by Rain Oxford
Talk about a change. Whether I agreed with my father’s decision to commandeer their ship or not, it was a definite improvement in my father’s mercy. Once, he would have taken both ships and left the pirates to drown in these dangerous waters.
The remaining thieves were not foolish enough to argue with a trained wizard, so they quickly abandoned their own ship. My father put his hand on my back gently, as if to steady me in the rocking boat, and nudged me towards the newly apprehended vessel. Speechless, I allowed myself to be guided. Although my father was a king and showed me his skills in the practice arena, it was entirely different seeing the man in action.
* * *
A few hours later, the ship finally arrived at Shomodii. After saying goodbye to my father, it took several more hours to reach Edward’s place. Tired from the trip and the emotional drain of facing my father once again, I was pleasantly surprised to see Edward’s cabin still standing. There were a few downed trees, but I ignored them.
“Dylan hasn’t returned?” I asked when I found Edward playing cards with Shiloh on the porch. Meri was watching the game with contentment, but not enthusiasm, while the boys played fetch with Hobble.
Edward set his cards down and leaned back in his chair. “He hasn’t, no. I was hoping he was with you. Can you sense if he is in danger?”
“When he’s close or if we’re both asleep, yes, but I can’t sense anything now. Either he’s okay… or he’s too far away to tell.”
Three hours later, I was very concerned that Dylan had still not returned. The Guardians were getting restless and even Meri seemed to be tired of all the men. Just when everyone settled down for lunch, there came a horrible, familiar screech.
Chapter 5
Dylan
There is something poetic about being lost in a forest on an unknown world. You have no idea if it is the kind of forest where you would find a candy-encrusted house, or one where you would encounter a run-down medical lab littered with the infected bodies of some human-made disease. Supernatural or mundane, the forest offered the horror of the unknown. Nothing good ever came from being lost in the woods, and being on a new planet made the unknown all the more devious.
I wanted Mordon with me, because he could find his way out of any maze and could forewarn when danger is upon us. On the other hand, that was selfish of me; he would feel horrible if his father was really in trouble and he didn’t help. I just hoped I finished helping whoever was calling for it in time to get back to him if he needed me.
I wandered for a little while, trying to follow the call for help, but it was too close. The signal was muddled and I was not getting any less lost. Giving up, I sat on a large boulder and waited. There were no animals around, probably chased away by the powerful presence of whoever was calling for help. It wasn’t someone I knew.
The gravity was just about equal to Duran’s. The trees were tall and had green broadleaves. It was about twenty-five degrees centigrade and the atmosphere was just slightly thinner on oxygen than Duran. Overall, it seemed halfway between Duran and Earth.
Sitting alone in the forest did give me time to reflect on my life, which was never a good thing. I was better off having an epiphany in the middle of a dangerous situation than sitting alone in silence. My life was a tangled web I didn’t want to get caught in; I needed to move forward, for every time I figured out my place in life something drastically changed, like the discovery of my Iadnah energy or the birth of my son. I was me, always that and nothing more, whatever I was, and trying to understand myself only made it confusing. All I needed to know was that I was a father and a Guardian and someone was watching me.
I looked up to see a man I had never met. He was about the same height as me with a slightly slimmer build. His hair was medium in length, a little shaggy, and had a very odd silver-red color. He looked to be in his late thirties, but his aura was old and powerful.
He spoke in some foreign language and my Iadnah energy reacted instantly to translate. “You should not be out here,” he said.
“I came here to find you because you called for help. What’s wrong with here? I haven’t been attacked or anything,” I answered.
“It is not dark yet. There is something in the dark.” He glanced above me and I followed his gaze. I was sitting under an apple tree.
I jumped off the rock and turned around to see the massive tree. This wasn’t Earth, I knew that for sure. Nobody said apples were restricted to my home world, but something about this tree felt ominous… something I forgot.
“We need to get out of here.”
“I cannot get out. I was brought here, dropped off. How did you get here? Why did you come?”
“I felt you calling for help.”
“How? Who are you?” He looked genuinely confused.
At full power, a Guardian was unmistakable for what he was. Having met seven others, I knew the type. He was either Rasik, Guardian of Kahún or Rilryn, Guardian of Dayo. His magic didn’t feel anything like the energy of Kahún, so I had to assume he was Rilryn. He came closer to examine me and I could see his striking, stone gray eyes with specks of gold.
“I am Dylan, Guardian of Earth.”
His confusion morphed into a startled expression. “Ronez is the Guardian of Earth.”
That explained his confusion. “You haven’t heard. I’m sorry. Ronez was my father. He died seven years ago.”
His expression became blank, but his eyes were sad and he sat heavily on the rock I had previously used. “That explains why I could never get ahold of him. Nobody ever told me. I am sorry for your loss. He was a great man.”
“Were you good friends?” I asked.
He smirked, but it wasn’t happy. “Sometimes.” I could see a light bulb go off over his head and he looked up at me with wide eyes. “What did you say your name is?”
“Dylan Yatunus.”
