The escape

The sun was floating in the horizon. It floated there like it was tied to the horizon by an invisible tread, woven by the Earth mother himself. It would soon be dark; the first shadows were slowly creeping up behind Gareth. In a matter of hours he would be completely embraced by darkness. He had to hurry now; there were no time to waste. He had to leave the forest to a more secure place, the dark powers were strong in this place, he could feel it pull, and it was almost like a mistress trying to seduce him with a promise of eternal life.
Suddenly he heard something in the bushed near the small hill where he was watching the sun going down. He started to reach into himself, he started whispering something in an ancient, almost forgotten language and his hands started to move with a grace that was impossible for a man of his age. He looked his gaze at the bushed near him. “Hey relax old man, it is just me” a voice said from the bushes. A large badger appeared from the bushed. Gareth let out a sigh and dismissed the spell “can’t be too careful these days with those creatures around the forest.” “Do you have anything to report my friend?” The badger looked at him with curiosity “Do you have any food? I am starving to death” he said. “Christ, you at are the hungriest badger I’d ever met” Gareth reached into his pocked, but he found out it was empty. “Listen up, we got to get out of here now, let’s go back to the cabin, and then you’ll get some food. The badger smiled and started walking. Gareth started walking towards his small cabin, he loved the forest, and he’d loved the forest since his father took him along when he was hunting rabbits and other small animals. But one day when he was with his father something happened.
Something in the forest around him made him present again; he tightened his grip around his walking stick. He could see the badger started sniffing in the air and he could see its teeth.
“Something is coming, and it is not an animal, let get out of here quick”. Gareth closed his eyes and started to whisper something, it was a language almost as old as the gods, you could feel the power in the words as he spoke them, feel the ripples through the evening air. His skin and equipment started to change colour, it started to mix into the surrounding forest, and soon he was almost impossible to notice from the background. He started moving away, as fast as he could. He could hear noise now, and he saw to figures emerge out of the darkness only a few metres to the left, if he had not been so hard to spot he would have had to attack the now. He froze in place and started to listen.
The two figures were about 7 feet tall, slender built but very muscular, they had glowing eyes both of them, like cats who walked on two legs. “Have you found the path yet Gawin?” said on of them, “No that stupid old man is harder to kill that we first expected him to be, he has been trained well. But let’s continue, we can’t go back to master without his head”
Gareth could hardly believe what he heard, someone wanted him dead, but who, and why. He knew that it was troubled times, and that something was up, but hardly anyone knew what was going on, and what did they want him for, usually he minded his own business in the forest, and he had not had contact with any people for more than a year now. It was an immense forest, and he was its protector. He couldn’t move, and he couldn’t risk attacking as he didn’t know the strength of the humanoid like creatures whose job was to assassinate him.
“Let’s keep looking for the path” they took out a staff and one of them said a word, the staff started glowing brighter and brighter. Gareth could now see that they wore black hooded robes and their faces were catlike.
He knew that his changes of being discovered grew more and more with the light, he had to do something, perhaps he could do something now, they wouldn’t be able to feel the magic now. He had to be quick; he started gesturing and spoke slow but quick, and pointed in their direction. Then he started to move backwards and prepared to run. The two figures stopped looking at their staff and drew their swords “someone is using magic here; I can feel a shift in the balance, quick prepare to attack”. The bushed and branches around the two started closing in on them, bushed started to grab their legs and arms. They started to lashing out powerful blows against their unseen enemy.
Gareth ran as fast as he could, the camouflage spell still made him difficult to detect, even while he was running.
One of the two started shouting “There he is, that petty old Druid, let’s get him”. The creature who had been called Gawin started calling him out “Stop where you are druid” Gareth could feel and urge to stop running and just stand still, powerful magic was at play here he knew. He struggled to keep running, his muscles started to freeze but he kept running, he knew he had to get out of sight, there were no time to try and counter the spell, he just had to hope that his simple entanglement spell could hold the two captured, but he knew it was just a matter of minutes, and they would be free. They were sorceresses both of them, and highly specialized. Gareth heard footsteps in the background; they had cut themselves loose from the spell. He tried to think of something to do, but he was too confused. He could hear them coming closer; they were fast and dexterous creatures, but he knew the forest better than them and he had to use that against them. He quickly turned down a familiar path, it was narrow but he knew the place, he had gain some time so he could escape or find something to do. A little further down he came to a cave entrance he ran into the darkness and kept running. He was very exhausted now. The footsteps stopped outside the cave for a moment.
Gareth quickly used all his strength to reach into himself and started chanting in the ancient language forming glowing characters around him, he knew it would reveal him, but this was actually his plan. There was a dark pit near him, almost a 200 feet deep. He could hear running now, and conjuring of magic. He jumped down the pit and let himself fall, but he fell very slowly, like a leaf that falls to the ground, he was as light as a feather. He could hear the footsteps close to the edge now, and suddenly hear scream and saw a figures fall down to the bottom of the pit with an alarming speed, he was dead then he hit the cave floor at the bottom of the pit. The other one had stopped at the edge of the cliff. Gareth stopped in midair and grabbed the dark rock; he pulled himself towards it and slipped into a small crevice.