Guardian: Protectors of Light (22 page)

“
Um, James, I
don’t think it’s you they’re so scared of,” Thomas mumbled stiffly.
“I think it’s them over there that are scaring the crap out of
them.”

James straightened his
legs, and turned around to see what Thomas was trying to point out.
It didn’t take him long to see what was going on, and gasped as
fear clutched his throat.

For as far James could
see, they were surrounded by a clan of Warlock Spirits and Shadow
Walkers.

And they didn’t look like
they were very happy to see the five teenagers.

The teenagers stood as
still as they could next to each other, and so did the Warlock
Spirits at the other side.

“
Um, hello,
nice to meet you,” James said suddenly. “May I ask you what you
exactly want from us?”

One of the Warlock Spirits snickered in contempt. “I can’t
believe it,” he said to one of his fellow Warlock Spirits next to
him. “Did they 
really
choose 
these
 fools to
be the saviours of their little world? And they truly believe
they’re actually going to pull it off?” His red, glowing eyes
suddenly stared right into James’s. It was almost mesmerizing,
causing James to feel a little woozy.

“
I shall tell
you exactly what we came for, boy.” The voice of the Warlock Spirit
had an unmistakable threatening undertone. “Hand yourself over to
us, and no one shall be harmed.”

Somewhere inside his head, James could hear a tiny voice
shout: 
Do what he says! Save
your friends, James!
For a moment, James felt like he should respond to the voice
calling him, and did a step forward.

Thomas reacted instantly,
and instinctively grabbed James’s forearm.

The touch of Thomas’s
hand pulling him back was enough for James’s heart to jump up and
fight the mesmerizing eyes of the Warlock Spirit, causing James to
snap out of it.

“
No, thanks,”
he mumbled confidently as soon as he’d come back to his senses. “We
can save ourselves, and we’ll free this world of your master at the
same time.”

“
Your
choice,” the Warlock Spirit growled. “Then die with your friends by
your side!”
The next moment, the Warlock Spirit lashed out at James with some
kind of sharp blade, but James managed to dodge it.

When the Warlock charged
for his second attack, James quickly pulled out his sword to block
the attack. The metal of the Warlock’s sword clattered against
James’s sword.

While he was struggling
to throw the Warlock off, James noticed that the sword the Warlock
Spirit was using was a real Glaive, just like
Antonio. 

They have a pretty interesting weapon
choice,
 the redhead
thought. 
If they only
weren’t trying to kill me with them, I’d give them some compliments
about the swords they’re using, for sure.

He finally managed to win
the struggle from the Spirit, who stumbled backwards and fell down
in the grass. James took his chance and held his sword at the
Warlock’s throat. He realised then that he hadn’t noticed that no
one had moved since the Warlock slashed out toward him until he had
defeated the Warlock.

“
Had enough?”
James bluffed, like he was the toughest guy around (he wasn’t).
“Any last words before I slice your head off?”

The Warlock Spirit looked
up at James. He had a dangerous shimmer in his eyes. “Kill him,” he
said. “And don’t stop until you succeed doing so.”

James lashed out with his
sword as quick as he could, trying to prevent the other Spirits
from hearing their leader’s command, but they’d already got the
message.

“
Attack!” one
growled, and the crowd came into movement. Approximately fifteen
Warlock Spirits against four teenagers and two pixies. They were
outnumbered, for sure.

But all they could do to
stay alive was fight back.
There were sounds of screaming, shouting and moaning voices,
clattering of metal against metal, agonizing yelping when someone
got hit. Luckily, it were mostly the Warlock Spirits that were the
screaming as they dissolved into nothing.

James ran across the
small area that had become part of the “battlefield,” searching for
Violina and Samira.

“
Sam!
Violina!” he shouted. “Samira!”

But he couldn’t find her,
neither could he find Violina, and it started to worry him. Where
could they possibly be?

