Guardian: Protectors of Light (27 page)

“
No, Elly!
I’m a threat to the entire Forest!”

“
No one
blames you for that incident.”

“
Well, you might not, but 
I
 do! I
feel bad for being responsible for the end of
almost 
two
 Generations
of the Bond of Light!”

“
Violina,
please! None of this is your fault!”
Thomas was so surprised to hear Antonio’s voice, that he nearly
smacked his head against the door. Antonio gently pushed him aside,
gesturing at him that he had to be silent, and walked into the
room.

“
Violina,
please, listen to me. You are the best person I’ve met here so
far.”
He gently grabbed one of the fixie’s hands as he guided her toward
two chairs and made her sit down. 

“
From what
you’ve told us, you have tried what you could; and here we are. You
have saved us. Multiple times. It’s time for you to believe in
yourself.”

Violina looked from
Antonio to her sister, who was nodding in agreement.

“
He’s right,
Violina,” she said. “Please come back. Take your crown and title
back. Please. I need you.
I want my little sister back...”

“
Why don’t
you ask Thomas what he thinks about it?” Violina said; she bent
over to look through the doorway, showing the nineteen-year-old a
smug face.

Thomas was startled. He
just stood there, but no one seemed to mind. “I- I- sorry,” he
mumbled. “I should leave. This is rude.”

He walked away quickly,
blood rushing to his head in the process.

“
I think I
startled him,” Violina whispered and chuckled, but that didn’t last
long.. She stared at her feet. “I...”

She sighed.

“
Do you
accept my offer, Violina?” Queen Eloine made an elegant gesture
with her hands, and a crown similar to hers appeared in her hands.
She held it out to Violina, who looked at it.

Volina stood up and
touched the gem in the middle of the crown, stroking a finger
across it’s smooth surface.

“
All right,”
she said, and took the crown.

As soon as it was back on
Violina’s head, the place where it belonged, Violina’s dress got
surrounded by light. It changed to a beautiful white and silver
dress a princess would be jealous of. It looked a little bit like a
Cinderella dress, but then with long, thin sleeves that were
skin-tight, elegantly following the figure of her tiny
arms.

Queen Eloine smiled.
“Welcome back, Princess Violina, Princess of the Pixie Valley,” she
said and spread out her arms. Violina hugged her sister.

“
Thank you,
Eloine,” she whispered.

The
Climb

The position of the sun
told the teenagers that it was late in the evening when the
teenagers had decided it was time to leave.

But, of course, James and
Samira had to retrieve their own clothes first; Thomas had been so
kind to get them for them.

He was wandering around
the temple on just his socks, on his way to find his friends’
clothes.
“Are you looking for something, Thomas?”

Thomas made a little jump
when he was startled by the sudden sound of Violina’s voice behind
him, as if she had appeared out of thin air.

One of the advantages of
having wings; the ability to sneak up on someone without making a
single noise... Although the twinkling sound the wings made could
come across as a tad distracting.

“
Um, yes,”
Thomas mumbled, as he turned around toward the fixie. “Clothes. Our
clothes.”

“
Why, of
course,” Violina answered. 

“
I’ve been up
all night to fix the rips and gaps in your brother’s tunic.
Samira’s wasn’t quite in a perfect state either, so I fixed some
loose stitches.” Then, she was reminded of something. “Oh. And I
also removed some small dents from your armoury. But I’m sure you
won’t mind.”

She gestured with her
hand that the teenager had to follow her. “Come on, follow me. I’ll
show you where I’ve stocked them.”

Thomas followed her to a
room that looked like an old-fashioned tailor’s workshop; an
unusual choice. It was nothing like anything you’d expect a fairy
work shop to look like.

On the workbench laid two
piles of clothes, with one pair of shoes on top of each
pile.

“
There they
are,” Violina said. “I’m not a Fashion Fairy, and I doubt that
those even exist, but I was able to find my last roll of enchanted
fabric. It strengthens the original fabric and adapts itself to the
colour and material, so you can barely notice that it’s been
patched.”

“
Thank you
very much, Violina,” Thomas said, while he walked over to the
workbench and picked up the two piles of clothes.

“
I’ll go wake
up James, get us both changed and then it’s time for us to leave, I
guess.”

“
Do you think
he’s strong enough to continue already? The walk from here to the
Mountains of Pruina is still at least five kilometres long.”
“How do you-?” Thomas asked in confusion. 

Violina shrugged. “A long
time ago, some adult Guardian explained to me how you measure
distances on Earth, and I noticed that it’s system is quite similar
to Lunaria’s metric system,” she said. “The only difference is that
we measure in so-called “metra,” and one metrum – which is the
singular version of the word - is one of your metres.”
“Interesting. So it’s still five thousand trees away. And how high
is the highest top of the Mountains of Pruina?” Thomas
asked.

“
It’d say
about four metra high,” Violina replied. 

“
Oh dear...
That’s way too high,” Thomas sighed. “And the lowest
top?”

“
Two,”
Violina said. “You might want to reconsider leaving
tonight.”

“
I’ll discuss
it with the others,” Thomas said with a light shrug. “If they say
we can leave, we leave. But if James doesn’t feel like he can, we
don’t.”

“
Your choice,
kid,” Violina said, and they both left the tailor’s
workshop.

Before they’d leave, the
Queen had invited them for a meal, but since James was eager to get
out there again, they ate rather quickly.

A proper thank you was in
order before they left, though.

