Tim stood next to Lisle, staring up at the enormous Guardian reclining on the cave ledge before him. He was so taken with her that he hardly noticed the little woman occupying the space at the Guardian’s side. The Guardian was much larger than Fal, and colored more like the small Guardian, Ell. She looked at him steadily, out of huge, round pupiled golden eyes. He assumed she was female; her coloring was so much like the only other female Guardian he had known. He was relieved to see that she looked calm. Her long, scaled tail was still, delicate tip curved about age-yellowed foreclaws.

​She gave off the impression of immense age. He didn’t know how he knew that she was old. Maybe it was her great size, or perhaps it was just the look of deep wisdom in her eyes. She lay propped up on her forearms and haunches, her graceful neck curved upward. He was glad to see that the crest on the top of her head was relaxed, crimson ridges laid back against her skull. She exhibited none of the thrashing, irritable movements that he associated with an angry Guardian.

He wrenched his eyes away to look at the gray-haired woman who sat leaning easily against the Guardian’s forearm. She too looked relaxed. He saw no anger in her face. Despite that, cold sweat dripped down the back of his ruddy brown tunic and he straightened up, readying himself for whatever might come next. He released Lisle’s hand and took a sideways step away from her. Whatever was to befall him, it was none of her doing. He hoped that by separating himself it might protect her from the wrath which must be his due.

The woman stood up and tugged at the edges of her over-blouse, and smoothed the front down with her hands. She looked up at him, piercing blue eyes riveting. She was considerably shorter than he was, about Lisle’s height, but carried an air of authority that made Tim want to bow his head to her. He resisted the urge, he needed to keep his eyes focused on what was about to happen.

“Gran Br…Bryl a…and B…Bryllint,” said Lisle, gesturing at the Guardian and the woman with her hand.

Tim glanced in Lisle’s direction, blinking acknowledgment, then turned back and bent his head politely to Gran Bryll and to Bryllint.

Tim watched Bryllint’s eyes as she studied him for several moments. Another trickle of sweat ran down between his shoulder blades distracting him, and he fidgeted, adjusting his shoulders back to relieve the itching sensation it caused.

“Tim, Contracted of Fal, you have shown yourself to be both faithful and loving in the care of your Guardian. For this the Guardians commend you.” She hesitated, and Tim braced himself for what would surely follow.

“For your previous actions, it is understood that you chose to serve your Guardian, despite the imbalance of the demands placed upon you.” Bryllint stepped toward him, and placed a hand on either side of his shoulders, leaned forward and kissed him upon the forehead.

Tim was stunned. Eyes wide, he just stood there. He felt his mouth hanging open and clenched his jaws tightly.  He had expected rebuke, rejection, even punishment, not this.

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He looked away from Bryllint to see the huge Guardian gazing at him, golden eyes boring through him. She saw him completely. He knew there was no hiding from her, and oddly, he felt no need to. He saw only understanding in her eyes, even acceptance.

How was that possible?

Bryllint stepped back and dropped her hands to her sides, inclining her head to him. Then she returned to her seat beside Gran Bryl.

Lisle nudged him with her elbow. “T…T…Tell them.”

Nerves strung tight, he was startled by the sudden elbow in his ribs and jumped, then blurted out, “He’s awake. My Guardian, Fal. He’s back.”

Gran Bryl gazed down at him, then arched her neck and head  to the side looking at Bryllint.

Bryllint tilted her chin up, head canted sideways toward Gran Bryl, as if listening to something Tim could not hear. Then she spoke. “Thank you. Gran Bryl is aware of this. Can you bring him here?”

Tim felt his eyebrows lift upward, eyes wide, he shook his head rapidly in the negative and took an inadvertent step backward. “No, no, he won’t come. He’d never enter Guardian Cavern.”

“You must try to bring him here. You and Fal must undergo the Ritual of the One.”

Tim was appalled at the pleading tone in Bryllint’s voice. He’d never be able to get Fal to come to Guardian Cavern. He’d never been able to get Fal to do anything that wasn’t his own idea.

“We must be ready for the Day of Rising. The Balance must be restored. Gaea needs you. We all need you,” continued Bryllint.

