THE FORGOTTEN SAGE

When the Mountain Wakes

THE FORGOTTEN SAGE

Episode 4: When the Mountain Wakes

The dust cloud above the eastern ridge continued to rise.

For several long seconds, the people of Oakhaven stood motionless, staring at the mountain that had sheltered their town for generations. Then another deep rumble rolled beneath their feet.

Panic erupted.

Children screamed. Market stalls were abandoned. Merchants gathered their valuables while others rushed toward their homes.

“Everybody, remain calm!” Mayor Vance shouted.

But his voice was swallowed by the growing chaos.

Silas watched the mountain with grave concern. The crack on the eastern ridge was widening, sending loose stones tumbling into the gorge below.

Kaelen turned to him.

“You knew this would happen.”

“I knew something would happen,” Silas replied. “A mountain rarely gives the same warning twice.”

Another violent tremor shook the town.

This time, several windows shattered.

Master Boros stumbled backward and grabbed the arm of a nearby guard. His earlier confidence had disappeared.

“What is happening?” he demanded.

Silas looked toward the eastern gorge.

“The barrier is weakening.”

Mayor Vance finally turned toward him.

“The barrier?”

“The landslide,” Kaelen quickly explained. “It has blocked the mountain stream. Water has been gathering behind it.”

The Mayor's face slowly lost its colour.

“And when it breaks?” he asked.

Silas looked at the lower district.

“Everything in its path will be buried beneath water and mud.”

A terrible silence followed.

Mayor Vance looked around at the frightened faces surrounding him. For the first time, he realized that the poor man he had dismissed might have understood the danger all along.

“What must we do?” the Mayor asked.

Silas did not immediately answer.

The question seemed strange coming from the same man who had ordered him away only hours earlier.

Finally, Silas pointed toward the eastern side of the town.

“The lower district must be evacuated immediately. Open the eastern gorge and clear every possible path leading away from it.”

“But the eastern road leads toward the Overseer's arrival route,” Mayor Vance protested.

Silas looked directly into his eyes.

“Then choose, Mayor. Your reputation—or their lives.”

The Mayor swallowed.

“Kaelen!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Gather every available guard. Begin the evacuation.”

Kaelen hesitated for only a moment before bowing his head.

“Yes, sir.”

He ran into the crowd, shouting instructions to the other guards.

Silas turned toward the mountain.

But then he noticed something that made his heart sink.

A thin blue light was shining through the cracks along the ridge.

It was Aether.

Raw Aether.

The abandoned mines beneath the mountain had been disturbed.

“No...” Silas whispered.

Master Boros followed his gaze.

“What is that?”

Silas's expression darkened.

“The water is not our only problem.”

Before Boros could respond, the ground beneath them suddenly split with a thunderous crack.

A narrow fissure tore across the market square.

People screamed and scattered.

From deep within the darkness below came a sound unlike anything Kaelen had ever heard.

It was neither the sound of stone nor water.

It sounded almost like—

A voice.

Silas slowly stepped toward the crack.

Kaelen rushed back just in time to see him standing at its edge.

“Silas! Stay away from there!”

But Silas was listening.

The strange sound continued beneath the earth, faint and broken, like an ancient voice struggling to speak after centuries of silence.

Silas's face changed.

For the first time since Kaelen had known him, the poor man looked afraid.

“What did you hear?” Kaelen asked.

Silas stepped away from the fissure.

His hands were trembling.

“The mountain remembers,” he said quietly.

Before anyone could ask what he meant, another deafening explosion echoed from the eastern ridge.

The barrier had begun to break.

And high above Oakhaven, the mountain finally opened its eyes.

To be continued...