Guardian: Protectors of Light (15 page)

Bella sighed. “Oh
boy.

By the way, Thom; the kid
asked you a question! Care to answer?”

Thomas looked up from the
map, and looked aside, at Bella. “Huh? What?” he said. “Oh, right.
Well... I don’t know. There’s just a... certain feeling that’s
pulling me toward there somehow.”

James looked at him.
“Oh?” he said. “Well... we’re almost there,” he said, pointing at
the small hologram floating above the map. “Look.”
“Oh... So that’s it?” Bella said. “It looks awfully
close.”

“
It is,
Bella,” Samira said. “I can see the mountains from here. We should
be there within a few minutes.”

She was right. After
barely a quarter of an hour, the team stopped in front of a row of
caves. Ogre caves.

“
It sure is
dark back there,” Samira said. “I’m not going in there, just so you
know.” Samira was afraid of the dark; the others knew she
was.

“
Don’t worry,
Sam,” Thomas said. “You won’t have to go inside.”

He walked towards one of
the cave’s outer walls. He laid his hand against it, as if it was
made of some strange material.

“
I...” he
mumbled.

“
What’s the
matter, Thomas?” James asked, as he approached Thomas.

“
I... can
feel something inside this cave,” Thomas replied. “It’s calling for
me. I should go in there on my own to go get it.”

“
Thomas,
you’re not going in there on your own,” James said. “Someone has to
go in there with you.”

“
No, James,
you’ve got to stay here. This is something I’ve got to do on my
own.” Thomas replied strictly.

“
Thomas,
James is right,” Antonio said. “You can’t go in there all alone. If
any of the ogres catch you, you’re dead.”

“
All right
then,” Thomas said. “Antonio, you’re going with me. But stay right
behind me.”

James stared at him; the
indignant look on his face caused the British nineteen-year-old
chuckle. “James, this isn’t anything you should take personally,”
he said. “But you’re just... a kid.”

“
I might be just a kid, I
am
taller than
Antonio!” James protested. Antonio laughed.

“
Yeah, but I
can lift you up with one hand while you’ve got trouble with picking
up a milk carton,” he laughed. James wasn’t amused.

“
Fine, go
ahead,” he grunted.

Antonio and Thomas spent
a short while outside of the cave laughing, but eventually
entered

With great care, the two
boys set foot in the darkness of the cave.

“Thomas? Do you see anything?” Antonio asked with a careful
whisper. The only lights that shone were the blades of their
weapons; they could hear deep breathing all around them, and the
smell was unbearable.

“
I think
they’re asleep. Watch your step!” Thomas whispered back.

“
Roger that,”
Antonio said. “What are we actually looking for?”

“
You see, that’s why I didn’t want anyone to come along at
first,” Thomas whispered, as he agilely avoided stepping on
something that seemed to be an ogre’s arm. “I don’t
know
what it looks like. I just have this strange connection
with it, whatever it is...”

“
You mean as
in some sort of energy source?” Antonio said; he’d accidentally set
foot on an ogre’s chest, but quickly jumped over it; luckily, the
ogre just snorted loudly, but didn’t react in any other
way.

“
Where are
all these questions coming from?” Thomas whispered looking at
Antonio. “You usually seem to prefer short and brief, yet useful
conversations...”

“
Sorry for
showing genuine interest in you for once,” Antonio replied,
slightly indignant. He saw Thomas nodding in the dark.
“Sorry, that was rude.”
“It’s all right. I don’t really show too much interest toward you
guys, so I guess that’s my own problem,” Antonio said. “I should
work on that. Seen anything yet?”

Just at the moment he’d
said that, Thomas disappeared behind a corner of the cave, from
where a mysterious light seemed to shine.

“
I- I think
so,” Thomas said, when Antonio joined him. On a stone altar, at the
middle of the room, lied a sceptre. It was made of gold, with a
green gem hold by a sort of claw. It had a dark green, glittering
pattern of tiny little gemstones all over the gold.

“
Is- is that
what we came for?” Antonio asked.

“
Yes... I
think it is,” Thomas replied. “Let’s take it out of here and then
find out whatever it is. It... looks like some kind of
sceptre.”

“
Well, if it
looks like one, I guess that it must be one as well,” Antonio
replied, and leaned carelessly against the stone wall.

Suddenly, his elbow hit a
rock, which shove backwards and a trapdoor in the wall opened and
the floor moved down, causing Antonio to fall.

“
ANTONIO!”
Thomas yelled, and was able to grab Antonio’s hand just in
time.

“
Shit!”
Antonio spewed; Thomas was too busy pulling him out of the trap pit
to make a comment.

Antonio, together with
Thomas’ help, managed to pull himself back up. But... their yelling
had awakened some of the ogres.

They were standing in the
only exit; they didn’t seem to be too happy with the two intruders.
“What brings you two here, boys?” one of the ogres spoke, in a low
voice, with a strange British accent.

“
Um... We
came to pick up something I believe belongs to me,” Thomas replied.
Antonio looked at him as if he’d gone mad, but Thomas decided to
ignore it, and show the ogres the sceptre.

“
I see,” the
ogre said as he inspected the sceptre. “The Sceptre of the Soul
belonged to a Guardian that died in our very cage. He said we had
to hang on to it until another Guardian would come get it. That
must be you.”

“
Yes,” Thomas
confirmed. “I am the Guardian of Soul, and this is my friend, the
Guardian of Day and Night. Our friends are waiting outside for
us.”

