Chapter 30

            The wind whipped by Cody’s face as he fell a long ways. He couldn’t tell exactly how far he was falling, but it would be a pretty safe bet to say that it would hurt when he reached the ground. But instead of gazing fearfully at the approaching earth, he looked up just in time to see a scaly black tail-tip disappear from view. Only moments later it was followed by a thick cloud of vicious birds, all of them taking absolutely no notice of the man tumbling through the trees below.

            Cody reached out for the branches that seemed to be trying to scratch at him with every chance they got, but neither succeeded. He managed to slow his fall quite a bit, but when his legs finally made contact with the ground he instantly felt himself falling flat on his face. One thing that he had forgotten about when planning his leap, was the effect that his weapons would have.

            Before him lay about five of his arrows messily thrown outward from the tremendous force the impact had. Despite the quiver being surprisingly good at keeping the arrows together when in flight, even when Inferno had gone upside-down, for some reason it couldn’t handle the fall. The axe had greatly contributed to the force of the impact, thanks to its immense size, and only helped to bring Cody to the ground after his legs had failed to support him.

            The rider grunted and growled as he slowly army crawled towards his arrows with nothing but his arms, afraid of the pain that might appear if he stood or even crawled normally. Although, having them dragged along the ground didn’t seem to cause him any pain whatsoever, making him feel at least a little optimistic.

            When the last of the arrows was safely held in place by the quiver on the rider’s back, he prepared to test out his legs. He very carefully pulled his knees up until he was in a crawling position, and let out a big breath of relief that he didn’t know he had been holding in the first place. Next, Cody put his right foot firmly on the ground so he was in a kneeling position. Last but not least, he stood up.

            Other than a minor pain that was hardly any bother at all and would obviously go away rather quickly, Cody felt a little better. Then, it struck him like a blow to the head when he remembered his task. He had to meet up with Larson and Mordon so that they could get into the caves and look for the kidnapped elf, Pippi. Also, judging by the very faint sound of thundering hooves, he only had a short time before the rest of the bandits caught up with him.

            The rider couldn’t help but chuckle slightly after he realized that the men, on horses, probably thought that they could catch up with a full-speed dragon in flight. Then again, they may not know exactly how fast a dragon could fly or how far away Inferno was. Perhaps they didn’t even know what they were up against exactly. To the best of their knowledge, the only dragon in existence is far away and definitely not black.

With any luck, they would be thinking that they were chasing some other creature, but Cody knew all too well that it probably wasn’t true, since he and Inferno had come awful close to most of them, and the archers that had been firing at them probably looked at them very carefully. Inferno probably wouldn’t be seen as anything but a dragon, even if that seemed next to impossible to the looters.

Shaking away his thoughts, Cody fought past the slight pain in his legs and sprinted along a slightly upward slope, a little ways off to the right of the direction that the bandits would likely head to catch up with Inferno and Mora. He barreled through the trees and brush until the ground slowly became a bit more barren, and he could see a great distance farther than before.

After a little more running, the slope sort of shifted a bit, telling Cody that the top was off to the right a bit more, and if he could reach the top then he might be able to see more of what was going on. He hoped that he would see the enemies without being seen himself, but he also hoped to locate his grounded companions so he could get everything over with quicker.

Finally, he burst from the trees at the top of the hill, where nothing but a few bushes stayed rooted to the ground to provide cover. Seizing the opportunity, the rider dove into one of them, despite the scratchy branches that ripped at his flesh. He carefully crawled forward through the bush until he could see out the other side.

As far as Cody could see, the camp where the bandits had been was completely abandoned to the point where not even an ant appeared to exist. A faint black shadow swirled around in flight a safe distance away, successfully distracting all of the enemies, for a time at least. From the distance Cody was at, thanks to his enhanced sight, he managed to barely catch a glimpse of the clueless woman riding on the dragon with clothes that almost seemed white compared to his dark scales.

“Are you two alright?” Cody asked, making sure they were still managing their own task.

Inferno’s voice instantly replied, “Don’t worry about us, Cody. She isn’t doing too well because of her inexperience in flying with me, but we will manage, so long as you get Pippi out safe and sound.”

Cody nodded, even though Inferno wouldn’t be able to see it. Realizing his mistake, he sent a brief thought explaining his confirmation. He let his gaze wander from the shadowy figure and looked around at the trees surrounding the camp. There was no sign at all of the horse riding bandits, or Mordon and Larson.

