Several weeks after Lorien had returned to the wood elf city the four were travelling along the edge of a great plateau not far from where they rode the cliff dropped several hundred feet to the ground. Since Kallem had healed enough to begin their training again it had been very intensive Kallem suspected that Dugar must be preparing them for something. They had not been required to attend to any of their squire duties instead staying with Dugar for the entire day. Their horses slowly worked their way along the edge staying just out of the woods that grew almost all the way to the plateau edge, Kallem looked up suddenly he could sense some people on the edge of the wood. At that moment a large group of men jumped out of the trees, all of them were armed and they greatly out numbered the four who quickly dismounted and drew their swords. Kallem scanned the group with his eyes searching for a certain kind of magic, finally he found it in the ring wearing Darkuth. Looking at the Darkuths hand Kallem quickly discovered that this man was a master in the element of air. The power rushed into Kallem at the anticipation of the fight, his silver eyes shone as the first attacker reached him. Dodging around the man with ease Kallem’s sword sliced across the mans side dropping him to the ground, looking to the side he could see the other three advancing on the attackers. Over confident with their superior numbers they had not expected one man and three boys to put up this kind of a fight. Kallem ran as fast as he could trying to reach the ring wielder, he figured the attackers had to be hired mercenaries by the look of their clothes. The darkuth now turned to the approaching hunter looking directly into his silver eyes, a look of shock crossed the mans face before he raised his left hand towards the approaching hunter. A massive blast of wind lifted Kallem off his feet and threw him back towards the cliff edge, Kallem hit the ground in a roll grabbing at the ground trying to slow himself down, the darkuth who was determined to kill the boy increased the wind pushing him towards the edge.

What happened in the next five seconds saved Kallem’s life, Tuvas came from one side to intercept the darkuth who now dropped his wind attack and drew his sword. Carter saw his friend tumbling toward the cliff, but he was to far away to help “Kallem!” he yelled. Suddenly something awoke in Jarrod making him close his eyes, the moment he opened them again he was now no more than a foot away from the hunter, wasting no time he leapt forward grabbing Kallem dragging him to a stop. Dugar had been watching when Jarrod yelled and did not believe his eyes as Jarrod disappeared, reappearing an instant later right along side Kallem. He smiled, so the boy has shown his gift. Tuvas with several quick thrusts had dispatched the darkuth, the mercenaries seeing the darkuth fall they were now not so eager to fight. With their benefactor dead there was no point getting killed for nothing so they quickly turned and fled. Kallem dusted himself off as he rose.
“Whew, thanks Carter I owe you one.” Carter smiled weakly not sure what he had done,
“No problem any time.” Kallem laughed and his friend joined in.
“Kallem,” Dugar called, “I want you to take the ring from the darkuth.” Kallem turned and walked over to the dead man. As he took the ring he noticed a small tattoo of a red eye on the darkuths neck. Standing he placed the ring on the middle finger on his left hand next to the fire ring, the diamond did not change in shape at all. Dugar looked at the ring, it was as he had thought. “Not even seventeen winters of age and you already wear two rings of mastery, you seem destined for great things.” Dugar was certain this was only the beginning to Kallem’s powers. The boy has the gift for wind and fire despite his rings, what else does he hide from my sight. Kallem just shrugged at Dugars comment, as he turned his attention to Jarrod “So it seems you can either run really fast or you found someway to teleport across to Kallem. Carter shook his head
“All I remember is needing to get to Kallem, I closed my eyes and when I opened them I was there.” Dugar scratched his chin in thought.
“Blinking, is the ability to move from one point to another in an instant. Quite handy I would think, Jarrod I want you to practice as much as you can on your ability.” Carter nodded,
“Sure as soon as I can figure out how I did that.”

A few days later the three were back in training, Dugar was pushing them hard sharpening all their skills. Carter had finally begun to control his gift, after several failed attempts and some crash landings he could now jump from one side of the clearing to the other in an instant. Using his gift drained his strength and he could only ‘blink’ every couple of hours. Kallem had found his new ring a great asset and he now matched Tuvas in skill. Kallem jumped forward advancing on Tuvas, the sound of steel on steel rang out as the two circled each other, Kallem raised his ring hand but instead of using the wind to push Tuvas back he jumped into the air and used the wind to leap up high over the startled ranger landing behind him. Tuvas spun and leapt to one side as Kallem brought his sword down just where the half elf had been standing. Rolling back on to he feet Tuvas blocked Kallems sword and for a second the two stood still blades touching catching their breath. Dugar stood watching from a distance he turned to Jarrod signalled that he should join the fight. Quickly drawing his sword Carter was off across to where Kallem and Tuvas stood. Kallem saw Carter approaching and stepped back, many times had the three fought like this, the object was to be the last holding his sword, disarm your opponent. As difficult as this sounded the three seemed to make good sport of it. Jumping, dodging they fought, Kallem jumped forward past the two swords he had to be extra fast when attacks came from two sides and Kallem wished he had another sword. Jarrod and Tuvas exchanged blows for a second before they stopped turning to look at Kallem. The hunter, silver eyes ablaze stood holding up his left hand, throwing a huge ball of air towards the two, the ground rippled as the gust travelled towards its target. Tuvas was knocked off his feet as his sword fell to the ground, Carter closed his eyes calling on his newfound gift, as he opened his eyes he saw he was standing right behind Kallem. The hunter saw Carter close his eyes and he knew exactly where he was, spinning he raised his sword but he wasn’t quick enough and with a twist of his wrist Jarrod sent Kallems sword crashing to the ground. Kallem instantly released his hold on the power his eyes returning to their normal colour, he smiled widely. “That was damn impressive Carter,” he clapped his friend on the shoulder. Carter grinned,
“Phew, I’m exhausted now.” He sheathed his sword as Kallem helped Tuvas to his feet. Tuvas rubbed his head,
“Ouch, be glad you didn’t get hit by that Jarrod. Try not to go so hard next time Kallem.” Kallem laughed,
“You wont get in the way next time will you?”