But he couldn’t answer
his own question, because right at that moment, both a Shadow
Walker and a Warlock Spirit were running toward him. The Warlock
was holding a weapon, but this was some kind of different blade. It
was long and very thin; a Swallow Sword.

James thought he would
have enough time, but the Spirit and his companion came quicker
than expected; they surprised the sixteen-year-old by dissolving
into fog and reappearing behind him. As James turned around, the
Warlock got a chance to lash out with the sword and cut James’s
arm, right across the scabs, tearing them open again. James yelped,
and yanked his arm backward in a reflex. His sword sliced right
through the Warlock Spirit, causing it to dissolve and disappear
along with its companion Shadow Walker. Dumb luck, but at least he
was safe.
Suddenly, the entire forest fell silent again. The colours of the
city’s lights slowly came back to James’s eyes, and the pixies
started to come out of their hideouts, where they had taken a
flight to while the teenagers took care of the Spirits ambushing
their village.

“
A-are you
all right?” one of the Pixies mumbled. She wore a pretty dress, in
green and pink colours. Her hair was lemon green, and her eyes were
big and the irises were something like a warm caramel
colour.

“
U-hu,” James
replied. His eyes quickly flashed from the Pixie toward the cut in
his arm. It didn’t feel that bad, and from what he could see, it
didn’t look bad either. Lucky.

He heard the footsteps of
his approaching friends, and knew everything was all right. Except
for Bella, who was leaning on Antonio’s and Thomas’s shoulders to
stay up. She didn’t really look like she was awake, though.
“What happened to her?” James asked.
“A Shadow Walker bit her in the leg, then she tripped and fell
backwards. She hit her head on a stone,” Antonio said. “We’ll have
to carry her back to the Queen so she can heal her leg. I think it
might be broken.”

“
Ouch,” James
mumbled. “Typically Bella’s kind of bad luck. Well, it could’ve
been worse...” He touched his own arm with care, and hissed through
gritted teeth as his fingers touched the open wound.

“
James?” a
familiar voice shouted from a distance. “Are you all
right?”

“
Samira?”
James turned back around, toward the unknown Pixie. Samira and
Violina were approaching, and Samira held...

...A flower. No, three of
them.

James couldn’t believe
it. They had pulled it off a lot quicker than expected! The flowers
just grew in the Pixie Village. All they would’ve had to do was
ask.

“
Samira!
Violina! You’re safe! And you’ve got the flowers!” the red-haired
teenager shouted happily. “That means we can leave straight
away!”
“Well, James, you owe some gratitude toward Sadria here,” Violina
said, gesturing toward the Pixie with the lime green hair and
caramel eyes. 

“
I am Sadria,
Royal of the Sunset Village. My name means Lotus Tree,” the little
Pixie said with a slight bow. “It’s been a true honour to help you,
Bond of Light. I hope the flower will bring your salvation,
Samira.”

“
I’m sure it
will,” Samira smiled back. Apparently, Samira had explained the
whole situation to Sadria. ”Well- at least, I hope it
will.”

“
Queen Eloine
said it would, Samira, so it will. Trust me,” James said, while
laying a comforting hand – eh, finger - on her shoulder. “Sadria,
what could I possibly do to repay you for bringing us the
flower?”

“
Nothing, sir,” Sadria replied. “Being here, risking your
lives for us plus the fact that you just saved our village alone is
already enough.
After all: it’s actually even more than we could ever
repay 
you.”

James blushed slightly and smiled. “Oh, please, don’t call
me sir like I’m anything higher than you,” he said. “Call me James.
Are you sure there’s nothing we can do? Nothing
you 
want
 us to
do?”

“
No, of
course not, young Guardian James,” the pixie in front of him said.
“All you can do for me, and I think and hope I speak for everyone
of my folk,  is go and continue your quest and save Lunaria
from the tyranny that it keeps captivated.”

Sadria smiled at James,
and James smiled back. The fixie looked like a twelve-year-old
girl, but something in her eyes seemed to remind him of someone
back home.

