The Old Ones

The King of the Old Ones, with an enemy knight nearby.

Something very strange happened after getting shot.  When I “woke up” in a strange new world, I lived through around two days.  It seemed like an eternity.  I was suddenly in the area now known as Lesser Malling, England, 10,000 years in the past.  I was one of the Five, just like Feather said.  Everyone knew me as Sapling, and they called my brother Flint (he is also part of the Five).  Matt, another Gatekeeper, explained everything to me.  The Old Ones are the evil spirits that the Five must defeat to save humanity.  Their main goal is to destroy humanity and make humans suffer in the process.  Somehow, I was living in an alter ego that was still me.  It’s hard to explain, but the Five of us existed 10,000 years ago and still exist-just with different names.  One day after arriving in the past, we set out to defeat the Old Ones in an epic battle.  Aside from me and the other four Gatekeepers, a small army made up of local citizens joined the fight as well.  The Old Ones were hideous to say the least.  There were many absurd species combinations that fought against us, including man-scorpions.  There were also giant creatures such as a monkey that fought against us.  It seemed stupid to fight the massive army of the Old Ones after their king offered surrender, but we didn’t want to go down as a species without a fight.  If I were still in the 21^st Century, I would have stayed away from such violence.  Saplin, though, was a warrior in his time.  Part of him became part of me, and before I knew it I was killing Old Ones with skill and precision.  I almost died, like many of our fighters did, but the Five thankfully stayed together.  With our combined power, we were able to kill the King of the Old Ones.  It was an unbelievable feeling, having almost too much power running through us. I still can’t put into words how amazing it felt when we touched our swords and stabbed the King.  Afterwards, the sky changed from its eternal gray state to blue, and Earth was at peace again.  After saying goodbye to the Gatekeepers, I woke near Daniel McGuire and Joe Feather.  After such a heroic and bloody experience, I learned what my role is in life.  I am a Gatekeeper, and I must defeat the Old Ones again.  For now, I’ll focus on finding Scott.

-J.T.