The Fallen Guardian (The Guardian Chronicles 2) (20 page)

“Yes,
I do hereby accept the druid order’s pledge of service while this conflict
lasts. I also recognize that at the end of this bargain that I have no hold
over you,” replied the king smoothly. “I pledge to you that if you help us with
this war, which is inevitable now, I will do whatever you require of me to help
you rebuild your order.”

“You
are truly wise and noble, mighty king. We will hold up our end of the bargain
and will certainly ensure that you keep your promise. What are the plans for
the impending attacks?”

The
king directed the druid to a table on one side of his court and relayed all of
the information they had received from the guardians and from their extensive
spy network. After a lengthy presentation of the facts, Zaide added his
findings to the pool of intelligence. The druid seemed to have accepted at some
level that they were going to have to work with the Elementals in this
situation. The problem was convincing the other druids to accept his appraisal
of things.

The
wolves continued to stare at the soldiers standing on top the outer wall of
Tarisdell. Ulric surveyed them with great dislike and then turned about and
disappeared into the forest. The rest of the wolves followed suit and were gone
from sight within minutes. The troops on the wall relaxed as they watched the
ferocious creatures leave. They immediately began to scour the entire city to
make sure that it was truly deserted. After they had completed their search,
they fortified the city on all sides and set up communication lines using
runners to relay messages. Commander Brugon remained on the eastern wall just
in case the ravenous wolves decided to have another go at the magical barrier.
I
hope that this elven barrier holds while we are here because if it fails, we
are all dead!

As
soon as the seasoned commander had thought this, horrific howls and booming
roars filled the still air. The animals of the forest took flight at the
startling sounds. A few miles east in the wilderness the birds were frantically
attempting to gain altitude which indicated where the confrontation was taking
place. The battle was so loud that Brugon’s soldiers stopped what they were
doing and listened intently. It sounded like the wolves had been engaged by
some kind of monsters. The men began to murmur to one another about what was
going on and what could happen to them if the magical barrier went down. Fear
gripped their hearts as they stood there wondering what was going to happen
next.

Boom!
  The ground shook violently as if it were
about to rend itself completely open. The earth continued to shake for several
minutes, and then everything went still. Silence enveloped the forest once
more. There was no longer any sound coming from the battle that had been taking
place. In fact, there was no noise at all coming from anywhere. Finally the men
began to shift about nervously as they waited for something terrible to happen.

“Commander,
was that an earthquake like that one we felt a few moments ago?” asked one of
the soldiers from behind the eastern outer wall.

“I
do believe that you are right. Captain!” barked the commander distractedly.

“Yes,
sir!” saluted the captain smartly. He had been standing right next to his
commander the entire time.

“I
want you to take a couple men with you and investigate what happened in the
forest before that unnatural quake began,” ordered the commander quietly. He
did not want all of the troops to hear what he was asking because it might
cause them an unnecessary amount of stress.

“I
will leave at once,” replied the studious captain. He signaled to two of his
men, and they climbed down off the wall. They waited for the commander to say
the pass phrase again so that they could exit through the magical barrier
unharmed. Once outside the elven protection, they picked up their pace so that
they could get this unpleasant task taken care of as quickly as possible.

As
they entered the shadows of the forest, they could see thousands upon thousands
of wolf prints on the forest floor. They were all heading directly east. They
followed the tracks for nearly three miles before they stopped at the sight of
where the battle had taken place. There were several dozen wolves ripped to
pieces in a small meadow. Their bodies had been pulverized and torn like they
were rag dolls. The wind changed directions to blow in their faces. The putrid
smell of rotting carcasses made all three of these hardened warriors vomit
uncontrollably. Their eyes began to water from the odor as well and could not
see the eyes that were peering at them from the opposite side the bloodied
clearing.

