The Warrior of Elamor (Saga of Zel-Elcon Book 1)

by Richard Wood

  As noon approaches, the air takes on a cooler, damp feel. Jesse looks over to Valcor and asks, “Do you feel that?” “Yeah Jesse”, he replies, “We must be getting closer to the ocean”. Looking over to his massive friend, Jesse asks, “Are you ready Valcor?” Valcor looks to Jesse, a nervous tingle rolls over him as he realizes that he’s about to go into battle with an enemy he is never seen on a battlefield, and says, “Yes Jesse, whatever it takes. I will fight right by your side even if it cost me my life”. Jesse moves Dararro closer to Valcor. Patting the big man on his back, Jesse exclaims calmly, “Costs you your life? We’re not going there to die Valcor, we’re going to free a leader and his people. Remember Valcor, we have what other warriors don’t, we have Elamor watching over us”. Valcor pulls on the reins, stopping his horse, and looks seriously into the face of Jesse and says, “Jesse, I don’t know Elamor. I’ve never seen a Secret Guardian, heard the Sounds of Elamor or the Lights, ok! I don’t have your happy, happy attitude. I’m about to fight a battle against someone they call the Son of Quygon with a friend who talks to people I can’t see, on a horse someone gave me”. Jesse, sitting politely on Dararro, kindly answers him back if, “Remember Valcor, you can’t go by your feelings, and always remember to separate the truth from the lies. It’s not you going into the unknown, it’s us going to the Shores of Seeness. Valcor, I never speak to no one, I speak to friends I have known all my life. That horse you are on was part of the royal stables ridden by your father’s very own Page, given as a gift to ease your embarrassment. That’s the truth. You are here, Valcor, because you were chosen and you’re going to stay with me until our lives, or mission, is over. Now we’re going into battle, are you ready?” “Yes Jesse”, Valcor shouted, coming to grips with his attitude.

  As Jesse and Valcor continue their journey to Seeness, the distant humming of Champion Wasps begin. Dararro’s ear perks up and the feathers in his mane begin to quiver. Looking over to Valcor, Jesse asks, “Again, are you ready?” Valcor raises in his saddle, throws a fist in the air, and shouts, “For Elamor!” The two warriors charge full speed up the hill and are surprised to see on the other side an empty beach and endless the ocean. Jesse and Valcor exchange surprised looks. Valcor shrugs his shoulders and asks Jesse, “Where’s the enemy. There’s not even a boat out there. I don’t get it”. Looking out over the ocean, Jesse replies, “I don’t know. This is where I was told to come”. Looking in all directions, Jesse leaps from Dararro. As he does, the Peace Cat turns his face into the direction from which they had just come. Suddenly, Dararro fully spins his whole body into the same direction. Jesse pats Valcor on the leg and says, “Valcor look, Dararro see something”. As the Peace Cat looks out toward the west, his ears point forward, trying to capture every sound possible. With his eyes locked into the distance, Dararro’s feathery mane begins to quiver and layers of feathers begin to rise in full alert. Valcor rises in his saddle, putting a hand over his brows, he looks off into the western horizon. As he quietly scans the view, he comes to an instant stop. Breathing heavily, his face loses expression, and in a hollow, frightened voice he exclaims, “Oh no!” Shouting down to Jesse, Valcor blurts, “This is impossible, we can’t fight this giant”. Dararro’s feathers are all now fully erect and he takes a place of guardian in front of Jesse. Valcor jumps from his horse to join Jesse, and as he does, his horse becomes frightened by the steady thumping of the giants running feet and rears up kicking. Valcor grabs his horses’ reins, forcing him down. The thumping of the running giant increases to what sounds like a steady pound. With every step of the giant, the tall grass slightly shakes. Suddenly, birds fill the sky as they fly out to sea. A scared Valcor shouts, “Look Jesse, even the birds are afraid of this thing”. The tall grass in front of them falls to the ground as the foothill animals fly past them to the beach. Foxes, rabbits, wolves and small deer flood the beachfront.

