Forgotten Guardians
Chapter 32

One by one they crawled out of the water. The children quickly huddled back together as they stared at their peculiar rescuers. Almost immediately Uuger jumped into Miranda’s arms with a loving hug. She returned the hug with equal affection. Uugcr rambled about he would always protect her and never let anyone harm her again. Wolf brushed her side and eagerly waited as she reached down to wrap her free arm around his neck. Grimmly stepped behind her and wrapped his huge arms around her in a bear hug.

“We missed you, little lady,” he said releasing her. “and I think these are yours.” Grimmly pulled her sword and dagger from his pack. A warm smile spread across Miranda’s face when he handed her the weapons. She quickly knelt fonvard on her toes and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. The stone mountain giant’s face would have been beet red if he could blush. Miranda quickly sheathed her sword and put the dagger in her belt.

Frathe walked up to her with a stem scowl across his face. He pointed a finger up at her, “The next time you want to go for a walk, be a little more choosey about where you go. But it’s good to have you back,” he said, all the gruff fading from his voice. Miranda bent down and gave him a quick peck on the forehead. With a lot of grumbling and hand waving he walked off cursing under his breath. Josan walked up and tugged at the edge of his hood, “Ummm... it’s... it’s good to see you safe.” he said as he turned and walked away. Miranda’s stomach clenched into a knot, rage and loss filled her, she wanted to lie down and cry and at the same time run over and slap him.

As if reading her mood, Grimmly bent over and whispered into her ear. “Don’t let him fool you. AH he thought about was getting to you. I don’t think the Creator himself could have stopped him from reaching you,” he finished as he laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. She patted his hand for the words. “Now what are we going to do about these little critters?” Grimmly boomed as he turned his attention at the children still huddling together. Miranda slowly walked over and knelt by the mass of little people.

“Hello,” she said softly. The children stared at her as if she had homs. “My name is Miranda and these are my friends. Don’t be afraid, they won’t hurt you. We are going to take you home now, would you like that?” she waited a moment as each head nodded in agreement. After a few more moments, the children began to chatter as if they had known her their entire lives. She found out their names and ages and who their parents where. The oldest, a blond haired nine year old boy named, Namis, was a blacksmith’s son. The youngest, a spirited little four year old girl with big blue eyes named Theras, was the daughter of one of the soldiers. Two of them, a boy who was about eight and a girl of about six years old were the children of one of the nobles who were attending the festival. Many of them started to cry about wanting their parents, but Miranda quickly soothed them. Miranda introduced her friends to the children; many were awestruck at Wolf and were even more excited when he let them pet his silver fur. Uuger was quickly accepted as one of them. They talked and played. The children were still very weary about Grimmly and Frathe and Josan stayed at a distance.

“I hate to break up diis picnic, but we need to move. By my estimation we are about a day a head of them. But we are going to move more slowly then them, so every moment counts,” Frathe said sternly as he glanced around at the tree line as if expecting an attack at any moment. Miranda quickly gathered the children up as the rest of the group prepared for their journey. As they started through the forest, Frathe stayed behind to cover their tracks. He was leaving nothing [o chance, especially when dark elves were involved.

Hours passed as they made their way through the thick forest. Josan walked ahead to scout the area, Fralhe kept covering tiieir trail which the rest stayed close to the children. Josan feared the children wouldn’t be able to keep up but he set a fast pace anyway. None of me children seemed to mind, however and seemed full of energy. They laughed at Grimmly’s stories, played with Uuger. Miranda seemed to beam as she watched diem play. They walked all day and didn’t stop until well after night fall. Even after a hard day of travel the children ran around as if they had just woken up. Miranda cooked while the children played in the fire light. Grimmly chased diem around, pretending to be a monster and the squeals of laughter filled the campsite. Wolf let some of the small children ride on his back and they thought it was the most marvelous thing in the world. Josan kept his distance, he couldn’t tell why, but something made him uncomfortable around these children. He pushed the thought away; he had never been good with children.

Frame chased a few children through the trees after diey had stolen his cloak. The surly goblin put on more of a show than usual. Even a laugh or two escaped his lips. For die one diing Frathe had always wanted in his childhood was to play with children.

After die children had eaten, Miranda laid them all down to sleep. A two of them curled up in Grimmly’s arms, another one made her bed snuggled up to Wolf. The two youngest one slept at Miranda’s side. The rest slept on a sprawled blanket with Uuger. Josan and Fralhe stayed awake through die night, each taking a turn on a patrol. Frathe didn’t even grumble when it was his turn, a large smile had appeared on his lips. Thinking his hood hid his face, he walked with skip in his step. They were sure Wolf would awake if anything approached, but diey still took the extra precautions. The night went without incident. Josan started to wake everyone up a hour before sunrise. He wanted an early start. As he walked over to Uuger he found a mound of bodies tangled together. One arm sticking out there another poking out in the opposite directions, some using other’s heads as pillows. Each child seemed content with the sleeping arrangement. It took a few moments to untangle the mess as Miranda made a quick meal to eat on the road.

