Guardian: Protectors of Light (33 page)

She hadn’t spoken a word
since; she just needed some time alone with her
thoughts. 

When Samira refused to
reply to Bella, the teenager took a sprint forward and grabbed her
friend’s shoulder. Samira simply shook the hand off by making a
sharp movement with her shoulders and continued
walking. 

Antonio wanted to shout
at her, but Bella prevented him from doing so. 

“
Let’s just
leave her be for a while,” she decided, with her eyes locked on
Samira.  

“
She’s
over-concerned about James and his whereabouts. Just as we are,
but- we’re just-” 

She couldn’t find the
words for it, and corrected herself. “You know what Samira’s
like.” 

Bella looked at Antonio
and Thomas. “We just need to make sure she doesn’t leave our sight
or does anything stupid.” 

Samira was too deeply
concentrating on her own thoughts to be able to pay
attention to her friends’ concerns. All her thoughts were
with James; she was busy trying to figure out
where her brother could’ve possibly disappeared
to. 

That girl... From
what Thomas had told her, as soon as James had started to
become hesitant and no longer wanted to go with her,
she... Just... 

She... Hypnotized him?
That was how Thomas had described it. At least it meant that
James wanted to make the right decision. He’d almost managed
to get away from that witch. If only... 

Samira stopped
walking and sighed. She looked up, and stared blankly
into the distance. 

It was
hopeless. 

James was gone,
and Samira had no idea where he was. The world they were
in was so immensely huge, that the chance they’d ever find him
again was impossibly small. 

It was
over. 

It was all
over. 

Suddenly, it was as
if Samira’s legs refused to even move. They buckled,
and Samira simply just moved along. She didn’t
do anything to prevent it from happening. 

The sun was coming up,
and Samira did nothing but just simply stare at
it. 

She didn’t want to
continue. James was gone. 

She didn’t want to
finish this quest
without James. She didn’t want to go
back home without James. 

She didn’t want to
live without James. 

Hopelessness
overtook her while the tears burned
behind her eyes. It could end
quickly. She could just run a few miles, to the edge of
the mountain, and throw her off the
edge. 

If that was what it’d
take for her to find James - and probably also her
father-, she’d do it. 

“
Samira! Are
you all right?” 

Samira didn’t turn
around. She didn’t want to. All she could was
sit there, on her knees, staring at the rising
sun.  

It was
hopeless. 

“
Samira!” 

Thomas ran over
to her, carefully approaching her. 

The brown-haired
teenager knelt in front of her, and looked
at her. 

“
Samira,” he said, in a calming tone, but
also sounding quite determined. ”It’s not over yet.
We’re going to find him before the Master does. I
promise.” 

He looked her in the eye, and smiled; he
carefully brushed a few loose strands of hair out of her
face. Samira had taken out her braid, and didn’t care to braid it
again. 

“
Listen,”
Thomas said, while slowly moving his face towards Samira’s. “I’m
not giving up on you, or on your brother. But there’s one thing I
know for sure; I’m never letting you go
again.”  

His face proceeded to
come closer to hers, while he carefully drew her near with two
fingers underneath her chin. His lips sought hers as his eyes
closed, eventually finding them and gently kissing
them. 

The kiss he’d been
waiting for three years. He’d finally got it. Thomas had
always known Samira liked him, but he was afraid she’d lost
interest - she’d had about two boyfriends in the past four years,
but it never worked out. As if she’d been waiting for
him.  

His eyes slowly reopened
as he gently pulled away from Samira.  

“
Thomas,” she
breathed, before throwing her arms around his neck. Thomas
hugged her back. 

“
I love you,”
she whispered to him. 

“
I love you
too,” he whispered back. 

They didn’t care that Bella and Antonio were watching;
after all, the only way the two teenagers seemed to react to the
scene that had unfolded itself in front of them was
“
finally
”, and “
It’s about time
”.

Samira and Thomas slowly
let go of each other, both smiling broadly. “Thank you for pulling
me out of the pit I was in,” Samira said. “I was kind of having a
tough time back there,”

“
You’re
welcome,” Thomas winked at her before standing up and yanking at
Samira’s arm.

“
Now get up!”
he shouted, while pulling her up.  “Get up, get up, get up!
We’ve got to hurry, if we want to find James before the next
sunset! If we find him before sunset, he’ll probably even be still
alive!” 

Samira chuckled. “You’re
right, Thomas,” she said. “We mustn’t give up hope yet. He’s
probably found a way to escape from that girl and is out there
somewhere, looking at us.” 

As she spoke, she wiped
the snow off her skirt and looked at Thomas. 

“
Do you want
your bag back?” she asked, while gesturing at the shoulder bag she
was still holding on to. 

“
Yes please,”
Thomas replied, while Samira handed over the bag. 

“
I was very
careful with it,” she said. “There’s important stuff in there, so I
didn’t want to damage it.”

“
Of course
you were careful,” Thomas said, while hanging the bag over his
shoulder. “The important stuff is the reason I didn’t want the
Warlock Spirits to have it in the first place.” As he spoke, he dug
around in the bag, trying to find the map. “I guess no one’s hungry
due to this situation we’re stuck in at the moment?” he said,
checking.

All three of his friends
shook their heads.  

“
To be
honest, I’ve got to make a confession,” Antonio
said. 

