Red Leaves and the Living Token

by Benjamin David Burrell

  He covered his ears and ran as fast as his adrenalin pumped body would carry him.

  A moment later he burst out of the wide temple entry way and raced down the long stone steps that prefaced the building. The structure shook behind him as he charged full speed across the soft meadow grass.

  The white stone of the tall spires fractured sending the enormous mass toppling forward into the meadow. The fractures continued deeper into the temple’s core. The great walls started to implode. Then, the earth shook, the temple exploded. A storm blast of giant stone and debris billowed into the air. A shock wave of compressed air knocked Handers off his feet.

  Then a second eruption. A jet of black liquid shot straight up into the air accompanied by the same mind breaking screams. The ground shook with the violence of the erupting liquid.

  The third token fragment, the plant portion, that was left in the room after the fight, twirled through the air and landed in the forest down the mountainside.

  Handers rolled over, semi conscious. He watched the jet of black liquid shooting in a power stream into the sky. High above him, it had already started forming into a thick black cloud.

  The horrific scream continued but had diminished with distance up in the high cloud. In its place a roaring wind had picked up.

  Lighting flashed in the storm above. The clouds twisted and swirled in an unnatural way. Hard shapes seemed to phase in and out as though something was swimming behind the clouds.

  Handers looked up in horror as one of the twisting shapes in the center of the mass took the solid unmistakable form of a face. Its eyes opened and stared down at Handers. Great black arms shot out on both sides of the face reaching out to him.

  With that, his overwhelmed mind slipped into unconsciousness.

  Handers awoke to the repeating jab of a foot hitting his side. He looked up.

  "Welcome back." Lord Valance grunted, standing over him with his arms crossed, obviously irritated. "Didn't Rinacht specifically warn you not to take the Crown?"

  Handers shifted his focus to sky behind Valance. Lighting flashed in the dark purple storm clouds overshadowing the mountain top. He searched for the nightmarish face that he'd seen earlier, hoping that somehow he'd dreamt the whole thing.

  But then it appeared in the center of the darkness. A shapeless form that stretched and twisted past the surface of the clouds, solidifying into the distinct features of a face before dissipating back into the surrounding clouds. His heart sank. The weight of what he'd done returned from its momentary reprieve.

  "If I'd know you were that stupid I never would've let you go in." Valance shook his head in frustration. "All you had to do was take one of the weapons, and you could've gone merrily on your way to retrieve your son. With that advantage you would've succeeded without a doubt. But now," Valance turned and looked up into the sky behind him, "the situation has changed."

  "What is that?" Handers pointed at the sky.

  "Now that would've been a good question to ask before you violated his sanctuary!"

  "I..." Handers thought about trying to explain. He could tell Lord Valance it was a mistake. Or that it was a reasonable course of action given the promise he saw of his son. But then why was Lord Valance here? What did he want? Then he remembered what Rinacth had said before he left. Lord Valance must’ve been who Rinacht was talking about, who he conspired with. Of course, he thought. It all made sense, the coincidence of being found in the swamp, Bedic’s book on his desk.

  Then, another piece of the puzzle fit together in his mind. Valance didn’t want the Token. He could’ve taken it at any moment. And that explained why he didn’t. Lord Valance wanted Handers to use the Token, so that he could follow him here.

  "Let me explain what’s going to happen now." Valance crouched down next to him. "In two or three hours the Lord Prince," he pointed up at the face loosely formed in the clouds, "will solidify in form enough to regain his senses. He'll wake up. And when he does he's going to want this back." Valance opened the top of a large velvet sack showing Handers the Royal Crown inside.

  "And rest assured when he finds his crown he'll obliterate anyone anywhere near it. The next thing he'll be looking for is the Token. Because you have a boy to look after, I'm going to overlook this trespass. "He turned back to the Temple in ruins behind him. "I'm going to spare your life. I'm going to take the Crown and Token and hide them away.

  "Once you're off the mountain he'll have no more reason to pursue you."

