The Legend of Alexandros: Belen (17 page)

By dawn Alexandros had reached Alistair and the others. Slowly he walked to them, not knowing whether or not they would want to hear what he had to say. The group stood silent as he approached. His face showed how sorry he was. Breaking the silence, Elora brushed the hair from his face so she could look into his light blue eyes…and she smacked him. Shocked filled the faces of everyone there, not a soul thought Elora would ever be so mad at Alexandros. Elora’s eyes then filled with tears—but before he could apologize, she silenced him.

“Before you say anything to any of us, Belen…speak with him first…” She pointed to Winston who sat alone looking off toward the hills. Alexandros slowly moved passed everyone. He walked up to Winston and sat beside him.

“Forgive me my friend,” Alexandros said to sorrowfully to Winston.
“…
I lost myself for a moment and the weight of my journey had taken over me.”

“I knew you would not abandon us…” said Winston, smiling. “I knew you were my friend…I knew you were still my friend…right?”

Alexandros smiled in return and softly said, “Of course, I am. It is what you deserve, remember.”

CHAPTER XVII

OVUNAS

L
YCAN, WEREWOLF, JUST
two names for the beasts that had forsaken the woods of the village Ovunas. The fear of werewolves is nightmarish; their attacks are so frequent and atrocious that the villagers fear to travel from one place to another. Every morning for years, villagers found the half-eaten carcasses of their animals scattered among the road. Rumors persist that some of the lycans that dwell in their forests are so old they have lost the ability to revert back to human form; those lycans rarely show themselves, but yet there are those rare glimpses…”

A
n eerie grey fog rolled in from the woods that surrounded the long dreary road. The sound of howling wolves consumed the area. The full moon was high in the sky, and a lonely traveler quickly paced himself as he herded his sheep to his small farmhouse just past the Ovunas forest. The people of Ovunas pleaded and warned him to travel during the day for, although it was still not all that safe, it was safer than moving about at night. The elderly traveler held his lantern high to see through the fog; his shaking hand caused the lantern to rattle. The trees rustled as he slowly walked, branches on the ground could be heard snapping, and a cold sweat ran down his forehead. The sheep were skittish, jumping to just about any sound they heard—until they panicked and fled in every direction. The elderly traveler could almost see the shape of what looked like an extremely large dog slowly crawling out of the dead forest. In a panic the elderly traveler started to run down the old road toward his farm… in the distance he could see the form of what he knew was his shelter—but he never made it to his farm. He, along with his sheep, vanished in the night…his family never saw him again.

Disturbing solitude filled the road to Ovunas. Dead trees stretched out over the road, and their thick skeletal-like branches covered the sky. For most of the days in the area it rained incredibly hard. The sky was cloudy and the road gloomy; the straight narrow road was rarely walked on. The seldom-visited Ovunas village was located not too far away from Heshuezo. Not even the goblins dare ventured to the village for they, too, were very much afraid of what lurked in the woods.

Alexandros led the group down the road with Elora at his side. Although she had not fully forgiven him, she still felt safe in his presence. Winston also stood close—which was odd. Winston generally preferred lagging behind. Winston’s nerves had gotten the best of him, however; he walked on all fours and glanced every now and then at the thin branches that hovered over the road. No one really spoke as they traveled; they were tired, hungry, and a bit sick of each other. Heavier clouds rolled in; the sky began to darken; the air around them began to become damp. Finally, from a distance, Raphael caught a glimpse of a sign that read “Ovunas, the Great Mountain Village.”

Raphael’s depression had gone from bad to worse; he barely spoke or ate. His eyes lost almost all emotion, and he walked with a small slouch.

As they passed the wooden sign the smell of death took consumed them.

This was a mistake, Alexandros thought, but they had walked too far down the road to turn back now. Going back would make no sense, and, with night-fall approaching a lot sooner than expected, one night at the village inn would not do any harm. As they approached closer to Ovunas, they could see wolves’ bane nailed to trees with rusted bent nails. Snapping branches and rustling were heard in the forest that surrounds the road. All eyes looked from side to side, weary of what could be making the sounds. A loud wolf’s howl then filled the air.

“Belen…” Elora said in a nervous whisper.

Keeping their quick pace down the road, they reached Ovunas just as the sun had begun to set. The forest path led to the village, which was built against an oval-shaped mountain. The mountains surrounded the village with high un-climbable rocky walls. The village was large; a stream of water stood in between the mountain wall and the village. Fishermen from the village fished and retrieved their drinking water from the mountain springs. Every home, scattered around the village to create a triangular shape, was built of stone. A high watchtower stood in the center of the village facing the forest. A lone watchman remained on the lookout all night until dawn—but that evening no one watched over the village. The village was messy with personal items tossed around everywhere, torches lit and placed outside of homes.

Alexandros cautiously led them into the village. Not a soul wandered about, which was strange, for this was the one day that it had not rained in the area in about four days.

“Do you have a death wish?” a voice asked.

An old haggard woman stood outside her home. Her home was the very first house on the left of the forest entrance. She had crazy wild gray hair that almost stood straight up and was thin with a long face. Her nose was long and pointed with big round hazel eyes to match. She wore a baggy brown dress torn up at the bottom and was barefoot. Her left eye twitched as she spoke.

