Guardian: The Awakening

The Whispering Mist

-Guo-

Guo had meditate for most of the night, as the others mourned the death of their companion in silence, mostly in pairs. Their mood was understandable gloomy at first, until Yunlan came to remind them that the journey must continue, even if most of them were to be killed and only one remeined. It sounded cruel at first, but Yunlan show them some images of the source of the evil working in the Dark Lands, a huge red stone that came down from the sky to poison and change the world bit by bit, eventually reaching the Clans and beyond, if they don't destroy it.

Thinking about future generations, about the future of their children's and grand-children's to be, they needed to keep up their pace. Besides, if they do nothing but mourn, Xue's death will become nothing but the trigger to the Clan's doom, something that Xue Song would had never wanted, because he had volunteer to go to their quest with the desire to protect those he loved from the coming evil. The others agree with that too, after some thinking. They should honor Xue's death, finishing their mission so his death will not be in vain.

Thus, Zhao Yunlan's small speech sink inside the minds of his companions, giving them renewed determination to keep on walking their current path and Guo was glad, that the despair that the death of Xue Song left behind was turned into strength of the heart, because the next territory, although looked less dangerous, it was in fact more so than the last one. This time it was not the body who was in danger to be consumed, but their very souls, which was no less than become a living dead.

"Guo, we will under your care in the next territory. Are you willing to take the responsibility for our lives?" Yunlan had asked him, just before they were ready to leave the stone.

"Yes, but before that..." He came closer to their leader and put his index finger over Zhao's forehead, then close his eyes, as his long hair shined deep white and a bluish light glow over the Water Prince forehead.

"This is a protection for your mind, because the mist hides more than Shadows and also, it will be best if you are blindfolded. The mist will affect your senses in a short period of time after been expose to it, so it will be best if you only listen to mi voice, which will resonate inside your mind. Everything else, you need to ignore it with as much force of will as you have." Guo said and after he repeated the process with each member, Chu tide them together as he did the last time, so none will stray from the path Guo chose from them and they head out.

Guo heightened all his senses, mentally tracing the safest path to their next destination. His shield was already active and increased in the numbers tenfold, with hundreds of swords that moved around the single line in which they walked to protect them, in case they were physically attacked.

After fifteen minutes of walking, all members of the Clans could hear whispers in the cold wind. The sound was mild at first, but as they walked deeper inside the territory it begin to increase to pure yells, resembling tormented souls straight from hell. It was only thanks to Guo's mental protection that they could keep the pace. The voices had a kind of dark magic on their own that try to allure them to the most dangerous parts of the land.

Still, Guo keep them calm and gently chanted some mantras inside their minds to keep the group focus only in his words. Several hours passed and the Sage Prince keep them walking through the labyrinth of mist and screaming. However, halfway to the next destination, things changed drastically.

Shadows begin to appear, ready to strike them, but Guo's swords got into motion, slicing anything that came close to their group. Nonetheless, hearing the swords moving and striking, sometimes too close, make a few members of the Clans nervous, because they could not see anything while blindfolded and only relaying in the Sage protection. Almost at the end of the territory, the screaming along with the sound of the swords striking something they could not see, was really getting into them.