The Last Celestial

Fire Within The Forest Part I

Dah was pacing back and forth, his forehead was scrunched and his brows met unpleasantly. He can't seem to settle down, what's worse, is that he heard it from a source as well---Tahani. Timothy on the other hand looked blankly on the screen in front of him. He stared at his laptop, trying to absorb the request of the great Elder.

'Andrew needs to fight with the Keepers, now.'

It was a sentence long, yet they cannot absorb the gravity of those words just yet.

Timothy can't stop fidgeting, the heels of his right foot continuously tapping against the floor. He let out a long and lingering sigh before calling Dah, who was in much worse shape than he was. "Hey." He called, and his voice was filled with tension. "Can you stop that? You walking back and forth, making all that noise is not helping my nerves."

Dah looked at Timothy with venom in his eyes, and was obviously offended by his best friend. He stopped on his tracks, before walking closer to the other male who was sitting on the table. He lightly slapped Timothy on the head and said "Do you think I'm doing this on purpose, Tim? Mama told me that the Great Elder is coming here. HERE! Right here and right now! Andrew... the boy, we don't even know if he's ready yet! He's just starting to learn to control both his flying and that powerful explosive thing..."

"You mean the ball of fire?" Timothy leered, a bit amused by Dah's funny expression.

"I don't care what it is called, Timothy." Was Dah's snarky reply. He lifted both arms and made invisible quotation signs on the air for emphasis. "I care about what's going to happen to Andrew once he finds out about the attack. You know what he's like. He's going to fly straight there and try to stop those creatures by himself. I just know it."

Timothy huffed, and rolled his eyes. "Speak a bit louder and he's gonna hear you through the shower. Might as well just tell him the news yourself."

Dah bit his lower lip in annoyance and scrunched his face. He was in utter disbelief how cool Timothy seemed to be acting. He knew his friend was always detached and always had a 'Don't care, don't see' attitude since the start. But he expected more from the latter. Timothy is the one who is training Andrew after all. He took off his left slipper and slapped the older male hard behind his head.

"Ow!"

Timothy rubbed the back of his head and looked at Dah with piercing eyes. "The heck was that for?!"

The two men continued on with their bickering. Each of them raising their voice at each other. Dah took his slipper from his foot and threatened to slap his friend again. They only stopped when they heard the sound of a car approaching. The two looked at each other and decided to let bygones be bygones. They can continue this fight some other time, now they have to face not only Andrew but the great Elder as well, and the news the latter will bring forth to them.

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Diomedes stepped out of the car swiftly, the driver came out from the front seat and closed the door for him. The great Elder was accompanied by two of their best trained fighters, Elmer and Arnel. The twin sons of the late Lita the great.

He signaled the two to stay put, and wait in the car. And they too eagerly followed his order without protesting. Diomedes marched towards the door, and knocked three times. In his hand, he holds a brief case that contains a tablet and a small paper where the locations of the monsters are.

He dreaded for this day to come. Not in this era. Not while he's in charge. But the boy is right here, and the creatures are spreading around the world like a plague, and the Undying man is making his move.

There's nothing else he can do but face the nightmares he's been having---and see to it that the bad and remorseful ending doesn't become a reality for all of them.

"Elder Diomedes." Timothy greeted him with the tall man's head bowed down in a form of respect.

He hummed against his throat and gently bowed his head down as well. He noticed that the was in the living room as well. All tensed, and was still pacing back and forth while nibbling on his fingernails.

The Elder one sighed and signaled for the three of them to take a seat in a place where they can talk. As they walked towards the dining table, the Elder one called for Dah and asked "Where's the boy? Where's Andrew?" Was his question when he did not notice the boy's presence.

Dah lifted his right arm and pointed upstairs where the bathroom is located. "He's having a shower. He'll be done in no time."

The Elder one remained silent and took a seat in one of the hardwood chairs. He placed the tablet on the table and opened it. He took out the black slick tablet, as well as four creased papers with black stains on them.

"Will we wait for Andrew?" Dah asked, as he examined the Elder one opening his tablet and opening some messages and documents.

