3. The Vow
"Guardian Cedi, Dian has gone into the dark cavern by herself. She wants to prove herself as a Guardian."
Cedi heard Jaca as he came running to him. Damned, girl has overdone it this time. She is not of the quality expected of a Guardian and yet she takes such risks.
"Let me go with you." Jaca did not wait for Cedi' reply as he was grabbing the length of ropes and the lighted lanterns. Cedi assisted Jaca as they both know that the dark cavern is still unexplored and the reason for it was because he feared the spirits in it are restless. Cedi wished he had his father's Oracle but that is gone. It was then when his mind went back to Medi whom he just met some weeks back. His mind tells him to forget her but the heart aches for her. Cedi reached for the amulet hung at my neck given to him by Medi.
His mind slipped back to the present when they confronted the opening to the dark cavern. They all lived below ground in a series of large cavern that runs a quarter part of the distance of the valley. Down here they are made of their homes here where they are safe from the prying eyes of Man. No one except Elves knew of the caverns as they been hidden by Elves magic here. Other Elf Houses may find them if they know the magic to unlocked it but there are traps which the Canaan have set could injure them or alert if they failed. If that failed, there are also the Outposts placed in the Dark Valley to warn them. Besides that is the Guardian Camp inside the deep forest near the Dark Tower entrance.
Within these caverns, the Canaan build towers inside the caverns. There are five main towers in the caverns, with the main Tower of Dark in the center. Each of the five main towers reached from it base to the ground surface.
Unlike the rest, the main Tower of Dark reaches up above the ground to the five times the height of the trees. The upper exposed block fo the tower is concealed by magic from others although it stand above the trees. Below the ground, the bulk of the tower itself sinks in about a thousand feet below and at the base are more structures that holds the people. Below ground are the series of large cavern that interlinked by tunnels.
The Dark Elves of Canaan lived in the biggest cavern with the imposing tall tower that act as a pillar holding up the cavern ceiling to the flooring at the surface ground. There other four towers in the sub-caverns; these are the towers of the four main tribes who made up the people of the Dark Elves of Canaan. The four tribes are the Braven, Camlash, Shiven and Dina. The four tribes has come under the a united protection of one Canaan for over fifty years now, and they have flourish under Canaan. They claim to be Canaan when confronted by outsiders but within this caverns, they remain of their own identities.
The towers of the four tribes does reach the ceiling of the cavern but it only break to the top of the trees. The people of the clan only traveled to the surface by the tower for their need for food or to hunt, but they prefer to stay in the cavern on other times. The Dark Elves of Canaan is not a major clan unlike the Genoe as the people of Canaan are below twenty thousand, of which only six thousands are warriors. The rest are older generation and young ones below the age of manhood. The women do assist in battles but only as the last option while the men are trained to fight since young.
Jaca and Cedi ran down the Dark Tower and make their way to the dark cavern hidden to the far corner. They confronted the guards and they were told that Dian override their authority by using Cedi name. They only knew of it when the other apprentice came to asked them of Dian's whereabout.
"Fools!"
Cedi muttered as he followed Jaca into the dark cavern.
"Jaca, she is of mine. Let me go alone. I would bring her back."
"And who would bring you back, Cedi the Hunter. If your apprentice is half like you, I would say she may be still alive by now. If not, we would just be picking her body back for the ritual."
The dark cavern has a long narrow entrance walk in that later opened up to a few tunnels. They tried to explore it before when they had the Oracle. They did not go far as the orders was then given not to go in. They never did again. Cedi pressed for it, but the Oracle Keeper then was my father; he mentioned of restless spirits that refused to be controlled. He forbids us to go in again. Since we lost the Oracle, that part of the cavern was sealed from us.
Until now.
Jaca lit up the lanterns and tied the rope end to the pole at the entrance. Its an Elven rope and its tough to cut by any blade. They walked in as the lantern light up the dark passage. As they move further in, they find the flooring more difficult to walk on, as there was a lot of animal droppings and other sticky substances.
"Jaca, these are not really animal droppings. They smell differently and I can sense danger."
Jaca knows that well as he had stopped in his tracks. He drew out his sword and held it in his right hand while the other holds the lantern. They continue their trekking and then he kicked at something on the flooring. He picked it up and saw it was Dian's dagger. It has blood on the blade.
He tapped at Jaca and showed the blade. They hasten their steps and was soon at the places where the last explorer stopped. Its a small cavern but there are three tunnels in front of them. Dian could had taken anyone of the tunnels. Then they heard the scream and it came from the center one. Jaca and Cedi rushed in with no thoughts of what was there.
It was not what but whom they met; ghoulish looking elves or mis-shapen beings of Elves.
"Dark Elf, we had an arrangement. Why do you come to our cavern?" The creature is holding Dian with a crude dagger at the neck. There are about twenty of them and they are mostly naked except for the some tatters of cloth to cover themselves. The elves may be pale in skin colors but these creatures have wrinkled skin over their bodies. "Your councilor forbids contact and we agreed then that this is where we would live."
