Chapter XXIII
„If there is something you fear more than Death..."
„What is that 'Guardian of the Silivren Forest' anyway?" I shouted through the hum of wind in my ears when we crossed the border of the valley above the low cliffs. The west wind already tore the clouds apart into herds of adorable cloudlets.
"I think it's some creature that watches over the order and balance of the forest," Eugeo answered, shielding his eyes from the sun as he looked south. "I think it's part of the reason why animals don't attack humans in there... it also protects the inhabitants from anyone who intends to harm them, I briefly told you about it the day we first arrived..."
"Yeah, I remember..."
"And I fear that, if something's really happened to this being, whatever it might be, the forest might fall into chaos."
"But what can we do if we don't even know what it is and where to search for it?"
"I don't know," Eugeo looked ahead again, to the dark line of trees that was starting to get visible. Somewhere between it and us shimmered the crimson scales of Asuna's wings. She was astonishingly far by now. "But I'm sure the druids will be able to point us the right way somehow."
The conversation died out as we concentrated on getting to the forest as quickly as possible. Despite our best efforts though, the sun was already lowering to the far west when we arrived at the other side of the valley, almost completely exhausted. We lost sight of Asuna quite long ago by then. We ascended a bit more to have a better view and make the search for the druid camp easier.
"Did you notice something?" I asked at some point, watching the expanse of enormous, silvery-green trees with worry.
"What?"
"Before, the forest seemed to emit a kind of warmth, a friendly aura..." my hand wandered to my belt almost on its own, reaching to the dagger that I took with me before we left, "and now describing it as the opposite would be sort of an understatement..."
He squinted a bit. "Well, you're right, but as I said..." his voice broke mid-sentence, when he suddenly beat his wings a lot harder one time, and a split second later an arrow barely missed his left side and vanished from our sight with a menacing whizz. We both leaped to opposite sides as more projectiles darted our way.
"Are they crazy?!" Eugeo clenched a hand around his sirath underneath his shirt, completely pale.
"I don't think they recognized us..."
"You think we can be mistook for anything else from any distance or height?"
I winced, let myself fall a bit to the more dense part of the tree tops and carefully approached the opening above the clearing. "Stop that, it's us, Kirito and Eugeo!" I shouted when another arrow missed my wing by mere millimeters.
Agitated voices came from below and the assault stopped. We finally landed in the middle of the camp... which unfortunately didn't really look like a camp anymore. Some of the hovels were destroyed beyond repair, the clearing barricaded by a wreath of thick branches and trunks of fallen trees. The duskiness of the approaching evening was still dispersing in the last sun rays, but underneath the trees it was already deepening, gaining essence. The druids were armed with bows and daggers.
Archdruid Arakiel stepped forward from between them. "Please forgive us," he apologized hastily, "we didn't expect multiple winged creatures to come..."
"We're alright, so let's forget that," Eugeo interrupted him, clearly not wanting to waste time. "What is going on here?"
"Something has happened to the Guardian of the Forest, it seems he lost control... the animals went berserk, started attacking..."
"And where is Asuna?" I kept looking around.
The archdruid rose his head a little, as if he was expecting her to come all the time until now, then lowered his gaze to us again. "Wait... she did not come with you?"
"You mean she hasn't even shown up here?" I felt a slight panic creep up in my chest. "She left not even half an hour before us, we saw her above the forest not so long ago..."
"She didn't explain much to us... actually she forbade us to follow. Do you have any idea where she might be right now?"
The archdruid gave it a brief thought. "Well, I wrote her that something happened to the Guardian, so maybe she didn't want to waste time and flew straight to the waterfall..."
"Waterfall?"
"Yes, The Guardian's Waterfall is the place, from which Asuna always enters the Guardian's habitat. Noone but her managed to enter it until now, and she always said that sometimes it's impossible even for her."
"Why?"
The elder seemed to hesitate. "I shouldn't tell you about this... but this is an emergency and Asuna could desperately need help..." he sighed shortly, making a decision. "Very well. You need to go up the stream until you arrive at a low cliff with the waterfall. Above it lies a part of the forest elevated above the rest. I'm not really able to tell you much more, only Asuna knows exactly what needs to be done to cross the border."
"Well, that will have to be enough. Thank you and please be careful."
"You too."
We gave him a brief bow, jumped over the barricade around the clearing and set off up the stream, following the path discreetly marked among the greenery.
The moisture of recent rain evaporated from the leaves, filling the forest with a delicate mist. It deepened the shadows underneath the trees, even though clear sky could be seen above their crowns. It also deepened the anxiety in my heart as we walked in silence, listening to the barely perceptible murmurs scurrying through the shrubs on both sides off the brook. Sometimes they seemed to come from between the branches above our heads, sometimes even from within the trunks... I kept my hand on the hilt of the dagger that Liz made for me, but it somehow didn't put my mind at ease. As if I subconsciously knew, that a simple dagger would be no defense against anything that could be waiting for us here.
After what felt like a quarter we saw a tree on the opposite bank, broken and reaching towards our path with its crown. It wasn't withered though, the leaves still green above the water's surface, the stream flowing underneath it like under a natural gateway. Beyond that gate we noticed a clearing revealing itself further upstream. A dark cliff loomed between the trees, and a more intense rush of water reached our ears.
