Dark Wood: Legends of the Guardians by Unknown

side. They moved
together at a leisurely place. “I fear there is little to tell. My mother died
when I was a very young girl. She’d not had time to teach me much.” He asked
how old she’d been when her mother had died. Aryaunna told him the painful
story of what had happened. Though she was prepared to, she did not have to
elaborate on why.
    Reign
knew all too well the darkness that had swept through the world, bringing grief
and tragedy to those far and wide. “What else do you remember about her?”
    “Sometimes,
nothing,” she spoke quietly as if the truth were too horrible of her to say
aloud. It felt awful to say, shameful. “Elizabeth looks like her. There are
times I dream of my mother, but Elizabeth is who I see. I know it is her
though, because my mother had dark hair like mine. My sister’s hair is the red
of the Blood moon.
    “That
and her beautiful stones. She let me play with them. I’d had them in my pocket
when the knights came for us. I’ve had them since.”
    Reign
stopped, raising his front leg like a barrier before her. Though he walked
using all four, his front forelegs functioned nearly arm-like. “Keep behind me.
The path grows narrow.” Narrow for a Dragon perhaps. He was more wide than she
was tall, and from head to tail he was by far longer than Aryaunna could easily
estimate. His wings must’ve had the same span as the length of his body,
although she couldn’t be certain.
    Rays
of sun had danced off the white walls radiantly all throughout the winding
cave, but the deeper they went, the more the walls seemed to grey for lack of
light. They were clearly moving down a slope now, which was considerably steep.
Steep enough that to keep her balance she had to keep a hand out stretched
against the stone wall.
    Her
fingerless gloves, soaked from the spring, cooled her flesh as the icy stone of
the mountain soaked up what heat was left in her hand. A chill was creeping up
through her body that the growing dark seemed to accentuate.
    “Tell
me what you know of these mountains, Aryaunna,” Reign’s voice resonated even
more deeply the further into the cavern they ventured.
    “Dia
is the tallest of her earthen towers. It is said the Guardians themselves
carved her crevices.”
    Before
she could continue with the common knowledge of Dia, he stopped her. “Yes,
everyone has heard the stories. Can you tell me nothing more? Look around you,
Aryaunna. Open your eyes, your mind, use your spirit. Tell me what you see.”
His great form turned on her as he spoke.
    “It’s
dark,” she returned briskly, sucking in a sharp breath at the start of his sudden
movement. She’d no idea such a large creature could move with such speed and
grace.
    “Close
your eyes,” he ordered. Letting her breath even and slow, Aryaunna’s eyes
closed without question. She did not doubt her safety, despite his fortitude.
“Your hand on the wall, use it. Open your mind and see it for its truth.”
    Her
focus became her intent. “Your mother’s voice. It is inside of you. Find it,
Aryaunna, daughter of Annalee Luvea.” The sound of her mother’s name, her true
name, lit a fire inside of her. Aryaunna had been stripped of her mother’s name
the day she had died. She had not heard it even in whisper, not even from her
sister’s lips since that day. Aryaunna had even told herself she’d forgotten
it.
    Women
in her family had carried the name Luvea for centuries. No man could take a
Luvea woman from her name. The name carried great power. That power awoke
within her. She could see the mountainside, as it had not been seen in a
millennia. Black. Black as night itself. The mountains were raw and wild, peaked
and jagged. From the great Dragons’ fire, molten rock spout forth from deep
crevices.
    Her
eyes opened. She looked at the wall, running her fingers up it slowly.
“Crystal… This entire range is forged of crystal from Dragon fire, Guardian
fire.”
    His
eyes seemed to light up brilliant blue, as radiant