The first night the three found a group of large boulders to make a camp in the middle of, they tied the horses to a dead tree just outside the entrance to their camp. Kallem had stacked a heap of sticks on top of each other and using a little bit of power from his ring the fire burst into life. Carter laughed,
“No sparking flints for you.”
“Guess not,” Kallem grinned. Tuvas sat down next to the fire,
“They seem to have a lot of trust in us eh? Sending out a bunch of teenagers on an important mission,” he said. Kallem frowned,
“Yeah I thought that too, I was thinking they would at least send Dugar to keep an eye on us.”
“To bad they couldn’t send Celina with us, eh Kallem” Carter said nudging him with his elbow.
“Shut up Jarrod.” Suddenly a stick snapped somewhere out in the darkness, all three were instantly on their feet.
“What can you see Tuvas,” Kallem asked. Tuvas because he was a half elf had infravision the same as a full elf that allowed him to see the heat of any living creature in the night. The ranger peered out into the darkness,
“I can’t see anything.” Kallem smiled pulling Tuvas aside,
“Here, let me help.” He lifted his left hand and a small ball of fire formed in his palm,
“Watch this.” He threw the ball out in the direction of the noise, as the fireball flew it lit up an area of the darkness and what they saw shocked them. By the time the flames hit the skeleton that had stepped on the dead branch, they had seen about ten or eleven other undead moving towards their campsite.
“Holy shit!” said Carter. Kallems eyes glazed over as he drew his sword,
“To arms, boys.” The other two quickly drew their swords and follow Kallem out into the dark, “Keep far enough apart that we don’t hit one another in the dark, you’ll have to disable them anyway you can.”
“Easy for you to say, fire boy,” said Carter, “I don’t have any rings.”
“They can’t kill you without arms or legs.”
“True, but I can’t kill them if I can’t see them.” Kallem thought for a second,
“Ok, I’ll deal with the light problem, ready?”
“Ready.” Light appeared the moment Kallem started to make his next fireball, this one though continued to grow until it was about the size of a human head. But instead of throwing it across the ground he threw it straight up in the air.
“How is that supposed to help up there?” Carter said. Kallem still had his left arm pointing at his fireball, when it was high enough the ruby ring on his hand began to glow. There was a huge explosion in the sky as Kallems fireball blew into a thousand pieces of fire that slowly rained down from the sky, each flame lighting up an area.
“Ok, that wont last long so lets get to work,” Kallem said as he chopped the first skeleton that approached him in half, “I’ll cast another one if we need it.” He kicked the head off the fallen skeleton. “There cant be too many of them.” The three set to work cutting down the undead, Carter ran at the first one that came his way, he ducked the clumsy swing by the skeleton and cut its legs out from underneath it. The skeleton fell to the ground and shattered on the rocky surface. Tuvas’s diamond ring glowed as he used it to create some wind that lifted five undead off the ground and threw them against the boulders surrounding their camp.
Kallem cut three down as he ran through a group of skeletons, he blew several into bits just by hitting them with a massive gust of air, bits of bone rained down around Kallem as he looked around for other opponents. His silver eyes scanned the battlefield, he could see Tuvas and Carter dealing with a few skeletons, Carter dropped his sword grabbed a skeleton by its two arms and kicked its chest out, as the head and legs fell to the ground he threw the two arms he was holding at the next skeleton that approached, he then scooped up his sword and cut it down. Just as the flames began to go out Kallem spotted two red eyes out in the darkness and just as the night went black again he could hear something start running toward him. Kallem hurriedly tried to make another fireball but something slammed into his face knocking him off the ground and into the air, he hit the ground and rolled for several feet.
“Where’s that light source Kallem,” he heard Carter call. Kallem groaned,
“I’m kind of busy at the moment.” He slowly got to his feet, the thing was coming again. ‘I may not be able to see you, but I can hear you’ he thought. When he figured it was close enough Kallem let loose with a huge blast of air in the direction of the noise, he was satisfied to hear something curse as it hit the ground several metres away. Not wasting any time he conjured up another light ball and cast it into the sky. As the area lit up he looked at what had attacked him.
