Erlem & Daisy

Erlem couldn't believe his eyes, Stanley didnt make it under the small barrier Huxley had managed to conjure before his death. He looked around and saw through the fog of war large shadows coming up the hillside.

The techno-drivers moved in a box formation up to the ruined city. Screams filled the scene as magical blasts would kill large groups of soldiers and flaming boulders hit the rock walls that made up the city.

The Techno-drivers were giant golemns forged with metal and rocks and given a psuedo life, the driver themselves would have to share their souls with the machine which would give the driver the ability to be the brain behind these powerful new machines. The drivers only had to have a soul for the magic of the techno-driver to activate and give the driver control of the suit. Each suit was unique to its driver and gave them different abilities, the one coming closest to Erlem was yellow with red trim and a had a force field where a head would be. It was easily as tall as a the second level of Autumnveil.

As the weapon got closer Erlem begged his body to move, his legs felt like they were frozen. He kept begging them to move but they defied him, staying locked in place.

Erlem felt something grab his collar, then He felt the familiar calm of the shadows. An older Autumn witch had pulled him into the shadows and was now shadow hopping them away from the explosions and screams.

Erlem regained control of his body again and spoke " who are you?" The figure was cloaked, only the bright green of their eyes was visible " can you walk on your own?" A female voice answered back.

The figure stopped in the shadow of a red pine, the sounds of the battle were still close, and the two autumn witches were visibly afraid of what was happening behind them.

"Yea I can do it myself" she let go of Erlem and lowered her hood, it was Ms. Daisy, one of the women who worked in the clerical department of the Magestrates office. She had jet black hair and fair skin, this autumn witch didn't have red hair, rather, she had the most beautiful bright green eyes. She was fairly young, around twenty-three or four. Her daemon seemed to be missing, at least Erlem couldn't see it anywhere.

"Hey where's your daemon?" She gripped her cloak and replied quickly "we have to move kid." She started hopping between more shadows " ok where are we going then!" Daisy couldn't answer Erlem, she wasn't even sure really what way they were even going. Erlem decided now wasn't probably the best time to try and have a conversation anyway, they were busy running for their lives.

They ran for what felt like forever, they had gone far enough that the shadows were getting fewer and far between. Finally they had ran out of trees and shrubs and boulders and came to a shoreline. The two could no longer hear the sounds of destruction and the horizon had started to show the morning light. Birds could be heard in the distance, " gulls, we must be close to water." The two had found a path that looked to been traveled well, it was certainly a hiking path. The further they walked along the path the saltier the air tasted, the path at first twisted through a field of cat-tails reeds and tall grass but quickly trees started to make an appearance. Further apart at first, but before long there was a thick forest on either side of the path. "Daisy, you're an Autumn witch?" Erlem always thought that Autumn witches were all gingers like himself. Every one he had ever met in Autumnveil. She sighed a little, " Yes, i'm indeed an Autumnwitch, how else could i have shadow hopped?" Erlem thought about it, " where's your daemon?" He hadnt seen a daemon anywhere, if she was an Autumn witch her daemon would be with here. She stopped at the bottom of the path and crouched, Erlem copied her, she out her finger to her lips and point towards the horizon. Erlem looked at the water, the sun bounced bright light across the water, Erlem had to squint at first, then he saw it. Hundreds of warships, stretched as far as the two could see, in the distance towards the beach he could also see the thousands of soldiers and camps littering the beach. Techno drivers sat un-manned being maintained by their drivers.

Daisy and Erlem hopped into the forests shadows and watched the army the tree-line.

"What do we do, we have no idea where we are." Erlem whispered to Daisy, " we're to the west of Denizens bay, im guessing by the royal islands, if we go south we should be able to reach the unknown."

Erlem wasn't sure what he should do but he felt relieved that he at least had someone else with him. Erlem hadn't had time to even process what had happened the night before.

He hadnt even had any sleep yet, and now there he was, a few hundred yards from the forces that had killed everything he knew. Stanley, headmistress Penelope, he then wondered if the grand magestrate made it out, or if even Jasmine had.

