The Guardians' Pendants (The Zor Chronicles Part I) (8 page)

“Stop it, Enoke!” Kaho
cried. “Let him go…”

“Well, so much for
waking up as Veha; I might as well go back to sleep tonight and
awaken as a regular Zor once again,” Lanaru scoffed. “We’re
useless,” he muttered, shutting the overhead door to his own Pod
and whirring off into the distance, leaving the Veha scattered
across the Five Islands once again.

Chapter VII – Under
Fire

Nearly two weeks had
passed.

Ikani trudged along
the steep path that he could only hope was leading him
where he
needed to go. It had been nearly twelve hours since he had
stopped to rest or to eat, and he could feel the march behind him
finally beginning to catch up. Every inch of his body begged to
stop and rest until he could no longer help but give in. Ikani let
out an elongated sigh of relief as he felt the pressure of his long
trek being taken off of his aching legs for the first time since
sunrise, stopping to take a rest beneath an overhang on the
mountain. Perhaps he was even climbing the mountain that was his
destination right now, though he had no way of knowing. Ikani knew
from the very beginning that it would be a steep and risky climb of
trial and error, scaling these mountains – and there were plenty of
them – with little or no pathway to guide him.

Ikani removed the pack
from his back and opened it up, peering inside disappointedly at
the meager food supply that he had remaining. It had been just over
a week now since Ikani had departed the village that now stood
below as but a silhouette in his range of vision that overlooked
almost the entire westernmost side of Af’One Island. Even through
the hazy air of his home Satellite, Ikani could now pick out what
lay beyond the boundaries of his homeland – the Sea of the Gods. It
was an enigmatic phenomenon to many of the Zor, some of whom had
even undertaken the task of sailing its waters, only to disappear
beyond the distant horizon, often times never to return again. As
far as the Zor of the Five Islands knew, nothing lay beyond the
sparkling waters that surrounded them.

As he ate away at the
last of his food supply, Ikani’s mind wandered through the events
that had occurred over the previous two weeks leading up to his
journey to the mountains, a journey that he hoped would not end
with the same misfortunes as those who had braved the Sea so long
ago.

***

“
Welcome to
Af’One Village. We hope you enjoyed your travels.
To Infinity Together, Guided by the
Gods.”

“Useless,” Ikani
muttered beneath his breath as he exited his Pod. “That’s exactly
what they are; they’re all useless!”

His thoughts were
still ripe with rage and betrayal. He could never have anticipated
such an unpleasant welcoming from the Tavar under such dire
circumstances. After all, if X’s words held any truth whatsoever,
Paradius was in great impending danger.

Once again, as seemed
to be the case as of late, Ikani’s train of thought was routed back
to Oren.

“If we are ever to
convince Tavar Nuraka that we are worthy Guardians, then we
–
I
must locate Oren and prove to them all that he is still
alive! He must be…” he trailed off, not wanting to think about what
it would mean if this were untrue.

Suddenly from behind
came the sound of hasty footsteps. Ikani swung around, readying his
sword that he had taken from the Tavar Tower. At first, there
appeared to be nothing. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Ikani
caught sight of a figure crouching behind a nearby body of
rock.

“Who’s there?” he
demanded.

Slowly, the figure
emerged, and it did not take long for Ikani to recognize
him.

“Niru?” he asked. The
Zor jumped back in surprise, not expecting his name to be known by
the tall figure whose identity was unknown to him. Then, as the
voice began to register, something seemed to click.

“Ikani?” he breathed
in disbelief. “Is that you?”

He nodded, confused.
Then he remembered that he was more than likely unrecognizable to
anyone who knew him by his former appearance.

“What happened to you?
I didn’t see you after the induction last night and then
-”

“I was lead astray,”
Ikani recalled, reaching for the Pendant that still hung around his
neck. “Instead of being returned here I was sent to the Af’Lagi
Vaults, and then…” Ikani paused, debating about whether or not he
should recount the story of his encounter with X. He chose not to.
“And then I was transformed, seemingly by the same mysterious stone
that we found in the mines.”

Ikani released the
jewel from his grasp, displaying it to Niru who looked on in
awe.

“No way,” he
breathed.

Ikani
nodded.

“So wait, do you mean
to tell me that you’ve become our new Veha?” Niru asked in
disbelief.

“Well, I -” Ikani
stammered, unsure of what to say. He avoided eye contact with the
other Zor. “Not in the eyes of the Tavar, at least. But I have come
here in search of Veha Oren,” he explained further.

“He’s not here,” Niru
replied, disheartened as he shrugged his shoulders.

“I need to be sure of
that,” Ikani insisted, clenching his fist once again over the jewel
around his neck. Suddenly, there was a great exertion of energy
from within his clasped hand. He quickly released his grip, awing
at the way the Pendant suddenly began to stand erect around his
neck, as if pointing towards some distant location.

“Remarkable,” Ikani
breathed.

“Perhaps it’s a sign,”
Niru figured.

Ikani nodded. “And I’m
not going to let any chance pass by; I’m going to follow
it.”

“I’ll come with you,”
Niru replied eagerly.

“Are you sure?” Ikani
asked uncertainly, glancing down at his friend. “I mean, shouldn’t
you return to the village? It’s nearing dark and, well, with Sirens
running around now you’ll…”

“I’ll be just fine,”
Niru urged, “teamed with a great Veha Guardian.”

It wasn’t much; Ikani
knew well enough that Niru was only one person, and being
acknowledged as Veha by him alone would not be enough. It did aid
in lightening his mood to a point, however, as he began to follow
the lead of the mysterious Pendant that stood glowing and erect
around his neck, pointing towards the sub-mountain
tunnels.

