Chartile: Prophecy

by Cassandra Morgan

  “Uh, we’d love to help, but…uh — we,” Leo stammered, “We make our food a bit different back home.”

  They all felt rather ridiculous and blushed. None of them had ever done more than heat a frozen Hot Pocket in the microwave. Piper furrowed her brow again. When the boys continued to do nothing but look at her with shame, she busied herself with preparing the meal.

  Soon, a roaring fire blazed beneath a kettle full of stew. The boys ate as if it could be their last meal. Jayson sighed and leaned back, rubbing his now bulging belly. “So, why do you live here? Aren’t your parents worried about you?” he asked.

  “My parents are dead,” Piper said.

  “Oh,” said Jayson blushing. “How?”

  “It is a long story.” she replied and tossed a bit of bone into the fire.

  “We’ve got time,” said Jack with a shrug.

  Piper gave a small, sad smile and sighed.

  Chapter Three

  Piper

  “My parents were not my birth mother and father.” Piper stoked the logs in the fire with a long stick. She stared at the flames as she spoke, the light of the fire turning her green eyes golden. “I was less than a day old when a soldier rode into the village. He claimed he had found me abandoned in the forest. My mother said he was fearful and left in a hurry. In his haste to be rid of me, he never raised his helmet. My parents never saw the face of the man who gave them a daughter.

  “My father was a blacksmith, and my mother was a healer. Outland Post is very isolated from the rest of the elven cities. Most of the people in the village knew my parents had taken me in, though I was never treated any different.

  “When I was fourteen, a messenger from the palace came to Outland Post demanding all men, young and old, were to report to the palace. Princess Taraniz was organizing an army to drive all Dwarves and Humans from the kingdom. She sought to first take Mount Kelsii from the dwarves before bringing the rest of Chartile under Elven rule. She claimed to be doing so in the name of her father, King Aramor, who had begun to fall ill. She said it was for the good of all Elven kind.”

  Piper looked up from the fire and sighed. She leaned back and ran the ends of her hair through her fingers.

  “My gran had worked at the palace as a scribe and errant. My mother taught me the laws of our kingdom as passed down from her. I knew that without an official order of mandatory recruitment, no one was obligated to go. I said as such to the messenger. He struck me and it roused my village into tumult.”

  “Wait a minute,” Leo interrupted. He immediately blushed and swallowed hard before continuing. “Did you say dwarves? Like from The Lord of the Rings or something?”

  Piper narrowed her eyes and studied Leo for several long seconds. “I’m afraid I do not understand your question.”

  “What do you mean by dwarves?” asked Jack. He did not want to offend anyone. “Like, little people?”

  The scowl and confusion on Piper’s face deepened. “There are many races in Chartile. Dwarves, Elves, Humans. Of course, the Merfolk haven’t been seen for many centuries. Most certainly the dwarves are not little. They are a strong people who live in this very mountain.”

  “So, what are you?” asked Jayson.

  “Me? I am elven, of course.”

  “Why aren’t your ears pointy then?” Jayson smiled and raised his eyebrows.

  Piper’s expression relaxed and she sighed. “I have heard my people had tipped ears at one time, but this is a legend.” she paused. “Have I answered your questions?”

  “Yeah, sorry,” said Leo. “Uh, go ahead. You were saying your village started to fight back?”

  “Yes,” Piper said, crossing her legs. She resumed staring into the fire and poking at the logs with the stick. “We drove the messenger and his soldiers back to the palace, but at a great cost. My mother and father, along with countless others were dead. Taraniz declared the uprising at Outland Post treason, and the remaining members of Outland Post turned me over to her as the instigator. I nearly lost my life that day. A man, a knight I presume, stopped Taraniz. He said would be a greater punishment to cast me out into the wild. Taraniz agreed, and here I have lived for the last three years.

