The Guardian: Heart Of Magic

Death Escape I

It was all over the village that the child Nargress gave birth to was a golden child, no one knew the reason why the child was called a golden child aside from Neo, Lyculn, and the child's mother Nagress. Lyculn pleaded with Neo to stay quiet about what he saw when the child was born because he knew the dangers surrounding exposing the true identity of the child at this stage. Nagress was curious to name her child the next day her birth, she wanted to pick a name for herself but when she remembered what Lyculn told her about the child, she had to wait for him to come back from hunting with other hunters in the village.

"Welcome back, you look so tired, I can see it all written on your face that today's hunting was stressful," Nagress said.

"You are right, it was really stressful, those animals were all trying to play smart today but we caught enough anyways," Lyculn said.

"How is our golden child doing this morning," he said. He walked to where she was lying and began to play with her.

"Emmm, I wanted to even talk to you concerning her," Nagress said.

"I am listening, what about her" Lyculn asked. He turned to Nagress paying more attention to her now as he has the little girl in his arms.

"I was thinking of giving her a name together but I wanted to know if the gods told you a name she would bear before her birth," Nagress said.

"I revealed to you all I was told about her, her name was not revealed meaning it is left to us to give her a name that suites her mission," Lyculn said.

"Should I give her a name or do you have a name in mind already?" he asked.

"Yes, I already have a name in mind, I want her to go by the name Harlene," Nagressa said.

"I love the name but don't you think Helena would be better for her," Lyculn asked.

"Like you were in my mind, I had Helena in mind in case you feel Harlene was not good enough" Nagress replied.

"So be it, she shall go by the name Helena because she would be a shining light to many" Lyculn said.

"Is that the meaning of the name," Nagress asked.

"Not really, Helena the light for the people, her mission begins from here and mine gets more advanced" Lyculn replied.

The people of the village were waiting when it was noon to hear the name of the golden child the gods sent to them through Nagress. A feast would be hosted at the village when it is noon for the presentation of the golden child to everyone in the village. This would be the first time the child would be leaving the hut since her birth yesterday, also it would most likely be the first time that she would be carried by someone who is not her mother or Lyculn.

When it was exactly noon, Lyculn came out with Helena in his arms and Nagress walking behind him, they walked to the front of where all the people were gathered, Lyculn handed Helena over to Zetian, the village's visioneer, and whispered her name to his ear then he stood aside.

"Some time like this yesterday, this village welcomed a great visit from the gods, the gods blessed us with a golden child from the union of Lyculn and Nagress, from now henceforth this child will dwell in our midst bearing the name Helena," Zetian said.

Zetain blessed the child alongside some elders of the village before handing her over to her mother.

"Now is time to bless this child with valuable gift items, we will walk to the child's mother and hand over the gift we wish to give her daughter," Zetain said. Zetain was the first to give Helena a gift, he gave her a gold dagger, Nagress wanted to reject the gift but Lyculn signaled to her not to do so. Neo came out second and gave Helena a two-white bracelet, the bracelet was sparkling white that Nagress eyes were on them. the village head came third with a live turtle dove as his own present to Helena. Other villagers came with different symbolic and valuable gifts for little Helena. When they were all done, the feast began, everyone began to eat and drink as they like, the village hunters invited some of their friends from the same line of business to rejoice with them. Nagress signaled for Lyculn to come to join her inside the hut, he saw her signal and left what he was doing to walk behind her as she headed to their hut.

"I don't understand why you told me to take all these ridiculous gifts from them, don't you think I will still throw them away anyway," Nagress said.

"You need to calm down, there is nothing wrong about the gifts everyone out there gave Helena, I will never allow you to take anything that will harm you or harm her either," Lyculn said.

"Oh, the golden dagger won't harm her or what, she is just a day old, what do they expect her to do with a dagger," Nagress asked.

"There are many things you do not understand, I will make it clear to you now, the golden dagger she was first given signifies the battlefield, the battle that is ahead of her to fight while the two white bracelets signify victory to all her battles, she shall not be conquered then the turtle dove signifies peace, end to all wars, fighting, and suffering in the land," Lyculn said.

"What of the remaining gifts she got, what do they signify?" Nagress asked.

"That doesn't matter, keep the three first gifts very well because they are very precious and valuable than any other one to her" Lyculn said. Lyculn then went back to join the feast leaving Nagress alone with little Helena inside the hut.

The feast will still be full of villagers and food even at night, most of the invited guests had returned back to their various kingdoms before nightfall. Everyone who attended the feast began to tell others in their kingdom about the golden child born in a village in the woods, they even said things they did not experience at the feast and presentation of the child. The news of the child became rampant and one of the spies of Idahali got hold of the news and he decided to let his master know about it. He rode to his master's hideout, he has been enchanted by Idahali to only gather information for him, he does not know what he is doing.

"Master, I returned with a concern of something that is very rampant in my province, may I proceed, master," the informant said.

"You again, hope you have something good to tell me this time, I won't spare you if you bring irrelevant information here," Idahali said.

"Yes master, there have been chants and celebration of the birth of a golden child at a village in the woods, they say she was born with the brightest star in the continent, some visioneers said she would bring balance and wipe all evil people from the continent, I feel she is a threat to you master," the informant said. Idahali walked towards his informant, he was smiling when he reached him, he surrounded the informant before standing in his front to talk to him.

"Where did you say you heard this from?" Idahali asked.

"From my province, Krawood Province," the informant replied.