Later that night the three were sitting in the dinning hall, all the other squires had left long ago leaving the large room silent, they sat at an empty table off to one side. Carter and Tuvas were watching Kallem directing a small sphere of fire over their heads. Carter looked down at Kallem “Well I’m impressed,” he said with a smile “how do you do that?” Kallem grinned,
“It’s not too hard, I’m just controlling the ball with my fire ring and the rest is wind.” Tuvas raised an eyebrow,
“I though you could only use one ring at a time?”
“Apparently not, I’ve been practicing, a lot, now I can control the speed and the power of my fireballs with the air ring.”
“You’d better not be doing that when we fight,” Carter stated. Kallem laughed,
“You’d better be ready for it.”
“Kallem, What are you doing?” came a shout from right behind them, it was Dugar. Kallem who was rocking on his chair at the time fell backwards on to the floor, losing control of his sphere which in turn exploded leaving the smell of burnt hair in the air.
“Oops,” was all Kallem could say. Dugar looked down at him
“Don’t you know how dangerous it is to use two rings at a time?” Kallem just shrugged, “Every hunter that has tried to master that skill has always ended up killing themselves. Take your little fireworks display as an example, if that ball had been about the side of your head we would not be standing here right now.” Kallem looked up,
“I was in control until you distracted me.”
“Foolish boy, you could be distracted at any time and you only need to mess up once and you will hurt yourself, or one of your friends.” Kallem didn’t say anything to reply so Dugar turned and walked towards the door,
“Now go to bed all of you.”

The next night Kallem and Carter walked along an old track in the forest behind Castle Rohammer the two were in deep conversation, “I don’t know why Dugar came down on me like that.”
“Hey man, my eyebrows are nearly bald thanks to you.” Kallem grinned, ”I’m real sorry about that, if Dugar hadn’t interrupted me that would not have happened.”
“How do you know that? He did say it was dangerous.”
“Sure it is, all magic dangerous if you don’t use it correctly. I’m just going to practice harder till I know I have it right.” Carter shrugged his shoulders,
“Its up to you Kallem, go for it but if you blow yourself into little pieces, don’t say I didn’t tell you so.” Kallem laughed,
“Thanks for your vote of confidence.” Carter shrugged and they went silent for a minute. Kallem stopped walking, Cater walked a few paces more before he turned and faced Kallem,
“Why did you stop?” Kallem stood still his eyes glazing over to that bright silver colour. Jarrod suddenly froze,
“Is it just me or did it just drop about fifteen degrees out here, why is it so damn cold?”
“I don’t know, “ Kallem stated, “I can’t sense anything” Carter looked up,
“Do you smell that?” Kallem nodded,
“It smells like death.” A stick snapped to their left and both now had they’re swords drawn. Carter backed up so he was closer to Kallem as four figures came out of the darkness, they were humans but they looked like they had been dead for several weeks, bits of exposed bone and flesh hanging off their bodies.
“Zombies?” Carter asked. Kallem covered his mouth with his arm,
”What ever they are, they stink.” The zombies started forward Kallem and Carter spilt one heading either way making the four zombies part. Carter slashed at the first one to reach him, his stroke opened up a big cut in the zombie’s chest but he kept coming.
“How do you kill em if you can’t cut them?” Carter backed off as he shouted to Kallem.
“I suppose you have to take their heads off or something, I don’t know how zombies work!” he shouted back. Kallem jumped at his first attacker bringing his sword down upon the dead mans neck. Kallem stepped back watching the zombie, it stood still for a second appearing to be ok but as it moved forward towards Kallem its head rolled off it neck and dropped to the ground, Kallem grinned. The body without a head shook for a second before continuing its slow walk towards Kallem. “Ok, so that doesn’t work.” Kallem ran around to the left of the two undead until he had lined up all four. Rasing his left hand he threw a ball of air at the first two zombies, throwing them off the ground for a few feet before they crashed into the other two. “You might want to step back.” Carter raised his singed eyebrows as he watched Kallem throw another ball this time a ball of fire. The sphere of fire hit the pile of zombies and there was a huge explosion of flame. Carter opened his eyes he was standing next to Kallem. The flames lighted up the entire area as the zombies struggled for a while before going still.
“Good one, now how do you expect to put that out?” Kallem raised his left hand again and the fire went out with a big puff of black smoke, “How did you do that?” Kallem lowered him arm,
“With the air, I removed all the air from that area and the fire had no way to breath so it went out.” Carter nodded his head,
“Nice.” Kallem started off back in direction of the castle,
“Come on we’d better report this to Dugar.”

Chapter 5 - The Rise of the Undead