  In the distance, Jesse can see the Forseean, the largest one he has ever seen. The giant had long black hair that hung in matted clumps. Scars filled his body from head to toe and his face was filled with violent hate. This giant was without a doubt, a deadly beast. Jesse turns toward the frightened Valcor and orders him, “Get down behind me!” Valcor instantly sinks down behind Jesse, his massive frame shaking like a leaf. The ground shook as the giant leaped from one hilltop to the one directly across from Jesse. Dararro’s powerful body tensed and flexed as he lowered his frame into spring forward formation. The giant was enormous, he stood at least twenty steps high, his arms were covered with huge solid muscles, and his massive legs looked like the trunks of trees. As he growled, the giant exposed broken and jagged teeth; and with his demeaning eyes, he was a gruesome sight. Standing shamelessly naked, he looked down at Jesse and shouted, “You dare come to my land, warrior!” Raising his hand, the giant had shackled to his wrist a thick, eight step long black iron chain. Grabbing the chain at the shackle, the giant swings the long chain like a whip. “I’ll kill you, Jesse of Eli”, the giant shouts. Rearing backward, he whips the chain toward Jesse. Instantly, Dararro rises up and roars, sending a violent vibration bursting from his breastplate, hitting the chain midair and snapping it off at the shackle and throwing it hundreds of steps behind the giant. The Forseean bends over and roars angrily at Dararro, exposing the several embedded arrows in the giants’ back. Dararro’s feathery mane flutters, but the Peace Cat stands bravely in defense of his master. As Jesse reaches for his sword, the gruesome giant straightens up. Looking down at Jesse, the giants’ scarred face takes on a grotesque, hellish fierceness as his powerful fist pounds his chest. Pulling his sword from its sheath, Jesse points it toward the Forseean giant. Shouting up to the giant, Jesse shouts, “Your terror in Seeness is over. I claim this kingdom for Elamor!” The giant raises his massive foot and kicks it toward Jesse. His foot pierces Jesse’s sword and a ground shaking vibration fills the giants’ body, violently rattling his bones. The giant is thrown backward three hundred steps onto another small hill, creating a crater. The giant lies motionless for several seconds in the crater then rolls right, lifting himself upward. The giant then turns his muscular body toward the Mountains of Light and Shadow and shouts out to the west, “Quygon!” Then turning back to Jesse, the giant runs headlong towards his enemy. Valcor squats down, covering his face with his hands and shouts, “Oh no!” Jesse stomps his right foot forward, raises his sword upward toward the charging giant and rolls the tip of the blade around and around. The royal blue crystal blade creates a tunnel of royal blue wind. The tunnel extends outward, impacting against the giants’ chest, forcing his arms and legs forward and throwing him back into the crater.

  Jesse glances toward the Mountains of Light and Shadow. Coming from that direction in the distance, is the faint metallic hum of a swarm of Champion Wasps. Coming in his direction is a small black cloud. He looks over to Dararro and the Peace Cat is already staring in the direction of the approaching swarm. Jesse gives the order, “Dararro kill!” The Peace Cat lowers into a stealthy posture with his eyes and ears focused in on the coming cloud of giant wasps. His body is filled with tense muscles, ready to spring at any moment. His feathery mane flickers like shrubs caught in a storm. As the sound of the approaching swarm increases, Dararro’s claws begin to extend and a ridge of snowy white fur raises along the length of his back. The Peace Cat is ready for battle.

  The giant once again raises from the crater, as he does, he turns his powerful body in the direction of the swarm. Turning back to Jesse, the giant forms a ghoulish smile, exposing shattered teeth. He folds his arms and arrogantly looks downward into the face of Jesse. Then in a hollow, deep, gravelly voice, the giant announces, “Jesse of Payne, your time is about to end. You should never have invaded my land. My lord has sent his giant wasps and I’m going to stand and watch as they kill you all and feed on your bleeding corpses.

