He steps into the light and reveals his majestic self, indeed half man half horse, a sight to incite intrigue from the mythically immersed mind - he then utters an assertive statement with a strong, deep, accented voice, 'You should not be here.'
Antenela gets up from the boat, maintaing an air of calm and humility she seeks to bargain with the centaur. 'I understand your frustrations swamp creature but we do not intend to camp on your land, we are just bypassers.'
The centaur is clearly offended and responds with an angered tone, 'Dare you refer to me as a 'swamp creature?!' I am a protector and this is my home, your mere presence here is an insult to me woman!'
He then looks over and sees Elsie, his anger seems to amplify, rage turning to disgust, clearly he doesn't like what he sees, not one bit. 'My land was brimming with beauty and life until your species came along, is it war you seek? Hm?'
Franck steps in, hoping to calm the centaur down by making him realise the circumstances of their trespassing. 'Protecter, please hear me out - there is a great danger coming and we are the only ones who can thwart it , allow us to venture through your land for we will not cause any further harm.'
Robert adds onto Frank's statement, looking to solidify it and convince the centaur to let them through. 'He's right. There's a mysterious entity searching for the book of silver thoughts to use it for evil purposes, and only we have the means to finding it before it does.'
With his tigerish look still fixed firmly on the females of the group he turns his head towards the two males, Franck and Robert, he gazes at them with disbelief, almost surprised that they're travelling together.
'You travel with these two vile creations of mankind?'
'Vile creations of mankind? You're one to talk.'
Robert responds sharply, almost triggered by the centaur's choice of words to describe Antenela and Elsie. The centaur's facial expression changes; he furrows, clenches his jawline tightly, and his mouth remains completely still. He ignores Robert's insolence and continues to stare at them still waiting for a response.
Franck out of haste corrects his mate and gives a less impudent response.
'My apologies protector, he didn't mean it like that. Yes, indeed we are travelling together as a group.'
'Then you will as die as one.' The centaur firmly threatens, the phrase instantly strikes fear into all of the travellers. He then signals to the pack of wolves to come closer, they all seem ready to strike at his command, Antenela then moves in front of Elsie almost guarding her, she then forms two boulders on her hands indicating that she's ready to spar. Robert also lifts his gun and prepares to fire for his life.
Franck is left exposed with no powers or weapons to guard himself, he begins to panic and contemplates taking shelter in the motionless boat they left behind but almost out of nowhere emerges Sentry, galloping forward at a rate of knots. She instantly takes fore front and shields Franck, her eyes firmly fixed on the centaur and ready charge.
They stare one other down, each ready for a move from the other, waiting patiently in anticipation - the centaur is poised to give the signal and strike himself. He's also cautious of the gun being pointed at him and the white elk ready to charge at him as well, the situation gets more tense with each passing second. The wolves seem impatient, they growl viciously at the travellers, seeking to intimidate them while also stamping their authority on their turf, they weren't going to back down from this fight.
The centaur then lifts his arm, ready to shout to 'attack' he drops it and opens his mouth but a large shout from the woods interrupts. 'SAGE!' it grabs everyone's attention instantaneously, even the wolves, they all let their guards down and look to the trees where they see someone emerging from the dark.
The centaur seems to know who it is, a fearsome look emanates from his face as he awaits his apparent doom, he knows he's not allowed to take drastic actions outside of approval from his superior.
A man with similar appearance emerges, much taller, and hairy chested, also half man half animal but this time a goat. Curved horns stick out from a head thickly covered with brown curly hair, a bulky moustache and goatee cover most of his face and two strong hind legs of a goat with fur matching his hair and beard give him the strut of a man in charge, he's clearly the alpha and it's not even close.
He approaches Sage the centaur and reprimands him, 'What did I tell about scaring the guests away?'
Sage responds with defiance, seeking to justify his actions, 'The last guests we had turned this forest into a swamp, so forgive me trying to protect what remains of our land.'
'Easy Sage, the last guests weren't invited.'
'Huh?' Sage cuts a figure off visible bemusement, he had no idea the elder protector had invited the traveller's, from the looks on their faces they didn't know either, their aim was simply to breeze past the woods and be on their way.
The faun then turns to the travellers and introduces himself, also explaining his statement while at it. 'My name is Theodochus and this is my partner Sage, we're the protectors of the wild, well what remains of it.'
