The Guardian

The big bad magma man

When we ran out of the office, I expected to see the underground city in ruins, but it seemed perfectly fine. The only difference was that the dark abyss was lit like a flame. Magma oozed hundreds of feet below at the bottom of the abyss, replacing the endless darkness with an even more terrifying bright orange light.

Rosslyn jumped from my shoulder to Mamble's. "What's happening?"

Mamble looked down the pit and then grunted. "Tymir. Apparently, they rule the Underlands."

The Geodians ran to tree buildings marked with red crosses. The ones that ran in came out with buckets full of precious metal, gemstones, and rocks. They all dumped the buckets out over the sides of the bridges, into the growing magma. Slowly, it stopped rising and began sinking back down through the cracks at the bottom of the abyss.

The orange light began to get darker and darker until the Magma was fully gone.
Mamble seemed frustrated, angrily walking across one of the many bridges.
We all followed him up to the biggest building of the massive city, right in the middle of it all.

The insides of the building were beautiful. Bright diamond woolen carpet was woven into the floor, heirlooms and treasure hung high up from the ceiling, and emerald pillars reached high up to support the ceiling. A ruby encrusted rug spread from the door, all the way to the end of the long building.

At the end of the long ruby rug were three thrones. To the right was a throne made of fiery igneous rocks, holding a muscular man made of obsidian. To the left was an oceanic throne made of sleek black metamorphic rock, holding a fit man made of seashells. And in the middle was a grand throne made of sediments and minerals holding an incredibly large man made of boulders.

Once Mamble reached the men, he kneeled down on one knee, then looked over at us and nodded for us to do the same. We seemed to be in the presence of royalty, so we did as he asked.

Mamble cleared his throat and spoke to the men. "Thank you all so much for coming."

The Boulder man gestured for us to rise.
"There's no need to kneel."

The Obsidian man crossed his arms and spread his legs. "No, no, let them. It's validating."

The Seashell man looked us over, his eyes made of different colored sea glass.
"Who is the boy? And the rat?"

Mamble looked up to the three rock men, then stood, stepping aside to introduce us properly.
"This is Harlen, of Eagle Tree, I believe."

I had forgotten that before Rosslyn talked about our main problem, she had a lot of small talk with Mamble, even bringing up where I came from. The three men looked down at me, like three kings looking down a hero. I felt under pressure as they stared at me. No pun intended.

"Rise."
The Boulder man said. As if my body decided for me, I got up, fixing my posture, so I seemed more polite. Rosslyn was still kneeling on my shoulder, probably just mesmerized by the ruby carpet she was looking at.

"And this is... Rosslyn... the Guardian of Roslantica."

Rosslyn rose to look at the kings.
"Now, I know what you're thinking - "

Before she could even start, the man of Obsidian started busting out laughing.
"Do you honestly think we'll believe that rat is Rosslyn?"

The Boulder man gestured for him to calm down so she could finish. Rosslyn cleared her throat while giving the Obsidian man the stink eye.

She told the three men of everything she remembered since she lost her power.
She told them about Captain Zyloff's rise to power, the fall of the other two Guardians, and everything we learned from Samson, even talking about Bilo the turtle along the way.

The man of Seashells was the first to respond after she finished.

"It seems to add up. Our problem with Tymir started recently. Maybe it was Zyloff's doing. After all, he is rallying up any opposing force he can use against us."

The Obsidian man stood up from his throne and walked over to a nearby window.

"Mamble, you called us here to discuss how we would deal with this Tymir problem, but it only seems like you're just making more problems for us. You've only been here a few months, and yet you think you're some sort of leader? You're a cheese maker that happened to strike gold finding us."

The Boulder man looked down at Mamble, gripping the arm rests of his throne tightly.

"Mamble, the threats of the overland are important, but there's nothing we can do to help. If we leave the Underlands, we give up control of our home to Tymir. As much as we want to, we can't help you fight against Zyloff unless Tymir is taken care of."

Mamble gripped his staff as hard as the boulder man gripped his arm rests. He looked over at Rosslyn for help, but she didn't have an answer.

The Seashell man hesitantly stood with a sad look on his face.

"We appreciate your efforts, and we wish you luck on your journey. I have to attend to Craig, my people need me."

With that, the Seashell man left the throne room. The Obsidian man followed him, not saying another word, leaving us with the Boulder man, who slowly rose from his throne.

"We'll try our best to keep the Underlands safe for the three kingdoms."

He slowly walked out of the throne room as if he had an injury. I couldn't help but notice a portion of his back had crumbled away, probably making him weaker. It reminded me of a story Grandpa told me when I was younger.

It was about a rock man who lived in a cave. The man was immortal and lived for hundreds of years, but one day, a ground quake made some of his cave fall apart. He felt weaker because of it, so he didn't bother to fix it. A day passed, and another quake came through, destroying half of the cave. He felt himself get even weaker. The more his home was destroyed, the weaker he became, but instead of fixing his cave, he rested, feeling too weak to do anything.
Finally, the last quake came through, completely destroying his home. After losing his home, he died, too weak to go on. It turned out that his immortality was connected to his home, and without it, his powers of life would cease.

If Tymir took over the Underlands, the three rock kings would die. But at the same time, Zyloff was taking over Roslantica, and the other two Guardians were in trouble. If they lost their lands, they would die, just like the rock kings. There was so much to do and so little time.

Mamble didn't look like he wanted to give up, though. He banged his staff against the floor in anger.

"If we don't help them, they'll lose their people and their land. We can't just let them fight on their own. They'll get demolished."

Rosslyn looked down at the floor sadly.
"If we help the Underlands first, the Guardians will wither away, and Zyloff will take over the three kingdoms. But if we help the kingdoms first, the Underlands will be destroyed."

She sat down, clearly stressed, not knowing what to do. Everything seemed so hopeless. It would be impossible to save the kingdoms and the Underlands both.

Brutus' eyes popped open.
"Wait a minute, I got it!"

All eyes turned to him.
"There's a shortcut from here to Artlandia, and on the way is one of Tymir's Strongholds being guarded by one of his men. If we take him down on the way to Artlandia, we can help the Underlands while staying on course to help the kingdoms!"

Slowly, Mamble smiled before patting Brutus' shoulder and laughing. "You guys heard the boss. Let's take down this Magma man's playhouse!"