CHAPTER 47 – ANCIENT OMENS
The company found a trail behind the tree line where they picked up their weapons. It led further up to the top of the mountainside, not down. They were lost and had no choice but to follow it for now. Anilithion looked back. He was impressed at how far up they were. The foot of the mountains was a gradual slope covered in pine trees. Now that they were making their way to the top… the passage was becoming much more narrow and treacherous. The company climbed along the mountain in a straight line. At the back were Anilithion and Tron, and then Humbler, Kunezar, Bridger, Excelsior and Orion, all of which were following Mitakahn.
“How are we going to get up there?” asked Kunezar as he examined the rock-face ahead, “It’s far too steep.”
Excelsior was already busy harnessing Orion with a rope. The dog possessed the vertical jump necessary to scale the cliff-side. He landed on the next level and got a firm grip. Excelsior pulled the rope tight and slowly climbed up the cliff. Each warrior, in turn, grabbed a part of the rope and ascended with the support of Orion’s anchor. They slowly climbed up the large mountain-face, feet nearly dangling off the rock. Mitakahn let everyone pass by him as he stared out at the morning sun, trying to make sense out of what happened last night.
When Anilithion walked by Mitakahn, he gave him a comforting smile and pat on the back. Now last on the line, he watched as his friends climbed, one by one, over the top edge of the cliff. He looked around. The mountains had turned into a plateau for the last stretch to the top. Finally, he pulled himself up over the corner to see a temple.
Mitakahn looked around the whole edge of the plateau. There was no possible way up or down, no trail to be found. Without Orion, they would have been stuck. The temple sat on the easternmost peak of this mountain range. It was a glorious sight, glamorously plain. No vines or dirt speckled the walls, not withered nor worn.
The light tone of gray stone was faultless and polished. The roof was a wide triangle, perfectly symmetrical, with a seal. They could not see it in its entirety right now, as dawn still approached. Surrounding the entire temple were massive, perforated columns. In the twenty columns, sculptures of soldiers wearing rusted bronze armor were carved into the columns facing the group.
“I guess we find a way inside.”
“Any idea how?” asked Bridger as he sat on the stairs in front of the massive columns.
Before Mitakahn could answer, a pulse from touching the stairs sent a glimmer and a vibration up the steps and through the columns. Eight bronze-armored soldiers opened their eyes revealing darkness as black as night and emerged from the columns. They crackled and crumbled their open tombs as they pulled themselves out of the stone.
“Um…Mitakahn…what’s going on?” stuttered Humbler as the bronze-armored soldiers re-adjusted after their stony birth.
They now stood in a line reflecting their fleshy counterparts. Mitakahn unsheathed his sword, gauntlet cascading, and knew that this was not going to be a casual affair. His companions followed suit and armed themselves. The bronze-armored soldiers took out stone axs with bronze-metal blades on one end and sharp stony spikes on the other.
Bridger shot an arrow at one of them and it bounced off its stony head ineffectively. The bronze-armored company all turned their heads towards Bridger standing in the middle. Any doubt that these animated sculptures were non-confrontational was now obsolete.
“I think it’s a security system,” assumed Mitakahn.
The line of stone soldiers stepped closer and closer.
“How are swords supposed to damage stone?” worried Anilithion.
Their shiny hands held their weapons weightlessly, now close enough to detail. They were only but a little longer than a sword’s stroke away, bearing down hard on the hearts of Mitakahn’s company.
“Just stick together and fight defensively. We’ll figure it out,” instructed Tron.
The bronze-armored soldiers broke rank and attacked the company. They fought around each other one on one. Orion used his cunning to keep the sluggish stone sculpture occupied. Excelsior immediately studied the surrounding terrain for a natural opportunity. Some ways away he saw a large, rounded boulder sitting upon the dirt.
He crossed his swords, blocked another ax-swipe, and continued to parry slowly making his way over to the boulder. Orion, now feeling opportunistic, ducked low under another swipe of the ax, snuck around to the soldier’s backside, jumped up on his hind legs, and bit into the soldier’s bare neck. Orion nearly cracked his fangs upon contact with the stone, and with a whimper sprinted away from his opponent.
Meanwhile, Excelsior found himself right beside the boulderock as he intended. He let the soldier collide its ax with his sword and then locked it in with his other sword. When the soldier put all his might into the ax, it broke free, and continued its rage with the most powerful ax-stroke yet. The ax came crashing down towards Excelsior, but he jumped out of the way, putting his sword behind the head of the ax, right in the nook between the spike and the neck of the handle, and escorted the ax deep into the ground.
