up. “Perhaps you should stay back on this one, my
Lady.”
    “ Appreciate the
concern, but one guardsman and a Mage isn’t enough to hold back any
threat,” Cathy responded.
    The wolves appeared over the nearest
hill and I covered myself in scales.
    “ Don’t leave any skin
exposed,” Cathy said, drawing her sword.
    Bill readied his shield and the first
wolf lunged at him. The full weight of the wolf nearly knocked Bill
off his feet as he defended the attack. I sent a small ball of fire
to the ground and used it to launch a burning trail straight
through the pack. The pack split to avoid the fire and I launched
an Ice Bolt at one with my other hand. The wolf yelped as the ice
pierced its body, stopping it in its tracks.
    Laughter broke out as
Cathy jumped over my Fire Trail to attack a snarling wolf. She had
wisely chosen to help Bill, but left me with two very angry looking
animals that looked like they had a taste for scales.
    I stood with my arms down by my side in
a non-threatening manner. This was another trick I picked from my
time in the forest. The idea was to bait the aggressive animal into
attacking and catching it in a trap. The corruption ran deep and
left these fierce hunters more aggressive than a Davalin bar maid
who’s had one too many pinches on the rump.
    The wolves hesitated for a second
before both charged me at the same time. As they lunged for my
neck,