Part 3 - Prophecy and Separation

Chapter 11

"Can someone help us?" Caleb screamed.

"Please! We need medical care!" Tigo hollered after him.

They had been traveling all night, and it was nearing mid morning. As they had approached Evren, they had moved faster and faster. Xershies still hadn't woken up again, and they group was beginning to worry.

After a few minutes of yelling for help, a group of people had crowded around them. Tigo and Dega were lead to the nearby inn, and they carried Xershies into one of the small rooms off to the side. The crowd of people that had come to see what the commotion was about decided that the events were over, and left. Only a few people remained to see what the problem could possibly be.

Xershies had many cuts and bruises on himself that weren't healing correctly, even though his staff was there. This puzzled everyone, especially Tigo. Caleb walked outside to get some air, and noticed an elf walking his direction. As the elf approached, he looked Caleb over pretty well.

"Hello. Someone sent for me from Marengale. I am the doctor of that town," the tall elf said with a melodic sound in his voice. Caleb was astounded.

"How did you get here so fast?" Caleb asked the wood elf.

"You learn a few things in the forest," he simply said, before walking past Caleb and into the room Xershies was in. Caleb simply stood there, and laughed to himself.

When Caleb reentered the room, the elf had his hand slightly above Xershies chest. Tigo and Dega moved across the room to join Caleb, and to stay out of the elf's way. The elf's hands were moving slowly up and down the length of Xershies body, hovering slightly over the body. The elf was also chanting something in his own tongue that none of them understood, not even Caleb. A few minutes passed before anything happened.

A bright light began to come from the center of Xershies' chest, and the elf's hands focused over that spot. The group could see a small round white orb slowly rising from Xershies' chest. After a few more seconds, the ball grew slightly, before disappearing. The light was gone, and the elf had stopped his chanting.

"What was that thing?" Dega asked, concerned for Xershies.

"It was a spell. A spell put on this man to keep him from moving, or speaking," the tall elf explained, preparing to leave.

"But, he walked up to us, and spoke to us," Tigo replied with a dumbfounded look on his face.

"Really? Wow. I'm impressed. That spell was very powerful and I'm surprised he even lived through it. Let him rest for a little while, he'll regain consciousness in a little while." With that, the elf walked out of the inn, and made his way back to his home town. Tigo ran outside after him.

"Thank you!" Tigo shouted. Much to his surprise, the elf didn't turn around. He simply disappeared into thin air. Tigo was even more dumbfounded than before. He shook his head, and walked back into the room.

When he arrived, he found that Xershies was speaking, but not consciously. Only Tigo recognized the words the Xershies had spoken so long ago.

"The dark skies rain evil and remorse…" The same line, repeated again and again. This time however, another line was added.

"The hand of a hero will prove its worth, while the death of a friend will befall them," Xershies spoke quietly. After a few more minutes of repeating himself, Xershies' words fell into a pattern.

"The dark skies rain evil and remorse. The hand of a hero will prove its worth, while the death of a friend will befall them." Xershies words came. The words came faster that time, and with increasing volume. The other three weren't exactly sure what was going on, but they were a little frightened.

Slowly, the words began to disappear. When they had gone away completely, Xershies stirred. His eyes opened, and he glanced around at his friends.

"I had forgotten the pleasures of sleeping. I enjoyed that. How long have I slept?" he asked, groggily.

The others filled him in on what had happened since his collapse in the woods. They told him of YRon and of their journey through the mountains. They last told him of the strange words he had just been speaking.

"Ah yes, the prophecy. I had long forgotten it, but recent events have pushed parts of it into my mind. This prophecy has existed since before my time. It was found etched near the foundation of the religious beliefs of my time. While I didn't take part in the religion, I found the prophecy intriguing, My father used to tell me grand stories around it. I don't, however, remember It all. The first stanza is in my memory fully, but it only explains half. The second stanza is apparently pushing itself back into my memory."

Xershies moved to stand up out of his bed, but decided against it. Tigo came over to help.

"Xershies, what is the part of the prophecy you know?" Tigo asked, helping Xershies up. Caleb handed Xershies his staff, and helped him stand up.

"Well, the first stanza speaks of the defeat of the Darkness that occurred two millennia ago.

A hero from the Darkest parts shall freely walk the earth,

While others hide beneath his foot, he shall bring about light's birth.