Excelsior stomped his foot into the back of the ax, putting it even deeper into the earth. The soldier released one of its hands from the ax and backhanded Excelsior in the face, throwing him to the ground. Excelsior got back up and shook his head in an attempt to hide his own pain. His head felt like it was splitting on the inside. The soldier was still trying to pry its ax out of the ground. Excelsior kicked into a sprint, jumped up, grabbed the soldier’s stone head, and smashed it into the boulder next to them.
The soldier’s head shattered on one side, and pebble-sized rocks rained down to the floor from what used to be its cheek. Excelsior took a deep breath, his plan nearly worked. He wiped some blood off his lower lip, but before he could properly enjoy the fruits of his effort, he heard the soldier pulling its ax out of the ground. Now the disfigured bronze-armored soldier charged towards Excelsior, unharmed.
Back at the group, Anilithion and Tron were fighting back to back. Fighting was a loose word to describe what they were really doing, which was mostly just blocking the ax-strikes from the bronze-armored soldiers. The group still had no idea on how to defeat them. Humbler, the only one taller and bigger than the stone soldiers, drove his sword straight into the chest of the soldier. It pierced through the bronze-plated armor, but upon hitting the stone, the sword snapped in half. Humbler was now weaponless.
He dropped his broken blade, and took dodgy steps backwards, avoiding the soldier’s deathly ax-strokes. Soon Humbler was at the edge of the cliff. The soldier’s advancement pushed Humbler’s heels off the side. But before the soldier could finish off Humbler, Orion came out of nowhere and hit the stone soldier with his shoulder, pushing it off the edge, narrowly avoiding Humbler.
Orion’s original opponent had caught up to the pup and as it came down on Orion’s back, Humbler caught the ax by the handle. The two struggled for control over the ax, and Humbler saw it as a good time as any to get away from the edge as he pulled back and forth with the soldier. Orion was afraid to help Humbler; after all, he only had a couple of weapons in his arsenal, one of which, his bite, was nearly shattered on his last attempt. So, he looked for his master, Excelsior, to check to see if he was unharmed. Before he could find him, the ground quaked in front of Orion and up from it came the bronze-armored soldier who he tackled off the mountainside. There was no beating these guards. It was virtually impossible. It was like fighting the earth beneath their feet.
Bridger had retired his arrow shooting but kept out his bow to use as a shield along with his sword. He was also struggling to defeat the stone-clad opponents. Everything he was coming up with was failing. Bridger resorted to a strategy of slowing chiseling away the soldier’s stony flesh. Stroke after stroke broke through the bronze armor and was slowly working its way into the soldier’s ax arm. But it was like cutting down a tree with a pocket dagger. It would take Bridger all day just to cut off the soldier’s arm. Even still, this formula served as the best idea Bridger could come up with, so for the time being he chipped away, until he could think of a better solution.
Kunezar and Mitakahn were staying close, for they were in the same predicament as everyone else. They had no clue as to what to do with these guards. Mitakahn was quite sure now that this was a defense mechanism of the temple. His reasoning was simple…they were impossible to defeat, yet not very aggressive attackers. Mitakahn just had to find the key.
He had to think of the one thing that everyone else overlooked. He examined his opponent up and down. The bronze armor was not very strong. It looked almost like it was only for aesthetic purposes. Mitakahn tossed his sword to his right hand and lunged his plated fist at the chest of the stone guard. Mitakahn’s metal-coated knuckles broke clean through the ceremonial armor causing it to fall to the floor. He tried the same armored punch, but his gauntlet bounced right off the guard. The stone was much more difficult to damage. So, if the armor wasn’t stronger than what it was protecting, what was the point of having it? Mitakahn was just frustrating himself now.
He glanced over at Kunezar. They both looked very similar, performing the same repetitive moves to keep the stone soldiers at bay. Mitakahn continued studying the stone soldier, besides the bronze and stone, the only other substance that the soldier consisted of was its dark shadowy eyes. Then Mitakahn thought of something. He slid his father’s hunting knife out from his belt, and on the next collision of sword and ax Mitakahn thrust the knife into one of the soldier’s eyes. As he pulled the knife out, the eye swirled up and exploded, bursting the bronze-armored stone soldier into a million tiny pieces.
