Much of the engagements between Eon’s and Azurian’s came from misunderstandings and false narratives, Azurians painted a grim picture of Eons, more beast than man was the general undertone of how they were taught but in reality, it was a lack of communication between two vastly different cultures of Saharians, with vastly different views that caused clashes. Minor clashes were known to happen throughout Genivan, even between Saharians but mostly cooler heads prevailed, and major battles were averted. The Azurian elites hated Eons for another reason not known to the common Azurian; they were greedy and jealous of the lands of Eons, their innate magic and wished to see them subjective to Azurian control. Jealousy was a strong motive, Azurian elites hated all the other Races save Taloreans, they felt cheated of the gifts given to the other Races and believed they should have been gifted more powerful magic.
The Azurian elites could not paint the other Races in the same way they did Eons, they had few and far between interactions with them except Taloreans. Their education was the only way to paint an evil picture of all the Races, easier with Eons because they frequently engaged them in trade and skirmishes. Instead they subtly portrayed the other Races in ways that set Azurians above them: Sordeans lived in the cold northern lands, not even human by their standards with eyes like blood and blood sacrificing rituals, Zarythians were brutal monsters who sacrificed their children at Reigngar Volcano on islands far to the southwest of the Dark Sea, Gideans were arrogant and spineless, living in their ocean land devoid of care when their healers were called on and never came. This image was how the Races are portrayed in Azurian education which led many to believe that the only civilized Races were them and Taloreans.
Halen knew none of this, very few did and mostly it was those who dared to speak with another Race without hostility, learned this truth and those rare Azurians who knew the true history kept in their great libraries. The one and only time he had seen the Eons they had not come forward and stayed hidden in the forest. He could see their eyes, reflecting like Penri’s does as they moved and shifted within the dense forest. They left what they wanted to trade in a small meadow ten miles south along the Brightmont River, unbeknownst to Halen this was how Azurians at Evannar traded with Eons. They would gather the items the Eons had left and leave the items the Eons wanted in that meadow. No Eon would leave the cover of the forest until all Azurian Patrols had left, it was infuriating to Halen they could see and hear so well, because with this ability it made it much harder to attack them unknown.
All new warriors of the Autumn Lancers were warned with severe repercussions if they interfered with trade, they were not to attack. Halen remembered the warning; it had been repeated many times since; never had an Eon attacked them during a trade so they were not to engage. Was this true? Halen began to doubt so much of what he’d been taught and started to shift his mind down the thoughts the elite wanted, little did he know. They wanted them to question the past, even having the two greatest libraries on all of Genivan mattered not; to Azurian elites, knowledge was a privilege and not a right.
Still more weeks passed since their return to Evannar, more of nothing. Occasionally animals would attack their Patrols but mostly nothing occurred. Halen complained to Eagan about this very thing, they were alone on a small segment of their Patrol south along Brightmont River, Patrols would start with the whole unit and divide into smaller groups to cover more ground and then meet back up with the main group.
“I can’t understand, why have we not seen them? Three months since they came to trade! I’ll bet anything they have attacked on a trade before; we must need something from them and that’s why we trade with them. It’s infuriating to be subject to them!” Halen huffed out his recital, this was the core of it. What was it Azurians needed from them?
“I want what you want, trust me but to be honest? After seeing them… I’d rather not fight them. They must have been two feet taller than us! They didn’t even seem human, it was like...” Eagan stopped, unable to articulate the words Halen could see so he finished for his friend.
“Eerie, like staring at a beast trying to understand it. Remember that Manticore that attacked a month back? Craziest thing was, I felt like it was sizing me up, trying to rationalize what I was and that is how I felt the Eons looked at us.”
“Yes! Eerie you say but I say we are like bugs to them and they watch detached because we are less than them. I mean why else would they remain in the forest? Watching arrogantly as we scurry about to trade on their terms.” Eagan shook his head, Halen understood and agreed.
“Agreed, they are Saharians right?” Eagan nodded halfheartedly, Halen laughed “You know what I mean in principle they are… though sometimes I doubt what we were taught but aside from that, why not speak with us face to face?”
