Silver's eyes widened in disbelief there was no way the rebels would come this close to the largest Elven city in the Carpian Forests, that was also an Elite stronghold. Thain's body was rigid with evident anger but Silver couldn't imagine why he could have such a deep resentment towards the Rebels, sure they were the enemy of the Elites but the way he was looking it seemed to be personal. "They're probably scouts that are returning or even spies, I can't let them escape." Yet Silver just couldnt believe it and said "You can't be serious that would be suicide to even try to get this close we have patrols and checkpoints nearly everywhere as well as our own scouts." Thain looked at her and said "I'm serious, they're about forty-five yards out see for yourself."
Silver looked at him then pushed him out of the way slightly and mimicked his movements from before and peeked around the corner and sure enough there were five figures dressed in dark green garments and dark leather armour of the rebels, all of them had cloaks with hoods hiding their faces from view as they were all sitting in a small circle and it seemed they were taking a quick rest before continuing on their way to whatever their destination was. As she watched one of the rebels signaled to the other and she froze fearing they had been spotted by a lookout somehow but she quickly calmed down as she realized it was a signal for them to leave. She quickly went back to Thain and told him what she saw and he clenched his jaw before saying, "I should follow him but unfortunately I can't bring you with me as you're not a warrior and sadly even if i could take on all five i have a feeling there were more hiding close by I'll just have to report this when we get back. So for now let's just continue. It should be safe for now. I guarantee they're not going to be coming back this way any time soon. And this place I wanted to show is the one of the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and there is only one thing that I can think of that has the beauty to outshine this place."
With that said they peeked around the boulder one last time just to be sure the rebels were gone and then continued down the trail. Silver was really nervous because she had been sure that this was a dead end but clearly it wasn't as the rebels had completely disappeared from the road. "Don't worry there are several trails that branch off of this one but the one I'm taking you to is pretty hidden. I doubt even they would notice it." Thain said, noticing the confusion and nervousness on Silver's face. Thain stopped by a wall of vines that seemed to be growing on the side of the mountain and walked towards it and pulled apart several layers of the vines to the side revealing a small crack in the mountain that was just wide enough for a person to walk through. Silver was shocked and could see why Thain was so confident the rebels didn't notice the trail he was talking about because you wouldn't even know it was there unless you moved about four layers of vines away from the mountain itself.
Thain smiled at her as he said "You ready? As I said before, I only know of one thing more beautiful than this place." She nodded not sure what to expect and he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the crack and let the vines fall back into place. Silver now in front just continued to follow the path as she could barely see where she was going. She knew there must be a light source somewhere due to the fact she could in fact still see. It was a common misconception that elves could see in the dark, while Elves and Eladrin could see better in the night than most Races they couldn't see if it was pitch black not unless they were a dark Elf a subclass of the Elves that were corrupted by the Spider Queen, and lived in caves such as this one and rarely went out in the day. See, most elves needed some type of light such as the moon and they could see almost as well as they did during the day so most just assumed they could see in the dark.
As they traveled the pathway widened to allow them to travel side by side and silver began to see many crystals and gems everywhere that seemed to glow and light up the cave and she was in awe as she said almost breathlessly "It is beautiful...." A slight chuckle came from Thain as he said, "I was just as surprised as you but actually none of this matters either. This isn't what I wanted to show you, though before I had decided to go further this was my number two most beautiful thing I have seen." Silver whipped her head to look at him incredulously and said "You mean there is something even more beautiful than this?!" Thain laughed as he said "Well there are actually two things more beautiful than this and one of them is just a little bit farther." Silver couldn't believe there could possibly be two things even more jaw dropping than this. "So if the second most beautiful thing is a few more feet ahead of us then where is the first one?"
Thain chuckled and just continued to lead her. Soon the place began to break off into several paths and as Thain held onto her he went Left, left, left, right, left, right, right, left. SIlver began to lose track of where they turned as the place was like a maze, a maze that Thain seemed to have mapped out perfectly. Suddenly he stopped and she almost bumped into him and she would have had she not been paying attention. He looked back at her and said " I want you to close your eyes and I will lead you the rest of the way." Her heart was racing fast from excitement, and she quickly closed her eyes.
