The Guardians: Book One of the Restoration Series by Christopher Williams Read Free Book Online Page A

the start of his journey, he began to question his life choice. It was really a miserable feeling, but he certainly believed that Lenturin would be waiting for him if he tried to cross back over into the eternal forest, not that he really wanted to.
    He was glad to see that his mare was perking up. She was standing straighter, and breathing more normally. He untied the reins, but he did not climb into the saddle. She was still exhausted from the swim, and he was content to lead her.
    There was a Telurian city called Deladon almost due south of Tranquility Lake , so Flare shouldn’t have any problem finding it. From there, he just had to follow the northern road straight to Telur. The terrain, on this side of the silver river, was hillier and had fewer trees.
    After several hours of walking, he stopped to make camp. The clouds that had been gathering all day opened up and poured rain on him. He was soaked, miserable, and sore trying to sleep under an oak.
    The next morning, Flare began the second half of his journey toward Telur. The rain stopped in the early hours of the morning, but not early enough for him to get any real sleep. He broke camp and rode south. He was relieved to see his mare had perked up after the near fatal events of yesterday.
    Even though the terrain was hilly, there were less trees and vegetation to slow them down and they made excellent time. No humans lived this far north, and he rode without worrying about running into anyone.
    The rolling hills were grasslands broken up by small patches of trees. Off in the distance to the east and west, he could see forests, but he was headed to the south into the grasslands.
    The first night, he made camp in a copse of trees. He was exhausted and excited at the same time. He was in the real world and was riding to Telur to join the guardians. Alternating between fear of failure and sweet dreams of glory, he nodded off to sleep.
    The second day of travel mirrored the first, at least until early in the evening. The sun was starting to go down, and Flare was looking for a good place to camp, when he rode over a small hill and he first noticed the lights of Deladon.
    In the dusk, the lights reminded him of a swarm of fireflies. Judging by the number of lights, the city was larger than he had expected. From his studies, Flare knew that Deladon was a small city on the edge of the Telurian border with the elves. For a 'small' city, it looked awful big.
    He sat on his horse staring out over the city, considering what he should do. Undoubtedly, the gates of the city would be closed at night. And besides, did he really want to ride through that city crammed with humans? Perhaps, he thought grimly, it would be better to ride around the city in the night and make camp on the far side; there would definitely be less chance of trouble that way.
    His mind made up, he started riding down the road toward the city. He left the road well short of the high walls and turned his horse to the west. He didn't completely avoid attention, as he was surprised to see small huts and shacks thrown up around the base of the walls. Apparently the city was packed to overflowing, and the poor were being forced to live outside the walls. His stomach turned as the sight of the squalor that these people were enduring. Half naked children covered in grime ran around the camp fires, playing with large dogs. The fires were being used to cook the evening dinner, and for once he wished his sight was not so good. After looking to see what was on the spit of one such fire, he carefully kept his eyes away from the other cook fires.
    It took several hours to skirt the city, and he was greatly when he stumbled across the Northern road. Upon reaching the road, he turned his horse southward and nudged her into a slow gallop. He wanted to put several miles between himself and the city, before he stopped for the night.
      On either side of the road, the grasslands were broken up with small clumps of trees,