Chapter Four: Enter the Light Warriors

The five of them were sitting just outside the throne room waiting to be seen by the king. Thol was impatiently tapping his staff against the wall as he sat. The others had said nothing about his sudden mood swings and he was glad for it. He looked over across the room to where Melira sat, quietly talking to Goro. He didn't know why, but seeing her talking to him made him uncomfortable.

He had no further time to dwell on the subject, however, as the great set of double door that lead to the throne room suddenly opened. A rather frail looking guard announced that the king would now see them.

"It's about time," Thol said. He got up and entered the throne room ahead of the others. It was agreed before they had left the clinic that Thol and Goro would do most of the talking. Thol noticed that there was another person already in the throne room. He was tall, dressed in red clothing from head to toe, including a large red hat with a white feather in it. Also white was his rather lengthy hair.

"Welcome," the king said as they entered. "I have been told that you have come to my kingdom to rescue my daughter from that villain, Garland."

"That is indeed why we have come, your majesty," Thol said, bowing in his own manner.

"Excellent. You'd be surprised at the lack of people who are willing to come forward and aid the crown."

"It's the stories that they have heard about Garland, my lord," Goro said. "No one is confident enough of their skills to want to face him. Only a band of foolish trouble makers have seriously considered it I'm afraid."

"I see," said the king. "You must be the ones I was told would come then."

"Your majesty?" Thol asked, not understanding what he was talking about.

"Lukahn's prophecy," the man in red said, speaking for the first time. "'Lo, when the earth crumbles and seas stagnate, when the fires grow cold and the air becomes still, then shall the Dark One appear and seize from the throne of the Great Coneria the heiress to the kingdom. Thus, it shall be a sign and the Light Warriors shall appear and cast light back into the darkness.'"

"Oh great. Another maniac spouting garbage about Light Warriors and prophecies," Thol said.

"I assure you, Silver One, the prophecy is true," said the man in red.

Thol eyes narrowed at his words. How does he know about that? "Why did you call me that?" ha asked, somewhat shaken.

"That is how the prophecy refers to you. I do not know what it means, but it will be revealed to us at one point in our journey."

"Our? What do you mean by that?" Keza asked.

"The prophecy says that the Light Warriors will number six. To be more specific, they are The Swordsman, The Silver One, The Savior, The Seeker, The Holy Warrior, and myself, The Beholder."

"Are you trying to tell me that we are these so-called Light Warriors?" Thol asked.

"That is exactly what I am telling you. I've researched the prophecy for many years and I can assure you that it hasn't been wrong once. The first signs were the corruption of the four light orbs that keep the world in balance. There have been other signs as well, but those were the important ones."

"I think you've got the wrong people here," Keza said, having as much trouble accepting this as the others. "I, for one, don't fit the descriptions of any of the six. I don't know about the rest of you though."

"No. He's right," Thol said.

"What?" half of them said at once.

"I said he's right," he repeated, his voice sounding weak. "The name he called me…" he said trailing off.

"What about it?" Melira said, sensing that there was some connection between it and the reason he wore a mask.

"No. Never mind," he said. Melira lowered her head in disappointment. "Who did you say created this prophecy?" he asked the man in red.

"Lukahn."

"Of Crescent Lake?"

"Yes."

"Right.  I too am from Crescent Lake and he used to talk to us in school when we were young. I've had the opportunity to talk with him in private on a few occasions. Everything he has ever said has come true. He even told me that I'd eventually meet Tor. That was seven years before I did. Lukahn described him perfectly."

"So you believe all this?" Keza asked, still not convinced.

"I believe him. Thol's never lied to me," Tor said, totally ignoring the fact that every last one of his jests were blatant lies.

Melira also believed him, though she really didn't know why. "I trust his words as well," she said.

Goro just silently walked over beside the other three, confirming his agreement as well.

"Ah Hell. Why not?" Keza said. "Let's do it. We'll probably pick up a lot of treasures along the way," he said.

