Everflame: The Complete Series

by Dylan Lee Peters

  And evil tyrants should beware,

  The coming of an unlikely pair.

  Behold the golden fires of hope,

  That curse and grace the lives of man,

  Yet one cannot in life exist,

  If two won’t find the strength to stand.”

  “The unlikely pair,” echoed Tomas. “We have heard this prophecy before, but only the first four lines. Dendrata, can you tell us… who are the unlikely pair?”

  Dendrata smiled gently while she looked at Tomas, and her eyes blinked slowly. “It is often most advantageous if we learn our lessons through experience and work, Tomas Floyd. It is only through this process that we can truly understand the meaning of what we have learned.” Tomas frowned, but nodded slightly in acceptance of Dendrata’s answer. “But I will tell you a story. One that may help you begin to understand the world more completely.”

  “We would like to hear your story, Dendrata,” said Tomas.

  And so, the spirit of the forest began. She told an ancient story, the story of a triangle of love and rejection, a story of the Sun, Moon and Earth. Dendrata told the travelers of how the Sun and Earth had paired, and how the Earth had borne eight daughters. She told them of the scorned Moon and her jealous plan. The spirit also told them of the Moon’s son, to which the Sun was no part of.

  “Densa,” said Riverpaw in disbelief.

  “But what does this mean?” asked Ben.

  “That is something you cannot yet discover, Ben Floyd.”

  “What of our quest?” asked Tomas. “Can you tell us anything pertaining to where we might find the gifts of the Skyfather?”

  “No,” said Dendrata. “But possibly my sister, Lithlillian, can. She resides in the mountains in the south of Ephanlarea. If you climb the tallest peak, you shall find her.” The travelers stood from the ground and thanked Dendrata for her information. She rose from the ground, still in her sitting position, and faced Tomas. “Thank you, Tomas Floyd, for being worthy of my test.” The ancient spirit then placed a kiss upon Tomas’ cheek and disappeared into the darkening air.

  “Well,” smiled Ben, staring at his brother. “Maybe if we find ourselves to be successful on this quest, you can come back here as a great hero and win the heart of an ancient beauty, Tomas.”

  Tomas smiled. “There are eight daughters, Ben. Maybe there’s an ancient woman in your future, as well.”

  “Unlikely,” Ben said quietly, and gave his brother a modest grin.

  Chapter 24: Broken

  Pain… Everything hurts…

  But… I’m alive…

  I’m alive.

  The great griffin lay in the dust and the sun beat down upon his scorched body. He could not move; the pain was excruciating. He struggled to swallow, his throat dry and swollen.

  Just open your eyes, he thought to himself. Just open your eyes.

  To see Tenturo struggle on the dusty ground, trying to open his eyes, would have broken a person’s heart had anyone been there to witness it. The once proud and powerful being whimpered like a wounded dog as the pain shot through his body. It felt like his eyelids were tearing and burning with searing flame. All of the plumage had been scorched from his body, leaving tender, pink flesh, cracked and bleeding. His body twitched involuntarily and he moaned in pain as his eyelids shot open and light flooded his irises. The light was so bright, and he panted with watering eyes as the pain slowly ebbed away. The light that had originally been so bright to Tenturo began to dim as his eyes became accustomed to their surroundings.

  The sun… It’s so far away.

  Tenturo moved his eyes around, trying to see as much as he could. Desperate to figure out where he was, but completely unable to move, the griffin searched his mind for answers.

  This is not the Earth. It is like the moon…but unlike the moon. Everything is so… red. Memory ripped through Tenturo, crashing around him like the tremors of an earthquake. It was the Tyrant who had done this to him. It was the Tyrant who had burned his body. He had been on the moon…with Densa. Densa, thought Tenturo. What has the Tyrant done to Densa? I must figure out how to move, but… I can’t. My body needs time to heal.

  Tenturo looked within himself, concentrating his energy to evaluate every inch of his being. A profound sadness sunk into his consciousness, a feeling that he had never known, even when trapped in stone for all those years. The reality of his physical dilemma weighed upon him as nothing ever had.

