The Western Chronicle

Chapter 7

The room was chilled as though they had all been frozen to their spot by some unknown person. After a short time had passed the chieftain responded, "The knights had already left headings up north to link up with a force heading towards the master. We did not have the strength to arrest them and bring them to your men." The chieftain responded hoping that the rider would buy the lie. The rider sat contemplating the answer before responding,  "Fine your answer is acceptable but we watch you closer from now on. Come men we are heading up north to cut off the knights." The riders left in a whirlwind of activity as gust of winds blinding everyone from seeing ten leaving.
After a few minutes Baleor could hear rustling as locks were undone and the cellar door swung open. The chieftain and John helped the two men out of the cellar. Both men could tell that the encounter had left them scared as the chieftain had an expression of utter fear and terror looking as though he had just seen death itself. The chieftain hastily pulled them out of his tent and began to give them supplies to help them on the journey. "You have to leave soon before the hands of the shadow return and know that I lied to them. The best route for the two of you is to take loop west before heading through the winded cliffs of the midnight mountains before you can begin heading back home. You'll know that you are heading on the right path when you go through the ancients complex that's stands as a island in the sea of plains." The chief stated as he put the supplies on the horses.
"What are these ruins that you speak of." Justinian asked in confusion. As far as he can remember no one has ever built something like a complex or temple out this far east in living memory. "What complex, there should be nothing this far East. What are you not telling us." Justinian asked. "Now is not the time to be asking questions, especially with the limited time available to us for what you need to accomplish. Just know that for now you have to meet someone at the stone complex that will play a pivotal role in your future success. Now you two go forward and make a better future for all of us." The chieftain said as he ordered the horses go forward. The inhabitants of the camp seemed to give them a good farewell. After they had left the camp, all Baleor could see for miles was a of grass and what appeared to him to be weeds. The only thing breaking up the sheer boredom of riding through this wasteland was the occasional rock or small hill to break up the monotony of the days. As they set up their camp on their first night of travel after leaving the camp Baleor was going through the supplies Justinian asked, "How are we doing on the supplies especially with food? I don't know how much food we were given by the tribe but we were running low on food and other vital items." After a few seconds Baelor responded, "it seems that they were very generous and we have enough supplies to last us for the next few months. If we ever return to the tribe we need to thank them," Justinian nodded in agreement as Baleor continued, "Why were you so interested in the stone complex anyway." He asked curiously. Justinian replied, Because there is not suppose to be any thing we built this far out here anyway. The only people that who have been out here are scouts or miners looking for a good mineral veins to get rich quick. There are no records of anyone coming out here to settle down in the royal archives." Baleor could understand why no one would want to live here since this is a desert of grass that held nothing valuable. As he was starting the cooking fire, a long low whistle could just be heard over the breezy night air surprising the two. They had seen nothing living through the day. As the whistle slowly died a pair of red shining eyes popped up on the crest of the hill they had passed by as they walked to their campsite. Baleor noticed that there was no sign of activity in the area and that there was a strange smell that had waged in the area as soon as they noticed the eyes. They immediately began to get ready for the possibility of a attack from some unknown enemy or predator that had snuck upon them. However as sudden as the eyes had appeared they vanished without a sound or reason and the smell had vanished as though they had just witnessed a ghost that had been checking out what was gone. They immediately found that they felt a huge wave of relief as they knew that it could of have easily destroyed the two of them without any one knowing that they were dead. After this incident Justinian took steps to ensure that nothing like this could happen again, as he would set out traps that would alert him to any one trying to sneak up on them. He also set up shifts for him and Belor so that they could always have some on watch for any threat to them. During this time Justinian would also began to teach Belor how to hunt and live off the land so that if he were to be sent on a similar mission he would not have to worry about Belor being able of taking care of himself. They were out on the Great Plains for a few weeks traveling to the stone complex that the chieftain had told them about. "Justinian we may have a problem, it looks like we may not have enough food to last us for much longer. We are going to have to do something about it before we starve." Justinian thought about it for a few moments before he responded but as he was about to give his response a large complex jutted out of the surrounding space, a monument to who ever built it. "So this is the stone monument that we told about. To be frank I did not believe that there would actually be a construct such as this. I wonder who built this thing it appears to be ancient from the loooks of it." Justinian responded. He dismounted from his horse and took his sword from his horse before he went towards the entrance. Baleor gave a baffled look before saying, "Sir this does not seem like a good idea" but it did not look that he did not listen