th her main weapon, an enormous war hammer, strapped to her back.
Her chest armor matched the color of evergreen trees, the same went for her arm guards, and her leg guards as well. This was Kanna Albanar, the eldest of the Royal family's cousins. As she paced the wall, she noticed something odd in the the distance. She waved over to another soldier, a captain named Lynnia Andross.
"Is there something the matter Lady Kanna?," The Elven woman asked.
Kanna nodded and motioned to the fields just beyond the city gate. Lynnia couldn't tell at first, but then she saw it. Dark fog like mist covered the ground and beady purple eyes peered out of the smoke. It wasn't just one set of those eyes, it was hundreds, possibly thousands of them. But then there was the ice accompanying them, it was.. spreading really fast. That was a problem.
"Oh dear... That doesn't look good.," Lynnia said worriedly.
She turned to Kanna and nodded to her, the girl understood what this meant but decided to just confirm to be sure.
"So I have your permission to sound the alarm, Captain?," Kanna asked.
"Yes Lady Kanna, yes you do.," Lynnia replied.
The raven haired girl did exactly as Lynnia suggested. Lynnia accompanied Kanna since she was related to the royal family. It was a captain's duty to watch out for Arkynorean royals. As the acting commanding officer while Sybyrh was away, Kanna warned the soldiers to alert the citizens about the mist. She was worried for her own family as well, so she ran to warn them as fast as her two legs would carry her. On her way to warn her family, she noticed that there were animals attempting to escape from the Ice that was approaching the city.
Unfortunately, these animals never escaped and were trapped inside the Ice. "What could have happened to cause this? That ice is spreading a little bit too fast for it to be normal.," Kanna thought. The teenaged Elven warrior refocused on her task and continued on her way. She doubted that her parents knew of this development. Her brother Alek probably knew, but she didn't think her two other brothers would know unless they saw it firsthand or were told. Thankfully, she ran into her brothers on her way to warn their parents.
After explaining what she saw to them, they agreed that it'd be best to warn their folks about this.
"But sis, shouldn't someone warn Uncle Berethon and Aunt Hyatan about this too? They'll want to know.," Borhdak suggested.
Kanna paused and thought about it. Borhdak did have a point though, their Aunt and Uncle should know about this.
"Ok Borhdak, we'll warn them too. Why don't you and Zephyr go and warn mom and dad? Myself and Alec will go warn Uncle Berethon and Aunt Hyatan.," Kanna suggested to her youngest brother.
He nodded. Kanna then told them to meet them at the space station in the catacombs after they warned their parents. The 4 of them fist bumped before splitting to go their separate ways, Borhdak and Zephyr one way, while her and Alec went the other way.
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Meanwhile, the Albanar family had decided to continue investigating. While investigating, Hunter found something a little worrying. Actually, it was more like he saw something worrying.
"Hey Dad, I think you and mom should see this.," Odyn told his father as he motioned his father and mother over to what he was looking at.
They came over and saw the black and red mist shooting up into the sky, that was a bit concerning. Berethon thought it best to return to the populated part of the city so they could warn the citizens. Perhaps the time had come for them to leave Arkynor as well. The longer they stayed, the more dangerous it was becoming to their people's survival.
Berethon turned to his wife who nodded, it was time they left the planet before anyone was frozen. The Albanar family then left the abandoned part of Xenia and started walking towards the populated part of the city. Before they could though, they heard a couple voices calling to them.
"Hey! Wait up!," the voices said.
The family turned and smiles lit up their faces as the voices belonged to Kanna and Alek, two of the children's cousins. The two stopped, almost out of breath. The family's smiles soon vanished after they saw the panicked look on Kanna and Alec's faces. Something was wrong, very wrong.
"Something's wrong, isn't it?," Hyatan asked.
Kanna nodded.
Kanna and Alek proceeded to tell them about the Ice that was rapidly approaching the city from the horizon, most likely from the direction of an abandoned temple just beyond Albanar's border.
"Wait, you said a temple?," Odyn asked.
Kanna nodded.
"You know something about it son?," Hyatan asked.
Odyn nodded. "If I'm not mistaken I think There's a temple dedicated to Asherah in that direction.,"Odyn suggested.