Tim had no idea what she was talking about. What Balance? Why did Gaea need them? What was this Ritual of the One? This Day of Rising? How was he supposed to get Fal to go anywhere? Just when he thought that everything was going to be alright, it had all come crashing down. Feelings of hopelessness flooded up within him.

Tim dropped his eyes to the floor, his shoulders sagging. “I won’t be able to do it.” He stood, waiting for something, anything that might make this better. Then he heard Bryllint sigh out a reply,

“You must try.”

Clearly this was beyond his understanding. What he did understand was that he would fail, but he also realized there was nothing else for it but that he try. He nodded his head glumly, turned and shuffled his way out of the cavern. He didn’t dare look at Lisle for fear he might break down.

Once through the entrance to the cavern and out of sight around a curve of the tunnel, he broke into a run. Outside he scrambled down the mountainside, heedless of the dangerous footing, tripping and sliding over the loose scree covering the ground. He wanted only to be with Fal, back in the safety of their cave. What he would do when he got there, and how he would convince Fal to go to Guardian Cavern, he had no idea.   
 
​

Lisle reclined on the mountainside looking up into cottony clouds which covered the sky. A warm breeze, redolent with summer’s waning, wafted errant strands of hair about her face and she brushed them aside absently. She was transfixed by the clouds, imagining them to be a herd of many humped, snowy beasts with slate grey underbellies, drifting in stately progress from horizon to horizon. The image was appealing and she pointed them out to Moss who squatted like a delicate, winged water hopper upon Lisle’s bent knee. She laughed and pointed at a cloud shaped exactly like a puller beast elbowing Tim who sat beside her, long legs stretched before him as he leaned back on his hands.

Tim had joined Lisle on the mountainside several times over the past weeks, and even Moss was getting used to him.  Lisle discovered that she enjoyed his undemanding company. It provided her with a break from the intensive training she was doing with Bryllint and now Deloren. 

Feeling relaxed, Lisle tried to put the image of the cloud beasts into words so Tim and Moss could see what she was seeing. To her frustration, the words stuck in her throat and her tongue tangled in her mouth.

With a huff, she sat up irritably. Moss leapt into the air and hovered in front of Lisle's face, hands on her hips, wings buzzing loudly and chattered at her. Lisle inclined her head in apology and  hummed a single note. Then she added in a word, then more notes which became a song, and the words she wanted to say flowed out of her mouth with the song. Tim turned to look at her, eyebrows raised. Moss clapped her hands and chittered in a high, happy staccato. Lisle looked at them both, suddenly feeling shy and ducking her head.

“That was good Lisle. You can say what you want like that.”

Lisle looked up at Tim and nodded, feeling relieved that he understood her unusual solution to the problem that had plagued her for so long.

She saw his face take on an uncertain expression, eyebrows furrowing, as he looked away then and picked up a pebble from the ground beside him. He tossed it back and forth between his hands.

“Lisle, I want to tell you something.”

Tim looked so serious all of a sudden that Lisle sat up, forgetting about the animals in the clouds and looked at him. Anxiety pricked its way into her insides.

“My Guardian, Fal… he’s awake.”

Lisle drew in a sharp breath.

Tim dropped the pebble and turned pleading, pale green eyes to look at her. “I know he’s done terrible things, and…” Tim turned his gaze away from her and looked out at the horizon. He was silent for a moment. “and, me too.” He said in a whisper. Then the words poured out of him all in a rush. “He’s different now. I know he is. I am too. He loves me Lisle, I can tell. He’s not angry anymore, he just feels ashamed, and so do I, and he’s not going to hurt Ell again, I’m just sure of it. I love him so much…” His words ran down and his eyes followed, looking away from her face and down at the pebbled mountainside before him. He scuffed at the dirt with his fingers, picked up another pebble and threw it, hard. They both watched as it bounced and clicked its way down the incline. Then Lisle turned to look at Tim once again. The sunlight shone off dark curls straggling over his forehead, and he glanced at her out of the side of his eye, and quickly looked down again.