For of his power he'll give one man, and leave to fight himself,

The Darkness shall again be beat, and light shall again be felt.

This prophecy speaks of two men, and a joint objective. One man, Drake, was the hero that could walk the earth without fear of the Darkness. I don't know how he was able to do it, but somehow he was. The people hiding under his foot were the rest of humanity, hiding within the mountains. The other man this spoke of was me. When I realized that fact after he left me, I was stunned. I didn't know why it would have spoken of me. I now know. It wasn't Drake's responsibility to destroy the Darkness. It was mine."

Xershies slowly made his way to the half-way ajar door, and closed it. He turned to face the rest of the group. They had expressions of doubt, and fear on their faces. Xershies continued his explanation.

"What you saw in that orb in Midry hadn't happened yet. Unfortunately enough for me, it happened shortly after we all actually saw the vision. The Rookie was meant to have touched the Glyphs, for in doing so, he released the Darkness. Or should I say one small fraction of the Darkness. I used an ancient spell that I probably shouldn't have to get to the Darkness quickly. I found myself fighting thousands of enemies. Tigo heard a little bit of this when I tried to contact him."

Tigo nodded slightly, and Xershies smiled a little bit.

"With a lot of luck, I managed to dispatch of that force. Something happened then that I didn't expect. I saw someone I knew. It was Drake. He spoke with me for a long time. He told me that we had a little more time than I thought. The Darkness was vanquished for a short time, but only a short time. He also gave me a few lines from the prophecy. I suppose that he wasn't real, and that it was all in my head. Here is what else I have of the prophecy.

Through one man's triumph will come many men's fear,

When the dark skies rain evil and remorse a group of nine will appear,

A hero's hand will prove its worth and a friend's death will befall them.

That is all I have. I know there is more, and I'm sure that I will remember someday soon. But until that day, we will just continued making our way to the Glyphs."

Xershies walked back over to his bed, and sat down. He was still a little weak from the effects of the spell, but was getting better.

"So, tell me about this Y'Ron character I saw before I blacked out," Xershies said, trying to lift the heavy mood of the room.

"He's a Dark Elf. He's really good at combat as well," Caleb broke in, surprisingly enough.

"Really?" Xershies said. "I think he's a Chosen One."

(crest)

Y'Ron glanced at the mist as it began to take shape. Small sparks of thunder still clashed from it as it took the shape of a tall female elf. Like Y'Ron, she too was a Dark Elf. She had long red hair, pulled back in a pony tail. Her eyes were a stone cold blue, and she wore a black robe. Even when the mist had faded, sparks still emanated from her.

"So, we meet again," Y'Ron said harshly, before spitting toward her feet.

The female elf did not reply, she simply continued with the stern look upon her face. Y'Ron noticed a small rupture in her robes around her abdomen. Apparently, Caleb's arrow had hit her there. YRon chuckled.

"Getting slow in your old age, huh?" He mocked her.

She proceeded to cover the spot with her left hand. A light shown shortly from behind it. When she removed her hand, Y'Ron saw that the wound had healed/

"I guess you're up to the challenge then, eh?" Y'Ron asked, jeeringly.

"And I see you are as well," the female elf finally replied. Her voice was very stern, like a military general. It was also very deep for a woman, almost like a tenor male. "Let's go…"

"Yes… let's…"

With that, Y'Ron charged.

(crest)

As the night feel darker, the group of men slowly leaking into their respective rooms. Only Dega was finding it hard to sleep. His mind continued wandering to Y'Ron, and whether or not he was even still alive. Dega made his way out the front door of the inn and walked toward the rail at the end of the porch. As he bent his elbows to the railing, his eyes shifted toward the heavens. The night was clear and starry.

Images flashed through Dega's mind of the mysterious cloud forming around Y'Ron as the others had drug Xershies' body off toward Evren. A few other images of the troubling day blew through his mind before he decided to go to the woods and work off some steam. He lent up from the railing and glanced toward Xershies' window once more before heading out into the woods.

As Dega made his way deeper into the woods, the light from the full moon was becoming dimmer and dimmer. Lightly stepping from one foot to the other, Dega silently made his way toward what looked like a clearing. The distance to the clearing was about fifteen meters and Xershies would see a lump of something sitting in the midst of it.

