The Ancient Guardians

The Ancient Guardians (Chapter 23)

THE ANCIENT GUARDIANS

Chapter 23

The four of us stood around the entrance to the place which had become as familiar as our own homes. We stood in silence, yet overwhelming sound surrounded us; the sound of thousands of feet marching down on us. The earth under our feet shook slightly from their monstrous numbers. The air smelled of rotted flesh, the foulness of it reflecting our situation. The sun was no longer visible; a sheet of clouds had rolled in uninvited, making an eerie grey light in the late afternoon. A cold wind blew, giving me goose-bumps. "Can you stop doing that Will?"

"Sorry, I thought it'd fit the atmosphere." He said.

The wind subsided and we resumed what we were here to do: seal the entrance to our heritage. Clint put his hand over the opening as he had done when we had unsealed it. His symbol glowed and we likewise followed suit, each putting our light above the hole. Our hands felt drawn towards the inside as if it was a huge vacuum forcing us to kneel, then there was a flash of light and we suddenly felt our hands touching solid ground. The symbols on them faded and once again we were gazing at the circle guarding the entrance that we first saw when we got here.

"I'm going to miss that place." I said after a moment.

Marla almost had tears in her eyes. "We will come back, won't we?"

Clint grunted. "If you think I'm going to let those tomes go to waste, you're sadly mistaken. We will end this now, whatever it takes."

"I agree," I said, "I mean where else am I supposed to find another pit of lava?"

William nodded. "He's right; those rooms are as much a part of us as our elements. We won't abandon them so easily."

Marla was even more emotional now. She wiped the small tears in her eyes. "I'm glad you guys feel the same way, it's really reassuring."

The rumbling thunder of footsteps was getting louder now. The horizon had an ominous black line in it; the outline of the endless flow of undead. Clint was looking at a seemingly insignificant point in the line, but we knew he was staring at Bob straight in the face. We looked onward as he did, waiting patiently for them to arrive. As time passed, I tried to visualize every possible scenario; anything that could go wrong. There was no doubt about Clint's ability, but how would we handle the fight after? How would we even begin to try to destroy Bob? What if nothing went wrong and we succeeded? How would we live our endless lives then? Uncertainty gripped my mind, I started getting nervous. What if we failed?

At that moment, Clint's hand dropped on my shoulder like a brick (literally, don't mess with hands of stone) and shocked me out of my daze. "Do not fret, friends, worrying too much will make your senses dull. Make the best of the time we have and meditate quietly to ready yourselves."

The three of us nodded, thinking it was probably the best idea. Time flashed by with our meditation and the undead had reached us in what had seemed like the blink of an eye. We didn't even need Clint to tell us, we simply opened our eyes when the sound outside became unbearably loud.

All I could hear though, in my mind, was music. "Hey Will!" I shouted through the noise.

"What is it?!" he shouted back.

"What song?!" I asked.

"Does it have to be themed?!" he asked in return.

"Of course! It has to fit the atmosphere!"

"'Take to the Sky' then!"

"Which one?!"

"Van Canto!"