The Eca

Chapter 1 - The Gathering

The rain is washing the dirt and blood stains from his clothes as he is struggling to walk bare foot in the midst of a forest. As soon as he feels that no one is following him, he paced slower now. He's sure that he saw glimps of light not far from where he is. He doesn't even know the reason he is where he is now and what is waiting for him on his journey to the forest. Those men who were after him has horns on their head and seems like they are trying to kill him. For what? He has no idea. Something happened when he was being fired at by those men. Something magical that he saw for the first time. A large ball of light shielded him when he thought that time is the last moment of his life. After the shield is gone, the men who are after him vanished too.

The man is wearing a long robe with blue shirt and black pants inside. His hair is a combination of yellowish and black. He is somewhere in his late teens.

As he is approaching the light he saw earlier, the figure of a cabin grew larger. The cabin is big for an ordinary size family in the heart of the forest. As he approaches, the pain on his body become more and more unbearable. The broken bones is forcing him to faint but he is determined to reach for the cabin door. He knocked on the door atleast five times before it was opened by an old man with long white hair.

"Fred! What took you so late and what happened to you?" said the old man in a slightly deep voice. As soon as he finished talking, Fred lost his consciousness.

"Is that him? He look weak!" said a younger man inside the house.

"Silence Melvin and help me get him inside!" said the old man.

"Come on, you patronize him much don't you think?" the younger man said as they are carrying Fred inside and onto the bed.

"The portal might have been compromized. How could they have known the time of the gathering?" the old man is asking himself.

"Well lucky me I traveled early. I thought that the meeting has bet set carefully?" Melvin said.

"I thought so too until Fred arrived. He must have had an encounter with the dark guardians. This is bad. I wonder where are the others. I must get the word to Manta for them to send help to the others." said the old man.

He approached the fireplace with ash inside his right palm that he took from a hidden box in the kitchen. He threw the ashes in the fire and murmured some words then he got back to where Melvin is sitting.

Three men was travelling in the rocky mountain on their way to the portal late afternoon of the night of the gathering when they were stopped by five dark guardians. The dark guardians are human-like creatures with horns and dressed with cloaks. They are equiped with guns with coils and fires lightning to their enemies.

Tomas, James and Patrick are the boys battling with the dark guardians.

"How did they found out we will be here at this exact time? We are gonna be so late for the gathering!" said James, the oldest of the three.

"We can't expect that travelling at these dark times would always be smooth and easy you know." Tomas answered.

"Atleast we had an idea of going together. This could have been worst if we travelled individually. We can look at each others back." said Patrick who is a year older than Tomas.

"James, summon your water beasts in here. We'll try to electricute them with their own weapon!". Patrick shouted in a little panick voice.

"Relax Pat! Way ahead of you there. It will just take a little longer for my power as there is almost no trace of water in this mountain." James said.

He is trying to summon an entity from another dimension using a sign engraved on his left arm. As he is citing his incantation, one of the dark guardian pointed its weapon to him and released a furious amount of lightning. As the lightning is about to struck James, a long pointed steel rod appeared a foot in front of him that grew from the rock absorbing all the lightning down to the ground. It was Tomas who cast the spell.

"I can see you've already perfected your iron element technique huh." Patrick said.

"Nah it's just luck. Didn't even know that it'll work." Tomas joked.

Two other dark guardians are approaching them from above about thirty feey from the ground drawing their weapon. As they are about to fire, a strong whirling wind got them throwing them off the cliff.

Tomas watched the two while they are falling. He can't even see the bottom of the hill. "Whoa that's a nasty long fying down there." he said.

Patrick is staring at the enemies that grew in number before them. They are becoming more aggressive now.
"Here they come!".

"Almost there... Come on!" James said while still doing his call for his beasts.

A moment later, droplet size of water are floating coming from the cracks of the rocks on the ground. When there were enough droplet size of water in the air, it combines together in their own forming three huge animals in water form.
It formed three water tigers. As the enemy gets nearer, James commanded the three that he summoned. The beasts advanced to the dark guardians biting and electricuting one by one. The enemies are getting electricuted by their own weapons everytime the water tigers jumps through them. The men with horns that were missed by the animals went to the three boys. They are battling in hand to hand combats and each using their own elemental skills. Tomas can control minerals, James uses water and Patrick uses wind.

One by one, their enemy perished but they keep coming and coming. Several hours later, the sky is getting darker as the night is finally coming. A small elliptical white hole appeared from nowhere and more dark guardians emerged from it. Just like some kind of portal. Whatever these three boys are after, the enemy is determined to not let it happen. Exhausted by long hours of fighting, the three still fight for their lives together with the three water tigers.

Meanwhile in the cabin, the old man is just finishing talking in the fireplace. "I hope they are not too late." he said as the blue color on the fire vanishes and is being replaced by a normal fire.

On the rocky mountain, the three are atleast 50 yards from the portal. The portal is a mirror-liked object standing 7 feet tall at the peack of the rocky mountain. The framing is elliptical in shape with the longest side on the vertical. An engraving in ancient markings are visible on the entire lenth of the frame.

When the three boys are about to get hit altogether with lightning from the enemy's weapons, six men in gray hoods appeared, blocking the attack and redirecting it to the enemies.

"It's about time you showed up." James said to the six men who just arrived.

These men are the elite guards at Manta. They wear gray jacket with hoods and have a silver colored metal gloves. Their hands are producing a dense ball of fire and this is what they're using against the enemy.

"The elders are getting worried. You are already late at the meeting." one of the hooded men said.

"Well you can see we've been busy." James said.

Guard: "Go to the portal, we'll take it from here!".

James: "Let's go guys!". He called for his two friends.

The three run towards the portal at the top of the mountain. James is leading the way followed by Tomas then Patrick.

One by one, they jumped through the portal facing back toward each other whoever is next. This has been their jumping protocol since to make sure that everyone gets in the portal. When Tomas got to the portal, he stared at Patrick as the last one was grabbed by one of the dark guardians. He could see that a knife was stabbed at Patricks shoulder as he was held by the enemy then vanished into the air.

"No!" Tomas yelled.
James saw that too.

They watched outside the portal as the six guardians of Manta was being surrounded and defeated by a hundred more dark guardians.

Suddenly, the two felt horror. One they could have never imagined.

They dropped hard on the ground as they come out from an exit portal. They were in front of the cabin. Melvin and the old man helped them up and brought them inside the house.

The two can't still believe what they saw as they are sitting down on what seems like the living room of the house.

Fred is still unconscious and the old man is talking at the fireplace. They all can't believe on the turn of events. The guardians have been ambushed. The secret gathering was not kept secret after all. And they are yet to rescue Patrick from the enemy.