Chapter 84 - Eighty

Inside I guide us for what could be taken as a dragon's lair; and not only because of all the gold and miscellaneous that were around, but because of the unorganized way they were put, reminding me of how Leonel's treasure had been neatly kept and separated, now threw around with my piles, still in chests and bags, but lost over the mountains.

Good thing he could not see anything right now… I think he would start complaining about having it clean up, and not only his things I bet; he would make me organize this whole place up.

The mere thought already made my back hurt; let's avoid touching anything so he doesn't realize that there is anything out of place, yeah, let's do that.

Guiding Leonel by the hand I pass over the messy chamber were everything felt down when I put it inside this dimension, waiting for the day I would find use to them, simply laying like a pile of clothes.

We go to the side where many doors stood in both sides of a narrow hall, my silver eye glinting while I could see all the energy veins of this place making a robust layout, enough to guide our steps as we walk until we reach the door I was looking for, a big stone door with strange drawings, not only standing out with those intrigue ill.u.s.trations but for being so out of place with its unique style, reminding me of the stones doors we had found inside the dungeon years ago separating the floors.

It wasn't the first time I realized that, having looked at this door many times before, nor questioned if they may have come from the same source.

Perhaps it came from a dungeon, a dead one now, and as, if I remember correctly, dungeons like to replace the void inside them with replicas of other parts of the universe, who can tell from when and where this came from, this untouched gem underneath the sand, hidden away from centuries?

It makes one wonder indeed…

But enough of that, I think as I reach out and have to force the stone out of the way, sand quickly falling over us as we enter a place which should seem impossible in such a small hall.

That was, of course, because it did not belong to where initially.

That's why an enormous place unfold before us with stone structures, high ceilings and huge pillars with statues sculpted all over their extension, resembling flora with trees, smooth curves that looked like rivers of water, as well as fruits and some animals, mostly desert foxes and lizards, all seemly out of place yet well fit in the structured, so well carved that if painted one may forget that they were right in the middle of the desert, especially the mural on the walls.

They have a few humanoid sculptures as well, mostly amidst the nature over the wall to the side, showing who this place belonged to.

And making me shocked in the process when I first saw this place; After all beyond the magnitude of all these structures, who could imagine elves living in the desert?

I've always thought; and saw; elves among nature, to see them right in the middle of the desert was at least very odd, yet one thing both carried deeply, ancient or not, is the love for nature, even though this one had different creatures that belonged to the hot weather of the desert, and plants from this place.

Ancient elf language was very hard to learn I soon realized when I found this place, and even with my Wisdom ability it took me years to reach the level I was today, and yet, like any language, there were words that I did not know; more then I wished for unfortunately; more so due to the lack of a proper dictionary than study really, many words being hardly understandable by context.

That's something I was working on a well, a dictionary, but more to keep track of the meaning of the words than to try and teach anyone.

For what I could tell from this long tedious study however was that the fact that they cherish and loved nature stayed only increased, but from bits of old books plus my own understanding I could figure that they thought nature to be so precious because they lived in the desert, the lack of it in here only made it more important and valuable.

Like how divine one would see if, beyond all this sand, an oasis turned up on the horizon.

A sign of the divine indeed.

Though some interpretations changed and I could not figure out what part seems more important for, sometimes, it was clear that the trees were the source of life for them, but then others would tell that it was actually water, and both had important roles in elven culture, at least agreeing in the importance of each, just discussing the most vital one.

But small details like that did not lower the value of these books; for the ancient elves were known for their great affinity with magic.

The only ones comparable are the cultivators and high devils, all of them having something in common that made them great at magic.

Time.

As cultivators chased after immortality, and devils were… complicated, elves where naturally a very old race, and after you train and do the same thing over and over, for so many years, no one could match it.

I remember when Aeglos showed us the training of their troops before, as they used drums to keep the pace for the younger ones.

I thought to be impressive, the way the moved synchronized with the sound, maintaining the concentration.

That is… until we saw the older one's training.

It looked like a synchronized dance, the constant drum substituted by a single thump or flags to give instructions, the moves or sounds appearing the same to me but somehow giving different orders as they would put an arrow in the air with smooth and graceful moves, their eyes staring straight ahead without watching their own moves, and without a need to, only aiming at the target and attacking all at once, making a deadly rainfall down the enemy.

They could hit the same spot a thousand times if needed.

Such a great yet fearful sight could be seen nowadays; so one can only wonder what the great ancestors of such formidable kin could be capable of.

Well, most could only wonder; I could search about it, as I have done for years, learning, translating, reading.

They were knowledge keepers, so it would take me more than a lifetime to read all of these, especially the ones that were written in other odd languages, but the elves books were already enough to keep me busy.

But none of that was important right now beyond one single information; is that their kind lived, and meet, the bringers of magic, which means that they, too, had contact with the dark Dusk of Mankind Era, and that's what I was, a few days back, reading about.

The book I read, underneath that tree, as I watched my brother play with Shu.

It seemed to be such a distant past now.

That book mentioned creatures raised from hell; or so they claimed; that could not be harmed by normal attacks and were purged by the bringers of magic.

Sounds familiar doesn't it?

Thought that one had been a book full of holes; not only in the writing but from missing pages as well; there are bound to have more books about the subject in here as well, especially since the ancient elves had a close contact with the bringers of magic and, probably, with those creatures as well.

And maybe magic wasn't the only thing brought from that time to us; or maybe, not only good magic, that is.