“THE EYES! AIM FOR THE EYES!” screamed out Mitakahn without a moment’s hesitation.
Kunezar reacted first and before the stone guard could connect with his ax-stroke, Kunezar jammed his sword into the soldier’s eye. Just like Mitakahn’s opponent, Kunezar’s swirled up and exploded, nearly turning to dust. Bridger swiftly pulled an arrow from his quiver, and with a backspin plunged the arrowhead into the stone guard’s eye, pulled it out, spun back around, loaded the arrow in his bow with the soldier exploding behind him and shot the arrow into the eye of Orion’s opponent.
Through the dust of Orion’s vanquished foe, Bridger could see Humbler dueling with his opponent. He took the ax away from the stone soldier, snapped it in half over his leg, dropped the head, and shoved the long broken prong into the soldier’s eye. Bridger was slightly taken aback by Humbler’s primal fighting style, but then brushed it off, figuring he would be fighting exactly the same way without a weapon. Tron and Anilithion, blocking from their attacker’s axes, spun around each other, keeping their backs together, and lunged their swords into the other’s opponent’s eyes. All the stone guards were now defeated, all except Excelsior’s. When the group looked around they could not find him. Orion was the most worried of all.
The group quickly scattered in search of Excelsior. But before they could get too far, Bridger shouted out, “I found him!”
The group came together around Bridger, Orion rushing ahead of everyone, to meet up with Excelsior.
“We tried to find you,” said Kunezar as Orion rubbed his furry head up against Excelsior’s side.
“We found out a way to destroy the temple guards,” informed Anilithion.
“All you had to do was stab their eyes,” explained Mitakahn.
“Well, that’s one way…” scoffed Excelsior. The group looked around at each other and had a laugh.
“Why…what did you do?” asked Bridger.
“Go take a look for yourselves,” replied Excelsior.
The group walked towards where Excelsior had come from, while Excelsior and Orion went back over to the temple. After going down a short ridge, the group came upon a small pond. The pond had a quiet stream coming out of it that led to a waterfall that dropped water all the way to the bottom of the mountain range. Mitakahn, Bridger, Tron, Anilithion, Humbler, and Kunezar walked up to the side of the pond and looked beneath the water’s surface. There, standing on the pond’s floor, was Excelsior’s opponent, the bronze-armored soldier. Water-logged into paralysis, it did not move.
“Sunk like a stone, clever,” commented Bridger. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Just like Excelsior, to find a way of his own unlike any other…” remarked Tron.
“We should get back to the temple…” rounded up Mitakahn.
Everyone turned back towards the temple except for Bridger. He took out his bow and one arrow. Bridger used all his strength to pull the string on his bow as tight as he could. He twisted a loop with the string and haloed one end of his bow. The string was so tight it was cutting into the flesh on his hand, nearly drawing blood. But he successfully tightened the bow.
He pulled the arrow back with all his might until he could not bear to hold the arrow anymore. Bridger released the arrow and it cut through the pond’s surface without losing much velocity. The submerged arrow found its target and made contact with the sunken bronze-armored stone soldier’s eye. The eye swirled and exploded, and Bridger watched as the surface of the pond surged water into the air like a geyser erupting. The last temple guard was obliterated, and Bridger rushed back to catch up with everyone else.
The group returned to the front of the temple to find Excelsior and Orion sitting on the steps; Excelsior petting the hair on Orion’s head, and Orion licking a scrape on Excelsior’s knee. The group gathered on the steps and when the last of them landed on the bottom step, the stone columns trembled and slowly lowered into the earth.
“Looks like another security system,” said Humbler.
“Good insight, Humbler,” said Bridger sarcastically.
The group stared at the wall; there were no seams or cracks, no doors, or windows. Mitakahn rubbed the wall with his palm. It was cold. He pushed and he wiped its surface, but nothing happened. Again and again, he tried pushing different spots, all feeble attempts. Mitakahn walked back down to the bottom of the steps where the company was waiting, “We better set up camp, I’m tired and I can’t think of anything.”
The group took out their camping equipment. When they were finished setting up, they all sat down around a fire.
“We should try to get some sleep before the sun makes it impossible.”
“We could all use the rest.”
Finally, relaxed, Mitakahn got to thinking about the front wall. He scratched his chin as he thought. That is when he realized his beard was longer than ever. It had been several weeks since he left Zepathorum, and now his scruffiness was a testament to his exile. He combed his fingers through his beard and thought about his father, twirling the edges of his chin to a point.
