Guardian: Protectors of Light (40 page)

But the six teenagers had
barely entered The Edge, or disaster was already upon
them.

“
Guys, do...
do you feel the ground shake?” Samira asked, as they walked across
a small road, surrounded by lava streams at both sides.

“
So I’m not
nuts?” Antonio asked. “It’s almost as if-”

Instead of finishing his
sentence, the seventeen-year-old let out a loud yell. The others
quickly turned around to see what had happened, and they found
Antonio kneeling on the ground, holding on to his leg.

“
It’s only a
first-degree burn,” Antonio grunted. “But- something – just grabbed
my leg! What the heck was that thing?” he said, as he stood
up.

His question was soon to
be answered by one of the lava pits. The lava seemed to rise up
from it, but...

“
Fire
sprites!” James exclaimed. The others clearly didn’t know what the
tiny, fairy-slash-terrifying lava monster-like creatures were,
because they gave him a look of complete
incomprehension.

“
I read some
information on them while flipping through the book last night,”
James breathed. “We’ve got to run.”

And so they did. It was
risky to run though, as was mentioned before, since the ground was
unstable and started to crumble apart all around them as they moved
on.

Aside from that, the Fire
Sprites spewed fire and bulbs of lava at them wherever they’d go,
following the six teens from their precious lava pits.

They jumped from platform
to platform as they dodged the falling lava.

“
This is
getting too dangerous!” Samira shouted. “We need to get rid of
these creatures!”

“
Water!”
James exclaimed. “Water! Make yourself wet! Absolutely drenched!
These things hate water, and everything covered in it!”

He hastily got their
water sacs, threw them at the others, and then threw his own over
his head and clothes, drenching them quickly.

It worked. The Fire
Sprites hissed angrily at the now drenched teenagers, and then
disappeared underneath the lava’s surface.

“
How did you
know that?” Thomas gasped, as they stood still for a few
moments.

James shrugged. “I like
to read a lot,” he said. And he was glad he did.

*

Drenching wet, the five
teenagers and Timothy continued their journey through the burning
heat of The Edge.

There had been more
downsides to the Fire Sprite attack they’d experienced earlier than
upsides. The water kept them cool for a short while, but it warmed
up and evaporated quickly. As soon as most of the water had
evaporated from their clothes, it left behind a gross, sweaty
feeling.

Also, their water sacs
were now half empty, and they’d need their water the most in the
place they were now.

Dehydration was around
the corner, sooner or later.

But for now, all they
could do was move along and hope they’d have just enough water to
make it through.

Despite the fact that the
overhead pack of clouds was thick enough to block most of the
sunlight from coming through, it also prevented most of the
lava-generated heat to escape, causing the heat to burn on their
skin, making travelling nearly unbearable.

But of course they had no
choice: the only way to travel and get to the Land of Void was by
going through the burning heat of The Edge.

“
Are we there
yet?” Samira said while panting loudly. Next to her, Antonio held
his water sac all the way upside-down above his wide-opened mouth,
hoping to get a few last drops out of the sac.

“
We’re almost
out of water,” he said on a disappointed tone, while shaking his
empty water sack. “We better be nearly there, or we’re
dead.”

“
Those Fire
Sprites probably attacked us on purpose,” James said. “They wanted
to get rid of our pretty much quite precious water
storage.”

“
Or they just
hadn’t anticipated that you’d read that book Timothy gave you and
knew they hate water,” Thomas replied.

James nodded and
shrugged. “Possible.”

He looked at Thomas,
whose face had gained a reddish colour underneath the dark green
hood. Drops of sweat streamed down the nineteen-year-old’s
forehead.

“
Why don’t
you take off your hood?” James said. “Just a minute; you’ll be
cooler without it.”

He chuckled. “Pun
intended.”

Thomas shook his head. “I
now know what Timothy was talking about,” he said. “I’ve
experienced this a couple times before after collecting the
Sceptre, but never as bad as around here. Those monsters’ minds are
dark places. I certainly wouldn’t like to find out
more.”

James gave him a small
nod. Understood.

After all, he had no idea
what Thomas was going through. If he could read the mind of every
creature he passed... But wasn’t there a way to block and trigger
that ability? If there was one, it meant that things would be a lot
easier for Thomas.

Timothy hadn’t told them
about it, though. So maybe he didn’t know either. But perhaps he’d
written it down in A Guardian’s Guide and wanted James and Thomas
to figure it out for themselves.

Maybe.

James swallowed in an
attempt to bring some water into his dry throat and mouth. Without
much effect.

The upcoming days would
be though; out of water, stranded in a burning lava pit. Dark Magic
surrounded them, endangering them even more.

James was used to hot
weather, since he’d usually spend his summer days in the backyard
inventing things, no matter how hot it’d get. But this hear topped
any heat wave he’d ever experienced at home. This was an extreme
heat wave.

How hot was it, actually?
30°C? 40? Perhaps even hotter? It wasn’t likely, since humans
aren’t exactly able to survive any temperature above 40 to 42
degrees Celsius.

He didn’t know how hot it
was, after all, nor did it really matter. It was just very hot,
that was all.

James could hear Antonio
complain loudly behind him. Something about the weather and the
temperature.

“
So many
clouds in the sky and it still won’t rain,” he complained. “When is
it finally going to rain here for once?”

