Chapter Five
A Divine Calling
The forest around me became a blur as I ran at great speed in pursuit of the Jaguar, as I would never have been able to do as the boy that I had started this day out as. Everything had changed and with opened eyes I saw more of my surroundings than I ever had before.
The treebeasts mixed among the other tree kinds were an open book to me now, both those who ashamedly remained silent and those who were cheering. That said, none of them sought to twist free of their roots as Thomanalin had done or seemed able to move freely about as Asmantha had.
Even in these curious entities of the forest there were those who excelled above the aptitudes of their own kind and now looking back I beheld that only seven of all those gathered in the clearing were in hot pursuit of the future as I was set now upon doing. So be it then.
Who said armies had to be large in order to accomplish something of great significance. I would rather have a handful of righteous warriors willing to go against all odds then a legion of warriors with a preset breaking point that they weren’t willing to go past let alone be challenged by.
Calling out in the run through what felt like layers of the forest rather than a span of distance traveled, I asked for what I felt was the immediate need and that was something to fight with.
“Jump!” Commanded the voice of my Creator from within and I did.
The blur of the forest abruptly diminished to a slow slide of realization as there suddenly appeared heavenly knights of light as I had seen above within the intermediary realm above this plain of existence. They pressed in from all sides as if a part of this reality and yet maintaining distance from actively being a part of all of its physical limitations.
Their outstretched hands fell upon me and bore the immediate results of feeling myself outfitted in a way that felt oh so right. I landed and as I did I spun around to gaze at the outfitters of heavenly origin only to see one toss something bright and shiny at me.
My hand reacted and with an agility of skill spoken into me I seized ahold of the grip of a sword grander in appearance than even my fathers had been. For all its beauty though, I knew it was but a tool in the here and now and not my answer to any battle of the spirit, but that said it was still beautiful to behold and I whispered my intense gratitude to my Heavenly Father above at receiving such a gift as this.
Sensing some latent property of the sword I gripped it with both hands as I spun around forward once more and pulled opposingly with both hands. The blade I gripped morphed apart until two replicas of the original were now gripped in either of my hands.
With a shout that felt like thunder to my own years I streaked forward after Rafargan and several others of his kind as they with a ferocity equal to my own roared and jumped over a rocky ledge to disappear from view. I raced out upon the rocks and likewise jumped with yet another cry of war echoing from my lips and trailing out behind me as I fell down through space confident in the future of conquest that lay before me in a way that I could never explain other than to say that it was of Eloah.
My booted feet slipped down through the dank misty air of a pit in the forest that never would I have dared to enter before let alone trespass in the vicinity of. Evil was steeped into the very rocks of this place that had seen much of unspeakable atrocity, but now bore witness of a change orchestrated by the outpouring of Eloah’s Fire Spirit that had been given to those willing to wield it or should I say those willing to be wielded as a weapon by the Most High.
Truly, I felt apart from myself and all I had ever been before as I fell down confidently into a pit that held many horrors of which I only saw as unnatural things overlong meant for destruction. The eyes of all the creatures gathered below gazed up in open sighted looks of horror even as they outnumbered us by 10 to 1.
The descriptions of them were too numerous to mention. Men with the heads of rams along with their female counterparts, single eyed monsters of great height wielding stone hammers and the slithering form of massive snakes with the faces of men and women that were kept poised above the ground as in place of legs their giant coils of snakeskin did the work of propelling them forward.
There were more atrocities than these, but truly I could care less as to the horrocity of their form and the shapes of dismaying unnaturalness. They all must die!
That knowledge was everything in this moment and all I intended to apply myself towards. Rafargan sank his teeth into one of the coils of the snake people even as his great talons latched on and the two went tumbling as with a hiss the snake woman sought to bite Rafargan with a set of exaggerated canines that I took to be as poisonous as the natural world’s true kind counterpart.
Rafargan tumbled free of the twisting coils and the snake woman reared forward to strike. Twisting in air I sliced through the back of her unnaturally scaled neck. The blade in my hand swung true and with a cut off hiss her head went toppling even as the body of her coils went writhing in the death spasms of its former kind.
Blood showered about freely and with a resounding crunch of stone pulverizing beneath me I landed with an agility of force upon the floor of this pit beyond any normal endurance of a man to withstand on his own and apart from the empowerment of his Creator to do marvelously. With a cry of triumph I flexed upward from my landing squat even as the ground reverberated beneath my boots as those who dared to experience the life of a righteous calling made impact with the ground of this cursed hole in the midst of a former paradise of old.
