Free Keepers: Blood of The Fallen by Kenneth Toles Jr. Page A

the massive silver keyhole in the giant golden door and turned it. He escorted us in. Apparently, all of the militants and knights knew how the temple was mapped out, but they could never enter it. Asia took my hand, and we walked in, behind Brama. There was nothing spectacular about the inside of the temple. As a matter of fact, it looked baron. Even Brama was unimpressed. “This is what they have forbidden us to enter? It has the appearance of a discontinued dwelling,” he said.

IV
    From the looks of it, on the inside the temple was nothing more than a run-down church. On the outside, it looked marvelous, like all the rest of the buildings of their world. We walked through the building, with Brama telling us what each room was supposed to be. We went upstairs, about four flights; there was a door at the end of each set of stairs, but we were there to see the High Order. They were on the fourth floor. Brama told us they used to be on the seventh floor, but the fifth through seventh floor was being used for things that were unexplained to him. I wasn’t interested in that; I just wanted to get to the High Order Keepers.
    We finally reached the door, and instead of knocking, which was apparently considered disrespectful, Brama shouted to the Keepers, “Permission to enter?!”
    There was a faint response: “Come.”
    We went in, not knowing what awaited us on the other side of the door. Brama allowed us to walk in first. I was sure he was just afraid of what might happen to him. He was already confused, because he was allowed entry so easily. When we walked inside, a man met us at the door. He seemed to appear out of nowhere. Before we could react, he said, “Speak Kavar.” He had a tight smirk on his face. Upon further observation, the man appeared to be over a thousand years old. He had hundreds of wrinkles in his face, his teeth were yellow, and his hair was very thin and white. His skin was a very pale white.
    “I…we only come with a few questions.”
    “Ask,” he said, as he stood right in front of us, not more than six inches away from my face.
    “Why are you going to destroy Earth?”
    He smiled. Then he turned and walked away. We walked into the darkness of the room, and the man lit several candles at once, with what appeared to be just a flick of his wrist. Instantly, we could see that there were skeletons on the wooden floor, and they were all dressed in amazing robes. The old man was also dressed in a really nice green robe, with golden thread outlining it. Asia gripped my hand tighter as she surveyed the room. The old man, who I was sure was a Keeper, smiled and sat down at a small table. He was drinking from an old silver cup, and it looked to be something brown, although I was sure it wasn’t coffee, just like whatever Iron was drinking.
    He looked up at us with his red eyes, still smiling with his yellow teeth showing, and said, “So you want to know why Earth is going to be destroyed?” He took a very loud slurp from his cup, and then, proceeded to tell us why Earth was going to die. “Earth was our habitat. It was a beautiful place, meant to be a sanctuary for us. We lived there for several multi-cycles…years as you call them, but like all things, Earth was eventually overrun with the parasitic Navariums. They became something much more than a nuisance that we could keep at bay, and we ended up with an enormous problem.
    There was no conceivable way for us to rid ourselves of the demons. We could only learn to live with them: to blend in. You see…Earth was created well before we discovered it. It was full of vegetation and other beautiful creatures before we got there. We were the first beings there after the four-legged creatures and other animals. We lived in harmony with them. We hunted them, but only for nutrients. The Navariums hunted them for sport. Now, they hunt us for sport.”
    “Ok…wait. Navariums…what did they look like,” I asked.
    “They looked like us, of course.