The Vendeleer Brothers Book 4: The Plagued Forest
Chapter 14: Warden

As he thought, Ian was unable to go back to sleep. He kept feeling like he was seeing things in the shadows, but everytime he looked over quickly, he realized it was just his eyes playing tricks on him. He sighed, looking up at the stars and wondering if Roderick was conscious at all. Was he suffering? Was is it like being asleep? Was it like being in the coma? He sat up, only to see that Brian was also still awake, looking at his moonlit reflection in the water.

“Can’t sleep now either?” Ian asked with a sigh. Brian’s eyebrows furrowed forward with concern.

“I’m just… thinking about that weird gas mask guy.”

Ian could tell that he wanted to say something more, so he remained silent to let him finish what he had to say.

“That gas mask guy… He wanted to open up that box so badly. The voices even said that we’d die if we didn’t… So, why didn’t we? Why did he suddenly give up?”

Ian took a moment to think about this.

“You have a very good point right there…” he murmured. The two of them sat silently thinking about this, when they heard the flapping of wings from somewhere above them. They both looked up in time to see the winged creature from before soaring above the branches. It elegantly let itself down onto the dry land next to the swamp creature, and as it did, it transformed.

The feathers and wings folded away into a more humanoid being. It was a being of pure white, and hair sprouted out of her head and rolled down her shoulders. The golden horns remained, but now they were looking at the woman in a white and golden dress. The tips of her hair sparkled with gold, and when she turned to them, they were met with piercing gold eyes.

“I finally found you.” she said with a sigh of relief. She then bent down and put a hand on the creature who was slowly waking up.

“What happened to you Prthviko?” she asked sorrowfully. The creature simply moaned. Brian went to stand up, and then immediately lost his balance in the boat and fell over the side, landing halfway in the water and halfway in the mud. Ian facepalmed.

“So uh… who are you?” Ian asked. The woman turned, her eyes twinkling.

“I am Warden. The gatekeeper and guardian of Spirit Prison.”

“Wait-there’s a prison for spirits?” Brian asked in amazement. The woman nodded.

“And let me say that you and your friends have been making quite a name for yourselves there. You’ve already made some powerful enemies.”

Ian frowned.

He didn’t like the sound of powerful enemies.

Why couldn’t he have just been a telemarketer or something?! Telemarketers never had powerful spirit enemies from different dimensions!

“Who’s the swamp guy?” Brian asked, getting straight to the point. Warden turned to the creature beside her.

“His name is Prthviko. He’s the keeper of nature. As you can see, he’s a little sick at the moment. Once he’s better, he can bring everything back to normal. Will you help me?”

“Well, of course we’ll help you.” Ian said. “We just risked our lives back there didn’t we?”

The woman smiled. “Thank you. I presume you two have already been to his sanctuary. Once he’s clean, I should be able to heal him. I can get you two there, but his cleaning will take some time, and I can’t help you. I am needed elsewhere.”

Warden closed her eyes and held out her hands, and suddenly, Ian and Brian were falling. The boat they were in crashed to the ground, and they looked up to see that they were in the weird cave place with the waterfall.

“Elsewhere?! You’re-you’re just going to teleport us somewhere, tell us to clean this guy and then leave? What the heck?!” Ian exclaimed, feeling a bit flustered from suddenly being sent to a different place within the blink of an eye. The woman’s eyes flashed.

“This predicament is larger than you think Ian Vendeleer.” she said in a powerful low voice. At the sound of his name, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

“Aaaaand of course you know my name…” he muttered, rubbing his arm. Warden bent down to be on his level.

“I know all five of your names.” she told him. “Kishnu has been spreading knowledge of all of you. You should be careful for the future.”

Ian and Brian swallowed. Kishnu had been pretty out of sight and out of mind, and the idea that he was still out to get them was pretty unnerving. Warden stood up, her arms out.

“And this plagued forest is spreading. I need to go help the others keep it at bay.”

“Others?” Brian questioned. Instead of responding, Warden disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Ian and Brian to stand there gawking.

“So… Kishnu is spreading our names to a bunch of spirit criminals?!” Ian exclaimed, starting to freak out a bit. “What have we gotten ourselves into?! What the heck-you don’t just throw that information onto someone and then leave!”

