A Warrior's Legacy (25 page)

I saw a small smile play at the corners of
her mouth and pleased with myself I went back to work on her
nails.

“Seriously Raya the sharp nails, teeth, the
glowing eyes, and hair don’t bother me at all.”

In the semi darkness I could see her face
flush luminously and I heard her say half jokingly, “That’s not all
that’s different.”

I about chopped one of her fingers off being
lost in wonderment as to what she could be referring to. It was
time to change topics.

“Tell me Raya would you happen to have
anything lying around that could serve as breakfast that isn’t
related to apples?”

She gave a small burst of laughter. “I think
I could manage to find something. Afterwards would you like me to
show you some more of Lanoria?”

“I would love that Raya but after.....”

“Breakfast.” We both said in unison.

She looked so cute I had to kiss her again
and she didn’t seem to mind in the least so I took full advantage
and kept kissing her.

About an hour later we got around to getting
breakfast ready.

It was easy to see how these people were so
fit with exercise like this all day every day. I was practically
panting to keep up with Raya and I was in shape!

I had seen wonder after natural wonder and
still I was amazed at each new thing that was revealed about the
underground land of Lanoria. There were seven gigantic caverns and
the Lanorians occupied four of them, while they used the other
three for farming and hunting.

As unbelievable as it was there were all
kinds of animals down here, but thankfully no snakes at least not
in these cooler sections.

Most of the animals were typical of the
surface but some were not. At some point over the years they had
wandered into the caves in search of water or food and had become
stuck here just as the Lanorians had.

The animals such as the horses, cattle,
deer, and mountain goats were often smaller than their counterparts
on the surface, with the exception to that being the predators. The
predators were huge.

There were big cats, wolves as large as
small ponies, gigantic cave bears and an assortment of other
monsters not known to the surface for a very long time.

Amazingly there was an amicable relationship
between the Lanorians and most of the predators. As long as neither
bothered the other each left the other the space to live. There was
plenty to go around.

There was one exception to this honor system
however and they were called the zarlons. They were predators like
no other. They were actually smaller than the typical size of a
predator in Lanoria, but they made up for that with numbers. There
could be hundreds of them in a single pack and they ate both prey
and predator alike, including the Lanorians.

They were intelligent and utterly vicious,
but most of all they were voracious and ate all the time whether
they needed to or not. They roamed throughout Lanoria’s vast
underground chambers sometimes not visiting certain sections for
years or sometimes they stayed in a spot for a long time, until
they were forced to finally leave it out of need for more food.

They especially seemed to hate the
Lanorians; because of all the underground predators they were the
only ones who had ever stopped their roaming journeys.

They had killed many of the Lanorians over
the years, but far more of them had perished in the brutal attacks
against the Lanorians. Now they were more cautious in their attacks
having learned from their mistakes of the past, which made them all
the more deadly. I did not wish to meet them that was for sure,
because I could even hear the fear in Raya’s voice when she spoke
of them.

Life underground was not guaranteed, but
neither was it on the surface, but down here in the deep change
came more sudden than elsewhere it seemed.

“If you keep lagging behind some cave bear
is going to pop you in for an afternoon snack.”

I looked up at her as sweat dripped off my
chin. She was enjoying herself at my expense far too much.

“I thought you said that there was respect
among predators.”

With a cocky light in her eyes she said,
“There is, but my fear is that they might not look at you as much
of a predator and just go ahead and snack on you before I could
save you.”

I threw a rock at her and she ducked under
it laughing. She came back down and led the way over to more level
terrain. And then it dawned on me what she had done.

“You mean we could have just followed the
path instead of going up and over that!”

She just laughed harder.

“I’ll find a way Raya to get you back for
this I promise!”

We came to a halt as we entered a vast
elongated cavern. The opposite wall was pockmarked with cave
entrances that felt slightly foreboding in appearance.

“This is as far as we go. Those tunnels it
is said lead to an even more savage land than our Lanoria. The land
of the open continuous caverns lies under the sea itself and few
have ever returned from their and none are ever to return there.
The creatures there are far larger and more vicious than our own.
Malchiesha fears that they might follow us back to Lanoria, but I
do not think so. They like it warm and do not favor our cooler
caverns I think or they would already be here stealing ours away
from us. Come I want to show you something before we head
back.”

We took off down a cave entrance that the
air was much warmer in. After a while it got downright hot. The
fluorescent blue glow gave way to a growing red haze. The red glow
intensified as did the sound of something rushing by.

We stepped out of the cave and I looked up,
“Oh my!” Was all I could manage to say.

The Valley Lands and even these mountains
had majestic waterfalls, but never had I seen a waterfall of molten
rock before. Red lava spilled over a giant causeway and fell
several hundred feet to splash uproariously into a pool of the
molten rock at the base of the falls.

The lava flowed down a narrow burning river
that snaked down the long cavern that stretched out into the
distance before us. I couldn’t see the end of it.

“Is there anything down there?” I
pointed.

“None are allowed to go there. The guardians
do not like to be disturbed.”

She abruptly turned and walked back up the
cave we had come through to get here at a fast pace.

I caught up with her, “You said guardians!
Do you mean the guardians that Tadias left?”

“Yes.”

“I thought they were all destroyed.”

“Most of them were but some crawled into the
underground caves just like we did and they have been locked down
here just like we have ever since.”

“What are the guardians?”

“They are the tannin.”

“The tannin? What is a......”

She cut me off by bringing one of her hands
to my mouth stilling my words. She indicated that I should be quiet
too. She had better hearing than me as I couldn’t pick out anything
in the quiet of the cave and then I heard something too.

