Chapter 2 Part 1

Part 1

Dagmar walked with the other Elders in the forest for what was probably twenty minutes when Kadri finally spoke up. "Alright I think I have had enough of this silence." She turned toward Dagmar. "Sorry about your husband. And I am sorry that we came to you so quickly after your husbands death."
Without turning his head Talib said plainly,"We had to get to the body before it started rotting to preserve the heart. You shouldn't apologize for something that we had to do Kadri."
After a moment's pause Dagmar responded to Kadri. "It's ok. It's what was needed to be done." Again there was a moment of silence. "So where are we going?"
Cadoc joined in the conversation now, his brown, curly hair bouncing as he walked. "We're going to the statues then to the first city."
"Are the guardians real?"
"Yep"
"Really? What are they like?"
After a brief silence by everybody Kadri answered. "Well they all are large with the exception of Zol and Lima. They all look pretty close to what the pictures and statues make them out to be."
"We shouldn't be talking about this in public."
"Relax Talib, noone is around," said Agnes.
"Still you should know better, Kadri. The guardians don't like us saying anything about them in public," said Talib annoyed.
Agnes walked with Talib ahead of everyone whispering something.
"Why is he so serious about everything?" Asked Dagmar quietly.
"It was the way he lost his wife but if you want to know more you'll have to ask him," said Achim.
"So what did you do before becoming an elder?" Asked Cadoc obviously trying to change the subject.
"I was an artist. I painted a few of the murals on the walls of the temple," answered Dagmar. "What about you three?"
Cadoc answered first. "I was a farmer. Nothing fancy."
Next was Achim. "I was a soldier."
"I thought people of Xol weren't allowed to have wives," said Dagmar.
"Most choose not to because that makes it harder to leave our families but some of us still have wives or husbands but there is no real rule against it."
"Ok I didn't know that." Dagmar then turned to Kadri. "And what were you before you were an elder?"
"Guess." Kadri said with a flirtatious smirk.
"Were you one of Lima's people?"
"Yep."
They continued the conversation for about 5 minutes until they got to the first shrine. It had 2 guards were at the entrance. As Dagmar walked into the circular shrine there were six statues of the guardians. Each pair guarded a path. Starting from the left, there was Xol and Lima. All the statues were about three feet tall and made of stone. Both Xol and Lima had a child-like face but had headdresses and looked draped in fine clothes. The bodies also looked like children. The only way to tell the difference between the two statues were the eyes. Xol had yellow crystals for eyes and Lima had pink crystals. The center pair was Mesque and Malen. These two had cloaks around their bodies and what could only be described as cloth like textures directly where the skin should have shown. Again the only difference was the eyes. Mesque had green eyes and Malen's were clear. And then there was Flanto and Zeenal to the right. They looked like animals. They lay on their four deer like legs. They had the head of a wolf with goat horns while the body looked more cat like with the tail curled along their side which was also like a cat. Flanto had green-blue crystals for eyes and Zeenal had purple eyes.
"Now we will be follow the path of Zeenal and Flanto," said Agnes. "It goes into the mountains to Zeenamed."
"The lost city," Dagmar whispered under her breath.
"Don't worry, if you get scared you can always hold my hand," offered Kadri with a flirtatious smile.
Dagmar chuckled a little bit shaking her head. "Are you sure you aren't Lima's elder?"
"It's odd but she seems to always get along with most everyone she meets. She gives the Guardians a better idea of what everyone in the cities are thinking," Agnes answered.
They all started walking past the statues of Zeenal and Flanto. They talked amongst themselves on the walk about family and life before becoming an elder. Again Talib was mostly silent during the walk. Occasionally Agnis would go and talk to him but for the most part she would stay with the other four elders. After 20 minutes they stopped in front of a group of bushes against the side of the hill that looked like a sheer drop.
Achim and Talib held the bushes to the side and revealed a small entrance to a cave. They all almost had to crawl through the small opening but once through it very rapidly opened up into a large cavern. It was illuminated by 2 small fires one each side of the entrance. But soon enough Dagmar realised the flames started moving forward. They had arms and legs and they were walking. They had a human-like form they were just small, the size of a cat.
She must have looked slightly spooked because Kadri asked teasingly, "Need a hand to hold now?"
Dagmar shook her head and started to followed the others still in shock by the little creatures. After what was probably thirty minutes the end of the tunnel was in view and the creatures vanished.
As the Elders exited the tunnel there were huge walls with a gate that was wide open. The walls were clean white and twenty feet tall. In all the legends of Zeenam'd they said it had large walls but she still didn't expect anything this big.
