Guardian's Amulet: Tanwen's End✓

Chapter 21 - Verboten Valley✓

We opened the unlocked gates and entered; immediately a gust of fresh air hit my face.

The sky was blue and the grass and vegetation surrounding us were green. The whole place felt so peaceful as if nothing bad could ever happen here. I smiled at the beauty. All of this must have belonged to a kingdom, and yet there wasn't one. I don't see any royal banners, no signs, or decorations. This land was still pretty much untouched by wars between the kingdoms, but it must have taken place ages ago.

"What do we do now?" Kaida spoke softly.

"I don't know, but we might as well check the last location on the book," I suggested.

Unfortunately, after we lost the map the golden path never appeared again.

I pulled the book out of my pack, opened it, and an arrow was pointing forward. To the mountains.

"This way," I stated, pointing toward the mountains to our right.

The arrow kept changing, leading right to the mountain; leading all the way up to the mountains.

"Do you think the tree of divinity is up the mountain?" Kaida wondered aloud.

"It must be up there. Come on, let's get going." I stated.

Everyone followed me up the mountain, which was steep and uneven. The pathway eventually leveled out and led us to a large building with three columns facing one another and the third pillar rising upwards. There were statues of the gods holding hands. All of the statues and pillars were made of marble and glass. Even though it appeared like a paradise from the outside, I felt uneasy. As we walked through the pillars I could see the sun shining off of the buildings that surrounded us, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing. Immediately, as we got close enough to see inside, I noticed a staircase leading downwards that led underneath the building.

Everything about it looked very foreign; the people and buildings just seemed too perfect to be real. We continued to walk; inside the building, there were statues of the guardians sitting on pedestals. Each statue had a different symbol carved onto its forehead. Fire, Air, Water, Earth. All of the statues were holding an orb containing their element.

"Wow..." I said quietly to myself. I continued to wander around the temple, glancing up at all the pictures of the gods that decorated the wall. As I wandered farther and further down, I found myself in front of a statue...

She looked just like me...

I stepped closer, studying every detail. She had short brown hair and dark skin. Just like me...

Her dress was white and her necklace consisted of four crystals; one silver, red, teal, and one green. It reminded me a lot of the three crystals that I had collected along the way here.

Everything looked like me, but it was crying...

Crying tears of gold with blood smeared on her face. My heart dropped to my stomach.

Was this. . .me?

"There it is!" Kaida shouted and pointed up the tower. I ran out of the room towards Kaida's voice. We saw the last crystal in the tree of divinity, sitting on top of a platform and reaching up to the highest peak of the building; shining brightly. I walked closer to the platform, stairs appeared in front of me and I quickly climbed up a few stairs before looking back. Ryoko kept trying to push through but was unable to move past. Wyvern kept flying into whatever was holding them back. Tatsuya waved for me to keep going. I hurried up the flight of stairs; I stopped at the top of the stairs where a door was placed.

The same door that started this whole adventure. The attic door.

I opened it to see a green-lighted room with a tree centered in the middle of the room. I walked to the base of the tree. I looked at Talila.

'This is it,' I thought.

Something was different. The green crystal did not merge with Talila. It flew down from the tree and stayed afloat in the air. All the crystals from Talila broke apart, from the amulet. They flew above me in a straight line. The book flew out of my backpack and opened to a page filled with pictures of the events that had just happened. At the bottom of the page, it wrote; Fire, Earth, Water, and Air end this despair altogether and bring back what was theirs.

"Fire, Earth, Water, and Air end this despair altogether and bring back what was theirs." I read. The crystals started circling around before merging and glowing brighter than ever before. The bright flash blinded me like before.

"No matter where you go, you will find peace" A voice peacefully whispered to me.

I saw myself in a blank space. The tree was gone, and nothing but white surrounded me.

A woman stood behind me, her skin was a light tan color, with a hint of gold dust on her nose and cheeks. Her long flowing blonde hair framed her face, and her blue eyes twinkled. She stood with her arms on each side of her, as she stared at me with a soft smile. I was standing in the middle of nowhere with a woman I didn't know.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am the previous guardian," the woman replied.

"Rye?" I answer.

"Yes, my dear, and now you are one of us," Rye answered.

"Us?" I questioned. Before I knew it she held out her hand and multiple people with the same amulet as Tila appeared and stood behind her. Each person wore the same amulet; the same color and shape. However, theirs glowed slightly differently. Some of their amulets glowed red; some of them sparkled green, and some of them even pulsated yellow or orange colors. Each gem shone with a faint glow of its own and seemed very strange.

"Each guardian poses a different elemental power of their own; some whose amulet had glowed red posed the fire element as their dominant element. For years this has been changing through our guardian history. But you are the first of us to pose each element equally." Rye told me, patting my shoulder.

"But why me?" I ask.

"You chose to help these people even if it meant you might not get home in time before the portal closes. You were determined to end Tanwen's rain of terror. You also felt sympathy for my death even if you didn't know me so well." A voice softly explained. Zaya walked out of the crowd, smiling with tears in her eyes. She held out her arms; I ran to her and hugged her with all my might. She hugged me back as well.

"You're still dead aren't you?" I sighed sadly.

"Yes, but I'll live in your memories, won't I?"

"You will!" I exclaimed, wiping my tears.

"Now go, and be safe. Give the people back their island." She told me before another bright light flashed. I opened my eyes to see I was on the floor where the tree of divinity grew.