Mitakahn thought about when he was a child. King Theomitus would put little Mitakahn on his shoulders all of the time. Mitakahn remembered playing with his father’s beard, most notably when he would give shoulder-rides to his younger cousins, Avalahna and Micilahnya, and the princess’ fingers would replicate the same subconscious twirling. It all kind of reduced down to the same sentiment. His fondness for facial hair had emerged in adulation of his father, at an early age.
Around the circle, Mitakahn was positioned so the front wall was directly in view. He had no idea what the conversation around the fire was about; he was too busy looking past them, rattling off ideas in his head.
“Humbler, you lost your sword in the fight?” asked Bridger.
“That’s right,” replied Humbler simply, “Must you always have it out for me, Bridge?”
“Relax…If you want you can borrow my sword for the time being, I do better with the bow,” suggested Bridger.
“Much appreciated, but I’ll make do,” declined Humbler.
“Going to crush skulls with your bare hands?” mocked Kunezar.
“Of course, stone or bone, Kones” Humbler put on the regional accent of his people, one he trained very hard to lose, “I’ll grind them to dust in me palms-”
“IT’S US!” interrupted Mitakahn.
“What?” a couple of them said at once.
“It’s us…Why do you think there were eight guards waiting for us when there are exactly eight of us,” eluded Mitakahn.
“I don’t know,” answered Tron for the whole group.
Excelsior sat quietly, sharpening his swords and let the prince continue his train of thought.
“How does that get us inside, Mitakahn?” asked Bridger.
“I propose that we all go try to put our hands on the wall. Altogether, at the same time…” recommended Mitakahn.
“That sounds too easy,” Bridger said, putting forth his opinion.
“It’s worth a try,” added Tron.
So, the group got up from the fire and went back over to the temple. They all stood in a line, like they were when they confronted the stone guards, and put their hands forward. At the same time, they all pressed their palms on the stone wall. Nothing happened. Everyone except Mitakahn turned back to walk down the stairs and return to camp.
“Mitakahn,” said Anilithion when he noticed Mitakahn had stayed, “It didn’t work.”
“I think,” Mitakahn cleared his throat and said louder, “I think we all need to do it!”
“We just tried that,” said Kunezar.
“It’s late, Mitakahn. We’ll try something else after we all get some rest,” reasoned Tron.
“No, I can’t wait any longer! I have to get in there! We didn’t try everyone…”
“What are you talking about?” Bridger was starting to get frustrated.
“He means Orion,” interpreted Excelsior, “He thinks we should try with Orion.”
“That’s ridiculous,” scoffed Bridger.
“There were eight guards,” repeated Anilithion, supporting his cousin.
“How ridiculous is that?” seconded Kunezar.
“If it doesn’t work we call it quits and try again at noon,” mediated Tron, being the group’s voice of reason.
“Agreed,” said everyone except Excelsior and Mitakahn.
Once again they all returned to the wall, this time with Orion at the end of the line next to Excelsior, who was right next to Tron, then Anilithion, Mitakahn, Kunezar, Humbler, and Bridger. They all placed their right hands on the wall, except for Mitakahn who placed his left hand, and Orion jumped up on his hind legs after a look from Excelsior and landed his front paws on the wall.
The wall sunk in where they pressed against it. The ripples swam to every corner of the surface and turned the stone into a mirror. The group took their hands away from the churning wall as various swirls emitted from the center. The swirls shot out from the middle spiral and showcased before each one of them, exactly where their mirrored eyes were; sixteen tiny whirlpools for sixteen eyes.
The first two were before Mitakahn. They formed into shimmering crystal spheres. One was pure white and the other was pure black. Together their static blended them together to form a perfect gray. As the gray formed next to him, down the line formed two red crystals, two orange crystals, two yellow crystals, two green crystals, two blue crystals, two indigo crystals, and finally two violet crystals: each warrior displaying a different color and representing a different part of the spectrum. The colors all swirled together to create a spinning rainbow that fluidly blended together into a reflection. The wall trembled and shook like the pillars before and pulled up from the floor. They marveled at the temple’s miraculous mechanics. The giant mirrored wall vanished into the short roof as it was being raised.
Behind the wall were two gigantic stone doors. The doors were so big they were almost the entire size of the wall, and practically looked like the wall had now split into two halves. But they were just doors; they were made of slightly darker stone and outlined in very dark chrome metal. There were no door knobs or handles. There was only an airtight crack down the middle. A loud snap seemed to have released a concentrated gust of air through the crack, activating the temple. The giant slab doors started to move slowly, they peeled back and slid open.
