Ellas Past
Kane
Four days later, we emerged into an enormous tunnel, a tunnel that made what we had walk along up to now seem a straw – fifty giants could easily walk abreast along it. Light emanating from its walls, floor and ceiling, lit the whole length of it as it dwindled into the distance in both directions from where we had emerged.
Other roads formed tributary's as they intersected at intervals on both sides, and from many of these giants marched, beating their chests in what I could only assume was some kind of greeting for their returning brethren.
As our party emerged into the roadway from the myriad of parallel tunnels that ran alongside ours, they, too, began to beat their chests in reply.
The noise was almost deafening, but the smiles, laughter and obvious relief of those that greeted us was such that, before we knew it, Gremok and I had joined in, and began to beat our chests in unison.
Abruptly, the noise stopped, and the giants before us parted, making way as someone walked through their ranks. And then Anna was there, stood before all of us, a radiant smile on her face.
She walked forward, paused slightly to smile at Gremok and I, and then walked directly to Garath.
Reaching him, she looked up at the huge giant. ‘I thought to never see you again, Father,’ she said, as she reached up to take the remains of one of his hands in both of hers.
‘I would have counselled you not to do as you have done… but you would not have listened. You cared for me as if I was one of your own, as if I was your child, and yet always you were stubborn.’
The huge giant gently shrugged off Anna's hands, and then carefully lifted her until their faces were level. Tears filled both of their eyes.
‘You have ever been my daughter, little one… from the day you first came to us. I would have it no other way.’
Slowly, Anna reached forward with both hands to touch the giant’s face. Gently, she ran her fingers from his forehead down to his chin, her hands probing his every feature as if trying to understand what it was that had been done to him.
Then, as she took her hands away, Garath's face seemed to somehow melt and slowly flow into a different structure. The fangs receded back until the only protruded slightly over Garath's lips, and the proboscis, that was his nose, shrank back until it more resembled that of a giant’s.
The process continued until Garath's face was no longer hideous. It was not that of a normal giant, but neither was it the face of a monster.
‘That is as much as I can do, Father,’ Anna said, as she tried to stifle her sobs.
‘I felt your magic, child, and I thank you for what you have done. But I resisted your changes… too much and you would have undone all that we gave sacrifice for. I must remain the creature he made me so that I can fight against him. What you have done is enough. That I am… less hideous to look upon, is more than I could have hoped for. I thank you.’
‘I will help your companions, too. Though it will take time, for my magic is not without cost… it weakens me.’
‘They will understand, all of them. Help when you can, but do not take too much from yourself… you will be needed much in the time that come, Daughter.’
Garath gently lowered Anna back to the floor, a smile on his face that was no longer that of a monster.
‘Come,’ he said. ‘I am sure a celebration awaits. And my companions hunger for all that we have been deprived of these months.’ His eyes widened and he laughed. ‘Good food, wine and laughter… most of all, the laughter.’
And with that he beckoned to Gremok. ‘Come, Brother. Let me show you the hospitality of the Roken. It is something that will gladden your heart.’
And so, a few hours later, clean and fresh after bathing in the huge communal steam pools, we found ourselves in a cavern that dwarfed those that I had earlier thought to be immense.
Massive stone tables, tables fit only for giants, filled over half of the hall with hundreds and hundreds of giants sat at them, all eating, drinking and laughing – there was a great deal of laughing.
The remainder of the hall was given over to the young. Children, giant children, most far larger than I, ran about, sat and played, listen to stories, and watched puppet shows and plays performed by their elders. The smiles on their faces and the laughter spoke of an innocence that I had no longer believed existed in this world that Dar'cen had blighted.
‘Your children are as my people,’ Gremok said to Garath, as the four of us stood beguiled by the children at play.
‘You must take me to your home one day, little brother… perhaps I will journey there with you when you return. Now that my daughter has beautified you, you will need one such as I to show the horrors that the evil one inflicts upon the world.’
Gremok laughed. ‘Beautified? She took away my fangs and claws, that is all. I will still be as a giant amongst my people. And I know not what they will think of that.’
‘And that is all the more reason why I should accompany you. I will show them what it truly means to be a giant. So it is settled then, little brother. I will travel with you.’
‘But what of your people, who will lead them?’
