Chapter Four
Ancient Hatred
Dawn, when would it come? What did it matter?
How could I ever hope to survive in this place as hunted as I was by one and all? Even now I felt the presence of a hunter at my back.
Enough was enough!
I wasn’t running anymore. Everyone was once more dead in my wake and I had nothing to go on with.
With a shaking grip I pulled the scabbard free of my father’s sword and let it fall to the ground. Backing up away from the sounds of pursuit I headed for the light of the savanna ocean that I was once more near to. I found the glow of its vividness comforting and that alone was my focus of heading for it rather than finding my death in the spot that I stood upon or some other spot.
I backed up until I could hear the splash of the ocean’s airwaves against the forest edge. When I stopped backing up they stepped into view. Five of a horde that had numbered in the hundreds was all that remained of these creatures of dark manipulation.
Out of breath they regarded me raptly from their reptilian eyes that made them reminiscent of snakes walking on legs. Slowly they came closer and as they did their images glimmered out of focus to be replaced with the visages of human beings.
In shock I continued stepping backward holding the sword as still as I could which wasn’t very still at all. It was far too long and heavy for me to wield and yet I promised myself that I would do just that.
I wished to kill these five changelings. They kept changing their appearance from one human form to the next and the reality of how compromised humanity likely was by these creatures caused wrath unlike any other at the present circumstances to arise in me.
“Stop it!” I screamed in anger and they did. Once more rooted in their cold reptilian form they scented the air with their snakelike tongues and regarded me curiously with a sense of cold calculation within their gazes.
I stopped backing up. I was done running. I was done being afraid, too!
Closing my eyes I whispered fiercely with all my heart, “Please, help me kill them Eloah!”
All five of my adversaries chuckled in a disgusting fashion and I opened my eyes set to the accomplishment of my task. I charged and lacking the strength to swing the heavy sword I instead in the momentum of running forward turned around and then in the spiral to be once more forward facing again I let the momentum of my spiraling motion lift and extend the sword out from me as all I focused on was continuously turning, while staying on my feet and holding onto the sword.
In my swirling vision of the world I saw the heat of fire extend down the blade of the sword and now in fast-paced motion I saw the surprised faces of my enemies as I twirled past them even as the blade of fire passed through them along the way. Completely over spun and dizzy I fell to the ground only to recover my equilibrium and scuttle back the way I had come dragging my father’s sword behind me.
Getting up I held the sword out as one by one the five still shocked reptilians crumbled to the ground as the light of life left each of their cold-blooded bodies. In shock I gazed at them fallen upon the ground.
Had I really just done that? I knew I had, but how? My eyes just couldn’t believe what they saw.
“Well, that was impressive.”
If I could’ve run I would have, but my back was to the edge of the savanna ocean, whose glow of let off light clearly outlined the image of the being that was materializing out of thin air just ahead of me. The being had all the appearances of being a man, but he was no man of that I felt sure.
He didn’t strike me as being one of the shape shifting reptiles that had hounded me this night. No, he struck me as being far more evil than anything I had ever encountered before and the fear I felt in being in his presence quivered throughout me until the sword I held waved about erratically.
Chuckling he stepped closer and with all my might I fought to hold the sword upright as a source of protection from the dark fiery depths that I saw playing within this creature’s eyes. He stopped and turning his head to the side he regarded me indepthly as his unusually long almost feminine appearing hair drifted to the side, “You know, I really see a lot of potential in you. I think you could be someone of importance one day. Maybe even a Dread Knight. How does that sound?”
It sounded horrible, but something from within me said not to converse with this being. The lap of effervescent airwaves behind me echoing through the trunk of a tree called to me with the tranquil peace of its resounding melody even as I vainly sought about with quick glances for an escape from the presence of him who stood before me.
I edged closer to the watery air and I saw concern briefly dart across the being’s features before being replaced with confidence that seemed almost too shielded as to be natural. He spoke, “You know, I could let you return to your lands. All your people aren’t dead you know, including your mother, by the way. Uma misses you terribly, Tarik.”
