Druid's Future

Chapter 2

The Dark One looked at the rising sun.  He had been able to watch this
world from the barrier.  All that he had known had changed.   There were
no more to stop him.  All were dead and........Wait, a hesitation.  The
Dark One felt a presence all around him that he had not felt since his
imprisonment.  'They are here,' he thought.  'They can't be but they
are.  It did not seem possible that they should exist.  He saw their
powers disappear.  How could they exist?'  He was so sure they had all
become as mortal as men.  He had watched this world change and expand. 
He even saw that man had spread himself across the globe and yet the men
of this world were no different from his own time.  Man could still be
cruel and brutal despite the so called growth of knowledge and the fact
that their old fears seemed to have disappeared.  

All that time he watched and believed their powers were forgotten.  He
thought their powers laid dorment in the recesses of their minds,
waiting for the right opportunity to emerge once again to show man that
they will not harm; only aid the men of their world to live better with
it.  He was wrong.  The Dark One laughed to himself.  'Powers, Ha! 
Their puny powers were never a match for mine.  I will show them.  I
will seek out those with any power that is left and destroy it.'  The
Dark One smiled to himself.  'Without the elves the men of this time
would be easy to conquer.  There will be no one to help them.  They will
be powerless to stop me.  I will have a whole world to rule instead of
an island.'  

The Dark One reached into his robes and pulled out a dark crystal.  It's
center seemed to be alive with a swirling mass of smoke and colors.  He
gazed into the ball and perceived the world as a whole.  He saw great
oceans and many lands that he did not know existed before his
bannishment.  Now all would be his.  He tried to decide which road he
should take and which place he should conquer first.  He perceived that
all other lands looked to the one that he stood within; except for a
few.  There was one in particular that viewed this land less as a friend
and more as rival; a land just as great in size.  He also perceived
those that had a great hatred for what the people of this land stood
for.  How easy it would be to turn every man against one another, and
yet it would be increasingly more difficult to control them for they
would not accept an outsider for a leader unless it was one of their
own.  'I must have more time to plan, but first, I must have a kingdom
from which I can plan,' the Dark One thought.  'If this land were to
fall first, those that were enemies would surely look to me as their
leader.  Then all those that looked to this land would soon fall under
my control for they would loose heart quickly.'

The Dark One headed south for he perceived in his Crystal a land devoid
of much life, a desert of great size.  That would become his kingdom. 
The time to build and plan had come.  The men of this time would become
his slaves.  The women would become his to do whatever he wished.

"They will do my bidding.  All shall be mine to command once, again,"
cried the Dark One.  The Dark One turned to the east to watch the rising
sun and to curse it.  Again he felt a combined power that was strong and
unyielding but something about it changed as the Dark One listened. 
Then a memory stirred.  Only once before had such a presence been felt,
when he had been bannished.  There had been four of them during that
time; and one of them was human but had formitable powers of his own. 
He was called something else during that time, too.  His name was Bron. 
Bron had recalled that it took three of them to bannish him.  The fourth
nearly held him 'till it was done.  Though that was 1700 years ago, Bron
felt the presence of those that could be a threat to his plans.  They
must be stopped.  He must find a way to prevent them from succeeding a
second time.  Yes...that is the key.  One of them will be taken and
hidden from the rest.  Then when the rest were destroyed, nothing could
stop him.  The one that was left would be his forever.  Now, which one. 
Bron homed in on the sources of power and found the one he wanted.  She
would be easy to capture.  Isolated and alone, there would be no one to
prevent it.

As these thoughts went through Bron's mind a forth essence was felt from
the west.  'NO!  He must not stop me.  He must be destroyed.  Only he
can aid the three in destroying me.  He has the druid's power; and yet I
can sense that he isn't the same one,' Bron thought.  'Still, he is a
druid and that makes him dangerous.  However, he seems contained
somehow.  Yes, he sleeps.  There may be time yet.  It would be so easy
to go and destroy him while he slepted but the box that encases him
would protect him.'

Bron had forgotten about the sleep of the ages.  A black crystaline box
formed from the magic of the Druid's Council and the elements of the
earth.  Each Druid who's powers came into their full potential had to
cast a binding spell over the surface so when a druid who finally used
the box would be accepted into it's protective shielding.  All natural
crystals had their own protective powers but each clear crystal would
only accept the power of it's owner while a black crystal would accept
all.  Bron did not have the opportunity to place his own binding spell
upon the casing.  He had followed a different path than the druids' way
of thinking.  He had been lured secretly by the promise of power and
control by another whom he later betrayed.  Though he started training
as a druid, he changed and the druid's threw him out from their midst. 
Bron pushed the memories down and instead thought about the druid that
slept encased within the box.  'A druid in the twentieth century,'
laughed Bron to himself.  He knew that man had grown "wiser."  He knew
that man no longer believed in the ancient beings, the druids and the
elves.  The men of this world will only laugh at him when he tries to
warn them.  The fool.  They won't believe him.  And when they do see
that they are in danger, it will be too late.

While the Dark One had been trapped and imprisoned, he watched as man's
civilization expanded.  It grew and with it man became more
knowledgeable about his world.  He forgot about the magic that once
frightened him.  Man decided that it was for children and there was no
more magic to fear, like there was no more need to believe the world was
flat.  The thoughts ran sarcasticly through the forboding places in
Bron's mind.

"Druid, your time has come," said the Dark One, shaking his fist toward
the western horizon.  "You won't be able to stop me for all your
knowledge and power can't compare with mine.  I have grown more powerful
from the imprisonment.  My hatred of what was done to me has made me
stronger.  You forgot that I could still observe this world and so I
learned more than what you hoped for.  You on the other hand have slept
for over a thousand years.  You won't be able to get the people of this
time to believe that I exist, let alone getting them to believe in you. 
I can even change my form to hide from all those who seek to destroy me
while your powers aren't even worth mentioning.  Come then, if you are
so inclined to do.  You will be facing your death because I shall have
the one key that could help you; and all others will be destroyed before
you can act.  Then this world will be mine and you won't be able to stop
me."  His voice trailed off carried by the wind, unheard by no one.  The
Dark One scanned the area and headed south.  The journey to his new
kingdom would be a long one, but one worth the effort.  It would be, for
him, the beginning of his new world and the ending of the old.

End of Chapter 2