Looks like it’s up to me! Cody grumbled mentally to himself as he took one last look around the gigantic clearing. In an attempt to calm himself he took a deep breath and looked carefully at the path he was planning to take back down the hill. On the side of the mountainous hill, but smaller than the other hills, that was facing the encampment, nothing but a few small shrubs dotted the surface. The rider was going to have to move very stealthily and skillfully down to avoid drawing attention to himself if the bandits appeared again.

With a final deep breath, he leapt from the bushes, despite the major resistance that they put up. The feeling of adrenaline was coursing through him as he fought his way down the hill, taking only a very small amount of precious time to avoid the rocks and plants that would occasionally grab at his feet.

Halfway down the hill, his optimism seemed to increase with every single step he took as he evaded the attention of the looters. Cody felt the bottom of his foot scrape against a large rock below him and it almost tripped him, but he managed to remain upright. With a sigh of relief, he kept his whole attention on his path.

Then suddenly, he shot forward. The ground beneath him seemed to vanish entirely, sending him flying down the hill many times faster than he had imagined possible. Luckily, he realized that he was nearly at the bottom already. And, even though it was very painful, his chest collided with the hard, barren floor.

He took a moment to force breath into his lungs despite the protest he was getting from his injured chest. He coughed for a second or two, and his breath began to come back to him unusually quickly. But before Cody could stand, two rough pairs of arms wrapped around his own and forcefully pulled him upright. Without thinking, he jabbed his right elbow backwards, and felt himself grin in satisfaction when he heard the grunt of pain and the sound of someone hitting the earth.

“What was that for!?”

Cody’s gleeful expression turned to one of regret and humiliation, but slight relief when he recognized the voice. The man he had hit, was none other than Mordon, who must have been trying to help him up, not realizing how painfully he had done so. The rider turned to his left to see Lars looking at him with a sly and somewhat prideful smile on his face. He seemed pleased to no end that the guard was hurt, and it was a pretty big relief to Cody to know that he and Inferno weren’t the only ones that disliked the man.

“Sorry Mordon,” Cody half-lied as he grabbed the man’s hand and pulled him up.

The one thing the rider didn’t expect was the fist that came straight towards his stomach, and just like that Mordon returned the favor. Cody felt himself falling onto his back, but all he cared about at the moment was the pain that laced through his body at the punch. He hadn’t had too much pain in his life, so the message that his nerves gave surprised him even further.

Cody grunted through the pain as he sat up, and looked towards Mordon just in time to hear him say, “Now are we going to go save Pippi or are you going to continue to roll around the floor?”

The rider failed miserably in his attempt to hide his annoyance and anger at the question, especially since Mordon didn’t seem even slightly injured by his own elbow the gut. But, they all knew that there were more important matters at hand and Cody needed to suck it up, no matter how unusual the pain was. Reluctantly, he stood up and very slowly pulled his hand away from his stomach, even though he desperately wanted it to stay there.

“We should check this tunnel first, because it seems like it would be used for storage or prisoners,” Lars suggested.

“You mean you don’t know exactly?” Mordon asked angrily.

“They didn’t exactly give me a tour the last time I was here!” Larson snapped back.

Cody ignored the rest of their arguing as he looked at what they were talking about. He instantly felt that he deserved his punch to the stomach, for right in front of him was the very thing that had made him trip. He had somehow missed it while he was running, but now it seemed to stand out as clear as day. A giant, gaping hole in the side of the hill, a tunnel or cave of sorts, likely.

Mordon cleared his throat, pulling the rider out of his thoughts before he said, “We had better get moving before we get caught.”

Cody eagerly nodded, silently agreeing. Before he could manage to lead the way into the cave, Mordon had already beaten him to it, which didn’t help how he felt towards the guard. Luckily, Larson seemed to be more considerate and allowed him to pass first. Then again, Cody couldn’t help but feel stupid, since he was caring more about the pecking order of their group, when there were actual lives at stake.

They walked into the cave, where there wasn’t a single source of light around except for the entrance which quickly seemed to fade away behind them. Not long after that, the dragon rider crashed into the back of who he assumed was Mordon. With his enhanced vision he could see the very general outlines of things, thanks to the tiny bit of light from behind them, but it only irritated him more. He was going to have to admit that he had much better eyesight and then take the lead, or remain where he was and pretend to be lost as well.