“Bout time you got some light up,” Carter called, then he realised what had been happening. The skeleton slowly lifted itself off the ground, it chuckled as it stood up, it towered over Kallem by a couple of feet in height and in its hand it held a huge serrated bastard sword. The skeleton turned around its red eyes blazing it spoke in a dry dead voice,
“You will dies, just like elfthings dies.” Kallems heart skipped a beat,
“What elfthings?” he asked.
“No talk, you dies,” the skeleton growled as it charged at Kallem. Kallem ducked under the first swing and slashed at the skeleton, surprisingly the skeleton avoided the blow and renewed its attack. Kallem jumped back as their swords clashed in a shower of sparks, the undead warrior did not let up once placing one swing in after another at the hunter. Kallem was on the defensive, he backed up as the skeleton giant moved forward, he blocked each sword stroke as it came keeping the undeads blade away from his body. But then he suddenly tripped over a rock sticking out of the sandy ground and began to fall backwards, the skeleton saw his chance and moved in for the kill and as his raised his sword over his head Kallem did a quick hop to regain his balance. The skeleton had already committed to his attack so when he brought the blade down it was blocked by Kallems raised sword, the hunter lifted his left hand and placed it on the skeletons chest,
“Lets see you dodge this.” Kallem said as his ruby ring glowed for a second before he unleashed a fireball into the skeletons chest. There was an explosion of light and the clang of steel as a sword hit the ground and what was left of the skeleton fell to the sand in a heap. With the death of the giant skeleton the remaining undead fell to the ground unmoving. Tuvas and Carter ran as fast as they could up to Kallem,
“Are you alright?” Carter asked.
“No, I think I burnt my hand,” Kallem grimaced as he realised his power and his eyes changed back their blue colour. Carter looked at the pile of bones,
“Well you came out better than that guy.”
“He said he had killed elves,” Kallem spoke.
“What can that mean, Kallem,” Tuvas asked.
“I’m not sure, but I have a terrible feeling something may have happened at Kalamethas.”

They rode hard for several days before they could see Ravenstorm peak start rising up on the horizon. On the way the had encountered several groups of undead and each time the three came upon one of these groups they would leave none standing. They had however not come across any more of the giant undead skeletons.
“How much further?” asked Carter.
“Another day and we will be there, the sword feels closer now.” They had finally left the desert behind them and now they rode through green fields and trees. “Soon we will be in land I recognise.” Kallem pulled out his leaf medallion and rubbed it with his thumb, he hoped Lorien was alright. The next morning they were all awake early and riding before the sun had come up, Kallem was eager to get to the wood elf city before nightfall. Just after midday they arrived at the edge of the forest that surrounded Ravenstorm peak, Kallem did not pause but walked his horse straight into the woods,
“Come on, I’ll show you my home,” he smiled. Tuvas and Carter nudged their horses to follow Kallem into his forest. After about half an hour they came into a small clearing, atop a small hill in the centre of the clearing was the charred remains of a house. Kallems smiled had faded and was replaced with a look a rage.
“They destroyed my home,” he growled.
“Who Kallem?” asked Tuvas.
“The Redeemers!” Kallem screamed in anger old memories burning in his mind, the very ground seem to shake beneath them. “They burnt my mother at the stake, then came here and set fire to our house!” Carter could see that Kallems eyes had gone silver, he screamed again, this time a great burst of air came from the hunter ripping a few branches off the trees nearby and making Carter almost fall off his horse. “I swear if it’s the last thing I’ll do I’ll get them for this!” Kallem yelled his fists clenched in anger. Tuvas had ridden up and he placed his hand on Kallems shoulder,
“There is nothing we can do about this now Kallem, you must concentrate on getting your sword, then there will be time for revenge,” he said. The wind died down as Kallem released his power and he slumped down in his saddle,
“Your right,” Kallem took one last look at his old home and turned his horse out of the clearing, “Come, Kalamethas is not far from here.” On the way to the wood elf city they passed the base of Ravenstorm peak, Kallem looked up, he knew that the sword was somewhere up there. Carter saw Kallem looking up,
“Don’t tell me it’s at the top of that,” he said pointing up.
