Elf Prince - Protected by the Elf Prince Part 3

Chapter 6

It was now evening as Adresin and I walked down the stairway. I heard the sound of stone scrapping as the boulder resealed the shrine entrance. Our footsteps echoed as we descended twenty-five feet underground. Even with elf night vision, it was hard to see where I was going. I could barely make out the shapes and shadows of the walls and steps. However, Adresin was confident in his footing, leading me by the hand.

When we reached the bottom of the staircase, we came into a granite stone tunnel covered in vines. It smelled sweetly of grass and foliage, yet had the musty smell of a typical underground cave. And the magic. The magic radiating from this place was something else. It faintly hummed, just like at the Akasha grotto fountain, only with a different magic. Besides sight, my other senses could pick up every little thing about earth and land-related things. The rustling of the leaves in the wind. The smell of flowers and greenery. The taste of fruit and vegetation. The feel of rocks and soil beneath my bare feet. The feeling got stronger and stronger as we reached the end of the tunnel. Another hidden door opened before us and Adresin walked me inside.

I stared in awe at the sight before me.

We were standing in an enclosed underground grove filled with woodland flora. There were several medium-sized trees bearing all matter of fruit among the walls in the back. A giant Lóte mel mothertree was in the back of all of them, with weeping branches reaching over the walls and up to the twenty-foot ceiling. Flowing, flowering branches dangled from them like party streamers. The walls were covered with hedges and ivy, blooming and glowing with hundreds and hundreds of Sabrina Roses. There were colorful mushrooms, various ferns and grasses, and colorful flowers growing at the roots of the trees. A few rock outcroppings were covered in moss and liverworts.

At the center of this spectacle was a white marble statue of a white stag-the Guardian Raaos. It was standing on a small pond of water surrounded by a small circle terrace of granite and limestone. The base of the statue was supported by a small little grassy bit of land. Small blue flowers blooming around the feet with grass all around it. Water trickled from its antlers like miniature waterfalls, falling onto tufts of tiny white flowers before flowing into the pond below. Four little canals were engraved into the stone floor and grassy grove out towards another canal along the walls, providing the grove with plenty of water.

I smiled as I took all the sights, sounds, and smells in. I could hear the crickets chirping their symphonies away while the fireflies danced to their courtship light show. The flora made it smell of heaven and honey. Drops of ground water trickled from the walls and onto the ivy, which sparkled in the moonlight that was somehow beaming down from the ceiling with some sort of magic. The sounds of the waterfalls from the statue echoed off the walls, adding to the effects.

"This place is beautiful." I said.

"Indeed," said Adresin, smiling in awe at me, "The shrine is imbued with the magic coming from Raaos, our guardian."

Suddenly, I could feel a pulse of magic vibrating from the guardian statue. It glowed brighter and brighter until Raaos walked right out of it, like a newborn butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. His silvery-green eyes gazed deeply into ours as he stepped forward and spoke again.

"Greetings to you both, Isilme and Adresin. Isilme, please come closer."

Apprehensively, I walk over to Raaos as asked. I could feel the magic within him glowing with a faint, yet heartwarming light.

Raaos spoke as I walked over to stand in front of him. "It has been some time since an Akashian Elf has visited my shrine."

When I was in front of him, he gazed deeply into my eyes, just like Adresin's father did when he first checked my memories of fleeing the Earth realm. I felt the same feeling in my skull as he did this. Perhaps he was checking me over to see if I was truly an Akasha Princess.