She had no idea how to respond. The dark Guardian was awake, Fal, Ell’s brother, who had almost killed Ell. The terrible image of him attacking Ell, shocking in its intensity, filled her inner vision. She felt anger and fear roiling up inside. Then she remembered the dancing blue light, bouncing along the Pathways, and shook her head back and forth. How was she to reconcile the two images?

Her thoughts took a turn then, and she remembered Bryllint saying, “There must be at least twelve Guardians to hold the balance, never less.”

Twelve Guardians, she thought. There had been ten Guardians living in Guardian Mountain. Now, Ell made number eleven. Fal is the only other Guardian that anyone has ever spoken of. Fal is the twelfth Guardian! 

As much as Lisle didn’t want it to be true, they needed Fal. She realized that even when she and Ell accomplished the Ritual of the One, they would only be the eleventh pair. Not enough for the Day of Rising. Not enough to create balance. Without Fal and Tim they would fail. Gaea would fall into the darkness of The Others. An involuntary shiver traced icy fingers up her spine as she thought of the spreading darkness she had felt on the Pathways. She couldn’t let that happen.

  “You, you can’t really forgive him… or me, can you?” Said Tim.

Lisle leapt to her feet and reached down for Tim’s hand, yanking him upward. He stood, looking at her uncertainly.

“C…C…Come on!” Lisle took off for the tunnel entrance to Guardian Mountain, pulling him along behind her. She heard a loud chittering, as Moss, not one to be left behind, caught up, wings buzzing beside Lisle’s ear.

Lisle tore through the mouth of the tunnel, holding hard to Tim’s hand and not allowing him to stop even when he shied backward at the entrance. They raced down the tunnel, finally skidding to a halt at the entrance of Guardian Cavern. Lisle dropped Tim’s hand as they both bent over, gasping for breath. Lisle was the first to recover as Moss alighted upon her shoulder. She looked up to see Gran Bryl stretched along the ridge at the side of the great cavern, yellow-green scales shining in the sunlight pouring through from the crater above. It sparkled over the walls of the cavern in thousands of flashing pinpoints of light. Lisle looked for Bryllint and was relieved to see her there, sitting at Gran Bryl’s side, her hand resting upon one huge foreleg. Her graying hair was pulled back into a knot at the nape of her neck and a welcoming smile creased her lined face. The air in the cavern wafted about them with the clean mineral scent of fresh-turned earth. The temperature was considerably cooler than outside.

Lisle heard a gasp from beside her and looked to see Tim, green eyes wide and staring, frozen like a creeper about to become a meal for some predatory creature.

She reached again for his hand. “It’s a…alright.” Lisle felt him resisting even as she walked forward so she stopped and pulled him up beside her. She looked up at him where he stood considerably taller than herself, and tried to reassure him with a smile. He looked back at her with fear-filled eyes. Then he clenched his jaw and gave a little nod as if to acquiesce to his fate. His fingers tightened convulsively on Lisle’s and they walked forward together to stand before Gran Bryl.

Lisle, and the kind woman she now knew as Healer Delorin, made their way down the mountain path accompanied by a clatter of flyer folk in the air above them. The thought crossed Lisle’s mind that clatter was exactly the right name for the whirring, noisy flock hovering overhead. She glanced over at Delorin, glad for the healer’s solid bulk between herself and the sheer drop-off where the edge of the path met nothing but sky. She had had enough of that view on the way up, and her legs were shaky from her exertions both physical and emotional over the past several hours. As her mind returned to what lay ahead, her gut constricted painfully and her breath caught in her throat. Worry over her companions, especially Ell, turned into a monologue of ‘what if’s’ in her mind.

Half-sliding down the gravelly path, stones rasping underfoot creating miniature rock slides, they arrived back with Lisle's companions. Lisle skidded to Ell’s side as the whispering cloud of flyers above them, divided, the majority streaking to Ell, and others continuing to Terris who slumped beside the Guardian.

Lisle was relieved to see that Ell was awake. She lay prone upon the path, in the same position as when they’d left, but her eyes were open now. Her wounds oozing a sluggish, deep crimson.

