The morning was quietest right before the dawn, and Nastas planned to make his getaway just before the rising sun woke his kin from their slumber. Many would stay in bed until the sun was high in the sky. He gathered his final possessions and walked out of his hut. The only thing he now owned was his quest to leave the sanctuary. He took one last look at the surrounding shelters and walked to the revelry fire that was still burning. He tossed the items into the fire and watched them burn. They singed and popped. Nastas shed a tear as he watched his former life immolate. For a moment he felt like the fabled phoenix.
With darkness still upon the land he walked away from the village center and into the woodlands that surrounded their sanctuary. It would be an hour before the sun rose over the horizon and Nastas would need to be as far away from the sanctuary as possible to avoid detection. Before he could do that, he would need to be led to the portal out of the sanctuary. For that he would need the Enchantress. She had directed him to meet her at the edge of the wood at dawn, so Nastas quickened his pace and transmogrified into the form of his fox. In this physical body he could move quicker in and around obstacles. With little time wasted Nastas approached the edge of the wood, stopping just before the stone markers that stood as Guardians of the veil and surveyed his surroundings.
She had not told him in which direction he should meet her, so he followed his intuition and let his instinct guide him. After a short spell from behind one of the megalithic standing stones appeared a figure that mimicked his mistress in her dark hood. Nastas took a moment to observe her movements. He could not be too careful, at this stage the stability and security of the world rested squarely upon his shoulders. The figure appeared as the Enchantress, it moved like her. Nastas sniffed at the wind, the scent was not hers. If not her than another creature with the power to mimic had already set upon the sanctuary.
Perhaps a druid of the Nemeton, he thought.
His mistress told him that the highest order was capable of taking the skin of another, much like his gift to transform into the beasts of the wild. He’d never worn another person’s skin, something about the concept made him squirm. To him it violated nature.
He wondered if the attacks had already reached the village of his kin. Nastas watched intently as the figure searched the area, whatever it was doing, its body language betrayed its sinister designs.
Maybe she cloaks herself in another scent to avoid detection. He thought. If he could just get closer. He took a step forward, and then another. Inch after inch he moved closer until a branch snapped under his errant paw. He ducked. What appeared to be his mistress, shifted into yet another one of his kin. His spine tingled with fright.
Nastas slowly backed away into the underbrush when he felt an arm wrap around him and cover his snout. The arm was strong and firm, but not threatening.
His eyes fell upon the true form of his mistress whose eyes begged him to be quiet. She backed away quietly when out of nowhere another one of the kin burst through the brush behind them. He screamed in terror and the figure that had been lurking under her guise heard the noise and rushed headlong into the underbrush in an attempt to discover the position of his quarry. The Enchantress gripped the fox and hurried through the brush away from their pursuer. Her aged and feeble form had degraded over time, but she knew the woodlands they were traversing, and it gave her a distinct advantage. She moved with agility under and through the brush with near silence as her companion.
In the distance a loud thunderous crash echoed throughout the wood and reached their position. Then there was complete silence. She stopped and listened. Within mere seconds the cries and screams of her kinsmen rang throughout the wood. Then another loud crashing boom rang out through the trees. This was as far as She could carry him. She set the fox down and pointed him towards a space in between two of the standing stones ahead of them. She waved her hand in an arch above her head and chanted in a dark and powerful voice.
Wall of deception, wall of protection,
Lay down your guard,
Lay down your guard.
Bequeath unto me passage,
Safe passage beyond the vanguard.
Her words opened the way for him and as Nastas looked at her one last time, a sudden realization that the closest thing he’d ever had to a mother was about to leave him forever. He nuzzled his snout against her neck and tenderly licked her cheek. He whimpered like a pup. He didn’t want her to go. She smiled at him once last time before her eyes rolled back in her head and she took the form of a great and powerful eagle. Upon swift wings she carried herself toward the sounds of chaos and death. Nastas looked back upon the wood he’d called home. An instant pang of guilt struck him. The Enchantress had opened the way for him to escape free and clear from the slaughter that was about to occur. Why didn’t she go with him? Nothing about this seemed right anymore. He knew as long as they existed his kin were a liability, but they were his only family, the only thing he had ever known. Nastas wrestled with himself. Surely within the expansion of his mind there was something he could do to help his kin. Nastas took a moment to deliberate.
There came forth another crashing boom followed by another. Screams filled the air in the sanctuary. Nastas sensed his kin crashing through the brush attempting to evade the attackers. Closer and closer they came until Nastas could hold his resolve no longer. He rushed forward towards the cries of his people. He barreled through the bush with all the swiftness of the spirit of the fox until he came upon a clearing. What he saw next gripped his entire body with emotions he had never felt. Bursting from forth the woods were dozens of his people. Their faces dripped with fear as they tumbled and lunged away from danger. Nastas leaped out of the brush and transmogrified into his human form. He called to his brethren.