  Handers stared back at him, not sure how to respond. The Crown meant his son. The Token was the link that lead him here. He couldn't part with either and hope to see his son again. Could he?

  "As you can see I have the Crown, but you still have the Token." He opened his palm towards Handers.

  "I can't!" Handers answered.

  Valance stood up. He glanced up at the ominous sky then walked away. "Suit yourself."

  Lighting flashed followed by a boom of thunder. The flash revealed an enormous skeletal structure forming in the cloud. Hideous arms shot out and clawed aimlessly in the air before dissolving into wisps of vapor.

  Handers sat forward determined. "Wait!"

  Lord Valance kept walking.

  "Wait!" Handers yelled.

  Finally, Lord Valance stopped then doubled back.

  Handers stared up at him. "The Crown. It's mine!"

  Valance laughed. Lighting flashed again, turning Valance into a black silhouette. "A fool is one who persists in a direction that has proven futile. The Crown will not be returned and you have no hope in obtaining it by force. Further, I would suggest you surrender the Token voluntarily while that option is still offered. If you do not I can't guarantee your life. It's your choice.”

  Handers struggled to his feet. "The Crown!" He glared at Valance, trying to make as much of a threatening appearance as he could. But his body was not with him. A stabbing pain shot through his right leg and ribs as he tried to hold his weight. He fell back awkwardly.

  "Your stubbornness won't help your son." He unsheathed his sword. The blade swirled and shifted, made of the same dark purple liquid as the Crown. The edge dripped as Valance lifted the blade. "The Token, I insist."

  Handers scooted back from the weapon. He checked his outer pockets as well as the inside pocket he kept it before. What happened to it? He tried to remember. "I had it in my hand when I ran from the Temple."

  Valance lifted up a small velvet pouch from his pocket. "Yes we found that piece. Where's the rest of it?"

  Handers stammered. "I don't know. That's all I had."

  "Come now, that's not very helpful," Valance reproached.

  Lord Barnus rushed up behind Valance carrying a bundle of black handled swords. "We've found most everything."

  Valance frowned. "Most? What's missing."

  "We can't find any more of the Token."

  The Valance turned back to Handers. "Time's up." He put the tip of his sword to Handers neck. "Where is the rest?"

  Handers squeaked out the answer. "Rinacht tried to steal it from me and broke it apart. He has the other piece."

  "And where is he?"

  Handers stammered, "I don't know. He attacked me and ran."

  "Two pieces? It broke into just two pieces?"

  Handers nodded.

  "Are you sure?" He pressed the sword down harder. Black liquid from the tip of the sword dripped down the sides of his fury neck.

  Handers didn't react in pain the way Valance anticipated. So he scowled and pushed down harder. The tip of his sword seems to melt around Handers neck instead of pushing into him. He withdrew the sword and inspected the tip. "What is..." The liquid sword appeared intact.

  Without warning, he whipped the sword into the air and in a blur of movement brought it down to strike Handers.

  "Aah!" Handers screamed and tried to pull away. But he wasn't fast enough. The sword struck his arm with a clank. But to his surprise his arm was still intact. He lifted his arm up through the blade, completely u
naffected.

  "Impossible!" He lifted the blade and swished it through a bush next to him, toppling the plant and setting it on fire at he same time.

  Handers's eyes darted from the bush back to Valance Then he noticed something in the sky out of his peripheral. The clouds were swirling around a center point creating a distinct funnel shape. The funnel was dropping directly towards them.

  Valance noticed the look of dread on Handers' face and turned to look behind him. "He's early!" He muttered to himself.

  Lord Whitting and Barnus ran up behind Valance and ushered their master out of harms way. "Time to go!" Barus yelled over the noise of the roaring wind.

  The earth exploded in a deafening crash a few yards to the right of them. After regaining his composure, Handers looked over to see the cause of the explosion. He saw a giant black foot rising up out of the ground. He traced the source of the leg up into the sky. It had formed out of the funnel cloud.