Dega broke the threshold of the clearing and recognized the lump in the clearing as the body of a dog. It was a fat dog, with rolls cascading down his cheeks. It whimpered quietly as Dega approached and stuck out its right front paw.

"Well how are you doing boy?"

In response to Dega's words, the dog simply barked. The round lump of fur didn't even hit at moving. Dega felt a strange sense of friendship coming from this rotund dog, and he took a seat next to it. As his left hand began scratching behind the dog's oversized ears, Dega's right hand was getting what little food he had left over from the day. The animal was more than happy to accept a free meal, and gobbled down the food from Dega's hand.

Dega, deciding that he rather liked the dog, got up from his feet and found a stick on the ground. He threw it into the woods and much to his surprise, the dog bounded into the woods after it. A few seconds later, the panting dog was back carrying the stick. Dega took it from the animal's mouth and began waving it in front of his nose, teasing him. The dog pounced onto his hand and ripped the stick from it, making Dega laugh.

"I guess all of these fast elves have had an impact on your speed as well."

The dog was waving his tail madly now, while slobbering all over the limb. It was attempting to get Dega to take it again. As Dega moved his hand in to take the twig again, the dog began growling.

"Whoa boy! I guess I won't take it."

Dega backed away slowly from the dog, whose growls were increasing in volume.

Suddenly, and arrow flew through the trees and nicked Dega in his shoulder. The same time that arrow had flown; the dog had snapped his attention toward the woods. Dega grabbed at his shoulder, which trickled a small about of blood. He couldn't see the dog anywhere.

He must have run off… Dega thought, attempting to ready himself for a battle. He quieted himself and attempted to listen for the footsteps of the assailant. To the right of him, he picked up two sets of pounding steps. To his right, a third and fourth. He waited, listening to the tell tale footsteps. The third and fourth sets of steps were running briskly toward the direction the arrow came. When they met, Dega heard a high pitched scream.

"Get off him you animal!" Dega heard shouted from the direction the arrow had come. Slightly lower, but still audible, was the sound of the dog Dega had been with, gnawing at whoever else was with him. Dega guessed that the step he had hear on his left were in fact the dog's rushing bounds.

"Help me brother!" This scream was higher pitched, of a young child; eight or nine years old. Dega rushed toward the growling dog, and found a man, wielding a bow, and a young child, being bitten by the dog. Dega instantly recognized both of them. The child was the young kid that Caleb had almost killed outside Evren the first time. The man was from deep within his past.

"Get off him!" Dega yelled from behind the two, and the dog instantly let go and ran back into the woods. The man with the bow turned and with a surprised expression, attempted to slice Dega with his sword. Acting in defense, Dega quickly met the sword with his scythe. Dega casts a speed increasing spell on himself, and is able to move much faster than the other man. The child had backed his way toward the base of one of the trees. He was clutching the deep wound madly.

The man lifted his sword again and charged. Dega had no intention of hurting him and simply fought in a defensive stance. He made no attacking moves.

The next attack from the man came much stronger and landed on Dega's scythe with much power. The two were locked together, until one made a move. The man's sword began glowing a deep blue. The move was made by Dega, which was simply releasing the two from their lock. The man yelled loudly and brought another hard blow upon Dega. This time, however, the blade glowed brighter with the hit and cracked loudly.

At this point, Dega decided it was probably not going to end peacefully. He began making a few attacks, still hoping the man would back down. With each meet of the blades, the blue color flashed brighter and cracked louder. While fighting, Dega began summoning a Blaze spell.

Much to Dega's confusion, the man backed away from him. The two stood, roughly five meters apart, swords at the ready. The man closed his eyes and the dust around him began hovering closely to the ground. Pebbles were lifting up into the air. The man's eyes opened and he swung his incredibly blue sword. A blade of energy flew from the sword, directly at Dega. Dega, who had been summoning the Blaze spell, sent the spell toward the energy blade. The energy was destroyed, causing a massive explosion. Both men were sent flying in opposite directions.

Dega had landed against a tree a few meters from the child. The child's face had paled and he losing blood very quickly. Evidence of Caleb's ice attack could still be seen on his shoulder.