  As the deadly swarm continued to approach, the metallic hum of the wings became so terrifying that Valcor became a screaming, jerking ball of flesh clasping
his hands over his ears. Still two hundred steps away, the image of ten separate Champion Wasps could clearly be seen. One even have a rider. Dararro reared up on his hind legs and gave out a shattering roar. As he did, a blast of vibration could be seen shooting from his breastplate and flying toward the swarm. The vibrating burst hit the swarm dead center, sending a massive flurry of wasp matter behind the swarm. The entire half of one wasps’ body was gone, another had lost its head and most of its thorax, and a third had lost only a wing. All three fell to the ground with the wingless one recovering and trying its best to regain flight. The giants’ crossed arms went limp and fell to his sides. A look of astonishment filled his once arrogant gaze. As his eyes shifted from Jesse to Dararro and back, the giants’ posture took on a nervous and slouchy stance as he wondered how a man and a Peace Cat could do what many armies have tried and failed.

  Again Dararro rears up onto his hind legs and gives out a ground shaking roar. The giant raises his forearms over his face as a vibrating blast shoots from Dararro’s breastplate toward the swarm. This time the blast hits four wasps flying in formation. As a flash of wasp matter flies behind, the four drop motionless to the ground. As three wasps are left flying, they hover motionless in the air, one still with a rider.

  The giant, who was once powerful and fearless, is now fearful and withdrawn. Looking over to Jesse, he shouts fearfully, “Get away from here. You have no right to be here, this is my home”. Jesse ignores the fearful shouts of the giant and raises his sword toward the three remaining wasps and shouts, “Elamor!” As he does, a spiritual force flows quickly down his arm, raising his hairs. The force flows quickly into the sword and shoots out of the tip of the blade. The force hits two of the wasps, reducing their entire bodies to matter, and they fall dead to the ground. Then Jesse points his sword to the wasp that had lost a wing. As the wasp crawls along the ground, Jesse again shouts, “Elamor!” The force again shoots from the tip of the blade and destroys the crawling wasp.

  The giant is now in a state of total panic, looking in all directions for anything that could hide his giant body. Jesse looks up into the sky, there flying in a circular formation is the last wasp and looking down from the wasp, is its rider. Jesse looks over to Dararro and gives the order, “Dararro, kill the wasp!” But Dararro stands motionless, his feathery mane beginning to fall. Jesse looks at Dararro, puzzled by his Peace Cat’s disobedience. He gives the order again, “Dararro kill the wasp!” This time Dararro gives a long stretch, then l lies belly first on the ground.

  Jesse turns his attention toward the Forseean, who is now down on one knee. Waving his hands, the giant begs, “Please don’t, please Jesse of Payne, please don’t kill me”. Sword in hand, Jesse begins to walk toward the giant who is now on both knees. “Please”, the giant begs, “I haven’t done anything to you”. As Jesse gets closer to the giant, he sees dotted in the Forseeans’ eagle eyes, black specs. As Jesse nears the giant, the specs expand until his eyes are completely black. Now twenty steps from the giant, Jesse asks, “What lord sent the wasps?” The giant shouts out, “Quygon!” Jesse slides his sword back into its sheath and asks calmly, “And who would you like to serve?” The giant, still on his knees, begins to twitch then falls forward onto all fours. Jesse calmly walks over to the giant and slowly pulls the arrows from his back. As the last arrow is plucked, the giants’ back arches. Lowering his face inches from the ground, he begins to gurgle and cough. Looking over to Jesse, the giant shouts, “I want to serve Elamor!” Instantly, a gush of black matter flows from the giants’ nose and mouth, pooling on the ground. Jesse pulls out his sword and plunges it into the pool of black matter and the matter flees in all directions, reuniting twenty steps away. Jesse points his sword into the direction of the matter and shouts, “Elamor!” The spiritual force shoots from the point of his blade toward the black matter, but before the force could reach it, the matter hurled itself toward the beach and down a slope. As Jesse watched, the black matter flowed to the large cluster of foothill animals that had formed on the beach and disappeared into them. The animals ran in all directions, some even ran into the ocean and drowned.

  Jesse turns back to the giant. Still down on all fours, the giant was exhausted from the ordeal but was amazingly changed. His scarred body was now clean and smooth, his brutish nature was now calm and serene. Slowly, the giant raises his face to Jesse. The Forseeans’ eyes were now bright and clear. “Thank you, Jesse of Payne”, the giant said kindly, “I don’t know what to say. I would have never done all these evil things”. “I know”, Jesse answered, nodding his head, “I know many Forseeans, and you are a noble and decent people. You did the things you did because you were a prisoner of Quygon”.