Rage swept through me and stepping closer I brandished the sword higher, “Liar! My mother is dead!”
“Oh, how do you know?” He asked innocently.
“Because I felt it! I felt her die!” I screamed emotionally at him.
Remembered pain came to assault me and my eyes grew obscured by tears as I remembered the feeling of my mother’s connection with me failing. Blinking madly I refocused on the dark being before me and belligerently I asked, “What do you want? You’ve taken everything! You’ve destroyed everything good, you and your filthy minions! I hate you!”
“Oh, hate is such a powerful word, little one. I hate too. For instance I hate absolutely everything there is about you, you see. I hate your humanity, the image that you were crafted in, even your eternal destiny is loathsome to me! Yes, hate, that’s what I feel for you on a level far deeper than you can ever imagine.”
“Then why don’t you just kill me and be done with it!” I screamed at him.
My adversary chuckled and said, “Because I hate you so much that it delights me to see you suffer as you are and as you have. See how much I hate you little upstart of a mistaken attempt at creation. I hate the very essence of what gave you breath!” The being said as he lashed out at me verbally so dementedly that the fire of his eyes engulfed his whole form for a moment.
Strangely though I felt detached from the scene and in the aftermath of his outburst I calmly said, “What a waste you are! You hate me and yet all you have is loss, because despite your passion you don’t have power over my spirit and so you’ll always be at a loss when it comes to me and others like me.”
The fire was back, “Okay kid, I’ve had enough of a chase for one night.”
He reached out and grasped a hold of my father’s sword blade. I did my best to pull free of his grasp on it, but he gripped down all the harder upon the sword and as he did his grip upon it turned molten looking. With intensity he said, “Despite what your parents may have led you to believe, the fact remains that I do have power and you are entirely within my domain.”
The sword handle that I gripped a hold of became too hot to handle, but I held on anyway even as I felt the palms of my hands start to burn. Abruptly the sword was ripped from my grasp and with a cry of anguish I watched as the being of darkness itself focused the fire of his gaze upon my father’s blade and with intensity previously unmatched I watched my father’s sword melt and drip apart as molten blobs to the forest floor to sizzle noisily as it amassed in puddles.
The being looked up and now once more calm in appearance he asked, “Now, how’s that? Like the look?”
In a rage past understanding I made to launch myself to my death to hurt him even as the disappearance of the last surviving link to my past had pierced me to the heart with sorrow. My foot had started to move forward when suddenly a voice from within said, “No child. Wrath is mine. Come to me.”
In consternation I turned to look at the pressed airwaves of mist at my back even as the command that had rippled throughout all of me left me forever changed and in intense need to hear more.
“Come!” Was repeated once more and without a second thought I stepped into the watery air of the ocean.
A grip that felt like lead heated in a furnace seven times hotter than enough to melt me seized a hold over the top of my shoulder and instantly the heat of it threatened to burn a hole right through me. I cried out in agony into the bubbly air even as it filled my lungs chokingly, “Eloah!”
The need to escape the burning touch upon my shoulder was immense, but truly most of all right now I wanted to be apart from everything that caused pain. Sobbing, I felt despair as I was dragged backwards, but the water in front of me suddenly boiled with motion and I was sent head over heels into the glowing grasses of the savanna.
Dimly I spun expecting to see the creature of torment incarnate following close behind me only to be rewarded with the imagery of a whale having beached itself upon the shores of the forest with such disturbance that trees were falling left and right. I didn’t know what to think and indeed it was hard to think as I felt mortally wounded from the touch upon my shoulder.
I looked to my shoulder in a daze and beheld the essence of blood drifting into the upswept currents of this airy ocean. I was going to die.
At least it was peaceful here within the glowing fronds of the savanna’s grass. I closed my eyes, but opened them as the sharp echoes of the noises of a whale’s song made me come to awareness.
