Guardian: Protectors of Light (19 page)

Thomas looked up at the
sky and returned to the present. He wondered why he had been
drifting off into old memories so much lately.

“
It’s because
I’m worried about what will happen once we reach the Castle,”
Thomas whispered to himself.

“
In my dream,
we reached the Castle, but something terrible happened
there.”

Thomas swallowed for a
second at that thought. How was he going to tell Samira? Or James?
Or – any of his friends, really?

He’d lied to them. He
told them he didn’t remember what he’d dreamt of the first time.
So... perhaps it was too late to tell them anyway.

Was it?

“
Hey, Thom?
What are you mumbling to yourself?” he suddenly heard James’s voice
calling from a distance. He looked at the redhead, who was grinning
broadly. “Keep yourself together! We’re almost there!” He had gone
so deep into his thoughts, he’d stopped walking. He was surrounded
by a small bunch of pixies forming a shield around him, impatiently
tapping their feet on the air with their arms crossed over their
chests.

Thomas blinked, and the
nineteen-year-old’s face turned bright red. He mumbled some quick
apologies to the pixies for having to wait for him so long and ran
after his friends.

The Queen
will see you now

“
Hey, Thomas,
are you all right? It seems as if something’s bothering
you.” Thomas had to continuously brush off his friends’
concerns.

He kept trying to assure
them that he was fine, that nothing was bothering him, but his
friends knew him too well to believe that.

James would then remain
silent for about a minute or two, but then he would ask the same
question all over again.

“
Are you
sure, Thomas?” the red-haired sixteen-year-old asked, while walking
slowly next to each other. “Thomas, you know that the five of us
promised each other that if anything was bothering us we would tell
and talk about it to one another.”

Thomas couldn’t stand
seeing anyone getting concerned over him. He was just so used to
his family – save his siblings, luckily – not care about him, he
just wasn’t used to this kind of contact. And though Thomas
always tried his best to act as neutral as he could, which seemed
to fool most people, James always seemed to have this kind of
“brotherly instinct” that told him whenever Thomas was troubling
about something.

James’s words slipped
onto his mind slowly, and he remembered the promise he and his
friends had made to each other when they were younger.

Always
together, best friends forever, nerds of a feather...

...Stick
together.

“
You’re
right, James.” Thomas smiled. “I- I just need some time to figure
things out, and as you know, I prefer to do things like that in my
own way; in silence.”

James smiled back. “Phew,” he replied. “I thought you were
feeling bad about something.”
“I- James, don’t get me wrong, but
actually 
the things I
feel
bad
about
are
the things I need to figure out.”

“
Like
what?”

“
I don’t want
to trouble your mind with that. You need to stay focused on our
mission.”

“
You know I
can’t possibly do that,” James joked.

Thomas hid a grin that
seemed to shoot trough his heart right to his mouth underneath his
hand. James was right; the kid had the attention span of a rodent;
unless there was something going on where he genuinely felt
interest in.

But it also kept his mind
clear, somehow. Thomas never understood how James had been able to
stay so calm and focused all the time. Like now, when everything
that could possibly have gone wrong so far, actually had gone
wrong, James still remained pretty cool about it – at least toward
his friends.

Thomas decided that he
had to put his worries about James aside and just focus until they
would have a more clear view of the situation.

...Which perhaps wouldn’t
be until the very end. But the last thing that Thomas wanted was to
lose all grip on the entire happening that they had because he was
someplace else inside his head all the time, so he had to put his
concerns aside.

For now.
It was about midday, the sun shining high and bright in the sky,
when Violina suddenly stopped floating ahead of the
teenagers.
“Stop,” she ordered, and the teenagers obeyed – but of course they
did.

“
Violina?”
Samira asked. “Is this the place where your sister
lives?”

“
Practically,
yes,” Violina said. She “The open place in the heart of the Fairy
Forest. And trust me, despite of it being officially a part of the
Twilight Forest, the Fairy Forest is a lot bigger than you’ve seen
just yet.”

She turned back around
and swallowed, as if there was something she didn’t want the
teenagers to know.

“
Why aren’t
we going any further?” Samira asked. “She’s your sister, and we’re
the Bond of Light; I’m pretty sure that she won’t kick us out if we
enter.”

“
That’s not
the problem, Samira,” Violina replied with a tight, whispering
voice. “This is the first time in five hundred years that we’re
seeing each other again.”

“
But that
means that you’re-!” Antonio mumbled, completely
stunned.

“
I am twenty
thousand years old, Antonio, in case you were interested,” Violina
said. “You can compare one thousand fairy or pixie years with one
human year. But yet, we do still have to live through five hundred
years... I just can’t believe we’re seeing each other
again.”

“
Five hundred
years... Seesh... Seems like forever,” Antonio mumbled.

“
It actually
is, really long.” Violina sighed. “Five hundred years still remains
five centuries. No matter how fast – or slow – you age.”

“
Then you
must be really eager to meet her,” Samira said. Violina nodded
without looking at her; the way she nodded didn’t seem to be too
confident.

“
I am,” she
said, “I really am. But I’m also quite scared. Things have changed
so much...” She turned back around, facing the teenagers again, and
sighed deep. “I’m responsible for the failure of one Generation. It
was my fault that I couldn’t prevent the Warlock Spirits to cast
the spell over our flowers... I’m the one who let them in back then
because I wasn’t careful enough.

