Post by Luna on Aug 31, 2006 4:11:24 GMT -8
This story I have never put up before and might soon remove it if I decide I don't like it again. Just a warning, it's really long: 23 pages in Word. My brother I think is the only one who has read it >.< ACK! it's too long lmao! I'll have to split it....
--~~--
Jinta had been training for this for years. Now, finally, she was ready. The scientists had made a great discovery; they’d found an inhabited planet and named it Z-265. Unfortunately, it was primitive life but life all the same. It proved that there were other beings in the galaxy besides Homo sapiens.
Jinta and her cousin, Taylor, were chosen out of thousands to undertake a voyage to this planet to gather information about the planet and its inhabitants.
They were now insight of the planet. When the captain gave the order to land, they were extremely surprised at what they saw. Almost the whole planet was covered with trees. Jinta expected this, but what she was not ready for were the wooden bridges and huts that ran from tree canopy to tree canopy.
After safely landing in a meadow, the crew of the ship would stay and protect it while Jinta and Taylor went exploring.
Stepping out of the ship, with spare clothes and the supplies they would need in a knapsack and a dagger each in their belts, the pair started off towards the tree huts in the hope of finding something there.
Walking all around the tree-city, their eyes were forever searching the canopy above for some way to ascend.
Suddenly, Taylor pointed up, but he didn’t say anything, he rarely did. Looking in the direction of where he was pointing, Jinta saw two men. She could have sworn they were elves but she found that hard to believe, as she knew elves didn’t exist. They were holding what looked to be a rope made out of bark strands with a metal grappling hook on one end. The people dropped them. Taylor caught his before it hit the ground, but Jinta missed. Upon picking it up she examined it.
Someone above yelled something to them but Jinta couldn’t understand the language.
Looking at Taylor, Jinta saw that, as always he was one step ahead of her, already throwing the hook end of the rope up to the bridges. He missed but tried again and this time, with a reassuring thump, the hook lodged itself into the gaps in the bridge. He looked to Jinta and smiled, encouraging her to try.
It took Jinta longer than Taylor but eventually the grappling hook caught.
It was hard work climbing the rope but, sweating and panting, they clamored onto the bridge. The people that threw the rope down were gone.
“Put the rope in your knapsack. We may need it later,” Jinta told Taylor.
Then, looking about them, the two of them started walking around. Taylor was drawing a map so they could learn their way around more easily and Jinta was collecting plant samples so she could test them back at the ship.
A rather tall man came up to them. He beckoned for them to follow. Upon seeing him close up Jinta saw her thoughts confirmed. He had the pointy ears and sharp-featured face that was always associated with elves.
Jinta and Taylor followed him. Although Jinta had stopped collecting her samples, Taylor continued drawing his map.
Before long they reached a rather large hut with what looked like three compartments or rooms and an animal skull, with colorful feathers protruding from behind it, attached to the wall above the door.
Their guide gestured for them to enter.
Stepping inside, Jinta immediately noticed the lack of natural light coming into the room. As her eyes adjusted, she saw an extremely plump elf sitting on a large high-backed throne. Jinta also found this rather weird, considering all the elves in fairy tales were tall, light and nimble. This one had none of those features. A young, blonde elf stood beside him. There were incense burners hanging from the roof on either side of the throne.
Fat-elf spoke first, but, as with the other elves, it was in an unknown language. Jinta may have had no idea what he had just said but Taylor’s eyes lit up when he heard him speak. Obviously Taylor understood what was being said, as he often did, his specialty being languages, which annoyed Jinta no end because, although Taylor could recognize a lot of languages, he had a lot of trouble speaking them.
Reaching into his knapsack, Taylor pulled out several pieces of paper and pens and started writing. Usually for Jinta he just used sign language but these folk may not know it. After he had finished, he gave it to Fat-elf. While he was reading it Taylor told Jinta, through sign language, that the elves spoke Latin and wondered why they had came. He had answered with, ‘We are explorers from another planet and wish to learn your way of life. I am Taylor and my companion is Jinta.’
Jinta was also glad that Taylor knew the language because this meant that she could now learn it. She usually picked languages up pretty quickly but had never cared to learn any. She had found linguistics quite boring.
Fat-elf was talking again as he handed Taylor’s paper back. He listened and wrote down his reply on paper. This went on for some time and Taylor kept on translating for Jinta through sign language.
“Why does your companion not speak? And why do you only answer on paper?” Fat-elf asked.
‘She does not know the language and I have never been able to speak clearly,’ Taylor answered
“What do you want to learn from us?”
‘Purely how you live and what you are like. It would help us greatly if you could provide us with a place to stay for a few days while we make our observations.’
Fat-elf seemed to regard them for a long moment before asking, “Is there anything else you would like?”
‘Merely free exit and entry in and out of your…’ Taylor struggled for the right word to write down, not sure whether to call the place a city or village. ‘village,’ he finished.
Wrong one. Fat-elf laughed and said, “Soon you shall see how big this ‘village’ is,” and he waved them out.