"Okay we're here" Thain's said and she quickly opened her eyes and she was stunned by what she saw. Right inside the mountain there was another ecosystem, a giant lake sat right in the middle that was surrounded by its own mini forest. The trees were some of the largest she had ever seen and they overlapped creating a canopy in several areas, the sun's rays shining through the cracks of the leaves. There were animals everywhere grazing and what was even stranger they didn't even seem to be afraid of them, several animals came up to her and tilted their head as if they were curious as to what she was. It seemed that they never had the fear of predators in this sanctuary.
'Probably because no one knows about this place,' she thought, but she also got the sense that this place was sacred in some way. As she continued to look she saw that they were in valley that was covered with flowers beyond her imagination and the aroma was even sweeter than the Valley of Aranara, which was saying something and as she gazed into the lake, the water was shades of blue she so pure and clear that she could see herself diving in and swimming in the lake with a felt by doing so would completely relax and refresh her soul.
.As they reached the edge of the valley she realized it was a steep cliff that led on to the rest of the areas that she saw and there was no way down. Staring in disbelief she turned to Thain and said "Are you serious? I can't believe you brought me here…" Thain smiled but before he could say anything Silver continued and said, "How are you going to show me this beautiful place but the only way down is for me to jump off a cliff?!" "But Silver…" Thain began but she cut him off before he could finish, "Don't 'But Silver me' is this some form of a joke to you, because it's not funny at all, it's simply cruel!"
Thain raised an eyebrow at her and asked "Are you done?" and he stepped to the side and she saw a staircase that was carved into the side of the cliff that led down to the rest of the valley and lake. Silver's face became red in embarrassment but seeing the stairs made her wonder who else knew about this place, and only reinforced the feeling that they were on sacred ground of some sorts. As they both headed down the stairs Silver couldn't help but continue to admire the area, "How can a place like this exist inside of this mountain?' she thought idly. As kids they were taught that Mount Ignis was a dangerous place. Now she was starting to think it was done on purpose by their ancestors to protect this place from harm.
"Have you been listening to me Silver or have you just been staring off into space this entire time?" Thain's voice drew her back and she said "I'm sorry I'm still amazed at the beauty of this place, and flattered that you brought me here, not to mention a little embarrassed about my outburst." Her face heated up slightly and Thain chuckled and said "It's fine, but I'm glad you like it. I wanted to show you one more thing that I found while I was here." As they continued walking towards the forests on the right side of the lake Thain began to explain where they were going, "I only just found this place myself on my third trip here but it seems like this entire place is some sort of sanctuary or sacred ground to me." His words echoing the exact things she was feeling as well, "I was getting the same feeling." Silver said and Thain nodded as he said "There are some strange writings on the walls in Ancient Elvish, I am not entirely sure what it says but it definitely seemed like it was important." As he led her through the forest they found a small building that did in fact look like a place of prayer or worship and Thain picked up one of the torches on the wall and lit it as he motioned for her to enter.
As they walked in Silver immediately saw the writings that he was talking about and it was definitely in the Ancient Elven language alright. In fact it seemed that the writing was even before the Great War as the language then was slightly different than now but most could at least translate some of what was written but it didn't seem like she could read any of it, until she came to one word which is exactly where Thain stopped as well. 'Thurntan' which translated into 'Future' a slight chill ran down her spine. She went to tell Thain, but as she turned she saw that they were surrounded by three fully armed rebel patrol units and it seemed like they did not want them there.
She thought they were going to attack her but instead they parted making way for another Rebel whose face was covered with a mask but she assumed was the one in charge here as he walked with an air of authority. She didn't recognize the man but she saw Thain was tense and his fist was clenched hard, "Thank you for leading us here Mr.Nightlokk." The man said and he glanced at Silver and said, "Take them away." As the rebels went to reach for them an arrow pierced Thain right in his heart…