by Lawson, Alan
The Elderine Forest was probably the oldest living natural creation in the lands. It had been around from the early ages. The forest had been planted and carefully guarded by the Elderine Order, as a sign of respect towards nature. The forest blossomed and so did the magical powers that the order controlled. The forest continued to grow as tides of men passed over the lands, building cities, from the mountain face, to the shore, it watched on silently as great city of the Averinites fell to the hatred and jealousy of Caleb, powerless to protect or save its creator.
It watched silently as the darkness grew in the North, it stood firm whilst evil grasped at the powerful nature magic. The evil entangled itself around the forests northern borders. Yet even though the forest felt so much pain for the loss of its planter, and the loss of the Averinite people it stood motionless, not even swaying in the gentle breeze. It was almost as if the forest knew that evil had conquered the Temple City of Elderine. But it didn’t need to take action, instead the forest watched as the people of the region played out their roles, waiting with perfect patience.
So many years had passed since the Lord of Darkness was imprisoned within the Elderine Stone that the people of Hasparia had almost forgotten the threat of the darkness that had spread across the land. It had been thousands of years since Caleb had marched on the Temple City, and now it was the turn of Jason and Emily, but for completely different reasons. They were following the path that had long been foretold, but in this age, an age were man no longer followed the Righteous Order of Elderine but the New Order, an order were twisted minds controlled the very essence of society. But they couldn’t stop them now. If those who opposed them won, then the world would never be safe again. The evil would grow, the Lord of Darkness would be released, and no one would be able to stop him. Jason was the only chance left.
They continued on, there was no turning back now. They could feel the uneasy presence of evil around them. The forest was quiet, darker than usual, this made them more uneasy, but they had to continue on, neither wanted to spend the night within the woods, Jason least of all after his encounter with the worg not so long ago. He was more than sure that any creature living in this end of the woods, would be much bigger and much fiercer. They both decided that reaching the edge of the wood before nightfall would be the best thing they could do, they picked up pace and headed towards the forests northern edge.
Devon lead the way into the Elderine forest, their route was dark, but they could still see well enough to walk through the maze of trees and forest undergrowth. There were a few hunting trails that led off into the forest in various different directions, none however led north. Devon had to push back branches and shrubs with each step, still grasping tightly to the end of the bag in which Sherbit was held. It wouldn’t take too long to reach the other side of the forest, but it was getting dark.
Devon had never been allowed out of the lodge at night, his father always said it was too dangerous, he argued with his father every hunting night, until one time, his father returned with only one other member in his hunting party out of the four who went with him. Devon could remember the night clearly; his father had returned in a cold sweat, fear drenched his whole body. The blood on his clothes not his own, but of fellow hunters, bar the doors! He could remember his father shouting, close the shutters! It’s coming! Devon could remember every moment of the events that night. It was dark. He heard the howls from outside. It was no beast that he or his father was familiar with. It was no dog, no wolf. It wasn’t even a werewolf rare as they are, but something different, something unseen or heard before. It pounded at the door, thump, thump, thump the maids were crying, and rocking back and forth, the guards stood ready with their spears, Devon’s father stood at the door, with his protector, Devon crouched in his bed. The beast left the door, it could be heard running around the lodge, rubbing against the wooden panels, looking, searching for another way in, there was another pound at the door, a howl, then silence, the beast had left.
Devon swallowed hard, as he nervously looked around to scout out the area, looking for any sign of a large wolf like beast, he quickened his pace, he wanted out of the forest before he had a chance to meet whatever killed his father’s hunting friends, and scared him so much. The night was cold, and silent. Devon knew the north end of the forest was normally quiet at this hour, which was strange for most forests, but being this far north changed things, creatures must have sensed the proximity to evil and moved south, some remained, but not even they could be heard. This made Devon more nervous than he was previously.
“Lets get a move on, we have to get out of this forest before night falls” Devon said continuing to look around
“Scared are we?” Sherbit said from within the bag, taunting his captors.
“Don’t be stupid you slime-rag you, I’m not scared. We just have to catch up with those two, before we lose them.”
“Oh that’s ok, because I heard a growl back there, thought it was that oaf, Grimble’s stomach, but no I am sure it was a growl, or something big, something nasty, with sharp teeth, and an empty stomach. Something that’s coming our way!”
“Shut up before I leave you hanging from one of these trees!” Devon shouted back.
Sherbit made a howling noise from within the bag, and then laughed. There was a brief moment of silence, then in the distance a howl, a bone chilling howl, much like the one Devon had in memory from that night in the lodge.
Whatever it was, it was coming their way and fast, Sherbit giggled evilly,
“This is fun.”
“We have to get out of here, now!” Devon screamed as he started to run.
The beast was running towards them, gaining on them, closer and closer. Devon didn’t dare look back. He didn’t want to see his predator. He didn’t want to stare death in the eye. The path forward was the way to survive. They had to run.
