Chapter 12 - Sanctum

Chapter 12 - Sanctum

A Chapter by Nataliya Maize
"

Disaster strikes Keira's home town, and as she is already torn between finding her mother, she also stricken with undying urge to find her family

"
Previous Version
This is a previous version of Chapter 12 - Sanctum.



 

    “Father!” Keira screamed as she ran out towards him. Her hands pressed against the sides of his warm, moist face. Her eyes searching for some sign of life, in his blank black stare. Oh god, what happened to you? Father?!” she yelled in despair. “What happened out there?” But there were no words to follow, her father couldn't respond to her questions other than a faint gurgle of noises heard from the mouth of the man's lifeless expression. Keira looked over the man, examining him for some sort of sign to answer her questions. Smoke, and soot covered his clothes, while sweat dripped down from his forehead to his lips, no doubt from the length of their travels. Quickly, Thomas and Maedoc rushed to the man's aid, hoisting him off from the horses back as they neared the entrance of Maedoc’s cottage. Rozlend dragging Phillip's half alert body in through the small opening of the door.

 


    “Quickly, get them some beds prepared, and bring them some water!” Thomas shouted as he dragged the limp body of the man over the threshold, Maedoc quickly following behind him as his tiny frame carried the man's feet above his shoulder without struggle, and Rozlend and Phillip followed tailing from just behind.


   

    “It's gone... It's all gone.” Phillip muttered in amazement as he limped his way in through the door, arm still wrapped around Rozlend's shoulder.

 


    “What? What's all gone? What is he going on about Rozlend?” questioned Thomas.


    “I don't know, he's been muttering that since I found him coming down the road.” Rozlend replied, plopping Phillip upon a freshly made cot.


    “My family.” Keira whispered to herself. “Phillip where is my family?” urgency rang in her voice, and she could feel as her body became quickly overwhelmed with anxiety.


    Rozlend sat the exhausted man up, his hand placed firmly against the mid of Phillip’s back, supporting him as he sipped from a the glass of water Keira handed him, still struggling to speak the words he wished to say.


    “I don't know...” he paused, swallowing another cool sip of water down his dry, parched throat. “I don't know what happened to them, they weren't there when I found him.”


    “What do you mean when you found him?”


    “The city... the whole city was up in flames... it's... it's all been burned down to a crisp. Everything and everyone in it... destroyed... so many colors Thomas, so many flames. The place was engulfed, the building... your home Keira.” He paused as his gaze turned towards her. “It was collapsing in all around us just as I managed to get your father out... we had almost no time at all.”


    “Where is my family though Phillip? Do you now where they are?!” Keira demanded.


    “I don't know!” he shouted, his head pointed towards the ground in thought, his hands squeezing tightly at the edge of the cot. “I don’t know... all I can tell you is that they weren't there at the time of the attack.”


    “We have to go back.” Keira interjected, a hard glare nearly piercing through Thomas as she spoke. “They could still be out there!”


    “Colors.” Thomas spoke softly; his words framed into more of a statement then a question.


    “Sylph.” Rozlend confirmed.


    “I don't know where they are Keira; I don't...” the man stopped to take a breath, sipping more water from his glass. “I don't know where your family is, I tried... I tried to find them, but there was no sign... no time left before the building collapsed completely, I was...” another hard swallow as he struggled to get his words out.     “Afraid, that if we stayed any longer we'd be trapped, or caught by whatever was out there. Neither one of us would have made it back, nor would I have been able to warn you- your faa... your father!” Phillip spoke abruptly, as if suddenly remembering something. “He's injured! There... on his chest, you have to help him, the wound is deep, I tried to bandage it but I’m not sure if it was enough!” he spoke loudly pointing to the man lying quietly in the cot beside him.


    Quickly Keira rushed towards him, kneeling down at her father's side, her face bone white as she nervously studied the area in which her father's left arm clutched, gripping tightly at his side. Slowly she reached out to pull his arm away from his chest, and there lying beneath his right arm lay a puddle of red, sipping through the fabric of the bandage and his stained clothes.


    “Father!” she cried out with shock, her hands held tightly against his chest as she attempted to put pressure against the ever flowing wound. “He's hurt bad! It's bleeding all over! Somebody help him! Somebody do something!” The man, moaned and twisted in discomfort. His face a grimace and turning paler by the minute.


