TREE OF LIFE BOOK III – PART II
CHAPTER 01
"…after he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life…"
Genesis 3:24
LONG AGO
Forgive me.
I only know to tell it this way. From the beginning, then.
The very, very beginning.
~~~
From the moment I awoke, to life, to everything, she was there. And she was always near me. She was the first face I saw each morning. The last face I saw every night. She was the dawn. She was the dusk. I never knew a day without her in it.
Her name was Valorien.
We were never apart, in those days. With her always close behind me, I would roam the Garden at will and every day was glorious. The world was young and so was I.
I did not know the time that she had seen before I came along. Perhaps it was much. Perhaps it was not. But it didn't matter in the beginning. For it was the beginning, the beginning of all things and all was perfect and new and shining and it seemed, for the longest time, that nothing was ever going to change. Everything was perfect.
I was a child, in those days. And as a child I would climb to the highest heights and howl with glee as I cast my gaze out over the land. I would run and fall, and then get up and run some more. My eyes would go wide when I spied the waterfall or the flight of the eagle soaring above my head.
I was filled with questions and not enough time in the day to answer them all. I was smiles and laughter and intrigue as I studied on my hands and knees a convoy of ants winding its way back into its lair, laden with food, heavy with mission.
My companion was the sombre one. In those days. Though she would smile the odd time, she was not one to let on her feelings or her thoughts. Her eyes would be on the lines of approach to our location, or the myriad number of ways I could fall and hurt myself or not fall but hurt myself anyway. She was the one to point out the things I should not be doing, though she couldn't tell me why I shouldn't be doing them.
In those days.
In those days, life was perfect. Life was good.
In those days.
And then, Corruption came. Everything changed.
The man and the woman were thrown out of the Garden.
Perfection was no longer.
Corruption came and the Garden fell into disrepair. Disease…illness was born and I did not know its name, for I had never seen anything like it before. Although my heart went out to it by instinct and where I touched it, it recoiled from me and for a while would abate and fall into slumber.
That was my true calling, then, I learned. I was to be the one to hold it at bay. I was there to stop it, so the world might not die, or at least not quickly. Not in a day.
That day, Valorien's true nature was revealed to me also. She was to be my guardian. She was to keep me safe.
For this purpose, she was given a Sword.
I remember seeing her use it for the first time.
~~~
Four men had found their way to the Garden somehow. I was alone, at the time, as Valorien had stepped away for a moment. And though the men were not well concealed by the bushes they had chosen, I was not aware of them, as I was busy tending to a fox that had a tumour growing in its belly. I was placing my hand on the creature, now resting in my lap, soothing it and waiting for the tumour to shrink in size when the group of four pounced out of hiding and surrounded me.
The fox hobbled away, now whole again.
"You see?" One of the men spoke to the others. "I told you. You saw its power."
One of the other men frowned, confused. "But I thought it was a plant…like a tree…"
The first scoffed. "Never mind that! We'll just bring it back with us first and then…"
A gust of wind.
Dirt and leaves in the men's faces.
Valorien had come to stand between the men and me, separating us.
"No, you will not." She crossed her arms over her chest. "You will leave and tell no one of what you know."
The men took a moment to regard each other and then the lithe, young woman with flowing, golden hair, standing before them, brandishing words, blocking their way.
They laughed.
She jumped in.
They fought, exchanging blows and punches. The men were no match for her. In a second, she had disarmed them and driven them back.
My eyes were wide. My jaw had dropped and was not coming back up. I had never seen her at work. I did not know her power. She moved so fast, like she was in three or four places at once.
When it appeared the men would not give up, she drew her sword and prepared to use it on them, that flaming instrument of power.
"No!" I threw myself into the fray and tried to grab her from behind.
She threw me a look of disgust. Reaching out, she clasped me by the scruff of the neck and tossed me aside like a doll.
Spinning about, she turned to face the men, levelling her sword at them. She took a breath. She rushed in.
It lasted only a moment, and then it was over.
And it didn't appear as if she was fighting at all. It was more like…painting.