Soon after they left, the young elf that had stood by Fat-elf without saying anything throughout the whole interview, came out and asked them to follow. He led them to a small hut. Inside he introduced a young elven woman and explained that she was his wife. He asked if they would like to reside here for their stay. Taylor translated this to Jinta and allowed her to answer, as she was the commander of this expedition. She nodded. They were then shown where they would spend the night and told they could do as they wished until the bottom of the sun hits the horizon. At this time the house would be closed and locked up and they would not open it for any reason.
“Did you see all the strange items on some of the shelves? All sorts of oddities,” Jinta asked as soon as their host had left.
Taylor nodded. ‘I’ve read about those items in some sort of book. It was about purifying your spirit and stuff like that. They’re instruments you need to call upon the elemental spirits or something similar.’
“Weird. I wonder why they lock up so early?”
‘I don’t know. What I do know is that I should start teaching you Latin.’
Jinta nodded. It wasn’t that she didn’t think that her cousin wouldn’t be able to or want to keep on translating for her but she would like to know what is being said herself.
Jinta spent the rest of the night learning the basics of Latin. She found it wasn’t as hard as she thought. Because English originally came from Latin a lot of the words were similar.
They had soup for dinner and ate in silence, since Taylor could not really write while he ate; it would be considered disrespectful. After dinner their host, the young elf, told them that they could ask any questions they wanted and he would try to answer them as truthfully as possible within the law.
Once Taylor had returned with his paper he looked to Jinta as if to ask ‘what now?’
Realizing that they didn’t even know their hosts name she pointed this out to Taylor, who wrote the question down and passed it over.
Reading it, the elf smiled and said “Cantashang,” and he wrote it down. Jinta noticed that he flattened his a’s so it sounded like Carntarshung. “My turn.” He directed his question to Taylor. “Why can’t you speak properly?”
‘My vocal cords are malformed. They’ve been like that since I was born so I use sign language to communicate. I would use it to communicate with you only you would probably sign differently. Our turn.’
Taylor’s answer raised Cantashang’s eyebrows. Jinta didn’t think this was the answer he expected. When Taylor got his paper back, he looked to Jinta again.
“You can ask too,” Jinta said.
He thought for a moment and then asked, ‘Why do you need to summon the elemental spirits? I saw your summoning instruments on the shelf.’
“We tried to use them to protect our house and family from the half-beings,” he answered matter-of-factly.
Taylor translated this then added, ‘I think he means wraiths or something when he says “half-beings”’
“Wraiths? What does he mean by that exactly?” Jinta asked.
“The land outside of the village is a dangerous one. How well do you think you can use your sign language? Good enough to tell a story or should I wait until your friend has learnt the language?” Cantashang asked Taylor.
‘What would you prefer?’ Taylor asked Jinta.
“If you feel up to it I would like to know this story now. That way we know what we’re up against if we venture outside at night,” she answered.
‘I’ll be right,’ Taylor tells Cantashang. He nods in response.
“This story is about how there came to be so many wraiths around. To some it is only a legend but to others, like myself, who have seen proof of it, it is more than just a legend. It is a history.
“Many years ago, there was a war between man and elf. Many were killed. There is a tradition with our people that when we search the battlegrounds for loved ones if we find a young child or baby we look after them until either their parents are found or they are old enough to look after themselves. This very rarely happened but it did on this night. An experienced magic user, Arteesus, was looking for his wife when he came across a young child about eleven years old crying over what looked to be his parents. Although this child was not elven the tradition still said that he had to take the child and care for it. This he did. The child’s name was Krono. As soon as Krono had recovered from the shock of losing his parents, Arteesus took Krono as an apprenticeship and taught him the ways of magic.
“Although no one knows what truly happened, the most widely believed theory is that at seventeen he grew to want more power than he was being taught. He was not allowed to study from some of the books that Arteesus used for they contained dark magic that only an experienced magic user would be able to handle.
“One night Krono’s impatience grew too strong and he killed Arteesus just so he could study necromancy from his books. He even started to where the black robes of a necromancer and refused to remove his hood. The leader at the time cast him out of the city as a murderer and he headed east to a cavern where he now lives. He took the only book that had the instructions for making a potion that would dispel the half-beings he raised. That is why we have the instruments to summon the elements as we have little else to defend ourselves from these creatures. If they pass through you they eat your soul and you will be partially alive inside the half-being that took it. That is what we fear and why we have tried many methods of defense. Nothing worked. I fear the only way to be rid of the half-beings is to obtain this book with the instructions of how to make the potion.
But now it’s late and I have talked too long. I am going to bed but if you wish to stay up later and talk you are welcome to. Goodnight.”
Jinta and Taylor went to their rooms to speak quietly about what they just heard.
“I think we should go and get this book so these people can protect themselves,” Jinta said.
‘I don’t know. That isn’t what we were supposed to be doing. We only have to be here a week then we can go home. Those wraiths sound pretty deadly and I want to go home with my soul, you know,’ said Taylor, knowing that if he couldn’t, no one could put a stop to Jinta’s adventurous personality.
“Oh come on, it’s the least we can do. They’re letting us observe and study them so I think we should make it up to them somehow. Don’t you?”
‘What’s the use of me trying to talk you out of it? I know you’ll go whether I go or not.’
Jinta only smiled. “I know you’re safe here,” she said.
‘I'll sleep on it,’ he answered, and with that he curled up on his bed and slept.