  Another leg took formed out of another stream of twisting vapor. It descended towards them. The ground shook with another horrible impact, sending dirt clumps into the air.

  "I warned you!" Valance yelled at Handers before he disappeared into the trees beyond the meadow of the Temple.

  Handers was alone.

  -

  Sinesh held a large rock high above her head and dropped it down onto the carriage door handle. It landed with a spark and loud metallic clank.

  Good. That was good. Do it again just like that." Her Grandpa coached. She'd wondered what he had been doing rocking back and forth up against the side of the carriage all that time until he came back forward in his rocking motion with his hands free. He had worn right through that rope. She remembered he could be very persistent.

  Again she lifted the rock above her head and brought it down as hard as she could onto the door handle. It landed with a low metal clang, and the door handle fell right off.

  "You did it my girl! Now hop down."

  She did. Suddenly both back doors to the carriage burst open with a cloud of splinters. Her Grandpa climbed down carefully. "Lets be as quiet as possible. Stay with me." He held out his hand to her.

  She took his hand. Then he looked up into the sky. Lighting flickered across dark purple storm clouds.

  “Looks like we might get a little wet,” she said.

  He didn't say anything, he just looked at the forest around them then dragged her away into the trees. Her grandpa held his back as he walked, half bent over. He looked funny, she thought.

  The forest ended a little ways ahead of them. "Stay here for just a moment, dear." He rubbed her head then stepped as quietly as he could towards the edge of the forest.

  Beyond the trees she could see some people. There was a tall man standing over another who was laying on the ground holding his side. Then there were two more running all over the place like they were looking for something.

  Grandpa kept staring up into the sky. She found a place where she could see up through the trees to see what he was staring at. The clouds were swirling into a big tube shape that was dropping down out of the sky.

  After a moment he came rushing back to her. "We need to get out of here, fast."

  "But what about that man on the ground out there. He looks hurt." She pointed towards the meadow just beyond the trees.

  "I'm sure his friends will take care of him." He tried to corral her back into the forest down the mountain slop.

  She stepped around him. "They're not helping him, Grandpa!"

  He turned. The other men were running towards the forest off to their right, abandoning the man on the ground. He grunted in frustration then shook his head. "It's too dangerous, my girl."

  She folded her arms. "I helped you, and that was dangerous!"

  He looked back at the man lying in the clearing. He wasn't making any attempt at fleeing the danger growing over head. "OK, OK. I'll go. But you stay put."

  Her Grandpa was a good man, she'd always thought. He always went around helping people. That's the way she wanted to be when she grew up.

  -

  Handers saw someone coming out of the forest. He sat up to get a better look, hoping it wasn't another of Lord Valance's helpful friends coming back to get something else from him.

  It was Bedic! What was he doing here? How could he have possibly known? It didn't matter. Really, there weren’t many other people he'd rather see coming out of the forest. If anyone would know how to handle the mess he'd caused, it would be Bedic.

  "What did you do?" Bedic yelled as he stomped across the meadow towards him.

  "What do you mean what did I do?" Handers said defensively.

  The funnel cloud dropped down. The back bone a giant creature appeared to be swimming just beneath the surface of the clouds like a whale beneath the water, peaking up for a moment then disappearing below, back lit by the occasional bolt of lighting. Two enormous arms pushed out of the clouds from where he saw the arched back and shot straight at them.

  "Bedic!" Handers yelled.

  Bedic turned to see the two monstrous hands with claws slashing towards him. Faster than Handers thought possible, the old man whipped something out from deep within his robe. A bright light filled the darkness as he withdrew a small dagger from its sheath and held it above his head.

  The gnarled hands recoiled as though they’d been touched by something hot. Then they dissipated in a puff of thin trails of purplish black vapor. The funnel stopped dropping towards them, redirecting away to the side.

  "Waah... What is that?"

  "This?" He lowered the dagger. "You've been where I've only dreamed of going. You went inside the Temple. You should know more about this than I do."