  The giant clumsily rises from the ground. Embarrassed by his actions, he avoids the eye of Jesse. As the giant looks to the ground, Jesse replaces his sword. Then looking up to the giant, Jesse asks, “What is your name?” “Isaac”, the giant replies. “Well Isaac”, Jesse continues, “You have nothing to be ashamed of. You were not in control of your actions, you were a prisoner of the dark lord Quygon. Don’t worry Isaac that will never happen again”. Jesse glances skyward, annoyed by the sound of the circling Champion Wasp, then looks over to Dararro, who is still stretched out on the ground seemingly unaware of the flying wasp. The giant asks, “How do you know that for sure? How do you know if Quygon will never do that to me again?” “I will help you”, Jesse answers. He then opens his shirt, exposing his birthmark. “Let me see your hand”, Jesse stated. Raising his right hand to Jesse, he takes the palm of the giants’ hand and places it over his birthmark. Jesse places both of his hands against the giants’, forcing it tightly against his chest. Suddenly, the giant yells out and pulls his hand back. Looking into the palm of his hand, the giant sees the image of Jesse’s mark embedded. Looking over to Jesse in amazement, the giant asks, “Jesse, what is this? What does this mean?” “It’s the mark of Elamor, Isaac. It means that you are protected. The dark lord can no longer enter into you or control your actions. You are once again a free man Isaac. Tell me Isaac”, Jesse asked, “What will you do with your freedom?” The giant looks into the palm of his hand for a moment and announces, “I will go with you, Jesse of Payne! I will fight alongside of you, we will be warriors together”. Looking into the face of the giant, Jesse asks, “Then who will protect your people? The dark lord has claimed your people, who will protect them when you are gone?” “We can come back”, Isaac exclaims, “We can come back and free my people. We could fight Quygon together”. “No”, Jesse answers, shaking his head. “It is better to keep people free than to fight to bring them back. The Essence of Quygon is still in this land. Who else but you is better to protect them from the silent enemy, you already know his ways and are marked by Elamor. No Isaac, you must stay here and protect the people of your villages. I will come back from time to time, but it’s you who is the leader of these people!” “When will you come again Jesse”, Isaac asks. “I’m not sure Isaac, but you won’t be alone. It will feel like it sometimes, but you’re never alone! I will also send my trusted messenger Elven, he will give you orders from me”. Isaac looks shyly into the eyes of Jesse, then to the mark on his palm. Suddenly an unexplainable sense of confidence filled his heart. His mind cleared, his doubts faded, and a calm expression filled his face. Raising his shoulders and straightening his back, the giant Isaac looks down at Jesse and announces confidently, “I trust you Jesse, Warrior of Elamor!” “Good”, Jesse replies, “Now go to your people and show them what has happened to you. Some of them won’t believe you at first, but keep being the new you. They will see in time”. “Thank you Jesse”, Isaac announces with a smile, “I will do everything you said”. Turning and walking back into the direction from which he first came, Isaac looks into the palm of his hand and shouts, “For Elamor!”

  Jesse’s attention is now directed back to the Champion Wasp, still circling in the sky. Turning to Dararro, Jesse shouts, “Dararro come”. Dararro rises from the ground
and walks toward his companion. With his feathery mane relaxed, he strolls calmly. Reaching Jesse, he rubs his forehead against his masters’ leg. Scratching Dararro behind the ear, Jesse says kindly, “It’s Ok boy”. Pulling his sword from the sheath, Jesse points it toward the Champion Wasp. He’s about to shout “Elamor” and release the spiritual force to destroy the wasp, when his eye catches the rider. Something stirs in Jesse’s heart and he lowers his sword, returning it to its sheath. Putting both hands over his forehead to shade his eyes from the sun, Jesse gets a clearer view of the rider. Staring intently, Jesse’s mouth drops open and his arms fall limp at his sides. His knees become weak and he falls forward onto all fours. Tears flood the ground as Jesse shouts, “Not my father, please Elamor not my father! I have to kill my own father?” Jesse collapses to the ground as his stomach empties into the tall grass.