The company stood in awe. Mitakahn stepped inside the doorway. A spark ignited in the front corner of the room and fell into a canal of oil, lighting torches along the temple walls. The rest of the company followed behind Mitakahn and entered the temple. They split up and looked around the room. It was not a terribly big place. Large murals and curtains covered the four walls. Within the room were large wooden tables with unknown treasures resting on them. They were all too afraid to pick up or touch anything in fear of setting off a trap or initiating another test.
“Look at the paintings, look at this one, it looks like the legendary battle at the southlands gate,” pointed out Kunezar. They all scanned the stories told by the murals on the walls.
“I think I know where we are,” Excelsior blurted out.
“Where?”
“This has to be the Temple of Virtue.”
Mitakahn began putting it together in his head while they talked it out aloud.
“The Temple of Virtue was built by Patronalus.”
“Which means…”
“The FireSword could be here!” Mitakahn proclaimed.
Everyone started looking around for any artifacts or weapons. Anilithion noticed there were ten torches that did not light like the others. He grabbed one of the lit torches on the wall and began to ignite the remaining ten.
“Everything in the room kind of points to the door right here,” said Mitakahn, thinking out loud.
Tron and Bridger walked up on both sides of Mitakahn to examine the spot he was talking about.
“There’s no door, Mitakahn,” corrected Bridger.
“I know, but there has to be, look, there’s no shelves or paintings here.”
“Everything in this room does seem to point to this spot...”
Bridger walked away in search of another door or room. But the room was enclosed. In fact, when Bridger turned around from where Mitakahn was standing he had noticed that the front doors had closed and resealed. In better judgment, he decided not to say anything. That way, no one would get worried or claustrophobic, especially Excelsior, and they could all concentrate on the task at hand.
“I don’t think we’re going to find the FireSword here, Mitakahn,” admitted Kunezar.
“Have a little faith,” snapped Tron back at Kunezar, “We just got here.”
“It looks like no one has been here for a very long time.”
As they tried to figure out the next puzzle, Anilithion lit the last of the ten torches. The room turned on, and the floor began to separate into a sequence of pieces.
“What’s happening!?”
The pieces rotated around the room and sank into the ground, one by one, as if the entire room was a gigantic locking mechanism.
“What did you do, Anithilion?”
Each warrior looked at the other with a face of terror and uncertainty.
“I don’t know!”
Mitakahn, the only one standing on a part of the floor that was not detached or moving, watched as each one of his friends fell into the dark abyss of the temple.
Excelsior immediately jumped off his piece, onto Orion’s landing, and grabbed a strong hold of Orion as they fell with their collapsing platform.
“No!” screamed Mitakahn and then he turned to face Tron as they both knew… he was the next one to fall into the darkness, “Tron…”
After that, Kunezar and Bridger’s pieces fell simultaneously. Humbler tried to cling onto the walls, but he couldn’t keep a hold for long. One of the torches he was holding onto snapped under the pressure and his platform cracked, falling into the darkness. The treasures and artifacts stayed stuck on the tables as their pieces of the floor snapped and plunged into the abyss. The last piece, which Anilithion stood upon with quivering legs, was orbiting around the now empty room, about to pass Mitakahn.
“…Ani, when the platform passes… jump onto mine and I’ll catch you!”
“I don’t know if I can, cousin, it might not get close enough.”
Just then, the platform started to sink like the others. It passed by Mitakahn, as Anilithion’s fingers slipped by Mitakahn’s hand.
“Jump Ani! Jump quick!”
The platform made a loud snap and Anilithion plummeted into the darkness with the rest of the fallen company. Mitakahn slid his back down the wall and sat defeated on the floor, thinking all of his companions were dead.
“What have I done!?” he chastised himself. He buried his head into his arms and grieved inconsolably. Now that he was all alone he had no problem crying like a child.
“I just led my friends to their death! I’m such an idiot. How could I be so foolish to believe this would actually work? What is wrong with me!?”
Mitakahn was sick of himself. He wanted to cause himself harm, to do some real damage, to suffer like the rest of his company just did. So, he slammed his head back repeatedly on the stone to feel pain, to feel something. The wall behind him clicked and slid up. Mitakahn was right all along.
There was a secret door.