Guardian: Protectors of Light (2 page)

It was a painful subject,
of which they rather never spoke. And so they didn’t.

Samira let go of the
thoughts about her father, and looked at her mother. “Well, I guess
I’ll go check out what he’s up to,” she said. Cheyenne
nodded.

*

“
James? Are
you in here?”

Samira opened her little
brother’s bedroom door, her head peeking around the door’s edge.
James, who she noticed was sitting on his bed, gestured at her that
she could come in.

As soon as she did,
Samira could clearly see James had stationed himself on his bed;
three books lied in front of him. He was reading the fourth one. A
smile appeared on the teenager’s face as he saw his sister walking
in.

“
Enjoying the
book?” Samira said, pointing at the book James was reading, as she
found a place to sit between the books in front of her brother. He
nodded at her.

“
I sure am,”
he said. With that being said, he enjoyed pretty much any book he’d
order or buy, but that couldn’t ruin his fun. And then again, this
one...

“
It reminds
me of the fairytale Dad used to tell us,” James said. Suddenly, a
thought struck his mind. “Why don’t we head for the library
together?” he suggested.

Samira nodded. “Sure! I’d
love to.”

James slammed the book
between his hands shut. “Then it’s a deal,” he said. “How about we
go now?”

“
Wait,” Samira said on an uncomprehending tone.
“You mean now as in –
right now
?”

James nodded. “Yeah. Why
not?”

“
But it’s
raining
!” Samira
complained. “Are you nuts? I mean – it’s no more than five minutes
walking, but with the amounts of water that are currently falling
from the sky, we’ll be
soaked
by the time we
get there! And how are we supposed to take any books back home
without letting them suffer the same fate as us?”

James chuckled at his
sister’s rant and gave her a small shrug. “You know I’ve never been
bothered by rain at all,” he chuckled.

Samira rolled her eyes and snorted. Indeed, he hadn’t ever
been bothered. James had absolutely
loved
rain since he
could walk. He’d usually spend rainy days running around outside,
coming home all wet and, occasionally, muddy.

The boy also found the
rain rather calming on different days; there were moments he could
barely even control his emotions or actions, and if it was raining
during one of those moments, he’d just simply sit down in front of
a window to calm down. Which he managed successfully.

When it came to this
certain subject, Samira was the rather opposite to her brother; she
tended to get rather moody on rainy days. Especially when she had
somewhere to go, which meant she was most likely to get there
soaked. Going outside to get willingly soaked just to go to the
library didn’t exactly make it to her “fun”-list.

But then again, it was
autumn break, and what else was there to do? Right,
nothing.

Then again, aside from
staying inside all day, or going to the cinema... Samira shrugged.
“All right then,” she said. “Let’s go.”

James’s eyes widened as a
smile grew on his face. “Really?” he said. “You’re serious about
this?”

Samira smiled at her
brother and said, “Yeah. If it makes you happy. I’d be more than
pleased to spend some time with you.”

James smiled back at his
sister. So would he; he and Samira had hardly spent time together
for the past few months. His sister had just graduated from high
school and had taken a gap year; yet she spent that year filling
out college applications and taking part-time jobs. Meanwhile,
James had started his senior year of high school, which meant he
was busy studying for the extra tests, and, of course, his final
exams in May.

Most of the time, both of
the two teenagers were simply too busy to spend time with each
other, let alone with their friends. Sure, they spoke from time to
time, but since Samira had left school together with the other
members of their main friend group, James had been left on his own.
He did have a couple of friends in his own year (Anna, a pretty and
friendly Thai girl, being certainly special to him), but all of his
closest friends were older than him. So yeah, it was about time
they took some time to put school and stress aside and spent that
time together instead.

“
All right
then!” James cheered, while getting off his bed as fast as he
could. He pulled his sister to her feet by taking her hands, and
laughed. “This is going to be a great day, I feel it,” he
smiled.

Samira smiled back at
him. “Curious,” she said, “As I’ve got the same feeling. Now, let’s
go tell Mum we’re going out, and then get going to the library,
shall we?”

James showed his sister a
mischievous grin. “Way ahead of you.”

And before Samira could
say anything in response, James had already run out of the room,
and was making his way down the stairs.

“
That counts
as a false start, James!” Samira shouted at him, before following
the sixteen-year-old downstairs.

Downstairs, they found
their mother reading a book in the living room. “Where are you two
going?” she asked, as she saw brother and sister racing down the
stairs and grabbing their coats.

“
To the
library, Mum,” James said.

“
Don’t worry;
we’ll be right back,” Samira added.

Cheyenne chuckled. “You
two? To the library?” she said. “Remembering the last time I took
you two to the library, “be right back” means “in a few
hours”.”

James showed his mother a
mischievous smile. “Who knows?” he said.

As brother and sister
went outside, they noticed that the rain had stopped falling,
leaving petrichor lingering in the air.

“
Don’t you
just love how it smells outside when the first rain has passed
after a dry spell, James?” Samira sighed.

“
I beg to
differ,” James huffed in response. “I think it leaves the air
feeling rather stuffy... I don’t really like it.” His sister
chuckled; she grinned at him.

“
Now there we
share a difference of opinion,” she said. “Anyway, we should get
going. You never know whether the rain comes back or not.” She
looked at the sky while talking, as if she was expecting rain to
fall instantly. It seemed almost inevitable that it was going to
rain again, as there was a thick pack of gray clouds hanging
overhead.