  I’m broken… and I’m tired.

  •••

  Time passed for Tenturo in ways immeasurable. He passed in and out of consciousness and the dust of his new surroundings coated and filled the cracks in his physical self. Depression gripped Tenturo, and for the first time in the Ancient’s existence, he pondered the abyss that is death.

  Can I die? Is my death possible? Am I already dead? How would I even know?

  A shiver of pain racked Tenturo’s body and he passed back into unconsciousness.

  When Tenturo again came to, it was as if he had never blacked out. Time was unimportant and had lost all meaning. The only reality that was present was Tenturo’s self.

  How little matters now? he thought. How simple my life has become. Exist… and that is all. Is it ironic to have spent so much time concerned with the goings on of all that is around me, to find that I know nothing of its nature, and in the end, all I am left with is myself? I am… in the end. Here. Now. I am. What matters that I do not know from where I came? I am. What matters that I do not know why I exist? I am. Why do I struggle trying to understand all there is to know, and who is to say that all can be known?

  I am.

  This is more important than any other thing. How can I pretend to explore all, when I have not completely explored one? I must learn myself. I must master myself. I must know myself.

  I am. I exist. I control. I impact. I build. I grow. I live.

  “I AM ALIVE!!” roared Tenturo as loud as he could, though the pain burned and his yell was croaking.

  I will build myself. I will become. Every waking moment I possess will be a moment I spend working on me.

  And so Tenturo began. The days passed by without definition, and slowly Tenturo began to move his extremities. Many times he would push himself until he could no longer stand the pain and would fall back into unconsciousness. The process began with one toe. To move one toe, that was his goal. He concentrated upon it wholly, feeling inside, discovering within and willing himself on. Eventually, painstakingly, Tenturo met his goal, and with great pain, his toe moved. Tenturo celebrated his victory by passing back into blackness, and so the process continued.

  He would never be able to know how long it took him, days, maybe weeks, but the moment Tenturo stood upon all four of his feet, he knew he had gained a victory greater than any he had ever known. He had endured. He had grown. He had built himself from next to nothing.

  Tenturo’s body had undergone change. The Tyrant had left him near to death and had destroyed what he had known of his body. His feathers had all been burned away, and once his flesh had healed, it had been covered with soft short hair that offered little protection. Tenturo would have to learn to respect his body; protect it; keep it healthy. Tenturo’s wings were gone; destroyed by the Tyrant. His flesh had healed and now his back was flat. He did not know if his powers of flight were gone, but he knew he would have to master the land upon which he walked as well as he had mastered the sky. His talons had retreated and become softer and his feet were more padded as if his body had understood the need to walk upon the ground. But most shockingly to Tenturo, he had lost his beak. It was gone, and in its place was a shorter, softer snout. He would no longer have the great beak as a weapon. He would have to learn another way.

  As Tenturo stood upon the surface of he knew not where, he understood that he had been reborn. He would rediscover himself. He stretched his new body, though it still ached and moaned from being broken and rebuilt. It was time to move forward. Forward, he thought. Forever forward.
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  Tenturo began to slowly walk the surface of the strange land that he found himself in. I need to find shelter. Tenturo stared off at the dusty landscape. He could see mountains along the horizon, but the land, as far as he could see in every direction, was barren. He imagined that he must be in some large desert, and that his best bet of finding shelter might be to stumble upon some rocky cave. As he continued to walk, he noticed that the land began to slope downward into a sort of bowl or valley. At the bottom of the bowl, he noticed a large fissure in the ground.

  This may be my only hope for shelter, he thought.

  As Tenturo descended into the bowl, the wind began to pick up and blow violently. Many times, Tenturo found it difficult to maintain steady footing. It took some time, but when Tenturo reached the fissure, he looked down into its depths. Blackness; he could not see anything as he looked down into what he thought must have been a very large canyon. He walked the fissure’s edge for some time, but could find no path downward to aide his search for shelter.