    “Stand aside! Let me through, let me through!” Maedoc motioned for them to move as he rushed to the man's aid, quickly observing the large gash in the man's side. “The wound needs to be treated immediately.” he muttered. “Quickly! Thomas take her outside, I need to work!” Thomas, motioned for Rozlend to follow, and the two men rushed outside, as Keira followed closely behind. Her eyes still glued upon her father's agonizing expression. He was only slightly coherent, the man's face contorted with pain and discomfort as Maedoc attempted to treat his wounds.


#


    Outside Thomas and Rozlend stood motionless, their voices low with concern as Keira rushed outside to join them.


    “We have to go back there!” she shouted bursting through the front door of the tiny cottage. “We have to find my family! We have to! They could still out there! Several others could be with them! What if they're trapped somewhere, what if whatever was out there has caught them! We have to go back! My brothers, my sister... my...” Keira cried, the pace of her breath quickening, her heart pounding away in her chest with extreme intenscity, her hands trembling with fear, as the agonizing thought gripped her into a near hyperventilation.


    “Shhh... shh... shh... shhh.” Rozlend interrupted her outspoken thoughts as he pulled her close, hushing her in an attempt to comfort. His large, strong arms pulling her close into an unfamiliar grasp against his rock-hard chest, as she crossed her arms and pressed her hands into her face against her sobbing eyes.


    “Thomas, what if it's a trap? Rozlend spoke softly as he gently wrapped a solid grip around Keira's ears.    

 

    “The Sylph are probably swarming all over that place by now. Even if we do manage to get in there somehow, it's most likely that anyone that did survive the initial attack is dead by now.”


    Keira sobbed harder, as if Rozlend's grasp failed to block out the undeniable truth, tears flowing down her cheeks.    


    “It doesn't matter.” Thomas replied calmly, his ancient eyes studying the distant tree line, as a gentle breeze brushed through the length of his long silver locks. “Keira's right... we have to go back, there could still be survivors?”


    “And if there is?”


    “Then we need to figure a way to get them out to safety quickly.”    


    “Even if there are survivors and it is a trap, which it probably is, whatever attacked the city out there will be lead straight here! We'll be followed! And that's probably exactly what they want!”


    “We can't leave them all out there to die out there Rozlend... if we do... well... then we're no better than he is.” Thomas mumbled under his breath.


    “He? You think Azazel is behind all of this?”


    “The timing is perfect; he knows she's of age... he's... he's searching for her.” Thomas spoke softly, his eyes tightened with thought at his discovery, the words laid out as if he had found the missing piece to a puzzle. “It won't be long before he sends a search party out here to find her... if he hasn't already.”


    “The Sylph, on your travels down here... you think he sent it?”


    “I think we definitely weren't alone on our journey down here. But there must have been more than just the creature that followed, more than just the one that was fought off.”


    “But that doesn't make sense, Sylphs are destructive by nature, they don't calculate their attacks.”


    “No... they don't... but a shade could.”


    “A Shade? Wait, what's a Shade?” Keira interrupted. Thomas clinched his eyes shut tightly at the sound of her voice. It was obvious to Keira that the very thought of introducing her to more further danger pained him as he began to search for the words to speak. “Whatever it is, whatever 
your thinking, say it! I can handle it!”


    “Very well... shades are vicious... sadistic... merciless creatures, their very nature is unforgiving, and they will devour anything and destroy anyone that stands in their way. Regardless of how Sylphs -being as uncontrollable as they are, they are still no match against the powers of a Shade.”


    “Then how is it possible for them to control such creatures, if Sylphs are known to be untamable?”


    “A Shade's touch is filled with a very overwhelming, very excruciating sense of pain, so much so, that they can make you feel as if you only wish is to please them in order to escape it. And once a Shade has hold of you, it is nearly impossible to think with a rational, conscious mind. The pain of it’s touch is overwhelming and unbearable, but it will only vanish so long as the creature's needs are met, and so long as they decide to free you. This must be how they’ve been controlling the Sylph, a sylph's power is useless against a Shade, think of it as a sadistic way of mind control.”


    “Then what makes them so deadly?”


    “They have been giving the name “Shade” simply because they are as such, large, black, nearly transparent creatures, that can vanish as quickly as they appear. Appearing simply as nothing but darkness under the cover of a distant tree line, or the shade of a over hanging rooftop, almost unnoticeable, almost undectable, until it is too late, and you’ve become trapped within its claw like hold, swallowed whole by the darkness and it's large gashing teeth. Trying to catch such a beast, is like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands... it’s impossible.”


