The Ancient Guardians

The Ancient Guardians (Wind, Chap. 2)

THE ANCIENT GUARDIAN OF WIND

Chapter 2

The morning sun was poking through the clouds, the sounds of birds could be heard and a smell of winter was in the air as a cold autumn breeze rolled by, numbing the bruise on my cheek. My dad hadn’t taken it well when I said I felt sick. It’s not that he didn’t believe me, more like he didn’t want me to miss school because of it. He even said he’d call the school after to make sure I had attended classes, so there’s no point in just ditching. I shouldn’t have said I wouldn’t come back. Damn! That was so STUPID! What was the point? It’s as if I had stopped thinking completely at that moment. That guy frustrates me so much I lose my line of thought when I talk to him. He’s just so... arrogant!

I was walking to school that morning as usual, getting ready for the barrage of insults and laughter at my expense which was inevitable. What wasn’t usual was that the sidewalk was empty. I looked behind me to see if there was anyone, but it was completely deserted. Suddenly I bumped into a wall because I wasn’t looking where I was going. I looked in front and was surprised, not because it was a person instead of a brick wall or because there had been nobody there a few seconds earlier but because of his appearance. He was standing well over 6 feet, maybe 6 and a half, and I could barely see his face as it was covered with a dark hood complete with the long dark cloak attached to it. His presence felt overwhelming, maybe he was angry. I apologized as best as I could: “I’m... sorry?” He didn’t say anything so I tried to walk past him, but he lifted his arm and blocked the way. I was getting annoyed. “I said I’m sorry!”

            He looked at me with a hard gaze and spoke with an astonishingly deep voice: “If you wish to change your life; to be free, then you only have to follow me.”

            What was he, the head of a sect? I stood there trying to make some sense out of what he said. Free me? Yeah right, nothing could free me as I was. Just as I was about to say ‘No thanks’ he turned his back to me and walked away. At that moment I figured that whatever this was, it was the perfect excuse to miss school. What do I have to lose anyway? I decided to follow the nutjob and escape humiliation. He eventually got into an old brown car, a nice collection piece for anyone with that hobby, and I hopped into the passenger seat. The seats were wrapped in leather and it had a clean non-sect smell to my relief. It must’ve been a luxury car back in the day it was made and the owner obviously took really good care of it; there wasn’t a speck of dust anywhere, the windows were practically invisible and the metal steering wheel was even polished to sparkles. Now this was a ride fit for freeing someone, however he planned to do it. I would’ve given him my regards on it but I didn’t want to break the silence. Even after we started moving I could barely hear the engine. Its sound was so smooth and relaxing. I really felt at peace compared to being in my sex-smelling room that wasn’t sound-proofed. After a while we arrived at a cliff side where the man stopped the car, I was almost sure I had been here before but I couldn’t remember when. The cave entrance was definitely familiar. The hooded man got out of the car, so I stepped out as well and followed him as he walked towards the cave. When he stopped I turned to face him. “Now what?”

            He kept looking at the cave. “Now...you go in.”

            “And what? You want me to take my shirt off? No thanks, I don’t run that way.”

            The man sighed. “You go in alone.”

            “Why?” I asked.

            He sighed a second time, then he took out a glowing green rock from inside his cloak. “Catch.” And he threw it right at me.

            By reflex I raised my hand to catch it, but it never came. I lowered my arm and noticed that the rock had stopped midway and was inexplicably floating towards the ground like a thin piece of paper. I kept looking at it as it gently landed. “What the...”

            “It only does that when it’s near you.” The cloaked man said.

            “How come?”

            “Because you can see that cave, it’s only visible to our kind.” He turned his stony gaze on me. “You want to be free, don’t you?” he asked.

            I didn’t understand anything that was happening; I didn’t know how a cave entrance could only be visible to a certain kind of people, I knew even less WHAT kind, and I had no idea how that green rock broke the laws of physics, but I knew for sure what I wanted at that precise moment. “Yes.”

            He nodded and handed me a weird wooden stick with an old cloth wrapped around the tip. “I can only explain this once. After you’re inside the tunnel, find the seven green crystals; they’re very small, the size of a fingertip. When you have them all in your possession go to the room at the end of the tunnel and touch the symbol of wind. At that moment, you will be granted more freedom than you can handle. The torch will light your way.”

            With the stick in my hand, I took a deep breath and walked into the cave. As soon as I was a few steps inside, the light from outside vanished, leaving everything pitch-black. Then what the man had called the ‘torch’ suddenly burst into flames at the wrapped tip, making me jump in surprise. It was impossible that the refracting light vanished so quickly. I looked behind me and saw nothing but a stone wall. It was as if it had been there the whole time, there was even mold on it. How much more weird could this day get? I’m now stuck in a dark tunnel of which only I could see the entrance, where I was led by a suspicious tall cloaked man who said I’d find freedom by collecting green crystals inside. Not to mention the torch that lights itself, which I have to admit is practical, and the floating green rock. It feels like I could read this out of a book. The only thing reminding me that any of this is real is my still throbbing bruise on my cheek. I was determined on finding those crystals though, that promised freedom is so tempting. I mean, the guy has already broken a couple laws of physics, why not free me while he’s at it? Would be like a walk in the park for him.

I started walking forward. The dimensions of the tunnel weren’t that big, my head almost scraped the ceiling and I couldn’t even stretch my arms out on the sides. The torch lighted the way pretty well, but its light kept dancing because there was a constant breeze in the tunnel that moved the flames. It was quite refreshing actually. Nevertheless, I kept on walking, keeping my eyes open for those crystals. After what seemed to me like a few minutes, I didn’t have a watch to tell precisely, I noticed something sparkle from the firelight on the ground. I picked it up and saw that it was like a tiny diamond with a green hue. I figured it was one of the seven green crystals I had to find. I put it in my pocket and continued on my way. I walked on and on, every now and then stumbling upon a green crystal here and there; they weren’t very hard to find, they were mostly lying on the ground, a few of them were on the wall. Eventually I found all seven of them and a few moments after I found the last one I came to a place where the tunnel opened up into a gigantic room. The room was shaped like a cylinder, the ceiling being so high I couldn’t see it with the light from the torch. The draft clearly originated from here. The man told me there was a symbol at the end and I had to touch it once I had the crystals. I went to the far wall and saw the two squiggly lines that I could only assume was a very primitive symbol of wind. Holding the crystals in my palms I counted them again to make sure I had all seven. Yep, seven crystals. When I lifted my hand to touch the symbol my arm felt heavy from my dire hope that it would really make me free. Right when I touched it things happened all at once. I felt a shot of energy through my arm which quickly spread throughout my body and the small draft suddenly became stronger as if a giant window had been opened. I felt the air circle around me but I barely noticed it because my whole body was rumbling as if a tornado was inside me. My feet left the ground and the air pressure prevented me from breathing. My vision turned green, then from green it turned white, and from white it went black as I lost consciousness.