The boy could see that this request had been made perfectly naturally, and that no one was trying to trap him. He was the self-proclaimed Destroyer, and it was logical that they would want to see exactly what that meant. So then, he had no choice but to face the consequences of that declaration, and therefore the young man decided to hide nothing, and to explain the truth, exactly as it was. He recounted his entire story, just as he had a few minutes earlier with the two warriors.
The king did not interrupt him, and instead waited until he had finished, then said, “And so, this is what the world of today looks like. Entombed as we are here, we had no idea of the problems the humans faced. You have to know, though, that at the time of Novak, life was not the same. You seem to think that what happened five hundred years ago is about to happen again, but even if the Destroyer is effectively a point in common between the two times, the context is no longer the same. Now, only men remain to face their destiny.”
“That is exactly why I am here. I want to ask you to join us, to aid us. It is time to leave your solitary refuge.”
“You are an impetuous young man. We dwarves know humans: their lives are short, and they are always in a hurry. The most difficult battles are also the longest, but you see before you nothing but short durations. You seem ready to start this war, but it has already been going on since the beginning of time. At certain times, the balance has shifted from one side to another, but today, we no longer have anything to do with that.”
“On the contrary, now is the time to let go of all your resentment and anger and regain your territory, starting with these mountains!”
Gardock sighed. “Wisdom acquired over the course of our lives is precious knowledge. It is what allows us to confront the truth – our truth. The time of the dwarves is over, Glaide. From this time forward, we live only to see our own disappearance from the land. We have fought before, but we are not as numerous as we were. Many of us have perished in this fight against Baras. Today, it is time to accept our destiny: there is nothing left for us to do on this earth.”
A profound silence settled in the room. “This then, is the source of the immense sadness this sovereign carries,” thought Glaide. “He has accepted the disappearance of his people as something he judges inevitable...” He felt anger take over inside him. These creatures that he so admired were not only in the middle of telling him that he should go on without them, but even more than that, they felt that that was justifiable!
He forced himself to calm down – out of fear of appearing too hotheaded – then said, “This thing that you call ‘wisdom’, I call ‘resignation’. The only ones who are finished are those who believe they are. I’m asking you to get back up, and face your responsibilities anew. I’m asking you to be willing to live again!” The last words vibrated through the room with emotion. The eyes of the adolescent fixed on the elderly warrior with a fierce gaze. “How can they just accept this?” he asked himself angrily. “How can they be willing to let everything go, when we need their help? How can they stay and do nothing as civilization crumbles?”
The king, with an indulgent smile on his face, and a voice that remained calm, declared, “Go, Destroyer. If anyone here can change the destiny of men, it is you. Become what you are meant to become. It is time that Baras experience fear himself. You have my blessing.”
Strangely, these words calmed Glaide. Everything was clear in his mind. If he wanted to change anything, he would have to start by learning how to fight on his own. Then, he would need to rally the barbarians that were willing to accept an alliance with humans. He could not count on the other races. However, despite this moment of seeming clairvoyance, he couldn’t prevent himself from adding, “Very good, Gardock, king of the dwarves. I respect your decision. I will do what I can, but I ask that you reflect on what is happening in the Known Lands, and on what was once your land. May I just say that, if I’m not mistaken, the maps of man have no name for these mountains. Perhaps that is because the right to name them had always been left to you and your people – an homage to your race, an homage dating back to the Ancient Times. And then, the mountains of Fyth should be emptied of the black orks that infest them, and be renamed. It could be up to you to do that. Up to you, to regain your homes.”
His listener nodded slowly, then declared in a strong voice, “Oclin-Fer! That is the name of our home. It means ‘Grandeur Lost’. So you see, Destroyer, that even when we named these mountains, many years ago, this place was already a synonym for our disappearance.”
A deep silence followed those words. The dwarf appeared plunged deep in his memories, while the adolescent felt torn between anger and a newfound incredulity that came as realization of just who he was speaking to settled in: he was speaking to the king of the dwarves. It was strange to be speaking like this to a human-like being, but one that belonged to a race so different from his own. On Earth, only humans had complex political and social organization; here, however, other creatures had created the same types of advanced systems.
“Whatever the case,” continued Gardock, “in memory of our paths crossing, let me offer you this.” Here, he snapped his fingers, and a brilliant, silvery chain was brought to him. Glaide easily recognized it as mithril, and it was with emotion that he slipped the chain over his head. “More than just being a beautiful piece, with an immeasurable value, this object is a gift of the dwarfish people to the representative of all races and of Aras. This chain is a gift to the Destroyer. It will ensure that you receive assistance from any of my subjects that you should come across. May our blessed God accompany you and offer you assistance whenever you have need of it.”
“Th... thank you,” stammered the young man. He was stupefied by the way these small beings saw things. They did not want to throw themselves into a new battle, but they had nothing but encouragement for those who were already thrown into war.
At that, the dwarves accompanied him back to the entrance to the mountains.