The latter seemed more appealing to him simply because he didn’t want to seem overly confident and prideful, when he had a feeling that Mordon would only hate him more. So, Cody stuck his arms out and pretended to flail uselessly around in the dark. Once or twice he used it to his advantage and purposely hit the man in front of him, who kept assuming it was an accident. It made the rider seem clumsier than he was, but it made him feel better about the minor bits of what he considered to be revenge.

Up ahead, Cody suddenly caught sight of metal, gleaming ever-so-slightly from the moonlight somehow finding its way along the tunnel. His hand shot out and grabbed Mordon’s shoulder, silently pulling him backwards, and not a moment too soon. The glinting steel disappeared for a moment, followed by a faint whooshing sound, and was returned to its post for a fraction of a second.

The man in front of Cody and the man behind him were both paralyzed with fright and confusion, but they didn’t have time for it. He used his hand, still on Mordon’s shoulder, to pull him behind him just in time to avoid another swipe of steel. Before he could think things through, the rider had already pulled out his sword and locked blades with the man before him. Within moments, Cody was locked into a fight to the death with a bandit guard of sorts that he couldn’t even see.

He had to find some sort of advantage, and fast. He may have been able to see a little bit, but his eyesight would do him absolutely no good if he couldn’t see a little more clearly. Obviously the looter he was fighting was left to guard something important, judging by the way he seemed to be more than willing to lay down his life for it. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t skilled. No, the looter was clearly more capable of fighting in the dark than anyone Cody had ever seen.

The rider just managed to dodge what he saw to be a weird sort of weapon that looked as though it were half spear, half sword. It had a long wooden shaft, put also a rather long blade at the end. Both ends, Cody quickly corrected himself when the bandit turned the weapon the other way around to try to slash him with an identical blade at the opposite end.

Without hesitation, Cody lunged at the man’s arm with his sword, but his opponent swiftly dodged, and just like that he disappeared. He returned once again to slash once more at the rider, who stepped back in time to avoid too much damage, but the blade cut him a little bit on his left shoulder. He let out a gasp of pain when he remembered the Cleptor that had scratched him on the shoulder only days before, and the wound was easily torn open by the strange weapon.

The rider put up his sword and blocked the next attack, but a cracking sound caught his attention. Next was the sound of metal colliding with rocky the soil beneath them, and he somehow realized that the weapon had broken. He stuck his foot out and rested it on the blade, sliding the broken half of the weapon away towards his comrades, where the bandit couldn’t get it.

Before he could do anything else, the thief he was facing, but not seeing, attacked him with a series of hard blows, seeming unfazed by the loss of half of his weapon. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the attacks were gone for some reason.

“Need some help?”

Cody turned slightly to the left to face the person that had produced the sentence in an eerily thunderous voice, for what sounded to be female. Another flash of reflecting light told him that there was another weapon right in front of him. The problem was, he couldn’t tell whether it was friendly or not. But, he did somewhat recognize how the weapon was being used, and with another gleam of silver moonlight, he knew without a doubt what it was.

A two-handed battle axe.

He had never seen one in an actual fight, and since it was so unusual to see in other hands, he had to prepare for the fight of his life. He raised his sword above his head with both hands, ready to bring it down on where he assumed the newcomer was, but he immediately lowered his arms again.

Cody’s bare face suddenly felt wet, and it surprised him quite considerably. A drop of the warm, thick liquid dripped into his mouth that was already wide open in surprise, and while he hadn’t really expected it, he wasn’t very surprised, but rather relieved when he recognized it. It was blood, which meant that no matter who the new fighter was and whether they were the one injured or not, they just had to be friendly. He knew it instantly, because one of the two people he could sense ahead of him was dead, and why would one kill the other unless they were enemies? And, whoever was an enemy of the bandits, was a friend to Cody and his companions.

Then, he realized that Mordon and Larson were gone. At some point during the fight they had left, and he was worried that it had been unwillingly. But before he could think further, a rough hand wrapped around the back of his coat and half pulled, half pushed him forward; towards what was now the front of the cave. Evidently, he had turned around in his fight with the bandit without knowing.