"Good. My name is Valon," the man in red introduced himself.

"Thollatos," Thol said. He motioned behind him. "My partner Tor."

"I am Goro," the big man said, nodding his acquaintance.

"Melira."

"Keza," said the doubtful man.

"A thief," Thol added.

"Please. There is no need for name calling," Valon said, a small smile gracing his lips. "I know of Keza's occupation. There is quite a high reward for him in Elfland, but don't worry, I won't turn you in and when everything is finished, I'm sure the prince will pardon you."

"Well that's good to know," Keza replied.

"So what do you do?" Tor asked.

"I never really settled on one thing. I can use both white and black magic and I can use almost all types of weapons, though I prefer a short sword and I can't seem to grasp how the higher level magics work."

"A red mage?" Thol asked.

"Yes. Your background in Crescent Lake has made you an educated man. Not too many people outside of Elfland are aware of my unique title."

"Well I am the best mage ever to come out of there," Thol replied proudly.

The king had been rather silent while Valon was explaining the prophecy to them, but now that he was finished, he spoke up again. "Please Warriors, if you have no other needs, may I ask you to go bring back my daughter now? I am terribly worried about her."

"Of course, your majesty. We will leave immediately," Valon said.

"You have the blessing of the entire kingdom with you. Good luck," the king said.

The six Light Warriors bowed with different degrees of ability and exited the throne room. . . .

* * * *

Just outside Coneria . . .

"Well, here we go again," Thol commented.

"Yeah," Tor replied.

"What are you guys talking about?" Keza asked.

"Tor and I just went this way two days ago to go explore a cave."

"There's a cave out here?" Goro asked.

"Yes. It's just outside the forest over there," Thol said motioning to the forest that was even now in view.

"What did you find in there?" Keza asked.

"Just a couple of stupid ogres," Thol replied.

"Ah. Oh well," Keza said, the disappointment in his voice clear.

The walked along for a few minutes talking amongst themselves in little groups. Melira was watching Thol and wondering why he had reacted the way he did to the name Valon called him. Her curiosity got the best of her after a few more minutes and she found herself walking faster to catch up with him.

"Thol," she said as she came up beside him.

"Yeah, what is it?" he asked.

"Valon called you 'The Silver One'. Why did you react that way to it?"

"Never mind," he said.

"But…" she began.

"I told you, no. Why do you keep insisting on asking me things that I've told you not to ask about?" he asked, getting a little irritated.

"Because I want to help you!" she said, her voice going up a notch in volume.

"And I already told you once that you can't help me! Now stop asking me stupid questions!" he yelled. What am I doing? he thought just after he said it.

"Fine! If you want to be like that then you can suffer for the rest of your life for all I care!" she yelled back at him. She stormed off to the back of the group trying to put as much distance between them as possible.

Thol watched her go. He didn't understand her at all. "What exactly is her problem anyway?" he asked Tor.

"Thollatos my friend, sometimes you can be such a fool," Tor said and he continued walking toward the temple.

"What are you talking about?" Thol asked, even more confused.

Tor didn't answer him. He just kept walking. . . .

* * * *

They had been on the road for about an hour when a group of imps charged out of the forest making their strange screeching noises as they did.

The group jumped into battle readiness and met the imps head on. Thol was fighting off three of them himself and was getting annoyed with them. He began to chant a medium-level lightning spell that would send the surviving imps scurrying back to the forest.

Thol released his spell and stood back to watch the effects. To his surprise, the spell seemed to be about twice the power it should have been. He realized what happened then and looked at Valon. "Do you mind?" he asked in an annoyed voice.

"Sorry. Didn't know that you were casting as well," the man in red said.

"Whatever. It got the job done anyway. I think between the two of us we probably killed them all."

"That was . . . Amazing," Goro said.

"Not really. That was only a level three spell after all," Thol commented.

"Yes. The higher ones are the ones that are truly impressive," Valon said.

"So what level are your abilities up to?" Thol asked.

"Level four," Valon said.