“I know you don’t like to speak of it but why had your father’s unit fought with them? Did he ever tell you? It’s fine if you don’t want to answer…”
Halen sighed and slowed Penri, Eagan pulled his own tiger around and stopped looking anxiously over at Halen. Looking up through the forest’s canopy, Halen knew he had misled Eagan.
“I don’t know, my father only told me they were soulless giants with no emotion and not to trust them. He only spoke to me once.”
“Are you serious? That’s not what you led me to believe, all this pro-ported knowledge you claimed to have? I am sorry about your father’s death but why lie? I know they are the enemy!” Eagan was clearly upset, and Halen couldn’t blame him, he had inadvertently lied about information he claimed to have from his father about conflicts with Eons that were not true, Halen was excellent at listening to other conversations and paid attention to more than Eagan ever did. He supposed he did it to gain a friend and now he was going to lose that friend…
“Listen, I’m sorry! All my life I’ve wanted revenge, can you really blame me? I miss my father every day! You have no idea, your sister went missing, I watched my father die in front of my own eyes!” Halen flicked the reigns and Penri took off at a trot, he was so embarrassed that he couldn’t face his friend. He and Penri galloped another twenty feet when Eagan raced to catch up.
“Stop Halen” Eagan shouted at him.
Something in Eagans voice made Halen slow Penri and turn her around to face him, he looked guilty as well. Both their tigers were anxious and twitching their tails, both communicating the discomfort of their riders, Halen quickly patted Penri’s head and watched Eagan. The forest was a bit lighter in color than normal, an oddity Halen couldn’t think about at the moment as a stiff breeze came up. Just after midday, it was bright and cloudless sky, the trees shifted ominously around them as Eagan finally spoke.
“Promise you won’t reveal what I say to anyone” Halen nodded, he liked Eagan and didn’t want to lose him as a friend and so tried to set aside his anger and guilt. This was his friend; his only friend truth be told. “My sister was an Omni Guardian as I told you, but I lied about her age, she’s a prodigy Halen, she’s only six years older than me and her summoning… all I can say is the Orders snatched her up quickly. I on the other hand cannot summon at all, the Orders did not want me” Eagan’s face fell at this revelation, Halen didn’t know that! He also could not summon, how had neither of them ever broached this subject?! Before Halen could say anything, Eagan continued “she… she was unique, I’m not being biased just because she was my sister, but she was, really was. She came home briefly three years ago. The last night before she was to leave for her post at Evannar, she woke me up late in the night. She told me she was going on a secret mission and not to worry and to tell no one about this. That’s all I know.”
“So, she might be alive?” Halen breathed it out, what could have happened? Not even bothered that Eagan had also misled him, maybe their friendship would not end. The light from the sun was dancing all over the place, the wind was picking up, it felt like a storm was coming in. Halen looked around and finally registered they were far off their patrol route by the strange colored leaves he had noted earlier. “We need to get back…”
Penri and Dalton, Eagan’s tiger laid their ears back, crouched and moved backwards… “Eagan, do you see anything?” He knew the wind was too loud, picking up in intensity that Eagan could not hear him so he over exaggerated the words hoping Eagan would understand. Eagan shook his head ‘no’ but continued to look around, both of them rigid with fear. Halen chanced a glance up to the treetops, trying to gauge the sun and how long it had been, they needed to regroup with their unit and quickly, but he had no idea how long it had been.
The wind snapped through the forest, the dark foliage shifting left and right as the wind howled from different directions. Rare, brutal storms would come up from the Sea of Daggers, moving northward through the Bay of Attara to ravage the land without warning but that was not what bothered either of them. Their tigers sensed something else, and it was not the storm.
