Well. That was different.
Chapter
Twelve
“It wantsus to use them in the fight,” Braiden breathed.
“Who does?” Augustin asked, utterly lost. “Usewhoin the fight?”
“Augustin, can you conjure a wind strong enough to — gods, I can’t believe I’m saying this — strong enough to catapult these goats toward the elemental?”
The wizard rubbed his chin, considering the question as if it had been a completely normal thing to ask. “Well, not all at once, I think. If my aim isn’t true, I might only send them scattering throughout the valley. One by one might work. Wait. What are we doing here, exactly?”
As if in understanding, a single othergoat stepped in front of them, looking out toward the elemental. It was on the valley floor now. The great creature’s tornado legs ripped at the earth and grass as it walked.
The othergoat looked back at them, as if to say, “Well? Are we doing this or not?”
Augustin cocked an eyebrow, studying the othergoat uncertainly. “Something about this feels — unethical, don’t you think?”
“You know what else is unethical? Letting this elemental wreak havoc on the valley and drive off the othergoats, or worse.”
“Baa,” the othergoat said, its gaze admonishing, its tone judgmental.
“This is the strangest thing I’ll have done in my entire career,” Augustin said. “I mean, is this not a matter of animal cruelty? What would my followers say if they ever found out?”
Augustin yelped when another othergoat butted its head sharply against his pelvis. He frowned accusingly at the creature, rubbing away the soreness.
“Cruelty against humans it is, then. Fine. Have it your way.”
He swept his arm off to his side, releasing a tremendous gust of wind that blew the othergoat off its feet, then catapulted it toward the elemental.
“Baa,” the newly launched othergoat cried, and Braiden couldn’t decide if it sounded more delighted or terrified.
They watched on, wizard, weaver, and other othergoats as the othergoat in flight aimed its horns straight at the elemental’s whirling torso. If a faceless elemental could look surprised, then this was it.
Like the confetti and streamers before it, the othergoat was sucked into the several vortices of the elemental’s body, buoyed in travel by its generous fleece.
Again the othergoat bleated in a strange combination of heightened terror and glee, like a child on an especially precarious ride at a traveling carnival. Its bleating rose to a fevered pitch.
The flames exploded inside the elemental’s body, turning its whirling form into a towering, spinning conflagration, an inferno of burning ribbon. So fast its limbs and torso spun that the fire was snuffed out in moments, but the othergoat’s explosion had left its impact on the elemental.
“Is it just me,” Braiden said, “or does our angry friend suddenly look a little smaller?”
Augustin narrowed his eyes. “You’re absolutely right. A fire needs fuel, but it consumes air to burn bright. If we send more othergoats at it — ”
The remaining othergoats crowded to the front, eager to take their turns. Augustin rubbed his palms together, grinning in anticipation.
Braiden threw his arm forward and pointed at the elemental. “Open fire!”
A peal of full-throated laughter poured from Augustin’s lips as he unleashed a concentrated gale at the elemental, simultaneously carrying five excited othergoats to their explosive destination.
Like cannonballs, Braiden thought — broadside, they called it, when an armed vessel fired its cannons all at once. Here was Augustin at last fulfilling his fated familial role as both wind wizard and pirate. Orora Arcosa would be so proud.
Braiden clapped his hands over his ears, barely sealing out the sound of thunderous explosions as the othergoats collided with the elemental and each other.
One by one the exhausted creatures dropped onto the soft grass and earth as the elemental gradually lost its fervor, its tornados spinning smaller, and weaker, and smaller, until at last it had faded into nothing.
With a whisper and a sigh, the elemental vanished, leaving nothing but a whistle stone in the tall grass.