I screamed as a huge mouth came down over top of me and consumed me whole. It was hard to breathe and consciousness faded and as it did I had the feeling of being transported upwards at a high rate of speed.
*******
The night that seemed like it would never end was finally coming to an end as dawn made its welcoming glow upon the far horizon. With that first glimmer of light the oceans of the savanna retreated upward into the sky with all the creatures that called them home and once more the seas of grass present within the forest of Angarta became open to the beasts of the field to once more roam upon and consume.
*******
The feel of water lapping up against my cheek had me lifting my head slightly. I blinked my eyes open and blinked again. Where was I?
I heard the percussion grunts and clicks of a whale. A whale!
I spun in the water I was half laying in and in the gloom of this place of otherworldly strangeness I saw the whale that had swallowed me whole. It lifted enough out of the water to study me with its great eye before sliding forward into the water and letting its snout dip beneath the tranquil waves of this place as it disappeared completely from view.
Without a doubt the whale had saved my life. It had rescued me only to bring me here of all places. Where was here?
For the first time the sound of thunder echoing about the misty semi darkness of this place registered to me. There was light, but it was as if all of it was just faint reflections gleaming off of something else. Reflections of what?
I looked up and gasped even as I instinctively pressed down into the gentle lapping water. Above me as far as the eye could see stretched a vast cloud mass of the most violently powerful storm clouds that I had ever seen. The sight of their latent power brought terror to my heart, but the beauty of the iridescent colors that shot through briefly here and there through the clouds had my whole being filled with awe.
In the supreme silence of this place of solitude I lay staring at the clouds overhead as they continually twisted and formed protectively around something unseen and yet briefly hinted at by the vibrant shots of color that coursed through tiny breaks in the cloud mass that gave evidence of something indescribably beautiful hidden beyond the separating cloud cover. Lightning repeatedly shifted through the maelstrom of clouds, but strangely I knew it wouldn’t rain. In fact I doubted that it ever rained in this place.
In silent ponderence I let my eyes drift down from the fantastical sight above to gaze upon the plain of existence that I found myself mired in. Directly before me lay water. How far it went I could not tell only that it seemed to have no end.
Far out I saw a white cap form moments before a whale crested the surface and then slid back down. Except for that disturbance nothing else seemed to move or at present be distinguishable in this realm of in betweenness.
I glanced up again and the urge to lay back in the water and stare up at the clouds in expectation of seeing what lay beyond was an overwhelming sensation. I started to do just that when a noise with a repeating pattern to it made impact with my senses as any noise in this mostly silent place would have.
The sound was coming from behind me and I began to twist to look, which is when I felt something terribly wrong with my shoulder. I glanced down fearfully to behold my clothes burned away from off my shoulder and the flesh of my shoulder rawly burned and exposed without a covering of skin.
I panicked a little at how bad it looked and then I panicked again as the sounds I’d heard registered to me even closer than before. Despite the pain I turned and wobbly got up to my feet.
A man was approaching me. He was tall and I recognized the build of a warrior even as he was outfitted as one. He wasn’t just any warrior though.
I had never seen a warrior so impressively dressed as this one was let alone the confidence that he exuded in a statement of his ability to live up to every aspect of his dangerous looking appearance. He had the air about him that said he had earned every aspect of his regalia.
My mouth grew dry as the being that I’d mistook for a man came closer and closer. His eyes burned and for a moment I feared that I was faced with my tormentor from the forest once again.
Then such a wave of peace beyond comprehension seemed to overwhelm me that blinking I fought to stay on my feet.
“Tarik?”
I glanced toward the approaching figure, but I knew that the being had not been the origin of the voice that I had heard. It was the same voice that I’d heard within my spirit all my life since I’d been a little boy barely able to talk.
“He means you no harm. He is My messenger. He will bring you safely to Me.”