Delorin quickly checked Ell, Terris and then Gareth, before returning to Ell. When Ell lifted her head weakly and looked at Delorin, then looked pointedly at Terris, Delorin admonished her. “They’ll do for now. You’re the one in need.” Ell subsided with a deep groan and laid her head back down.

Several of the flyer folk alighted on Gareth’s injured leg. “Tend to Ell and Terris you,” and he tried to wave them away. They lifted off, hovering briefly, then landed again. He dropped his hand limply and looked away, the corners of his mouth tilting down and a crease deepening between his brows.

With Ell and Terris in many good hands, large and small, Lisle sank down beside Gareth. She stared at the arrow protruding from his leg, wincing at the pain she knew it caused him, and thought that she really should do something about it. Glancing up at his face she saw that his cheeks burned red even as the rest of his face was pale and sweaty. He held his face turned away, lips pressed tightly in a hard, straight line and eyes staring intensely at the ground. Lisle felt a wave of emotion emanating from him, but was sure she was mistaken. What does he have to be ashamed of? 

Nervous now, afraid of the pain she would cause him, she reached with trembling hands for the shaft of the arrow.

“I’ll take care of that Young One,” said Delorin looking over her shoulder at Lisle. “Just make him comfortable and I’ll be there shortly.”

“I’m alright, Lisle. Stop fussing,” said Gareth, looking at her with hard eyes.

“I’m n…not f…f…fussing,” said Lisle, stung by the anger she felt beneath his words. She dropped her hands and scrambled up and away from him. “Can I h...h...help it if y…you always end up looking like a q…q…quill climber?”

Gareth jerked his face away, his cheeks staining a deeper red, and was silent.

Lisle looked at him, lips pursed in frustration, then she shrugged. If he didn’t want help, she wouldn’t give it to him. She’d tend to Ell and Terris. As she moved down the path toward her Guardian a small contingent of three flyers supporting a fourth, injured flyer between them, landed gently beside Ell.

“Moss!” Lisle was elated to see her friend and relieved to have something else to think about besides Gareth. She stepped quickly over to the little group and knelt down. Moss pushed herself upright carefully with the aid of the flyers supporting her. One of her wings hung, bent at an uncomfortable looking angle. The rest of her seemed unharmed.

“M…Moss, you…you’re alright!”

Moss smiled up at her, an expression more like a grimace, and nodded her head. Tendrils of moss green hair straggled about her  sharp-chinned face. Her tunic hung limply on her shoulders. She held herself upright with one tiny arm braced against her companion, and gestured delicately with the other arm toward Ell.

“Ell’s g…going to b…be al…alright,” said Lisle as she followed the direction of Moss’s gesture with her eyes. “I h…hope,” she whispered.
  
With Delorin’s efficient aid, and whatever it was that the flyer folk did, it wasn’t long before Ell was able to stand. Terris too, woke, and after a few disoriented minutes, stood up beside Ell.

Delorin moved to tend Gareth and he waved his hand at her as if to shoo her away. She stood in front of him and closed her eyes. Then she overlapped her hands on her chest and took several slow, deep breaths. When she opened her eyes, she put her hands on her hips and just stood there, staring at him. He relented, ungraciously gesturing toward his leg. Gareth made no sound, even as the color drained from his face when Delorin wrenched the arrow from his leg and bandaged him carefully. Gareth looked briefly at her then, and lifted his chin in thanks. Delorin acknowledged that with a head bob of her own.

With Gareth standing, bandaged leg held up, leaning on his bow, the companions began to move slowly up the path with a cloud of hovering flyer folk over them, and Delorin walking behind.

Moss was lifted into the air by her staunch flyer companions once again and joined the hovering clatter.

Lisle moved up beside Terris and Ell. “Th..that was the b…bravest thing I e…ever saw. T…Terris y...you saved us.” Then she looked at Ell, her eyes filling with tears.  “Ell y…you saved T…Terris. I th…thought I was g…going to lose you b…b..both.” Hot tears overflowed, rolling down her cheeks.

Terris patted her awkwardly on the shoulder and said nothing. He looked at her, his lips compressed, twitching back and forth as if not knowing quite what to do with themselves. Color suffused his cheeks and neck and he blinked rapidly, looking away.

