Immortal Warriors Part 1: Immortal Warriors, #1

By Julian Rosado-Machain

A legendary city in the jungle. Immortal heroes and formidable enemies. Epic adventure awaits!

 

For more than a thousand years the city of Ridyani has stood protected by the legendary heroes Erdai, the Knight of a Hundred Eyes and Radji, the Just. It is a beacon of fairness and justice in the jungle chaos. But such prosperitty creates envy and, Barganush the Ravager has set his sights and that of his horde on conquering Ridyani for themselves.

The Ravager seems unstoppable, even for Erdai and Radji.

The only hope lies with Ini, a young monkey, who will have to decipher the clues his father left him and unlock the secret of the immortals to save Ridyani and its inhabitants.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Julian Rosado-Machain
• Release date: Jul 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223937159

Book preview

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Where real life historical figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work.

Immortal Warriors Part 1

Copyright© 2023 by Julian Rosado-Machain

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Julian Rosado-Machain 2262 Fletcher Parkway El Cajon CA, 9202 julianrosado@ minutemanpress.com

ISBN

1. Children Fantasy-Fiction. 2. Children Animal Action 3. Children Animal Adventure 4. Animal Fiction 5. Animal Fiction 6. Action & Adventure for Children 7. Action & Adventure for Fantasy for Children 8. Amazon Kids

Cover and Illustrations by Julian Rosado-Machain & Francisco Trueba

Stock art with Extended License from Adobe Stock.

Inner covers part 1

Prologue

It is now when my eyes are losing the light and the memories of old enemies begin to haunt my dreams that I prepare this testimony for the Wall of Records.

Before I join our forebears in the Ancestor’s Hall I will have you know the story of Barganush, the Ravager, and how he invaded Ridyani with his horde. I will try my best to explain the moments I lived, the things I heard, and the events, both terrible and wonderful that are still seared in my memory.

This is not just my story but the legend of Erdai, the Knight of a hundred eyes, and that of Radji the Just.

Of all the legends of the jungle, theirs is the one that defies the test of time.

It began over one thousand years ago with the fall of a human city. Once it had been abandoned the jungle reclaimed it for itself. Vines and trees grew on the once-proud buildings, and the tile floors and stone passageways were covered with moss, grass, and dirt. Fallen from grace, the city was soon lost and forgotten by humans and reclaimed by the jungle denizens.

Once lost from human memory, two animal tribes fought for dominance of the deserted ruins: the Yibiak, proud peacocks of multicolored plumage, and the Jeru, crafty brown monkeys of the treetops. The feud between the Yibiak and the Jeru raged for years, but neither tribe gained full control over the city. Many lives were lost in the conflict, but just before it escalated into outright war, a truce was been established by the emergence of two champions: Erdai the Knight of a Hundred Eyes, a strong and majestic peacock, and Radji the Just, a courageous and agile monkey.

The spirits of both tribes joined for peace.

Erdai and Radji deposed the cruel generals and exposed the greedy leaders of both tribes. They fought the envious and the corrupt and helped the generous and the unprejudiced.

Through their guidance, the war among the tribes finally ceased and the Jeru and Yibiak merged into a powerful force for good in the jungle.

Because of them, the city has become a thriving beacon of justice and peace among the jungle chaos, where all animals and walks of life can live in harmony. All are accepted, there are no predators and prey, no strong and weak, through the hero’s guidance the forgotten city has become known as Ridyani, Jewel of the East.

Erdai and Radji’s adventures are legendary, and their fame grows daily; even after one thousand years, they still walk among us.

I am grateful to the ancestors and to the destiny that allowed me one small part in their story.

It is prophesied that their greatest trial is yet to come.

CHAPTER 1

The sounds of battle echoed throughout the jungle. Hundreds of animals ran away in confusion and fear. Many of them had heard the terrible cries of an angry elephant before. Some remembered the war cry of Barganush the Ravager as he battled with an enemy and they fled in terror knowing that the Ravager would continue his rampage by destroying everything and anyone who got in his way. The kingdom of Saprori in the west of the Sajib River had fallen years before to Barganush and Ridyani had accepted all the refugees it could under its protection. Only the Sajib’s sheer cliffs and the crocodiles inhabiting its waters had kept the elephant and its horde at bay from crossing into Ridyani lands.

Among the hundreds of animals that were fleeing, two monkeys made their way toward the battle. They had both seen their share of fighting and understood the secret messages Erdai was sending with each battle screech.

This time the message was urgent and the monkeys hurried the pace: the knight of a hundred eyes was losing the battle against Barganush and would soon fall to the elephant’s murderous anger. He had engaged the elephant alone and he desperately needed Radji to help him to stop the horde from invading Ridyani.

Using the branches for support, the monkeys jumped over most of the terrain with ease. Every jump brought them closer to the battle until the sounds of the thrashing elephant became deafening. The fight had already turned a portion of the jungle into a small clearing where broken trees and squashed grass marked the elephant’s passing. Next to where Barganush and Erdai were fighting, a cliff opened directly above the Sajib River.

The monkeys stopped at the edge of the clearing trying to spot Erdai, but the cloud of debris and dust created by the elephant obscured their view. They could see Barganush’s trunk swinging violently, and in one of those swings, Erdai the peacock, in all his multicolored glory, flew through the air towards the cliff.

Barganush had struck Erdai, and the hero landed with a loud thump at the cliff’s edge and remained motionless on the ground. He was unconscious, possibly dead, and a gasp rose from the other side of the Sajib where the thousands that composed Barganush’s horde waited for the elephant to kill Erdai.

The elephant made a show and reared on his two hind legs as he trumpeted loudly, his gray skin showed the scars of battles long past and was said to have become even tougher than that of other elephants.

It was his power that pulled the hoardings to his side, his cunning which had brought empires to their knees, and his cruelty that held the horde together.

Now that he had Erdai defeated he needed to cash in the moment.

Barganush stopped his thrashing and walked toward the unmoving peacock. Erdai has fallen! he yelled at his followers, the bravest among them peeked out from the foliage on the other side of the cliff, and one or two braved to step closer to the bridge they had built and laid over the cliff for their master to pass over the Sajib and into Ridyani.

His followers were numerous but not very brave. Mostly mice and rats comprised the Ravager’s horde, and before crossing over into Ridyani lands, they would wait for their lord to finish Ridyani’s champion. Like with all other animals in the jungle, Ridyani had opened its door to the horde ancestors in the past, but they had abused the city’s peace and had become thieves and thugs.

Before Barganush came and forged them into the horde, the mice and rats that comprised it had been gangs and tribal clans, interested in stealing and exploiting the resources in an area before moving on. Enslaving those they could and expelling or killing those that resisted them.

Most of them had been expelled from Ridyani by the heroes only after many broken promises of redemption and an attempt to take over the city by force had been made.

Those that had stayed behind abode by the city code, while those that now comprised the horde had fallen deeper into anger and malevolence. They had fought each other for generations, killed each other over food and territory, and had been expelled from kingdom after kingdom until the Ravager had found them and united them under his banner. We will take the city by storm! Barganush proclaimed. We will lay waste to the Jewel of the East and feast on the spoils! There was a deafening cheer after his declamation, and the horde moved over the bridge they had laid over the cliffs. The hordling’s hate for Ridyani still burned bright and thrived on old stories told by the eldest among the rats and mice about going back to Ridyani and claiming it for themselves.

It had been said many times in Ridyani that Barganush had not created the horde but only served them as a guiding force, a focal point for their hatred.

The