Page 83 of Whispered Warnings: Part One

“Neith!” River exclaims as he rushes back into the gym. I hadn’t realized that he wasn’t still in here, since I was so focused on Reed and Doc.

“Yeah, what’s up?” I ask, already feeling better. I always tend to bounce back from a hard workout quicker than I should. Ithink it might be because I do it so regularly, which probably isn’t a good thing and isn’t something that I want to tell Doc about.

“Your kelpie is outside the front of the house and seems to be panicking. I have no idea why he’s panicking but I barely managed to stop him from coming into the house after me when I said that I would go and get you.” River explains urgently.

The voices stir, becoming louder in my mind, and I almost freeze as for only the third time in my whole life I actually understand what they are saying.

“Danger,” the voices whisper.

It’s not one voice, it's thousands all joined together to say that one word.

Well, fuck.

I rush out of the gym, heading for the front door with the guys hot on my heels. This can’t be good. I was planning on going down to see him later, before we had to go to the poker game later, but this sounds concerning. Especially since kelpies are pretty fucking near the top of the food chain and I have no idea what the hell could make a kelpie panic.

Unless River is reading the situation wrong.

As soon as I step foot out of the door, I see Mael pacing and snorting his ears pinned back, and it’s obvious that River didn’t read the situation wrong at all.

Shit.

“This doesn’t look good at all,” Griff says. “You need to be careful, Neith.”

“I will, but he obviously needs help with something,” I reply, as I rush out of the front door.

When I’m clear of the porch, Mael moves toward me, he ducks his head at the last moment and just like before, he flips me so that I land on his back. This time I’m not tired from almost dying, so I feel as his magic gently guides me and cushions mylanding, so it doesn’t hurt either one of us when I land on his back. My hands automatically start to hold his mane before I realize that there are reins, dark blue leather reins, and as I take a quick glance at his face, I realize that he’s wearing a bridle, studded with green, black and blue gemstones, with golden runes that I can’t read stamped into the dark blue leather and continuing up to the reins in my hand.

Whoa, that is seriously cool, but where the fuck has it come from?

Magic.

The guy's eyes are wide, as they watch me.

Opening my mouth, I quickly change what I was going to say when my sword appears in my hand. “Shit. this is bad, I’m guessing that the appearance of my sword means that there is danger, arm up and then meet me at the lake.”

“Like fuck am I letting you go off into unknown danger by yourself,” Griff growls.

Swords suddenly appear in Doc’s arms, and he quickly passes them out.

“Problem solved, let’s go,” he mutters.

Mael takes off. It’s a damn good job that I know how to ride horses, because with no saddle, I’m having to rely a lot on my thigh strength in order to stay on, at least I have the reins though. Mael moves a hell of a lot quicker than a normal horse, and it’s fucking exhilarating, I would be more excited if we weren’t charging into unknown danger. Movement to my left catches my attention and I see River in his kitsune form easily keeping up with us. Looking around I realize that the others are all with us as well.

I become incredibly grateful that they can all keep up as soon as we break through the trees and see what is before us. The kelpies are all out of the water and in what can only be described as a battle with creatures that kind of look like a cross betweenan imp and a troll, except they are tall and thin, their heads easily reaching the tops of the kelpie’s backs where as mine only just reaches the bottoms of their bellies.

All of the imp troll’s have weapons and it’s clear that they are aiming to kill the kelpie’s and not capture them.

“What the fuck are they?” I ask no one in particular.

“Scavengers, they are after the kelpie’s scales and hearts, they make an absolute fortune on the Obsidian market,” Raiden is of course the one that replies to my question.

“Oh, hell no,” I reply. “Come on Mael, let’s do some damage.”

“Neith wait,” one of the guys says, but it’s too late, I am already charging toward the battle, my sword swiping through the Scavenger’s as they quickly realize that I’m a threat.

I use their shock at seeing someone riding one of the kelpies to my advantage and manage to swipe through a few before they realize what is happening and start to try and attack me. Suddenly the guys are there with me, helping to defend the kelpies, and killing the attackers with ease.

One of the scavengers gets in a lucky shot, striking Mael on his flank and making him cry out in pain. Anger burns through me, and using balance that I didn’t realize I had, I stand up on Mael’s back, and launch myself through the air, flipping and slicing through the neck of the scavenger that hurt Mael.

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