The clatter of flyer folk moved like one being back up toward Guardian Cavern, quickly disappearing from sight, carrying Moss away with them.

Ell, once again led the way, though much more slowly this time. Her movements were stiff and looked painful. Lisle followed close behind, walking beside Terris, his hand on her shoulder. She felt his weight as he leaned upon her, and was glad he at least allowed her to support him.

Gareth waved away Delorin’s offer of an arm to lean upon, growling, “Tend those as needs you.”
​
Together again, wounded, hurting and now silent, the companions aided by Delorin, trudged up Guardian Mountain toward the Cavern, each sunk in their own thoughts.
 

​Lisle felt tears tickle along her cheeks and drip from her chin as she stood up and eased her back. She had been staunching the flow of blood from Ell’s many wounds as best she knew how with only her small tunic as a cloth. She looked now at Ell as her Guardian lay stomach down on the ground. Her long neck stretched out before her and her jaw rested on the rocky earth beneath her, her wings were splayed unnaturally. Ell’s eyes were closed, and she seemed to be sleeping or unconscious. Lisle wasn’t sure which and it scared her.

Ell was covered with wounds, deep gouges on her sides, bite punctures along her spine, and scratches all over her neck. If not for her scaly hide Lisle was sure she would not have survived the attack. Lisle had managed to stop most of the bleeding, though the wounds looked raw and open, still weeping red on the deepest gouges along Ell’s abdomen.

“T…Terris, uh…uh…I  st…st…stopped the bl…bleeding.” Lisle looked over at Terris to discover him slumped over sideways, his head tilted at an uncomfortable angle, eyes closed. She had been so focused on tending Ell that she hadn’t seen how badly injured he was.

What do I do? She thought frantically, Ell and Terris needed more tending than she knew how to give them. Maybe someone at Guardian Cavern can help? She was reluctant to leave her companions. They would be alone and injured, defenseless. What if that awful Guardian came back? But there was nothing for it, she had to go.

“I’ll guh…get h…help, Ell.” Ell’s eyelids flickered slightly. Lisle thought Ell had heard her; she hoped so.

Lisle made Terris as comfortable as she could by repositioning his head. She touched Ell’s jaw gently and leaned over to give her a feather-light kiss. Then she took off at a run up the path toward Guardian Cavern.

To her vast relief she soon met Gareth hobbling down the path towards her, using his bow as a crutch. She was so happy to see him alive and upright she ran at him and threw her arms around him, almost knocking him over.

“Easy there, Lisle.” Gareth grit his teeth as she jostled his leg, but he hugged her back with one arm. “I’m glad to see you too. Where‘re the others?”

Stumbling over her words, Lisle gave him a shortened version of all that had happened.

“I’ll get down there and stay with ‘em. If that big Guardian comes back, I’ll… well, I’ll keep it busy.”

Lisle shuddered at the thought of that enormous, dark Guardian, and an injured Gareth trying to hold it off. The sooner she got to the cavern and got help, the better.

Then she had an awful thought. What if Ell’s attacker had come from Guardian Cavern? Would she be running right into it’s jaws? It had flown off in another direction entirely. Maybe it hadn’t come from the Cavern at all. She desperately hoped that was true. All their lives depended on it, because she had no other way to get help but to continue on to Guardian Cavern.

Her stomach in knots she waved at Gareth limply, and was about to start up the mountain again when she realized that Moss wasn’t with him.

“Gareth, wh…where’s M…Moss?”

“Moss? She went with Terris up the cliff. She’s not with him?”

Lisle shook her head, no. Feeling more frantic than ever, she turned and continued her headlong rush up the mountain, pinning her hopes on finding help for her companions.

Her race up Guardian Mountain felt like it took hours, though in fact it was much less. Still, she was exhausted by the time she stood at the entrance of the tunnel which she thought might lead into Guardian Cavern. Having only seen the mountain from above in her vision with Ell, she had no way of knowing if this was the right entrance.