It wasn’t long before Jason and Emily saw the welcoming sight of the forest edge, the sight of the night sky. They continued to walk in the direction of the forest opening, the gap widening with each step they took. Soon they saw the foot of the Mingus Mountains, giants of solid rock that stretched up into the night’s sky, disappearing into the darkened clouds. In the distance they could see torches flickering.
The sight was eerie, the area was still, there was no sound coming from any creature, fear encompassed this area, nothing wanted to be here, including Jason and Emily, but now they had no choice.
Jason looked around for somewhere to rest for the night. They now stood at the edge of the wood, the trees had become distorted, they looked twisted with the presence of evil, they had darkened bark and little or no leafs. Jason spotted a large rock that lay leaning against a smaller one. It would make a perfect shelter from the nights howling wind.
Emily gathered some dead wood from the ground, to use as kindling, and walked over to Jason who was now slouching down against the larger rock.
“We can rest here tonight, I don’t feel comfortable but I doubt there are any Inns around.”
Jason tried to pull a smile, though being honest to himself he was afraid. He tried to look confident. He could now see the ruined temple in the distance, the flickering lights against the cold stone halls, where he would soon walk, to meet the Dark Lady.
Emily could see the fear in Jason’s eyes. She could only imagine how he felt, a stranger to this world, landed with a quest that he is unfamiliar with. But she had faith in him, now though she could only comfort him and help him relax. She lit a fire and sat down.
“Jason, tell me about your world.” Emily said trying to lift the mood
Jason who was now sitting on top of the rock looking toward the temple in the distance, slid down and sat beside Emily.
“It is very different from here, we don’t have magic, but we have machines that do things for us, we have buildings taller than your Accuro Terradea tree, maybe even ten times as tall and taller” Jason paused and smiled as he watched the expression of Emily’s face change
to utter amazement, then he continued “We have machines that drive us around, or fly us in the air, we can even talk to people thousands of miles away by using a machine called a phone.”
“Oh we can talk to people too, well some people can but they need to be really powerful wizards or witches and use a responding stone. Jason your world sounds amazing!” Emily exclaimed. “Those machines sound very useful. A world without fear, it must be a great place.”
“It’s not trust me, there are a lot of bad things too, and not all our machines do good, some could destroy the entire world or large parts of it. I suppose we live in a world of fear too. I don’t know much about this place but I’d say things are a lot better here”
They both stopped talking when they heard someone screaming, someone screaming and heading their way. It sounded like a boy. They heard another scream, although it sounded different than the first, perhaps someone else. What was it? They weren’t sure, but they would soon find out, the screaming got louder and closer with each second. Jason and Emily pulled themselves up, they felt no fear, but bewilderment, what was it? They kept asking. The screaming was very close now, they could hear the snapping of branches on the ground, and leafs being rustled. The nearby branches began to sway back and forth, within an instant a figure burst out of the darkened woods out into the open, carrying a small bag in his left hand, the boy was followed by a strange looking creature, it looked human, but looked like it was made from the earth and wood, but it still had an pleasant eminence.
Jason and Emily stood astonished as the two figures, the one with the bag in his hand and the other earthly creature ran passed, and they continued to run, screaming as they went. Jason and Emily watched as they ran passed them then stopped, the boy quickly turned back to see if they were still being chased, they weren’t. He gasped a sigh of relief then he caught sight of Emily and Jason in the corner of his eye, standing at the edge of the wood watching them. Devon grabbed Grimble and jumped behind a rock, in a feeble attempt to hide.
Devon sat with Grimble still grasping tightly to the bag containing Sherbit, who was now kicking and screaming for help, in an aggressive fashion. Devon knew they had been spotted, and that hiding now was useless. They waited for Emily and Jason to walk over, their cover was now gone.
Emily and Jason looked at each other, still in shock at what they had just witnessed. They wondered why these two strange characters had run and hid behind a rock. Who were they hiding from? Emily was the first to make any movement towards the rock, which was neatly hiding the bodies of the two figures, but neglecting to cover the head of the earth like creature. Jason followed Emily, walking closer to the rock.
Emily reached the rock and looked over to see the boy crouched as low as his body would allow, still holding the bag that was now squirming about and still shouting help, the earth like creature wasn’t putting as much effort into the crouching, but still sat as low as he could.
“Hello” Emily said “Umm who, may I ask, are you?” sounding puzzled.
Devon looked up into Emily’s face, not knowing what to do in this situation; he had to think fast, he couldn’t think of anything but the truth, to answer with. He was still quite alarmed from his experience and lucky escape in the woods.
“I’m Devon. This here is Grimble, my protector.”
“You have a protector?” Emily asked, knowing that only wealthy citizens or those who were of high importance had protectors.
“I’m Devon of Haspar” Devon repeated again, clearly not answering Emily’s question, the fear in his voice was evident as he gasped of air. He was slowly calming again, he was catching hold of his senses, and his surroundings, and he was now able to think clearly, and think of excuses that would help them come across as those who would want to help Emily and Jason on their quest.
