The Amulets (An 'Amulets of Andarrin' tale) by Michael Alexander Card-Mina Read Free Book Online Page A

Jack shouting. Relief at Jack being alive was quickly washed away when she realised his shouts were coming from the direction the creature drifted off to.
    “It’s gone for Jack” Frankie said.
    Lily was about to shout for Jack when she looked up and saw a figure wearing a dark coat standing over her. She feared the worst but then…
    “Are you ok?” the figure said moving closer. It was a woman’s voice and by the sound of her accent she was Scottish. She held a flaming torch above her head which lit up the woods around them. The torch revealed the figure of a woman, a rather attractive one at that. She was tall with ginger hair curling down below her shoulders. To look at, she was beautiful, she looked in her late twenties but there was something there, in her eyes, a look of age, as if she had seen too much.  Under her cape she wore a dark green pair of combat pants and a dark top. She helped the heavily bruised girls gingerly get to their feet. “Hey! Are you two ok?” she said, concern on her face.
    “Yes” Frankie started but then remembered Jack and Aaron. “No! Our friends! That thing’s gone for them.”
    The woman didn’t ask what; instead she just scanned the woods until Jacks shout was heard again.
     
    “Lily!!” Jack yelled again.
    The trees creaked and rustled as Jack passed through the wood. The wind had softened to a low whisper in the night. He raced through the woods with shafts of moonlight illuminating the ground between the trees. He steadied his headlong rush. Something was coming towards him.
    “Lily?” Jack said cautiously into the woods.
    Clouds covered the glistening moonlight and the woods ahead darkened. Out of the dark came a figure. Jack watched as it moved over the twigs and leaves as if floating above them, its cloak brushing the ground as it went. Noticing a stout branch near his feet, he picked it up hoping to defend himself.  Grasping it firmly, he turned back to the figure.
    “What have you done with my friends?” he asked through gritted teeth.
    The figure replied with a howling scream, shaking the trees as its sound hit them.
    Blood dripped from his ears and nose; his head felt like was in a vice but Jack didn‘t back down. He gripped the stick tighter “where are they?” he shouted again.
    Without warning the figure whizzed towards him. Jack raised the stick and swung it towards its head. The figure twisted through the air dodging the stick and came level with Jack. Its huge arms smashed the stick out of his hands sending it to the ground in pieces. It grabbed him by the neck, lifting him a metre off the floor and pinning him against a tree, bringing its face inches away from Jacks and began sniffing him. Jack was powerless. The figures jaw dropped and it let out another scream only this time it didn’t seem directed at Jack. Everything seemed to brighten to an orange glow around him as the figure let Jack fall and it screamed again as its cloak burst into flames and it fled into the woods leaving burning remnants of its cloak behind it.
    “Jack are you ok?” a familiar voice said.
    Jack looked up rubbing his neck “Lily…" he said relieved “Lily how did you?”
    “It wasn’t us. This is Helena” She pointed to the girl picking up a flaming torch from the ground.
    “Did you see it” Jack asked Helena.
    “Aye, but don’t worry it will nae be back” she reassured them as she picked up the torch.
    “How do you know?” Jack asked but before she could reply Frankie burst in, realising Aaron wasn’t there.
    “Where’s Aaron?” she asked frantically.
    “It’s ok, he‘s safe. Come on” Helena replied.
    Jack got to his feet “he’s alive?!” he shouted with a surge of hope.
    “Barely, now come on let’s get you out of here” Helena said as she led them back through the woods.
     
    As they made their way out of the woods, Jack quizzed the girls about Helena but they were as puzzled as he was. Jack didn’t dwell on it though as she had told