Jinta stayed awake for a while longer thinking about what she and Taylor would need and how they would get it; she knew Taylor would come when he saw that she was just as serious about it in the morning as she was now. Figuring that the only thing they would need from these people would be directions she settled down to sleep.
***
Jinta was roused by Taylor. He looked absolutely terrified.
‘Listen’ he signed.
Jinta did so. Screeching. Someone or something was making a hell of a lot of noise outside.
“What is that?” Jinta whispered.
Taylor only shrugged. Just then the door swung open but, to Jinta’s relief, it was only Cantashang.
He said something and Taylor nodded. He beckoned them to follow.
“The screeches you can hear are the half-beings,” Cantashang told them through Taylor. They have come and we are unprepared. All we can do is watch.”
“Can we not fight them somehow?” Jinta asked.
‘I don’t have my paper,’ Taylor told Jinta, she had forgotten that he needed that to tell them anything.
“Look. Out to the west. They are the half-beings. Krono has sent them to us once again.”
To Jinta the wraiths looked like shadows until one of them turned towards her. It had the most wicked and devilish glowing red eyes. She gasped in fright. The wraiths seemed uninterested about Cantashang and his family, however, as they all entered another house that was some distance away. They wraiths flew through the walls and door and into the house. They heard screaming, then silence. As the wraiths left the house and flew off into the forest they seemed to move much faster and looked to be more powerful than they were before.
“They have gone. We were spared tonight. I think it might be wise for you to leave here as we may not be so lucky next time,” Cantashang said.
With that they went back to bed. They didn’t sleep, though.
“I think we should leave now, before sunrise,” Jinta said.
‘Maybe. I still think that if these people want to find this book they can send their own people to go and get it. I say we just get the information we need and go home. That’s all I really want to do anyway,’ Taylor signed.
“Well if you don’t want to go can you tell them where I’ve gone? Then again, if you come with me it will save you explaining and all you’ll have to do is write a small note. Come on. I know you don’t really want to stay with these people by yourself. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
‘You know very well I don’t have one. I suppose I’ll go with you. What do you think we’ll need?’ Taylor asked, giving in to Jinta, as always.
Nothing really that we don’t already have. We have enough rations to last us two days, but if it’s anymore than that we’ll need more food. Also some directions. I saw a map on the table and we heard from Cantashang that he lives east in some sort of cavern. How hard could that be? There aren’t many mountains around so there can’t be many caverns.”
‘Alright. I’ll write a note and leave it on the bed.’ And with that, Taylor got out his paper and scribbled down a note. It said: Sorry to leave you so soon but Jinta has talked me into going with her to find this necromancer and get the book so you can protect yourselves. Taylor. PS. I hope you don’t mind us taking your map but we need some sort of directions other than the general eastward direction that you told us in the story. Leaving it on the bed, Taylor followed Jinta out into the kitchen. The house was silent. Jinta gave the map to Taylor and he swapped it for the one he had drawn of the village so he could get them through the maze of pathways to a place where they could get down.
The air outside was cool. The only noise that gave away that something terrible had just happened was the sobbing in the house that was attacked by the wraiths. After a short while they came to the place they had climbed up and they used the rope and grappling hook to climb back down. Then they set off east. The journey was quite uneventful. They saw no more wraiths and nothing happened. It took them four days to find the caverns that Cantashang had mentioned. They went through a small cave in the mountain face.
Entering it, Jinta had to wait for her eyes to adjust. When they had, she saw that they were not alone there. There was a clocked and hooded man leaning against the wall with his arms crossed looking directly at them. Or so Jinta assumed. It was hard to tell as she could make nothing out under the hood, just darkness. The way he just looked at them unnerved Jinta. Taylor was so pale he seemed to be glowing in the darkness. He obviously didn’t think of taking out his paper so he could communicate and since the hooded man wasn’t going to make the first move, Jinta knew that she must.
“Are you the one called Krono?” she asked, hoping that if Taylor heard her he would snap out of it and help her.
The hooded man pushed away from the wall and unfolded his arms. “I am not. What do you want with Krono?” His voice was quiet and deep. It seemed quite calm. It shocked Jinta that he could understand and speak English. It seemed unnatural after everyone in the tree-village speaking Latin.
“We wish to talk to him.”
“About what?”
“His past.”
The hooded man nodded and beckoned them to follow. He led them through a series of passages so there was no hope of Jinta remembering the way back up to the outside world. They seemed forever heading downwards. Looking to Taylor, Jinta saw that he was still dreadfully pale, whether it was with fear or from something she didn’t know of, but he wasn’t making a map like usual. Eventually, after following this strange hooded man for what seemed an age, Jinta and Taylor came to a cavern that looked as if it had been lived in for some time. There was a hearth with a hole above it to serve as a chimney, there was no fire at the moment, and what looked like large alcoves chiseled crudely into the wall. ‘More than likely blasted with this guy’s magic or something,’ Jinta thought, bitterly. The hooded man sat in one of these alcoves and motioned for them to do likewise. Jinta did but Taylor, frozen in the doorway didn’t move.
“What’s up with you Taylor? I’ve never seen you act this way before now,” Jinta asked, confused by the way he was acting.