And if James hadn’t been
so smart to figure a way to get out of that ambush last night, your
Generation would have been in danger as well. The Last Hope! If I
would’ve let our last hope slip through our fingers right into the
claws of the Master...” Violina stopped talking and
shuddered.

“
But Violina,
none of this was your fault! Neither was it that other time! It’s
the fault of the Shadow Creatures and their Master!” James
exclaimed. ”No one blames you!”

“
That’s
really gentle of you to say, young Guardian,” Violina said. “But as
Keeper of the Fairy Valley, I’m supposed to protect you while you
are here. And if I fail, I am the one to blame. That’s the way it
is, I can’t change it.”

“
But we’re
the Guardians of Light, the ones you need to protect, and if we say
that you’re not the one to blame, then it is so,” James
stated.

A tiny smirk escaped onto
the fixie’s face. “You’re a smart little guy for your age, James.
And I appreciate all you’re doing for us and our world. But rules
are rules.”

“
What rules?”
James responded, flinging his arms in the air. “Were we supposed to
get a manual at the beginning that we were supposed to read? Like a
leaflet or something? Come on! No one told us there were rules to
this... this... quest!”

“
There are
very little rules for you to follow, James, that’s why no one told
you,” Violina replied on a rather neutral tone, like she wasn’t
affected by James’s outburst. “You will learn all you need to know
as your journey progresses.” Violina turned around again and
started to fly forward. “We’ve got no time to waste; you need to
speak to the Queen.”

“
But-!” James
protested, but Thomas interrupted him by giving him a tap on the
back of his head with two fingers. “Shut up, redhead,” he
whispered. “Before she changes her mind. We’re still surrounded by
Shadow Creatures, so anything could happen, remember?”

James nodded and the
teenagers followed Violina toward the open place at the heart of
the forest.

*

The heart of the forest
was breathtakingly beautiful. The grass was bright green, with
fireflies and bumblebees fluttering all around the exotic flowers
that grew all across the ground. You didn’t have to be a genius to
know that the Heart was protected by Magic barriers that even the
Master himself couldn’t break (or so said Violina).

In the middle of the open
place stood a small temple-like building of white marble in the
style the Greeks built their temples.

Around the temple grew red and white roses and other pretty
flowers, which seemed to grow all in a row around the moat that
streamed around the temple for protection. Built across the moat
was a bridge, to allow humans to get to the other side as
well.
James had to keep himself from jumping out line sticking his head
into the bright water of the moat that surrounded the
temple.
Yeah, I am
that
thirsty
, he
thought.

But his thirst had to
wait for a minute. He was going to visit a queen, and it wouldn’t
look very impressing if he entered her temple with his clothes
completely drenched because he felt the need to drink out of the
moat. First impressions counted, of course. So it’d be wiser to
make a good first impression rather than a bad one.

Violina had told them
multiple times that no creature with a dark heart could enter the
Heart, but there was simply something Thomas didn’t trust. He
couldn’t tell what it was, but there was something that didn’t feel
right. Anything could still go wrong.

Violina sank down to the
ground and in a silver flash, a big version of the little pixie was
standing where the pixie stood at first. 

Violina walked over toward the door of the temple. Even
though the temple was in
a
style
inspired by Ancient
Greeks
, there were
differences
that made it look
slightly more like a fantasy palace
.

She knocked three
times.

“
Eloine?” the
Fixie whispered. “Are you there?”

The heavy white wooden
doors cracked as they opened slowly in front of the Fixie and five
teens’ amazed eyes.

In the door’s opening
stood a rather tall figure. She was female, and about approximately
twenty centimetres taller than Violina.

Her wings had the most
beautiful golden glow, and her facial features were very similar to
her sister’s. The same nose and freckles. The same bright, warm
smile. And yet there was something about her that made her look
even more beautiful than her younger sister.

The colour of her dress
was a very pale blue which seemed white in the sunlight, with
golden accents which were sewed on the light blue
fabric.

A long, white see-trough
cape with the same golden patterns fell behind her back.

Her long, golden hair had
silver highlights all the way from the roots of her hair to the
tips, and was braided back at the front, but fell loose over her
shoulders at the back.

The four boys gasped at
her beauty, but snapped out of it when Samira cleared her throat
exaggeratedly loudly.

The woman in front of
them smiled. Her wings fluttered for a second. “Welcome, young
Guardians,” she spoke with a warm voice.

The five teenagers
nodded. “It’s a true honour to meet you,” Samira said.

“
Oh, no, dear Samira,” the Queen replied. “We, as
inhabitants and protectors of the Silver Valley, are honoured to
have the right to welcome
you
here.”

She stepped aside,
gesturing toward the hallway behind her, inside the
temple. 

“
Please, come
in. I can’t leave you waiting outside the door.”

“
We shall
wait here,” one of the pixies said to Thomas as he passed by to
enter the temple. 

“
We are not
allowed inside the Queen’s Palace without permission, and it’s our
duty to keep the Shadow Creatures away from the magical
barrier.”

But one pixie managed to
sneak away from the crowd. She had a dark red glow around her, and
her hair was deep red with black streaks. Her eyes glowed red, but
her pupils were normal. A pixie, undercover for the
Master.

No one knew she was even
there.

She snuck into the temple
right after Violina, and right before the doors closed.

*

“
So,
Guardians. Tell me: what brings you here?”

The teenagers sat down in
a room which was white and blue themed. Everything was either white
or silver or blue.