  “Outland Post is the last to still follow the ways of King Aramor and not the tyranny of his daughter. We pay only the taxes and portions of food that are dictated in the law as set forth by the King. The elven palace has very little farmable land. Each town is expected to produce a certain amount of food to be given to the palace as part of our taxes. However, since Taraniz has decided she does not wish to wait for her father to die in order to take his place on the throne naturally, she has been attempting to change the laws on her own, which she has no right to do. The other cities obey her out of fear. I hear rumors she has killed hundreds of people, and taken many prisoners on petty crimes or actions. But she won’t touch this place. She fears me.”

  Piper drank from her water skin, and cast each boy a glance before returning her gaze to the fire. Jayson, Jack and Leo remained silent. None of what Piper had said reminded them of any video games they had ever played. They still held onto the hope that they were dreaming.

  “What I can’t understand is how you three fit into this,” said Piper looking at them all again. “I find myself wondering why. Why today? Why can’t I get the old stories out of my mind? Fairy tales about a prophecy. A fairy tale I haven’t remembered in over ten years, until now.”

  Jack and Leo looked at each other confused as someone began to laugh.

  “Us? A fairy tale?” Jayson sat between his friends, smiling. His laughter sounded like small hiccups as he tried to contain them. “Let me guess. We’re some figment of your imagination and everything that has happened in my life up until this point was all part of a prophecy? I suppose there’s some mystical reason I got a D on my last math test right?”

  “You got a D on Mr. Harmon’s math test?” asked Leo, furrowing his brow at the boy beside him.

  “Jayson, stop it.” Jack glared at his friend as Jayson continued to laugh.

  “No, I’m done with this,” Jayson said and rose to his feet. Jack and Leo stood and watched as he headed for the mouth of the cave. “Thank you for dinner, Piper, right? But I’m out. Peace, man.” Jayson waved at the girl still sitting beside the fire before slipping out the entrance. Jack and Leo followed. They gave Piper an apologetic look as they hurried after their friend.

  “What the heck are you doing?” Jack asked, running to catch up. Jayson was walking incredibly fast along one of the path, staring at the ground beneath his feet. Neither Jack nor Leo knew where he was going, and they suspected Jayson didn’t have a clue either.

  “If I don’t give into their test, they’ll have to send us back,” said Jayson.

  “What are you talking about, dude?” asked Leo. He was already panting and out of breath.

  “The government, the military and the conspiracy, remember? If I refuse to give in to this world they’ve created, they’ll have to send us back.”

  “Back? What do you mean back? Jayson, there is no back, just —” Jack stepped in front of Jayson. He grabbed his shoulders, stopping him short and pinched Jayson hard on the arm.

  “Ow! What the —” cried Jayson and rubbed his arm. The sun was setting quickly, but even in the dim light of dusk, he could see the stern look Jack was giving him.

  “This isn’t a game, Jayson,” said Jack “You’re acting so bunk right now, it’s not cool. Does that valley look like a made up conspiracy world? Or Piper? She was helping us, and you totally walked out on her! Not cool, man. Now what are we supposed to do?”

  “Well I’m not going to lie down and accept it, if that’s what they think!” cried Jayson, “Give me proof!”

  “Proof?” Leo shouted throwing his arms into the air. A deafening roar broke through the darkness somewhere above them. The boys huddled together and stared up at the strangest creature they had ever seen.

  Hunched as it was, it was taller even than Jack. Its
front arms hung long like a gorilla’s though the only fur it had was a small patch on the top of its head. Its entire body was covered in a thick, dark gray hide, and its orange eyes bulged out of their sockets. It stood to roar at them again, and the boys huddled even closer.

  Leo whispered, “How much more proof do you need?”

  “Shut up!” said Jayson. He edged toward the underside of the ledge the creature stood on. It roared again, and banged its fists on the ground. Jack and Leo pulled Jayson back, but he had managed to grab a large stick.

  “I’ll distract it. You go to the village and get help.” Jayson whispered as the creature began edging its way down to them.

  “Come on, man, enough with the hero crap. Let’s just run!” said Jack. He gave a longing look back up the path toward Piper’s cave.

  “And what if it catches all of us? Better one dead than three,” said Jayson.

