The Celestial Paladin

by Gil Hough

  EPILOGUE

  BEGINNINGS

  His large frame stalked through the grass, eager for the hunt to begin. The great Lion twitched his ears to the right. He had expected his nemesis, the White Stag, but instead walked a woman. Her long legs somehow managed to keep pace with him. Her hair, as golden as his own fur, rained down her curved back; she wore a glowing short white shift adorned with many pouches.

  “Why do you hunt with me, Goddess?” The Lion growled.

  The Goddess Blodeuwedd answered, “I am proud of you. I will be truthful, I shared my favor with you simply as a matter of convenience. I hoped you might succeed. I did not think you would live, much less add to your power and gather more hunters to our pride.”

  The great Lion shook his head, the ways of the winds and the speech of gods were the same, fickle and not to be truly understood. Yet he sensed that somehow the words sounded fair and right in some way that he could not really explain.

  Blodeuwedd smiled at him, a smile that answered nothing but claimed to answer everything. The two continued to walk through the tall grass. After a few minutes she spoke, “The Gods and Daemon Lords are allowed to choose champions, but are not allowed to speak directly to any mortal. For this moment you are enough in the Celestial Realm for me to ask you a question: I don’t understand why you have chosen that.” As she spoke she raised her slim perfect arm and pointed at his shadow. He lowered his great head and studied the dark shape. The great lion had to admit the shadow was odd, slimmer than his great bulk, strangely dark in the day and the shadow’s eyes seem to glow the bright yellow color of flame.

  He shook his great head and mane as if to free it from the strange shadow, and growled, “You are a Goddess; you can see all.”

  Blodeuwedd nodded, she forgot to walk for a moment, as if in deep thought, but still she kept up with the Great Lion stalking through the grassland. “I can see all in our realm, and all in the mortal realm that is seen by one of our followers. I cannot see into the Infernal or Elemental Realms, and I think you have entered both. I do not know what this means.”

  The two continued through the grass for a few moments in silence. The Great Lion did not understand the Goddess’ questions or concerns. But he understood his own power, which in its way was as great as any god’s. He growled, “Do you wish me to hunt, to fight? Is our pride in danger?”

  Blodeuwedd nodded, “Yes and yes and yes. In their great quest for power, The Immortalist Taiga and his followers, such as that vermin Van’dret, must all be stopped. They do not understand that if they upset the balance that the final battle between Infernal and Celestial could destroy all.” She paused and then added in a voice that he almost thought he sensed fear in, “I think the sword Caledfwlch must be found. The other gods won’t like it. They might even oppose finding it, but it might be our only hope.”

  The great head nodded, and the Goddess stepped away and was gone, but the roar that followed could be heard across the grasslands and into the forest and to the peaks of the mountains beyond. For a moment the Heavenly Realm was silent. All the creatures knew the roar. The great Celestial Lion was on the hunt and when he found his prey, there would be a battle to shake all the realms.

  As the roar faded in the heavens, a new Knight Captain, a chosen Champion of a Goddess, stood in the great Cathedral of the Heavens. He heard the roar because it was his. The other hunters in his pride were at his side and ready. It was time to start the hunt.

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  Thank you for reading The Celestial Paladin. I hope you will read the next book in The Order of the Lion series The Hellborn Prince.