Legacy Of Creation

Wake Of Spring Part 2

"Your classmates are waiting Chief'."

The instructor goaded on.

Even so, a glyph of such complexity was difficult, even for the fully initiated.

Salbator turned to face the chamber's marble gates.

Struggling to calm his breath, he inhaled slowly, closing his eyes and placing his index finger before his pounding chest.

At the end of his trembling hands, a tiny glint ignited from the tip of his nail and grew slowly into a round pebble.

Like the elegant streaks of a silk brush, he swept down the right. From one stroke his hand grew dim as it painted a bright arch.

His imagination envisioned a twin spark mirroring the movements of his strokes, but only flickers emerged as Salbator struggled to keep his arm steady.

The glowing spark grew intense as he swallowed air without cessation.

For a brief second his finger wavered, flaring and dying as he choked on his breath.

The opposing streaks blotched his rune as his hand missed its stroke.

*GASP*

A loud thud followed the wheezing cough.

Salbator writhed on the floor, with the warping symbol siphoning his energy, seizing to respond.

Faint sparkling mist evaporated from his collapsed body, siphoned by the pulsating glyph he'd failed to etch.

The hunched woman withdrew a braided lace hiding beneath the neck of her tunic.

Gripping the glossy stone draped at its end, holding her cane on the other, she placed the gem between the energy stream escaping from the child into the voracious runes.

Reacting with the resonating stone, the misaligned threads began winding, its now parallel threads danced in synchrony, tracing the opposing half of the forming glyph.

The completed emblem pulsated towards the doorway, its pearlescent waves molded to the gateways' arched frame.

CLUNK!

Its large gates boomed as the rolling chains began clicking against their turning gears.

"Hmph"

The woman grunted with a smile.

SCREEEEEEEEEECH

Lazily they lumbered, filling the room with the deafening scrape of grinding stone.

"Ayayay..."

She sighed.

Somehow the doors could barely tread an inch, whereas before it would have been breached enough to allow passage for the entire class.

The hairline segmenting the doorway widened as slowly as the gates dredged along their groves.

Behind the opening gates, a faint outline of soldiers slipped between.

"THE UNANOOK!"

T'udze's worried frown quickly brightened at the sight of the bear warriors running towards the opening gate.

"STOP!"

" STOP THE GATE!"

The troop of soldiers barked.

Their heavy furs made it difficult to run faster toward the opening gate.

"HSSSSSSSSRAAAAGH!"

A pair of broad frenzied claws burst through the narrow opening.