Lifting both swords out to my sides I beheld the licking flames of heat that coursed down them, which seemed but the outpourings of the eternal spirit of my Creator within me and I knew joy. My God was with me and every battle from this day forward, no matter if it was to my death, would be to the glory of my Elohim and with the same passion that I had witnessed of those who had interceded to spare my life the day before I cried out, “To war!!!”
I sprang forward towards the horde of surprised minions of darkness’s alchemy. This pit that had served as their home now bore them no escape from the warriors of lit upon flame that carved into them with a ferocity of will beyond any they had ever witnessed before in the hearts of mankind.
Consternation rang out and their ogerish grunts to bleating voices punctuated by agonized hisses sounded loud as the multitude gathered was burned by Heaven sent fury. The time of man was supposed to be all but over! In their wicked consciousness’s they could not believe what their eyes or senses were telling them to the contrary.
Where had this remnant of the old Creator seekers come from? Their answers remained hidden to them as they fell beneath carving blades of flame that swung with skillful abandon that was unmatched in skill or passion by any of the creatures pressed back against the walls of what was to become their own cemetery.
*******
Sweat dribbled down my cheeks and squinting I peered about the gory carnage of this place that no longer bore the presence of the twisted lifeforms corrupted apart from the higher orders of creation. Turning about I beheld Rafargan standing nearby.
He stood on three paws as blood ran freely from the fourth. That said the fire of his eyes was that of a warrior, sated in the knowledge that a great victory had been achieved.
I shared with him in the moment, but only for a second as suddenly the walls of the stony pit began to shake violently and debris began to rain down upon the twisted bodies of the fallen. My eyes took in the stone stairs to the far side of the pit and pointing with a sword I cried out hoarsely, “This way!”
The others of those who had dared all to follow me to this pit headed fast for the stairs. Both worn of body and spirit I followed along behind them.
Great boulders began crashing down and the stairs themselves began cracking up. Things didn’t look good and I was on the verge of despairing when suddenly the stairs stilled in their trembling to a significant degree.
My eyes took in the sight of the cause for that as I beheld the roots of trees all along the rim making a concerted effort to hold the stones together near the stairway even as the rest of the pit was becoming quickly unrecognizable as the forest above caved into it.
“Up them!” I cried in a rejuvenated spirit as I saw the strain the trees were putting themselves under to hold the stairs together for us.
I was the last one to the stairs except for Rafargan who trailed behind me and with a will I surged up them as the grumble of stone and the creak of tree roots under pressure rang loud in my ears. I reached a landing in the stairway and stopping for a moment I looked back. Rafargan had only made it half as far as I had and noticing that I had stopped he roared, “Go!”
That’s simply was not the way of it. I sheathed both my swords into scabbards that I hadn’t noticed until now and then I ran back down the stairs that were beginning to heave up and down again as the tree roots lost their battle in holding them steady.
Rafargan, looking drained of life, mustered up a growl at my appearance by his side that was halfhearted at best. He was a big beast. Fully my size and a full half more and yet I didn’t care as I seized ahold of clumps of his black fur and lifted with the strength of a man yet untested to the extreme limits of his endurance.
“No master!” He grumbled worriedly as I lifted with a heart to do the impossible. As his massive belly cleared over my helmeted head and he settled heavily upon my shoulders I started up the stairs with a heart that felt on the verge of bursting because of the exertion demanded of it.
My lungs had no air and he was far too heavy to reasonably carry up such a steep staircase, but I didn’t care. As long as it was in my power to do something about it no one was ever going to be left behind again. That said I knew it wasn’t likely that my dedication to such a noble ideal would be that long in the grand scheme of things as we simply weren’t going to get up these crumbling stairs in time.
Hands seized a hold of both me and Rafargan and in dismay I realized how close we suddenly were to the top of the stairway. Where the time had gone I didn’t know as it felt like I had been in the effort to climb but a few steps for over an hour.
In a daze I stumbled along with the forceful tugs of the others upon me and with a grumbling rumble I heard the stones of the stairway fall off into the abyss behind me as I and those with me tumbled forward into the forest understory. The destruction of the pit continued, but I was lost to it as I fell to the forest floor spilling Rafargan from off my shoulders in the process.
*******
My heart hurt. Everything hurt!
Hands pulled at me and I was flipped over onto my back. Blinking I opened my eyes as I felt my head come to rest on something softer than the rigidness of the forest floor.