“This way! Come on follow me!” He waved his hands hysterically trying to get their attention. A few noticed and changed their direction, but most were so lost in confusion they scattered. Nastas gathered what few he could into the brush behind him. “Move! Head towards the guardian stones! There is a portal!” he cried.
A dozen more came through the brush into the clearing, Nastas waved his arms at them. None of them paid him any attention. They fled in abject horror of what followed, many of them were covered in blood, either their own or of someone else. Nastas watched as a great ash tree fell forward and crushed two of his people. Then fell another and another. From out of the wood came a gigantic creature with wings that spanned twenty cubits. It was twice as tall as a man and it wielded a great flaming sword, which it used to cut down and eviscerate every fleeing man, woman, and child.
The creature marched with a singular mind bent on destruction. Then Nastas noticed blue portals opening at the edge of the clearing from every direction. As his people fled, they jumped carelessly through the portals. Nastas knew that the Nemeton had arrived. From out of the portals stepped hooded figures dressed in white, blue, and green. Dozens of them corralled and imprisoned those that the winged creature did not slay. Nastas froze as the carnage continued.
Nastas realized that there was little more he could do. As he turned to flee into the brush, a great eagle scream filled his ears. He drew his attention to the direction of the sound. An eagle soared through the air on a collision course with the winged creature. The eagle crashed into it with a force that shook the ground. Its claws tore at the armor and wrenched the flesh from the bone of the beast. Nastas cheered. But his celebration was cut short as the gargantuan angel thrust an armored fist into the head of the eagle and gripped one of its wings. The fist gripped the wing and snapped the bones of the wing tossing the injured eagle to the ground while its cries rang out. The hooded figures gathered around the eagle and spoke in a language that darkened the skies above them. Clouds gathered and lightning struck the trees. The eagle shrunk and resumed the form of the old woman that Nastas considered to be his mother. The chained and bound her. Anger rolled through his veins and Nastas felt his self control drifting away. He wanted to take the for
m of a great bear and charge. To sacrifice himself to free his surrogate mother. Before he could summon the strength to make such a rash action, he heard a voice call to him from the deep.
“Flee you fool!” said the voice of the Enchantress. “I am nothing, you are our future!”
He knew it to be the correct course of action but his emotions had gotten the best of him. Nastas charged into the clearing screaming and waving his fists like a madman. The assailants paid him no mind. The demons continued slaughter. Apostate blood covered the earth, and they reveled in their work. He finally drew their attention by throwing sticks and stones at them. The angel moved towards his position, its feet crushing the earth as it marched. It was then that Nastas realized just how massive his mistake had been. The hooded figures hauled away each of his kin and retreated into the portals. It was now only him and the angel which he had no hope of defeating. He was not yet strong enough to call on the great spirit of an animal, and his fox was terribly inadequate for the situation. His only recourse was to flee. His feet carried him as quickly as possible through the blood stained grass of the clearing. Below his feet were bodies, bone, and blood. He wept as he fled, realizing that he had failed the only person who’d ever meant anything to him. The angels large stride would catch Nastas in mere seconds and his entire tribe would be gone. Nastas saw the looming shadow of the angels arm and sword on the ground in front of him. He closed his eyes as he ran, assuming that in the next moment his head would be cleaved from his body.
With his eyes closed Nastas fled, but no blow came. At his back he heard the crashing feet of the angel, but it had not struck him. He turned and looked as the angel struggled with a cross bolt suck in the fold of its armor right at the neckline. The sun shone down upon the armor and blinded Nastas who then tripped over a log and fell to the earth. He tumbled forward and fell prone facing the angered beast. Then like an eclipse, the sun darkened, and a shadow descended upon the clearing. The angel groaned and screamed as bolt after bolt found their careful mark. Nastas could not determine from what direction they came. Then he spotted a pair of pitch black wings descending from on high. The angel noticed them as well and turned to face the unknown assailant. He swung his flaming sword into the air. His flaming sword met the moonlit steel of a halberd and the black winged creature fell upon him like a rock slide. The pair wrestled with each other crushing everything beneath them. Nastas noticed that the black winged angel was smaller, and he wondered just how she was triumphing over the beast that had broken his mistress and killed so many of his kin. She fought with a mad ferocity he had never experienced. The larger angel threw her across the clearing into a tree. The crash of her body against the tree felled it, yet she returned to the fray after a moment of being dazed.
Nastas noticed the larger one was struggling to keep its footing. The bolts must have taken a toll upon its strength. She rushed forward clashing weapon against weapon, dealing small blows that crippled the larger creature. She nicked and cut at the beasts resolve before disarming him with one swift blow to the shoulder. Nastas came to and realized that regardless of the outcome he needed to flee this scene and fast. He was not sure of either being’s intention and he had already failed the Enchantress once, he mustn’t do it again. He climbed to his feet and raced towards the guardian stones. After he cleared the tree line, he heard a loud guttural cry emanate from the clearing. His feet carried him faster at the sound. He assumed it meant the contest was over, and soon enough one of the two winged demons would be upon him. He crashed through brush wildly and came upon a group of his kin standing before the portal, just staring at it. Nastas couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The Enchantress was correct. Thousands of years had rendered his kin incapable of reasoning. They had so feared the outside world for so long they could not even flee to save their own lives from peril.
