The Guardian (Coranite Chronicles) (27 page)

“But I need to use my powers for this,” said Darek. “We need to eat and drink.”

If you continue to use your powers in this manner, you will surely die.

“Look at us, we’re weak and on the verge of death. If we don’t get that little bit of sustenance, we’ll die anyway. Isn’t there something you can do?”

Darek heard Chrovel mentally sigh.

There is one thing.

“What is it?”

I can go into a deep sleep.

“How will that help?”

The transfer of spiritual energy is based on our wills. Because our wills are not unified, our spiritual pools of energy cannot be readily shared. However, if I go into a deep sleep, I will no longer be in control of my spiritual energy. Then it is no longer a matter of sharing, but of taking. You will be free to take from my strength.

“I’m assuming this is more of a last resort,” said Darek. “Because you don’t sound too happy about it.”

When I go into the deep sleep, I cannot be simply awakened. You will not hear from me for a long time. And worse, I will not be able to protect you. You will still have access to my power. But without my ability to channel it, the powers will pale in comparison to when I am awake. Nor will I be able to communicate with Guardians you may encounter in this realm.

“That could be a problem,” said Darek.

But your survival is an immediate problem that must be resolved.

“Do what you think is best, Chrovel. I trust you will make a good decision.”

I will not waste time. I shall go to sleep.

“Rest well, Guardian,” said Darek.

And so Chrovel fell silent, and Darek didn’t hear a word after that. But when Chrovel had gone to sleep, Darek felt revitalized. His body still felt weak, but he was more energetic than before. And because of the energy, they were able to continue with their journey. But Darek knew this would not be a lasting solution.

A few more days later, Slade stopped and stared. Darek wondered what he was doing.

“Would you take a look at that?” asked Slade.

Darek looked at the hill they were standing on. It was a wide and short hill full of many large holes.

Slade said, “Are you thinking what I'm thinking?”

“There are lots of holes?”

“Yeah.” Slade grinned. “What say we go exploring?”

“Where?”

Slade hit his foot against the ground. “Where do you think? Below, of course.”

Darek raised a brow. “Let me get this straight. You want to go exploring in these holes?”

Slade nodded. “They look deep enough, don't they? And wide enough.”

“But we don't know what's in there.”

“Obviously. That's why we have to explore.”

Darek looked nervous. “Explore some deep, dark, mysterious hole?”

“Darek, we haven't eaten anything in a while.”

“And what makes you think we'll find food down there? What if we find a giant snake, parasitic worms, or even angry man-eating gophers? Instead of finding something to eat, we may find ourselves eaten.”

Slade twirled around with his arms open. “Look, we've been wandering this land for a while now and what have we found?”

Darek stared at him, not wanting to reply.

“What have we found?” Slade asked again, his arms held up high.

Darek lowered his head. “Nothing.”

Slade pointed to him. “Nothing! I refuse to believe this whole place is empty. There must be something here. And if it's not on the surface and not in the sky...” He broke off and gestured to Darek, expecting Darek to finish the sentence.

Darek said reluctantly, “Then
maybe
there's something in the ground. But that's still a big maybe. A really big, humongous, fat, oily maybe.”

“Hey,” said Slade, smirking. “You’re the one who wanted to take risks.”

“That was different.” Darek crouched by one of the holes. “Don't you see how small it is? We'll fit, but barely. If something comes up to bite our heads off, we won't be able to escape.”

Slade hunkered down next to Darek. “We can't just munch on brittle grass or ‘drink’ chewy water for the rest of our lives. We're not going to survive like this. If this goes on, we're going to die. We have to do something.”

Darek exhaled loudly. “I know we have to do something. But sticking ourselves down a deep dark hole and hoping it's safe? That's not what I had in mind.”

“Well, I'm desperate enough to go down alone at this point.” Slade crossed his arms. “So the real question is: are you coming?”

Darek groaned, “Okay, all right. I’ll come along. But before we go down, give me one good reason why we should do this. I just want one good reason. That will make me feel better about it at least.”

Slade's face was split by a wide grin.

“I have a hunch there's something tasty down there.”

Darek's jaw dropped. “A hunch?” Darek smacked himself on the forehead. “A hunch? That's it? That's all you've got? A HUNCH? A HUNCH TO RISK OUR LIVES?”

“Sometimes...that's all you need.”

From the moment they had begun the exploration of the dark tunnels, it was extremely dark. And extremely long as well. Hours later, the two of them were still crawling deeper and deeper into the underground of the spirit realm. It was a tight fit, as Darek had guessed. Tight enough that they couldn't just fall down. Even by keeping his arms close together, he was barely squeezing through. They had to painstakingly crawl, inch by inch.

Darek was in front leading the way. Slade followed closely behind. Since it was dark, they had to, yet again, rely on Darek's power of flame to keep their path lit with a fiery dagger. Not that it mattered much. There was nothing to see. Nothing blocked their way, except for a few rocks and pebbles. It was just a really small and long tunnel.

Darek grunted as he struggled to keep going. “There's no end to this.”

“There has to be,” said Slade, dragging himself along.

“But what if it's like Lacuna? The spirit realm isn't a planet. Way below might just be a whole lot of nothing.”

“Just keep going,” said Slade. “We'll find something. I just know it.”

They crawled for hours—or at least it felt like hours. Exhausted, Darek gathered up all his strength in order to keep at it.

“Wanna sing a song?” asked Darek, pushing away a small rock in his path.

“Now?” Slade proceeded carefully so he wouldn't get kicked in the face by Darek.