She had launched herself into their midst and wielded her blade like it was a brush, reaching out and dabbing the men here and there with a splosh of paint and all on the same spot too. One cut to each man.
The cuts on the men were all on the left arm, about four inches long, just beneath the shoulder. All of them reached up to the new wound, all at the same time, as if rehearsed.
But it wasn't bleeding, their wounds.
As Valorien eased back, a tendril of light, a string of fire, thin and ethereal, wisped out from the cuts and came to connect with the flaming blade still clasped in her hand.
The men appeared confused. They peered from one face to another among their compatriots. They murmured beneath their breath.
My guardian stepped forward. She bent her head and addressed the men. "Do you know where you are?"
No answer, though they furrowed their brows, as if laden with a new headache.
"Do you know why you are here?"
Again, nothing.
"Good." She smiled at them. "Now go home." She flicked her chin toward the path leading out of the clearing.
Hesitant at first, the men began drifting away.
I eased up to stand beside her, but my eyes were on the men. "What did you do?"
Her eyes were on the men too. She shrugged. Smiling, she shook her head.
I bent my mind to it for a moment and thought I knew. "How much have you taken from them?" Was this the power of the Sword?
"Just enough." She nodded. "Just enough so they will not remember you or where you are. They will not find you again."
The four were nearly out of sight beyond the edge of the trees when one of them turned around and raced back to where we were. Stopping a few feet short of us, he fell to his knees.
He lowered his head. "I…" He shook it from side to side. "…please. My family is in great need. I am in great need…" He shook his head some more.
I leaned closer to her. "Will you use the Sword again?"
"No. This one is stubborn. He wants it too badly. If I do it right, I will have to remove too much. He will forget too much. He will forget who he is and what it's like to be alive. He will forget how to live. How to breathe. How to think. He will die."
"Then what will you do?"
She held up her hand and I became quiet. Sheathing her blade, she moved in closer to him. "Look here. Look at me."
The man's face remained lowered.
Crouching down, she took his chin and lifted it so it was in line with her own. She leaned in. "What do you want? Tell me…"
"I just want to be well…I'm sorry! Please…!"
"No." She shook her head. "Think again—what do you want?"
The man edged back. He stammered. He whipped his head back and forth.
Easing forward, she clasped the sides of his face and would not let him go. She bore her gaze deep into his eyes. "Tell me your one, true desire. In all of life, in all of everything, what is it you want most of all?"
The man swallowed. He dared to blink. "I want to live…and never die. I want to live forever. I want to…"
He jerked backward. His neck went stiff. He closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, something had changed in his orbs so all you could see was white.
She eased her hands from his face.
The man clenched shut his eyes.
He went limp, as if deflated.
She took his weight upon her arms and laid him down to rest on the grass. She stretched him out so he lay comfortably with his hands folded upon his chest. He was breathing evenly now, with his eyes closed, still mumbling a word or two here and there.
She knelt down beside him. She whispered something into his ear. When she was done, she stood up and dusted herself off.
"Will he be all right?" I studied the sleeping man on the grass.
"He'll be fine. He will never be a problem to you again. Let's go."
~~~
A/N:
Hi! ^.^
Well, here we are again. Names, names, names… Ug. :P
For this particular story, there were a few names that I wanted so badly to get just right. This was my thinking process.
I love Tolkien and all the names he has come up with, especially those for the elves. According to my limited knowledge, Tolkien's names were based on the older European languages, like old Norwegian, Norse mythology, Celtic, Old English, Old Germanic and so on. He even had his own language, I think, that of the elves, Sindarin.
So, loosely based on Tolkien, even though the root words and root sounds can mean other things in other settings, so if you do disagree, I know, pray forgive, however…
'Val' – 'strong' or 'protector', as in varor, Norse mythology.
'Lothlorien' – 'flower of dreams', or 'land of gold', or 'golden land'.
'Lorien' – 'golden' or 'dreams'.
So, to me, Valorien could possibly mean, the 'golden protector' or 'protector of the dream'.
'Aldaron' – 'Lord of the Trees', another name of Orome, a member of the Valar.