‘Isal has done well in my absence. They will follow him, as will my changed ones. The Roken will be safe until my daughter tells of her plan to defeat him. Then, as like as not, we may all die. A sacrifice I will gladly make to ensure a future for these little ones here.’
‘Your company is more than I could have ever hoped for, Father,’ Anna said, a smile wide across her face.
Two days later, two days of blissful rest and recuperation, the four of us set out. Anna and Garath led the way, both talking as if no one else in the world existed, while Gremok and I trailed in their wake.
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We walked first along one of the enormous roadways that linked the numerous underground villages that spiralled off the central city; the whole being named Rokenhome.
After an hour or so, Garath, stopped and beckoned us stand by him as he plotted his course to the Ella’ren home in the great forest of Lwycoed. ‘I will be but a moment and then we will be off again… There will not be time for resting, Gremok,’ he said, with a laugh, as he looked down upon Gremok sprawled out on the stone floor.
‘We rest where we can, Brother. I doubt that my brothers will allow me time to breath, even, such will be their questioning.’
Garath laughed again, as he waved his one arm and an offshoot tunnel opened on the side of the roadway we stood in. ‘It is done, as is the time for rest. Come, we walk on,’ he said, grinning, as he turned and marched into the ever elongating side road.
Hours we walked, but now, refreshed as we were, the hardships of but a few days ago touched us not at all, and we chatted away about everything and anything, our minds free for a short time of the horrors we had seen, and those yet to come.
And hours later, as we sat in a rest chamber created in mere moments by Garath, Gremok said, ‘It would be good to walk under the trees in the sun… all this stone is not natural.’
‘It is now full dark above,’ Garath said, with a chuckle. ‘There is more light here for us to see by.’
‘A jest, Father?’ Anna asked. ‘After all he did to you; it is good to hear your humour once more.’
Garath grinned, and then dragged the blades of his one hand across the stone floor, creating a high-pitched squeal that set my teeth on edge.
‘Father!’ Anna said, almost shouting.
‘Practising, Daughter, Gremok has been teaching me the ways of his people, and of how they loved to tease each other. If I am to live amongst them with my brother, I should follow their ways, should I not?’ And with that he again dragged his blade across the floor, creating an ear piercing screech.
‘Enough!’ Anna shouted.
Gremok looked up to Garath, and I swore that I saw him wink. Then he laughed, the high pitched, debilitating laugh of the Ella'ren that I had met so long ago in the Great Grays.
‘Agh!’ Garath hissed. You win, brother. You win. Stop it, I beg you!’
Gremok relented, and then, in the silence that followed grins lit all our faces.
A little while later, Gremok spoke, ‘How do know where we are going, Brother? When you tunnel, you have but a few yards of open space in front of you, and yet you say that you take us in a straight line to my home. How—’
‘It is a thing that we Roken can do. Worry not on it, Brother.’
‘But—’
‘I cannot explain it, Gremok. It just is. Something inside me tells me that this is the way, and I accept it. It has ever been that way with my people.’
‘What of the tunnels then, and what you do to make the chambers of your home? How do you do such a thing?’
‘You are very persistent, Brother,’ Garath said, his gravelly voice somehow sounding amused.
‘Yes, but you make the very rock disappear, and then reappears behind you. This place here where we now sit, a whole chamber where the rock is just not there anymore, will it, too, reappear when we leave?’
‘Yes it will, little brother. For it is still here no, all around us.’
I think that at Garath's words, I looked as bemused as Gremok.
‘Can you explain a little, Father?’ Anna asked. ‘I have seen you do such things many a time and simply accepted it as a thing of your people. But I must admit that Gremok's questions have piqued my interest.’
‘I will try to explain what happens. But again, as to the how, I do not know… it is just something that we can do. The stone that made up this chamber that we sit in, is still here, all around us. But we cannot see it, cannot feel it. It is an insubstantial thing to me, and yet it still holds up the stone above it… To the overlying stone, it still exists below, offering its support. But somehow for us, the stone is shifted slightly to some other place.’
Leaning forward, Garath reached out his hand. ‘Watch,’ he said. Then, as his hand moved downward, a thin pillar of rock appeared, where his hand had been. He did the same three more times, and then, running his hand horizontally, he joined the four the pillars together with a thin sheet of stone, to form a table. Finished, he then rested his hands on top of the table, gently scrapping the blades of one hand across its surface, whilst his legs protruded from beneath the table on the far side.
