Guardians of the Prophecy

Chapter Twenty-One: The Secret Lives of the Séorin

Note: This chapter contains some sexual content, and is unedited.

It was as they were still following the white wolf leading the way down the road that Rima remembered that it was her birthday in a couple months. She shook her head; their mission had taken nearly a year?

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Laurel whispered to Shan.

"Do you have a bad feeling or something?" he asked her.

"Not really, but I don't know how I feel about following some wolf to a place we don't know."

The wolf's ears pricked, but it kept trotting merrily along.

The monk reached over, clasped her hand in both of his, and kissed her fingers, and Rima couldn't help but smile at the couple ahead of her.

The road became much rougher and more uneven as the trees thickened around them, and the air seemed to be warmer too. The forests were becoming wilder, but the wolf stood out bright as snow.

She spotted a faintly shimmering light in the distance, and creased her brows. The others must have noticed it as well because Caleb, who was leading the group with Shaheen perched on his shoulder, turned back to Laurel and asked, "Is that thing safe?"

Laurel squinted in the distance as everyone else's walking pace slowed down. "Looks like some sort of protective charm," she said.

They paused as the wolf walked right through the shimmering light and took a few more steps before turning back around and looking at them. The canine seemed unaffected by the spell.

Caleb sighed and continued walking, with the other Guardians and Alistair following as well. The very air seemed to distort around them as they passed through.

Rima blinked. A woman was standing some distance ahead of them, with the white wolf sitting on its haunches by her feet beside her. The wolf was so large that its pricked ears just reached the top of the woman's shoulders. The woman had dark hair in an elaborate braided knot on her head, smooth coppery skin and green-and-hazel eyes. She wore a fantastically woven robe-like dress with dark green and red embroidery.

The woman bowed her head and spoke in her native language. "We've been waiting for you."

It was strange how Rima felt as if she understood what the woman was saying. Even though the language was incredibly similar to the language of Origin, there were still a few tonal and pronunciation differences that made it sound noticeably... older for some reason. She knew that these were the Séorin the books Len had given her had spoken of. These were the first people in their land to use magic.

The woman gestured forward, through the thick lush trees to the sunlight ahead. The wolf stood, then, following the woman towards the light. Just before they reached the end, where a set of rocky steps led down, a few other people— native women and men emerged from the trees.

Rima blinked with surprise as a native woman gently took her hand and led her down the rocky steps into a great valley. The rest of the group followed.

The woman turned around to look at Rima, a sincere smile on her face. Rima couldn't help but smile back. They finally reached the end of the steps and onto a wide stone platform with various other rocky ledges throughout the valley jutting out.

The woman turned to her right and shouted something in her native tongue.

Rima heard several sharp intakes of breath behind her. The sun shone bright, and she had to shield her eyes from the light. Wide and colorful bridges connected with stone platforms, where grass occasionally grew, from where tangled, dirt-covered roots hung underneath.