Several
wolves edged their way into the clearing as they stalked closer to where the unsuspecting
men were bent over defiling the forest floor. They began to growl as they got
to within fifty feet of the weary soldiers. The shaken men finally stopped
spewing long enough to look up in the general direction of the growling sounds.
They all turned pasty white at the sight of nearly a dozen or so bloodied
wolves of various colors. They all had a maddened look in their eyes that told
the poor men that they had just been on the receiving end of a severe beating.
It was clear that they were seeking someone or something to unleash their pent
up frustration on, and unfortunately for the captain and his men, they had been
chosen.

“Don’t
make any sudden movements,” ordered the captain in an undertone. The trio began
to back away slowly into the trees.

A
crashing sound came from their right as the wolves began to advance on their
prey. They did not slow their pace as the sound of some unseen party to their
left increased in volume.
Thud!
  The sickening sound reverberated
through the meadow as a massive white bear plowed into the enraged wolves.
Three more white bears joined the fray, and together they began to tear the
vile beasts apart. One of the bears ripped the head off of a black wolf with a
single swipe of his massive paw. The bears were so much larger than the
gigantic wolves that it was impossible to really tell just how big they were.
Within a few moments, the wolves lay dead and in several pieces. The four white
bears turned their attention to the men standing within the shadows of the
trees. They did not move toward them; they just stared at them.

The
captain did not hesitate to make his intentions clear and immediately dropped
into a one-knee bow. The other two soldiers did the same thing a split second
later. They all looked up tentatively at the majestic bears to show their
respect for their power and prowess. The one white bear that appeared to be
much larger than the others bowed his head toward the men and then began to
walk away. They were out of the clearing and heading east within a few long
strides. The men collapsed completely at this point. They were so overcome with
the intensity of the events that they did not move for several minutes. They
all just lied there on their backs looking up through the canopy of trees to
the clear blue sky above. They did not say one word to each other while they
were on their backs for several long moments.

“Captain,
what was that all about?” asked one of the soldiers quietly.

“I
believe that we just discovered that the gigantic white bears have entered this
battle on our side. And it is a good thing too because those foul wolves had tipped
things in favor of the axis powers.”

“So,
what do we do now?” asked the other soldier as he sat up.

As
the soldier who had just asked the question sat all the way up, a massive,
slimy maw came down over his head. With a sickening crunch, a massive black
wolf bit down to the upper torso of the poor soldier. Ulric’s mouth had blood
gushing out from its sides as he ripped into the unaware soldier. The giant
wolf tore the upper part of the man’s body at the chest away from the rest of
his body. For an instant, the other two soldiers of Aran laid completely still
on the ground in absolute shock. As the filthy beast shook his head side to
side, covering them with their friend’s blood, they stood up and took off
toward Tarisdell. The wolf did not give immediate chase because he was too
occupied with chewing on his food.

After
running the three miles from the meadow to the eastern outer wall in record
time, Ulric began to chase them. He covered the three miles in no time and was
on top of the two soldiers as they ran toward the elven barrier. They had to
stop before the barrier because neither one of them knew elven nor was Commander
Brugon on top of the wall to shout the pass phrase. Ulric took advantage of
this delay and pounced on the soldier who had escaped with the captain. Ulric’s
claws dug deep into the back of the defenseless soldier. In one swift movement,
he ripped the poor fellow in half. As he made this decisive motion, the captain
took out his blade and sunk it deep into the side of the beast. A howl of rage
shook the very ground he stood on and got everyone’s attention who was behind
the wall.

Commander
Brugon came running out the eastern gate to see one of his men ripped in two
while the other one, his captain, was trying to pry loose his blade that he had
successfully sunk into the side of the gigantic wolf. He quickly uttered the
elven words needed to open the barrier for his comrade. The captain quickly
slipped through the barrier, and then his commander uttered another elvish
command. The barrier shut quickly behind him. The captain did not remember a
command for shutting the barrier, but they had been in a hurry the last time
they came through. The shaken captain turned around after he was through and
swore a blood oath to avenge his fallen soldiers by hunting all of the black
wolves until they were no more.

You
are all going to die, little one. Why prolong the inevitable?
Ulric chided the captain in his mind.
The massive black wolf lunged tauntingly at the captain, who flinched
impulsively. Ulric gave a long, drawn-out, guttural laugh as he turned around
and ran back into the forest.