Brian looked over to Prthviko, the swamp creature, took in a deep breath.

“We can worry about that later Ian. Right now, we should probably give this guy a bath.”

“Fine…” Ian grumbled.

Getting Prthviko into the pool of water was interesting. He was having trouble moving himself along, and so Brian spent a while pushing and pulling him into the water.

“That Warden lady couldn’t have at least pushed him into the water before she left?” Ian panted, getting covered in sludge. Brian pulled on the creature’s arm, and then slipped into clean water. Ian immediately noticed that even though Brian was absolutely filthy, the dirt and grime didn’t taint the remaining water. It was like the water was able to clean without getting dirty itself.

When they finally got him in there, they both stood there panting. Prthviko descended under the water, bubbles coming up. Then, Brian and Ian brought out the scrub pads they had picked up at the gas station and started to scrub. The sludge on the swamp creature seemed to be never ending. Ian scrubbed until his arms and wrists started to cramp up. After what seemed to be a long time, Ian and Brian had to stop to take a break.

“Do-do you see a difference yet?” Brian panted.

“He looks the same as when we started…”

“Ugh…”

Brian plopped onto the ground, feeling wet and exhausted. Ian sat down next to him, feeling a bit useless. As they sat there, Prthviko suddenly raised his head from the water.

“Iannnn…. Briannn…. Thannnnk yoooou…” he said in a soft raspy voice. Ian and Brian popped their heads up.

“So… you can talk just as much as that Warden lady?” Brian asked hesitantly. The creature nodded.

“It’s just harrrrrd to talk withhhhh poison innnnn your throoooat.”

“I guess the cleaning is working then?” Ian asked. Prthviko nodded.

“How did you get sick?” Brian asked curiously. The swamp being was silent for a moment.

“I… wasss betrayyyyed by annnn ooooold friennnnd…” he said slowly. Ian gave a little frown at this response, feeling like this was all the information they were going to get. He got up and stretched.

“Well, I guess we should get back to it then huh?”

With a sigh, Brian stood up as well, and they got back to work on scrubbing the great creature in the pool. Ian probably should have been dead tired from getting hardly any sleep, but he found himself wide awake. Slowly, he could tell that the sludge was starting to come off. They were getting down to a smoother surface.

“You two should rest…” Prthviko told them after a while, his voice becoming less raspy. Brian was actually already asleep on the creature’s back, the scrubber still in his hands. Ian felt his eyes drooping.

“Ok…” he yawned. He walked out of the pool and then lay down on the ground, his heavy eyelids leading him into sleep.

It was nice to fall into the lovely comfort of sleep. Ian felt like he hadn’t truly slept in a long time. His dreams settled on some memories of when he and Roderick were kids, like that one time the two of them had tried to make cookies for mother’s day, and they ended up setting the kitchen on fire in the process. Ian could see the flames in his dreams, and their dad yelling at them, and then…

His dream shifted.

Someone was sobbing.

Ian found himself in a dark expanse, and he turned to a spot of light a few feet away, where someone was hunched over on the ground, sobbing so uncontrollably, it seemed like they were in an immense amount of pain. The person wasn’t familiar at all, and he started to reach out to them. As he did, he suddenly felt himself falling into the blackness, and then, he was sitting in a cozy living room. He looked around in confusion, and then noticed a young woman with long black hair and smooth caramel skin sitting in a blue armchair, sipping a cup of tea. She smiled at him knowingly. Ian narrowed his eyes. The other person in the darkness may not have been familiar, but this woman definitely was…

“Who-?”

“Hello Ian.” she said with a smooth voice like honey butter. “Don’t let Roderick open the black box.”

Ian stared at her.

“Wait-what?”

The young woman’s eyes flashed, and the room began to shake as if there was an Earthquake. Ian looked around as the walls pounded like a monster was trying to knock down the whole house. He looked back to the young woman, who simply ignored it.

“Don’t let Roderick open the black box.” she said again, sternly this time, but still smiling. Ian opened his mouth to ask more questions, but he felt himself falling again, only this time, he was falling upwards.

He awoke with a start a moment later, the entire cave shaking like from his dream.