“Do not worry about him. He can sense certain things that you are ignorant to and has a right to be afraid of them,” the hooded guy said.
Jinta didn’t worry about what he said as it came as no surprise to her. She was always being told her cousin was psychic, but what he said caused her to remember that, for some strange reason, this guy could speak English when none of the elves could.
“How can you speak English and when are you going to introduce us to Krono?” Jinta asked.
“Krono is dead. And as for being able to understand all languages and speak them also, it is because of who and what I am. If you watch my lips, you will find that my lips will move differently to what I am saying.”
“And just how am I supposed to see your lips when your face is kept in darkness by your hood?”
He lowered his hood. Jinta was surprised at how he looked. He looked quite young, about seventeen, and had his brownish-auburn hair cut short and jaggedly, as if done with a knife or dagger. He had black eyes. Black, not just dark but black. There was no difference between the pupil and the iris. They were empty. His flush red lips were curved into a crooked, half smile, as if expecting a scream or something. He was also human, not elvish. ‘This guy doesn’t look as evil as Cantashang made him out to be. Strange, but not evil.’ Her thoughts were interrupted when Taylor stepped between Jinta and their host and started signing frantically; he seemed to have regained possession over what he was doing.
‘You cant trust him, Jinta! There’s something about him that is different. Not just evil, but different. Even you must be able to see it somehow, in his eyes, his whole stature. I think this is the guy we’re looking for,’ Taylor was signing so fast that Jinta found it hard to follow, and she had grown up with it.
“Don’t be ridiculous, he’s already told us he isn’t.” Jinta looked to their host. “If you are not Krono, who are you? We thought the only ones who lived with him were his wraiths.”
“The boy who was Krono is dead. He never had any wraiths, either. It is I who brought these beings you call wraiths into this world and I have no name. Krono died when he tried to raise power beyond his control.”
“Tell us about him,” Jinta requested.
“He was happy until the war. It would be better if I were to show you it rather than tell of it,” the hooded man waved his hand and their whole surroundings changed. There were flashes, very fast, of a young boy growing up. Jinta, Taylor and the black eyed man were there but they were transparent. It was as if they were ghosts.
“That is Krono with his parents before the war. You see he was happy then. This was the best part of his life,” the man told them.
There was darkness and then a battle, it looked like the battle between men and elves that Cantashang had spoke of. There were more elvish archers than human archers and more human footmen than elvish footmen. The sides were pretty even. Then all hell broke loose. Arrows went flying, men and elves hacked each other down. Their view seemed mainly to follow two archers, Krono’s father and mother. It showed how they had died, the father by a sword and the mother by a stray arrow. The view then flashed to a man, unknown to Jinta, finding Krono weeping over his dead parents.
“This is Arteesus, the man who ruined Krono’s life.”
“We were told that Arteesus is the one who took Krono in and looked after him,” Jinta argued.
“Oh yes, he took him in all right. He taught him all kinds of magic.”
“Isn't that a good thing?”
“It is the way he taught it that ruined Krono.”
“How?”
“He beat it into him. He hammered and pounded him until he was too afraid to make mistakes. Krono hated it. He hated his master, hated learning magic, hated his life and, most of all, he hated the elves.”
Their view now showed, not the eleven-year-old boy but a boy about fourteen. He had a livid bruise on his left cheek. He was reading from a book when the man behind him, Arteesus, clouted him hard over the back of the head. His head whipped forward and slammed into the table. The boy brought his head back up, holding a bloody nose and glared at his teacher.
The scene changed again and now they were looking at Krono when he was seventeen. He turned around and Jinta saw that it was the same person as their host, just as Taylor had said it was. He was alone in a small room, an open book on his small, hard-looking bed. He was chanting something and moving his arms in wide sweeping gestures. Whatever he was doing seemed to cast up a wind and then the view went black again, then they were all back in the cave. Taylor cast Jinta an “I told you so” look.
“But what happened to make you come to this cave?”
“I can’t show you that as I don’t remember much of it but what I do know is that the elves drove me out claiming I was a murderer. Apparently Krono killed Arteesus when he raised the power.”
“I thought you said that you were not Krono. That last scene showed you,” Jinta accused.
“I told you. Krono is dead. His soul was ripped from his body and I am the result of it,” the man who claimed he was not Krono said.
“But you looked exactly the same.”
“No, we do not. Did you see his eyes? They were green. Mine are black because I have no soul. The colour of your soul is portrayed through the colour of your eyes. Because mine are black it means that I have no soul. Do you understand now how I am not Krono?”
Jinta nodded but said, “Then what are we to call you?”
“I have no name,” he said it bitterly, with a hint of disgust and self-loathing.
“Then why can’t we call you Krono?”
“Call me what you will, it matters to me not. Why did you come here? Surely not just to hear stories.”
“No we came to ask for a book. These elves that you hate so much are being attacked nightly by these wraiths that you control and-”
“I don’t control them. I only raise them, after that the only thing I can make them do is return to their grave,” Krono cut in.
“Then why would they attack?”
“They get hungry, of course. What kind of book do you need and why do you want it?”
“I don’t know what it looks like or anything, only that it has something in it that kind of dispels the wraiths. The elves need it to protect themselves.”