“Are
you all right, Captain?” asked his commander from behind.

“Yes,
I think so,” stuttered the captain as he shook all over with fright at what he
had just experienced.

“Come
inside the wall, son, and we will get you taken care of,” beckoned Commander
Brugon kindly. When the captain reached his side, he put his arm around the
sickly looking soldier.

“I
couldn’t stop them. There were dead bodies everywhere…blood…lots of it,”
muttered the captain inconsolably.

“It’s
all right, son. Come over here and have some warm soup,” said the commander
soothingly. He sat the captain down by a fire that had been built outside one
of the elven homes. The troops had been instructed to not touch any of the
elves’ possessions, and they were not allowed inside any of their buildings
except for one of the barracks. The commander had designated one to be used for
their lodging while they defended the city.

“They
were on us before we knew they were there; we were sick from the dead wolves’
stench…blood everywhere…” continued the captain, who had clearly succumbed to
the horrors he had witnessed.

“Here,
have some soup,” said one of the other soldiers as he handed him some beef stew
that they had had for lunch.

“Thanks,”
said the captain, trembling. He ate the food as though he had not eaten in
days.  He was still shaking from the stress of his prolonged ordeal.

“Captain,
do you feel up to telling us what happened back there?” queried the commander
calmly.

“Yes,
after I eat,” replied the shaken captain.

“Get
this man some chilled ale!” barked the commander to one of the soldiers
standing near the fire pit.

“Yes,
sir!” he replied as he rummaged through one of the containers where the food
was being stored. After removing a clean tankard, he filled it to the rim with
cool ale from one of the chilled barrels on the table farthest from the fire.
He handed it to the captain who took it gratefully and downed it in one go.

Wiping
off his mouth, he said, “That feels better.”  He quickly finished his soup and
had another drink of ale that had been handed to him.

“I
am glad to see that the color is returning to your face. It looked like you had
seen a ghost you were so pale,” offered one of his fellow soldiers with a
gentle pat on the back.

“The
horrors I have seen…you cannot imagine,” replied the captain calmly.

“Captain,
what did happen back there in the forest?” asked the commander a little more
sternly now that it was clear that his captain had regained his composure.

“Yes,
sorry about my fit commander; it won’t happen again,” replied the captain
ruefully. “I will get on with the story then.”

“Please,
tell us everything. We will hold our questions until the end.”

“Right.
We traveled about three miles into the forest heading directly east when we
encountered a small meadow that had the most putrid smell emanating from it. By
the time we reached the edge of the clearing, all three of us doubled over and
lost complete control of our stomachs.”

“You
three were…” started one of the soldiers. He caught the eye of the commander
and quickly shut up.

“As
I was saying, we were sick to our stomachs because there were dozens of dead
wolves of every color strewn about the meadow floor. They had been pulverized
and ripped to shreds like they were made of parchment. Something massive
appeared to have killed the gigantic wolves and did so with relative ease,” he
explained slowly. “While we were busy being sick, several of the massive wolves
came into the clearing. We did not hear their approach because of the noises we
were making. Once we did see them, they made a move to come at us. It was then
that we heard a series of pounding like someone was hitting the ground with a
large hammer. An unbelievably huge white bear came bursting into the meadow and
smashed right into the smaller wolves.”

“What? 
You cannot be serious. The giant bears are only a myth,” retorted one of the
soldiers in utter disbelief.

“Shut
it!” ordered the commander briskly. “If the captain says that a huge white bear
appeared, then a huge white bear did appear.”

“Thank
you, sir. After the first white bear killed two of the wolves with a single
blow from his gigantic paw, three more white bears joined the fray. Within a
few moments, all of the wolves, which varied in their color and all of them
were covered with blood prior to this attack, were dead. Then the bears turned
and looked at us. So, we bowed to one knee to show them that we were grateful
for their help and that we were humbled by their presence. The biggest white
bear looked us straight in the eyes and nodded slightly. Then they took off in
an eastward direction back into the forest.”