Chapter 5

Dark clouds gather above the snowy field. Endal stands near a dark crystal obelisk, this is the same dream he had last. However there are no more whispers but rather ominous silence. The smell of death swayed in the air.

Endal took a breath and walked toward the obelisk, taking a moment of hesitation to touch the object.

He touched the object with his palm, the dark clouds became eerily still as if time has stopped. Nothing happened at first, however Endal tried to pull his hand off the obelisk yet it would not let go.

The object slowly envelops his hands with dark crystal, Endal panic and tries to casts his magic yet none would conjure.

Dark crystals now crawled up to his body, further enveloping him until it finally covered him whole. He was now inside an all encompassing void.

Suddenly his surroundings began to take shape. Various architecture of never before seen shapes and sizes surrounded him, glittering towers of many heights made of ice and silver, covered in majestic, intricate and complex patterns.

Statues of unknown figures rose covered in highly decorated pattern rose just as high. He was amazed and bewildered with a slightness of fear.

Such place made him feel overwhelmed. As he stares and studies the marvel of the architectures, he noticed the area seems to be bereft of life.

Slowly emerging from the ground, many shadowy figures of humanoid shape rose. This made Endal be on guard, yet despite such entities surrounded him, they did not attack him, he felt no ill will directed upon him, in fact he sensed familiarity to their presence, a feeling of protectiveness for them.

However soon enough he felt dread, more dark figures rose from the ground, these were no humanoid figures. They took the appearances of abominations, monsters of different kinds. They attacked the shadowy figures of men, and in turn the men attacked the dark abominations, a battle wages.

Such intensity of the battle began to crumble the tall buildings around him, storms roared in fury high above the skies.

Soon dark crystals started to envelop the area, reaching as high as the sky, it slowly consumed them all freezing everything in place in an icy embrace, including the shadowy figures as well as Endal.

He tried to scream but his lips were frozen shut, despair slowly crept upon his mind, seemingly trapped in the abyss. Suddenly a hand reached out to him and grabbed his hand.

As the hand pulled him out of the abyss, he turned and saw a dark crystalized mountain in the distance, as the storms raged above and began to slowly bury it in snow.

"Find us." An unknown voice said in a ethereal tone, before he could turn and see the person who rescued him he awoke.

As Endal slowly opened his eyes, he found himself staring at a wooden ceiling. He could hear the cracks of burning wood, the warm smell of broth.

As he tried to move, the pain of his body halted him in his action, he groans in pain and relaxed his body. He noticed his right vision was dark, he tries to touch his right eye but instead felt the sensation of a cloth, he noticed his right eye was bandaged.

He finally figured that should he even take off the bandage he would still not be able to see the right side of his vision. He remembered that he has lost his right sight when Daskrig shattered his frozen spear and struck his eye by a piece of shard that flew at him.

He felt gloom as he realized it and let out a frustrated sigh. He heard a door open at the side of his bed and turned his head to the direction of the door.

He saw Leah, his sister. She was holding a tray on her hands, and on it were bandages, towel and a bowl of water.

Leah saw Endal looking at her with an eye open, shocking her. She accidentally dropped the tray along with all the things on it. She made a sad expression and tears began to form on her eyes, she ran toward her brother lifting his body and hugged him despite Endal feeling so much pain in his body for doing so.

Leah began to cry and scream with gladness on her heart. "Leah! What's wrong?!" A voice shouted and hurriedly entered the room, It was their mother.

Their mother gasp in shock yet felt full of relief, she also held tears and dropped to her knees. "Leah, Mother..." Endal said softly. His mother smiled with tears falling from her eyes. She stood up and slowly walked toward them, gently embracing the two.

Endal understood their actions, he knew that he was badly wounded, near at death's door. Despite the pain because of Leah tightly embracing him, seeing her crying on his chest, he felt relief and joy knowing that they are safe.

A few moments later their crying started to cease and gently released Endal from their embrace. "Forgive me, for i had made you worry." Endal said to them. "You had been asleep for three days and your condition seemed to worsen before you woke from your long sleep. We thought we would lose you." Leah said with a sorrowful voice.

Three days. That's how long he was unconscious, this shocked Endal. He thought of the people of Lynsk and became worried. He had also remembered the men riding the saber horns, this made him concerned for he knew the men that rode those creatures.