Home. James felt an
attack of homesickness coming up in his heart again, but quickly
pushed it away. 

“
Very well,
then,” he said to Sadria. “We will try our very best to fulfil your
request.”

“
May you
remain well and safe, Guardians,” Sadria said, still smiling. “And
now, I’d like to say: Vale.”

“
Goodbye to
you too, Sadria,” Thomas said smiling, careful not to move forward
too much, because then he would have to drop Bella. “And remain
healthy. Vale.”
“Are we the only ones who don’t use random Latin words on a daily
base just to sound interesting?” Antonio whispered to Bella, but
realised that she was still unconscious and sighed deep. “So far
for the conversation then, Jingle Bells. Nice talking to
you.”

He threw a worried look
at the teenage girl. “Please wake up soon... Tell me you’re
okay.”

Antonio bent a little to
the right and gave Thomas a tap on the shoulder. “Thomas?” he
asked.

“
Yes,
Antonio?” Thomas said. 

“
I think I
can carry her on my own,” Antonio replied.  Thomas responded
with a confused look.

“
Are you
sure?” he said.

Antonio nodded. “Yeah,
she’s not that heavy, after all.”

*

The teenagers had said
goodbye to Sadria and her friends and were heading back to the
entrance of the secret passage.

“
Do you think
she’ll be all right?” Samira asked Antonio while sitting on his
shoulder, referring to the still unconscious Bella whom he was
carrying.

“
I hope so,”
Antonio replied. “Her leg looks pretty bad, and there’s a huge hole
on the back of her head. Her hair is now sticky all the way due to
the blood.”

“
Oh,” Samira
gasped. “I hope Queen Eloine can find a way to heal
her...”

“
Sure she
can. It didn’t happen by Magic right? And if she can’t, you’ll
perhaps be able to do it,” Antonio commented.

“
Antonio, how many times do I have to repeat myself? I’ve
already told you, I have no idea what the Queen meant when she said
that I could heal myself! If I don’t know how to heal myself, how
can you 
possibly
 expect
me to be able to do something for Bella? What if I hurt him, or
cause his injuries to get worse?”

“
You won’t
Samira, trust me,” Thomas commented. He was talking to Samira, but
his attention in general was directed toward James, who was walking
between Antonio and Thomas. James had clamped his left hand
convulsively to his right arm and moaned slightly.

“
James,
perhaps if you just let go of your arm, it wouldn’t hurt so much,”
Thomas mumbled toward James, but the red-haired sixteen-year-old
shook his head.

“
It won’t
stop bleeding, so I have to keep my hand against it,” he
responded.

“
James, if
you just let me see, I might be able to-”

“
Thomas, no, I told you it
won’t stop
bleeding!
It’s not bad enough for me to bleed to death, but I’d like to keep
my clothes clean.” The voice of the sixteen-year-old started to
become more irritated.

“
Then you
should see what this is doing to your gloves,” Thomas
muttered.

“
I can clean
those any time if I want to,” James said, “but my shirt is already
missing half of its sleeve due to the hole the claw made in
it-”

“
Just let me
see, James.”

“
No.”

“
James, don’t
be such a cocky little kid! I’m trying to help you, and that wound
has to be cleaned first before we do anything about it!” Thomas was
trying to keep his voice soft and gentle, but the irritation in the
tone on which he spoke was unmistakable.

“
Thomas, we
can clean it at the Queen’s Palace if you want to so badly! Right
now it’s safe from harm, underneath my hand,” James
said.

“
James, you
have washed neither that glove nor your hands in days! Don’t you
understand how bad it is for the wound to keep your hand on
it?”

It was Samira. She had
fluttered from Antonio’s shoulder to Thomas’s, and saw the awful
condition the cut had gotten in. The scabs from earlier were cut
open again, following a new cut, that went from James’s shoulder to
his elbow. The hand James pushed against the wound was stained red
at some spots due to the blood trying to find a way to stream from
underneath James’s hand.