Erlem couldn't control his thoughts and began to cry, luckily in the shadows only other shadows can hear you. After a few minutes he was able to get control of his tears, " ok, lets get out of here before they kill us"

The two didnt speak for a few hours, they hopped shadow to shadow like ninjas getting as much distance as they could between them and that army. By lunch the two had begun to feel the effects of no sleep and constantly exerting their energy into shadow hopping. They could no long stay in the shadows for more than an hour or so.

" we should find a place to get some rest." Daisy said to Erlem, he agreed, he could barely keep his eyes open and his body had begun to feel like lead. The decided to follow a small path they had came across, it was much smaller and looked like animals had been using it and not people. Optimistically the two followed the path until they came to a small creek. It was a watering hole for the local animals who inhabited the area.

Daisy cast a spell and bubble of water floated over to them, she cast a couple more charms and split the bubble in half. The two bubbles floated mouth level to the pair and they began to suck the water from the bubble. Erlem couldn't believe much better he had started to feel as he drank. Though his energy wasnt completely restored he did feel alot better than earlier. The two scouted the area and found a large tree close to the creeks edge. Erlem and Daisy had to work together to perform the next spell, luckily Erlem was as learned as a fourth year at the citadel so he was able to add some luster to the "bigger-on-the-inside" spell.

Finally they had created a small hut like opening into the tree.

Daisy performed some spells and the inside of the tree became rather cozy. There was a small kitchen with a wood stove and a table and two chairs. There was a loft with a small bed for Erlem and a bed underneath that room on the ground level for Daisy. There was also a fire place with a cauldron sitting over a fire. Daisy walked over to the mantle on the fire place and pulled a small acorn looking button. Water spewed into the pot, after Daisy was satisfied with the amount of water she had in cauldron she pushed the acorn button again. Daisy walked over to the opening of the hut they had created and performed another spell. The huts opening formed into an archegate, "Erlem, come here please." Daisy called Erlem over to him, she made some motions with her hand and the archegate glowed a green fire. The fire danced at first then they seemed to engulf Erlem. A symbol of a red leaf appeared over the archegate then embedded itself into the door, subsequently a small button with the leaf symbol appeared on his robe.

"Holy hell, im still in my night clothes!" Erlem hadnt even thought about his appearance. He walked over to a mirror that was by a basin sink. He had mud on his sleep pants and some dried blood partly from the battle that had gone on around him, partly from the brambles and thorns, his robe was littered with thorns and briors, shredded and frays at the bottom.

"Take them off ill make you proper clothes." Erlem blushed. He didnt want her to see him so naked, " ok but turn around!" Daisy laughed and turned her back to him, she reached over and grabbed her cloak and threw it behind her. Erlem grabbed the cloak and wrapped up in it. It felt enormous around him, the black cloak seemed to understand what it was supposed to do.

"That's it!" Erlem felt this cloak wasnt a piece of clothing, but a soul item!

" your daemon is this cloak isn't it!" She smiled, " yes Abram is in my cloak, I hide him there in case We did come upon any soldiers. They may not be afraid of a child Autumn witch with no daemon, but two Autumn witches not matter how old one was could be dangerous and they would be more likely to kill us." "Why is he still like this now?" Daisy smiled, her bright green eyes glistened in the light of the fire "he likes being a cloak." The two laughed and Daisy went back to transmuting Erlems old clothes into new, more travel appropriate clothes.

"I always thought Autumn witches all had fire hair?" Erlem finally blurted, he may be more advanced than most six year olds, but he was still six. " aye, but recently in the last century or so children with green eyes started getting daemons and were found to be Autumn witches. Its insanely rare but it has its advantages."

Mages would often assume she was just a normal clerical mage and would underestimate her abilities. She was also very attractive, long black hair that rested above her shapely breasts. Her legs seemed to go on for miles even though she was barely over a meter or so tall. They came all the way up and formed a nice butt.

Erlem was too young to appreciate the young woman's form, to him she was just a nice mage who worked at the magestrates office filing papers.