Endal tries to force himself to get up from his bed, his body still felt tremendous pain yet he was determined to get out of his bed. "What are you doing? You should not get up!" Leah said to him. "I need to help the villagers, they may be in danger!" He said to them. "Danger?" His mother asked with confusion on her voice.

"The men that rode the saber horns! they may attack the village!" Endal said with a slightly panicked voice. Leah and his mother tried to stop him from getting out of bed. Endal heard footsteps coming near to the room, he became filled with worry and concern. He summoned a frozen blade on his hand. "If we intended to attack your people, we would not wait till you were awake." An unknown individual told him.

"We exploit the weaknesses of our enemies, not when they are at their strongest." The man said to Endal as he entered the room.

Endal was on guard with a frozen blade on hand. Leah and his mother felt concern. "Fortunately, you are not our enemy, unless you make yourself one." He said to him. This man was covered in fur cloth and a sheathed blade on his hip, on his hand a skull of an horned elk designed as a helmet, he wore a necklace made of bones from the claws of different creatures. He stood a foot taller than Endal should he stand right beside him. His rough face and unshaven beard and faded mullet hair.

"So if you wish no more harm to your people and to yourself..." The man gestured toward the blade Endal was holding. Endal was understandably cautious, but understood the man's meaning. He fears that his family will be harmed should they fight now, and so he disperses the frozen blade.

"It's good to know you have a sense of understanding." The man said. "Who are you and why are you here?" Endal inquires to the man.

"My name is Buaros. And the reason why i am here will have to wait." He replies. "When you are strong enough to stand, go to your elders and we will discuss further details of our arrival." Buaros said to him, exiting the room.

Endal let a sigh of relief and disbelief, knowing who they were, they would not introduce themselves like this.

"Brother?" Leah said with a concerned expression. "I am sorry... I acted rashly." Endal said to them, caressing Leah's head. "What has happened since i was asleep?" He asked them.

"They were the ones who helped us when the fighting was done, they offered to protect us while we gathered the wounded....and our dead." His mother said with a discouraged face."...And so far that is all they have done?" Endal inquired to his mother. "Hmm, yes. So far it has been what they have been doing other than feasting the meals the villagers offered to them as gratitude for saving us." The mother replied to Endal.

He was rather bewildered, he knew men like them from the east. in fact he had met them before, and it was not a pleasant first encounter. But since they had saved his people from those blood crazed maniacs, he had no good reason to stay hostile to them, but held caution just in case.

"What does he mean by when i am strong enough i must meet with the elders?" Endal questioned, puzzled by what Buaros said.

"If he is meeting with the elders, why must i also be present?" He said. "We cannot say, he had simply said to us when you wake up we should tell you about it." Leah answered sitting at the side of his bed.

"I see..." He softly mumbled to himself. He then slowly got up from his bed despite the pain. "Did you even hear us? You need to rest, you may have been asleep for three days but it does not mean you are now in able condition." Leah told her brother as she lets out a pout. "I am in able condition. I can stand, see?" Endal said, however his body clearly ached. Leah mildly slaps the side of his chest, making her brother grunt and hold the area where he was hit.

"See? You can barely move without being hurt" She said to him with a sulking face. "Your sister is right but if you insist on going, you should at least eat. You cannot go meet the elders with a growling stomach." "My thanks mother but i can-" Before Endal can finish his sentence, his stomach made an unbelievable long and loud growl.

The unexpected moment made Leah a snickering face as she desperately mask her laughter with her hand. Their mother simply smiled. "Ah... Perhaps i should take a bite." Endal embarrassingly admitted, having no choice he sat on the bed. "Good. Fortunately we had just finished cooking just after you awoke" As she told him and began to exit the door her leg gave way and almost fell to the floor if not for the fact she managed to hold on at the side of the door frame.

"Mother!" Endal shouted as he and Leah hurriedly stood up from the bed and approached their mother. Before they could reach her however, she made a halting gesture to them. "I am fine... I simply lost footing, nothing to worry." He told them while slowly getting up and recollecting her balance. Leah approached her and helped her mother maintain balance. "I'll help you mama." She said to her as she aids her at the side. "You stay there and rest, worry not, we will come back." The mother assured him with a gentle smile upon her face.

Yet despite her saying that, Endal knew better but did not debate her claim for he knew nothing he say would convince her otherwise. Having no choice, he returned to his bed and acknowledges her request.