“
I’m pretty
worried about James. I’m afraid he’s got himself in some kind of
trouble again...” he mumbled. ”I mean – he’s a smart kid and
all, but he’s really gullible.”

“
We all are
worried about him, Antonio,” Bella said, while patting the
broad-shouldered nineteen-year-old on the shoulder – although she
had to stand on her toes to be able to do that. “And we all know
he’s in trouble. And that’s the reason we’re going to find
him.” 

And so they continued
walking. There wasn’t really anything left of the usual laughter or
fun conversations they used to have while travelling now James was
gone, however. 

James, being the
optimist, was usually the one to make all the jokes and cheering up
the others. He always stuck around with Samira and her
friends, despite the fact that they were all older than he
was.

He knew how to keep
everyone’s tempers down, the chins up and the hope
strong.  

Now he wasn’t there,
they’d have to do it all by their own. Until they’d find him, of
course. 

Samira felt guilty for
some reason. Perhaps it was the fact that he was the one who’d
always looked after James and had sworn to protect
him. 

And Samira felt like he’d
been failing this mission since the moment they were brought to
Lunaria, into this terrible nightmare. 

Samira felt like she had
failed to protect her brother multiple times. Her
brother.  

Her little
brother. 

She’d failed to save him
so many times, from so many things. 

She couldn’t save him
from Mordred in the Twilight Forest, not from the Fairy Flu, not
from Sabrina. 

Every time, someone else
had to jump in and clean up the mess. And that while Samira had
been the cause for one of those events to happen. 

But this time, Samira
wasn’t going to let it happen that way. No, this time, she’d be the
hero. She’d be the one to save James this time. 

Whatever it’d take, she’d
save him.

*

“
You know...
Is it just me, or is the mountain ascending
already?” 

Samira looked up, and
looked closer at the mountain ground further in the
distance.  

Bella was
right. 

The mountain was slightly
steeply descending, but not too steep to walk on. This would be in
their advantage, being able to ascend the mountain much
quicker. 

Suddenly, Samira got an
idea. It was childish, but it was an original idea, which could set
their minds off the worries a little. 

Help them relax a tad
more. 

“
So...
Guys... Have you ever watched penguins?” the eighteen-year-old
asked her companions with a grin from ear to ear on her
face. 

“
The way they
walk? What their favourite way of transporting themselves is? Do
you get where I’m going here?” 

“
Yes, I do,”
Bella said, although you could hear that she wasn’t too sure
whether she knew what Samira meant or not. “Why?” 

“
Well...”
Samira mumbled. She paused for a bit, thinking about how ridiculous
it would sound if she could actually manage to get the words over
her lips. 

It would most likely
sound like she’d lost her mind. But she wanted herself and her
friends to have fun, and it’d be the quickest and most fun way to
get the hell out of the cold weather. 

Plus, she’d always loved
playing in the snow during Christmas break from school. Especially
on Christmas morning, those mornings when it’d snowed so hard that
you could dive into the snow without even touching the
ground. 

One of those moments like
the one they were having now. 

It shortly made Samira
wonder if they’d even celebrate Christmas at home. Or if they would
celebrate Christmas at all. 

But then she couldn’t
retain herself any longer. It had to be said, it had to be
done. 

“
...Let’s be
penguins!” she shouted, spreading her arms and legs while jumping
in the air. 

Samira landed on her
stomach, turned around and slid forward. The coat wasn’t too great
to sled on, but it’d do.

“
Oh great
goods, she’s lost her mind,” Antonio said, and shook his head. He
covered his mouth with his hand, only to conceal a wide grin of
amusement. 

“
Psh, I’m
glad she has!” Thomas said; he was grinning as well. Samira had
always been that nut-job kind of girl, and he totally loved that
about her  ”There wouldn’t be no fun in doing this if you’d
consider yourself acting strange, now would there?”

 
And
before Antonio could say or do anything, Thomas lay flat on his
stomach, going after Samira. He yelled and
laughed. 

Like children playing in
the snow during Christmas break on a white winter
day. 

Bella and Antonio looked
at each other, exchanged a shrug, and followed their
lead. After all, it wouldn’t harm them if they had at least a
little fun out of the whole experience.

Even if they weren’t
supposed to.

The Secret
Village

James wandered over the
Path of Revelation. It hadn’t stopped glowing in the bright blue
shade of cyan ever since he’d set foot on it, so there was always
enough light to lead him and keep him going in the right
direction.

He didn’t know where he
was or going, nor where the path would actually lead him to; all he
was doing was what Sabrina had told him to do.  And that was
following the path.

She’d promised to meet
him at the end of it, and he had put trust in that she’d do so. All
he had to do was to follow the path and wait for whatever was about
to come.
James felt guilty about leaving his friends behind just like that;
he knew he’d left them in worry and distress.

But Sabrina had convinced him that this path contained
crucial information that would add to their journey, which meant
he 
had
 to walk it
until the end to find out.

Thomas and Samira were
probably going to yell at him for ten hours straight after they’d
reunite.

...
If
they would reunite.

Then came the moment for James to realise what Sabrina had
been trying to do. She’d separated James from his friends, making
him an easy prey to fetch.
Don’t get separated.

He’d ignored Akilah’s
most important warning, and put himself and his friends in danger
by doing so. James quickly turned around, and started to run back
over the path like a madman. It was only a matter of seconds until
he noticed a cracking sound beneath his feet. The path he’d been
walking on was made of glass.