Eternal Beasts

An Unpleasant Discovery

 - Jared! - the book shouted at the ball of golden light it could sense encapsulating the stricken Lord of Griffon's mind. - Jared! Speak to me, boy! - it demanded. Only to hear nothing but silence.

A quick scan over the big human's body yielded his heart still beating, his lungs still drew in breath. But from his mind ... and no matter how it tried to breach the golden sphere of light that seemed to surround Jared's mind, the ancient entity got nowhere.

It was as it made another swing around the globe that the book became aware of another presence in the ether along with it and Jared's sealed off mind. One that was growing stronger as the liquid in Jared's eye began to cool and harden.

- Who are you? - the entity demanded, directing its full attention to the presence.

- I am his. And he is mine, - replied a low, husky alto woman's voice, full of strength and spirit. And a great deal of pain and fear. Along with the voice came a familiar sensation of swirling winds, motion and magic that it hadn't felt in over five thousand years.

Jared's griffon! Wait, Jared's griffon?? But how was that possible? She should still be in stasis, locked inside the statue until the ritual in Findais released her and the tuathan princess.

Something had obviously happened that allowed a bridge between reality and stasis to form. Likely anchored by that mass of magical gold now ensconced in Jared's skull. Who was the idiot that thought that was a good idea?? Might as well as just stab Jared in the chest, for the good ...

The entity felt its attention abruptly be pulled to the tendril of dark magic that was still twisting deep inside Jared's mind. Just in time to watch the magical gold snuff it out. Ah. Well. That made a little more sense. But still ...

- Okay, - it said to the presence. - You are Jared's griffon. -

- And he is my rider, - the voice replied, the pain in every word fighting with fear, desperation and longing.

- He is dying. -

- Not if I can help it, - the entity grimly replied. - What happened exactly? Why does he have magic gold in his eye?? -

- We ran into trouble, - the griffon's disembodied voice replied. - My Jared has been hurt! -

- How badly? Do you know? - the entity demanded to know. At the question there came a brief impression of fiery pain then blackness.

- He was darted in the eye during a battle, - she began to explain.

- A battle?? How, in the name of the Maker ... he was just trying to convince the Lucht Taistil that he was harmless! -

- A darkling force attacked the Taistil encampment before Jared could be taken to safety, - she explained, her voice cracking. - My nearness to Jared gave me enough strength from stasis to summon a feather that they could use to pull the darkling death magic out of his body. They chose, instead, to melt it down and pour it into the open wound! - she finished softly, her pain throbbing in each word.

- WHAT?? Liquid gold into his open eye?? -

- What strength I have I am using to hold him from madness! - she whispered, her presence now visibly writhing from her efforts.

If it were a mortal person, it would've slumped in disbelief and despair at hearing that. The world seemed to be slipping out of the entity's grasp as carefully laid plans over millennia suddenly were in danger of tumbling down around them. If Jared died, then the Harbingers would sweep over Corlest in a wave of death and destruction without power and strength in the air to oppose them. The last of the races of Light would be cast down and the Darkness would finally, and truly be victorious. Jared had to live!

Then a desperate idea occurred to it, one born of ancient magic and an understanding of the multiverse.

- No time to explain. So much power so close to the brain! We must return him to the world he was born on, or he will destabilize to the point of death! - the book declared.

- Returning him to ... Earth will save him? - the griffon's presence asked, doubt and worry filtering into her voice through the pain.

- Yes, - the book firmly replied with no little confidence, even though confident was the very last thing the entity was feeling. - It is the only way! But I will need your strength to make it happen. Can you break your connection to Jared long enough to charge me with sufficient energy to open a portal? -

- I ... think so, - she said and the entity felt a rush of ancient magic fill it to almost overflowing. - Is that enough? -

- Yes. Now return to keeping Jared with us. I'm going to animate him, protect his eye, and change his appearance enough that he won't cause a ruckus when he reappears a few minutes after he originally left Earth to come here. -

With a rush of golden energy, Jared stood behind the desperately fighting nomads, his remaining eye devoid of life as he looked straight ahead. Then, with a shimmer, the eye filled with gold was covered with a white leather patch, runes of power tooled into its surface. That would protect anybody around Jared from feeling whatever effect the golden orb that replaced his left eye would have, either in this world or Earth.

Another rush of golden light transformed his dragon-summoned clothes into the hoodie, t-shirt, jeans and sneakers he was wearing when he first arrived, a light breeze tousling his hair. Then, with abrupt snarls of sound, powerful energies appeared, drawing uncertain looks over their shoulders from the nomads, and fearful ones from the cholim they fought. With whip cracks of sound and light, the energies swirled around Jared for a moment before suddenly lashing out, passing between the tuathan to savagely cut down the cholim they fought in the blink of an eye. Then a lightning bolt was dropping out of the cloudless sky to strike the ground directly in front of where Jared was standing.

The impact brought out of invisibility a two meter tall wooden door. As the door glowed with subdued energies, the rest quieted enough for the astonished tuathan to turn and observe what was happening. And thus they witnessed the light around Jared and the door fade until only the door and an aura of light around it was visible, the rest cast into some strange shadow.

There was a flicker of power around the edge of the door then, and it swung open, revealing a cloud-filled space, half lit with indistinct light. As if that were some sort of trigger, Jared suddenly burst into motion and he catapulted forward through the opening. As soon as he was across the threshold, the door swung quickly shut and, with a pulse of golden light that rolled over the entire plateau, it disappeared.

As one the three tuathan slowly dropped to their knees, hearts pounding as they stared at the space where the door and the stricken Lord of Griffons had just been.

"What, in the blessed name of the Maker, just happened??" Seth hoarsely asked.

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