We left the shadow of the trees and approached the mid-sized waterfall, whose waters first fell onto a small, black-stone ledge, and then further into a small pond grooved by the force of the element. It seemed to me like each of the droplets either causing disturbance in the reservoir below, falling onto the surrounding stone or onto the moss covering it in some places, caused a different sound... I came to a stop right by the water curtain and looked up. There were not more than five meters separating us from the top of the cliff, but there was something else that almost immediately caught my attention. On the surface of one of the dark stones, only occasionally touched by the crystalline water, there was an inscription that at first resembled a fine netting of cracks and scratches...
"'Only if you are in need, only if you came to rescue heedless of your own life, only if you mean to do good, will the Flaming Protectors let you pass to my domain...'"
"Sorry?" Eugeo glanced at me, clearly confused as to why I was being poetic at such a ridiculous time.
"There's an inscription here."
He came closer and examined the letters with a gentle frown. "That doesn't really help... Flaming Protectors?" he craned his neck the way I did before. "Maybe we should check what's above us..."
I nodded and we leaped into the air. When we passed the level of the cliff's top, a peculiar but beautiful sight spread before us. The edge was thickly overgrown by some low plants, from which an occasional big flower in the color of fiery orange peeked out here and there. The thick layer reached a few meters deep into the forest behind the edge of the scarp. Some of the flowers leaned their calyxes out above the water cascades, as if looking for intruders. And from the lush green above our heads hung countless flimsy sprouts of something that resembled ivy and swung delicately, like in the rhythm of a breath... It somehow seemed weird to me, that this many flowers were able to grow and bloom so beautifully in this particular place. The growth should be limited, because the forest bed seemed to rarely see much sun, due to it being absorbed by the dense leaves above...
"You think these are the 'Protectors'?" I asked.
"I don't know. But I feel like I've seen such flowers somewhere before..." Eugeo lowered himself a bit to come closer to the cliff's edge. He extended his hand to one of the plants... and suddenly jumped away in what seemed to be panic. A split second later a large cloud of bright pollen shot out of the calyx, and, as if sensing their neighbor's reaction, the flowers surrounding it reacted the same way. The ivy above seemed to have received this impulse as well, as it started to move more noticeably, unnaturally, as if ready to catch anyone who dared to try flying above, beyond the reach of the Protectors. For some reason the sight made my skin crawl unpleasantly. Eugeo was saved only by the fact, that the sudden, strong beat of his wings caused a quite massive movement of air, sending the thick cloudlets in the opposite direction.
"That was the second time my sirath saved me today..." he said, rejoining me on my level.
"What? Why, these are just plants, and that there is just some pollen."
"Kirito, this is the Silivren forest, in here even the plants can have a killing intent, if you give them a reason... these particular ones are called narae, inhaling that would completely paralyze your lungs and make you suffocate within a few minutes... Supposedly some druids call it firedust and are able to collect it for healing purposes..."
I shoved the question about where he knows that from and the repulsion at the idea of dying in such a dreadful manner away for a moment to rise my eyebrows and ask: "Then how in the world did Asuna get in there?"
"How should I know? You can say that something is impossible, and she will do it anyway, you know that..."
Despite the seriousness of the situation, I wasn't able to hold back a little smile. We landed back at the base of the waterfall and started to carefully inspect the steep walls of stone and their surroundings. Unfortunately, we didn't find any additional clues nor unnatural ledges or cavities suggesting, that there might be another way up.
I flicked my wings in growing irritation. Some little spark of understanding was glowing somewhere deep in my subconsciousness, but I wasn't able to catch it and fan it into a proper flame.
"This inscription..." I muttered, more to myself than to anyone in particular, "doesn't it sound like the 'Protectors' are supposed to be harmless if we meet certain conditions? Like we are supposed to let ourselves get attacked, to prove that... geez, what am I even saying..." I stopped short, my breath halting too. Suddenly that spark glowed brighter with the touch of a premonition. I looked at Eugeo, some strange shiver coming up my spine.
He caught what I was thinking about almost immediately. "No..." he whined. "It can't mean that!"
"But that's the only thing that makes sense."
"Even if it means risking your life?"
"Eugeo, avoiding danger despite seeing a chance of success is not cautiousness... it's cowardice."
"It's not when there are two lives at stake, from which the third life could depend on!"
"Exactly, someone's life could depend on us, that's why I will not waste my time to hesitate, all the more because it's Asuna's life we're talking about."
"You're crazy..."
"Unlike you or what?"
Eugeo sighed heavily, like someone who's run out of arguments. "Fine..." he capitulated. "But I will try it first."
"No. If we do that, we will show that we are afraid, that the life of one of us is more important than Asuna's."
He gave me a resigned look and ascended again. I followed. "It will work, you'll see," I tried to assure him with a confidence that I wasn't really feeling.
"If not... I won't give you a moment's peace on the other side, keep that in mind."
I smiled bitterly and looked at the expanse of deadly flowers before us. I was getting chills just thinking about what we were about to do, but I didn't want to back away now. I gave Eugeo one last glance and he nodded, more confidently now.
I took one last, deep breath and dashed towards the cliff's edge. Eugeo did the same. The moment we passed the first plants, their flowers shot cloudlets of fiery pollen at us again. I tried to fight the urge to hold my breath and immediately felt a horrifying weakness come over me, as if first the muscles in my chest, and then all others one after the other, suddenly slacked and refused to obey me any further. And when the wind caught my wings, instead of it working the other way around, which seemed totally wrong, my mind was flooded with darkness and a moment later I didn't feel anything anymore...
„Impossible is only
what didn't come to life in your mind yet..."