Mirella Marshlight's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

Mirella folded the faded scarf into her belt and stood. A flash of color cut across the chamber. The jeweled bird landed on a gnarled branch jutting from the cave wall, its ruby-tipped wings folding tight. It did not screech at her. It stared past her, toward the entrance, and made a low warning sound she had not heard before. She followed its gaze. Then she understood. The bird had not chased her deeper to trap her. It had pushed her away from the mouth of the cave. Away from whatever waited there now. Mirella crept back along the passage, keeping low. Near the entrance, she froze behind a slab of stone. A hooded figure stood in the wreckage of her old camp. Pointed ears. Dark eyes under the hood. The blanket she had found days ago was shredded at its feet. The warning her parents had carved into the rock was scratched out, fresh white lines through old grooves. The shadowy elf turned its head slowly, listening. Beyond it, deeper than she had ever gone, blue light pulsed from a side tunnel she had missed. She could just see the edge of a pale stone seat inside, sapphires glinting along its arms. A throne. And resting on its seat, a glowing purple sphere wrapped in crystal. The thing the otter wanted. The thing her parents had run from. The bird shrieked behind her. The elf's head snapped up. Mirella bolted sideways into the side tunnel, snatched the cold sphere off the throne, and pressed it to her chest. It hummed against her ribs like a second heart. She ran. The jeweled bird swept past her shoulder, driving the hooded figure back with beating wings. Mirella did not stop until the cave mouth was far behind her. She had the sphere. She had her mother's scarf. And now something with pointed ears and patient eyes knew exactly who she was, and was already following her trail.