Shadows Emerge

The Prophecy the Ancients Foretold

After the short nap I got of the small pool underneath the cataract. It felt like a long nap, but it still looked like it was around the time I went to sleep from how my surroundings looked. I never brought a towel with me because I always forgot so I just go for a short run through the jungle-like surroundings and the wind does the drying for me.

My sandy colored hair was still thick on my forehead from having just been wet. I ran my hands through the still wet hair and start my jog. The dampness of my body made me feel cold but it was still refreshing in the heat of the day.

Looking at my surroundings was a privilege I didn't normally receive as I was running. Normally, when I visited the waterfall, it would already be dusk and the sun would be painting the sky in oranges and pinks like a master artist. I never ran quite the same path too so I always got kind of lost while running; the extra time though allowed me to finish dry as I rediscovered the waterfall.

As I ran I passed many things I had yet to really look at before: large green colored ferns; gargantuan trees with leviathan leaves covered with copious amounts of vines; mosses, lichens, and vines cooperating painted ethereal designs on elephantine boulders; impermeable thickets composed of bushes, shrubs and trees. All of these melded together into a verdant blur as I ran through the jungle and looped back towards the pool and cascade of water that fed into it.

Having dried of during my run, I picked up my shorts and slid them up my long slender but rather toned legs. I buttoned them and bent over to pick up my shirt, which I promptly slid over my shoulders over my also rather well toned chest. I wasn't buff or macho by any means but I was not weak either. I was just fit from the running I did though the forest to the south into the city and from having worked on the fields for many years. Finally, I sat on the rock my clothes had just been on and placed the shoes that I got during one of my runs through the city that I had been wearing before my dip in the small pool, back over my feet.

Now fully clothed in my most presentable clothing, my cleanest shirt, shorts and best and only shoes on my feet, I ran back to town as fast as my legs could carry me. My jog through the jungle had taken a bit longer than I had anticipated it would take.

I arrived back in town and kept running to my small unfurnished home, passing the elder's pergola as I ran. When I stepped through the curtain-door, I was greeted by the eight most prominent faces in my village-the elders.

The three from before-Netheri, Kane, and Axleia-were there as well as the others.

The other fire user was named Flora. She was the youngest of the eight but not one to be underestimated. While Kane was very impatient and had a fragile temper, Flora was very level headed and controlled. Rumor had it that she could control weather her flames burned or healed you. I never had the courage, or maybe foolhardiness, to find out though.

The other two water masters were Araura and Cyles. Araura actually was more skilled in ice than anything, which was a unique trait amongst many water users. Cyles was a powerful water user that used mainly torrents against his opponents. Both were older and very calm people but when they fought they were incomparable to any other water master.

The last two were both earth users named Gheaja and Jugo. Gheaja had the tendency to use the ground like mud to trap her foes and controlled the ground more like water than earth. Jugo, however, preferred sharp, strong movements like forcing the ground upwards suddenly or hurling boulders to attack and using walls of earth to defend him.

Netheri was a force to be reckoned with too, but she tended to pin her opponents movements, corner them, then use martial arts and her abilities combined to takedown her enemies.

These eight were all in my house when I walked in; they were standing there wearing stoic looks.

"Tristan," Netheri spoke, "follow us we have something important to show you." He walked out my house with seven other elders, as well as me, following him. The nine of us walked back to the pergola were the elder's eight chairs were.

Jugo and Gheaja raised earthen walls with one swift motion. Their arms were raised level to the ground in front of them they took a step forward with their left foot and flipped both their hands over. They closed off the pergola from the rest of the village for the first time in over one hundred years.

Netheri then took a step forward, raised her palms parallel to her chest, and pushed them forwards. Air rushed forth and propelled the eight chairs to the edges of the newly created room.

Both these things happened in an instant. Had I blinked, I would have missed it.

Jugo and Gheaja then spread their legs apart so they had a wider stances and pushed their palms upwards then away from them to the side. This action revealed the entrance to a hidden stair way in the center of the room which led down below the pergola, the cover to it now off to the left side of room. The stair way was wide enough for two to walk comfortably side by side.

"I'll be in the lead from here," Flora said as she flames came to life around her, illuminating the room better than the little bit of light that was flickering down through the vine encrusted roof did. She walked towards the stairway and continued downwards.

We followed her down for about seven minutes in silence until we reached a large room. We walked to the center. "Would you please open the room for us Gheaja?" Flora asked.

Gheaja didn't reply, but simply proceeded to put her hands, palm down, in front of her chest and push downwards, allowing her actions to ask Flora's question. The ground shook slightly as a door opened to the front of us while she completed the movement.

"Tristan pay close attention to what you hear and see in a few moments inside of the room," Araura said as she walked up next to me, "an important job lies ahead of you."

As we entered the room I saw words scribed on the earthen wall directly across from me but I couldn't make them out. After everyone was in the room the light orange flames around Flora grew becoming more luminescent, further brightening our surroundings. A cloak of flames surrounded Kane's body too, further brightening the room. The words on the opposing wall we clear, or rather, clearly visible to me, but I still couldn't read them. They were in some sort of foreign language.

"You probably can't read this yet Tristan, so allow me." Cyles said to us, well, me.

"Before you start Cyles, I need to tell Tristan something." Alexia said.

"Of course." Cyles replied with a nod to her.

"What you have seen here just now, you will take with you to the grave," she said to me, "only tell the ones that are to come with you on your journey about the prophecy you're about to here and no more. Got it?"

"Y-yeah. Got it." I stammered out.

"Anything else that someone would like to add before I begin?" Cyles asked the seven other elders.

No one said anything. The only other sound was the sound of flames cracking from Kane and Flora.

"I'll take that as a 'no' then." Cyles said. His eyes roll back as he enters a trance and he rises off the floor, an alabaster aura surrounds him He beings to read and the letters become legible to me.

An Ancient Power Makes The Choice

Cloaked In Shadows A Foe Beware

A Boy Of Seventeen Leads The Team

The Loss Of Precious Time Beware

A Warning Goes Unshared

The Ancient Beasts Beware

These words hung in the air for a moment. I've been nervous from the moment the elders told me to follow them, but the entire time the entire atmosphere around us was full of tension and anxiety. Something I thought the elders would never have overflowed from them more than the worry and anxiety.

It was fear.