I stared upward into the green eyes of one of those few who had chosen to come with me. Her helmeted visor obscured much of her face from me, but I’d already seen enough.
She was beautiful and something about her called to me with a finality beyond simple attraction and yet my heavenly purposed task in life was such as to not allow me the desires of a man in any normal span of an era. I had a prescribed journey of conflict ahead of me and the look of caring softness reflected in those eyes down upon me was very hard to fight against.
Mumbling as I panted for breath I whispered out not really making any sense, “I have to fight. Nothing else matters right now.”
Her visored head nodded and in a husky sounding voice I instantly felt stirred by she whispered, “I know. I can wait.”
I blinked. Wait? How long would that be?
I didn’t know. All I knew in this moment was how much I needed rest and the cushion of her lap beneath my head had a comfort to it beyond my ability to fight and I closed my eyes giving up the ability to remain objective. Eyes closed with unconsciousness closing in I asked, “What’s your name?”
“Jafina, my Liege.”
Shaking my head I muttered, “I’m no lord.”
I didn’t see her shake her head no to my statement or hear her say, “In the end our people have the leader we always needed. Why is it that you have come so late to us, when we are no more a nation?”
Rafargan laying not too far away left off licking at his injured paw and said, “He is who he is and he is because he is.”
Jafina looked up in the spirit of consternation at the large cat’s words. Rafargan smiled and said, “In the forest we have a saying. It goes like this, ‘Every nut comes from a tree, but where did the acorn first grow, if not appointed by the Master of Time to do so.”
Jafina whispered through the gaps in her helm, “I don’t understand what you mean by that.”
Rafargan ruefully said by way of further explanation, “Every forest starts out small so why worry about how few of you remain? If it is meant for your people to live then they will much the same as a forest springing forth from a few randomly placed nuts that survived through chance and circumstance to become a forest such as you see around you. There is no point in worrying about numbers as any great endeavor first begins with but a few.”
Jafina looked away and remained silent as she gazed back down at the warrior whose head lay resting heavily on her lap. Rafargan observing the two kept silent upon issuing forth any further remarks but that said he couldn’t help but let a ruffled smile perturb across his lips as he contemplated on the reality that it took two trees to make a nut.
Rafargan looked away and with interest took in the sight of the debris strewn pit slowly filling up with water from a stream once rerouted by an ogre. The changes wrecked upon the forest were beginning to be wiped away one by one.
It was a good time to be alive. A dangerous time, but a good time for those who remembered the old ways. The first ways.
Rafargan looked about the clearing formed beneath a massive ash tree. All members of the band of eight other than Jafina were battling to stay awake and rumbling out softly Rafargan said, “Sleep well young warriors, as for once there is little to fear in this part of the forest as night falls upon the land.”
The ash tree, revealed itself as a treebeast, whom Rafargan knew by the name of Sostina, breathed out a relieved sigh in echo to his statement, “Tis so. Tis so. But if there be any danger I’ll be a dealing with it! Sleep now and I’ll keep the watch even as by the grace of the Almighty above I no longer have to see the evil of that pit persist one day longer than I already have these many long years.”
Rafargan let his head rest down upon his uninjured paw and his sides breathed out evenly in a peaceful much-needed slumber as he took the treebeast’s word with confidence that she would do what she had said.
Sostina’s gracefully smooth barked features located higher up the length of the tree creased into a bitter sweet smile as she gazed down upon the warrior that had begun to galvanize a forest long asleep once more into action. Softly she said taking care that her words were not loud enough to rouse the sleeping jaguar, “You did well Thomanalin. Aye, ya did.” She turned her eyes to look about as night fell upon the forest.
In the distance the sky ocean’s fell and yet the silence of the forest was no more as creatures long trained to be silent now timidly spoke out their songs as they once had long ago before the twisting of all that was good had occurred. Emotionally Sostina soaked in the sounds of what truly was freedom on the rise.
Freedom came at a cost though and for this one night Sostina was grateful to stand guard over the lives called to a higher purpose that slumbered beneath her trustingly. Tonight they would be safe, but what about the other nights?
How could so few overturn the legions of darkness that existed expansively across this forest let alone the lands beyond it? It was a tall order to be sure, but glancing at the newly formed lake nearby she acknowledged only too clearly that the impossible had already been achieved once today. Perhaps it could be achieved again.
Aye, she hoped so. It was good to dream again.