"Wait a minute, isn't that the one that's said to be cursed?," Roy asked.
Berethon thought about what his kids were suggesting, it was a long shot but there was the possibility that the temple had something to do with why the planet was freezing over so quickly.
Berethon looked at Kanna and thanked her and Alek for warning them. Now they had to warn everyone about the approaching Ice wave that was due to impact the city.
"Kanna and Alek.," Berethon addressed his niece and nephew before continuing.
"Yes, what is it Uncle?," both Kanna and Alec asked.
"I'll have to ask you to come with us for now. We need to warn everyone to escape.," Berethon continued.
"We're racing against time here. And I'm certain my sister and your father will be one step ahead of us. They'll be waiting there with your other two brothers, I'm sure of it.," Hyatan quickly said.
Kanna and Alec both nodded, they proceeded to follow the Albanar family back to Xenia.
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Meanwhile back in Xenia, there was near panic when everyone learned of the approaching Ice wave and the storm that closely followed it. Thankfully, Barak and Laura were able to calm the citizens. The citizens had faith and trust in them, due to Barak being the king's brother. Zephyr and Borhdak also helped to calm everyone down by safely ushering people towards the underground Spaceport where the transport ships were. Fortunately, all of the ships were ready to take in the fleeing citizens.
Very calmly and professionally, the Arkynorean Vanguard escorted their citizens onto the ships so they could escape. Ships were taking off in droves in an attempt to get as many people offworld and towards a safer place as quickly as possible. Hopefully, this would buy enough time for the King and his family to meet them. They'd escape together then, but there wasn't much time left. The ice and the nasty storm behind it were rapidly approaching Xenia.
"Berethon.. I pray to udiya that you'll make it on time. We don't have much time left.," Barak thought.
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Back in the main part of the city and to the King's relief, most of the citizens had been evacuated. The city was basically abandoned right now. It was very quiet as they made their way towards the catacombs. Hyatan was sure that's where a majority of the citizens were if they hadn't been evacuated yet. As they were nearing the entrance to the catacombs, those same eerie creatures that'd been plaguing Arkynor for the past century.
"Dad? We've got company!," Roy alerted the King.
Kanna, not being one to miss a beat, withdrew her warhammer from the strap on her back. As she withdrew it, she screamed causing the Hammer to enlarge to an enormous size. She wasn't messing around, these things were not getting in their way. She'd take care of them right here and now.
"OUT OF THE WAY YOU FREAKS!!! HAAAA!!!," Kanna raged as she brought her warhammer down.
Her weapon not only cleared a path for them, it also shattered the stone and cobble they stood on. As a result, a large gaping hole was opening beneath them.
"KANNA, YOU IDIOT!!!," Odyn screamed as they all fell into the hole that led underground.
When they landed Odyn and Kanna began to argue as they hurled ridiculous insults at each other. This brought the attention of one creature they didn't want to face, a Dragon Mole. The creature was attracted to the noise and smelled them, they were about to become its dinner if they didn't run. Without wasting a second, the Albanar family ran as fast as their legs would carry them despite the hilarious situation. The Dragon mole chased them, thinking the elves were its dinner. The whole time Hunter and Kanna were arguing over whose fault it was that they were in this situation.
"Way to go Kanna! Now we have a hungry Dragon mole chasing us! You need to learn when not to go all "this is Sparta!" mode on us!," Odyn sarcastically said as all of them had wide eyes with comical tears coming out of them.
Kanna then retorted. "My fault?! How is this my fault?! I was just trying to help! You're the one who attracted this thing that's trying to eat us with your infernal yelling!," Kanna snapped.
Odyn then felt his eye twitch. Could his eldest cousin be anymore of an idiot?
"I wasn't the one who decided to oversize their weapon and drop us down here! What idiot does that?! You could clearly see the ground wasn't stable, but you just HAD to go and oversize your hammer! Did it ever occur to you about how much weight that'd be?! Imbecile!," Odyn raged back.
"IMBECILE?! that's funny! Only one I see is a loudmouthed blueberry haired brat that's my younger cousin!," Kanna snapped back.
"CAN YOU GUYS PLEASE ARGUE SOME OTHER TIME?! Now really isn't the time for this!," Sarahai shouted.