  Suddenly, a large gust of wind belted Tenturo, and his feet slipped out from under him. He tried to grab the edge of the fissure as he fell, but his new body was still weak and he could not take hold. Tenturo fell into the black canyon and fear gripped him. The seconds seemed endless as he fell in a panic, but then, without asking, his body turned to instinct and Tenturo found he was hovering, deep in the black fissure.

  “I can still fly,” he said aloud and with shock.

  Tenturo took a moment to allow his nerves to calm themselves as he hung in the dank air of the canyon.

  I already know what is up, he thought. Maybe it’s time to discover what is down. And with that, Tenturo began to fly slowly downward, far below the surface of this new and mysterious location.

  Hours passed, and just when Tenturo thought he may have made an error, and that there was nothing to find in the fissure, a dull, red light began to emanate, far in front of him. Curious, he flew more quickly toward it. The light grew, and eventually Tenturo found himself in a large, circular chamber. The open space was immense and the walls of the chamber were curved and smooth. Tenturo marveled at the size of the hollow orb he found himself inside of, and marveled more at the source of the red light that had guided him inside.

  In the center of the hollow chamber was an orb of red light. Tenturo flew around it, trying to study it, in an attempt to understand what it was.

  “Have you come to finish me off?” resonated a low, but massive, voice.

  Tenturo halted in his flight and spun, wide-eyed and searching for the source of the voice. “Where are you,” he said. “Show yourself.”

  “I am right here,” said the voice, and the light of the red orb began to slowly pulse.

  “You are the light?” asked Tenturo.

  “I am. I am this planet.”

  “Who are you?”

  “My people called me Desher… but the one who destroyed me… he called me Mars.”

  EAST

  Chapter 25: An Impossible Situation

  Autumnbreeze woke in a panic for the fourth time in four nights. It was the dream of falling rocks again; the entire mountain had been crumbling all around her. Once she had calmed herself down, she punched her bed and grunted in frustration.

  I’m so tired of this, she thought to herself. I just want some peaceful sleep.

  Autumn stood from her bed and left her room. The only way to relieve her stress after these dreams had been to walk the halls of the castle on Gray Mountain, where she now spent her days and nights. Many bears had taken to living in the castle. It had many rooms, was very secure, it helped to consolidate the population of the bears, and helped their hope of going unnoticed to reduce Farsider attacks. Since Evercloud and Riverpaw had left the mountain, the Kingdom had not seen a single attack.

  Every night, Autumn had been able to walk the halls to calm herself without anyone taking notice. Tonight, unfortunately, was to be very different.

  “A little late to be wandering, isn’t it, Autumn?”

  The voice startled Autumnbreeze and she gave a short yelp before turning to see Eveneye coming up behind her.

  “What are you doing awake?” chided Autumn. “You almost scared me to death.”

  “Sorry,” smiled Eveneye. “I had a horrible dream and I didn’t want to wake Goldenheart. So, I decided to walk. Why are you out here?”

  “Same reason. Bad dream.”

  Just then, a third voice entered the bears’ conversation.

  “What are you two doing?” asked Goldenheart from a few paces away.

  “I had a nightmare, and I decided to walk the halls to calm myself. I tried not to wake you when I left,” said Eveneye. “Autumn is apparently having the same problem.”

  “Oh,” said Goldenheart. “That’s strange. I woke from a nightmare as well.”

  The three bears looked oddly at each other.

  “Am I the only one who finds this situation to be beyond coincidence?” asked Eveneye. “Tell me what you two have dreamt of.”

  “Falling rocks,” said Goldenheart. “That’s what woke me.”

  Eveneye narrowed his eyes.

  “Farsiders and falling rocks,” said Autumnbreeze.

  “No, I dreamt of Farsiders too,” added Goldenheart.

  “Autumn,” began Eveneye, “come to mine and Goldie’s chambers. We need to discuss this further and in a more private location.”

  The bears walked back to the King and Queen’s room and each bear sat around the dining table. Eveneye, as was his habit, did not take his time getting into the meat of things.