“Well I don’t think it’s at the top.”
“Whew,” Carter sighed.
“Probably two thirds of the way up.”
“Tell you what, I’ll stay down here and catch you when you fall.”
“I think that can wait, I want to go to Kalamethas first and then we can go rock climbing.”

The sight that greeted them at Kalamethas was exactly what Kallem had been dreading, as they had approached the city they had past several dead elf scouts, then some guards and finally they got to the city. The tree top houses had been put to the flame, anything thing that had been on the ground had been destroyed completely. The number of skeleton bodies that lay around amazed Kallem and everywhere he looked he saw more dead elves, women and children. These people had fought to the last man, Tuvas dropped from his horse and was physically sick, Kallem felt like throwing up too. These people had been defenceless and the undead had marched through and slaughtered them. Kallem looked around in disbelief, he had played here as a child,
“They had no warning, they couldn’t sense the undead, that’s how they snuck up on them.” Kallem jumped from his horse and started checking bodies, he had to find Lorien. He ran to the tallest tree in the city, her home and looked up, the spiralling ramp that once went up the tree had been ripped down and the Kings home had been set on fire as well. Tuvas dried his eyes,
“It looks like this happened about a week ago.” Then Kallem found someone he recognised,
“King Tyreal,” he said. The wood elf king was dressed in a robe, probably didn’t have time to put on amour, his elven sword lay at his side and there was a deep gouge across his chest. Around him there must have been about forty undead bodies, the king had fought bravely but was beaten under weight of numbers. Kallem moved on, when he got to the base of the tree he found a female body, it was the queen, she had an axe stuck in her back and she lay face down on the ground one hand resting on the tree. Kallem felt a tear roll down his cheek, never in his life had he seen anything so horrible. He put his head up against the tree and whispered a small elvish prayer to the souls of the ones who had been killed. As he did that he felt a small surge of magic inside the tree, he lifted his head up and stared at the tree. He slowly placed both his hands onto the bark of the old tree, concentrating he could feel the strange magic embedded in the tree, then just like the illusion at the cave to the hunter council the magic gave way to his gift. Suddenly the tree began to glow, Kallem released the tree and stepped back, the two rangers watched on in wonder. The glow brightened until they could no longer look and they had to turn their heads away,
“What have you done now?” Carter yelled. Kallem shrugged,
“I don’t know.” Suddenly there was a flash and the light was gone and sitting up against the tree next to the dead body of her mother sat Lorien. She looked up, there were tears in her eyes,
“Why did they do this to my people Kallem?” he rushed up and knelt beside her, she hugged him tight and cried into his shoulder. Kallem stroked her long blonde hair as he comforted her, “I saw the whole thing,” she said, “when the fighting got really thick my mother cast a spell to put me in the tree, from inside I watched my people die unable to help.” She banged her fists on Kallem, “Why didn’t she let me help, I could have made a difference.” Kallem pulled her back into a hug,
“Don’t worry it will be ok,” he said. She shook her head,
“No Kallem, it won’t.” The four spent the next two days laying all the fallen elves to rest, Tuvas used his emerald ring to open graves in the ground to bury the people in. It was an awful job but Lorien would not leave until all of her people had been returned to the earth. She said a prayer to the elven gods over each and every grave. That night they made camp in the least of the damaged tree houses, they decided that tomorrow they would leave and continue the search for Kallems sword.

Chapter 8 - The Hall of the Gods