Forgotten Guardians

Josan walked down the century old rutted road, knowing full well only peasants and low land merchants used the dirt path. Only Lithens were allowed to use the stone road to the east, which suited Josan just fine, for he preferred not to draw attention to himself. This was the land of the “Stone Empire.” The Lithen people had come from across the great ocean and were carving a foothold in the mainland. They were an arrogant and egotistic people who thought all other races inferior to themselves. Josan had learned of them and their thirst for power back when he lived in the sanctuary with his teachers. There he had learned about the world in the safety of the library. It had been long time since he sat in that moldy old place, listening to the stories his tutor read him of the outside world. He missed it greatly. Abandoned when he was but a small child. The sanctuary was the only real home he ever really knew. Never again would a place feel more like home as the sanctuary once had.

It was late afternoon. The sun was blistering in the ending summer months, but still Josan wore his long black coat with the hood covering his eyes. It was better to be miserable in the heat than to have people run screaming from the sight of his appearance, he thought to himself. He ran a hand across his sweaty brow and dirty blond hair, hoping the heat would fade by evening. Josan looked down at his companion to see how he was fairing in the hot sun; the wolf seemed at ease as always. Every time Josan looked at his friend, he found new admiration for the animal: the largest wolf he had ever laid eyes on, almost the size of a newborn calf, with a coat that was so gray it shimmered like polished silver in the sun. Josan and the wolf had been together for many years. He never understood the reason why the wolf followed him, but he never complained either. Josan had met the enormous wolf the first morning after leaving the sanctuary. Awaking in the early morning, in a small clearing in the woods, Josan discovered the wolf was just sitting there, staring at him with crystal blue eyes. At first Josan panicked for he thought the wolf was going to attack him. With the sheer size of the beast, it would be difficult to overcome it, even for him, but the wolf did nothing except sit by the smll campfire and stare. Ever since that day they had been wandering the world together. Josan never named the animal, thinking that would be disrespectful toward his friend, so he merely called him Wolf. If Wolf wanted to be named something else, then Wolf would decide the name, not Josan. Josan may not have understood why Wolf followed him, but he had a good idea that they were connected in some way, especially due to both of their unique appearances.

The two travelers turned with the bend in the path just as a young woman came into view carrying a basket farther down the road, heading in the same direction as them. She was clearly a peasant, wearing a plain working dress and battered leather shoes which looked as if they were generations old. She was in her late teens, slender and fit, muscles toned and defined, probably from a hard life working in the fields. She was reaching full womanhood and had long aurburn hair running midway down her back. Josan could tell even from this distance she was Epongia, with the color or her hair and light skin. Josan remembered reading about them and their culture in the library. The Epongia were the people who had ruled this land before the Stone Empire decided to come and claim it for their own. The Epongia culture had lived a modest existence. Mostly a farming people without a real army, they had made easy prey for the outlanders. Now they were treated like slaves, working only to give away the fruits of their labor. They were not even allowed to carry weapons.

Josan decided to slow his pace a little until there was a good distance between himself and the girl. He did not want to startle her. A man dressed in all black with a gigantic wolf by his side would probably frighten her to death, or send her running to the nearest guard post. Drunken laughter brought Josan out of his thoughts as three Stone soldiers rounded the bend ahead. They were still far enough away not to notice him, but he could see that from their short stocky build and oily black hair they were pure blood Lithens. He reached behind his back and made sure his swords were clear of their sheathes. He wasn’t worried about these three. He could easily dispose of them with or without his magnificent blades, which he always kept strapped to his back in a cris-cross fashion with the hilts facing down. The swords were nicely concealed under his long coat with the rest of his arsenal. The swords were made and given to him by his mentor, after he had completed his training. The twin blades were crafted with precision and skill to be as light as the southern winds and as sharp as lava rock. The steel was made from an ancient ore only found near the sanctuary where he had grown up. The ore supposedly held mystical powers if legends could be counted as facts. Each blade had an inscription carved down the middle in an ancient language which only a few in the world could now read. There was only one other set of blades in the world like these and he was looking for them.