Yet still the matter remained that his companions, no matter how annoying one of them may have been, were missing, and the stranger pulling him along was nearly invisible in the dark cave. Building up his courage, he slowed to a halt, resisting the powerful tug on his clothes that almost knocked him to the ground.

“Who are you!?” he suddenly asked very rudely and far more bravely than he felt.

The person before him stopped tugging for a moment before replying, in that same manly yet feminine voice, “The question is; who are you? But, as long as you seem to be here to help, and clearly you aren’t one of those bandits, I will trust that you are friendly. Also, if I’m correct in thinking that that was Mordon with you, then you are certainly no threat to me.”

“Pippi?” Cody asked, suddenly very confused.

The figure before him seemed to nod, but in the darkness it was hard to tell exactly. But before he could ask again, and clarify that he needed verbal confirmation, he was pulled forward again. Only this time, he knew better than to resist. Whether the person he was with was Pippi or not, they had saved him from the bandit guard, and therefore he felt at least somewhat trustworthy.

The light ahead of them became brighter and larger with each step they took, until they were right in the mouth of the cave with the cool, fall night air washing over Cody. It had seemed like a much shorter time getting out than going in, but it was probably just because they were running. Plus, Cody hadn’t been wary of every single step he took sine the first time through showed him that it was relatively safe.

He let the comforting air roll over his bare face before he felt the back of his jacket being yanked once more. He found himself face to face with his rescuer, who he instantly recognized as Pippi, by Mora’s description. Her appearance was incredibly startling and Cody found himself staring at her for what felt like an incredibly long time.

She had blond hair that almost seemed completely white, and it glistened silver in the moonlight. Through her hair ran rivers of purple that seemed to make her only more like a warrior, if that was possible. She was unusually muscular and tough, with vicious dark blue eyes, but somehow Cody realized that it was just the warrior in her making her seem so hostile. With the adrenaline of escaping, she must have been far more warrior-like than normal, so perhaps she was actually a gentle soul underneath, just too overly-prepared for battle.

Cody found himself falling out of his confused trance as the elf before him hissed, “How did you get here, and how are we going to get out!? I sure hope we won’t be running, because we sure won’t be able to outrun the bandit horsemen. Unless you somehow managed to lead them off our trail long enough for us to run away, of course, but could take days.”

The rider gulped and replied, “We didn’t think this part of the plan out well enough to be sure, but just run with me into the forest at the exact opposite side of the clearing. I don’t know what happened to Mordon and the other person that was with us, but if they follow through with the plan, they should meet us there.”

Pippi nodded without question, and hared away before Cody could even think about how unusually ready she was. Had she been told by someone that this would happen, or maybe somehow expected Mordon and Mora to show up and try to help? How did she escape in the first place? It seemed quite probable that Mordon and Lars had slipped past Cody and the bandit while they were fighting and released her, but where were they now?

Unfortunately, precious time was ticking away and they had to escape as soon as possible. Cody briefly caught sight of Mora and Inferno as they raced around at a fantastic rate, and even the speedy Cleptors were quickly getting lost and retreating, though where they were retreating to exactly was beyond Cody’s knowledge. But, as long as there were only about a few dozen in pursuit of his companions, it was good enough. Then he remembered the next phase of the plan a bit more clearly.

“We’re leaving, begin the next job,” Cody told Inferno through their mind-link.

Before he could catch sight of the dragon and see whether or not he was actually following through with the plan, he disappeared into the thick forest and the sky was almost entirely blocked from his view. Only a few moments later he caught up with Pippi, who despite having heavy battle axe to lug around, seemed anything but tired from the rather tedious run.

“They aren’t here,” she commented dryly.

Cody growled in response, “Then we wait a short while. If they don’t turn up, we have to carry on without them and get you to safety, since that’s the whole reason we came here in the first place.”

“I trust we are at least somewhat safe for the time being then?” Pippi asked as she leaned against a thick oak tree.

Cody nodded and looked up into the trees to see tiny bits of moonlight filtering through the dark, bare branches of the gloomy trees around them. He still hadn’t gotten a reply from Inferno, but the next part of his task was to try to get rid of the Cleptors or kill them if he had to. It was a task that worried Cody, but if he was busy doing so then it was understandable that he wouldn’t take the time to respond. At least everyone was definitely safe for the time being, except Larson and Mordon, but there was nothing that could be done about them.