Guardian of Elements

Chapter 29 - To harm an immortal

Kate knew how easy it was to get lost in the forest of wonders. She had memorized the direction in which she saw the moving trees, but she didn't know how far they could be. She found the opening in foliage through which the wounded ent entered the meadow and went onwards. She was finding their size impractical. How could they protect the forest if they couldn't even see threats through treetops? Another question for Tawarthion, once she would find him.

Suddenly, she heard a very strange roar. She looked to the right, just in time to see a feline creature that was running to her. She crouched in place and the animal jumped over her, transiting unnatural distance, and turned to her when it landed. Kate could see that it looked much like a tiger, but it had four strange fin-like ears and little wings on its back, which were probably allowing it to glide only. But then, it did something unexpected. It spoke.

"Stay here," it said, and Kate recognized Tawarthion's voice. It was being controlled by the Guardian.

The animal turned away and continued on, now being pursued by Kate, who didn't even consider listening to it. She knew that the Guardian was probably fighting and summoning animals to help him, like he was when he freed her. She wanted to help him too, as she helped the Guardian of Souls before.

They were just running through a patch of blueberries the size of plums, when the tiger stopped. Kate caught up with it, but it wasn't paying her any attention. It was standing like a statue and staring forward. Kate looked that way and saw a green wave of energy, closing rapidly through the forest. The animal didn't attempt to run, it wasn't moving at all. She cowered in place and bent down her head as the wave of particles passed through. It didn't hurt her, however when it went through the tiger next to her, it pulled the same green dust energy out of it and the animal collapsed without a single sign of life.

Kate quickly jumped to it, but before she could touch it, the tiger's body lit up with white energy, and then, it melted and flowed into the ground. Several bird-like creatures suddenly fell from the sky like white glowing meteors and went straight into the ground without stopping. She was startled. Whatever was that wave's origin, it couldn't be good. She had to get to Tawarthion, and fast.

She went on in the previous direction, hoping that the tiger was really answering the call of its Guardian. Soon, she could see some signs of a fight. Long and thick tendrils were coming out and into the ground, as if stopped in motion, and there were holes in the soil. She saw several half-buried humans. What happened here? She made her way through several thorny bushes and found herself staring at a scene of horror.

Maybe ten human corpses were scattered around, some still in the grasp of vines. And in the middle, her godfather was lying, motionless, with a long spear in his side. „

Kate was frozen with terror. She was having flashbacks about how she found the wounded deer back in her forest and how Tawarthion came and healed it. This could not be true.

She ran to the body of the wounded Guardian. He was still breathing, but he wasn't showing any response to Kate's desperate calls.

She knew she had to act fast. The spear was stuck in Tawarthion's left thigh. It wasn't that deep inside, but apart from blood, there was green energy, seeping out of the wound. This wasn't good. He was probably letting his power flow through his body and when the spear hit him, the energy exploded out, she thought.

But that wasn't important now. She remembered the deer again. She had to do what she did back then. She picked up the spear with her jaws and carefully pulled it out. Tawarthion didn't move at all, he was deep unconscious.

Now, she had to clean it. Back then, Kate didn't have any water, but now, she conjured an orb from air with ease and slowly moved it on the wound to wash away the blood. The scene was horrifying, but her fear of losing her friend was stronger.

She let the orb drop on the ground, but the bleeding hadn't stopped. She knew she had to do something about it and she got an idea. She conjured another water orb and made it descend on the wound. When it was covering it whole, she froze it. The ice attached itself to Tawarthion's skin and colored red, but it really managed to stop the wound from bleeding.

But what now? The Guardian of Nature was still unconscious, and his shape wasn't getting any better besides that. What could she do? It was him who was capable of healing others. She had no such power and even if she had, she knew it would be useless. Tawarthion could never heal her. What? What could she do?

Like a flash, a memory of Verilion's teaching appeared. No, he couldn't heal her, but he could heal himself. Maybe his pure power could heal him.

It was her only chance. She heard some stomps approaching, as ents were making their way to the clearing. They would be here any minute and the Guardian of Nature didn't have much time either. And that posed another problem. How could she get him there in time? It was on the other side of the forest and she wasn't sure if she could even lift him up. Once again, her memory served. She remembered one insignificant moment from her mother's memories, when she raised her on a small chunk of earth to carry her to bed without waking her. Yes, that had to work.

She positioned herself by Tawarthion and then slowly tore out the ground they were on. It proved more difficult, not only she had to keep it steady and balanced while she was standing on it, but she had to keep it from falling apart too. It was like balancing on an ice float. She had to use the same trick as her mother used on Raya, because Tawarthion's Shard would not let her control the earth around him, so she had to grasp the earth around that radius and hope it wouldn't fall apart.

When she got the hang of it, she slowly made the chunk lean forward and moved it. It worked. The earth was moving more or less intact, and when she found balance between safe speed and angle, she left the clearing.

Immediately, she found it hard to navigate between trees and undergrowth. So, when she had a chance, she found an opening in the treetops and carefully ascended above the forest. It was scary and unnatural for her, and she also felt her power escaping her rapidly, but she looked around, found the meadow with the Fountain of Creation and she headed that way, not caring about the fact that she just invented a way to fly.

Tawarthion was still motionless and he seemed to stop breathing when they were descending to the meadow. Kate jumped off and almost collapsed from a sudden lack of strength. But there was another shock waiting for her. The lake of power was almost empty. When Tawarthion got wounded, his power escaped out of his body, leaving just a small pond at the bottom of the crater, revealing its bare sides made of pure white quartz.

Kate hoped it was enough. She couldn't imagine losing another Guardian, losing her friend. She lifted the stone with him again and pushed it into the crater, and then submerged it into the white fluid. For a few seconds, nothing was happening. But then, she noticed that the pond was getting smaller. The power was being sucked in. And even thought it was disappearing, it was getting brighter and brighter.

Glow of Tawarthion's Shard enveloped the crater. Charged with pure power, it was shining like a star. It spread that glow over his body, like with the ent before. Then, there was a white explosion.

When Kate regained her sight, the Guardian of Nature was standing at the bottom of the empty lake, looking up at his savior.