His mission had failed, but despite that, the adolescent wished the dwarves no ill-will. He had learned much over the course of the day. He had learned about what had happened in the past, and the reasons why humans seemed so alone in the fight against Baras. His primary goal remained to locate the master teaching the technique of Iretane, but now, he had begun to look farther ahead. He had begun to glimpse what he would need to do once he had mastered the techniques of the school, though that was something that could take quite some time.
The sun had long since set by the time the young man reached the out-of-doors. Being outside did him good; though he had not realized it, the cavern had been oppressive, and he was not at all upset to see the stars again. He found a space where the grass was thick, and there lay down to spend the night.
Before falling asleep, he took the time to carefully define his new itinerary. Having no particular place to head, he decided to first return to Adrish, partly because Tyv and Paeh had said they were going there, and partly because he wanted to see for himself what remained of Rackk. Besides, visiting places that were familiar would help boost his morale. One can be alone, though, even when in the midst of a crowd, and Glaide realized that even in the middle of Morthiaz, an animated town, he had not been able to get rid of the feeling of solitude. That had only left with the arrival of the protector and his magg.
“I’ll feel that same comfort by revisiting the places that I visited before,” he thought. “Seeing familiar places will give me the same feeling as going home after being away for a long time.” For the first time since arriving on Galadria, Glaide felt the need to have a house – a real home of his own, a safe haven where he could always expect to find calm and peace. The prospect of seeing a familiar village swept aside his disillusionment and bolstered his courage. However, a small problem soon made its appearance: his destination was on the complete opposite side of the map. It would take a considerable amount of time to arrive. Ignoring the physical fatigue it would surely cause, he had no doubt that such a journey would also
be exhausting to his morale. Up until then, he had been beginning to appreciate his solitude, but he knew that discouragement and melancholy were not far away, and a journey such as the one that would bring him to Adrish would constantly revive bad memories. The only solution would be to travel through many villages, taking only the most frequented routes.
However, as he comfortably settled into the grass, he realized that the days he had just passed in complete self-sufficiency – after having left Paeh and Tyv – had not been nearly as horrible as the hours it had taken him to arrive in Morthiaz, after leaving Shinozuka behind him. He knew that that was due to the fact that he was now finding joy and distraction in everything that surrounded him, in tramping about on the gravel paths, in running, in walking, even in breathing. Everything, absolutely everything that surrounded him filled him with joy. He realized that he was in another world, living out an incredible adventure, and he wanted to take advantage of every moment of it. Just as Baras had so aptly said, his strength came from that, and it was a resource that the young man believed to be inexhaustible.
With those joyous thoughts in his mind, he slept.
Chapter 7
DAY broke, and Glaide continued on his journey. He had no particular desire to hurry, but walked at a rapid pace nonetheless. He traveled along the border of the mountains, preferring the absolute silence that reigned there to the agitation that he would certainly come across sooner or later. However, a rapid glance at the map proved that he wouldn’t be able to travel more than a day in this zone of peace, because any longer than that, and he would begin to add to the length of his journey. He saw that he already needed to start distancing himself from the mountains, and to gradually move more and more towards the southwest, and eventually to the border of the territory of the dwarves.
The walk made him think back to his friends. It had now been about a week since he’d left them, though it seemed to him like an eternity since he’d left the party and written his letters, and he wondered now how they were doing. He hoped that they had continued with their respective training, and that they weren’t worrying about him.
All though things could have been better, Glaide wasn’t feeling sorry for himself. He realized that the experience he had gained in the past seven days had been worth all the books in the world. The only cloud over his head was that he still really knew nothing about defending himself, even if he had made a miniscule bit of progress. He had begun to get better at picking more favorable locations for sleeping in the great out-of-doors, he had learned how to find food, and he had a few other things, as well. “Yes, there is nothing like the school of hard knocks...” he thought to himself with a smile.
His reflections carried him right to the border. He stood for a moment with the mountains behind him, and the great green plain before him. “It’s actually quite incredible that the grass can be so healthy, despite the fact that it doesn’t rain,” he thought to himself. Then, he moved forward and left the territory of the warrior dwarves. There was no great difference between the two zones: the same absolute silence reigned in the plains.
In order to take advantage of the adventure he was living out, Glaide decided to do something he had dreamed of for ages: travel by night. He didn’t expect to spend a full twenty-four hours without sleeping, but he wanted to keep going at least until midnight. And so, when he saw the sky begin to flare up, and the grass take on the rose and gold tints from the setting sun, he simply got a piece of bread and some fruit from his sack and continued on his way, eating without even pausing in his travels.
The stars and the moon took the place of the heavenly body of the day. Glaide sang softly to himself as the shadows grew longer around him. He looked about himself, letting his mind and memory fill with the magical moment.
Soon, he felt obliged to stop, because everything around him was so magnificent. The vast space around him was empty of forests and hills, and the silvery rays of the moon inundated his surroundings with their immaculate, white glow. The young man couldn’t quite believe that he was really and truly living out this moment of serenity. He couldn’t quite believe the fact that he, Glaide, was really there: this same boy who had spent the first part of his life with school, normal activities, his family, and his friends...
