***** Vol.5 Chap.12 A brief introduction *****
A bell ringed.
Frank, Kristin, and May-Ling jumped.
Then a crescent table with four chairs appeared.
As they stared at one another in amazement, there was a knock at the door. They did not even notice the door forming.
The door opened and Elijah walked in without his cane. He was visibly younger and more refreshed. Elijah turned to take the single chair on one side of the table with the smaller crescent while the rest took the three chairs on the other side of the table with the larger crescent.
“Tea please.” Seemingly, Elijah spoke to the air. But instantly, a pot of steaming hot tea and a cup appears in front of him.
“Would you all care to have coffee or tea?”
“Cappuccino” Kristin said.
“Espresso” Frank echoed.
“Ginseng tea please.” May-Ling said softly.
Their order materialized in front of them.
After they all took a ship of their drinks, May-Ling suddenly jumped up with her nose in the air.
“I had that tea before! At the legendary village!” she exclaimed to Elijah. “Am I right?”
Elijah smiled and nodded his head.
“We grew that tea only in that cavern you were in. The villagers found out about the tea and start harvested it as well.”
May-Ling sat in amazement. “In that case, can I switch my ginseng for your tea then?”
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A bell chimed. Her ginseng tea disappeared and another pot with the requested tea appeared.
Of course, Frank and Kristin had no idea what had just transpired.
Seeing their amazement, Elijah simply smiled and said motioning his hand between May-Ling and him, “It is our secret.”
After another brief pause, being the impatient one, Kristin broke the silence.
“What is this place? Why have you brought us here? …”
Clearly Kristin had waited long enough for answers and she just blurted out all the questions.
Calmly, Elijah began to speak.
“You all are on planet earth. This is a sub terrain cavern. As to why I have brought you all here, please be patient and let me explain.”
Elijah took a sip of his tea and continued. “I was also brought here by the one who brought me here centuries ago, just like you have been brought here by me. We called ourselves the Cosmic Guardians.”
“Are you some top secret government agencies? Which country do you belong to?” Kristin interrupted.
“No. We are not the CIA, FBI, KGB, DOD or any other governmental or private agencies on earth. We are not associated with any government or country on this earth.”
“I only see you. Why do you say ‘We’? Are there more of you here?” Kristin turned and looked around. She wanted all the answers immediately.
“When I say ‘we’, I mean myself and all the guardians before me in time. Presently, I am the only guardian on this entire planet. I am the only one living in this sub-terrain compound.”
“What is a ‘whatever guardian’?”
“A cosmic guardian is one who monitors the progress and development of all life forms on all planets with intelligent life forms in this universe.”
“All life forms?”
“Entire universe?”
“Yes, not just human life. We also monitor animals, plants, and other living things on this planet.”
Elijah paused and took a sip of the tea in front of him. There seemed to be an air of sorrow and despair with him.
“The original cosmic guardian was sent to planet earth ions ago to monitor life and its development on earth. After several replacement of the cosmic guardian, a decision was made to call local intelligent life to continue the guardian task. That was when my predecessor was first chosen among the human race, the most advanced race on earth at that time, and still is. About five thousand years ago, I was called to continue as the cosmic guardian…”
“You are five thousand years old?” Again, Kristin jumped in with disbelief. “You don’t look five thousand years old.”
Elijah smiled.
“You said to monitor the progress and development of all life forms on this planet? That is quite a job. How can one guardian handle such a humongous job?” Kristin was very skeptical. But Frank’s curiosity is piqued.
“We have a sophisticated machine to collect the necessary information from all life on this earth. We have plenty of time to get to the technical part later.”
“In the meantime, I do have an urgent task that must be handled immediately.”
Again, there was a hint of sadness in Elijah’s tone.