“
Another
problem caused by the Master,” Timothy said, indicating there was
an explanation coming. “He’s trying to ruin the other realms by
keeping the rain from falling there. You know, fields, plants...
Luckily, it’ll be winter in just a little more than a
month-”

Antonio grunted loudly while responding to Timothy’s story.
“Well,” he said, “it would’ve been nice if the Master would’ve
chosen
eternal
rain instead of no rain ever.” He
pulled at the collar of his cape. “This lava pit could sure use
some cooling down.

“
Chances are
small though,” Bella replied. She shrugged. “You know. Regarding
the current circumstances... It just doesn’t seem like it’s going
to rain.”

“
Well, it is
possible, though,” Timothy said, while wiping sweat and drenched
strands of blond hair from his forehead. He had also gone red from
the heat. “Since the Master likes to put the Guardians to the test,
it rains more often here than in any of the other Non-Corrupted
Realms. I guess he likes to see how they react.”

James still didn’t know
what to think exactly of this mysterious enemy they were battling,
the Master. Asura.

They’d never seen him
before, of course. After all, so far the movie hadn’t been too
accurate to the things they’d gone through thus far.

Sure, they’d got the main
point, “five people fighting for the sake of a magical world they
have never even heard of while facing their worst fears,” but
plenty of things had been way different. And of course they were.
After all, that movie had been based on a fairytale.

Back in the real world,
nobody had any idea at all that this fairytale and its magical
world and characters truly existed. James wondered whether the
whole tale had even been based on the actual people they’d
met.

It was for James also
kind of hard to believe too at first, though.

For a moment, he wanted
to be like the others, he wanted to believe that everything he saw
was just a bad dream, a stupid trick of his own
sub-consciousness.

But as soon as James saw
his family and he had to say goodbye to them, he knew it wasn’t a
dream.

This was all very
real.

Sometimes, James got the
feeling that the others, save Thomas, still weren’t quite convinced
of the reality they’d ended up in. Perhaps they still believed
everything was just a dream. A horrible nightmare.

Perhaps they still
believed that they were asleep, safely in their warm beds, to be
awakened any time soon at the break of dawn.

But, of course, the
chance that James had it completely wrong still existed. And he
hoped he was.

He hoped that the others
would’ve realised that this wasn’t any kind of silly game. This was
the real deal, and if they weren’t careful, someone was going to
get hurt.

It were especially
Timothy’s stories which convinced James even more of the danger
there was in this world, and the imminent threat the Master formed.
If he could follow them wherever they went and read their minds,
where in this world would they truly be safe from him?

And also, why hadn’t he
come looking for them yet? Was he waiting somewhere, waiting for
the right moment to strike? What was taking him so long?

Was this all just a test?
Was he putting the Bond of Light to the test once more, to see if
they could survive everything the others couldn’t?

James knew for sure that
whoever – or whatever - this man-spirit-hybrid creature was, he was
cruel. Very cruel.

Letting a bunch of
teenagers put their lives in danger time and time again, just for
his own entertainment, and then just killing the remaining ones
himself in the end. If they didn’t meet their end somewhere else,
that is.

James finally started to
understand why everyone was so scared of this man.

He didn’t care who you
were or what you did: if you were to stand in his way, he’d kill
you without a sense of remorse.

No More
Peace

It was starting to get to
the point where going through got tough. The Bond of Light had
officially run out of water, and it wasn’t doing any of them any
good.

But they still had a long
way to go, and some of them were afraid they wouldn’t make it
without water.

They were lucky they
didn’t get attacked any longer. Because, as could easily guess, the
six teenagers were in no condition to take on a fight – nor any
serious injuries.

This added to the
criticality of the current moment; if any creature decided to get
in the Bond’s way and attack, they’d be done for.

And that was especially
in Samira’s case. She’d been gasping for air while letting out some
dry coughs for the past thirty minutes, until she staggered one
last time before finally collapsing to the hard, hot rock
ground.

The others turned around
in an instant, reacting to the muffled thud they’d heard which was
Samira falling.

“
Samira!”
Thomas yelled, as he ran over to help her.

“
Samira, are
you all right?”

The Brit knelt beside
her, carefully turning her to her back, while the others approached
the two as well.

“
Y-yeah,”
Samira uttered weakly. “I – just feel a bit dizzy. It’s probably
the lack of water, I think – and the heat. Nothing too
serious.”

“
Nothing
serious?” James said on a rather worried tone. “Samira, you do know
dehydration can be a death cause, right?”

Samira nodded. “I do,
but-”

“
All right,
then,” Thomas said, and lifted the blonde-haired eighteen-year-old
from the ground. “Come on. You’re not going to waste any more
energy. I’ll carry you.”

“
Thomas,”
Samira objected, “this really isn’t necessary-!”

“
It is,
Samira,” James decided, siding with Thomas. “End of discussion. I
don’t want to hear a single word from you about this.”

Behind them, James could
hear some romantic sighs.

And a whisper: “He still
doesn’t know those two kissed?”

And the response: “
Kissed
? That was a
complete make-out session, if you’d ask me!”

James didn’t quite know
what that exactly meant, but he was assuming something had happened
between Thomas and his sister.

And he didn’t even
mind.

Timothy appeared next to
him, nodding fondly.

“
I see you’re
all very fond of each other,” he said. “I admire that. I don’t
believe I have ever seen bonds between Guardians as strong as yours
are before.”