It's going to be a hot day, Tiet thought as they continued their jog toward Kale. The night before Kale had seemed so distant from them, but now it was as though he were just over the next rise.
Tiet and Emil had gotten up before dawn as planned and had gotten an early start back on the hunt. Emil picked away at the last of the previous nights meal as he ran beside Tiet, tossing away small bones along the way. A small road intersected their path and soon they found themselves running along it. They passed a sign as they jogged along that read, City of Odem: 2 miles.
Tiet suddenly stopped and Emil, over shooting him a little, stopped and came back to him asking, "What's wrong?"
"That city up ahead, Odem, I think Kale is there!"
"Great! Let's go!"
"Wait, something has happened."
"I don't-" Emil paused mid-sentence as he noticed something approaching from the east. "What is that?" A massive black cloud that looked like death itself moved, not far above the tree tops, toward the city ahead of them. A great shadow covered the land and the cloud seemed to swallow up the sun itself from where they were standing. The wind increased by ten fold from the cool breeze that had been blowing.
Branches snapped as the trees waved together in the wind like great hands coming out of the ground to worship the Eternal One himself.
"I feel like it's alive." Emil muttered.
"It is!" shouted Tiet as the wind blew stronger. "It's those things we fought before, back in the city-only a whole lot more of them!"
The maelstrom moved over the town ahead.
"We've got to get to him! Hurry!" Tiet shouted.
The pair broke into a sprint up the road. Tiet mumbled a prayer under his breath as he ran, hoping that Elithias would give strength to them against their enemies today. Otherwise, they might be about to breathe their last.