Anna laughed and clapped her hands like a child at a fairground. ‘No matter how often I see you work with stone, Father, it still fills me with wonder.’
‘That is how you created tables for the feast, isn’t it?’ Gremok blurted. ‘Amazing!’
I agreed, what Garath had just done was amazing. I reached forward and touched the table, and pushed slightly to see how it would move. But flimsy as it looked – four narrow legs and a thin top – it would not budge.
‘Ha!’ Garath laughed, as the table resisted the pressure I placed upon it and move not a fraction. ‘And now you see the truth of it. What you see, what you touch, is not a creation, but rather it is the stone that existed in the place my hand passed over. Surrounding my rather feeble table on all sides, above and below, is the stone that has always surrounded and supported it. That is why you cannot move the table… You push the very world itself.’
Gremok and I listened to Garath's words with stunned and bemused looks on our faces, while Anna clapped in delight.
‘You see, we do not harm the stone, it is just somewhere else. What he would have us do would be to go against the covenant that we share with our world. We never do damage to the stone—’
‘But you can change stone, can't you? That is what all the legends say… that you can reshape it, and even change what it is.’ I said.
‘Yes, but only at need. And that change is a temporary thing. When we are done the stone becomes once again as it was. No harm is taken by it.’
‘You talk as though the stone is alive, Father.’
‘And so it is, my daughter. The Roken believe that all things are alive. Not just the creatures and the plants… all things that make up our world are alive. The world itself is a living creature, and we are but a small part of that being. Some believe that the world is a great living creature, and that the stone and the rock that cover it, is its skin… and that we, the creatures that we believe to be alive, are but tics and parasites that live on that skin. It is a strange thing to think on, do you not agree?’
‘Very strange indeed, Brother,’ Gremok said. ‘But what is this thing that he would have you mine for him? He seems to desire it greatly.’
‘A pretty trinket, nothing more, he says… and yet, if he has need of it, it must be much more than just a pretty thing.’
‘It is Dersium. He wants it because…’ I cut myself short. I had spoken without thinking. I glanced at Anna, but she did not seem aware that I had almost told some of how it was I came to be his. ‘It holds great power within itself,’ I said, at last. ‘Power that will aid him in his future conquests.’
‘Future, Kane? Do you mean that when he has destroyed us all, he has other worlds to conquer?’ Anna asked, her laughter now a thing of the past.
‘I do not know, Anna,’ I lied. ‘I only know of the power it contains… and that he wants to use it in his conquests.’
‘Then he must not have it,’ Garath growled. ‘Not only will the Roken not aid him in this, we will stop those that mine this thing for him.’
‘He uses slaves, Father. Innocents that he has no greater use for… They do not live long after they enter his mines.’
‘Then we must free them,’ Gremok growled.
‘He will replace those we free… he has an endless supply of… of those he can use.’
‘He will have no need to replace them if we destroy his mines… or at least change that which he seeks to something less desirable.’ There was a wicked smile spread across Garath's face as he finished.
‘But you just said that the changes you make to stone are temporary.’
‘I did indeed. But this great world of ours has lived for hundreds of millennia, so who is to say what it may consider as temporary. Besides, the evil one causes greater hurt with the mining he does, and Ellas will thank us for making an end of it.’
‘But surely he will just open new mines,’ Anna said.
‘And we will thwart his plans at each and every one, Daughter. You may be sure of that. A single Roken will make one of his mines useless in but a day.’
For a moment, Anna beamed like a child once again. But then, her face became serious once more. ‘We must not be hasty in this. We will do as you say, but the Ella'ren must come first,’ she said, looking to me. ‘They are essential, Kane. Is that not so?’
‘Yes, Anna, they are… but I do not know how. They must aid us… and Gremok must survive. That is all that I know.’
‘I must survive? What is this… prophecy, a dream? What?’
‘It just is, Gremok. Perhaps one day I will be able to explain, but for now, you must accept what I say… Your people must aid us in this war, and you must survive past Dar'cen's defeat.’
‘Strange words, indeed, but I am beholden to you… to you both. And so I will do as you ask.’
‘Enough talk,’ Garath said. ‘We should all be rested now, and so we must be on our way.’ Then, he rose with an agility that did not seem possible for such a huge, deformed creature.
A minute later, we all again followed him through the tunnel formed by shifted rock.