11

Guardians

The boy fought desperately to get out from the pile of angry creatures, and became more frightened. He kept screaming at the things to get off of him, but if they heard, he did not think that they understood.

He cried out again as another of the creatures bit him, then heard a shrill shriek as someone missed with a claw or a tooth and got one of their fellows. Those two started fighting, and soon Saber felt the mass of little creatures lessen as they joined in the fray. Soon he was able to crawl through the mud away from them, then stagger to his feet to a safe distance.

Bleeding from a dozen different places, the nearly hysterical child got a good distance away and climbed up a tall tree to find a nook where he could safely rest. He almost was not able to make it that far, but when he did, he collapsed in the large nook, panting, tears streaming from his eyes.

Even as he climbed, the albino creatures fought viscously, many yelling, "KILL! KILL!" in a hoarse, high-pitched voice. Saber watched this with a disgusted fascination at the viscious beings, and he shuddered as he looked at the mothers holding the young. They stayed away from the fight, but the expression on their semi-sentient faces was one of rage. They were angry they could not join the fight because of their little ones.

Angry they could not hurt.

This went on for only a few seconds when one of the things, one of the bigger ones, turned slowly around, realizing their intended target was no longer there. His pitiless eyes met Saber's, and he swallowed hard. Soon the lone creature ran over to his tree, followed by most of the others, and jumped up, trying to reach the Erthrin boy. But Saber had climbed high, and the first branch was out of their reach. Saber had been able to jump, but these beings' legs were far too weak. He clutched one of the branches, not sure at the moment he would be able to climb any higher.

However, he did not have to. After a while, the sheep creatures realized they could not get to their target, and ran away in their pack to continue their aimless, murdering way.

Saber's eyes wandered back to the one that had been attacked. He lay still, and even from there, the boy could see he was not breathing. He turned his gaze away. his duffel was thrown off to one side, thankfully still tied shut. They had not been able to open it, and had not spent a lot of time trying. They had been too busy with their crazed attack.

It was a while before Saber felt safe enough to climb down from his refuge. He thought the attackers not quite sentient enough to figure out that he had to come down sometime or starve to death, but still he wanted to make sure. He landed, then fell to the ground dizzily, holding his arm, which had been laid open by one of the creatures' teeth. With eyes that did not seem to want to focus, the boy hunted for the dagger, finding it finally in a rain-made streamlet of water a few inches deep. He stumbled over to his pack and put it back in, and tried to lift it...but suddenly it was too heavy to hold, and he fell once more.

Saber did not know what was happening to him, but he was badly frightened, and tried once more to stagger away with the pack. He made it a few dozen yards, dragging his duffel behind him before collapsing for the last time, and this time he could not get up. His head, now too heavy for him to hold up, fell into the soggy grass, and he blacked out, thinking before he lost consciousness that if those creatures came back and were still mad, Saber would join their dead packmate.

------

When Saber awoke, the first thing he noticed was that it was raining still. The second thing he noticed was that he hurt a lot, and stifled a whimper of pain...then he figured, who was there to see? and he whimpered aloud.

When one was in pain whimpering sometimes made it hurt just a little less.

Saber opened his eyes slowly and saw that he was still lying on the ground, but the ground was only slightly damp, not saturated as it should have been since it was still raining. He looked down at his arm, which throbbed fiercely and saw that it had been bandaged. He frowned, puzzled. The leaves that had bandaged it, as soon as he moved, seemed to give off some kind of resin that made the bite wound numb a little. "What happened?" he said to himself. He looked up, and saw that he was in a leafy shelter that looked like it had been there a while. It was big enough to live in, and there were beds and the like made from the materials of the forest and cloth that looked old but clean and sturdy. There were no rips in it, unlike his own clothing.

"Oh, you're awake, little one." said a gentle voice.

With a startled yelp, Saber spun around on his backside to see who had spoken, jarring every open injury on his body. When his eyes focussed, they widened, and he started to shake He saw a thin pale female, with a star shape on her forehead, a long braid, robes, a staff., and his mind immediately flashed on the Gathering Day. He let out a fearful outcry and scrambled backwards. "G-get away from me!" he cried. "G-get away, I didn't do anything, don't freeze me!"

The female did not approach the frightened, youth, but got on her knees to bring herself more to his level as he half sat, half lay on the leaves. "Easy, little one," she said in that same soft voice. "We mean you no harm. I think you mistake us for something else."

As his fear abated a little bit, he could see this was not a demon from the rocky regions beyond the Northern Boarder, but she looked similar, No horns, but the birthmark on her forehead. However she was smaller, not much taller than he, and had a kind look about her. "I-I'm sorry...I thought...I thought you were a demon."

She smiled. "It's all right, young one," she said, as he sat up. She slowly reached out a hand to help him, and he recoiled a little bit, but then let her. "People think that at first of me and my life-mate. We have lived for centuries, but have never harmed another creature."

"C-centuries? But...but no one can live that long! Are...are you..." but the boy could think of nothing other than a demon that could live that long. And it was clear she was not a demon.

