A few hours later, Eigim stirred and found the school nurse and the headmaster sitting in his room. They arose and walked to his bed. Noting Eigim's apparent hunger, they sent out for food.
They asked where Tanyc was, exuding a sort of nervous stress usually unseen in authority figures. Eigim was still too dazed to tell his story, opting to eat and fall back into slumber.
Eigim felt better after waking up from his nap, so the nurse sent out for the headmaster. Arriving quickly, the headmaster edgily asked Eigim again as to Tanyc's whereabouts.
Eigim appeared about to break down, and did not immediately answer the question. The schoolmaster placed his hand lovingly on the boy's shoulder, saying, "It's ok, you're safe now, Eigim. Just start from the beginning, maybe that would be better. Tell us what happened to make the two of you leave the school grounds."
Eigim began by reciting the story of the fight with Xsih and the other boys and how they humiliated Tanyc so badly by picking on him so much.
The schoolmaster said comfortingly, "We did notice changes in him. We even heard some about the harassment, but no one would tell us what happened. We even tried to get Tanyc to tell us what was on his mind, but he just wouldn't say."
Eigim could see it all in his head like it had all just happened yesterday. He began to relate the rest of his story.
On the day they disappeared, Eigim had returned to their room to find Tanyc packing up some of his belongings. "You going somewhere?" Eigim queried.
Tanyc turned to face Eigim, tears streaming down his face. "I just can't take the constant taunting from the other students. I've had to put up with Xsih, but now he's got almost the whole school doing it. I'm even starting to believe that what they say is true. I've lost my self-confidence. I've got to get out of here and do something to fix my attitude, before I lose it." Tanyc saw Eigim turn away from him and start to gather his things, as well. "Oh no," said Tanyc, "you're not coming with me."
"I'm not letting my best friend leave by himself," Eigim replied calmly, "especially with the depressed mood you're in." They argued a bit about it, but Tanyc finally gave in and allowed Eigim to join him.
They finished packing enough belongings for a few days and slipped away from the school in darkness punctuated harshly by a full moon. Seeing their path was no problem, so they walked for hours in silence. Finally Eigim turned to Tanyc and asked, "So where are we going?"
"I know you've heard about Anderiel coming from the deserts of Brilken," Tanyc replied. "She's a fierce fighter, but I think I can take her, and earn back my self-respect. And, of course, that will also rid the region of a monster." "
I think I have heard of her." replied Eigim. "I heard she could raise a lot of minions, but no golems. She also has some sort of magical crossbow whose bolts drain a person's mana if they hit. I don't know, Tanyc; I think we better think this over real carefully before we try to take on someone as tough as she is."
They slogged on for a few more hours before stopping to get some rest in a thick wooded area, one that would keep them hidden from any approaching strangers.
Several hours of sleep left them refreshed for the new day, which began with the sun shining brightly and dappling the boys with the trees' shadows. Neither youth had eaten since the previous day's lunch, a fact that motivated them strongly when they spotted a cottontail rabbit.
Tanyc smiled. "Watch this. I wonder if it'll work," he said as he quickly raised a fire golem. Before the rabbit could even try to escape, the golem's heat burned the hair right off it and killed the poor forest creature. They cleaned the rabbit before Tanyc threaded it onto a stick they used for a skewer and cooked it right on the fire golem, thus providing a tasty breakfast for the two adventurers.
They continued their long hike directly after breakfast. Eventually, the wooded area stopped, opening up into verdant fields. They started down into a valley after spotting a stream they hoped to use to refill their canteens. Once replenished, they continued up out of the valley on the far side. As they topped the hill, spotted Anderiel for the first time.
Tanyc watched for a bit and observed, "Look, she only has ten mages; we can make eight mages in addition to a fire golem and a clay golem. I think we can take her."
Eigim agreed.
The two boys slipped back down hill a bit to where they had left their belongings. Eigim raised his blood golem along with three mages. Tanyc refreshed his fire golem and raised five more mages. Then, they both conjured bone shields, which swirled around them and offered protection from Anderiel's aggression.
