Free Winter Warrior (Song of the Aura, Book Two) by Gregory J. Downs

wind was a cataclysmic battle-cry in his ears. It filled him and rushed out in all directions like an ember filled to bursting with a fiery energy.
     
        “For the Aura!” he shouted, drawing his hands behind him in a complex series of motions, then unleashing the gathered wind with his palms thrust out, throwing a shooting spear of air out in front of him.
     
        Chains ripped from their anchors on the draik’s face and flew backwards in pieces. The monster was ripped into the air and hurled onto its back ten feet away. Gears popped from slots in its shoulders and went bouncing away on the ice; steam puffed in great bursts from its nostrils and a pipe jutting from its side; blood spilled and pooled on the ice under its metal-and-hide back.
     
        Lauro smirked triumphantly and wrung his arms to get the feeling back into them. Wind striding was tiring work, and he needed to be ready for-
     
        -But he never finished the thought. The draik recovered faster than he had thought it could, twisting in a way no natural animal could to get on its feet and charging again. He hurriedly conjured a blast of wind and swept it up towards the monster’s head to lift it off balance again, but the draik dug its iron claws into the ice and kept its head low, riding out the whirlwind and charging forward again as soon as it was done.
     
        It can’t reach me in time, Lauro knew, raising his arms for a grand finale of striding. But the draik knew it too, and it didn’t have to reach him to do what it wanted. Before it could be pushed back again it sucked in the cold night air and blasted it out in a hellish inferno of white flame that engulfed the stout prince immediately.
     
        “No!” he shouted, cowering, but the torrent never reached him. It was diverted on two sides by a dark form that sprang in the way at the last second, black against the evil light of the flames. Even then Lauro was knocked flat by the heat and the air that accompanied them. “NO!” he shouted again, “ELIA!”
     

     

Chapter Seven: Speech of Mastery
     

     

     
        Elia had just reached the wessiles ; pale-hulled wave-riders unique to the Treele; when she realized the draik was no longer following her. Spinning around, she caught sight of the wind Strider boy flopping head-over-heels across the ice, the monstrous draik struggling to rise to its knees with a twisted neck from the impact.
     
        What does he think he’s doing? She wondered frantically, but she already knew. He’s giving me a chance to escape. He’s trying to save me. He was no coward, for sure. Foolish, but brave.
     
        For a moment she stood, undecided, wanting to flee and make good her escape but knowing she could never live with the death of her new friend. While she rocked nervously between the two ideas, she noticed a darker shade of night behind the shadows of the draik and the prince. Gribly! The hapless thief was running up behind the monster, still yelling at his friend to stop. What was wrong with him? He was going to get them both killed!
     
        “Father of Sea and Sand, protect me,” she whispered, setting out at a run up the slight incline of the Berg to reach her friends before it was too late.
     
        As she ran, she tried to gather her thoughts for her next move. Her only chance was her gifts, but so far she had little to no luck wave striding with snow, let alone ice. Picking up her pace, she tried to imagine the ground beneath her molding to her feet and pushing her forward a little faster than she could go on her own. She thought she could feel her speed increase, but then again… she knew she could be imagining it.
     
        Either way, it wasn’t fast enough. Up ahead Lauro was being charged by the draik, and some wound or injury was keeping him from flying away.
     
        “STOP!” she screamed, but at that moment Lauro began to summon wind and use it to fight the predator. Her voice was drowned