"Good, I will spare you till you return from the mission I am about to send you on," Idahali said.

"Now you will go and locate the village in the woods, when you find the child and her mother alone, eat this apple I will join you" he added. Idahali then handed an apple to his informant, the apple did not look like a normal apple fruit, it was very smooth, yellow in color, and had red spots on it also.

"As you wish master," the informant said.

The informant left Idahali's presence and went on the journey he sent him without returning to his province. He began to check the woods, after searching and finding nothing he sat down to rest, he then saw a hunter passing by. He quickly got up, he noticed the hunter was with meat and he was heading somewhere he thought would be a dead end. The informant begged the hunter that he needed somewhere safe for shelter, the hunter then told him that he was going to take him somewhere that he was constructing a hut for himself. He thanked the hunter like he had a good intention.

The village welcomed him very well, the village head wanted to know everything about him and where he is from. The villager joined him inbuilt his hut the next day after he arrived at the village. The village head sensed something with not right with the man so he called Lyculn to inform him to be careful near the man.

"I called you here because of our latest recruit in this village, he is unlike the other people I do welcome into this village," the village head said.

"Why do you feel so?" Lyculn asked.

"He told me he is from Krawood Province, he looks like one of them but people from former Prodal Kingdoms territory do not migrate like this, there is no war in the land so he cannot just migrate which a secret mission," the village head said.

"I don't think there is anything wrong for him to migrate the way he did, you never even questioned the head visioneer of the Culum Kingdom for migrating to this village, take a look at him, looking so cool-headed and peaceful," Lyculn said.

"You cannot judge the book by its cover, you don't know anyone's mind," the village head said.

"Okay, I will sleep with an eye open," Lyculn said. He then left where he was discussing with the village head.

On this faithful day, Lyculn had gone hunting the way he normally goes early in the morning. Nagress was alone with Helena in their hut, she was taking bath to Helena when she had an unexpected visitor. The man who recently began to reside in the village about two weeks ago was the one that came inside the hut, he had eaten the apple Idahali gave him. When he entered the hut, he looked very scary, his both eyes were glowing yellow, Nagress was so scared to the extent she could not move. Little Helena was playing with the water her mother was bathing her in while this was happening.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Nagress asked.

"The golden child, she has been foreseen to be more powerful than me, today will be the end to her so she would be no potential threat for me in the future," the man said. Idahali was the one talking through him.

"You know nothing about her, you think you can stop her but you would never be able to because she is divine, god-sent, I will never allow you to harm my child, over my dead body," Nagress said.

"Hahahaha, I was not going to spare you either, you both owe me your lives," the man said then he began to walk close to her with a knife in his hands.

This time Lyculn had returned from hunting with others, he had a feeling that Helena was in danger so he ran to his hut to meet Nagress and Little Helena, When he reach the hut door, he could hear Nagress struggling with someone. He removed his wand and entered the hut without being noticed, the man had stabbed Nagress and she was on the floor. Lyculn said a spell and hit his wand on the head of the man, the man fell instantly and broke their center table which was very close to the Helena bathtub. Lyculn reacted out to other villagers and they came to carry out the man, Lyculn and some other men quickly rushed Nagress to the healer's hut for treatment. The man was tied to a tree until he woke up from his faint, they began to question him, he looked at no one's face, his face was down to the ground.

"I Idahali will find you all and end you all, you all will beg for your life," the man said. The villagers began to throw different objects at him, they stoned him to death. Lyculn went to meet the village head immediately after he confirmed Nagress was doing fine.

"I knew something was wrong about him since the first day he stepped into this village, If you had felt the same way then we would have found a way to dismiss him from this village before he attempted to kill the golden child," the village head said.

"Maybe I was truly judging the book by the cover, I never knew Idahali would disguise in such a beautiful manner just to kill a baby," Lyculn replied.

"Well that is not the reason for me being here, the village is no longer safe for me and Helena, Idahali, as he said, would be this very soon so we must find a safer place to be before he reaches here" Lyculn added.

"I know that for sure, I won't stop you from leaving but promise me you will come back one day to greet us once again but this time with the golden child," the village leader said.

"I promise I would, but first you must defeat Idahali soldiers because they will be here for sure, this is your land, you can outsmart them and kill them all" Lyculn said.

Meanwhile, Idahali was already preparing his soldiers to storm the village and kill the golden child. He did not send more than a hundred soldiers because he saw the village was a very small one with limited people. In no time, all the soldiers and Idahali began to head to the village in the woods in order to kill the golden child.

**At the village**

The village healer was almost done with completely healing Nagresss, he was sticking the wound together already, Lyculn was prepared for departure already, he had packed all they needed to pack in one backpack already on the horse. Immediately the healer was done, they both got on the horse and began to ride away as the villagers waved goodbye. The villagers were just trying to prepare for the arrival of Idahali and his soldiers when they arrived.

"Find them, bring the golden child for me," Idahali said to his men. All the villagers were standing outside their huts, the village head was pleading that they have no golden child in their possession but Idahali ignored him. When his soldiers came empty hand then he got down from his horse and went to meet the village head, who was an elderly man. He asked of Lyculn and the golden child but the village head gave him any tangible information.

"I sense they are not far away from here, find them and bring them here, check throughout the woods," Idahali told his calvaries.

"Kill them all," he told his swordsmen.

The villagers were screaming after what Idahali said. The swordmen began to kill the villagers, Lyculn heard the scream of one of the villagers, he stopped the horse, he could not continue going anywhere.