It was when Josan realized the soldiers were drunk and barely walking upright he grew cautious. They were making their way closer to the young woman, who now was only a few yards from them. They started yelling and whistling at her, she tried to ignore the rude comments as she walked passed them. Josan did not like where this was going. As soon as they passed the woman the three soldiers turned back and rushed her from behind, knocking her basket from her hands. She was easily outmatched by the three surly soldiers as they dragged her kicking and screaming into the woods. Josan sighed and thought to himself, “and we call ourselves the civilized species.” He looked down at Wolf and nodded to his companion before they both dashed into the woods after the soldiers. The two ran along the moist forest floor without a sound. Wolf ran off to the left and disappeared into the underbrush. After so many years of fighting together they had become an admirable team: it was as if each knew what the other was thinking. Josan slowed his run when he heard muffled criesin the distance. He stepped behind a tree and peered around the trunk. He could see the three soldiers and the girl. One man held down the woman’s arms, the second trying to hold down her legs and the third between her legs getting ready to ravage the poor woman. The woman kicked and screamed as the soldiers merely laughed at her attempts to ward them off. Josan turned away from the sight as he fought back the fury building in him; he pushed the darkness down within himself and focused on the scene before him as he was taught. He stealthily approached the group, making certain to stay shrouded in shadows and silence.

“Hold the little nurfer still, damn it, or you won’t get your turn,” the third soldier growled at his two drunken friends.

“Ooh, she is a feisty one she is, it will make it all the better,” the first soldier laughed.

Josan openly approached the group “Release her, now,” he said with a cold tone.

The second and third soldiers turned around to see Josan standing against a large oak tree. They glared at him with half conscious eyes. “Be gone, or we will have to cut you apart, ’nurfer.” Nurfer was the crude word used by Lithens to describe someone who was seen as inferior to them.

“Release the girl or find out who the real nurfer is here,” Josan demanded with a dark tone.

The three soldiers looked at one another and started laughing. They obviously were not used to being talked back to, especially by a lonely vagabond.

“Don’t worry,” the second soldier said waving to his friends, “I’ll handle him and I’ll take that nice coat of his too.” The second soldier stood up and unsheathed his short sword, while the other soldiers bent down to hold the frantic woman.

The man rushed at Josan with his sword flying wildly, thrusting sloppily towards his target. Josan easily sidestepped out of the sword’s way and grasped the man’s wrist as he passed. Snapping his wrist with a quick twist. The man fell to his knees wailing and trying to nurse his broken bone. At the sight of there injured commrade, the other two unsheathed their swords, yelled a drunken battle cry and rushed toward Josan, forgetting the woman. The third soldier came at Josan with his sword in a charge position. The first soldier started to run to join the fight when he heard a deep growl to his right and saw a blur of silver fur lunging at him at him from the underbrush. Enormous razor sharp fangs clamped onto his shoulder, knocking the solider from his feet. Struggling desperately to free himself from the beast the soldier kicked and punched at his attacker with panic stricken fear. Wolf released him and the solider scurried across the ground for his sword, but Wolf latched onto his leg and sank his fangs deep into the soldier’s milky white bone.

The third soldier was a much better swordsman than his friend, but still Josan only dodged his drunken attacks. The soldier lifted his sword over his head to drive a fatal blow. In that instint, Josan reached back and unsheathed one of his unmatched swords. The soldier brought his blade down only to meet another blade. On impact the soldier’s sword shattered. The soldier drunken stumbled back a few feet, bewildered at what had just happened. At that moment Josan took the time to see how Wolf was fairing. The gigantic animal had the first soldier by the arm and was about to rip it off as the solider struggled to reach his fallen sword. Josan quickly turned his attention back to the third soldier, now running at him with a dagger in one hand and the broken sword in the other. The soldier swung high with the sword and thrusted low with the dagger, trying to knock Josan off balance. Josan merely blocked high and maneuvered around the man, he grasped the back of the man’s head and slammed it into a tree truck, rendering him unconscious. From the corner of his eye Josan saw the second soldier with the broken wrist get up and stagger towards him. He had no time to waste with this one; Wolf’s man had gotten away and was scrambling on his knees for his sword. Like lighting Josan spun around, reached inside his long coat and produced a knife. With a snap of his wrist the knife blurred the distanced and firmly hitting the man between the eyes with the hilt of the blade. Before his man had fell, Josan was running to the remaining soldier, still scrambling on his knees for his sword and laid a solid blow to the man’s face with his boot. The man grunted and toppled over unconscious. Josan’s eyes flashed around the bloody scene to see two men unconscious and one dead.

