The Heroes II The Eternal Night

Chapter IV-Dreams Become Reality

The city wan't too big and not too far from them. There was a castle in the middle that stood above the other buildings around it, built up in a solid mass of gold. The buildings around the castle looked like small homes and the most mysterious part about the smaller city is was that it wasn't there the night before, and now there was, in plain sight.


"You don't think it's one of those strange lost ghost villages is it?" Garen asked nervously. "I really didn't like the last one."


"No, this is real, those viallges seem only to pop up around the Kio region. This is a city that was built up over night, but by who?" replied Neotasha.


"There's only one person," Cody said, the rest of them looking at him now. "Who else would we come across at a random point of time who has the power to do this?"


"Langholm?" Becky asked.


Cody just nodded his head and began walking toward the city, that was their new destination.


How Langholm manganged to do it, he'll never know. Garen was looking around the small city and was realizing it was more of a camp than a city. The houses they saw before were barracks quarters for the soldiers, each one holding roughly a hundred men and the castle was there to house the women and higher ranking soldiers, allowing them more room. It was almost impossible to be let into the camp, the guards would not let them through until one of the higher ranking men by the name of Talasho let them through, recognizing them from the last battles and after getting let into the camp, they couldn't enter the castle at all.


"Sorry, guys," Talasho had said. "I don't have authorization to let you go any further, the security is really tight these days."


So they walked, not seeing anyone around the camp that they could recognize until someone called out to them from the direction of the castle. It was Langholm.


"You know, I should really start putting posters up saying to let these people in at all times," he said with smile, then he looked up at Ax and then back down at Neotasha, his smiling growing a little larger. "And I see you have brought a couple guests a long with you?"


Ax gave him a shy nod and said, "Me Ax, what name may you be?"


"Oh, well my name would be Langholm," he said with a slight chuckle. "And you would be?"


"Neotasha, sir," said Neotasha casually.


"Ah, another elf. Well, I suppose I should bring you five up to the castle now, shouldn't I?"


He walked them through the campsite and Garen couldn't help to see how miserable these men looked, sleeping in those buildings craming so many bodies into a small place.


"I know what you're thinking, Garen," Langholm said with a frown forming on his face. "Believe me, I don't want these men living in those type of conditions, but I have no control over it."


"How not, aren't you the Great Elder or something like that?" Cody asked.


"I am, but being an Elder only makes me an advisor, not a person to make desicions. The king does that."


"Well, shouldn't you be the king?"


"No," came a voice from above them, a tauntingly familiar voice. They loooked up and saw Canola standing at the top of the stairs leading to the castle. "I am the newly appointed king and I don't remember allowing kids into my castle."


"I think we went through this last time, boy," Becky said glaring up at Canola, "I am much older than you could even think. Now do we have a problem of letting us in?"


"Of course not, ma'am," Canola said, his eyes moving up and down on her. "Just don't cause any trouble." He turned on his heel and walked into the castle.


"How did he become king?" Becky growled.


"He was best suited for the position." Langholm simply said.


"Wouldn't you be more suited?" Cody asked. "Seeing that you were already the best king to have ruled."


"Enough of this talk, we must go to the command center and discuss what is happening and why we're here," Langholm was serious and not his usual gentle self; no one had the nerve to question him.











The command center was a large room located on the top floor of the castle, in the middle laid a map of their known world and the seas that went beyond that. Their world was just one big island located in the center of the seas with little bits of islands that were randomly in the middle of the sea, islands that no man has ever ventured to or discovered. Near the northern part of the map was Kio and not to far from it was a shining black dot that represented the lit Black Fire Lighthouse, a little way below that was a giant forest that stretched the length of the land. Going further south was their next target of defense, the Green Fire Lighthouse, represented by a dull green dot. And the patern continued further south to a purple dot then to a bronze one, but thats where the pattern switches up and the next three dots, silver, gold and rainbow, started going north again and that's when Garen saw it. The Lighthouses are positioned in a circle around, not Kio, but Mt. Killimore, a large circle that reached around the lands of the planet. Around the map was a group of people that were higher up of the army's chain of command, Langholm, Canola and Jake on the far side. Canola was pointing at a spot on the map that was a good distance from the large forest, Adsmeria Forest.


"This is where we are right now, we want to get here," he slid his finger to the middle of the forest that had the name Adsmeria on it. "But we're not sure if that's the exact location of the city, and that's why having those two here now is perfect timing."


"May I ask why you want to make your way to the elven capitol?" Neotasha asked.


"We must befriend them, have them as allies," Langholm said softly. "In this upcoming war, we're going to need as many allies as we can get, and I'm sure the elves would be more than happy to help us with this cause."


"Some may oppose it, but our queen will more than likely accept the offer, as will Becky and I," Neotasha said.


"We know some other people who would gladly help out too, and we also know some people that will join our group to stop the Lighthouse," said Becky. Neotasha gave her a look and she fell silent instantly.


"Well, we need all the help we can get," Canola said. "According to Langholm, there will soon be a war much worse than the one we're in now."