They both sat on the ground to let their mana rebuild in case they were forced to restore some of the resurrections in case they were killed. After the mana was restored, they slowly eased their way back to the top of the hill with their subordinates staying low, just as they were commanded to do by their masters.
To enhance the surprise attack, Tanyc and Eigim waited down the behind the hill, while commanding their undead soldiers to climb the hill and attack Anderiel's minions.
Anderiel exerted superb mind control over all her mages and ordered them to attack the approaching interlopers. To the surprise of Tanyc and Eigim, Anderiel also raised an additional five mages in just a few seconds.
Suddenly, the boys' phantoms were outnumbered, and they realized they had a harder fight on their hands than they had originally contemplated. Anderiel called out, "Whoever is responsible for this attack, show yourself. I want to see the fear in your face as I kill you."
Tanyc and Eigim stood up, proudly revealing themselves to Anderiel. Anderiel was taken aback, observing that neither boy was really old enough to raise a fire golem. "Neither of you raised this fire golem," she screamed. "Where is the other necromancer? WHERE IS HE?"
Tanyc spoke up; "The golem's mine, and we're going to rid this world of you." Andrea withdrew her crossbow from its leather pouch and began shooting at the two boys. Bolt after bolt was blocked by the bone shield that protected them. When the shields weakened, the boys simply recast it, using only a tiny bit of their recharged mana.
The battle wore on and on. The eight mages that Tanyc and Eigim raised fought a similar number of Anderiel's mages. The blood golem fought two more mages, while the fire golem fought five more.
Many of the battling mages seem to die at about the same time, so the student-masters just raised more. The blood golem, however, was getting beaten badly, and returning part of that damage to Eigim, who decided to kill the blood golem and raise a slightly weaker but nevertheless safer clay golem.
Anderiel's two mages were teaming up on the clay golem and thrashing him, since he was much weaker than the previous reincarnation. Eigim had to replace the clay golem about every 15 minutes, consuming a bit of mana each time. The strong fire golem could over power any one of the attacking mages, but couldn't do as well against five at same time. The clay golem continued to die about every 20 minutes, always being replaced by a fresh one.
The battle raged on for two more hours. Tanyc and Eigim were continually weakening -- and at a faster rate than Anderiel. In fact, Anderiel didn't seem to be fazed at all by repeatedly having to revive and re-raise her minions. Eigim was starting to have a very tough time keeping his minions alive. His fading mana was nearly gone, having been used so quickly and so often. Tanyc could still keep all of his mages up but was visibly weakened by using so much mana.
Tanyc and Eigim know they are losing this battle, and could see now way to win. Tanyc shouted sidelong to Eigim, "You've got to go; she's about to kill you. Then you won't be any help to me at all. I can hold her off long enough for you to get out of here."
"No," Eigim shook his head. "I'm not leaving you. She'll kill you as soon as I'm gone."
"Yeah, she probably will," Tanyc said seriously, "but you can't hold her off long enough for me to escape, and I can keep her back for just enough time that you can get out of here. That's the way it has to be; it's the only way that makes sense." They continued the argument for another minute, with Eigim sadly realizing that Tanyc was right. Eigim left his fading resurrections in the battle, commanding them to stay and fight, as he retreated as quickly as he could.
From the other side of the valley, Eigim could see the battle wearing on. He could also see that Tanyc was rapidly losing his strength. He saw the fire golem die, and realized that Tanyc no longer had the energy to raise another one. The bleak thought that Tanyc was going to lose overcame Eigim. He did the only thing he could: he turned and ran back towards the school.
"And that was the last time I saw Tanyc", cried Eigim. "I can only assume he's dead." The nurse hugged the boy, trying to comfort him, but there was nothing she could do for this kind of pain.
The word of Tanyc's fate soon spread around school. A search party was sent the site of the battle, but all they found was the few belongings he had placed on the ground and Tanyc's bloodwood wand on the top of the hill. The carefully wrapped wand was sent back to his parents with a sensitively worded letter telling of his death.