“Your father told me about you. In fact, you were all he ever talked about in the last years. I am Rilryn.” He reached into the bag strapped to his side and pulled out an old letter. “This is about twenty years old. He said that I needed to help him save you. The gods wanted to kill you when you were born because you were so powerful. He said that I would meet you some day and to give you this,” he said, holding it out to me.
The letter was in a sealed envelope with no writing on it, and the paper was yellowed with age. “Did you read it?” I asked.
“He said that if anyone but you read it, it would vanish and cause sixty point health damage on the target. I never understood that, but it sounded serious,” he said, then frowned. “Or maybe he was lying. He did that, too.”
“Never underestimate my father; he was probably telling the truth.” I opened the letter and pulled out the note. I couldn’t help but to worry over what I would read. I actually met the man twice after he died, but it seemed that the more I learned, the more I realized I knew nothing about him. This letter could give me a better understanding of him or confuse me worse.
Dear Dylan:
If you are reading this note, you should be the Guardian of Earth. If not, you are too young for this; put the letter away, go brush your teeth, and get to bed. Otherwise, continue reading.
Hopefully, you found your way into this life without too much trouble… But you probably died or something and was brought back. I know my brother is taking good care of you. The future was always clear to me, but I tried not to know too much of what was to come. You are seven as I write this letter. Yesterday, Vretial visited you. I have no idea how, but I know why. I spend most of my time protecting you, and the rest doing a mediocre job of guarding Earth. Sorry, but I will probably leave you to solve most of Earth’s problems.
Don’t bother with fixing the government; I tried that, they just keep breaking it. With humans, I have learned that they will carry on. Fix the worst of their mistakes and let them learn from the rest. Don’t fret if you make your own errors. The humans as a species is not the strongest, smartest, or most powerful, but if the peo
ple of any world survive in the end it will be them, because they are absolutely the most stubborn to survive. You have inherited an excellent world, whether they frustrate you or not.
Vretial is dangerous, yet I am afraid he is only the beginning for you. Since he visited you yesterday, I figure it wasn’t the first time. I know you will face him when you are older, but Vretial cannot be defeated. This is undeniable, and it is okay. To destroy him will never be your destiny. If you stopped him, you have already succeeded. Nothing bad would ever happen because of this, like all of time and space falling apart. Certainly not that. Instead, I fear that what brought him to you last night is the real threat. You must remember what he told you when you were seven. Your book can help you.
I cannot tell you more. Anything I may or may not know could make things worse if I told you. The more time I try to see beyond, the more unstable predictions can be. I cannot be sure yet whether or not you inherited the ability to see the future. If you have, remember that you see the consequences of choices that have been made, not fate. You can use them to save lives, but they can be deceptive.
The most I can do now is keep the path to your destiny clear until you can do it for yourself. There are many paths I see, but I know you will find the right one.
Just remember that while the gods call you Noquodi, meaning servant, we are Guardians. It is not a title given to us but a promise we make to ourselves and our worlds. This is not a promise to defeat our enemies or carry out the objectives of our god; it is to protect. We are not killers, destroyers, or warriors. We protect life. Not just human, not just people, and not just our world.
Love, Your Dad
The envelope slipped as I finished reading and hit the ground with a heavy flop. Realizing it couldn’t be empty, I picked it up and pulled out a card. Instead of a face, it was a picture of an apple. “I’ve seen this before.” It came through the void when Mordon and I were fighting the demon and had Edward’s scent on it. I had put the card in Sammy’s baby bag and never found it again. Then I did something very silly; I turned it over to look at the back of it for the first time. “That’s new,” I said.
On the back of the card was a bunch of connected lines, stars, and numbers. It made no sense to me. “It is a map,” Rilryn supplied, studying it. “It was a game Ronez taught me when I was a child. It sounded fun, that’s why I remember it, but I was never able to play.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“It is a two person game, and he said I could not play it with him because I was not his brother.”
“So he played it with Kiro?” I asked. Perhaps Edward would remember how to decipher this. Even if it was a game, there had to be a reason my father wrote this on the back of a card and left it for me.
“I asked him about it, but he said that two Guardians could never play it together. He told me he couldn’t play it, couldn’t even read it. Only brothers could read it together.”
“That doesn’t make much sense.”
He nodded sadly. “Your father was a great man. I cannot help you further. You must leave now.”
“What about you? I came to help you.”
“It is too late; it is already dark,” he said.
I peered up at the blue sky that could be seen clearly through the trees; it was a long way from dark. When I looked back, Rilryn was gone. All things considered, sitting back down on the large stone under the apple tree was probably a foolish thing to do, but I was frustrated. I shouldn’t have been surprised when an apple hit me on the head, bounced, and landed in my lap. I looked up, seeing nothing unusual, except for the mysterious tree, then picked up the apple. Written in black marker was “eat” in English on the apple.
“You’re kidding, right?” I asked the apple. Apparently it had more answers than I did. I scrutinized the tree for snakes and spotted none. Still, it was strangely biblical. Seeing as how my wife was a god, there should have been something wrong with that. “Alice, save me a seat for tea.”