The Forest of the Worlds, the guardians, the battle against the chimera, and all of the rest of it seemed so distant. However, that had been when all of this had started, and he remembered the sensation of happiness that had accompanied the arrival of the chimera in his world very well. He hadn’t realized then the true significance of what was happening – that he was coming to live in another world, and another time. Before that moment, when he had still only dreamed of it, Glaide had only been able to picture the moments of action that would bring him face-to-face with enemies that he would have to fight, the moments of discovery when he found himself in a new village, or the experiences of meeting new people. He had envisioned Galadria – a place he used to simply call the Other World – in the same way one envisioned fiction: he had only envisioned the special events that he would live out.
Events like those had certainly been present, and there had been plenty of them. But how could he have imagined the amazing things like this – simply standing here, contemplating the vast plains under the light of the moon? How could he have even glimpsed the emotions the journey would cause? This mixture of excitement, fear, and curiosity? And all of the simple, everyday joys, like the smile of a child, or the sound that his sword made when he drew it from its sheath? Everything that he could have imagined couldn’t represent even an infinitesimal part of everything that he was really experiencing. And even now, while actually and truly living in this place and time, he still wasn’t completely conscious of everything he was experiencing. Perhaps it was for that reason that Baras feared him?
Finally, the adolescent felt fatigue begin to win, and gave himself permission to go to sleep. After all, wouldn’t he have a chance to duplicate the experience as often as he wished?
The next day, Glaide was obliged to look at his map frequently, so that he didn’t head in the wrong direction. The land surrounding him was perfectly uniform, and only the sun let him know how far he’d traveled towards the north, south, east, or west. If he wasn’t mistaken, he would soon come across a path leading to Grenhart, a small village to the south of Yzur. Then, he would need to do nothing more than to continue following that pathway for several more days, before he’d arrive at Elmash, which was quite close to the Way of Hope, and thus Shinozuka. Next, he’d take a fork towards the south, coming to Adrish as he descended towards the south east.
Although there were many cities marked on the map, only a few of them fell along the route the adolescent would need to take, and if he didn’t plan a long detour, then he’d have to accept the fact that he might have to spend several weeks out-of-doors. He thought he might cross some isolated homes where he could offer aid, in exchange for room and board. Who knew? Perhaps chance would smile on him. Maybe he would come across horsemen who could save him some time. This idea reminded him that he also needed to learn to ride a horse himself, as soon as possible. Traveling that way would be much faster.
As he savoured his lunch, Glaide lifted his eyes towards the heavens, and a slow smile floated across his face. Far above him, he saw a bird. He became silent, and listened to the sounds around him: all of the rustling and crackling and sounds that characterized everyday life. He had the impression of returning to humanity, and once again being among the living. When he returned to his travels, he noticed that the light suddenly dimmed; a cloud covered the sun.
That seemed perfectly plausible to him, until he remembered that there were no clouds on Galadria.
His gaze lifted, then he stifled a cry of shock at seeing the same bird he had observed earlier, but much, much bigger. The creature flew low, blocking the sun. To all appearances, it was racing straight for the young man. Glaide rapidly grabbed all of his things, throwing them willy-nilly in his sack.
A rapid glance around him proved that he had no place to escape the predator. Instead, he began to run, hoping to find the road and, perhaps, soldiers. He ran frantically. He tried to find a rhythm for his breathing so that he wouldn’t be mowed down by a common side stitch, but the shadow that was growing around him wasn’t helping his concentration.
Several times, he stepped into deep ruts camouflaged by the vegetation; each time he stumbled, but continued to advance. However, he had no illusions; his attacker was traveling faster than he. He had no chance of increasing the distance. The only solution left was to try to fight it off. But the little that he had seen of the creature was dissuasive. He was facing an enemy measuring nearly thirty feet long, massive, and clearly at ease in the sky, and Glaide did not have the ability to fly.
However, though the shadow by then was directly over Glaide, the creature simply continued to advance, and passed him. As it flew over him, Glaide glanced up at it. Its body was covered in scales, producing an almost impenetrable armor. The young man had to stop so that he didn’t run into the creature that had been chasing him, which landed with a great thud, accompanied by a cloud of dust, and sending great chunks of dirt flying in all directions. Glaide drew his sword while trying to protect himself as best as he could with his cape. He managed to avoid several great clods of dirt that had been wrenched from the soil, but couldn’t avoid the many bits of gravel that rained down on him. The monster had created a veritable crater.
The earth finally stopped shaking, and the adolescent could face his aggressor. He recognized immediately what he faced, and swallowed painfully. Before him, in all of its splendor and power, stood a dragon. Its wings were folded up on its back, its chest held up, and its jaws filled with fangs as sharp as a razor. Its yellow eyes didn’t blink, but instead fixed straight on the young man. Its scales were a deep red – the color of blood. The sun reflected off of them. Pointed horns rose up out of its skull, and its spine was lined with spikes all the way to the tip of its tail, which ended with a point shaped like an arrow. The tail moved in all directions, but slowly. The new arrival appeared to be calm.
Chronicles of Galadria II - Encounters Page 5