The Kingdom

I had come to trust Kuri's instincts on all things so I looked at the valley more closely, in particular the open stretches of terrain not covered by verdant tree canopies. I soon picked out the shapes of moving objects in the lush grass of the valley. There were a lot of something and they were big!

For the distant objects to look so big so far away must mean that they were absolutely huge up close. Kuri, in a grim tone, spoke into my study of the valley and its huge occupants, "This place, like so many others, was once a paradise, but now it has become corrupted. Some of the creatures that you see are of fallen Malachim design. They are a plague to the higher-order creatures that were given this valley as their home. There is a war going on down there. A war between simple animals perhaps, on the surface, but a war between good and evil at its heart. The evil kinds are trying to devour and drive out all the good that remains in this valley. You've completed your first year of training and now it's time to begin the next."

I turned my eyes from the valley to Kuri, even as I prayed that he wasn't going to say what I knew he was. His eyes were confirmation enough and his words were only a mere formality for what I knew was coming, "Over the next year you and I and the created higher-order kinds of pure blood that remain within the valley are going to kill and drive out all the unclean flesh that has made this sacred valley their home. Light cannot coexist with darkness. Even so, that which is of El Elyon has no place with being mixed with the abominations of darkness's delight."

I looked away from Kuri to the valley below once more. In my mind's eye, a valley of idyllic beauty populated with the fallen Malachim's created monsters made the gorge back in the mountains behind me look like a thing of child's play. As if in tune with my thoughts I heard the roar of one of the monsters from the valley below echo up to us.

"Come along Benaiah. We need to get back to camp so we can pack up and move into the valley in the morning."

Kuri headed back the way we had just come and with my mouth suddenly dry I asked, "Isn't there another way that we can go back to camp?"

Kuri never stopped walking as he called out, "This is the straightest path to our destination. There is no sense in diverging from it."