“
Sure,” James
said. “We should get going already. The earlier we get there, the
more time we can spend digging around in the books.”

The siblings then smiled
at each other and ran off to the library.

Luckily for the duo, the
library wasn’t more than three blocks away; within minutes, they’d
arrived at the majestic, old building.

A poster had been stuck to one of the front windows.
Closing soon for renovation; All old
books must go! We’re giving away books that have been in the
library for 10 years and longer. Interested? See inside!

As they entered, James’s
jaw dropped in awe. It’d been so long since he’d been there; the
building was small, yet breathtaking.

It had two levels,
similar to any other old library; this second level sure did make
up for the fact that the library was particularly small in
size.

The reddish glow of the
mahogany furniture gave the building a warm feeling; by the look in
her brother’s eyes, Samira could tell they would be there for a
while. It was as if James had reverted to his ten-year-old
self.

He knew he wasn’t allowed
to run inside a library; otherwise, he would’ve done so. He walked
and turned around for a bit, his eyes fixated on the piles and rows
of books that towered above him. He even ignored gestures and
whispers from his sister requesting him to keep it down.

James eventually answered
to her requests, as the librarian walked up to the two siblings and
greeted them.

“
Ah, James
and Samira, right?” the woman said. She was probably in her
mid-forties, and she had puffy, short brown curls. James remembered
her in an instant; she’d been a friend of his father’s. Her name
was Carolyn.

“
It’s been a
long while since I’ve seen you two,” Carolyn smiled. “Tell me; what
brings you here?”

James smiled at Carolyn.
“Just browsing,” he said. “We actually came here because we heard
you were giving away old books.” He tapped his fingers against his
chin. “Could you show me where they are?”

Carolyn clapped her hands
together. “Of course I can,” she said. “Follow me.”

James grinned at his
sister as they followed Carolyn through the library. They ended up
in the south wing; the old book section containing books which were
being given away was rather a small part of the library’s whole
collection.

“
Sweet,”
James smiled, as he saw the bookcases in front of him, filled with
books ready to be taken home.

“
I hope
you’ll enjoy your visit,” Carolyn said. “Just tell me when you’ve
found something you like.”

Carolyn was about to walk
away, but Samira stopped her by grabbing her arm. James had already
walked toward the bookshelves.

“
Actually, I
was wondering if you have any action books?” she asked. “Anything
new?”

Carolyn smiled at Samira.
“Of course,” she said, “I remember you were always a fan of
action-packed stories when you were little.” She noticed she was
about to daze off into a memory of long ago, so she just decided to
say, “Follow me.”

While Samira was
following Carolyn, James was already digging about between the old
books. He scanned the bookcases, taking several books off the
shelves as he went.

He scanned each book
quickly while flipping through it and reading a couple pages. Yet,
there still wasn’t anything to have caught his eye.

This kept going for a
while, until he stumbled onto a book, which had been stuffed away
way to the back of one of the bookcases.

“
Hmm...”
James mumbled, intrigued by his new find. He reached out for it,
and brought it to one of the nearby tables he’d stalled out the
other books on as well.

The book certainly
looked
old; the
binding was made of leather, and on the front cover, in golden,
curly letters, a title had been written. Nothing else.

“
Guardians of
Light
,” James read the book’s
title. On both the front and back, the book had been decorated with
curly patterns. Despite its age, the book looked as if it was in
good shape.

James couldn’t hold his
curiosity, and decided to read the first page; the book started
with a picture of a magical landscape, with white trees and flowers
growing everywhere. It looked beautiful.

“
Once upon a time, a long time ago, were six Spirits. These
Spirits were called the Spirits of Light; the Almighty Spirit, the
Spirit of Innocence, the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Joy, The
Spirit of Night and Day and the Spirit of Darkness. These six
Spirits combined their powers to create a magical world and balance
every element in it
,” James
read. Suddenly, he remembered the story his father had told him so
many times.

This was that story!
Someone must’ve taken the original fairytale, and used the original
story to expand it. Or something like that; James didn’t really
care. He’d found it!

Overflowing with joy, he
ran through the library. He didn’t run too fast, though; he didn’t
want to get kicked out before being able to show his sister his
miraculous find.

Guardians of
Light

Not much later, the two
teenagers were making their way across the streets back home. Of
course, James had decided to take the book. What did he have to
lose? The library was giving it away, anyway. If it didn’t match
his childhood memories, he could easily stuff it inside his
bookcase to maybe read it someday.

As they were walking down
the street, Samira and James discussed a few details about the
book.

“
I’ve read
the first few pages,” James said, “and the prologue to the story is
pretty much the same as the story Dad used to tell us. But there
are lot more pages after the prologue, so I’m guessing someone
wrote a whole lot more!”

“
Well, I’m
curious to find out the rest of the story,” Samira said, while
examining the book. “The title’s different as well.”

James nodded. He wanted
to add something, but he hadn’t even opened his mouth before
getting interrupted by a familiar voice.

“
James! You
book worm! What are you two dorks up to?”

As soon as he heard his
name, James turned around and grinned. Samira joined him, smiling
as well.

“
Hey, Bells!
Thom!” The two teenagers approached the siblings quickly, waving
and smiling at them.