Dega stood to his feet and saw the man, on his back, twenty meters away from him. Dega had been wounded in the left leg from a few shards of the other man's sword. Dega limped over to the fallen body only to see several shards of the man's sword embedded into his chest and face. It was a grizzly scene. The man looked up at Dega and attempted to say something, but he was too weak and he slipped away into darkness. To Dega's surprise, the shards of the sword began burning a blue flame. It hurt his leg immensely and he yelped in pain.

The blue flames from his leg, and the man's body began moving toward one another. A few other flames from around the woods where the shards had flown were making their way over toward the man. The hilt of his sword was still in his right hand, and the flames gathered there. As the flames began dieing out, Dega could see a small glowing blue orb below them. When the mystic flames had died, Dega slightly touched the orb. It was surprisingly cool; and he picked it up. As he touched it, he was filled with anger and sorrow. They were the feelings felt by the ma who lay dead at his feet. Dega had seen this orb before, and he knew just who he needed to talk to about it.

Dega stood and could hear the paws of the dog behind him. It was walking toward the child who lay passed out beneath the tree.

"Poor child," Dega said, walking toward him.

The dog moaned slightly, and began licking the wound that it had inflicted. The boy stirred, and Dega rushed toward him.
"What were you two doing here?" Dega asked, sternly.

"We had come to kill you. You can't just kill our friends and get away with it!" He replied in a hushed manner, but not without anger.

"And you think you can try to kill mine?" Dega shook his head before continuing. "Where did he get this orb?" Dega pulled the orb out of his pocket, and displayed it to the child.

"I don't know. He stole that sword off some guy. I can't believe you killed my brother."

"Wait a second here. I didn't kill him. I wasn't attacking. I was simply defending myself. Anyway, here." Dega cast a small healing spell on the child, closing his wound. "Now, get out of here. And don't try to attack me or my group again. We've let you off twice now. Don't give us a reason not to again."

The child shook his head in acknowledgement, and ran off into the woods.

"Well, boy," Dega said, looking down at the dog by his side. "What say we go back to the inn?" The only response Dega got was a glob of slobber sliding down the dog's mouth, and a bark. That was good enough for him.

As Dega pocketed the orb again, the blue light had faded. The feelings of anger were leaving Dega. He took one last look at the body of the man.

"I'm sorry, Darik. Please forgive me."

With that, Dega turned and walked back toward the inn; followed directly by the small rotund hound.

(crest)

Xershies, who had noticed Dega leaving the inn, had walked out onto the porch. He carried his staff with him. His wounds had finally been healed from the staff, but small scares were still showing themselves.

"Haven't gotten a new one of you scars in a while."

He smiled slightly and took a seat on the bench just outside the front door. As always, his thoughts were racing madly about in his head. Drake's memory appearance and the last line of the prophecy that was eluding him. He couldn't quite put his finger on it.

It has something to do with Tigo. I just know it. But what was it?

He spent the next few minutes drifting from thought to thought before he was stirred from his mind by bright blue flashes of light far out into the woods. He was curious as to what Dega was doing out there, but decided to leave it to him.

His thoughts took control for a few more minutes, before Dega came walking slowly from the woods, petting an old fat hound. Xershies chuckled slightly from the odd looking pair. Xershies made no move to meet Dega, but simply let him come to the inn. When Dega arrived, Xershies finally saw why Dega was moving so slowly.

"Dega! Your leg. Here," Xershies began mumbling under his breath and the wound healed itself over.

"Thank you, Xershies."

The two spent the next while discussing the strange events of the night and the reappearance of the child. Dega pulled the orb out of his pocket and it immediately turned a light greenish color.

"Dega, it seems to be powered by your soul. You said it was blue in the battle? I think that when you become intensely involved in an emotion, it will power this orb. It seems to act like the substance in my equipment, except this orb changes from emotional reactions rather than physical. How strange. I wonder why it's glowing green. I'm not sure of anything else about it."

Dega again pocketed the orb, causing the color to dissipate. Throughout the conversation, Dega had unknowingly been rubbing the dog's ears, to its great pleasure.

The conversation eventually came back around to Y'Ron. Xershies expressed that he believed Y'Ron will, or rather "must," have been fine.

"Well, I'm glad you are back and ok, Xershies. Unlike you, I need my sleep."

The two shared a short laugh, before Dega finally headed in to get some sleep. Dega was, again, followed by the mangy hound. Xershies simply stayed seated on the bench, contemplating the day's events.