  “This isn’t a game —” Leo stopped short, and gave a high-pitched scream as the creature leapt from the ledge onto the path directly in front of them. It lunged for them, swinging its long arms back and forth.

  Jayson swung his stick and hit the creature squarely in the head. The creature shook its head and retreated a few steps back. Jack, Leo and Jayson began to inch back slowly when the creature let out a different sort of cry. It was louder, but still just as terrifying. Dozens of orange eyes glowed out of the darkness around them as more of the creatures emerged from the shadows.

  The first creature lunged again. It pushed Jack and Leo to the ground with one swipe of its massive hand and grabbed Jayson by the collar of his shirt. Jayson screamed and struggled to break free from the creature’s grasp as it turned, dragging him off into the darkness. The other creatures closed in around Jack and Leo. They watched from where they lay on the ground as Jayson disappeared from sight. They clung to each other as the other creatures shuffled closer, Jayson’s desperate cries for help growing more distant by the minute.

  Fire blazed into view high above them, and a figure stood silhouetted against the flame.

  “Up here!” It was Piper. She tossed a sword and bow staff into the middle of the throng of creatures that had momentarily stopped at her call. Jack and Leo caught the weapons, and a pulse of warm, tingling energy flowed up their arms and through their bodies. Leo cocked his body into a box frame. He had never done this before, but it felt instinctual. Jack twirled the staff in front of him, opting for the flurry of an intimidation factor. He wondered where he had gotten the idea, but dismissed it. They couldn’t place why, but the boys felt a strength and understanding as they handled the weapons. There were instincts and distant memories they were unsure were their own.

  Piper had disappeared in her quest to rescue Jayson. Having made the advancing creatures retreat with a few well-placed attacks, Jack and Leo took off in the direction they had last seen her. They slid down a steep embankment and landed on an outcrop. They looked down to see Piper advancing on the creature carrying Jayson. It dropped Jayson and turned to face its new adversary with a snarl. Jayson rolled down the mountainside several yards before hitting a boulder. His eyes fluttered and then closed.

  More orange eyes appeared out of the darkness around them. Jack and Leo leapt off the outcrop and hoisted Jayson up between them.

  “Piper!” Jack cried, “Let’s get out of here!”

  Piper took a deep breath and closed her eyes. A ring of fire sprang up around them. It was close enough they could feel the sudden blast of heat, but it did not burn them. The creatures were blinded by the flash of fire light, and they fled with angry screams and roars. Piper grabbed Leo’s sleeve and ran toward the fire. She held out her hand and flames parted before them.

  Leo and Jack somehow remembered Piper’s home being much closer when they weren’t supporting the entire weight of Jayson between them. They were relieved when they finally ducked inside the dark cave. The blood rushed in their bodies and pounded in their ears, making the stillness of Piper’s home deafening.

  “Put him over there,” Piper said, pointing to her bed.

  Jack and Leo carried Jayson to the bed while Piper began rummaging through her rucksacks for linen strips and clean water.

  It felt too long before Piper, Leo and Jack sat staring into the flames of a newly roaring fire once more. Jayson lay behind them on Piper’s bed, bandaged, cleaned and resting. The cut on his forehead was the least of their concerns. The bruise rising around his ribs had them all worried. Jack glanced at the weapons in the corner as he chewed a piece of bread. The sword and bow staff he and Leo had used once more among them. He looked back to see Piper staring at him.

  “You never finished telling us about that prophecy,” he said to her.

  Piper looked away, shaking her head. “It is nothing. A children’s tale. A superstition. There is no historical indication it ever occurred.”

  “I don’t know what happened back there, but when I held that sword in my hand,” Leo pointed to the blade leaning against the side of the stone wall, “and I — I, like, wielded it, or something. It was like I had done it before. I don’t know if I’ve ever believed in prophecies and stuff like that. Things like that only happen in movies, ya know? But it’s got me wondering what this prophecy is, and what it’s got to do with us.”

  The fire crackled and popped loudly in the silence that followed. Piper would not look at Jack or Leo. Her eyes had found their way back to the flames and to a distant memory only she knew. She rose and headed for Jayson who still lay unconscious. She knelt beside him and murmured.