  "Weapons of the Crown." Handers mutters to himself.

  "Weapons of the Crown?" Bedic asked, taking a step forward.

  "From the pool." Answered Handers.

  Bedic charges towards him. "You went down?" He stomps around in a circle unable to control himself. "You went down? You did this?" He points to the ruins of the temple. You're responsible?"

  He darted over and grabbed Handers by the cuff and shook him. "They trusted you enough to share this place with you. They wanted to help you get your boy back. They may have even offered to heal him. And this is what you do? You spit in their face! You desecrate their most holy sanctuary!" Bedic looked him up and down in disgust. "Why'd they pick you?"

  Handers pushed him off. "You don't know anything!" He tried to get up but collapsed right back to the ground. "I did what I thought I needed to do to get my son back! I didn't come here with an instruction manual!"

  "What did you do?" Bedic asked again.

  "Don't preach to me old man! I came here with one goal. That was to get my son back. I only took what I thought would help make that possible. I thought that was what was being offered!"

  "What did you take?" He waited for an answer. "No. I know what you took. But you didn't just pick it up. You had to break it free. You broke it out."

  "Yes, I took the Crown! But I didn't know it would do this!" He pointed up at the sky. "I swear, I didn't know. I was just trying to get my son back!"

  Bedic charged at him again. "Where is it? What did you do with it? He kicked dirt on him. "Come on!"

  "I didn't know, Bedic!"

  "Where is it Handers!"

  "Valance took it!"

  Bedic froze. "No!" He whispered staring past Handers, his eyes glazed over.

  "He was armed, what did you want me to do?"

  "You have no idea what you've done." He whispered.

  Handers sat back, defeated.

  "This has been foreseen. It's been written. The storm will spread, infecting everything trapped under its shadow, the soil, the rivers and lakes, the air, the trees and grass, our food crops, everything!

  "And then he'll attack." Bedic finished.

  Handers leaned forward. "That doesn't make any sense! I'm not going to take responsibility for destroying the world just because I took something I thought woul
d help me get my son. Especially when it was being offered to me! That's just ridiculous!"

  "Don't tell me there was no warning. Don't pretend you knew nothing of what you were doing!" Bedic stepped backward. "You're just like Valance!"

  "What?" Handers didn’t know Valance that well. But he didn’t like being compared to someone Bedic despised. "Oh, that's really fair Mr. high and mighty. Have I lied to anyone? Have I intentionally tried to hurt anyone? No!"

  Bedic retreated towards the forest. "No Token, no Crown and no Temple." He turned back to Handers with a face torn with rage. "You!" He pointed a shaky finger at him. "You stay away from me! You knew! You knew what you were doing. Now you've killed us, Handers! You've killed us all!" "

  Bedic stumbled back towards the trees.

  I knew nothing, Bedic! Bedic! Hey, don't leave me here, Bedic! Please!" Handers yelled after him. "Valance left me to die! If you do the same, you're no better!"

  Bedic stopped for a moment then continued passed the trees towards Sinesh.

  She stepped out from behind the tree she'd been hiding behind. "Grandpa? I thought we were going to help him." She cocked her head curiously, then took his hand and led him back towards the clearing.

  He resisted. "No. Sinesh. We can't. He’s dangerous."

  She continued to tug. "We can't leave him!"

  He scowled at her, then glanced back at Handers with an angry grunt.

  "Come on Grandpa! We have to hurry."

  He threw his hands up in the air. "Unbelievable!"

  She grabbed his hand again and pulled him through the trees towards Handers.

  -

  Moslin pushed Emret up a rocky trail that switched back and forth up the mountain side above them. The dense forest made it hard to see how far up or down they were. All they had to gauge their progress was time and fatigue.

  By the sun, Emret guessed it was now late afternoon. That had to put them pretty close to where they needed to be. The carriage they rode from the city had dropped them off at the end of the canyon road by late morning. And from what Emret could tell that road brought them most of the way up the canyon. They really should’ve only had a short ways to walk.