Lisle looked into the perfect oval of the opening. As she stepped inside, the rough stone of the tunnel stretched overhead in a ropy formation. The surface reminded her of the cheese Mina sometimes purchased on market day in town, though the color was considerably darker. She walked in, sunlight stretched into the tunnel for a short distance and then the light in the tunnel got dimmer the further she moved from the entrance. I wish Mina was here, she thought, as the dark surrounded her. Mina would know what to do right now. Even more Lisle wished she had brought a torch. She hadn’t thought, there was so much light in her vision. Yet, the tunnel just got darker and darker as she walked deeper into the mountain.

Soon it was so dark that she reached up with her fingers to feel if her eyes were actually open. She couldn’t see anything, not even her fingers right in front of her eyes. Her imagination went wild, picturing that huge, dark Guardian looming before her, many toothed jaws waiting to grab her. Still, she forced herself to put one foot in front of the other and kept moving. With one hand on the wall of the tunnel she had some measure of the space around her. The tunnel wall proceeded straight ahead, inclining slightly. She didn’t know what else to do but follow it, wrestling with the vivid scenes of terror in her mind and hoping it would lead her to the cavern she had seen so clearly in her vision.

Gradually, she realized that up ahead she was able to see the oval of the tunnel outlined in the faintest sparkling of light. With intense relief she moved along faster, though she still kept one hand on the guiding wall of the tunnel. Faster and faster still, as the shimmering light guided her, she began to trot. The light grew brighter until looking down the tunnel she could see a complete circle of light. It shone out reflecting bright sparkles from the walls and ceiling of the passageway. She ran faster, letting go of the wall and making for the bright circle ahead with a feeling of desperation as if the dark behind might grab her and pull her back.

She burst out into a large opening. The intensity of the light was too bright for her dark-adjusted eyes and she squinted her lids almost shut against the glare. As her eyes slowly adjusted, she opened them wider and was able to make out a huge cavern, with walls covered in twinkling light. It curved up to a domed ceiling ending in a bright, circular opening at the top. She could see a veil of sunlit green leaves partially covering the opening. The total effect of the cavern was stunning. This was the cavern of her vision, the one that Ell had shown her.

As her eyes traveled back down, she was startled to realize that there was an enormous Guardian, lying prone on a shelf of rock at the far side of the cavern. Lisle breathed out a sigh of relief to see that it was not the dark Guardian. This Guardian was colored like Ell, with slight variations in the shadings of olive, yellow and red. It held it’s runner-like head high on a long, sinuous neck and stared at her fixedly. As Lisle took in this startling sight, she was aware of movement from all around the cavern. Other, smaller Guardians were lifting their heads, turning graceful necks towards her. Ten pairs of golden eyes looked at her, unblinking.

One help me, thought Lisle. She had to trust they would help her. Her knees felt wobbly. Gasping in a halting breath she took a tentative step into the cavern. Then, without allowing herself to think about what she was doing, she sprinted forward, right up to the biggest Guardian.

“Y…You’ve got to help us. Ell and Terris are hurt, so’s Gareth. I  d…d…don’t know where Moss is.”

Lisle was young and frantic enough not to realize that this Guardian might have no idea who she and her companions were. Tears rolled down Lisle’s cheeks as she looked up into the huge Guardian’s eyes. “We n…need…” Lisle knuckled her eyes to stop the betraying flow. “We need help!”

Lisle stared upwards. She had the strange sensation of falling up and into the Guardian’s golden orbs. The Guardian seemed to understand. Lisle knew suddenly and without doubt that everything was going to be alright and felt her knees go weak again, this time with relief.

As she started to sag, she felt strong, sure hands supporting her at the elbows. A woman had arrived and now stood at her side.
“You’ll be alright now, young one,” the woman said, quietly.

Lisle could feel her nurturing energy, so much like Mina’s. She allowed herself to lean toward her, resting in her strong hands.
A cloud of flyer folk lifted off from every corner of the cavern and swirled in an enormous, colorful tornado of clattering wings over Lisle’s head.

“Can you lead us to your companions?” Asked the woman.

Lisle’s lips curved upward. “Y…yes, b...bless the One,”  she said, eyes closing as she sagged against the woman.