It was Ragnarok who finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel, that'd signify the end to this ridiculousness. "Guys, I see an exit!," Ragnarok shouted."WHERE?!", Everyone asked. Ragnarok then pointed where he said one was. It was abit small, but it was worth a shot. The rest of the group breathed a momentary sigh of relief before realizing that the Dragon Moles were gaining on them. They knew that in order to escape, they'd have to run even faster.
"THEY'RE GAINING ON US!!! PICK UP THE PACE GUYS!!!," Zephyr yelled in desperation.
The elves increased their speed even more so they'd escape the Dragon Moles. Before it was only one Dragon Mole, but now a second one had joined and started to chase the group of Elves. What occurred as a result of this was a hilarious race of the Elves trying to escape becoming dinner while Huter and Kanna threw ridiculous insults back and forth at each other.
"CAN YOU TWO PLEASE ARGUE SOME OTHER TIME?! WE HAVE BIGGER THINGS TO WORRY ABOUT OTHER THAN WHO'S FAULT IT IS THAT WE'RE IN THIS MESS?!," Sarahai shouted again.
After running for what seemed to be hours, the group slipped through a crack in the wall that the Dragon Moles were too large to fit through. The group breathed a sigh of relief, they'd staved off becoming dinner for a couple of dangerous creatures.
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Moments later, the group came up to the underground space station. Nearly all of the citizens had been evacuated from Xenia, the vanguard and the members of the royal family were the only ones left. Wasting no time, Barak and Laura ushered everyone onto the ship as they attempted to hurry up and take off in order to escape the planet. Outside, dark red mist spilled into the city and the ice that followed it was covering anything that was in its path. The city was soon covered in the mist and the skeletal creatures were overrunning it.
Beneath the city, the ship in which the remainder of the royal family and the Elven vanguard had boarded just started to take off. Ice filled the tunnel and was closing in behind them, even as they went full speed. Once outside, they blasted off into the stratosphere with the ice closing in around them. It fully closed in around them, and for the moment it looked like they were trapped. However, the ship had just enough power to burst through the ice that started covering the planet as they narrowly escaped being enclosed in an icy grave. The ice fully encased the planet mere seconds after they passed through.
Once they were out in space, everyone onboard relaxed. But now they had another issue to address.. Where were they to go now? Berethon and Hyatan knew that now was a good of a time as any to visit their old friends from nearly a decade ago. That meant it was time to travel back to earth, which was in a completely different dimension. The realm of existence Arkynoreans, Eldarians, Seraphim, and Gods lived in was completely different than the mortal realm.
It'd been quite some time since Arkynoreans and Humans interacted with each other.. about several hundred years had passed since the two races were actively involved with each other. The incident that occurred about 8 years ago was a mere blip in the grand scheme of time. Since Arkynoreans had all but erased themselves from human memory, the Earthling humans wouldn't really know who they were. Perhaps because they hadn't interacted with the human race in so long and that they'd all but erased themselves from earth's history, there was a great amount of risk in returning to the mortal realm.
They had no way of knowing how the humans would react to them suddenly returning to earth after almost a decade in which they'd heard nothing of the arkynoreans whereabouts. Would they accept them, or would they hate them? The alternative was to try and find someplace else to lay low for awhile, and they couldn't take shelter with the eldarians. Their brothers were having their own internal issues to deal with, they couldn't very well house an entire planet's worth of residents.
The only option was to go to earth, Berethon turned towards the pilot and told him to set a course for earth. The elven king turned towards his people, this was something they'd have to face eventually. Gone were the days of isolating and running from their past, it was now time to own up to them no matter how the humans reacted.
End Chapter
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Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. I'll be updating this whenever i can and have time to. Tried to add abit of humor between Odyn and Kanna to balance out the serious tone in the chapter, hopefully you guys liked the chapter overall. And i do apologize for the formatting last chapter. I just figured out how to fix it so i will see if i can go back and fix the formatting for the diaologue between characters.
Amyways, i'll be updating this and the other stories soon, so keep an eye out for that.
Peace out and may Jesus richly bless and enrich your life!
Next time... Chapter 2: Flame Eyed Strangers From Another Realm.