Nastas ran towards the portal. “Come on!” he beckoned.
The handful of his kin simply stared in complete shock. They were covered in blood and absorbed by their own fear. In the distant brush he heard more screams and the crashing fall of trees.
It was only a matter of time before all in the forest would be captured or destroyed.
“Come on you fools! We have to leave now!” he cried.
The youngest and most vulnerable among them stepped forward.
“But where will we go?” the young girl asked.
He had no answers for them, and no time. He too was crippled by what had just happened.
Another spoke up. “The Goddess has abandoned us.”
Even Nastas had to agree with the statement. Something had transpired that none among them could have ever believed. After thousands of years of protection, the Goddess had lowered her guard. Why now? That was the only question on their minds.
From behind them came a dark voice, “He is right you know.”
Nastas and the others turned in horror and peered into the brush behind them. Each of them stood still and silent.
“She has abandoned you. Like she abandoned the Father!” the voice paused. “She left you here to be wooed by the promise of her security. Once you had lowered your guard, then she sent forth her demons to punish you. What kind of god forsakes her people?”
They had all witnessed as the Nemeton led the attack upon their village. They were all that was left of their tribe. The hooded men and women had enslaved, chained, and laid low their brothers and sisters. In their state of shock they had no reason not to agree with the voice. From out of the brush appeared a man, a man who wore the robes of the Nemeton. They all gasped at his the sight of him.
“I too held faith. I too trusted and believed the lies the Goddess and her tyrannical order cast upon the world. I was blind to the truth, turned against my father by an envious and cruel mother who sought only to undermine me, and bind me into her service. It was not until the Father showed me the light that I became free from her bonds.”
He walked forward, bathed in golden light, entrancing the last half dozen of the tribe. Nastas rubbed his eyes. Despite the slaughter they’d seen, they mindlessly walked towards him as if bewitched. Something was terribly wrong here. His head and heart were speaking to him, agreeing with what the druid was saying. What did he have to thank the Nemeton for? The hooded men and women and their Goddess had destroyed everything he had ever known. Why should he remain chained to the lies? The Enchantress herself had even mentioned that she did not believe the intentions of the Goddess to be pure. As his resolve crumbled a lurking feeling emerged from within his gut. the druid’s words rang true, but there was something else about it that turned the stomach. Then it became clear.
“I have come, a prophet of Elohim’s light to rend the bonds of servitude from you. The Father has sent me to liberate mankind. So that we may rise once more. As He rose. For only through the Father are we saved.” said the druid.
Suddenly the others spoke, one after the other, each saying the same phrase.
“I surrender, unto the truth and light of the Father!”
Nastas shook his head and tried to stay free of the hypnotic power that had taken hold of their minds. It permeated him and everything around them. It warmed and wooed as it sank deeper and deeper. He smiled as he enthralled the last of the tribe to his dominance. Just as Nastas felt he could hold out no more he found strength within. He had nearly been taken by the deception, but a force within him rose in defiance. Inside him the spirits of his ancestors shielded his essence from the insidious spiritual assault of the druid. His new found power, was manifesting itself in response to his grief. His eyes had rolled back but now they returned.
Nastas shook his head and said aloud. “No!” He stepped in front of his kin, between them and the deceptive man. “I will not let you deceive my people!”
He grinned. His eyes fixed themselves upon the defiant young man. “There is strength within you boy. A strength you do not yet know. A strength the Father can unleash within you. Do you not want revenge against the Nemeton? Do you not want
justice for what has been done to your people for thousands of years? Do you not want your people to be free?”
The deception continued. Nastas fought them with every ounce of power he had left within him. He only had a few words.
“Enchantress,” he muttered to himself. “Guide me. Goddess guide me that I may save my people.”
The others seemed to respond to his defiance and one or two came to their senses. The druid became enraged at the defiance, his light diminished and his eyes grew red with unchained bloodlust.
“If you will not accept his light, then you seek to extinguish it. I do not need your minds, young fool. I only require that which will spill from your veins. You will be the last to fall under my blade. You will watch as I tear and rend the flesh from your kin, little by little. You will watch in horror as you realize the error of your decisions, and at the end you will repent as I drain the blood from your veins.”
He spoke in a dark language, the wood darkened again and out of thin air more angels appeared surrounding the last members of his tribe. Nastas was outnumbered and hopelessly outmatched. As he faced what looked like the end, he closed his eyes and looked deep inside himself for courage. Not for himself, but for the good of his surviving kinsmen. He no longer cared about his mission, his journey, or the fate of mankind. His cares had dissolved, all that now mattered was the safety of his kin.
Nemeton: The Trial of Calas (Hallowed Veil Book 1) Page 15