“What better time?” Trying to sound cheerful, Darek said, “How about it? Hm? Wanna sing 99 Bottles of Beer?”

Slade grunted, “No, I do not want to sing 99 Bottles of Beer.”

“What about Old MacDonald? Or Bingo Was His Name-O?”

“I don't want to sing—at all,” Slade snapped.

“Then what do you want to do?”

“Nothing. I want to get to the bottom of this hole.”

Darek moaned, “We've been doing nothing the entire time! I'm going to go crazy if we don't do something!”

Slade sighed. “Let's just talk then.”

“Okay,” Darek agreed. “Let's talk.”

They crawled on their bellies in silence for a few minutes.

Slade cleared his throat. “I thought you said you wanted to talk.”

“I did,” said Darek. “But all I feel like saying right now is how angry, hungry, thirsty and tired I am. And I don't want to say that.”

Slade chuckled. They both fell silent again. Darek grunted when he managed to scrape his knee across a rock.

“I really don't understand this place at all,” Darek said quickly. “It feels like it’s getting harder to breathe—but are we even breathing to begin with? Is there even air here?”

“I don't know but...what are your plans for the future?”

Darek paused. “That was…sudden. What's this all about?”

“You said you wanted to talk. And I figure it's better to keep things optimistic. So
when
we get out of this place, what are your plans? What do you want to do?”

Darek took a deep breath. “That's a tough one. Never really thought about it. For the past three years, I didn't really have any goals or dreams to speak of. I was just living...as if living was enough.”

“How about giving it some thought now? You never know. We might just find a way home by accident. This could be our rabbit's hole to a fairy tale land.”

Brushing the dirt of out his eyes, Darek said, “I really don't know. While I was working as a delivery boy, I thought...that was it. I didn't have a dream. Then...when I finally found you guys and got my powers back, I realized that this was my dream. I wanted to be a Judge. You take that away from me, and there's nothing else.”

“You can always find a new dream,” said Slade.

“It's not that easy,” said Darek, “to simply find a new purpose in life.” Darek paused. “So what about you? I've told you mine...sort of.”

Smiling to himself, Slade said, “I want a simple life.”

“You want to be an assassin? Or a mercenary?”

Slade laughed. “No, no. Like a farmer.”

Darek snickered. “Color me surprised.”

Slade continued, “I can't believe I'm telling you this but I never wanted to be a Judge.”

“
What?
” Darek turned to look back, but it was really hard to see him in such a narrow space. He wanted to see what kind of expression Slade had on his face. “Wait. You're serious? Tell me you're not serious.”

“I'm serious.”

“You've got to be kidding. You were always so good at it!”

“So what? I went along with it because I knew I didn't have a choice. I was kind of envious of you when you didn't have to be a Judge. I wished we could have traded places—”

“Oh...oh…” Darek gasped.

“It's not that big of a deal, is it?”

Darek shined his light forth. “No, not that. I think there's something down here.”

“Like what? A living thing?”

“No, there’s like an open space down here. Some place I can fit into.”

Darek climbed down and landed on the ground. Slade jumped down as well. They were now in a small, cramped chamber. It was big enough for the two of them to sit inside, but it was still too small for them to stand.

“Well this is a welcome surprise,” said Darek, gazing around. “It's like a cozy little den.” Stretching his legs out a bit, Darek leaned back against the dirt, his hands interlocked behind his head.

“And that's not all,” said Slade, his voice filled with excitement. “Look!” He ran his fingers along the wall, pressing them lightly against the thin visible lines. Roots. There were roots along the wall. But the roots themselves weren't that impressive. There was something else—something growing on the roots.

“What do think it is?” asked Darek.

“It looks like a giant green bean...the size of a mango,” said Slade.

“Yeah, it does look like a bean.”

Slade grinned at Darek. “Are you thinking what I'm thinking?”

Darek said quickly, “We should plant the giant bean so it'll grow into a giant beanstalk and then we can climb up and find a world full of giant, yummy, tasty food—”

“No,” Slade cut him off. He plucked a giant bean off the root. “This...could be the food we're looking for.”

Darek grimaced. “Beans?”

“What's wrong with beans?”

“Never liked them.”

“But you haven't even tried it yet.”

Darek crossed his arms, looking skeptical. “Beans are beans.”

Slade's eyebrows shot up. “Even giant beans from the spirit realm that grow deep underground? For all we know this isn't even a bean.” Slade held the bean in his hand. “What if it's a fruit? It kind of looks like a mango.”

“It's not a bean that looks like a mango. It's a bean the size of a mango.”

“Oh, for crying out loud,” said Slade. “Just give it a try.”

Darek narrowed his eyes. “You first.”

“I thought you were hungry.”

“So were you...”

Slade said, “Okay, I can see we're not going to get very far like this. Let's let the coin decide. I'm heads, as always.”

“We're leaving every decision up to luck?”

“Luck or destiny?” Slade flipped the coin. It landed on heads.

“Must be destiny,” said Darek, smirking.

Slade growled, “Fine, I'll go first.” Staring uneasily at the giant bean, he gulped. He kept staring at the bean but didn't move a muscle.

When Darek saw that Slade was not moving, he said, “Chickening out?”

“Of course not!” Slade turned and poked him in the chest with a finger. “And don't
ever
mention anything delicious while we're still in this place. Got it?”

“I didn't say anything...” Darek paused. “Oh—chicken?”

Slade glared at him.

“Right, right,” said Darek, backing up. “Now will you get on with it already? That bean isn't going to eat itself.”