The Glass Fields

A woman brings her child to the holy lands for the first time.

“Mother, how much farther?” the boy whined, pacing with excitement through the desert sand around his mother.

            “Not long now, my sweet. You can see them just over the next rise.” She couldn’t help but smile, watching her son. The pair had separated from the other nomads a few days ago and would meet back up with them in a few more. They had been planning this trip for weeks and she had never seen him more excited. Not that she could blame him. She had reacted the same way when her mother had brought her to the Fields for the first time. They really were a sight to behold.

            As they approached the crest of the final dune, she stopped him with a hand on each shoulder. “Now, my child, before we go further, what must you remember?”

            The boy sighed. She had only told him a million times. Imitating the voice of his mother, he said, “I will be tempted to play on the Fields. But I must not, for they are the Sun Sentinel’s sacred grounds and must be treated with respect.”

            His mother chuckled, pointed ears wiggling as she did. “Alright then, my son.” As they crested the final dune, she gestured to the land beyond. “Welcome to the Glass Fields.”

            The boy gasped. His eyes went wide and his jaw slack. And he was smiling from ear to ear. The ground gleamed in the midday sunlight, oranges and greens and reds and blues and a thousand other colors mixing and coalescing into a beautiful landscape. The Glass Fields of Lo Ki’Lumin.

            As the pair descended the slope, the sand became less and less until, finally, they stood on solid glass.

            The boy looked around. Stood on his tiptoes. Looked as far to the horizon as he could for anything not made of the gleaming glass. There was nothing. How could a place like this even exist? He asked his mother as much.

            She smiled. “Come,” she said, and began walking.

            The boy scurried to his mother’s side, all the while looking about in wonderment.

            “Would you like to hear the story of how the Glass Fields came to be?”

            The boy nodded enthusiastically.

            Taking a moment to collect her thoughts, the mother began:

            “Hundreds of years ago, the Continent was at war. It was a war of many things. Riches, land, power, loyalty. And at the center of it all were the Sentinels. The divine protectors of our world and the magic it holds. Many battles were fought. Cities destroyed. Lives unfairly taken. And on the Glass Fields, back when they were not glass, but sand, took place perhaps the greatest battle of them all.

            “The Sentinels are all incredibly powerful mages. The feats they can perform beyond what most people would think possible. And foremost among them was the Sun Sentinel, the embodiment of the sun itself, and who holds dominion over heat and flame. At that time, he also happened to take the form of a Ki’Lumin, like us,” she added with a wry smile. “The enemy, meanwhile, outnumbered the Sentinels’ forces greatly. Yet they fought. Day and night, sandstorm or sunlight they fought, while the Sun Sentinel prepared. He bathed himself in flames for weeks. Until, finally, he emerged from the front line and unleashed his Wrath. It is said that this show of power was so absolute that it blinded those who looked upon it and turned the very clouds to ash.

            “When, at last, his Wrath left him, the Sentinel stood alone. No friend, no foe, merely a vast landscape of molten glass. They say the Fields burned for a hundred years. The Sentinels, meanwhile, disappeared. When Lo Ki’Lumin was unified, the Glass Fields, now cooled enough to walk upon, were declared the sacred grounds of the Sun Sentinel. In fact, it is said that a temple built in his honor yet resides here, buried somewhere among the glass.”

            The pair walked in silence for a time, before stopping to rest beside a smooth-rimmed crater that was once an oasis. Despite their light complexion, the pair, being Ki’Lumin, were fairly resistant to heat, and so only covered in a thin sheen of sweat.

            “Mother,” the boy said as his mother put together a small meal from her pack.

            “Yes, my son?”

            “What happened to the Sun Sentinel’s friends? When he smited his enemies, did he�"” The boy paused a moment, staring a hole into the glass. “Why did he smite his friends too?”

            “He did not,” she said, patience in her voice. “They knew full well how the battle was to end.”

“Then why did they do it? Didn’t they have families?”

“They did. But they were loyal to the Sun Sentinel and their cause. More than that, they had faith. Faith in the Sentinel, faith that their sacrifice would help win the war, faith that those who came after them would make the world better than it was. And through their sacrifice, the enemy was defeated and the Continent rebuilt.”

They sat in silence for a moment, the boy thinking about what his mother had said.

“There is a lesson to be found in this tale. Can you guess what it is?”

After a few minutes of quiet thinking, the boy shook his head.

“No? Well then I shall tell you. There will come a time, my son, when you will need friends like the Sentinel’s. When the world will throw everything it has at you, and you will need people who would give their lives for you and who you would give your own life to protect. It may not be a battle, like the Sentinel and his friends, but you will need friends that will pick you up after you have fallen.” With that, she stood up and reached her hand out to her son. “Come now. We must leave soon if we are to meet the rest of the group.”

The boy took his mother’s hand and stood up, groaning softly. He didn’t want to leave the Glass Fields yet.

“Do not fret, my child. We will come back next year. But for now, let us be on our way.”

The boy nodded and the pair walked together in silence. His mother had given him much to think about.

Author's Note

As always, reviews, comments, questions, concerns, are all greatly appreciated.