I blinked again as the reality that I was being approached by a messenger of Eloah fully registered. Like a niggling worry then the sensation of an inference made its way into my mind. Safe from what?
I glanced around and jumped in fright as I beheld three dark cast figures making for me fast across the flat plane of this strange place. The motion to turn and run had no sooner occurred to me as the occurrence of a strong hand settling over my uninjured shoulder rooting me to the spot in the security of person such as I had only experienced in the arms of my mother and father.
My eyes closed as the feeling of being safe overwhelmed me with its comfort. It had been so long it seemed since I had felt safe.
My eyes opened only to trace down the drawn saber of golden perfection so fine that it imparted its own glow to the scene of edged in darkness all about us. Solidly I rested back against the armor clad form of a messenger of Eloah.
My gaze lifted to behold that the three figures cloaked in a darkness far darker than the dimness of this realm had stopped. They made no move to come forward as if they sensed even as I did that even the three of them were no match for the warrior at my back.
I glanced to the side and then to the other quickly my eyes widening immeasurably at the sight of more such warriors as the one who held me that had come to my aid. They stood silently along the periphery of my vision and then they began to advance upon the three cloaked figures ahead of me.
In one smooth move of form and unmatched perfection of synchronicity their blades as brilliant as the one wielded by the messenger I stood before were all held at the ready. Shaken beyond measure I moved willingly as the hand upon my shoulder bade me to turn even as the bright glimmer of his sword was gone as it was re-sheathed.
The advancing line of warriors stepped past us with an unmatched resolve more so then any army of men set to do their task. The most surprising thing of all though was how I could matter so much as to warrant all of this occurring.
They were here to protect me and feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the love I felt being pressed down upon me and no doubt from the weariness caused by everything else that had occurred these last two days that had drained my soul of hope I began to tumble forward only to find myself caught and then cradled gently in the arms of the messenger that had been sent to collect me and as it were snatched me from the bowels of darkness once more.
Idly, as he walked, my senses took in the absence of the splash of water upon the booted steps of the messenger who carried me. Now in its place there was a hollow echo of sound as each boot heeled impression stepped forward to land down solidly.
My eyes opened and I glanced down in astonishment as I beheld what it was that we were standing upon. Glass!
We were walking on glass! I looked wildly about this place of mystery from the clouds that promised the storm of all storms, only to be softened by the presence of streams of color so intense as to only occur to the viewer of being the best of cheerfulness to the dim flatly outlined plain of this place devoid of the shapes of trees and rocks and then back to the shimmering floor that bespoke of its own mysteries.
“Where am I?” I whispered.
“Above the world, as you know it.” Came the deeply resonant reply from the messenger who held me as if I was of great worth. I glanced at his face and blinked as the clearness of the goodness of his being was almost painful to endure even to look upon, because I in comparison felt so much darker.
His gaze touched with fire shifted to me and he smiled before asking, “Are you ready for what is to come next?”
“What?” I whispered in reply.
“You’ve been granted an audience. An audience with the King. Your King.”
I swallowed before croaking out, “No, how could I be?”
“Well said, young Sir. Even so, it is to be and those that are called by the Spirit of the Most High are worthy indeed, so do not fear, Tarik, for you are greatly loved and ever in the thoughts of Him who created us both. Let us both be in awe of the Creator and be moved by nothing else as by nothing other than Eloah’s words has all been created.
Reflectively speaking I said, “You’re very different from him.”
Somehow the messenger knew what I meant and I watched a hint of rage I could only define as righteousness flame to life within his eyes, but all he said was, “He was not always so and yet one day the loss of purpose you saw shall always be, even as to all the judgment of the Most High must come.”
I did not ask any more questions even though my spirit fairly bubbled alive with them.
All of a sudden I felt much better and as if sensing it the messenger set me down onto my feet. I glanced at my exposed shoulder, but was greeted only by the sight of new skin. Not even a scar remained!
I glanced at my companion, who only smiled and said, “There is healing in the presence of the Almighty. This way to your destiny, Tarik.”