    “But you said it's almost unnoticeable. Then how do you tell, how do you distinguish it from the norm, if you're trying to search for it?”


    “Sometimes, you can find them looming in the darkness, like a haze, or an undulating mist. Other times, lurking in shadows, further hidden away from the knowledge of a human eye.”


    “Like the day we came here.” Keira whispered to herself.


    “What?” Thomas questioned, as he neared closer to her.


    “When you were asleep, in the forest, just before the bridge... on the eastern border, I saw something... like a slight haze, or mist. Just lurking beneath the shadows, like some sort of living, breathing smoke... right before the Sylph attacked. There was something about it that bothered me, but I didn't know what.”


    “I never should have let me guard down, I wont make that mistake again.” Thomas shock his head towards the ground. “Keira... I trust you know by now to listen to these instincts. They are more than just mere emotions, they are what make you, you. Wielders are ruled by their emotions, by their instincts, it's where their powers derive from, and the more you listen to them, the more exercise your abilities
-Keira, the next time this happens... I urge you not to hesitate, it could very well save your life.”


    “Then that's it, they know she's here. But why attack her home first, why not attack us?” Rozlend interrupted.


    “A scare tactic, he's trying to call her out, he's knows we're with her... he's toying with her.” Thomas turned back towards Rozlend, his eyes gazing up upon Keira's sober eyes. “Trying to use her emotions against her, he's trying to get her... to come to him.”


    Keira's eyes light up, half of her face still pressed into Rozlend's chest, her arms gripping her brother's shoulders tightly, as he looked down upon her horrified face.


    “You realize if we do this Thomas... we'll be followed, we'll have lead them straight here, straight to her.” 

  
    “No.” Interrupted Maedoc, his approach nearly unnoticeable. “We won't have to lead them here. We can lead them one of the other entrances, but we'll have to be fast about it.” 


    “Entrances?” Thomas questioned.    
 


#


    “I'm sorry for being so secretive old friend, but given the circumstances, I believe you would understand as to why I had to take such precautions.” They were standing inside the cottage, overlooking the fireplace as Maedoc turned towards it.


    “Maedoc? Where is my father? Where's Phillip?” Keira questioned with confusion, as she glanced back towards their empty cots.


    “I assure you, your father, and Phillip are safe.” Maedoc replied. His small green hand reaching out for one of the large river rocks that encased the cottage fireplace. He turned the stone clockwise until it seemed to snap into place, followed by a bunch of loud metallic clicking sounds, like gears turning and locking one by one into place. Until suddenly, the entire stone fireplace moved with a gentlest of ease from where it once stood, the fire still burning as if undisturbed, finally revealing beneath it a small secret passageway that lead somewhere further beneath the ground itself. Maedoc bent down and gripped upon a large metal handle, hoisting the wooden door, comfirming their thoughts as he revealed to them the long, narrow, stairwell that lead sure enough, deep into an underground passage.


    “Well, go on.” the tiny goblin gestured with his hand. “I assure you, it is very safe.” A slight smirk crossing his face as he gazed up upon the surprised looks of his fellow comrades. Still, they hesitated, and with a loud huff Rozlend made a slight gesture to them to follow as he began his descent down into the dark passageway without hesitation, while Thomas and Keira slowly followed closely behind.


    The tunnel seemed to stretch on almost forever, its depths creeping slowly lower and lower into the crust of the earth as they walked, lit torches were lined against the walls of the tunnel, lighting their path as they walked further down into the ever descending passage. The tunnel winded, and twisted, curving in various directions. At times splitting off into several different directions.


    “Maedoc, where do these other passages go?” Keira pointed.


    “Oh, don't mind those; they lead off to nowhere, just off to deeper darker pits traveling further into the crust of the earth. Traps in case any unwanted visitors happen to find their way into our tunnels. It's best to stick closely to the path; but if you get lost you can always manage to find a sign somewhere hidden along the way.”


    “A sign?”


    “Symbols really.” he replied, his tiny stub like finger resting upon two small symbols carved deep into the hard walls of the tunnel. One shaped like a small upside down triangle with a line passing through it, the other, lying upright with a line running across the top. “Ancient symbols of earth and air; one leading down, while the other leads up towards the ground level. There are several of them down here, if you look hard enough you can find them. This is how we've been finding our ways around the tunnels, but since these tunnels were laid here so many ages ago we've pretty much memorized the paths by now.”


