The New World (The Last Delar) Read Free

himself."
    Loeau quickly opens the pouch from her cloak and dips her finger inside.  With a finger covered in glowing ash, she dots her sons' foreheads.  Loeau wipes her tears with the same finger, leaving glowing streaks down her face.  A horrible roar fills the air, shooting her to her feet. Her trail has been found.  Time is now her enemy.  Staggering and clutching her children tightly, Loeau runs as fast as the forest allows.  Closing in, is a doom that Loeau cannot escape but one that she must delay.  Loeau stumbles down a gravel bank breaking through a thicket of thorn bushes that tear at her cloak.  She stops abruptly as she recognizes this place.  Loeau shivers and stares at the tree whose roots have grown wild.
    "And so it is."
    ---
    This will be the place of her death, and Loeau knows it.  She walks over to the tree and falls to her knees, splashing in the shallow stream. Loeau tears her necklace from her neck, breaking its chain.  Holding it with both hands, she shuts her eyes and speaks out into the night.
    "My end is near, take whatever life still beats in my heart and save my loves and our last hope."
    Her hands begin to shake and the amulet radiates with power.  It illuminates the forest with blinding light that bounces off the water’s surface like brilliant white spears.  Loeau tries not to yell out, but the pain is too great.  The pain intensifies as the necklace sears the skin of her hands. When Loeau opens her eyes she sees something coming toward her.  Soaring in the night, it shimmers in the darkness.  Loeau smiles as she sees an Uluani, The Moon Shimmer, rarest of all creatures and an omen of hope.  It was in the darkest hour of her ancestors when evil had snuffed out all light that an Uluani shimmered on a moonless night.  The Uluani ignited hope where it was lost, leading her people out of the darkness. 
    Distracted by the majestic bird, Loeau does not realizing the water has been rising, soaking her robes.  The brook that was barely a trickle has turned into a powerful stream with surging currents, and Loeau now kneels waist-deep in it.  The bird, the water, the dream: it is all as it should to be.  The Uluani hovers casting great shadows in the brilliant light that radiates from the amulet.  Loeau knows now why the Uluani has shown itself to her.  She takes Akelou from her shoulder and looks into his eyes.
    “Akelou, my gift, we have only been together for a short time but you must now go and begin a new life.  Trust your instincts, for many in this world will not understand but fear you.  Remember, I will always be watching, for the connection between a mother and her child never dies.” Loeau quickly hugs Akelou tightly and kisses his forehead through tear-soaked lips.  Then, she looks into the eyes of the bird and speaks. 
    “Take him to the one who will understand who and what he is.”
    With these words, the Uluani snatches the child from her arms with its powerful talons and disappears into the night.  Loeau prepares quickly as she hears the sound of approaching footsteps.  An old petrified log that once lay in the mud bounces off her waist.  One more child to save before the end, she thinks to herself.  “Oskeau, my son, do not fear the darkness for it will save you tonight.  I sense that you will be a powerful leader of men.  Always remember that you lived because you were loved.”
    Loeau kisses her son and lays him on the dry log.  As his body touches the log it transforms into a crude canoe.  The moment Loeau releases her son, the stream swells with one last surge before slowly returning to the small rivulet it once was.  The light from her necklace fades and Loeau rises to her feet.  She looks down at her dark, cold necklace and knows that her fate has been sealed.  She can feel her life force beginning to fade.  Loeau slides her sword from its sheath and holds it to her face.  Closing her eyes and speaking softly, Loeau whispers to the