“And if they were to use it, it would leave my wraiths without any food. No I can’t allow that.”
“Surely they can prey on animals or something?”
--~~--
Jinta had been training for this for years. Now, finally, she was ready. The scientists had made a great discovery; they’d found an inhabited planet and named it Z-265. Unfortunately, it was primitive life but life all the same. It proved that there were other beings in the galaxy besides Homo sapiens.
Jinta and her cousin, Taylor, were chosen out of thousands to undertake a voyage to this planet to gather information about the planet and its inhabitants.
They were now insight of the planet. When the captain gave the order to land, they were extremely surprised at what they saw. Almost the whole planet was covered with trees. Jinta expected this, but what she was not ready for were the wooden bridges and huts that ran from tree canopy to tree canopy.
After safely landing in a meadow, the crew of the ship would stay and protect it while Jinta and Taylor went exploring.
Stepping out of the ship, with spare clothes and the supplies they would need in a knapsack and a dagger each in their belts, the pair started off towards the tree huts in the hope of finding something there.
Walking all around the tree-city, their eyes were forever searching the canopy above for some way to ascend.
Suddenly, Taylor pointed up, but he didn’t say anything, he rarely did. Looking in the direction of where he was pointing, Jinta saw two men. She could have sworn they were elves but she found that hard to believe, as she knew elves didn’t exist. They were holding what looked to be a rope made out of bark strands with a metal grappling hook on one end. The people dropped them. Taylor caught his before it hit the ground, but Jinta missed. Upon picking it up she examined it.
Someone above yelled something to them but Jinta couldn’t understand the language.
Looking at Taylor, Jinta saw that, as always he was one step ahead of her, already throwing the hook end of the rope up to the bridges. He missed but tried again and this time, with a reassuring thump, the hook lodged itself into the gaps in the bridge. He looked to Jinta and smiled, encouraging her to try.
It took Jinta longer than Taylor but eventually the grappling hook caught.
It was hard work climbing the rope but, sweating and panting, they clamored onto the bridge. The people that threw the rope down were gone.
“Put the rope in your knapsack. We may need it later,” Jinta told Taylor.
Then, looking about them, the two of them started walking around. Taylor was drawing a map so they could learn their way around more easily and Jinta was collecting plant samples so she could test them back at the ship.
A rather tall man came up to them. He beckoned for them to follow. Upon seeing him close up Jinta saw her thoughts confirmed. He had the pointy ears and sharp-featured face that was always associated with elves.
Jinta and Taylor followed him. Although Jinta had stopped collecting her samples, Taylor continued drawing his map.
Before long they reached a rather large hut with what looked like three compartments or rooms and an animal skull, with colorful feathers protruding from behind it, attached to the wall above the door.
Their guide gestured for them to enter.
Stepping inside, Jinta immediately noticed the lack of natural light coming into the room. As her eyes adjusted, she saw an extremely plump elf sitting on a large high-backed throne. Jinta also found this rather weird, considering all the elves in fairy tales were tall, light and nimble. This one had none of those features. A young, blonde elf stood beside him. There were incense burners hanging from the roof on either side of the throne.
Fat-elf spoke first, but, as with the other elves, it was in an unknown language. Jinta may have had no idea what he had just said but Taylor’s eyes lit up when he heard him speak. Obviously Taylor understood what was being said, as he often did, his specialty being languages, which annoyed Jinta no end because, although Taylor could recognize a lot of languages, he had a lot of trouble speaking them.
Reaching into his knapsack, Taylor pulled out several pieces of paper and pens and started writing. Usually for Jinta he just used sign language but these folk may not know it. After he had finished, he gave it to Fat-elf. While he was reading it Taylor told Jinta, through sign language, that the elves spoke Latin and wondered why they had came. He had answered with, ‘We are explorers from another planet and wish to learn your way of life. I am Taylor and my companion is Jinta.’
Jinta was also glad that Taylor knew the language because this meant that she could now learn it. She usually picked languages up pretty quickly but had never cared to learn any. She had found linguistics quite boring.
Fat-elf was talking again as he handed Taylor’s paper back. He listened and wrote down his reply on paper. This went on for some time and Taylor kept on translating for Jinta through sign language.
“Why does your companion not speak? And why do you only answer on paper?” Fat-elf asked.
‘She does not know the language and I have never been able to speak clearly,’ Taylor answered
“What do you want to learn from us?”
‘Purely how you live and what you are like. It would help us greatly if you could provide us with a place to stay for a few days while we make our observations.’
Fat-elf seemed to regard them for a long moment before asking, “Is there anything else you would like?”
‘Merely free exit and entry in and out of your…’ Taylor struggled for the right word to write down, not sure whether to call the place a city or village. ‘village,’ he finished.
Wrong one. Fat-elf laughed and said, “Soon you shall see how big this ‘village’ is,” and he waved them out.
Soon after they left, the young elf that had stood by Fat-elf without saying anything throughout the whole interview, came out and asked them to follow. He led them to a small hut. Inside he introduced a young elven woman and explained that she was his wife. He asked if they would like to reside here for their stay. Taylor translated this to Jinta and allowed her to answer, as she was the commander of this expedition. She nodded. They were then shown where they would spend the night and told they could do as they wished until the bottom of the sun hits the horizon. At this time the house would be closed and locked up and they would not open it for any reason.
