Once again I have let my imagination get the best of me an gone a little wild with this story. It seems to write itself to me. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I did writing it. I'm addicted to your comments and look forward to see what you think good or bad. Please remember to vote too. Until the next installment,
Tah Tah for now.
~sylentpoet~
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Dillon and his group walked further into the cave, while he shook off the lingering effects of the magic he felt upon entering. The large corridor, with its size reflecting how easily it could accommodate the Tygerwud in their animal form, was dimly lit. Light from torches embedded in the walls, glinted off the rocky surfaces. On a closer look Dillon could see that the walls were threaded through with metal and crystals that the light caught. It was quite beautiful, like nothing he had ever seen before.
The corridor seemed to go on forever. You would never know form the look on the outside that the cavern could be so big but Dillon chalked it up to more magic. Zhana turned off into an archway on the right where there had been two more guards at its entrance but instead of the warrior felines that he was getting so accustomed to; he was almost surprised to see that the guards were males, heavily armed in their human form. He had yet to see a male in animal form.
He followed Zhana in with some very suspicious looks from the guards but they made no move to stop them. The room they walked into looked much like the corridor as the walls glinted the same. But the main difference was all of the pictures depicted on the walls. Much as one would think the cave men from the Earth realm would look but these were much more sophisticated in detail. The pictures covered the walls all the way up to the vaulted ceiling. The room was huge. To him it looked big enough to house the whole tribe of Tygerwud inside. It made him wonder just how big this place was. If this was just one room within, he could just imagine what the rest of it held. To say that he was amazed was an understatement.
Many of the torches that lined the outside corridor also lined the walls in this cavern. The exception was a centralized fire pit that sat in the middle of the circular room that added additional light and the flames danced off the wall, almost giving life to the pictures depicted on the walls. Rayzhan sat staring at a particular section of the wall. Zhana made her way over to her indicating that they should follow. When everyone had gathered around Rayzhan they stood quietly admiring the work of an obviously very talented artist; waiting to see what the queen would say or what the her next move would be.
To his amazement Rayzhan shifted turning into her humanlike form. Just like Zhana, Rayzhan's humanoid form was beautiful and Dillon could see the resemblance between mother and daughter. Their coloring was almost exact with her skin being crisscrossed with the dark stripes. One difference Dillon noted was where Zhana had to be dressed by others; Rayzhan was able to magicly manifest her clothing onto her naked form. The base clothes she manifested were similar in appearance to that of Zhana wore with a few differences. Rayzhan also manifested a crown of sorts. The crown sat atop her head with a filigree of swirling designs. Three pawed arms on each side reached through the swirls to frame her face. It looked as though the paws were caressing her cheeks. Dangling across her forehead were spikes that swayed whenever she moved. On closer inspection he could see that the spikes were teeth. All together she made a very impressive if imposing figure. She carried even in her current form an air of authority that reeked of royalty. This was not a person that Dillon would ever want to tangle with even on a good day for him. Though Rayzhan looked to be no older than her late thirties in her appearance her eyes spoke of agelessness that Dillon knew this woman was a very long lived being.
Rayzhan began to speak, to no one in particular but just a general speech meant to inform anyone that was listening. She pointed out to the different illustrations on the wall as they came about in her story. "The tygerwud was not born but was created by the God of nature, life, animals, fertility and wealth: Cernunnos. For a very specific purpose were we created; to guard."
Dillon vaguely remembered reading about Cernunnos being described as the stag god with antler like appendages but there really wasn't much information to be found on this particular deity. As he looked at the image of the god it triggered memories of other images he had seen as he studied the mythology of Ireland. As he thought more on it, he knew that this was a far traveled god as he was mention in mythology that transcended just Ireland to Roman and even France.
Rayzhan continued oblivious to the internal conversation going on I Dillon's head. "He was given a special gift from the Fates. This gift was placed in his care and he gave it a place of honor in his woodland court displayed for all to see the honor the fates had bestowed to him. The gift was a magically enchanted sward gifting the wielder power and command over the all woods and the creatures born of it. Unfortunately, there were others who were jealous of the gift and hungered for the power the sward could wield for them.
After a number of failed attempts to steal the sward, Cernunnos decided the allure of its power was too strong to let it remain unattended at any time. He knew he needed a guard that was vicious that would be vigilant and strong enough to stop anyone or anything from taking the sword. He knew that the fates had a special destiny for the one who would finally wield the sward but that it was even more special that they had chosen him to be its keeper until it was time for that destiny to be meted out.
Thus the premise of the tygerud was born. Deep from within the core of his magic Cernunnos formed the first tygerwud, the Great Mother. The Great Mother proved to be the perfect guard. Nothing ever got passed her and soon attempts to steal the sward dwindled. But Cernunnos' interest never lessened for his creation, in fact they grew. He became so enamored with her that his emotions soon changed from just adoration to love. One night Cernunnos could no longer hold his emotion for her in check. Cernunnos enchanted her casting a spell that transformed her into a beautiful two legged warrior. He was overcome with passion once he saw her knew form. Cernunnos fell upon the Great Mother, his passion blazing. She did not fight him knowing that he was her master and felt privileged that he wanted her so and returned his passion tenfold. He was addicted from his first taste of her and in a whirl of magic he whisked them away to his private chamber to make love to her through the long night.
In his passion filled haze Cernunnos did not set a new guard to protect the sword and that was just the opening that an evil fae king needed to get to the sword. He himself stole into the court in the dead of the night taking the sword from its place of honor. When the dawn came Cernunnos was reluctant to release the Great Mother from his arms, he had been so completely intoxicated by her and did not let her go but eventually he did. When he took her back to her post he found that the sword had been taken and he was enraged. Not only was he mad at the evil king but he was even more furious with himself for letting himself get so distracted that it left an opening for the sword to be taken in the first place. He immediately sent out an army of warriors, the Great Mother in their lead, to find and kill the evil king for treachery and taking what did not belong from him.
The Great Mother was determined also. Disappointed in herself for not protecting the one cause for her very existence was a dishonor she could not bear. She vowed that if it to her last breath, she would make sure the sword found its rightful place once again.
They searched without success for weeks. Cernunnos was obsessed with trying to find the sword a soon was leading the troops himself for it was apparent that the Great Mother could not do it herself. Their one night of passion yielded some very fruitful results, for the seed of Cernunnos had taken root in her womb and she was heavy with child. The time of her birthing was getting near and Cernunnos was torn between being with her for the birth of his children and the need to find the sword. The need to find the sword won out and he found himself more and more out in the field trying to find the evil king.