"In this planet's first cycle, we were given eternal life by the great sorcerers of the world. We were given the task of looking out for the unicorns, because many evil men hunted them. As people became increasingly afraid of magic, we had to hide them, but now we have no need."

Saber gazed at her as she told this short tale, transfixed by it. She was as good a storyteller as Nenda! "What...what are unicorns?" he asked.

She smiled. "I will show you one. One of the others has just given birth, would you like to see them?"

The boy nodded slowly.

The woman smiled and made a strange call into the woods. A moment later, a pure white creature walked in, startling Saber a little bit. Then the baby stumbled in, still unsteady on his legs. "Don't be frightened. They are gentle creatures. They won't harm you."

The mother, sensing the boy's alarm, walked slowly up to him and sniffed him a bit. Saber laughed a little and looked to the baby as he stumbled over and did the same, but she fell in his lap. Saber cried out a bit as it hurt his wounds, but the baby was little, and made a strange sound of startlement. Saber quickly got over his surprised hurt and reached out a hand to touch him. "Is it all right to touch him?" he asked.

"Of course."

He stroked the beautiful little creature's mane, and her fur, and touched carefully the budding horn on its head. "It's okay," he said to the colt, as it made another surprised sound. He got clumsily to his hooves again and sniffed the boy out.

After a moment, Saber grinned at the unicorn keeper. "They're beautiful...they look like horses kind of...but the mama had two horns twisted together!"

"Aye, they have changed a little over the centuries. they only had one at the beginning of their existence. So, young traveler, what happened to you? My life-mate found you a mile or so away from here, unconscious. You were attacked by something in the forest?"

Saber bit his lip and shuddered, thinking of the encounter. He described to her the creatures, and what they had done, how they'd acted. "They kept screaming 'Kill Kill!'...it was...it wasn't...fun," he said. And that was an understatement.

She nodded sadly. "The Bolkins," she said, shaking her head. "They used to be a decent race of people, and good friends of ours." Her mate had come up silently behind her as she spoke, and smiled at the boy He smiled uncertainly back. "Until the Great Cataclysm. That's what they are calling it this time."

"What...what was it?" the boy asked.

"A great poisoning of the air. It was an ancient weapon from a distant planet, that drifted through space to land here. A gas weapon. It changed the atmosphere, the air, so that it harmed life here." Saber was completely fascinated at this story. he had often wondered what made this to be called Fourth Earth. "This...it happened two times before, didn't it?"

Both looked surprised. "You are a smart boy," the male said, in a voice as kind and gentle as his mate. He sat down in the grass. "In different ways, yes. At first it was the humans," he smiled. "your ancestors, that caused it. The next, a comet." Seeing the boy's puzzled look, he explained what a comet looked like.

Saber stared, fascinated. "I'd love to see a comet!" he exclaimed.

The woman spoke again. "I have not seen one of your people for so long, not since the last cycle of this earth. We only heard here and there of your existance. You look a little different."

Saber was looking at her with dawning realization. "That's why we look different, isn't it? Erthrins started being born with different outsides because the air changed, right? So we could live! I think a lot didn't though."

"You're right," the female said sadly. "We have seen the destruction of many good people. And many bad people. The Bolkins were good people, but although the Great Cataclysm did not kill them, it changed their bodies. It hurt their minds, so now they are only partially sentient. They want only to kill." She had spoken in terms the young boy could understand.

Saber took this information sadly, but with interest, and vowed to rmemeber it. He had already gotten so many pages of his journal that his pack was heavy with them. "I wish I could help them."

"So do we, little one," the male said. "So do we. It cannot be done though, not even magic can reverse nature."

Saber nodded solemnly. He was silent for a few moments and then said, "Thanks for saving me."

The woman smiled. "You're welcome, young human. Come, you must be hungry."

Saber stayed with the Unicorn Guardians for a couple of weeks. They talked, and made friends, and he spent a lot of time with the beautiful creatures themselves. The keepers seemed as glad of his company as he was of theirs, and he was reluctant to leave. They were people to talk to, and he felt safe with them. He told them what he was doing this far west, and what his village was like, and about his family. They told tales of days past, and of the first cycles of earth. Saber was amazed at the stories of great metal towers and flying carts, and ships that flew through space like a falling star.

But finally, as his wounds had healed enough, he said he had to go. The unicorn keepers bid him a fond goodbye, and set the boy off with enough supplies for a week. His duffel was full, but he was able to carry it well enough.

"When you return, please come here again. We would like to have your company."

Saber smiled. "I will." He thanked his new friends again, meaning every word of it, and finally moved on, waving back to them as he left. He marked the place in his memory, and knew he could find it again, because he wanted to go there again and listen to their tales. He liked the gentle, ancient beings very much, and knew his people would too, when he got back to tell them.

Now he was off, headed once more for the magnificent giant creature he had seen. He caught sight of it easily, and started off once more.

One of the Bolkins that Saber fought
Bolkin

Part 12: New Realizations

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