a lot of things as he sat by the small fire, but mostly of his mother and sister who were leagues away from where he sat. He had never gotten along well with either of them, but he still cared for them. Did that make him stupid or weak as Thuraman said? After giving it a lot of thought, Bren decided it didn’t matter what it made him. He alone had to live with his every decision in life, so he would do what he felt was right no matter how others viewed it.
Suddenly, Avalanche began to growl and Bren turned his attention back to the small smoke rising from the other side of the hills. It had not completely disappeared, but it was getting weaker by the second. That could mean either that the camp was getting ready to move or that someone had forgotten to add wood. Bren quickly decided that he wasn’t about to sit around to find out which one.
Chapter 16
Once everyone was awake, they quickly moved out. They tried to lead their horses into the grass forest, but they refused to budge, so they had to leave them behind. Cass wanted to see if there was a way around the large mass of tree-sized grass, but was quickly dissuaded when he was reminded how close the Brotherhood was behind them. Without the use of Bren’s magic or the sun’s location, they had to rely on Cass and his odd instruments to tell what direction they were traveling. Bren had to give it to Cass, the man was always ready for whatever was thrown at him. The only real trouble they found was that the grass was not easy to move through. At first, they tried to cut through the grass with their weapons, but that quickly proved a useless attempt. No matter how sharp the sword, the grass would bend and sway then bounce back right in its original location. With no other choice, they were forced to push the grass aside to move forward. To help from losing sight of each other they linked themselves together with some of the rope that Cass had brought with him. It didn’t give them much moving room but it was reassuring that they wouldn’t be separated from each other.
With the thick grass, the only person Bren could see was Cass who was directly in front of him. Less than a half hour into the start of the day, Bren began to notice small cuts on Cass’s arms. With little else to look at besides the grass, it wasn’t hard for Bren to see more and more cuts appearing on his friend’s exposed flesh.
“There looks to be a clearing up ahead,” Cass yelled. “Why don’t we stop and take a short break.”
“Please,” Bren heard one of the other guards say from the back to the group.
As he exited the tall grass Bren found himself standing before what he believed was once a desert. He could still make out where the dunes were, but instead of sand, it was glass. In the distance, Bren noticed a large bolt of lightning strike one of the larger dunes sending small flakes of glass into the sky.
“I thought magic didn’t work on glass.” Bren silently commented to Thuraman.
It is not the magic in the lightning that is causing the damage but the force and heat from the initial impact. Your father became really good at fighting the Brotherhood, even with their white swords. He would use magic that affected things around the soldiers and not the soldiers themselves so that their swords couldn’t stop them from taking damage. He couldn’t use lightning like you just saw because it would take too much energy to create a bolt that large, and in the end, it would still only do a small amount of damage. That is why the dune only lost a little of its top instead of the whole thing. Next time, why don’t you try to figure out what is happening on your own instead of asking me.
“I thought that you liked to show off your knowledge,” Bren replied sarcastically.
I do and will if it is needed, but you need to learn to think for yourself. If you always rely on others for the answer, you will never learn how to understand the changes around you without help, and right now that could be dangerous. If you had simply felt and understood what would happen if you tried to use magic,