“Did you see all the strange items on some of the shelves? All sorts of oddities,” Jinta asked as soon as their host had left.
Taylor nodded. ‘I’ve read about those items in some sort of book. It was about purifying your spirit and stuff like that. They’re instruments you need to call upon the elemental spirits or something similar.’
“Weird. I wonder why they lock up so early?”
‘I don’t know. What I do know is that I should start teaching you Latin.’
Jinta nodded. It wasn’t that she didn’t think that her cousin wouldn’t be able to or want to keep on translating for her but she would like to know what is being said herself.
Jinta spent the rest of the night learning the basics of Latin. She found it wasn’t as hard as she thought. Because English originally came from Latin a lot of the words were similar.
They had soup for dinner and ate in silence, since Taylor could not really write while he ate; it would be considered disrespectful. After dinner their host, the young elf, told them that they could ask any questions they wanted and he would try to answer them as truthfully as possible within the law.
Once Taylor had returned with his paper he looked to Jinta as if to ask ‘what now?’
Realizing that they didn’t even know their hosts name she pointed this out to Taylor, who wrote the question down and passed it over.
Reading it, the elf smiled and said “Cantashang,” and he wrote it down. Jinta noticed that he flattened his a’s so it sounded like Carntarshung. “My turn.” He directed his question to Taylor. “Why can’t you speak properly?”
‘My vocal cords are malformed. They’ve been like that since I was born so I use sign language to communicate. I would use it to communicate with you only you would probably sign differently. Our turn.’
Taylor’s answer raised Cantashang’s eyebrows. Jinta didn’t think this was the answer he expected. When Taylor got his paper back, he looked to Jinta again.
“You can ask too,” Jinta said.
He thought for a moment and then asked, ‘Why do you need to summon the elemental spirits? I saw your summoning instruments on the shelf.’
“We tried to use them to protect our house and family from the half-beings,” he answered matter-of-factly.
Taylor translated this then added, ‘I think he means wraiths or something when he says “half-beings”’
“Wraiths? What does he mean by that exactly?” Jinta asked.
“The land outside of the village is a dangerous one. How well do you think you can use your sign language? Good enough to tell a story or should I wait until your friend has learnt the language?” Cantashang asked Taylor.
‘What would you prefer?’ Taylor asked Jinta.
“If you feel up to it I would like to know this story now. That way we know what we’re up against if we venture outside at night,” she answered.
‘I’ll be right,’ Taylor tells Cantashang. He nods in response.
“This story is about how there came to be so many wraiths around. To some it is only a legend but to others, like myself, who have seen proof of it, it is more than just a legend. It is a history.
“Many years ago, there was a war between man and elf. Many were killed. There is a tradition with our people that when we search the battlegrounds for loved ones if we find a young child or baby we look after them until either their parents are found or they are old enough to look after themselves. This very rarely happened but it did on this night. An experienced magic user, Arteesus, was looking for his wife when he came across a young child about eleven years old crying over what looked to be his parents. Although this child was not elven the tradition still said that he had to take the child and care for it. This he did. The child’s name was Krono. As soon as Krono had recovered from the shock of losing his parents, Arteesus took Krono as an apprenticeship and taught him the ways of magic.
“Although no one knows what truly happened, the most widely believed theory is that at seventeen he grew to want more power than he was being taught. He was not allowed to study from some of the books that Arteesus used for they contained dark magic that only an experienced magic user would be able to handle.
“One night Krono’s impatience grew too strong and he killed Arteesus just so he could study necromancy from his books. He even started to where the black robes of a necromancer and refused to remove his hood. The leader at the time cast him out of the city as a murderer and he headed east to a cavern where he now lives. He took the only book that had the instructions for making a potion that would dispel the half-beings he raised. That is why we have the instruments to summon the elements as we have little else to defend ourselves from these creatures. If they pass through you they eat your soul and you will be partially alive inside the half-being that took it. That is what we fear and why we have tried many methods of defense. Nothing worked. I fear the only way to be rid of the half-beings is to obtain this book with the instructions of how to make the potion.
But now it’s late and I have talked too long. I am going to bed but if you wish to stay up later and talk you are welcome to. Goodnight.”
Jinta and Taylor went to their rooms to speak quietly about what they just heard.
“I think we should go and get this book so these people can protect themselves,” Jinta said.
‘I don’t know. That isn’t what we were supposed to be doing. We only have to be here a week then we can go home. Those wraiths sound pretty deadly and I want to go home with my soul, you know,’ said Taylor, knowing that if he couldn’t, no one could put a stop to Jinta’s adventurous personality.
“Oh come on, it’s the least we can do. They’re letting us observe and study them so I think we should make it up to them somehow. Don’t you?”
‘What’s the use of me trying to talk you out of it? I know you’ll go whether I go or not.’
Jinta only smiled. “I know you’re safe here,” she said.
‘I'll sleep on it,’ he answered, and with that he curled up on his bed and slept.
