The acrimonious winds blew violently, chills
overwhelming those unfortunate enough to be caught with
no shelter, right in the middle of it’s almost fatal
wrath. Drizzle and sleet teamed up together, pounding
down fearlessly on all objects of nature, obliterating
many weak forms of life, dinting it’s way through the
entrails of the so called almighty rock. The green clouds
threatened land and sea with it’s horrifying capacity of
swirling mass, stirring up the easily irritated, and
creating havoc in town and city communities.
  The ceiling of the well concealed cave, drooled like a
new - born baby, spots of water oozing slightly out of
small gaps and cracks. An inert breeze, snuck past the
hidden cave mouth, creating goose - bumps on goose -
bumps.
  ‘We should be safe here until the morning.’ the blonde
headed Sly said. ‘Those soldiers shouldn’t be able to
find us here.’
  ‘Where’re we going to go in the morning?’ Enigma asked,
lighting a small, man - made torch with two hand sized
stones. 
  ‘I’m not sure.’ Sly admitted. ‘Maybe we should go North 
towards the Revai River in the Great Mountains in Sunny.’
  ‘What would we do there?’ Enigma replied, leaning the 
miniature torch up against the cave wall. 
  ‘I think it would be best if we settled there for a
while before we really do anything else. If we stay away
from civilisation for about six months, I think every one
should forget about us. Then we wouldn’t have to keep on
running.’
  ‘So your saying that we go to into the Great Mountains,
build a house, and keep away from civilisation for six
months, living off the land?’
  ‘That’s what I said.’ she answered, ‘It’d be fun. We
find a spot on the banks of the Revai River, we build a
house, and we live the rest of the days sitting on the 
porch watching different forms of nature pass by.      
  ‘How are we going to get there?’
  ‘By foot I suppose.’ Sly reasoned, lying down, making
herself comfortable. ‘It won’t take that long to get
there. About four weeks I think.’
  ‘What about by horse?’ Enigma interrogated.
  ‘About half to a quarter that time.’ Sly responded.
‘Let’s get some sleep. We’re going to be up at dawn, so
we’re going to need as much sleep as possible.’
  Enigma closed his eyes.
  ‘Boy.’ a frail voice said. ‘Wake up.’
  Enigma quickly sat up, his hand going to his dagger
handle.
  ‘Stay calm boy.’ the voice urged. ‘Your safe.’
  Enigma found himself once again in the big round room 
with the bookshelves and the large marble stair case.
  ‘Welcome.’ the aged man said, offering Enigma a hand 
back to his feet. This guy was different man to the first 
fellow Enigma met.
  ‘Where am I?’ Enigma asked. 
  ‘Your in the underground passages again.’
  ‘Like the old guys place, right?’ Enigma said.
  ‘Yes, like the old guys place.’ the man replied.
  ‘But I didn’t think of his name.’ Enigma said, taking a
quick look around getting aquatinted with the
surroundings once more. ‘I don’t even know his name. He
wouldn’t tell me.’
  ‘You don’t need to worry about that. All will be well.
Anyway, I was instructed to bring you here myself. He
told me the details. He’s been complicating things like
that lately. 
  Enigma smiled. ‘I can’t hardly imagine.’
  ‘You wouldn’t want to know.’ the fragile man chuckled,
his wrinkled old face collapsing on it self when he did.
‘My name’s Aiviam. Next to that old man you speak of, I’m
second in ranking in indoctrination.’ he lifted his chin
proudly. ‘Follow me.’ Aiviam shuffled over to the same
side of the book case as the first old man did. He pulled
out a small red book, it’s spine much thinner compared to
the rest of the other books on the shelves. The delicate
pages had gathered dust over the many years, only
clearing up when cleaned. 
  ‘“To the Conscripted Boy”.’ Aiviam, read, ‘That’s you.’ 
He turned the fragile pages forward, until he came to the 
passage he was after, reading it out loud. ‘“The Chosen 
Boy shall follow the insidious woman too a salt river in 
the middle of the titans. There, they shall settle, 
partly clearing their names. Travelling towards the west, 
they shall meet a dyad that shall be your company through
out your following journeys, behind the tumbling water,
the gate through an illusion.’
  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Enigma asked trying to
decipher the riddle.
  ‘I can’t tell you what it means. I’m forbidden to 
reveal anything that the riddle predicts. However, I am 
allowed to replace what the Enemy took from you the last
time. It wasn’t very nice of them, was it?’
  Enigma shook his head.
  ‘This book is yours and yours only.’ Aiviam said,
handing the book to him. ‘You must take extreme care with
it. Make sure that you carry it where ever you go. Do not
let it fall into the wrong hands. If you flick through it
now, you’ll see that the passage I just read is the only
passage that’s in the book at the moment.’
  Enigma carefully flicked through the book. All the
pages, except the one that Aiviam just read out loud,
were blank. ‘Why’s that?’ he asked.
  ‘All the passages are hidden until the right time. When
that time passes, those certain passages remain, because
they’re useless.’
  ‘So the one you just read out will remain.’
  ‘Yes.’
  ‘Am I able to show any one the book.’
  ‘Only those real close to you. Particularly the people
that you can trust. It’s your choice though. But you have
to remember that it is a very important book and mustn’t
fall into the hands of evil.’
  ‘Who wrote it?’ Enigma flicked through the pages
individually.
  ‘Not sure. No one knows. It just appeared in this
library one day with the statement "To the Conscripted
Boy" in it. It was only just recently that we found text
written in it.’
  ‘Well, what would you call this thing?’
  ‘I suppose you could call it the Epoch Apocalypse.’
  ‘Pretty advanced stuff.’
  ‘Sure is. Unfortunately, your time here has up.’
  ‘Already?’
  ‘Yes, already. I’ll see you next time I see you.’
Aiviam said, shaking the young boy’s hand. ‘Remember the
name - ’
  ‘Enigma.’
  ‘What do you mean "remember the name, Enigma”.’ he
asked, dumbfounded.
  ‘Huh?’ Sly asked. ‘What are you talking about?’
  Enigma opened his eyes. Once again, he was in the dark
cave they had escaped to, Aiviam and the book shelves
gone from all sight. ‘Oh, sorry.’ Enigma apologised. ‘I
was just dreaming.’
  ‘What’s all this stuff?’ Sly continued her
interrogation, lifting a sack up in front of her.
  Enigma sat up. He found the red book in his hands. 
‘I’ll...ah...I’ll explain later.’ he answered hesitantly. 
‘All you have to know is that there is some one helping 
us along.’
  ‘Who.’
  ‘I can’t say at the moment. But if you open that sack,
you’ll find food, water and some money.’
  ‘I don’t know who’s doing this,’ Sly said, looking 
closely at the coins, ‘but who ever is, give him my
thanks.’
  ‘Trust me. I’m sure they already how grateful you are.’
Enigma smiled, putting his book away in the inside of his 
furry coat. 

    Source: geocities.com/hath69