The Unwanted ones; the ones which we cast out of the House on being disfigured at birth. It was said to be a plague then and the Council voted for them to be removed. It was before I was born, and now I am seeing them. They were not outcast but banished here.
"She came by mistake. We are here to rescued her. Please let her go. We would give you gifts in return." Cedi asked of them but they refused.
"We are few and many have died in the past. Give us her and we would spared you." Their leader have spoken while Dian screamed out in fright. Cedi left the lantern he was holding to the side and drew out his sword. Cedi hold it with both hands and stepped forth.
"She comes with us or you die. So swear us; the Guardians." The mentioned of the Guardians agitated them.
"Guardians were the one who led us on our banishment. We tried to escape but they killed us who tried. I lost my son and daughter as I wanted them to have a more open life than here. It was also the Guardian who came last to promise us that no one would come here again. I bargain no more with Guardians." His dagger thrust into Dian's neck from the side and cut it open to the front. Dian dropped down writhing in pain but no sound came out of her voice.
"No!" Cedi shouted and was to charged at them when Jaca who stopped him. Jaca stepped in and held back Cedi arms.
"Cedi, you know the hidden laws. We cannot harm them. They are protected by the Council orders." Jaca reasoned with Cedi as he looked at the dead body of Dian. Cedi let go of his anger then and restraint myself.
"Let me take her back. She would be buried according to our ritual." But the outcasts stepped forth to prevent them.
"No, she stay with us. Her flesh would satiate our appetite." The leader leaned down to place his palm on Dian's bleeding neck. "Her blood is still fresh. Go away and we would feast."
They have become cannibals. This is an outrage on the Nation.
Cedi pushed Jaca aside and charged them. His first thrust pierced into the leader's chest in the center. Cedi twisted my sword and then pushed it down in a downward cut. Its spilled the leader's innards onto the flooring.
"Consume that, you bastards!" I shouted as the rest withdrew.
They then began chanting a name over their lips over and over again. Its sounded like 'Champion' and soon the one called on arrived.
He is a Elf like me but with a more pale look and wrinkled skins. He carried a cudgel with a metal piece sticking out at the heavy end and a wooden shield. He is tall and above the normal height and larger in size. He walked in and saw the dead bodies. He leaned down to picked at the spilled flesh and put them into his mouth. The giant as Cedi named him saw us and for some reason, maybe its their looks, he picked up the cudgel and slammed it against the cavern wall. It broke off a small chunk of the wall with the impact.
Cedi swing his sword at the giant which he blocked with the wooden shield. The giant then used his strength to pushed back with his shield on my sword causing me to fall back. Jaca attacked with his sword but the giant blocked off the sword with the cudgel.
Cedi went in for a low slash at the left thigh but the Giant slammed the shield hard on the swing. Cedi fell down to his knees on the contact and the Giant lashed out his left foot into Cedi arms.
"Jaca, he is strong and fast. We can't match him on those. We need a different strategy."
Cedi shouted to Jaca who find his attacked also blunted by the giant. Jaca nodded to Cedi and came to his side. They whispered their fighting mode while the giant bend down to eat the flesh of the dead leader.
Jaca took out the length of rope on his waist. He tied it to the hilt of his sword and used it like a whip. He swing its on top of his head and lashed out at the giant. The sword cut into the giant as he was still eating the flesh. The giant stood up in a loud scream of pain, and Cedi rolled forth to thrust his sword into the left knee. The giant fell onto its right knee and dropped it cudgel. It reached for the injured knee and Jaca swung his sword again; this time at the exposed neck. The giant saw the swinging sword and he turned his body to raise the shield to block the oncoming swinging sword. Cedi went in again with his sword but this time he thrust it into his left ribs and pushed the blade upwards.
The giant screamed out loud and then collapsed on the flooring in agony. Cedi wanted to go in for the killing blow but Cedi withdrew on seeing the rush by the others to the dying giant. They are like murderous mob as they jumped onto his body and tear away at his wounds.
They staggered back and then ran to picked up Dian's body. Cedi had to slash off one of those misfits who tried to tear into her wound. They pulled her back into the tunnel and then Cedi carried the body with him as they ran back to the entrance.
"Cedi of the Guardians, you are a failure. You entered the dark cavern without our permission and you risked the life of many with your action. More to it, you lost us a young warrior." Councilor Theni was sitting on the Council Board as its rotating chairman. He knows he has the power to revoke Cedi of the position but he held back.
"If not for the uncertain timers ahead of us; Man has waged war on Micha as I speak. Soon I was told that the House of Karen and Genoe may allied with Micha too. For that I cannot have my warriors being disobedient to orders." Cedi wanted to argue back but Jaca held him back. Jaca shook his head at Cedi and the other warrior took the advice. Cedi walked out of the Council Hall and went back to his chamber.
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