"Hurry up! We don't want to keep them waiting," Talib yelled.
Not realising it Dagmar had stopped. "Right. Sorry," Dagmar apologise and run to catch up to the others.
"Impressive, right?" Achim whispered when she caught up. I'm sure you're interested in the colors and patterns that they had used."
It was odd to Dagmar that the Asteen used reds oranges whites and yellows where they would have used blues greens greys and darker yellows. She could see much of the damage that had been done to the city during the war between the Guardians and the Asteen. Many buildings had crumbled to the ground but it was hard to tell if it happened during the battle or just had happened over time. For some reason the paint was still bright on the walls of the buildings even after the 1000 years of disrepair. Plants were over grown all over the rubble and the buildings that still stood but it wasn't enough to explain this strange feeling of uneasiness in her stomach. Then she realised that ever since they stepped into the city that it was completely silent. No birds chirping or rustling in the grass and bushes. She didn't date ask what happened to the animals, at least not while they were inside the city.
They walked to the middle of the city where there was a large building that was much different from the rest. Most of it was a grey stone color and had green accents with a blue around the trim of the roof and columns. It would have been very familiar if there weren't arches connecting the columns together. Plus it was all a square building. Back home all the big structures were a pyramid shape.
As Dagmar got to the building she noticed there was a plaque in front of the stairs of the building. A few of the words she could understand but for the most part it was a language that was completely different from the ones they now spoke and wrote.
Flanking the stairs were bushes with white berries on them. Talib grabbed six berries of one of the bushes and handed one to each of the other Elders. When he gave Dagmar one he told her, "The Guardians have us take these to help us understand remember their instructions fully," anticipating a question that wasn't coming.
Dagmar just responded with an, "Oh, ok," and ate the berry. The taste was very bitter but she swallowed it down anyway. She walked into the dark building with the others and the doors closed behind the last of them. After a few moments of pure darkness everything started to brighten up until it was like daylight inside the building. Inside there were 3 doors and next to each door was a statue. These were probably life sized statues. To the right was Nams, god of the universe, who was 15 feet tall about. In the center was Adoz, god of blood, who was a good 12 feet tall. And finally to the left was Proas, god of time, who stood the size of a human.
All the elders stood by their door corresponding to the guardian they represented. Xol and Lima were from Proas so Talib and Agnes stood by the door to the right. Malen and Mesque were from Adoz so Achim and Cadoc stood by the center door. And Zeenal and Flanto were from Nams so Dagmar stood by Kadri at the door to the left. Soon after everyone got into place the doors opened and everyone entered through the doors.
Once Kadri and Dagmar got in Kadri kneeled before the two guardians. The Guardians looked exactly like the statues: the head of a wolf, horns of a goat, body and tail of a cat (the later swishing back and forth in the air) and legs of a deer. Again the only way to tell the difference was the eyes, Flanto having shallow water green eyes and Zeenal having purple eyes. They lay like animals. "Welcome children," the guardians said in unison.
Flanto stood up and walked towards Kadri and Dagmar. "Hello Father," said Kadri with Dagmar quickly repeating it.
Then Zeenal walked to be beside Flanto. Again Kadri said, "Hello Mother," with Dagmar saying it afterwards.
Without saying anything more Flanto walked to the far side of the room while Zeenal just sat down in front of them. Dagmar followed Flanto while Kadri stayed kneeling in front of Zeenal. When Flanto sat Dagmar kneeled in front of him. She looked back to see Kadri and Zeenal but all she could see was a black void. When she turned back to Flanto he said, "You are my Elder now. You will do what I say and pass what you learn here to my people." His voice was deep and echoed throughout the room.
"I will," she said obediently and like that smaller versions of the four human cities popped out of the ground. As she watched them they started to change. First Zollied, then Flanyn, Menil, and finally was Limadol. Buildings would start to come up out of the ground and immediately she knew what each building was going to be.
"You shall remember every building and where they shall be built." When Dagmar looked at Menil there was only the base of a large building coming out of the ground and she knew that it was the start of a Temple. Then the vision all blurred together and turned black.
When Dagmar awoke she was outside the temple and it was morning. Everyone else was already awake and eating fruit and bread.
"She's awake." Agnis said to the rest of the group. Dagmar got up off of the ground in front of the temple. The sun was just rising.
"Here," said Talib handing her some fruit with not a lot of emotion in her voice.
"Thanks," she said taking the fruit. "Were we out for the whole day?"
"Yep," answered Cadoc. "How are you feeling?"
"Starving," answered Dagmar with a smile.