At that, the two were
off on their way towards the tunnels. Ikani had limited memories of
these sub-mountain tunnels for the simple reason that their rate of
usage had sharply decreased many years prior to his arrival in
Paradius. This was due in great part to the rise of Pod travel
between the Five Islands, and as Pod Stations grew more abundant
throughout the Satellite Villages and the Hub City alike the need
to use the bridges connecting the islands was reduced mostly to
transportation purposes when supplies were too large to be shipped
in Pods.

“I reckon we’re the
first Zor to travel these tunnels in ages,” Niru figured, squinting
to see through the darkness ahead. “And I figure these lights
haven’t been changed in a while, either,” he remarked, noting that
many of the overhead lights, which were dim enough as it was, had
been burnt out.

Ikani simply nodded.
“That doesn’t change anything,” he replied simply. “We must hurry
forward if we are going to find Veha Oren. Are you coming or
not?”

“Wha- yes, of course!”
the other Zor insisted. “Do you think I’d miss out on
tunnel-exploring? This is what I live for, Ikani!”

“What’s so intriguing
to you about the unknown?” Ikani finally asked, rolling his eyes as
they started off. “I don’t fancy it, personally; I hate not
knowing.”

“Are you serious?”
Niru asked. “Making the unfamiliar into the familiar is the best
feeling there is for me,” he answered. “I mean, sure you’re nervous
and uncertain at first, but it’s really all about expelling those
uncertainties as you come to discover what’s beyond them,” he
added. “It’s essentially bringing light to the darkness,
Ikani.”

“Bringing light to the
darkness?” Ikani asked.

Niru nodded. “And once
the shadows are gone, there’s no longer anything to
fear.”

Ikani thought deeply
about what Niru was saying as they continued along their journey
through the tunnels. As he did, he came to realize how accurately
those words seemed to tie into what was supposedly happening in
Paradius as they spoke. And in the end, Ikani realized, that it all
came back to him. In X’s mysterious mind at least, it was his duty
to bring light to the darkness that was supposedly lurking over the
Five Islands, waiting to strike. But where was it? Did Oren’s
disappearance have anything to do with it?

Distracted by these
newfound questions, Ikani finally snapped out of his contemplations
by a great howling sound that echoed from the distance. He and Niru
froze. Ikani readied his sword.

“What was that?” Niru
asked nervously.

“I have a hunch,”
Ikani replied apprehensively. “I just hope that I’m
wrong.”

“What should we
do?”

Ikani did not consider
himself brave by nature. His thoughts were frantically trying to
tell him to turn back, but the stone around his neck and a sense of
deep-set duty in his heart argued boldly that running was not an
option.

“We’ve got to keep
going,” Ikani insisted.

Cautiously, they
continued along their way, double-checking around every corner and
every fork in their path to be sure that they were not being
followed. Gradually, the two Zor grew calm once again, and Ikani
began to lower his guard, sensing that whatever might have been
threatening them before had turned off somewhere else and was now
far away.

“That was strange,”
Ikani stated, breathing a sigh of relief.

There was no answer.
“Niru?” Ikani called the Zor’s name again, turning to his left.
There stood Niru, his back against the far wall, frozen in
fright.

“What is it?” Ikani
asked worriedly. “What do you see?”

Trembling, the Zor
lifted a finger towards the tunnel that branched off to the left
behind them. Ikani readied his sword, spinning around as well in
search of the source. He, too, froze as he became aware of what
Niru had seen.

It was a pack of
Firewolves. He could not tell precisely how many there were under
the dim tunnel lights, but he was certain he had counted at least
six fiery coats of fur beyond the tunnel’s entrance. Moreover,
Ikani was filled with a sense of looming danger as he became aware
of what
they
had spotted – two Zor, standing at the mouth
of their tunnel, threatening their underground
home.

A chorus of growls
echoed off of the cavern walls. Ikani and Niru both stumbled
backwards.

“What do we do?” Niru
asked frantically.

At the sound of his
voice, the first wolf leapt forward.

“We run!” Ikani cried,
taking off in the other direction.

Taking off down the
tunnel, the Zor no longer took any notice of the direction in which
the Pendant was directing them. They darted down tunnel after
narrow tunnel, sensing the increasing fierceness with which the
Firewolves pursued them as they continued on. It was at this time
that Ikani was thankful for his new build, particularly his longer
legs, which essentially made the difference between life and death
considering he was a weak runner by nature.

“Are you still there?”
Ikani called backwards, not daring to look back in search of
Niru.

“Right behind you!” he
replied between heavy breaths.

“We can’t continue
like this forever,” Ikani exclaimed, “they’re gaining on
us.”

Frantically, Ikani
searched their surroundings, barely visible beneath the faint
overhead lights, for any possible means of escape. Ultimately,
however, there appeared to be nothing. Then, just as Ikani began to
lose hope, he spotted something. It wasn’t much – a crack in the
left-hand wall that would be wide enough for Niru and hopefully
enough to fit his larger body as well. Ikani did not think once
about where it might lead them; to survive was his first and only
instinct at the moment.

“In here!” Ikani
cried, signaling desperately at the hole. He ushered Niru forward
and watched as the smaller Zor quickly disappeared into the crack.
Then, glancing once behind him, Ikani forced himself inside as
well, watching as the all the light around him suddenly vanished.
The cries of the Firewolves in the main tunnels quickly drew to a
stop, and as suddenly as it had begun, the chase had reached its
end.