Samira looked at Queen
Eloine and made a humble curtsy in front of her. “It has been a
true honour to be your guests, Your Highness,” she said.

“
And it has
been a true honour to serve you, Bond of Light,” Queen Eloine
replied and made a curtsy toward Samira as well.

“
Thank you
for saving my life, Your Highness,” James said, while taking a deep
bow.

“
Very well,
James. Violina shall escort you on your final trip through the
Forest, just to make sure that you make it out of here safely.”
Queen Eloine nodded and smiled. Violina walked forward, wearing the
same clothing as when the teenagers had met her in the
Valley.

“
Violina?
What happened to your dress?” Antonio asked with a slightly tilted
head.

“
I don’t want
to risk ripping it, since I’ve used my last roll of enchanted
fabric to fix your friends’ clothes,” Violina answered with a
shrug.

“
Well, guys,
if you’re all ready to go, I’d say we should,” James said. The
others nodded in agreement.

When they left the
temple, the Forest seemed to be nothing but one huge, black blur.
Only the protected open place was slightly lit by the light of the
full moon.

The teenagers believed it
would be fine if they’d travel with just Violina by their side,
though; she had sent the other pixies home as soon as James had
been cursed.

“
Do you think
those creepy Dark Fairies will come for us again?” Samira whispered
at Violina while they walked through the darkness of the Forest as
silently as they could.

“
I don’t
think they will. I don’t think they’re even still alive,” Violina
replied.  ”Thomas scared them off with that attack, and
servants of the Master that have failed him never live
long.”

“
Wow, that
guy starts to sound nicer by the minute,” Antonio mumbled, his
voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’m really looking forward to meeting
him, and by chance chopping his head or any other limbs off while
passing by.”

“
You’re really not taking this serious at all, are you? Do
you 
really
 think 
that
 easy about
this? Oh, please, Antonio!” Samira said, slightly annoyed. “Do
you 
really
 think
we’re just going to walk into that castle and save the entire world
without even breaking a sweat?”

“
Hold on for
a second, Sam, I never said it’d be easy!” Antonio defended
himself. “I’m just saying that if I get the chance to finish him
off, I won’t let that chance slip by!” 

Samira let out a sigh of
exasperation.

“
You two sure
like arguing, don’t you?” Violina asked.

“
Oh, Antonio
argues with everyone,” Bella grinned.

“
So... First
things first,” Thomas said, declaring that he wanted to get down to
business.
“Do we even have all the equipment to get up there? The first two
kilometres, we won’t be able to walk. We’ll have to climb
up...”

Everyone shook their head
in unison. The Queen wasn’t in possession of mountain-climbing
equipment, the snow coats they had received from Violina were the
best they had. Those would prevent them from freezing to death
after a few hours of walking upward on those mountains.

“
No, we
don’t,” James said, and suddenly, a sparkle appeared in his
ultramarine eyes. ”But I can make some.”

“
How? We
don’t have any kind of metal here,” Antonio said confused.
“My Magic can summon some tools,” James replied, causing the others
to shaking their heads.

“
Spare your
energy, James,” Samira said. “It’s going to be a long way to get to
the end.”

“
It doesn’t use up too much energy,” James tried to reassure
the others. “I’ll just snap my fingers, and –
poof
! –
there is our equipment.”

“
But James,
that’s not the point,” Bella said, trying to get through to James.
“It doesn’t matter to us what you’re convinced you’re capable of,
James. We just want you to get the chance to strengthen and
revalidate from the effects of the Fairy Flu.”

James sighed. “I don’t want you guys to treat me like a
little kid. What’s next? Is Thomas going
to 
carry
 me up
those mountains?”

Thomas responded with a silent shrug, which most likely
could’ve meant 
apparently, yes.

James sighed and shook
his head. What was he expecting? Why was he so mad? His friends
were just trying to protect him, and he was brushing their help off
like it meant nothing to him. 

And by the extremely
exasperated way he spoke to them, he even sounded like their
protection and worry felt like an insult to him.

He never took his
friends’ love for granted, but he was still upset for no particular
reason, so James decided to fake a smile and sighed. “All right,
then. No equipment.”

He swallowed and stopped
for a second to think about what he had just agreed to. Not only
did they risk the chance to fall all the way down if one of the
rocks broke apart, but they didn’t have any kind of belay devices
or ropes to break their fall either, so if one of them fell, they
would be doomed, because there would be no way possible that one
would survive a fall from that height.

It was a really big,
dangerous risk they were taking. A leap of faith...

“
Don’t worry,
James,” Samira whispered from behind in his ear. “I won’t let you
fall.”

“
I know,”
James replied, and joined the others, who were already packing in
and heading for the mountains.
*

“
So... this
is it,” Antonio said, when they arrived at the mountain after a
while. “We’re leaving the safest realms behind us, and will
continue to the part that is completely under the Master’s
control.”

“
As
frightening as it sounds, we’ll have to move on,” Samira replied.
“Or else we’ll never get back home. I don’t feel excited for being
trapped in here forever or dying here.”

James and Thomas looked
at each other and nodded in unison. 

“
I think you
guys are going to be just fine,” Violina said. “But... I’m going to
have to leave you here.”

“
Violina, thank you
so
much for helping
us out,” Antonio said, smiling at her. “It really means a
lot.”

“
Thank me
later,” Violina smiled. “When you’re back home safely.”

She then transformed into
her pixie form, and floated away while waving at the teenagers.
They watched her float all the way back, until she was nothing but
a small light on the horizon.