Chapter Three #2
I reached a tentative hand down before deciding to jump in and melt the flesh off my bones. Lo and behold, as soon as my fingers grazed the wobbling surface, I felt the sharp sting of heat.
I jerked my hand back with a hiss and looked at the only person who could mitigate the heat.
“Ellyn, is there any chance you can cool down the water with your magic without spooking the goats?” I asked my wife.
“I can give it a shot,” the pale-haired elf said as she extended her palms in front of her. “I’ll try and send a current of ice water to balance it out.”
“Good idea.” I nodded as I took a few steps back to give her some space.
Ellyn sucked in a deep breath and let her eyes flutter closed.
Then, after a few seconds, a soft torrent of water began to trickle out of her palms. It glided across the bank before it trickled into the creek below.
Slowly, the torrent picked up in force, and it wasn’t long before a steady stream was running directly against the goats.
They bleated in a momentary panic, but once they got used to the gentle rush of water, they seemed to ease up a little.
The bubbling water slowly eased down, until only the soft lapping of waves flowed through the stream.
I took that as a sign the water was cool enough and tested it with another quick dunk of my hand, and this time I wasn’t worried about the skin melting off my bones.
“Raeth, you get down in the creek with me, it doesn’t look too deep,” I ordered the half-orc. “Ellyn, Karrida, you two help tug them out when we hoist them up.”
“You’ve got it,” Ellyn said as she pulled Karrida back to give me and the taller mercenary more room to jump down.
I spotted a clear spot of water and jumped down with a splash. Even though the water coated my lower half, it wasn’t unpleasant by any means. If anything, it felt like I was waist-deep in a hot tub.
The goats shrieked again and tried to scramble away from me now that I was on their level, but I softly shushed them with outstretched hands.
The shard made its silent presence known by floating through the canopy above us, and as soon as it settled above the panicked animals, they immediately started to calm down.
Raeth jumped down next to me, but even her big splash didn’t unsettle them as much as before now that the shard was here.
“That thing is like a natural pacifier,” the half-orc said as she waded through the water toward the closest goat.
“It comes in handy, right?” I grinned as I followed her over and stood behind the creature.
Its breathing was still deep and labored, but it didn’t flinch away from us as we bordered it. Ellyn and Karrida moved closer to us on the bank and extended their arms in preparation.
“Grab a back leg each,” I ordered Raeth. “We’ll hoist him up, and they can grab his horns.”
“On it,” Raeth said as she bent lower in the water. “On three.”
“One, two, three--”
I wrapped my hands around the thick back leg of the creature and pulled most of its weight against my chest. Raeth did the same thing, and as we raised our bodies out of the water, its front hooves found purchase on the soft bank.
Karrida and Ellyn quickly wrapped their hands around its curled horns and tugged with a grunt. Slowly, the bleating creature’s body crawled out of the creek with all of our help, until it was far enough on land to pull itself out.
The thing weighed a ton, and just hauling one of them up had made my forearms ache like a bitch, but we had eleven more to go.
“Well, at least they’ve been feeding themselves well up there,” Ellyn said breathlessly as she wiped her brow with the back of her hand.
“I’ll say,” Raeth huffed as she spotted the next closest goat and pulled it closer by its horns. “Let’s get this over with quickly. I want to go to bed.”
“You and me both,” I snorted as I helped her tug the creature closer until it was in the same position as the previous goat.
We did the same movement, and, one by one, each goat was slowly raised out of the creek and onto the bank beside it.
The more we helped, the slower our movements became as fatigue began to set in, but I wasn’t going to leave any of the poor creatures behind.
There was probably a shallower part of the creek somewhere, but these guys had clearly been too stressed and panicked to try and find it.
Leaving them in the Mist Woods like this was like serving them up on a silver platter for some other kind of creature to come along and pick at, so I knew we needed to at least give them a fighting chance.
Once the last goat was hauled out of the creek, I pulled myself out by fisting the soft earth beside us, and then I leaned back down to help pull Raeth out.
The goats were still standing around us, even after all of them were rescued. I blinked as if I was hallucinating what I was seeing, but even that didn’t make their shadowy forms disappear.
They were much calmer now, and some of them were already grazing on spots of dark purple grass that their body heat had thawed out.
“They’re… not running away,” I commented slowly. “That’s weird.”
“They probably like the shard,” Ellyn said.
“Orrrr they’re grateful we saved them,” Karrida suggested. “They know we’re friends now.”
“Friends who want a good night’s rest,” Raeth grumbled as she stomped over to the Gator. “We did what we set out here to do. Let’s get going.”
“So bossy,” I teased as I followed her over and settled back into the driver’s seat.
Karrida and Ellyn scurried over, too, and found their places in the small vehicle. But even after I started the ignition and the shard floated into the gap between me and Ellyn, the goats didn’t budge.
I did a careful U-turn to avoid spooking them and spun us back around to face the direction of the farm. Then I lightly pressed on the gas and began the journey back home.
Wheels rolled over dried moss and crisp leaves once again, but I heard the soft crunch of hooves behind us.
“Is that what I think it is?” I asked Raeth and Karrida without even glancing behind me.
“Yes, it is,” Raeth said in a dry tone. “They’re following us.”
I pressed on the brakes and finally looked behind me. Sure enough, every single goat had faced our direction, and while they kept a respectable distance behind us, they were clearly following.
“Go on!” I called out to them with a wave of my hand. “You’re free. Go do what you like.”
I spun back around and pushed a little harder on the gas this time, but all that did was make them walk faster.
Each time I turned around and tried to shoo them off, they’d just blink at me with those fiery eyes and keep walking as soon as I moved the Gator again.