I bit into the apple, chewed quickly, and swallowed. It didn’t taste poisoned. Before I could even consider my stupidity, the world tilted and I felt myself pitching forward.
* * *
For about the six-dozenth time, I woke in a forest. Only this one I knew very well. Even in the dead of night, I knew I was about a kilometer north of the haunted springs, and that if I headed directly south, I would eventually find myself at home. The problem was there was snow on the ground… It was in the middle of summer when I left Duran. Without even having my wits about me, I climbed to my feet. This was the perfect moment for a monster attack, and I didn’t want to be on my back for it.
There were always sounds in the forest; sounds of animals, sounds of the wind, and often the sound of running water. However, the tromping of people was a very distinct sound, especially the tromping of two little boys. I found the source of the noise just a few minutes south. It was both exactly what I expected and extremely confusing. Sammy and Ron were making their way through the forest, but Ron was barely three and Sammy was five. I knew it was before he was six, because he wore a Scooby-Doo shirt that he tore on his sixth birthday.
Ron was bundled up in his dark blue toddler house coat and matching soft house boots. Sammy was no better dressed for the weather; he wore real boots and clothes, but he had a towel draped around his shoulder instead of a jacket. Though clearly in a hurry, he had Ron’s hand firmly in his grasp and never fussed when he had to stop to help Ron step over a log or rock.
“I saw it not far from here,” Sammy whispered to Ron. Ron nodded and shivered, but never spoke. “It was important.”
I followed at a distance until they finally came to a stop and both began searching for something. Ron just wandered around, probably having no clue what he was looking for. He often put up with his brother’s antics just to keep Sammy out of trouble.
It started snowing and Ron’s blue house coat was dusted with the powdery snow for a few minutes until is started melting into the plush fabric. Sammy paused his search long enough to wrap his towel over Ron’s head. “You lose a lot of body heat if you don’t keep your head covered.” They continued their search as if they were both not freezing. “I found it!” Sammy shouted, clearing some snow off of what looked like two rocks. I emerged from the cover of the trees. Neither child saw me, even as I stopped right next to them.
It wasn’t two large rocks that Sammy found; it was two eggs. They were about half a meter tall, but they were definitely eggs. “What did you find?” I asked, mostly just to hear the question asked. Neither of my boys heard me.
Sammy gathered one of the eggs in his arms. “We have to get them out of the cold or they’ll die. Grab the other one.”
Ron tried, but it was huge compared to him.
I felt the presence about the time the temperature dived. The warning came, “There’s something in the dark.” The voice in my head, giving me that warning, was one I had hoped to never hear again. And I knew that presence.
I had faced this monster before, on Skrev. It was a cloud of darkness that ate anything alive and moved as fast as water. Nothing could kill it, and only light could stop it. I called my energy up and tried to create light. No light. I felt my energy, but it was clueless as to what I wanted.
An animal started to cry out in the forest, and that was as far as it got. Sammy gasped, put the egg down, and pulled Ron close, as if he could protect them. This wasn’t Sammy’s first time facing it either. I could feel the darkness approaching fast from the east. Before I could second guess myself, before I could doubt myself, I jumped in front of my children, reached for my Iadnah energy, and tore a hole into the void just as the darkness was upon us.
Whether it was destroyed in the blinding light, or pulled into the Hell that was the void, the dark mystery of a monster was gone. For the moment. I closed the void, cleaned the scar, and turned to see my boys staring at me in shock. “Get home right now!” I demanded in my best angry voice. “Don’t you dare sneak out at night ever agai
n or I will ground you so hard you will forget what daylight looks like!”
“Yes, Dad. We’re sorry! We won’t go out at night,” Sammy promised. Ron nodded, trying not to cry.
I had no idea they had ever snuck out at night, but I figured this was my only chance to drive it in that they couldn’t just sneak away. On the other hand, this had the makings of a really bad paradox if they got up and told me about it in the morning.
“Good. Now, if you do it again, I’ll wake your mother up and have her come get you. I am going back to bed. You will go right home, get in bed, and go to sleep. When you get up, we will not talk about what you did tonight. You will never ever sneak out at night, ever again.”
“Are you mad at us?” Sammy asked. Ron hid his face against Sammy’s chest.
“You could have been killed tonight. Of course I’m mad at you for sneaking out, but I will forgive you if you promise to never do this again.”
“We promise.”
“Good. Now go back to the house and go to bed.”
“Goodnight, Daddy.” Sammy took Ron’s hand and led him all the way back to the house. I watched from just close enough to interfere for the hour walk it took them to get home. When they were safely in the house, I wiped the tears away. Yes, I knew it wasn’t manly, but I came so close to losing my baby boys.
I sat down on the ground and closed my eyes. Having never prayed in my life, I focused my thoughts on the apple. I knew whoever made it so that I could go back to this crucial moment would never hear me, but I had to say it anyway. “Thank you. Whoever you are, thank you.”
* * *
I felt someone nudging me a while before I was able to drag myself from the heavy darkness of my lethargy. I was lying face down in leaves with Rilryn standing over me. “Why are you sleeping on the ground?” he asked. I got to my feet easily enough.