Emily noticed the bag moving about. An arm would push the sack cloth up from within, and then a leg would kick another area, the calls of help could still be heard coming from the bag, but Emily had only noticed it now.
“And what is in that bag?” She asked looking down at Devon’s arm which was still grasping tightly, though shaking slightly.
“Oh it’s a little creature we found on our way here.” Devon said clearly thinking of an excuse that would hide the fact that they had been purposefully following the two friends, and had kidnapped the little creature at Emily’s house.
“It’s Sherbit!” Jason cried, finally picking himself up from what had just happened, “It certainly sounds like him.”
As soon as Sherbit heard Jason’s voice he started to call for him.
“It is him!” Emily yelled “Devon why have you captured him?”
Devon couldn’t think of an answer, he hesitated, then thought of something, that could maybe save them, save what little was left of their plan.
“We found him wandering aimlessly when we were heading north, we thought he was lost, or looking for someone, maybe you two. So we tried to make him come with us but he wouldn’t. He would only have been hurt or, or... he could have starved, poor thing, so we had to bring him with us the only way we could.” Devon had now fully regained control of himself, he spoke as if he truly cared for Sherbit, he was trying to convince Emily and Jason that he was concerned not for himself but others.
“He lies” Sherbit yelled from within the cloth bag “Captured me, I’d no choice.”
“He is confused, It has been a long journey” Devon replied nervously.
Jason thought for a moment, he had been wondering about Devon’s answer, why was he coming north in the first place.
“Devon, why are you here? How did you know Sherbit was looking for someone?”
“We over heard Emily talking about your quest to the North and your plans to destroy the Dark Lady, in a bakery back in Haspar. We were interested and thought that we could help, or rather that we should help.” Devon had twisted the truth slightly, he couldn’t tell them his true plans, or who he truly was, who’s son he was. If Emily and Jason knew this they would surely cast them aside and continue with their quest alone. Now that they had been spotted their only other option was to join forces, Devon didn’t want to spoil this chance.
“There was no one else in the bakery.” Jason argued.
“No trust me we were there, sitting in the back corner in the shadows. No one could really see us.”
Jason thought back to that small cosy bakery, true as Devon said, there was a corner in the back of the shop, there was a table and stools there and it was covered in shadow. It could have been possible for them to hide there, it could have been possible for them to hear what Emily had spoken about and not be seen.
“We don’t want to harm, or get in your way. We just thought we could help with your quest.”
“Well I guess as a start you could let Sherbit out of that bag” Emily said pulling back from the rock.
“Of course” Devon said as he undid the draw strings around the bag slowly opening the top. “We meant no harm, you do understand?”
Devon set the loosely opened bag on top of the rock. Slowly Sherbit came out and rubbed his eyes, he looked happy to see Emily and Jason, and then he noticed where they were, he looked towards the mountains, the ruined temple with the flickering lights, and he smiled, a hidden smile. He then looked back towards Emily and Jason.
“We’ll there isn’t much we can do now, you are here now, there is not much point sending you back, and I doubt you would go if we told you to. I hope you know what you are getting yourself into.” Emily said as she walked back towards the campfire that she had lit moments earlier. Emily was good during times like these at acting as a mother figure, even though she was still considered young in age. She could still be very strict and voice the opinion that would matter most. Jason followed Emily back to the campfire, followed by Sherbit hopping along as usual.
Devon pulled himself up and looked at Grimble with an expression of relief, they had overcome two obstacles in that short period, that beast, whatever it was had
been outrun, and they had now been accepted by Emily and Jason. Devon didn’t want to think about what stopped that beast from chasing them further, though he believed that the presence of evil emitted from the temple at the foot of the Mingus Mountains had frightened it off. The thought scared him. The evil had even frightened a beast such as it.
All five sat around the blazing fire, every so often Jason would throw a piece of dead wood that Emily had collected earlier on top. It was now dark; the moon shone in the sky over the mountains, often blocked by passing clouds, there were few stars in the sky this night, as if they were aware of the evil too and had fled south.
The five were quiet, yet they all had so many questions they wanted to ask each other. They had plans to make, they didn’t know what to expect. All that they knew were the many rumours and tales that they had been told by their parents and tutors. Jason knew nothing, only that he was labelled as this so called hero that would defeat the Dark Lady and put an end to the Lord of Darkness’s reign of evil.
Devon sat quietly he had been thinking considerably about what he should do, what his previous intent was, and how he could carry out any actions now that he was with Jason and Emily. He felt drawn to this group of adventurers. He could even feel a slight aura of power from Jason. He was starting to wonder if Jason could actually be the hero that had been spoken of, and prophesised, and although this would go against everything he had been taught, he still felt that this idea was closer to the truth. Perhaps he thought it would be better to help them now rather than work against them. The realisation of what actually lay ahead frightened Devon. Whatever resided in that temple had frightened the beast in the forest. Perhaps the Dark Lady was far worse, maybe the only person who could defeat the Dark Lady was Jason, and if it was true, then Devon wanted to be able to help in any way he could.