Jinta stayed awake for a while longer thinking about what she and Taylor would need and how they would get it; she knew Taylor would come when he saw that she was just as serious about it in the morning as she was now. Figuring that the only thing they would need from these people would be directions she settled down to sleep.
***
Jinta was roused by Taylor. He looked absolutely terrified.
‘Listen’ he signed.
Jinta did so. Screeching. Someone or something was making a hell of a lot of noise outside.
“What is that?” Jinta whispered.
Taylor only shrugged. Just then the door swung open but, to Jinta’s relief, it was only Cantashang.
He said something and Taylor nodded. He beckoned them to follow.
“The screeches you can hear are the half-beings,” Cantashang told them through Taylor. They have come and we are unprepared. All we can do is watch.”
“Can we not fight them somehow?” Jinta asked.
‘I don’t have my paper,’ Taylor told Jinta, she had forgotten that he needed that to tell them anything.
“Look. Out to the west. They are the half-beings. Krono has sent them to us once again.”
To Jinta the wraiths looked like shadows until one of them turned towards her. It had the most wicked and devilish glowing red eyes. She gasped in fright. The wraiths seemed uninterested about Cantashang and his family, however, as they all entered another house that was some distance away. They wraiths flew through the walls and door and into the house. They heard screaming, then silence. As the wraiths left the house and flew off into the forest they seemed to move much faster and looked to be more powerful than they were before.
“They have gone. We were spared tonight. I think it might be wise for you to leave here as we may not be so lucky next time,” Cantashang said.
With that they went back to bed. They didn’t sleep, though.
“I think we should leave now, before sunrise,” Jinta said.
‘Maybe. I still think that if these people want to find this book they can send their own people to go and get it. I say we just get the information we need and go home. That’s all I really want to do anyway,’ Taylor signed.
“Well if you don’t want to go can you tell them where I’ve gone? Then again, if you come with me it will save you explaining and all you’ll have to do is write a small note. Come on. I know you don’t really want to stay with these people by yourself. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
‘You know very well I don’t have one. I suppose I’ll go with you. What do you think we’ll need?’ Taylor asked, giving in to Jinta, as always.
Nothing really that we don’t already have. We have enough rations to last us two days, but if it’s anymore than that we’ll need more food. Also some directions. I saw a map on the table and we heard from Cantashang that he lives east in some sort of cavern. How hard could that be? There aren’t many mountains around so there can’t be many caverns.”
‘Alright. I’ll write a note and leave it on the bed.’ And with that, Taylor got out his paper and scribbled down a note. It said: Sorry to leave you so soon but Jinta has talked me into going with her to find this necromancer and get the book so you can protect yourselves. Taylor. PS. I hope you don’t mind us taking your map but we need some sort of directions other than the general eastward direction that you told us in the story. Leaving it on the bed, Taylor followed Jinta out into the kitchen. The house was silent. Jinta gave the map to Taylor and he swapped it for the one he had drawn of the village so he could get them through the maze of pathways to a place where they could get down.
The air outside was cool. The only noise that gave away that something terrible had just happened was the sobbing in the house that was attacked by the wraiths. After a short while they came to the place they had climbed up and they used the rope and grappling hook to climb back down. Then they set off east. The journey was quite uneventful. They saw no more wraiths and nothing happened. It took them four days to find the caverns that Cantashang had mentioned. They went through a small cave in the mountain face.
Entering it, Jinta had to wait for her eyes to adjust. When they had, she saw that they were not alone there. There was a clocked and hooded man leaning against the wall with his arms crossed looking directly at them. Or so Jinta assumed. It was hard to tell as she could make nothing out under the hood, just darkness. The way he just looked at them unnerved Jinta. Taylor was so pale he seemed to be glowing in the darkness. He obviously didn’t think of taking out his paper so he could communicate and since the hooded man wasn’t going to make the first move, Jinta knew that she must.
“Are you the one called Krono?” she asked, hoping that if Taylor heard her he would snap out of it and help her.
The hooded man pushed away from the wall and unfolded his arms. “I am not. What do you want with Krono?” His voice was quiet and deep. It seemed quite calm. It shocked Jinta that he could understand and speak English. It seemed unnatural after everyone in the tree-village speaking Latin.
“We wish to talk to him.”
“About what?”
“His past.”
The hooded man nodded and beckoned them to follow. He led them through a series of passages so there was no hope of Jinta remembering the way back up to the outside world. They seemed forever heading downwards. Looking to Taylor, Jinta saw that he was still dreadfully pale, whether it was with fear or from something she didn’t know of, but he wasn’t making a map like usual. Eventually, after following this strange hooded man for what seemed an age, Jinta and Taylor came to a cavern that looked as if it had been lived in for some time. There was a hearth with a hole above it to serve as a chimney, there was no fire at the moment, and what looked like large alcoves chiseled crudely into the wall. ‘More than likely blasted with this guy’s magic or something,’ Jinta thought, bitterly. The hooded man sat in one of these alcoves and motioned for them to do likewise. Jinta did but Taylor, frozen in the doorway didn’t move.
“What’s up with you Taylor? I’ve never seen you act this way before now,” Jinta asked, confused by the way he was acting.
“Do not worry about him. He can sense certain things that you are ignorant to and has a right to be afraid of them,” the hooded guy said.