  “I’m going to detail the events that unfolded in my dream, and I want the two of you to confirm if these things were or were not in your dream as well, all right?” The female bears nodded. “A very dark storm took the mountain. Thunder, lightning, heavy rain, terrible wind.”

  “Yes,” said Goldenheart.

  “Yes,” said Autumnbreeze.

  Eveneye continued, “during the storm, the mountain was attacked by many Farsiders. More than you could count.” Again, both Autumn and Goldie answered yes. “Then, the lightning became more ferocious than I’ve ever seen. It seemed as if it were everywhere. The entire mountain rumbled and then… it began to crumble all around me. I tried to run, but there was nowhere to go. It was as if the entire mountain was falling apart.”

  Slowly, the female bears nodded their heads to confirm that those things had happened in their dreams as well.

  “It’s like the burning village all over again,” said Autumnbreeze, beginning to tear up. “What does it mean?”

  “We can’t possibly know what it means,” said Eveneye. “Whether the dream was literal, metaphor or just coincidence–”

  “It can’t be coincidence, Even,” interrupted Goldenheart.

  “What I am saying, Goldie, is that it doesn’t matter how we interpret this dream as much as it matters how we react to it. If we take the threat of this dream seriously, because of Autumn’s dreams in the past, we would throw the entire Kingdom into hysterics. It would be pandemonium and it would most certainly fracture this kingdom’s unity in every way possible.”

  “And if we don’t take it seriously?” asked Autumn.

  “We jeopardize the lives of every bear and human who live upon this mountain.”

  The room was silent as the bears allowed the gravity of their situation to settle around them.

  “If we tell everyone,” said Autumnbreeze, breaking the silence, “they will all leave the mountain. No one will stay here.”

  “You’re assuming everyone would believe us,” said Goldenheart. “It would take much more than a shared dream to make bears leave a Kingdom they have been part of for generations. Many of them know nothing other than Gray Mountain. Even if they do believe us, they might choose to stay.”

  “We are in an impossible situation.” Eveneye shook his head, frustrated. “It comes down to what we believe. If we choose to believe the dream literally, then the only solution is
to leave the mountain and try to persuade everyone we can to do the same. If we take the dream as a general warning of coming danger, well, we knew that already, and have taken precautions to shield ourselves. We would be correct to maintain our current path. If we do not believe the dream, then inaction is also appropriate, but there is another factor that we have not considered. We still do not know why Autumn originally had the dreams of the white mouse and the burning village. We do not know if these dreams were random circumstance or if they were sent to her by someone or something, and we do not know if their purpose was to propagate good or evil. What I am trying to say is that this dream could be an attempt, by some evil entity, to persuade us to leave this mountain, when staying on the mountain is what will keep us safe.”

  “It doesn’t matter what we believe,” said Goldie. “We can’t act without more information.”

  “I fear that you are right,” agreed Eveneye. “We must wait, and hope that Evercloud and Riverpaw are finding success on their quest.”

  Chapter 26: Crude Love

  Flying over the northern sea had proven to be more difficult than either Evercloud or Iolana had thought. With no specific location on a map to guide them, doubt crept into their minds constantly. They had no real idea what they were looking for, whether their target should be over the sea or if they should search on land. They didn’t even have the benefit of knowing which daughter they looked for. Mixed with the doubt, came the difficulties of the climate. It was cold, and Evercloud was expending as much energy to keep the three travelers warm as he was to keep them in flight. Iolana’s ability to help the flight had dwindled as the temperature had dropped. It seemed as though her powers over water were more difficult to control in freezing temperatures.

  Land was scarce in the far north and there were few islands where they found adequate shelter for sleeping. Annie was having more success sleeping in flight, as she was unable to do anything to aid their progress. It had come to the point that when they did find land, they would end their travels for the day, unsure when they would find it again. The north was surely testing the mettle of the travelers. Annie felt useless, Iolana felt doubtful and Evercloud was becoming increasingly exhausted.