The Elder one looked at him and nodded. And instead of directly answering him, the Elder one gave the stained papers to Timothy and Dah for them to read. The two men moved until they were a foot apart, and as their hearts raced against their chest... they open up the first piece of paper.

"Latvia... Kazakhstan... Russia and China?" Dah reads aloud the writings one by one. He looked utterly confused, while Timothy on the other hand had the looks of terror on his face.

The taller male has a gut feeling of what this may be. His stomach turned and he felt like the last meal he consumed was about to be forced out of his stomach. His breathing heaved and it feels like he's going to have a panic attack. Somehow, he wishes that his gut feelings were untrue. However, based on the expression on the great Elder's face, his gut feeling may be true.

"Those are the coordinates where the creatures of tar and coal are located." He sighed and his face darkened. "Those papers are from the fifth platoon whose job is to track and deliver messages where the creatures can be seen. Their main job is to figure out where the undying man may be hiding. But... they could only follow those creatures till China... before they were all consumed. A messenger pigeon was used. It was able to deliver four papers to the forest of the Zodiac. Then on it's fifth time to return it came back empty handed, which means the men and women have fallen..."

Dah's eyes widened, and he felt a tightness against his chest. "What..."

"We went to Lithuania, and there we found a woman---a survivor. My wife an I had five platoons come with us, and we dispatched all of them, yet only a single platoon managed to survive." Diomedes relayed with a gloom expression on his face. "Jacqueline and I took the woman, Regina, to the forest. And there---Heiy gave us the papers and she was in tears, because the bird came back without a paper in its carrier. Which means, her husband---a part of the fifth platoon died while on duty."

Timothy's face darkened as well. "Elder Kris? He was in command?"

"That's correct." Was Diomedes' monotonous reply. He breathed in  deeply and squinted his eyes.

He opened the tablet and then gave it to the two men. He showed them an image of the world map. The map had two different colors acting as legends. The information was gathered from Keepers who are dispatched to those nations. If the nation is white, the monster has not yet invaded the land. But... if it is black, then a creature has been spotted there.

The hairs on Timothy's back raised as he looked at the map. Only a portion of America had been taken. But only a few nations in Africa remained white... as well as Asia.

"Wait..." Timothy interjects. "If you have this type of information, why did you have to use the fifth platoon?"

Diomedes leaned forward and prompted his elbows on the top of the table. He interlaced his fingers together. "Because we wanted to trace the Undying man faster... and that troop was the strongest among all the trained fighters... I thought they stood a chance."

Dah shook his head and was utterly disappointed after hearing everything. His eyes were cast down, and his spirit was crushed. Those people were his friends, and Kris was one of the Keepers he was close to other than Timothy.

"The---they're close to the relics..." Timothy whispered, and was completely taken back by surprise. "Ho---how..." He whispered, completely stupefied.

Dah was in worse shape than him. The man's face was pale and almost looked like he's not breathing.

"It says in the old text how terrifying and dangerous those creatures are. And how destructive their powers can be. Their thirst for blood. And how they divide and grow. And how they managed to defeat the eleven of the Celestial beings. When the Celestials were alive they managed to kill the eleven out of twelve and destroyed India and Pakistan---the Undying man was giving out the command. Now that there are no Celestial beings to stop them---and only us... Within a week, they managed to take over almost half of the world..." Was the Elder's words... His voice was cold and distant and pain was hinted at as he spoke.

Only when they've heard the resounding steps of Andrew coming downstairs that they were snapped back to reality. Dah breathed in deeply, slapping his face as to give color to his pale face. Timothy on the other hand coughed and swallowed against his hoarse throat and moved his shoulders up and down.

Andrew noticed the two of them standing in front of the dining table. He jogged towards the two, and noticed a middle aged man sitting on the table. He squinted his eyes as he looked at the man's features for he is so familiar. He remembered him from his childhood.

He took another step, until he was beside Timothy. "Uhm..." He peered, and seemingly tried to examine the familiar man in front of him. "...do I know you?"

Diomedes slowly raised his head. And smiled genuinely at the boy. Wrinkles showed on his face, particularly on his eyes and forehead. "I was hoping that you'd remember me, young man..."