Stories of Nativus

The Unbreakable Shield

You walk over to the light side of the library, lit up by Vitea Lux and picked a random book off of the shelf. The cover was dark green, and with brown lettering, reads one name:

Ajax

You flip to a random part of the page and scanned through the contents of the book. The title caught your eye and you dove into the story.

--

The class moved quickly through the forest, thunder boomed from the grey clouds overhead. The elderly teacher watched the sky wearily. "Hurry now," he urged. "We must make it back to the village before the storm." The class muttered their agreement and walked faster.

A young teenager in the back made sure no one was left behind, his eyes snapped up to the sky as thunder shattered the silent air. Rain began to fall, hard and with no warning. "Hurry!" The teacher shouted over the downpour. "The villages should not be far now. The young man jogged to catch up with the teacher. "Excuse me, Mister Sathora? Shouldn't we set up shelter somewhere?"

The teacher smiled warily. "Not to fear, Ajax, we'll be back to the village in no time. You keep doing what your doing and make sure no one gets lost."

Ajax nodded, but his concerns remained. The rain pounded at them with the force of the wind and he was shivering, for the rain had soaked through his tunic. Soon, the class had reached a large ditch which was the remains of a river after it was blocked by a dam.

"Make haste, class. Just follow the side of the ditch and we'll reach the village." Sathora said, but as he turned to tell his class as much, his foot slipped on the mud the downpour had created. With a shout, the elder tumbled down the ditch, scraping against the rocks as he fell.

The class cried out as they watched their teacher fall into the ditch. "We have to go help him!" Ajax shouted, snapping the class out of their shock. Sathora's body remained limp, but Ajax and some of his classmates slid down the sides of the ditch as fast as they could.

"Mister Sathora! Mister Sathora! Wake up!" Ajax shouted as he shook his mentor. He placed a shaky hand over the teacher's chest and let out a sigh of relief. "He's still alive, but we need to get him out of-"

"The damn is breaking!" One of the classmates cried. Unfortunately, he was right. Ajax looked down the riverbed to see the damn cracking and leaking with the added rainwater.

"The river's gonna drown us!" One student cried.

"We gotta go!"Another one urged.

"No!" Ajax yelled. "We can't leave mister Sathora, c,'mon, help me pick him up." With fearful glances at the damn, the students began to lift their teacher. Ajax took to instructing his fellow students as they carried Sathora toward the ditch side.

"Ajax," a student said, "the sides are too slippery, it's gonna take a bit and I don't think-" he was interrupted by a loud splash and the shouts of the other kids above them. The students turned and watched in horror as the dam fall apart and the river rushed toward them.

Time seemed to slow as the water flood the ditch and rapidly approached the students. Ajax looked at his fellow students and Sathora, his mentor, the old man who taught him to control his powers. Then he looked to the water, rushing at them to claim their lives, an unstoppable force to wash them away.

But it would be stopped.

Ajax suddenly fell into a quiet calm. He felt as if he was no longer himself, but rather a part of the earth. He felt stronger, sturdier, as he raised two hands toward the rushing river. The earth below him began to shake and as the cold river rose to meet him, so did the earth. Ground shot up from the ditch, rising higher then the ditch itself. The water crashed against the barrier and Ajax felt the impact in his bones. He yelled in pain and the barrier cracked, but it held strong because for the sake of his friends and mentor, he would not break. So the river crashed against his wall, sending pain into the very core of his being, but unless his friends were out of the ditch with Sathora, he would remain standing.

Ajax didn't know how long had passed, or how he'd managed to stay standing, all he knew was that he his class was safe and he was still breathing. He scrambled out the ditch after his classmates and only then did he allow himself to fall to his knees and slip into unconsciousness.

In the moment when the river came to drown them, Ajax made a vow:

He would protect this he cared about, even if it killed him

--

Written by Primal_Weasel

Host Notes: To make the pictures faster, I'm sending them though DA (usually i message my phone)