He gestured with a hand before heading off in that direction himself. I glanced from him to my shoulder and back.
Giving a quick glance at my surroundings I snapped free of my daze of wonderment and hurried after the messenger. Reflexively I lifted my hand and felt at my fully restored shoulder.
Under my breath in complete awe of what had been done I whispered, “Thank you Eloah!”
“You are within My mercy, son.”
Trembling from the feeling evoked within me at the words from within that sounded louder than ever before I stumbled slightly. I caught myself and with a shaky breath I took notice of the fact that the glassy floor of this place was changing.
It was shimmering through a series of colors and the blurry hint of something more was appearing from the other side as if the floor was a pane of glass with oil smeared across it. Utterly fascinated I stared downward at the shifting glimmers as I followed closely behind the messenger.
The colors and imagery were getting brighter. I began asking the question as I lifted my head, “What are the colors about? I think I see…… see……” My words died off as my gaze took in my changed surroundings.
I still walked upon the same desolate plain of dim refracted light as before with the same awe-inspiring cloud cover of something beyond grand poised tantalizingly close overhead. What was really different, however, was the fact that we were suddenly very much not alone as we had been before.
Rank upon rank, messengers of Eloah, stood in full battle regalia and preparation for war. It was an army seemingly without number and yet I felt as if only a few were needed to conquer the whole of Walenthyana .
Speechless I stumbled forward after the one who had brought me here to this encampment. This encampment perched…… where exactly?
I didn’t know. My gaze drifted from the pressed ranks of an angelic host without number to where a few, I took to be of even greater stature of rank, stood gathered about in a circular stance.
None of them were gazing at each other, but instead all of the captains of war gathered gazed down upon the shimmering floor of this place of detached feeling as if it was poised between heaven and something else. My eyes fell to the floor where they were gazing and with a gasp I stopped walking.
The floor beneath their booted regalia of armor was clear as crystal and not cloaked in a mirage of glimmering smoky quartz as the floor of this place was elsewhere. It was as if they stared down through a window at something.
I wanted to see, but terror at the awesome presence of these mighty of the mightiest held me in place. In panic I looked for the one who had brought me here only to see him quietly standing nearby not looking perturbed at all for my distractibleness.
I was about to say something when a voice spoke from the ring of warriors by the crystal spot on the floor, “Would you like to see, Tarik?”
I dropped like a stone to the floor as the presence of The One who’d had His back to me turned fully about to regard me. Trembling I pressed my face to the shimmery floor as my heart beat a flutter of nonstop turmoil of emotion at the reality of whose presence I was in.
The floor of glass reverberated beneath my face with the steps of the One, whose Name had been set above all other names by Eloah the Father. The ability to breathe ceased from me.
A hand as scarred as the legends of the Fire Spirit Scrolls had attested to suddenly bore me up to my feet and I was forced to look into the face of Him, I had only ever hoped to see at the conclusion of my life upon the land of my birth, but that I now stood across from still caught up in the life of my mortality. Inwardly quaking I took in His words to me, which held a wealth of warmth and the promise that I could trust every one of them.
“There is no need for you to fear young one. The Father brought you here. You are an invited guest and no enemy to anyone among My host.”
I glanced about and it was true as the eyes of all were seemingly directed upon me and yet I felt no malice directed at all towards me, a boy of a lower order of flesh then this higher plateau of reality. He had been a being of flesh and blood such as I was, even so The One before me now had once allowed Himself to be born into my realm of existence as the Almighty’s Son of old had allowed Himself to be used in service to His Father to be born over again into the body of flesh and blood such as I possessed.
He knew. I saw it in his eyes and I felt it in the warmth of his hand upon my shoulder, once burned by hell, but now rejoicing in the balm of complete healing. In an anxious and yet uncontrollable way I stepped forward into the willing comfort I felt in this man who was like me and yet grandly apart from me.