Jinta didn’t worry about what he said as it came as no surprise to her. She was always being told her cousin was psychic, but what he said caused her to remember that, for some strange reason, this guy could speak English when none of the elves could.
“How can you speak English and when are you going to introduce us to Krono?” Jinta asked.
“Krono is dead. And as for being able to understand all languages and speak them also, it is because of who and what I am. If you watch my lips, you will find that my lips will move differently to what I am saying.”
“And just how am I supposed to see your lips when your face is kept in darkness by your hood?”
He lowered his hood. Jinta was surprised at how he looked. He looked quite young, about seventeen, and had his brownish-auburn hair cut short and jaggedly, as if done with a knife or dagger. He had black eyes. Black, not just dark but black. There was no difference between the pupil and the iris. They were empty. His flush red lips were curved into a crooked, half smile, as if expecting a scream or something. He was also human, not elvish. ‘This guy doesn’t look as evil as Cantashang made him out to be. Strange, but not evil.’ Her thoughts were interrupted when Taylor stepped between Jinta and their host and started signing frantically; he seemed to have regained possession over what he was doing.
‘You cant trust him, Jinta! There’s something about him that is different. Not just evil, but different. Even you must be able to see it somehow, in his eyes, his whole stature. I think this is the guy we’re looking for,’ Taylor was signing so fast that Jinta found it hard to follow, and she had grown up with it.
“Don’t be ridiculous, he’s already told us he isn’t.” Jinta looked to their host. “If you are not Krono, who are you? We thought the only ones who lived with him were his wraiths.”
“The boy who was Krono is dead. He never had any wraiths, either. It is I who brought these beings you call wraiths into this world and I have no name. Krono died when he tried to raise power beyond his control.”
“Tell us about him,” Jinta requested.
“He was happy until the war. It would be better if I were to show you it rather than tell of it,” the hooded man waved his hand and their whole surroundings changed. There were flashes, very fast, of a young boy growing up. Jinta, Taylor and the black eyed man were there but they were transparent. It was as if they were ghosts.
“That is Krono with his parents before the war. You see he was happy then. This was the best part of his life,” the man told them.
There was darkness and then a battle, it looked like the battle between men and elves that Cantashang had spoke of. There were more elvish archers than human archers and more human footmen than elvish footmen. The sides were pretty even. Then all hell broke loose. Arrows went flying, men and elves hacked each other down. Their view seemed mainly to follow two archers, Krono’s father and mother. It showed how they had died, the father by a sword and the mother by a stray arrow. The view then flashed to a man, unknown to Jinta, finding Krono weeping over his dead parents.
“This is Arteesus, the man who ruined Krono’s life.”
“We were told that Arteesus is the one who took Krono in and looked after him,” Jinta argued.
“Oh yes, he took him in all right. He taught him all kinds of magic.”
“Isn't that a good thing?”
“It is the way he taught it that ruined Krono.”
“How?”
“He beat it into him. He hammered and pounded him until he was too afraid to make mistakes. Krono hated it. He hated his master, hated learning magic, hated his life and, most of all, he hated the elves.”
Their view now showed, not the eleven-year-old boy but a boy about fourteen. He had a livid bruise on his left cheek. He was reading from a book when the man behind him, Arteesus, clouted him hard over the back of the head. His head whipped forward and slammed into the table. The boy brought his head back up, holding a bloody nose and glared at his teacher.
The scene changed again and now they were looking at Krono when he was seventeen. He turned around and Jinta saw that it was the same person as their host, just as Taylor had said it was. He was alone in a small room, an open book on his small, hard-looking bed. He was chanting something and moving his arms in wide sweeping gestures. Whatever he was doing seemed to cast up a wind and then the view went black again, then they were all back in the cave. Taylor cast Jinta an “I told you so” look.
“But what happened to make you come to this cave?”
“I can’t show you that as I don’t remember much of it but what I do know is that the elves drove me out claiming I was a murderer. Apparently Krono killed Arteesus when he raised the power.”
“I thought you said that you were not Krono. That last scene showed you,” Jinta accused.
“I told you. Krono is dead. His soul was ripped from his body and I am the result of it,” the man who claimed he was not Krono said.
“But you looked exactly the same.”
“No, we do not. Did you see his eyes? They were green. Mine are black because I have no soul. The colour of your soul is portrayed through the colour of your eyes. Because mine are black it means that I have no soul. Do you understand now how I am not Krono?”
Jinta nodded but said, “Then what are we to call you?”
“I have no name,” he said it bitterly, with a hint of disgust and self-loathing.
“Then why can’t we call you Krono?”
“Call me what you will, it matters to me not. Why did you come here? Surely not just to hear stories.”
“No we came to ask for a book. These elves that you hate so much are being attacked nightly by these wraiths that you control and-”
“I don’t control them. I only raise them, after that the only thing I can make them do is return to their grave,” Krono cut in.
“Then why would they attack?”
“They get hungry, of course. What kind of book do you need and why do you want it?”
“I don’t know what it looks like or anything, only that it has something in it that kind of dispels the wraiths. The elves need it to protect themselves.”
“And if they were to use it, it would leave my wraiths without any food. No I can’t allow that.”
“Surely they can prey on animals or something?”
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