"That's it? You're what, seven years older than me and that's as far as you got?"

"Well, what are you at?"

"Level five of course. If you can't even cast a level five spell then you're not going to be much help."

Melira was walking by at the time and she said "Well we can't all grow up in Crescent Lake and be pampered like you were."

Thol was going to yell something back at her but she had already gone by so he just let it drop. "I was not pampered I'll have you know," he said more to himself then to the others.

They walked on with little conversation after the battle. Keza spoke up suddenly with a rather insightful question.

"Where are we going to camp for the night?"

"What are you talking about?" Tor asked.

"Don't tell me you think we'll be able to make it all the way there in one day," Keza said.

"Hmm . . . He's got a point Tor. It took us a day, round trip, just to get to the cave and back and that's only about half way," Thol said.

"That and we have to go through the marsh. The footing there is terrible and it will slow us down considerably," Goro said.

"Do you think we'll be able to make it through the marsh before dark?" Thol asked.

"If we don't make any unnecessary stops, we'll just make it out in time," Goro replied.

"You seem to know this area fairly well," Valon commented.

"I grew up in the forest just south of the temple," he replied.

"Wasn't that dangerous?" Keza asked.

"Not really. I was always a rather large person."

Keza just shrugged.

"Yeah, well anyway, I think well camp just outside that forest for the night. We want to be fresh when we meet up with Garland after all," Thol said.

"Right," Tor added.

The walk to the marsh itself was rather uneventful, just the occasional skirmish with a pack of wolves or some imps. The first few minutes of their journey into it however, were a different story.

"This place stinks," Melira commented, her face wrinkling up in disgust.

"It the stagnant water," Goro said. "There's about 200 years worth of rotting vegetation and other things in here."

"Two hundred years, you say. Why two hundred?" Keza asked, looking like he was having a tough time keeping his last meal down.

"Before the orbs of earth and water were corrupted, there used to be a small lake here. Without the powers of the orbs however, the earth eroded away and the river that fed the lake dried up. Now all that's left is the marsh you see before you," Goro told them.

"You seem to know a lot. Where did you learn all this from?" Thol asked.

"My master taught me these things. He also taught me how to fight so that I could survive living around the temple."

"He sounds like a wise man," Tor commented.

"Indeed," Goro replied, sounding somewhat sad.

They were climbing over a rather large tree that was half rotten at the time. Melira lost her footing and would have fallen if Thol hadn't caught her.

"Don't touch me!" she snapped at him after she regained her footing.

"You're welcome," he said bitterly as she stalked away from him.

The remainder of the journey through the marsh was unpleasant to say the least. Keza inevitably lost the battle with his stomach along with his last meal. Thol couldn't really blame him. The smell would turn anything's stomach. He was lucky though. His mask filtered out most of the smell, but unfortunately not all of it.

Just as Goro had predicted, they got out of the marsh just as the sun began to set. They were all wet and uncomfortable, Tor most of all. He had fallen right through a rotten log and ended up getting soaked in marsh water. The others could only imagine what it felt like to have the slimy water sloshing around inside his armor.

They moved far enough away from the marsh so that they didn't have to smell it anymore and made camp, practically collapsing from the entire ordeal.

Thol noticed that Melira was trying her best to ignore him, usually moving as far away as she could.

"Don't worry. She's just frustrated with you. She'll get over it," Goro said to him.

"What are you talking about?" Thol asked.

The big man chuckled. "Your distress over how things are going between the two of you is evident, but I wouldn't worry about it too much.  As I said, she'll get over it and you no doubt become the best of friends afterwards."

"That's ridiculous! She's an annoying little brat and that's all," Thol said.

Goro chuckled again. "Whatever you say, Thol. She'll come around." The big man got up went to practice for the up coming battle then.

Meddling fool. You've no idea what you're talking about, he thought, not sure if he even believed those words.

Thol went to sleep that night wondering if he really was developing some sort of emotional attachment to her. . . .

* * * *