“Get yourselves in here at once, the sun is setting,” she said as she pulled Alistair by the arm to enter her home.

“I am very sorry, but we need to find the inn…” Alistair said, pulling his arm away.

“Well, then, you came to the right place. She said as she stood directly in front of Alistair, she stood on the tip of her toes to look him in the eye. “I am the innkeeper,” she said with a crazy smile as her left eye twitched.

“This has to be a most cruel joke,” Valchor said, condescendingly. “This crazy old bat is the innkeeper? I shall not spend one moment in her poorly constructed home.”

A few moments later Valchor was sitting in the corner of the woman’s home, sulking and complaining to himself. Her home was wide and shaped like a hexagon with many large windows, two of which faced the center of the village and four in the back of the house. Her home was stifling; all the windows were closed and boarded up with thick pieces of wood. An assortment of junk cluttered the place, but the only furniture was an unusually long table with chairs that wobbled when sat upon. The steps that led to the second floor of the inn were also cluttered with junk, which did not matter much because not a soul ever really stayed in her inn. Once the sun set she pushed everyone inside and away from the door. She walked quickly towards a small lantern on the table and lowered the flame.

She then quickly walked to the first window and peaked outside through a tiny peephole that was carved into the wood that boarded up the window.

“Why on earth are you in such a panic, old woman?” asked Alexandors. “What is troubling you out there?”

“Hush! Hush! Hush!” She answered in a trembled whisper, shaking her fist. “They are here…”

Alistair looked through the peephole himself. Massive ferocious beasts were swarming the village; they ransacked the things left outside and clawed at one or two homes that did not have wolves’ bane on the doors. The beasts reached nearly seven feet tall standing on their hind legs; they had thick dark brown fur and long snouts. They walked on all fours and were incredibly fast for their size and weight. They had some human qualities to them but were mostly beast-like.

The old woman stood back with her wrinkled hand covering her mouth. “Mustn’t make noise…no, no, no…they hear everything.”

“What is out there, Alistair?” Alexandros asked, whispering.

Alistair slowly opened the door. The old woman leaped forward to him in a frantic panic trying to stop him, but Alexandros held her back. Elora rushed outside to find Alistair and what she saw startled her. The wizard began to illuminate with a mystical white aura. His eyes became vacant and white as he chanted under his breath.

“Dumious luminous clado…
”

Alistair slowly gazed up, just as the beasts noticed his presence, and engulfed the village with the bright blinding light. The light blinded and burned the monsters. The monsters shrieked and howled as they took off into the forest.

Alistair returned to his normal self. The white aura slowly faded, entering back into his body as he fell to his knees, weakened; Elora helped him to his feet.

The old woman, whose name was Gertrude, explained what had been going on in her village.

“They have been invading the village every night for the last twenty winters or so…they came from out of nowhere one evening. The moon was full when they arrived, which is when they are at their most ferocious and powerful. My mother was outside that night with my father. She had stepped out to help him bring in the fish he caught throughout the day. I was getting settled into my adult age, but my parents were so very full of life and happiness. Then the howls were heard and the screams began. As I stepped outside my home to see what was happening I was knocked back inside by a most powerful blow to the face and did not wake until the sun had risen… that night I lost my parents, and our nightmare began. They ripped through the village like a wild storm. The next night we boarded up the windows, and it has been that way ever since…”

“Why not leave then?” Alexandros asked. “During the day, it should be safe enough.”

“Young man, we have tried. Many who venture barely escape, and now with my old age, I will not make it far…I shall die in this village,” she said sadly.

Alexandros stood up after looking into the eyes of the old woman, deep down he had wished they would have never come to the village, but Gertrude’s sadness compelled him to take action. He could not leave these people to sit and wait for their death.

“I will find these beasts…and I will end the curse of your village. My friends shall remain here until I return. I shall not be long. Valchor…I leave you in charge until my arrival.”

Bixbin turned his head quickly toward Alexandros. “Surely Alistair would be better off in charge,” said Bixbin. “I would take orders from the Dragon before I listen to the elf!”

“I cannot leave Alistair in charge,” Alexandros said.

“And why is that?” Elora asked, somewhat rudely.

“Because Alistair is coming with me…”

The bright moon was their guide; the forest was isolated with very little wildlife. The trees were dead, but yet seemed as if they were reaching out to Alexandros and Alistair.

“What I said to you before…was wrong, I had no right to. You have done much for me…that was no way to repay you,” Alexandros said as they walked through the forest. “I am not good at this, but…I am sorry, Alistair.”

“The pressure you have placed on your shoulders is one that weighs more than the world itself. But you never stopped to think about everyone else, Belen. Did you ever think to realize that you are not the only one the goblins and Barbarious have hurt? The goblins murdered every soul Princess Elora has known in her entire life including her father. Raphael’s father was killed by Barbarious himself. In your eyes, your pain was the one that mattered most. We are here to help you, Belen. But what you said…about me being afraid of Barbarious was not all wrong…in some ways I am afraid of him. I lived so long as the merchant I forgot in some way how to be a wizard. Before the cave, I never used my powers for anything. I have lived as a human for about two hundred years now and actually began to enjoy it.”