During the commotion everyone forgot about the woman lying on the ground. Miranda sat there, squeezing her eyes closed, hoping it would all be over soon. When the fighting started she curled up and forced herself not to scream, praying they would forget she was there and leave. The fight seemed to last an eternity. She heard men cussing and screaming and the sound of steel ringing in the air. She didn’t care who won, she just wanted to be gone from here. She slowly grasped a pointed stick which lay along the forest floor near her. She pulled it towards her and held it underneath herself, ready to drive into anyone who got close enough. It was better than nothing, she knew she had no chance in fighting them one on one, but she could use the element of surprise to at least, take one of the attackers down with her. Then she realized that there was no more sound or movement. Hoping they all had left or had killed each other, she opened her eyes . Her breath failed her, a giant wolf sat on his hind legs staring at her. She quickly scurried backwards hoping she could find something stronger than a stick to defend herself with other than a stick. But the wolf did nothing; he just sat there with his cockedas if courisous. Movement behind the wolf cauht her attention, a figure bending over near one of the men. He turned to face scensing her eyes on him. “Ooh, wonderful, what now?” she thought to herself; she probably would have had better luck with the soldiers. At the sight of the dark man walking owards her she almost swallowed her own tongue. She must be dead, she thought. The figure is the “Gatherer,” come to take her to the afterlife. The way he made no sound while walking on the leaf and twig-covered forest floor and the way he held himself, he could not be human; he had to be from the underworld. He approached and knelt down next to her; she cringed in fear and thought of trying to run but remembered the wolf sitting in front of her.

“Are you alright, Miss?” the dark man spoke.

She looked up see a hooded man dressed in black. He was a tall slender man with light skin, so she knew he was not Lithen. She couldn’t see his eyes under the hood, only a few locks of sandy blond hair. He reached around and pulled a black cloak from his satchel. He moved closer and extended the cloak to her. She cringed backwards, only to realize her tunic had been torn and she was exposed. Embaresed she quickly crossed her arms in front of herself and hung her head.

“I will not hurt you, Miss,” he said with a tender voice as he stared into her almond eyes. They had the look of innocence, but strength at the same time. Josan thought. “Are you alright?”

He placed the cloak around her shoulders and moved back. As he extended his arms around her, Miranda got a glimpse under his long coat and almost gasped at what she saw. Handles sticking out of every possible place, more knifes than she had ever seen on one man in her life.

“I... I think so,” Miranda said nervously as she straightened her dress. She looked up as the man extended his hand to her. Miranda gracefully took his it, she could feel the roughness and course lines in his fingers and palm. This man might look like someone of wealth but she could tell that he had lived a hard life. He helped her up and she started to brush off her dress when she noticed the wolf walking towards them. She let out a small squeak and scrambled behind the man who had just saved her.

“Do not worry, he will not hurt you,” Josan said calmly.

“Is...That your wolf?” Miranda said without turning her head.

“He is my companion, not my pet. His name is Wolf. I promise he will not hurt you,” Josan said with a little annoyance in his voice for her thinking that Wolf was his property.

Miranda knelt down and extended her hand toward the large animal. Wolf slowly walked over and sniffed her outstreched hand. Content with whatever he sensed in her, he licked it. Miranda, half scared, half excited the wolf didn’t bite off her arm. She gently reached up and rubbed the wolf’s head, which he seemed to enjoy.

“Thank you very much for saving me, Wolf,” Miranda said kindly.

She stood up and turned to the man standing next to her. “Thank you, too... for helping me... I’m sorry; I don’t know your name.”

“Josan,” he spoke quietly.

“My name is Miranda,” she said soft and shyly, then she looked up into what she suspected were his eyes would be. “I thank you for your help, but I believe you have just endangered me and my family even more. When the Magistrate finds out about this, they will execute me in the public square.” From under his hood she could feel his eyes staring curiously at her.

“You seem very calm about being executed,” Josan said.

“Better being dead than living in this hell,” Miranda spoke boldly.

“I wouldn’t worry, they are drunk and probably won’t even remember you,” Josan said with smile.

Miranda returned the smile and thought it was a good theory. The soldiers probably couldn’t tell one village girl from another. She looked around to see her would-be attackers, so cocky and arrogant, now lying unconscious in the mud, which made her chuckle. This Josan must have great skill to defeat three armed Stone soldiers. To Miranda thinking, Stone soldiers were always the most skillful, unbeatable men. She had never seen anyone else use a sword or fight back against them.

“We should be leaving. They will wake up soon and I wish to be far away before they can get reinforcements.” Josan said.

Miranda nodded and started walking out of the woods and back to the road with Josan and Wolf following her. Once they got back to the road, Josan looked to see if anyone was near before they came out of the woods. With no one in sight they walked out into the open and started picking up Miranda’s things.

“If you’re hungry, I know my father would want to repay you for helping me,” Miranda said.

“I would be grateful, thank you,” Josan said solemnly.

Miranda stood, “I only live a few miles down the road. It might be nice to have someone to talk to for a change.” She said with a smile. Josan nodded in return.