"What could possibly be worst than fighting these beasts!" yelled out one of the generals.


"Fighting humans, Hell Raiders, Fire Raiders and whatever other dark creatures the Dark Lord can conjure up," Cody said silently, he then stepped forward and looked around the room. "This war is going to be harder then anything else you've ever experienced before and a lot of soldiers will die. This is a war over the Lighthouses and if we lose than the world as we know it is gone. We've already lost one, we can't let anymore be lit." There was a large amount of talk around the map and Langholm rose his arms up to quiet everyone.


"Thank you, Cody, for letting everyone know the truth behind this war, a little sooner than I wanted, but that's alright," he said now looking around the room. "Now let us conclude this meeting for everyone to rest, the venture through Adsmeria Forest will not be easy, I can assure you that." He turned around, Jake following his lead, along with Canola and walked out of the door behind them. Cody, Garen, Becky, Ax and Neotasha exited through the door after them before any of the higher ranking soldiers could register the upcoming events.


Jake was waiting outside for them and he looked older now than he did last time. Facial hair was coming in around his cheeks, neck and chin and his once black hair now had a few strands of white, his eyes a shining green. Each time Cody saw the kid, it looked as though he's aged five years.


"How you doing with all this, kid?" Cody asked, looking down at him.


Jake looked up with a weak smile and said, "I'm doing fine, I get to live up here in the castle and help fight in the war."


"I can tell by your eyes and hair that you're turning into quite the Fire Raider, then?"


"Oh, yes, Langholm has been training me pretty well."


"Yea, he's a pretty tough guy for being so old, well I suppose you should go train with him a bit more while we get some rest, we kinda need it," Cody said with a slight smile.


"Yes, we can all see that, Cody," said Langholm walking back up the stairs. "You all look beat to hell, so you all better get some good rest. C'mon Jake, we should train some."


Langholm walked off with Jake at his heels leaving Cody and the rest of them standing there at the top of the stairs.





What are they? Giant, metal birds that drop eggs to the ground causing an explosion that can wipe out at least five major cities. Garen's dream was making no since to him. A man with a mastache no wider than his nose killing millions of people; two giant metal birds flying into a couple of glass made building that touched the sky. Men going to war with each other using sticks that burped like thunder and killed the person it was aimed at just as soon as it burped. The last thing Garen saw was that man again, pointing an awkwardly made metal stick that looked similar to the others but was much shorter and he had it aimed at a boy's head, who was on both his knees with two other boys laying dead beside him. Garen heard the thunder expel from the strange weapon and watched in horror as the boy keeled over with a hole in his forehead. Someone shook him awake and when Garen woke he was pointing at Cody with his thumb up and his index finger aimed at Cody with a small ball of Green Fire, as if he was pretending to hold the weapon he just dreamed about.


"Who taught that little technique?" Cody asked, pushing Garen's arm down.


"No one, I had a strange dream," Garen replied.


"More like a horrible nightmare. What was it about?"


"I don't even know," Garen looked up at Cody confused. "There were strange weapons being used and giant birds made of metal with no need to flap their wings, dropping large eggs that exploded on impact."


"That was much more than a dream, Garen," Cody said and when Garen's confused look grew worse we continued, "Your a Green Fire Raider, which usually means you can dream into the future."


"You're saying I was looking at future events?" Garen asked


"That's exactly what I'm saying. Your dreams will at some point, become a reality."


The door swung open violently with Becky standing in the opening, her swords drawn and a frightened look on her face. She looked over at Cody and Garen and asked, "What's wrong? Were we getting attacked?"


"Everything's fine, Becky," Cody answered. "Garen was just having quite a bad dream, but it's all good now." He turned to Garen and whispered to him, "We'll finish this later, I don't really want people knowing quite yet."


Becky's ear twitched a bit as he said this, but she didn't say anything to them. Cody got up and walked over to the door and looked at her softly, "If you want you can give him company now, my babysitting hour is over." He then smiled at her and she returned the smile to him.


Cody walked off toward his room and shut the door behind him, leaving Becky and Garen there alone, just staring at each other.


"Was it Max?" she asked. "He comes into my dreams a lot and we just talk about what's been going on since he..left us." Garen could see slight tears starting to swell up in her eyes. "I don't know if I'm just going crazy, or if he's actually talking with me." She was starting to choke on the tears she was fighting back.


"I think you're definitely going crazy," Garen said and she looked up at him to see his smile, which she couldn't help to return. "I don't think you're going crazy at all Becky, things happen that can't be explained sometimes and maybe Max visiting you in your sleep is just one of those things."


"You think so?" she asked.


"Yea, I really do think so," he said, and stood up to give her hug, pressing his lips on the top of her head. Her arms wrapped around him and she burried her face into his chest, letting the tears fall. "It's all good Becky, everything will be alright." He told her, getting some strands of hair in his mouth, but he didn't attempt to spit them out, he didn't care. The only thing that mattered to him right now was making sure that his new, unofficially adopted sister was alright.