As they left the room and closes the door Endal laid his back to his bed again. His mind was filled with questions and worry. The sudden attack of his village, The mad raiders who had no regard for their own lives, the monstrosities that followed, the sorcerers who attended them, the saber horn riders that aided them and the condition of his mother.

So many questions that has piled in such a short amount of time filled him with worry and irritation for he his a seeker. Who's post is to have answers to uncommon circumstances. But the most important part that made him even more curious was his recent dreams.

Just until these recent days he had the exact same dream where he stood far from the obelisk never being able to get close to it until recently. He told himself that it was merely dreams, yet the recent visions felt so excruciatingly real. He could still remember the feeling of being buried beneath in dark colossal ice, the towers that seemed to scrape the clouds, the majestic architectures that seemed like it was made by the gods, the rage and sadness he felt when the shadowy figures fought, and finally the pale hand that rescued him from being encased in that icy prison, and the words that came afterward, a voice of a woman that sounded so majestically ethereal. "Find us." She said.

What could she have meant by that? And even if he should heed her words, where should he even begin? Are the dreams connected to the recent events? It may seem so as after his dreams changed, unexpected events followed. So much questions and no answers could be provided. Endal let out a sigh of frustration.

There was no point in pondering these now for no answer would be provided to him right now. He touched his bandaged right eye in a sense he had hope his sight was still there, he removed the bandage and raised his eyelid. It was as he feared, he could no longer see the right side of his vision, this made him quite depressed.

He had faced many dangers, half of it almost brought him so close to death but none of it has been able to deal him a permanent damage, until now. He wondered if this is a sign of change and not for the better.

For decades Lynsk have been a relative sanctuary, very few dangers posed an actual threat to them. What if it will only get worse from here on out? This question made Endal uncomfortable. He loves his people, his family ever since he gained consciousness. He knows if they need to survive in this changing times drastic measures would be needed in the future, he is unsure if such measures would be agreeable to him.

The door opens and Leah and his mother brought broth and sliced cooked fish with vegetables on the side of the tray to him.

They had set up the table and prepared the foods. As they ate they talked about what had happened in the last three days. The saber horned warriors saved them by wiping out the last remnants of the attackers and when the battle was over, there was tension between the battle exhausted defenders and the newly arrived saber horned warriors until one of them got off their mount and introduced themselves, he announced himself as Buaros of Kenask. The man that was just in their house moments ago.

Kenask. Endal was finally assured that they were from that settlement. He knew of that settlement from the central regions, a place where it was more populated than anywhere else he had traveled to. The geysers there helped their crops grow, where harvest were possible in the colder areas of central Aesgar. Not only do crops somehow grow there, due to a more habitable environment there were more variety of animals that roams. Settlements there grew rather rich due to the trades of leather and fur as well as meat. It was in a sense an Oasis in the snowy wasteland.

But despite being known as a haven in Aesgar, it is also a region of constant conflicts. Many clan chiefs wage war for control of the region, many political intrigue and backstabbing, entire settlements rises to prominence and equally fast to fall. 

More radical settlements also take slaves of defeated clans as part of the trades in central Aesgar. While many decline such trade not because of a moral sense of righteousness but rather they decline because it is simply more mouths to feed, others, the more desperate ones buy slaves as another form of ration when the times fall the hardest, selling whatever heirlooms and scraps they have to stay alive, particularly that of defeated clan who become a vassal to another.

Kenask is one of the most ruthless settlements in that region and particularly a powerful one too, they too specializes in the slave trade, which is why Endal was so cautious about them but also wonders why they had let his village be saved by them, if anything Lynsk was at it's weakest, battered and exhausted by Daskrig's siege. It was ripe for plunder yet they spared them instead.

Endal can only guess much as to why they are here but it was far better to assure their intent. The table was littered with vegetable bits and bones of fish and empty bowls, they took a moment of rest from their meals, Endal prepared to set out to the meeting of the elders where he was expected to attend, much to his confusion as to why he was needed.

His mother prepared him something to wear, a new coat of black fur as his old one was torn and still stained with blood. "Take care of yourself Endal." His mother said to him. He simply nodded and let out a gentle smile. "Please Leah, care for our mother." He said to Leah as he patted her head gently. "I will." Replied Leah.

Endal left the house and saw Buaros standing outside, awaiting for him. Endal made a cautious expression and walked past him and Buaros silently followed.

An unexpected turn of event is about to begin.