Snap! Crack! Eagan was first to see what it was “Naga! Go Halen! Find the patrol!” Halen watched in horror as Eagan raced off into the forest towards the sound, he had not seen the Naga, but they never fought alone; where one was ten or twenty more would be. Penri yowled and turned around quickly just in time for Halen to bring his lance up to stop a spear thrust at his neck, he stared into the eyes of the Naga briefly before Penri attacked, slashing her massive claws down the armor of the Naga. Belatedly he noticed the strange irises of the Naga, in a strange diamond shape that dilated oddly…
Penri’s attack knocked the Naga backwards into the trunk of a tree, its lower body coiled, an imminent sign of attack Halen knew from his training. Applying pressure with his heels to the back of Penri’s ribs letting her know to leap forward, as she leapt forward with a powerful lunge the Naga could not move as Halen rammed his lance into its chest. He noticed that the Naga had already been impaled by a broken branch from the tree it had been flung into. Halen looked around briefly, trying to hear any movement through the wind but heard nothing. Was Eagan leading the others away from him?
Halen was torn, they could not survive this alone but if he left, Eagan and Dalton would die. If he stayed, they would all die. Using his knees, he guided Penri with quick pressure at her sides and angled her towards the direction Eagan had gone, his heart racing as he heard eerie screeches through the forest suddenly. “Find the lancer! Find the lancer!” Halen shouted close to his tiger’s ear, a command learned by their mounts to find their own and regroup. With tigers’ incredible sense of smell, they could find another tiger mounted warrior. Penri took off through the forest easily making ground as the terrain was mostly flat but dense with trees and thickets.
Minutes passed, then ten minutes, Penri had not slowed, where was he? Eagan went further than Halen thought, why? Was he running away in fear and left Halen or leading them away? To where? He had not seen another Naga for some time, he heard them screeching through the howling winds but no more engagements. The sun began to darken, storm clouds, Halen knew it would make it more difficult to see and navigate so he hung on to Penri watching and listening intently.
A loud screech behind Halen shocked him. It was so loud, causing him to jerk his head around and almost unseat him. Not ten feet away was a Naga aiming to throw a spear… at his tiger! Halen quickly pulled Penri to the right as the spear flew past missing them by inches, grabbing his bow in one fluid motion from his back, nocked an arrow, turned in his saddle and was about to release when a giant arrow sprouted from the Naga’s chest! Blue blood came pouring out of its chest as it writhed violently, howling in a strange deep voiced undulation.
“Halen!” Eagan came bursting through the brush, barely missing a tree and skidded next to him a few feet away, both he and his tiger had taken some minor wounds but Halen noted they were not deep and before he even spoke to Eagan who was focused on the dead Naga and him, Halen turned back to the direction from which the arrow had been shot. And there, standing not fifty feet away, half hidden by a tree stood an Eon with a large bow and quiver on his back.
“Eagan” the wind was too loud “EAGAN!” Halen shouted, Eagan quickly turned and saw Halen was pointing “They are here!” He shouted again. Finally, Eagan followed the direction he was pointing to see the Eon in the distance, Halen could see the instant demeanor change in his friend, fear turned to rage. It all happened so fast, three more Eons stepped out much closer, neither of their tigers warning them and Eagan lifted his bow and fired an arrow at the closest Eon not five feet away… the arrow seemed to move like it was in water to Halen, when it finally struck the Eon it went straight through her and she was dead before her body touched the ground. “Nooooo!” Too late, an Eon raced forward faster than anything Halen had ever seen and cut Eagan’s throat and lifted him from the back of his tiger, tossing him against a tree.
Halen threw his lance down and lifted his hands, tears coming down his face as he stared at Eagans dead body, twisted unnaturally from the impact. The Eon who had killed Eagan had a massive black jaguar with him, clearly a Linked companion and had Eagan’s tiger by the throat as he hissed and yowled. Dalton would not have a connection like a Linked animal but knew his rider had died. Penri, his own tiger was acting strangely submissive, her head down and tail down not moving. Four Eons, a foot or more taller than he was, faster, stronger… he stood no chance. Halen did not want to die, even all the nights of dreaming of killing his hated enemy, he never envisioned his own death.
He also did not want to admit that an Eon had saved him… this was truly baffling and innately he knew this and was part of the reason he tried to stop Eagan, the other part was just after Eagan saw the Eon in the distance, Halen had seen the other three…
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