"The darkness creeps and comes even nearer." One of the Elves came closer to me, leaving the other four. The orb on his staff was black, but still yet it glowed, giving off black light.
I could also not help but notice that they all had grey hoods over their faces, and their voices all sounded the same, seeming to come from the same person.
"We have waited for the One who was promised, and his face stares out of the fire now."
His hand reached out to touch my shoulder as he spoke, and when I looked at it, it was pale and bony, like a dead man's.
"We are the five Elves, each one of us representing a stage in a man's life. You have met Darwin the Boy. There is still Redlin the Newborn, Marlin the Young, and Trenlin the Old."
"And who are you?"
He chuckled softly, pulling his hood back. "I am Sedlin the Dead."
The mere sight of him made me jump back in fright. His face was bony and pale, just like his hands, and there were holes in the sockets where his eyes should have been.
"Do not be afraid, boy." He assured me, reaching out with his hand to help me up. I took it and felt how cold it was as he led me forward to the other four.
"We have waited for you to be born for five hundred years." Sedlin the Dead said, looking at me, while his very look chilled my spine. "We saw you and what you were going to do, and we have waited until now."
"Me?" I asked.
"Yes, you." An old man with long hair and a long, white beard came forward, smiling at me, and I guessed he was Trenlin the Old. "We saw you in our fire and have waited patiently to have you with us. Today, here you are."
"But why me?"
"There is no one born without a purpose, no one conceived without a reason. From the beginning of time, it was decreed that you would be born to save us all. That is your destiny, and that you must accept."
"Save you from what?"
"The darkness that comes." A man stepped forward, until he pulled back his hood and made my heart skip a beat. He was as tall as a man, but his face was that of a baby, and even when he spoke, I could see that there were no teeth in his mouth.
He had to be Redlin the Newborn.
"In the beginning, when all came into being, it was decreed that its polar opposite be made to keep the balance. When water came into being, earth came to keep the balance, so there would be enough water and enough earth, none being more than the other. When air came into being, fire was made, so that there would be enough fire and enough air and balance between them."
"The two forces will fight and try to overpower the other to take control, and it is this fight that keeps the balance." Darwin the Boy said, coming to stand in their midst, so that all five of them were before me. "But at the moment, evil overpowers good, and evil will not stop until the good ceases to be."
"So what is my role in all of this?"
"The evil has done considerable damage to the good." Marlin the Young, the only normal looking man with a normal face amongst the group stepped forward to say, and I thought for a moment that I saw a teardrop fall out of his eyes.
"We are the five good Elves, and we have become weak because evil has overpowered us. That is why you came into being. You are the One. You have come into being to fight for us, to save us from the Other Five. They are evil."
Since the beginning of my experience, I had not been sure of what was happening to me. To fall asleep, only to wake up with my room invisible from the outside, then carried by a tree that spoke for miles, and now to be with five very strange… I could not call them men, because none except for Marlin the Young seemed to be a real man.
To hear them say that I was the one— I who was completely disregarded in my world, unknown in class, an introvert by all standards?
That I was the One who had come to being because evil had overpowered these strange men?
This was the sort of thing that only happened in dreams, and I liked this dream so much I did not want to wake up.
"I am the One?" I questioned in disbelief.
"Yes you are." They all said in unison, at the very same time.
"What proof is there that I am the One you want?"
"Because evil has sought after you from the day you were born. Just like us, there are also five others, but they are evil forces. They derive joy in Pain, in Suffering, in Ruin, in Tears, and in Death. They have been searching after you since the beginning of time, and now they have found you." Darwin the Boy answered.
"Found me?"
"We have both been seeking you." Sedlin the Dead said. "We searched for you to give who you truly are, life. They search for you to kill you before you can become who you truly are. We both found you the very moment you touched the Book of a Thousand Curses in the Library, an ancient book. From then, it was a race to who would reach you first between us and the Other Five."
Marlin the Young narrated what happened. "We, the Five Good Elves, followed you as you said the curse and moved through time. As you went back a thousand years in time, together with every object that was there when you said the curse, we cast a spell to find you."
Immediately, I realised why my room was invisible from the outside. Everything that had heard me say the curse had come with me.
"We sent the trees to find you, and Erimlin did. He was charged to keep you safe from the Other Five, even at the cost of his life, and he brought you here, but not without them knowing. Now, they seek to kill you."
"I do not believe this." I argued.
"You must. Even now, you must return, for they come here to kill you at this very moment. They are more powerful than us at this very moment, as they have surpassed us in intensity, yet we must keep you safe."
I wanted to say something, but the floor of the cave seemed to be sucking me in, absorbing me slowly. It was so scary I cried out in terror, and I closed my eyes to avoid my fate.
Just like the first time, I felt like I was falling through eternity, until I finally crashed. When I opened my eyes, it was for me to wake up on my bed, in my room, with the morning sun coming in through my window.