    “We? You don't really mean just you and Rozlend do you?” Keira interrupted.


    “Well... I assume you wanted to know why I mentioned that “the hermit” wasn't exactly an accurate term for me; don't you?” he smiled. “Then I also assume you remember me telling you of how the kingdoms of our former leaders were destroyed? Well... this is what became of them. This is where they found sanctuary; this... is where they found home. Now, I apologize for all the secretiveness, and the sudden inhospitable manner, but...” Maedoc stopped and pulled out two red handkerchiefs. “Seeing as you two are unknown to these lands, I'm afraid this is the end of our tour, the council wouldn't appreciate me leading unknown newcomers into their city. And since the great diminish... well, you must understand that trust has become more then a serious issue down here these days. So... I ask you to trust me on this, and place these blindfolds over your eyes. Don't worry, I'm sure the council will come to trust you more quickly once I have explained to them who you are.” Maedoc handed the handkerchiefs to Rozlend, who secured them into place over their eyes. “Just... whatever you do, don't say a word, and try to follow behind... closely. Soon we'll be at the guard’s station, and they'll want to make sure you’ve reached your destination safely. Once we're there you’ll be able to remove the blindfolds. But for now... I ask that you please... have patience with me for just a little while longer until then.”
 



© 2009 Nataliya Maize


Author's Note

Nataliya Maize



Featured Review

this paragrpah confused me (who each character was)

"I don't know where they are Keira; I don't..." the man stopped to take a breath, sipping more water from his glass. "I don't know where your family is, I tried... I tried to find them, but there was no sign... no time left before the building collapsed completely, I was..." another hard swallow as he struggled to get his words out. "Afraid, that if we stayed any longer we'd be trapped, or caught by whatever was out there. Neither one of us would have made it back, nor would I have been able to warn you- your faa... your father!" Phillip spoke abruptly, as if suddenly remembering something. "He's injured! There... on his chest, you have to help him, the wound is deep, I tried to bandage it but I'm not sure if it was enough!" he spoke loudly pointing to the man lying quietly in the cot beside him.




but other then that, this is again a great chapter. I love how much you put into this. Its a great chapter and i keep picturing it as a movie lol :)

This review was written for a previous version of this writing

Posted 14 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.




Reviews

this paragrpah confused me (who each character was)

"I don't know where they are Keira; I don't..." the man stopped to take a breath, sipping more water from his glass. "I don't know where your family is, I tried... I tried to find them, but there was no sign... no time left before the building collapsed completely, I was..." another hard swallow as he struggled to get his words out. "Afraid, that if we stayed any longer we'd be trapped, or caught by whatever was out there. Neither one of us would have made it back, nor would I have been able to warn you- your faa... your father!" Phillip spoke abruptly, as if suddenly remembering something. "He's injured! There... on his chest, you have to help him, the wound is deep, I tried to bandage it but I'm not sure if it was enough!" he spoke loudly pointing to the man lying quietly in the cot beside him.




but other then that, this is again a great chapter. I love how much you put into this. Its a great chapter and i keep picturing it as a movie lol :)

This review was written for a previous version of this writing

Posted 14 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

The story continues to develop nicely. This particular passage has a nice ending with the blindfolds. Its kind of mysterious and gives just enough of a tense feeling to what is to come.
"Outside Thomas and Rozlend stood motionless, their voices low with concern as Keira rushed outside to join them."
This is an example of a really great line. A relatively short sentence but a lot is packed in here. Good job. You seem to have a well defined direction to the story. Is it finished and you are just transferring it here? The reason I ask this is that it seems nicely polished because the story doesn't seem to be wandering around at all. Its on track and moving smoothly.

This review was written for a previous version of this writing

Posted 14 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.


Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Request Read Request
Add to Library My Library
Subscribe Subscribe


Stats

17 Views
1 Review
Rating
Added on July 7, 2009
Last Updated on July 11, 2009
Previous Versions


Author

Nataliya Maize
Nataliya Maize

Moreno Valley, CA



About
- When we were young, and life was different - Check out my websites: My Twitter: http://twitter.com/NMaize A.N.A. Twitter: http://twitter.com/anaw.. more..

Writing

Related Writing

People who liked this story also liked..