The One, the King, loved me! Somehow everything felt better knowing that. The words of the Fire Spirit Scrolls were true!
Everything I had believed as a boy, taught to me by diligent parents was true. There was no lie in this place, only peace and the strength of limitless power, arrayed in favor of my future, of all things.
It was too much to take in and I sobbed heavily in the completion of spirit that I felt in the presence of this Man, who was Eloah in the flesh. He had made a way for me to avoid the hell that I had seen in the fallen angel’s eyes and felt in his hateful touch upon me and now as His arms held me to Him I felt the purity of love that had made it all possible.
All of a sudden a heavy righteous fear filled my entire being as with a crack of thunder and a role of power without end there came to be the presence of One that I dare not look upon suddenly residing at my back. I would’ve fallen except for The One who held me, as it was, all the angelic host before me was bowed down upon one knee in respectful deference to the Master of all creation that was manifested behind me in an awesome glory too bright and magnificent to look upon.
Surely, I of all those gathered here, should be on my face the most but the hands holding me up remained securely upon my person. Then an audible voice beyond the comprehension I’d always had as the silent urgings from within my spirit spoke with an authority as that of an intense fire that had redoubled over seven times only to give breath and say, “Show him my Son. Show him that I see everything. Everything that goes on in the world of men.”
As if in a daze I stepped out beside my Savior towards the crystalline circle on the floor. With bated breath I came to a stop in amazement as I beheld Walenthyana.
The imagery of the seven lands zoomed about and focused in a dizzying way as to show everything of landmass and at the same time be looking into the daily affairs of every living individual upon the face of the land in a multi-tiered scope of view that was impossible to explain other than that I was witnessing it in real-time before me.
Literally, I was standing above the world I had been born to and in the light of what surely must now be heaven that existed above me, what I saw below seemed to me as being a small thing and instantly my mind, as if aided from within, by the concept that for the Ancient of Days the land below truly was but a foot stool in comparison to the glory of what existed above it. In quaking fear I felt the Majesty of the Creator breathing against my back in an unfathomable way even as every last part of my spirit basked at being in the presence of the source of all creation.
Crying, I stood still as once more the truth of all I had been taught as a boy and believed in faith as I had, was now being made real to me in the flesh in a way that forever was inscribing itself upon my heart. Flames licked about me, but I didn’t burn.
Everything about me lay exposed to the One who had made me. Truly it always had been so, but I had never realized just how on display the daily actions of my life and the thoughts of my mind were on display for not only my Creator but also the entirety of Heaven’s mighty host. It was humbling to even begin to comprehend.
I didn’t know what to say or even if I dare speak at all. What did one say?
In need of help against the awesomeness of Divine presence behind me that I could never hope to please on my own, I glanced to the King of Glory, the radiant Son, beside me who was the equal in spirit of all that pulsed with fire behind me and yet was a man after the likeness of my creation and that had once been mortal of body like me.
My cry for help not to be consumed by the righteous fire of the presence of the Almighty was preempted by the voice that had spoken everything into existence, “Now you see yourself as I see you. All those who believe in my Son, I find no fault in, even as He bore the sins of all. So now you know in what high regard I view you child. You are to Me as a son. Never forget that Tarik. Do not cease from the ways of my Son exemplified to all mankind and testified of by the prophets of old.”
I bowed my head forward in acknowledgment of all that had been said as words were beyond me and then suddenly I was singing and with eyes closed I turned and fell down before my Creator singing still the song that bubbled forth out of my spirit in an endless worship of praise to Him to whom all praise belongs. At first my voice alone rang out and then I felt as if the presence of the outer reaches of heaven just above us seemed to descend and suddenly my voice was just one of many, as the angelic host paid homage, even as I did, to The One that was before all others and who has no end.
Their voices rose loudly in a chorus indescribable even as it replicated perfect harmony beyond the abilities of my own singing, which was unique to me, but no less the equal in heartfelt praise to The One who ha