  “In times of old,

  Of magic told,

  When dragons ruled the skies,

  Four kings there lived,

  Four cardinal winds,

  And peace on lands did lie.”

  She stood and frowned at the sleeping boy. “That is the beginning of a poem, a story allegedly of the history of Chartile, and the prophecy. I do not remember it all, but…”

  She closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around herself and sighed.

  “King Pasalphathe

  Of Kingdom South

  With courage of the Fire Sword,

  King Florine

  Of Kingdom East,

  Who brought us law and word,

  King Jenemar,

  Of West Wood far,

  Whose love brought peace to all,

  King Kasmalin,

  Of Northern Wind,

  The high king great of all.”

  Piper turned back to Leo and Jack, but she would not meet their gaze. “It tells of how the four kings were fulfilling a prophecy of their own. Their ancestors had created Chartile, and they were to bring peace to the land once more. It tells of a world with unicorns and centaurs, and,” she swallowed hard, “and magic. All the races of Chartile had their own unique magic. Then, one of the kings’ brothers became hungry for more power. He felt the rule of Chartile should belong to one person alone, and it should be the person with the greatest power: him. All races should heed him, for his magic was so great, he was nearly a God himself.

  “Great battles fought,

  And bloodshed wrought,

  Their magic failed us in the end,

  And ere too long,

  Their magic gone,

  We wait and wonder when.

  “Some say their magic simply dried up. Others say the Gods took their magic from them. Either way, the kings perished and Chartile was left in ruin.

  “From stranger lands,

  Return again,

  Bringing to right the wrongs,

  And then in kin,

  Come back again,

  Joining two worlds as one.

  “Legends claim the lost descendants from the great kings would return to Chartile one day, guided by the spirits of the kings. They would bring peace and magic back to us.” Piper bit her lip and swallowed again. “But there is no magic, and there are only three of you, not four. It is a story.” She sighed and moved toward the entrance of the cave. Jayson caught her by the wris
t.

  “You,” he whispered.

  “What?” asked Piper.

  “You,” said Jayson again, “Fire… you’ve been… secrets…magic.” He released her arm and slipped back into unconsciousness.

  Piper stood frozen, staring down at Jayson. She turned, and took off for the mouth of the cave. Jack hurried after her and Leo stood to attend Jayson.

  Chapter Four

  Gran

  Jack followed Piper and found her sitting quietly atop the overhang of the cave entrance. She gazed at the stars and paid little attention to him joining her.

  “Do you see that constellation there?” she finally asked after several long minutes of silence, pointing to the sky. “Those four stars in a line, then those six that look like a hilt? That’s called Pasalphathe’s Courage.” Jack could hear her steady, controlled breathing as she worked to keep tears at bay. “Jack, I —”

  He could hear the strain in her voice. She fell silent, staring into the palm of her hand. Slowly, a soft, yellow glow formed in the center of her hand. Jack watched in wonder as a small flame danced in the light of the newly risen crescent moon. She closed her hand and the flame disappeared.

  “Taraniz seems to believe the source of my magic is somewhere in the village. She has no true desire for more troops or any such nonsense. She is after me and my power. But she won’t dare kill me or defy me until she learns my secret. If she only knew I was born this way, she may leave the rest of my village alone.”

  “Have you tried just talking to her?” Jack asked gently.

  Piper turned to look at him, but her eyes remained unfocused. She turned away, shaking her head and swinging her feet back and forth.

  “Much has happened today,” she said, the strength back in her voice again. “I believe we should rest for tonight and see what tomorrow brings.” She smiled at Jack, leapt from the outcrop and entered the cave once more.

  Jack sighed loudly. Part of him believed this was all still just a dream. A glorious, wondrous, but terrifying dream. The other part of him wished it were real. His whole life he had dreamed he could do something to change his situation, to save his mother and little sister, to help his father. But in the real world, he was only a fourteen year old boy. He had no powers of magic and certainly not the courage to face the hardships in his life. He put his head down and lived his life day by day.