'Our land was attacked a day ago by mysterious entities, we managed to fend off a few and uncover their identities - shapeshifters from the north. Right when we were about to trample over them and claim victory in battle our troops were suddenly ripped apart by a deathly force, a vicious cloud of terror clearly masking a greater threat. I couldn't see him but I could sense him, an energy I can only describe as satanic, a sheer driving force, burning through our people like they were slaves in hell. With everything it touched either turning to stone, being burned to skeletons or reduced to meer ash, Sage and I ordered a retreat but no one else made it to the cave where we took shelter, only our fidelious pack of wolves.'
The travellers begin to relax a bit realising that he's a friendly, they remain on their toes though because of the events of the story they've just heard but they all put their weapons down and digest what he just told them, Franck speaks first.
'That's intense, we also came across several shapeshifters on our way here but never a dark cloud, where did it go after the attack?'
'I couldn't trace it beyond the woods, but it's definitely heading after the book, we just have no way of finding out how and where. The forest nymph told me of a group of travellers from a different reality heading in this direction to help out but i didn't expect you to arrive so soon, either way I'm glad you made it.'
Antenela's a bit surprised by these words, she would've known if Nymph Sheyla had planned for her to be in this region. Instead it was a decision she took herself, could the faun be referring to another group of travellers perhaps? Maybe that's who the protectors were expecting. Due to her increased uncertainty she keeps these thoughts to herself and instead waits to see how the situation pans out with the protectors.
'We may be of use indeed, but we're going to need your assistance as well.' She speaks out to the pair of protectors as she pulls out her pendant along with the torn out pages of Rob's book, 'We have a sequence but it's incomplete, it's completion relies on a separate set of information which is not in our possession, if we can get it then we may find a path to the location of The Book of Silver Thoughts.'
Both of the protectors seem intrigued, Sage remains quiet, he almost doesn't understand anything yet has an idea of what's going on, he's clearly just 'the muscle' of the pair. Theodochus on the other hand continues to analyse the sequence, he seems to be familiar with the patterns or atleast one of them.
'Ah, the great velversden, The River of Life as we know it. This is definitely a sequence, a pattern depicting the lineage of the 7 realms I suppose?'
'Indeed, changing every 5000 years. It has helped us determine which realms are in most danger whenever the convergence occurs, but this time around we think it may help us determine the current location of the book of silver thoughts.'
'Not really.' Theodochus boldly responds and once again sharply draws everyone's attention, with all eyes on him he begins to elucidate.
'See, you can't determine the current location of the book because the pattern has changed, for all we know it could be in a different reality now even a different planet, but with the recent attacks being heavily based on Ertha the assumption is that it is here, and with the lineage of velversden centering right on Earth, we have to assume that the threat coming at us is most likely from there.'
Franck seems amazed by this, he ponders before he steps in to question.
'But the life on Earth is as primitive as the city people of Cairenia, as far as i know they're capabilities restrict them from merely travelling through space.'
Theodochus responds to him 'Well i could be wrong but then again, it is the convergence, anything is possible. Besides I did the say the aura of the cloud was of satanic decent, maybe the pursuing party isn't entirely human after all.'
This sends all of them into a deep trail of thought, each thinking about what it could mean, who it could be, and how all of this was coming about, especially Elsie. She just wanted to finish a simple book which had held her interest dear, all of this weighs heavy on her, too heavy - she becomes overwhelmed and passes out on the spot.
'Elsie?!' Antenela shouts as she reaches out to her and checks if she's still breathing, she produces water from her hand and eases it into Elsie's mouth to drink. Sage watches on unimpressed, he sees them as even more vile than he did before now, he looks to Theodochus an utters.
'Before you were so rudely interrupted sire, I believe you were making a point.'
Theodochus then continues, 'Ah yes, with what you have, I believe you can only find the last location of the book, that is assuming you find the missing piece to your puzzle. In any case, I believe I may know where your next destination lies - come follow me.'
'Wait!' Antenela halts him, she holds Elsie in her hands and looks up to Theodochus with a straight face, 'She needs to rest.' The faun sympathises with her but he's also well aware of how little time they can afford to waste doing nothing especially considering how days and nights fly by during the convergence.
'Saddle her up, she'll rest along the way, i'm pretty sure you're well aware that time is not on our side on our side foreseer.' The statement strikes her, it sinks in, in a way she wished it wouldn't. It makes too much sense, the rune of Eonica was in the enemy's possession, this meant they could bend time at their own will as soon they acquired the book; probably even stop it and no one would be able to do anything. She knew they had to move quickly, Elsie's condition came second to the security of the world, a decision had to be made and it was.