The Dark Age Chronicles: The Fall of Night. -
Proposals and Declinations.
Ihloden stumbled back hishead reeling. “Steady now,” another voice said and hands reached and held himfirmly.
“It’s…It’s…” Ihlodenstuttered.
“A Griffin yes,” the Griffinreplied, “I know what I am. Who are you?” Ihloden looked past it to see hisGriffin getting to its feet.
“How about you tend to the men, and I talk tothe boy,” the voice behind him said sounding amused, “I don’t think he has muchpractice in talking to Griffins in his own tongue.”
“Oh right,” the Griffin said, “Fair enough.”
Ihloden watched as theGriffin went over to the men he and his Griffin had attacked and swept its hugewings over them.
“It’s really really big,” he murmured somewhatdreamily. The Griffin head was reaching half way up the tree trunks. The voicebeside him laughed.
“Let’s go check and see howyour Griffin is doing shall we?”
Ihloden allowed the unseen person to lead himaway from the Griffin. He then turned and saw the man in the colored clothing.
“It’s you!” he exclaimed, “They were trying tokill you! Why is the Griffin helping them?”
“The Griffin’s name isSerenus,” the Griffin called. Ihloden jumped when its voice boomed out at him.
“Serenus please,” the mansaid laughing, “You are scaring the boy.” He then turned back to Ihloden, “Myapologies for the deception that we had to make you go through. This was reallyall a test you see.”
“A test?” Ihloden saidpulling away from the man, “What test?” By this time they had arrived at hisGriffin and Ihloden stood between the man and the Griffin. “You will go nofurther,” he said, “I mean it.”
The man stopped walking andheld up his hands, “I know you must be feeling a bit confused but you must letme explain.”
“Then explain!” Ihlodenstated.
“But first I must makeintroductions,” the man continued in a very neutral tone of voice. He thenbowed and said, “Eml irbgn egret ratapheca eru-or rodilar udo-oberth ieterh udo-lrgi. Lawesl ratap eru-or udo-rstru,heca Ecvenegen.”
“What?” Ihloden replied.
He felt the Griffin movebehind him and he turned to see it bow to the man. Then to his surprise, itreplied.
“Emlnoctesn eru-or egert, eto-wgsl ratap Ecvegen. Aiatln ery slf usavil?”
“Griffin?” Ihloden asked.
The man seemed to stagger abit then he held his hand to his head. “My apologies.Eml slf liespoga. I heard the rumors but I was not sure if theywere true till now. It is really here. You, Griffin, you are really here.”
“What?” Ihloden said again,“Will someone just explain?”
Then man gave a heady kindof laugh. “I will speak the language of Cysia, if that is alright with youGriffin?”
“Eml-ahslf balel Arvad,” The Griffin replied. Ihloden threw his hands up in theair and made an exasperated sound. The Griffin sent a wave of amusement to him.
“I am glad to see you replace our predicamentfunny,” he said a bit sourly, “If you are done, can you please let him explainwhy he made us almost kill three men for nothing.”
“I am Euan, a member of theEcvengen. We heard of rumors of the Griffin from the Mountain City, Overed. Andwe came to investigate if it was true,” he paused then went on, “We got someinformation that the Griffin was somewhere near Molvn. So we did some scoutingaround and we found you. We needed to know if you were up to the task, so wecreated a bit of a scenario to see how you would react. I am pleased to say youpassed.”
Ihloden shook his head and held up his hands,“So you are from that fabled resistance group and you came to replace theGriffin.”
“His name is Arvad,” Euansaid.
“So that is what his nameis,” Ihloden said musingly, then he spoke exasperatedly again, “Who told youthat the Griffin was here? You men have Lyficen’s mark on them! You could beLyficen’s men for all I care!”
“His mark is easy to copy,”Euan said placating, “And if I was Lyficen’s man, I would never have hadSerenus with me. Look boy…”
“My name is Ihloden!”Ihloden said, gritting his teeth.
“Like Griffin, like rider,”Euan muttered.
“What did you say?” Ihlodensaid, feeling his temper beginning to rise “Furthermore, what task are youtalking about?”
Euan grew stone faced andgrim. In that moment Ihloden saw the real man behind the clothing and thesmile; a man of authority and strength, a true leader. “You and your Griffinare the key to stopping Lyficen’s rule in Cysia. We need you to step up to yourdestiny and be part of the Army that will rise against Lyficen in a finalbattle that will break his hold on this country. With you and Arvad we are surewe can save Cysia. We are asking you to come and join the Ecvengen.”
Ihloden felt himself growcold inside. His mind went back to his mother, seeing her face change when shefound out that his father was killed. He remembered hearing her cry at night,remember realizing that Shila had to grow up faster than she should have. Healso remember seeing what hardships the war had on his village. Seeing the peoplestruggle and him along with them to get back a life for themselves. He knewanother war would devastate them. Another war would destroy all that the peoplehad built these long ten years.
“I can’t” he said.
Euan frowned and said, “Iwill not make this offer again Ihloden.”
“I agree with you thatLyficen must be destroyed. But another war Euan? Another war would destroy usall. We can’t possibly win against him. He is powerful! His army is huge.”
“We are more than youthink,” Euan said in a low voice.
“Suppose we win,” Ihlodensaid, “Then what? After the land is torn apart and lives are lost again andfamilies torn apart again, what then?”
“We will rebuild,” Euan saidsimply, “It hurts me to lose people too Ihloden. I have lost loved ones in thelast war. But they did not die so that we could live like this. Under thisoppression all the time. They died for us to be free.”
Ihloden shook his head, “Andwhat about those people that doesn’t fight. You know fully well that Lyficenwill use anything and everything to win. Can you protect everyone fromLyficen’s hand when he goes to war? He does not care! He will wipe out everyonethat he even thinks stands against him. There has to be another way.” Ihlodenpaused then said softly, “I can’t bring another war Euan. I can’t”
Euan sighed and spoke again,“ Noktow isade eru, Arvad. Eru tednintpso lawesl eya.”
The Griffin gave a shortscreech, “Ecpal eml-ah ierdr tpso, tolcaetednin eml tpso.”
Euan sighed and turned toIhloden, “I am sorry that you feel that way. I hope that in time you will notregret your decision. Peace be with you Ihloden. Eresne Arvad.”
With that he turned and hewalked away towards the Griffin that was sitting along with the three fullyhealed men. Serenus got to its feet as Euan approached near. Ihloden saw a lookpass between them and knew then the Euan was Serunus’ rider. Euan shook hishead slightly and Serenus gave a short screech then it settled back down andall four men climbed up onto its back. Serenus looked at Ihloden, and thedisappointment was so apparent in its eyes, that Ihloden looked away.
“Eresne Arvad,” Serenus spoke, “Ieterhterlus eml-ah eirdr.” Then it gave a louder screech and with two greatbeats of its wings it was above the tree line and disappeared into the skies.
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