Capítulo 549: Big and Bigger
The two males did not understand Dania's warning. Alaron looked up. "More vampires..." he groaned. "We better get out of the open."
"We have to get to Yumeto," Dania insisted.
"Why?" Alaron's head was a little muddled, but with effort, he was able to clear it.
As they moved toward the shore, Dania hastily explained. "Livie and Taran were the only bats when I went to bed last night. After they took the potion against my recommendation, I destroyed the rest. It wasn't stable and there were questionable side effects."
"You don't say," the Guardian shifted his neck, sending a wave of pain radiating through him. The thought of how Taran had been able to easily drain so much of his blood sent a shiver down his spine. It brought a whole new meaning to the term blood-thirsty.
"My destruction of yet another one of my inventions was nearly the end of me. Taran never likes being crossed, and his disposition has become even more erratic." Dania gulped and looked over her shoulder.
They were not putting as much distance between themselves and Taran as she had hoped. It might have been her imagination, but his wings seemed to be slowly fluttering to life again.
"What does this have to do with this Yumeto fellow?" Gandr did not see the connection, but he was also not well versed in all the characters of this show. The name rang a faint memory of recognition, but that was all.
"To keep Taran from breaking my neck, Yumeto promised he could recreate the formula. He used some...tactics...to get as much information from me as possible. I don't remember exactly what I told him, but looking above, it must have been enough. He was planning to turn all the rest of the people before we left. We need to go to the big cauldron now!"
"Surely someone else can deal with it. We need to get you out of here. We will get to the beach and skirt around the action to the east and join up with my mother and your siblings." Alaron could see that his persuasive words made an impression.
"Siblings! Both of them? They are here?" Dania could hardly believe her ears.
"They are a safe distance away from the fighting, but they wanted to see you as soon as possible. The Empress could not deny their request." Alaron smiled at the memory.
Their impassioned plea had moved the Empress deeply. After promising to stay far down the beach, Aurora had agreed to let them watch the battle despite her desire to keep them in the Land of Magic.
"Jaymes…Eliana…" Dania let their names roll affectionately off of her tongue. Her brow furrowed. "They will have to wait. If Yumeto is still turning people into abominations, he takes priority."
"Dania, we cannot…" Alaron was cut off by the woman's sharp gaze.
Hardening her mouth, Dania shook her head resolutely. "This is not negotiable. The more creatures that take to the sky, the more the imperial troops will suffer. Not even my siblings are safe where they are if anyone can swoop down to get them."
Alaron had no argument for her words, but his orders were also clear. He was to get her out of the battle as quickly as possible. But when had he ever been one to do exactly as he was told?
"I'll go," Gandr said, solving the Guardian's dilemma for him. "Get out of here, and I will find these cauldrons."
"Are you sure?" Alaron could already feel the halfling shifting out from under his arm.
"Don't worry about me. If I'm quick enough, I might be able to still help you get around on the shoreline." Gandr gave a lopsided grin.
"I won't hold my breath." Alaron knew how much could go wrong. Hoping for help from the halfling had already nearly killed him.
"I understand," Gandr nodded.
"Please stop Yumeto, but don't spill the water! We have to dispose of it properly." Dania licked her lips. Her mouth suddenly felt dry.
"Stop the crazy person and don't dump the water." Gandr gave an affirmative gesture. "You two be safe."
The halfling did not like the posture of the Guardian as he disengaged from Dania's support. While Gandr could not see the man's face, he could tell that Alaron was still in pain.
His unusual healing was not working as quickly as time demanded. In fact, Gandr wasn't sure if it was working at all. That worried him.
"We will be fine," Dania promised.
"Very well. One question: where is the madman?" Gandr had studied the camp with the bit of information the group had as well as with his own eyes, but he trusted Dania would know the terrain and keep him from having to guess.
Dania pointed. "It's on the edge of the camp a ways back from the water. There are smaller vessels along with one exceptionally big one. If he is still transforming people, that is where he will be. I am sure he told Taran to drain it for his project."
The argument between Taran and Yumeto had been so heated that neither had even registered that the woman was still there. If they had had cooler heads, they would have had the discussion out of her hearing.
"Now hurry!" Dania urged him after they ducked under a low flying bat-creature.
"I'll see you both soon." The black and white wolf winked before trotting off casually through the camp.
Strange feelings swirled around him. Before using his magic on Aurora, the idea of human emotions was laughable. Now that he understood their depth and breadth—he had felt them—he could see their value.
Logic would dictate he complete the mission he was given, but his feelings told him that the issue Dania identified needed immediate attention.
So acting on his feeling and intuition—his gut as humans called it—Gandr veered off his intended path to deal with the Yumeto problem.
The emotions also meant he felt the need to get involved in more than one of the skirmishes that he encountered. Helping the imperial abominations he passed, who were all marked with colorful bandanas, Gandr gathered a militia to follow him into the fray. The creatures with him plowed a path for him to reach the border as well as weakened the enemy's defenses.
It was a risky decision, but Gandr was unsure how much help he would need when he reached the cauldrons.
To be fair, Gandr was a one-man army. He had proven that more than once. But as he didn't want to die from one of the abomination's insidious scratches, he decided to be more cautious. He had very little experience fighting flying creatures, and having multiple targets for the bat-people to choose from could only help the halfling.
If nothing else, these troops could provide some semblance of coverage while Gandr dealt with the problem.
"Where are we headed?" one of the men finally asked in a lull.
"Hopefully to stop the elixir making those bat creatures." Gandr said over his shoulder.
"But sir, can't they just infect each other through scratches?" Another dared query.
Gandr paused for a moment. "I didn't go through the change like all of you, but my understanding is that the elixir is much faster and less painful. If they are building an army quickly, then stopping them from accessing the tainted water should slow them down. We will deal with the next problem after that."
"You didn't go through the change?" The question hung in the air as they all stared at the black and white wolf.
Gandr lowered his disguise for only a moment before putting it back in place. "I hope that clears things up."
The soldiers nodded. They welcomed all the help they could get and hopefully this creature's powers would be enough to tip the scales. Satisfied, the monsters marched onwards at double the pace of regular humans.
At last they came to the cauldrons. 'How did they even make such big things?!'
The first few were larger than Gandr by a wide margin and the fire below them was still burning, though not as brightly as it once had. Because of the fighting, no one was guarding them.
"Put out the fires, but don't touch the water," Gandr ordered. A few of the soldiers fell out of line behind him to complete the task. Putting out a fire that was already slowly dying was not a hard task, but if the forest had become ablaze, it would have been devastating for both sides of the battle.
At each cauldron Gandr left a couple of men until he had only a handful left with him. With the amount of water that had been drained by these containers alone, Gandr felt like the lake should have been half empty.
But then he saw the flurry of motion as a bat-woman took off from the ground to join the battle.
"There!" he told those still with him.
As they got closer. Gandr's eyes opened wide. 'And I thought the others were big!'
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