Grateful for the respite, the tired warriors clicked their heels, then turned and walked the short distance back to camp.
"Are you game for a little sightseeing?" Dax asked Rufio. A teasing smile crossed his face. "It would do you good!"
Still trying to clear his head, Rufio pulled on his beard. He knew he hadn't really been asked a question; he had been given an order. He clicked his boots.
"As you wish, Captain," he answered. At Dax's order, he picked up two of the torches the others had left behind.
Taking a few quick steps, Dax snapped open his wings and he launched himself into the air. Rufio followed.
They headed northwest, toward the place where the ruptured orb had first made contact with the forest. They soon found themselves over the steaming canyon. Trying to avoid the stench, Dax took them higher.
Steaming water still filled the ugly gouge in the earth. Thousands of bloated animal carcasses bobbed aimlessly, making the flooded canyon seem even more crowded than before. Scavenger birds circled above, banking to descend and collect their next meal.
The two warriors landed at the edge of the decimated forest at the base of the Tolenkas. In every direction, vast areas of timberland had burned to the ground. The smoldering soil that had once sustained the trees was as black as night. Here and there wisps of dark smoke rose lazily into the sky. Devoid of both animal life and the majestic forest, the entire area was eerily quiet. Taking to the sky, the two warriors flew west again, climbing up the rising sides of the mountains.
As they went higher, the charred remains of the forest gradually disappeared to reveal the stone base of the Tolenkas. Following the darkest part of the destruction left by the orb, Dax's gaze soon fell upon another canyon, this one carved out of the rock.
He and Rufio descended carefully. Just as the patrol leader had told them, the pass was magnificent. Its floor was jagged, uneven, and at least thirty meters wide. Its scarred walls rose vertically, their tops lost somewhere in the ever-present fog. Hissing steam poured from jagged cracks in the walls and floor. The warriors could soon feel the heat beginning to seep into the soles of their boots, and rivulets of sweat crept down beneath their body armor.
A limited amount of sunlight filtered through the fog. As Dax looked down the length of the canyon, he could see no end to it. Great explosions of rock could be heard in the distance, testament to the orb's continued success at the task that humanity had never been able to accomplish. The ground shook slightly, causing the occasional rockslide. This was a dangerous, evolving place, and Dax knew they would have to be very careful if they were to stay alive.
The Minion captain slid his dreggan from its scabbard. Rufio followed suit, then handed Dax one of the torches. Their senses alert, the two warriors began walking into the passageway.
The interior of the pass was darker than it had seemed from the outside. Dax ordered Rufio to light the torches, and shortly they were able to continue on, bright lights held high.
The deeper in they went, the hotter it became. Sweat ran freely down their bodies, and the soles of their boots were almost too hot to stand upon. Dax took to the air, and Rufio followed.
Dax realized that the heat would soon force them to turn back. Even so he pushed forward, trying to learn as much as he could. From the moment he had entered the pass, something told him that exploring it could be even more important than viewing the orb.
Dense smoke gathered, irritating their eyes and lungs. The heat was nearly unbearable; the sounds of the screaming orb and falling rocks were deafening. The canyon floor and walls shook much more violently now, and the warriors had to watch carefully for constantly falling shards of rock.
As Dax was about to order Rufio to turn back, the sounds and tremors calmed. The smoke began to lift, and the ground finally stopped shaking. Suddenly the way forward had become a bit clearer.
Holding his torch in one hand and his dreggan in the other, Dax stopped to hover in the air. Rufio came up alongside, and both gazed intently down the length of the canyon.
Through the gloom, Dax thought he saw a pinprick of light. As if it had a life of its own, its sparkling radiance started coming closer. It grew quickly, and with its speedy approach the deep, rumbling sounds started again. Faster and faster it raced toward them.
Dax suddenly realized that it wasn't a pinprick of light at all, it was a wall of glowing azure, and it was barreling straight at them. It stretched from one side of the pass to the other, and when Dax looked up, he saw that its top was lost in the fog above.
Dax knew little of magic, but his instincts told him that the thing was lethal. "Fly!" he screamed to Rufio. "Fly for your life!"
Without knowing how deep the pass was, they had no choice but to turn around and fly back in the direction from which they had come. They immediately dropped their torches and sheathed their dreggans. Pulling on their wings with all their strength, Dax and Rufio frantically made for the exit.
They didn't dare turn and look, for that would only slow them down. But even without checking, Dax could sense that they were losing ground.
The sides and floors of the canyon shook violently with its approach. The noise had grown so all-encompassing that the fleeing warriors thought their eardrums might burst. Great chunks of rock tore loose and plummeted from the walls, threatening to strike them down at any moment. As Dax and Rufio finally neared the exit, they redoubled their efforts and prayed for speed and safety.
The azure wall now only meters behind, Dax plunged through the exit first. Hoping that the wall would stay on a linear path as its energy exploded from the canyon, he veered to the right.
Always the slower, Rufio had not been able to keep up with Dax's blistering pace. Dax heard him scream and turned to look.
When the azure wall reached the exit, it came to an abrupt, unexpected stop. As it did, the entire mountain range seemed to shake. The exit was blocked by an azure barrier, which pressed against the walls of the pass, sending shards of granite falling in every direction. The earth shook for a few moments more, and then everything fell silent.
Rufio screamed again. Dax's jaw fell open.
Rufio was trapped in the azure barrier. He had been caught while flying through; only his head, shoulders, and arms protruded. Eyes bulging, the warrior struggled desperately, crying out in pain as the azure wall slowly sucked him backward. With no thought for his own safety, Dax flew to him.
Screaming, Rufio reached toward Dax. Dax took Rufio's wrists and pulled as hard as he could. But to no avaiclass="underline" Rufio was being engulfed.
Out of sheer desperation, Dax let go and drew his dreggan. He hacked at the azure wall. To his horror, his blows had no effect. His blade simply disappeared into the wall, much as if he had been striking at the surface of a pond. Each time his dreggan left the barrier, the wound it left behind immediately sealed itself.
The azure had pulled Rufio in up to his shoulders now. Grabbing Rufio's wrists again, Dax pulled with all of his might, but there was no resisting the power of the craft.
With a bloodcurdling scream, Rufio's head was finally sucked into oblivion. Straining mightily, trying to fly backward, Dax did his best to keep hold of his friend. Only when his own fingers were nearly touching the deadly wall did he finally let go.
Rufio's hands disappeared, and the wall sealed itself after them.
Stunned, Dax hovered there. The azure barrier had made no sound, had given no quarter. And now Dax's best friend was gone. For several long moments Dax lowered his head in mourning.
The exhausted Minion slowly drifted to the ground. He now believed that if he didn't touch the wall, it wouldn't harm him. But he was no fool. He didn't trust his theory enough to put it to the test.
Had the circumstances been different, Dax would have thought the wall incredibly beautiful. Smooth as glass and stretching toward the heavens, the azure light was shot through with white flashes of energy. It made no sound as it shimmered there, nor did it advance or retreat, but the light it emitted surged powerfully back and forth, as though it were begging to be unleashed.