A fter a few miles, they found a old abandoned cart on the side of the road with a broken axle. Grimmly, with the use of his silver rod, fashioned a crude axle from a fallen tree and repaired the cart. He strapped himself to the old learner harness and let die children pUe into the back. As Miranda helped the children up she noticed deep black circles under each of their eyes. Poor children, they were exhausted from the travel, at least they would be able to sleep in the cart. Miranda thought to herself. With the cart they made even better time. Fulling the cart was nothing for the mountain giant, who had not even broken a sweat by Ihe time they stopped for a quick midday meal. As me day progressed die children began to complain about not feeling well. The dark circles around their eyes seemed to be getting bigger and dieir skin seemed to become pasty, but they had no fever or any other symptoms of illness. Miranda stayed in die back of die cart with mem and tried to soothe their cries.

Even Uuger, with his years of knowledge, could not replace anything wrong with them. Their pace began to slow as they moved along. With each passing moment the children got worse. They complained of stomach cramps and their skin became paler. The dark circles reached their cheeks. Miranda began to fear that the children would not make it back to Keep. She and Uuger made certain each child was comfortable and had fresh damp rag on their forehead.

The sun fell to the western horizon. The children no longer complained about stomach cramps or dizziness, but (heir moods became dark. They leered at Miranda and Uuger as if they were prey. A few spat and cursed at her when she tried to replace their damp rages, still Miranda believed the children were merely tired and sick. As she reached for her water bag, the oldest boy, Namis benl over and sank his teeth into her arm. With a whelp she tried to recoil, but Namis had a good hold. Suddenly Namis gave a scream as Uuger sank his teeth into his arm. Namis released Miranda’s arm and recoiled to the side of the cart. Uuger jumped between Miranda and the children and hissed at them as they leered hungrily at them.

Josan heard Miranda’s whelp of pain. He had enough. He stalked to the back of the cart. He would put these children in their place, even if he had to put the fear of deam in them. He would not stand for them striking out at one of his friends, especially Miranda. He reached the cart’s side and turned Namis around; he threw back his hood to reveal sparkling silver eyes. He met the boy’s gaze, “You will sit there and behave or I will drag you back to your parents,” he said when suddenly something inside of him roared. The darkness pushed against him waiting to be released, his blood raced. Something in this child’s eyes disturbed him, but he couldn’t tell what. As soon as the Namis met his gaze the child slid back in a whimper. He lifted his eyes and stared at ihe rest as they shrugged deeper in their seats. “I don’t think you should be back here with them,” Josan said to Miranda as he extended his hand to help her down. She gave him a questioning look but conceded and stepped down from the cart. Uuger followed her, but gave one last hiss at the children which barely fazed them. They still stared at Josan with terror and awe. For the rest of Ihe day the children remained silent, but their leering gaze settled on Miranda as she followed the cart.

As the sun fell over the horizon the group started to make their camp. The children were bound and gagged in the back of the cart. A few had tried to run off during the late hours, and none of them accepted food or water. Josan took me last watch over the children and let the others sleep. They would have to be on the move soon. As the hours passed Josan could not suppress the faint feeling of connection he had with the children. It was a eerie feeling in the pit of his stomach, somehow, he felt bounded to the them. He couldn’t tell why, but it greatly disturbed him. In return the children stared at him, not with a leer or a sneer but as if they were faithful hunting dogs. As he walked by to make sure their bindings were still secured, Ihey looked at him with open anticipation.

They neither flinched nor rebounded as he approached, but merely waited stared at him. He tried to ignore it, but die feeling would not leave. He spent the reminder of the night trying to determine what this meant.

At the first rise of light, the group was up and already heading down the road. Miranda walked behind the cart as the children still stared scornfully at her. Their eyes sent a shiver up her spine, but she would not show them her fear. As the day continued a faint sound echoed on the wind. At first she could not determine what it was saying or where it was coming from, Uuger seemed to pick up the faint sound as well, his long tufted ears wiggled back and forth as he looked around for die source of the sound.

“What is it, Uuger?” Miranda asked her little friend.

He stood silent a moment as studying the sound, “Uuger don’t know, it’s magic, but Uuger not know from where,” he said as he scanned die surroundings.

They continued to walk and listen for the distant sound. As minutes passed the sound became louder and clearer. It was a man’s voice but the words were too muffled to be understood. The voice sounded familiar to Miranda, but she couldn’t say why. With each step die voice became clearer, until Miranda stopped in her tracks. “Master Veil,” she said aloud.

“Yes it is I,” the voice said.

Miranda stood frozen in place as Uuger strained to hear the voice. “You must come to me, bring the children quickly. We do not have much time,” the voice said urgently.

“Where are you?” Miranda asked in a whisper.

“I will show you,” the voice said and like a blur, Miranda’s saw the forest passing by her in a heart beat. She flew through the her green surroundings untU something came into sight. A building. No, not a building, a temple of some sort. It looked like it had been abandoned for centuries, ft was small and rundown. Many of the walls were covered with vines and some had crumbled under die forest’s weight. The door hung on rusted hinges, which were ready to loose their grip at any moment. As suddenly as die vision had started it vanished and Miranda was left standing on the road with Uuger looking up at her with a perplexed look across his face.

“Pretty Lady, alright?” Uuger asked from her side. By this time Frathe was making his way along the trail covering their tracks.

“What are you doing?” Frathe asked in a gruff tone. “Get a move on.”

Without responding Miranda set at run to catchup with Josan. She quickly told him of what she had learned. Hesitandy he agreed with her plan and started of in the direction of this so “seen” abandoned temple. They set a fast pace and made a straight line to the temple. Well after dark, an old decrepitude temple came into sight. A few widows glowed in the darkness from candle light from within; as they approached they could see Master Veil standing in the door way watching them with his milky white eyes,