Raya started off as silent as a whisper and
I tried to follow her just as quietly, but it was hard for me since
I couldn’t see where my feet were going most of the time.

The sounds of a fight grew less pitched in
sound, but closer and more near to us. It was a fight among animals
of that I was sure of. It was just ahead of us and down lower.
Careful not to be seen Raya and I peered over the edge and looked
at the scene taking place below us.

A pack of the huge wolves was being
annihilated below us. I saw my first zarlons. They were hideous
looking creatures. They reminded me of a huge monkey with the torso
and paws of a jungle lion. Only two wolves were left alive of the
pack. They were the alpha pair.

They stood back to back with their huge
fangs bared. The rest of their pack lay dead and were being mauled
on by at least twenty of the zarlons, while five more zarlons
circled the surviving pair seemingly taunting them with the sight
of their pack being eaten before them.

There were quite a lot of dead and wounded
zarlons too, which were likewise being fed upon by their own
kind.

“We need to go now before they catch sight
of us or smell us!” Raya whispered frantically.

But I shook my head no.

“We must go Zevin!”

“If zarlons are so close to the home caverns
won’t they catch foragers and hunters that are outside of the watch
patrols?”

“Yes, but if we get the zarlons attention so
the others are alerted we’ll never get away in time, besides their
just wolves!”

I pulled my bow off my back and stuck my
arrows in the sandy floor at my feet point first. “When I was young
I had a wolf. It was one of the best friends I ever had until
someone killed it because it was just a wolf. You can go warn the
others if you want.”

But she stayed beside me drawling her double
swords out.

Fiercely she’s whispered back at me, “You’re
a fool and you’re going to get us both killed!”

I notched an arrow and sighted down it, “Has
to happen sometime.” And then I let the arrow go and all hell broke
loose.

The arrow caught one of the zarlons circling
the alpha pair in what I believed to be the heart area. It dropped
flat onto its face and all the beasts glanced up at us stupidly.
Before they could act several more arrows slammed into their number
as I had never ceased from firing them off.

Enraged the remaining beasts started up the
incline toward us at a fast lope over the rough terrain. They
forgot about the alpha pair they had been tormenting, which was a
fatal move for two of them as each of the alphas ripped out the
throats of two passing zarlons.

The wolves then went for the throats of the
injured and dying zarlons. My arrows nailed the fast approaching
zarlons to the ground and soon they were all down. It was too late
that I realized why the alpha pair was going for the throats
only.

I had assumed it was because it was the most
vulnerable part of the zarlons anatomy. One wounded zarlon half way
up the slope stretched its head back and let loose with a
percussionary cry that echoed around us into the surrounding
caverns.

The male alpha raced up and ripped its
throat out mid cry stifling the noise. The zarlons were all dead
and in the sudden silence I glanced at Raya. Her unused swords hung
down, and she had a look of dazed shock as she glanced from the
dead zarlons and then back to me and the bow in my hands.

“You could have killed me that night that I
left with your sword!”

“Yes I could of, but I’m glad I didn’t
although I nearly did.” I said as I slung the bow back behind me
again.

She was about to say something when the
sound of distant echoes filled the chamber we were in. The two
wolves whined low in their throats and studied the many openings as
if looking for a clue to the source of the sound. The sounds grew
louder and more passionate in their echo.

The zarlons were coming and there must be a
lot of them. The two wolves bolted from the scene of their once
strong pack and I thought that was a good idea.

“Run!” I yelled taking off towards the home
caverns with Raya close behind me.

We had succeeded in one thing at least. The
Lanorian’s would know that there were Zarlons near and be ready to
defend themselves, but the problem was I didn’t think we’d get
there in time to join in the defenses. The percussionary roars were
growing alarmingly close.

Raya had been right!

I had gotten both of us killed this time.
Something was running beside me through the half darkness. The
Zarlons already!

Then I saw the yellow blue eyes and the
white fur and knew that it was one of the wolves, in particular the
male alpha. What was he doing?

He glanced over at me and gave me the
enigmatic stare so common to wolves and I knew what needed to be
done. I glanced over at Raya and saw the big female loping
alongside of her.

Raya’s panicked eyes met mine and I could
read her expression that shouted very clearly, ‘Why did you save
them?’

“Get on!” I yelled.

She looked at me like I’d gone crazy and
started to run faster. The big female ducked in close taking Raya’s
legs out from under her. I shoved hard against Raya’s back and she
flopped on top of the big female wolf’s back with a scream of
fright. She had no choice other than to sling her leg over the big
wolf and clutch on hard to the mottled fur.

I turned back to my ride and did and
un-elegant belly flop onto his back and clutched on tight. The
wolves lope increased to an all out run that was faster than any
human had ever come close to achieving on their own legs.

I looked up, but the caverns and the tunnels
that led to them were flashing by so fast it was hard to see
anything clearly in the semi darkness. It was like riding
Relentless through the darkness of the night all out with only
having the glow of half a moon to navigate by.

On we hurtled through the maze of caverns,
an alliance of predators against a common foe. The thought most
prevalent in my mind as I felt the mighty muscles and sinews
beneath me flex was how much I wanted to tell father about this.
Wolves big enough to ride! Mounts with teeth! It didn’t get better
than this!

They were taking us to the home caverns.
That was good. We’d get the support we needed to fend off this mob
of vicious beast there. But many would die, maybe all of them.
These were my people now. I was their leader. What does a leader
do?

I only had to think of my father for the
answer to that. A leader serves those he’s over and even if
necessary sacrifices himself for them. We were halfway across the
first uninhabited home cavern when I let go of the big wolf and
jumped off.