It was strange; he didn’t
feel any kind of fear for the three gigantic, grey creatures in
front of him, who could probably crush his head between two of
their fingers. They spoke to him in a friendly fashion, and he
responded that way. There was no need for him to be
afraid.

Antonio was still staring
at him as if he was nuts, though.

“
Well, my
young Guardian, then I assume you’d like to return to your
friends,” the middle ogre said. “Be our guest.”

As he spoke, the other
two ogres moved aside, allowing Thomas and Antonio to pass. “Go
save our world,” the middle ogre said. “Our fate lies in your
hands.”

Thomas thanked the three
ogres and left the cave together with Antonio. “Now, that wasn’t so
hard, now was it?” he said.

“
You
think
?” Antonio
burst. “I don’t even know what in the world that ogre was
saying!”

“
Wait – you
didn’t
?” Thomas said,
sounding genuinely confused. He’d heard everything the ogre had
said in perfect English – so why hadn’t Antonio? But he was pulled
from his thoughts by his friends approaching.

“
Look! There
they are!” Samira shouted. “What took you so long,
guys?”

“
Had some
trouble getting through,” Antonio replied with a deep sigh, while
leaning on the rock wall of the cave with his right hand. When he
realised what he was doing, he quickly pulled his hand
back.

“
What do you
mean, “had some trouble getting through?” “ Samira asked, but James
shook his head.

“
Never mind,”
he said. “Thomas is, apparently, fluent in Latin.”

“
I’m not!”
Thomas argued with him. “The ogre spoke in English, and I replied
in the same language. Unless...” He looked at the strangely shaped
sceptre in his hand.
“I- I don’t know,” Thomas replied, while looking at the
strange-shaped sceptre in his hand; suddenly, the orb started to
glow bright green. The emerald around his neck was glowing as well,
lifting him off the ground in the same way Bella had been
lifted.

“
Thomas
,” Akilah’s
amplified voice said. “
You
trusted your intuition inside that cave, engaging in conversation
with a seemingly hostile creature
;
you trusted it not
to attack you. In the meantime, you have retrieved your Guardian’s
Totem: Intuition
.” The
sceptre floated in mid-air and rotated to its side, so the
word
Intuition
that had been engraved into the
sceptre became visible. “
This
is the Sceptre of Soul, which allows you to speak and understand
any language you are addressed in. However, everything will sound
like English to you.

As long as
you possess the Sceptre, you will be able to feel dark energy in
one’s soul, which should help you pick your allies.

Good luck,
Guardian.”

The light extinguished as
soon as Thomas grabbed the sceptre and his feet touched the ground.
He lifted the sceptre up and held it into the light.

“
Wow,” Thomas
whispered. “Amazing.”

“
Great job,
Thomas!” James cheered. “But I think it’s about time we followed
Gabriel’s advice and went to visit the Queen.”

“
We can’t
keep Her Majesty waiting, of course,” Samira said. “Maybe she’ll
want to marry you, James.”

The others chuckled; even James couldn’t help it. It was
good to hear that jokes still weren’t out of the question. “But
really, guys,” James said. “We should keep moving. There’s a lot
waiting ahead of us. And I just want to get this thing over
with.”
Get this thing
over with
, the words echoed
in his head. That was exactly what he wanted to do. Get it over
with; let it all be done quickly. But why, he didn’t
know.

But what if it hadn’t
been true? That dream he had earlier? What if it was just something
of his own fears, something his sub-conscious made up from his
mind? What if he couldn’t contact home at all?

He’d try again in the
morning. Just to make sure. Perhaps he could only contact his
family, or could only contact people in general whenever they were
asleep.

Yet, still, there was
some kind of strange fear that kept creeping up on him. Like some
kind of homesickness. He just wanted to talk to someone from home;
in any way possible. It didn’t matter how, where or
when.

He just wanted to,
because he felt like he needed to. And if anything happened, he’d
make sure to tell his sister. Because if James could contact home
every now and then, he could keep his mother posted on their
adventures – well, more or less -, and let her know they were still
okay.

*

It was to say that the
sun rose earlier than expected. It was probably also due to the
fact that the sunlight mostly went unnoticed back in the Twilight
Forest, but the teenagers kept going through most of the day
because they didn’t feel the need to sleep at all.

After all, they were
finally making some process. They were on their way to visit the
Fairy Queen, who could tell them all about the Silver Valley, and,
of course, teach one of them to heal.

Besides that, getting
enough sleep wasn’t their main priority at the moment, as the Fairy
Queen could probably offer them a safe place to sleep anyway. All
that mattered was that they would get to the Fairy Gardens safely
and then took it from there.

They travelled pretty much all through the day, which they
knew would take its toll at
some
point, but none
of the five teenagers truly seemed to care. They spent most of the
time having fun in the sun, rolling down the hills and playing tag.
It might’ve seemed childish, but daytime in the Silver Valley
pretty much equalled complete safety.

The sun started to set as
The Five travelled across the Gloomy Valley. Fairies came out of
their hideaways, lighting up the area with the bright colours in
which their wings glowed.

“
I wonder why
they didn’t show up during the daytime?” Samira thought out loud,
while she was walking between James and Thomas.

“
I think
they’re saving their energy at day to keep the Valley a safe
sanctuary at night as well,” James replied. “I think.”

“
Seems like a
solid theory,” Thomas commented. “But from whom would they have to
keep it safe? I mean: I haven’t seen any signs of Shadow
Creature-danger here yet all day.”

“
Shouldn’t we
ask around?” Antonio suggested. “To be honest: I am pretty curious
about the great danger that lurks here this time. I mean, apart
from those cute, girly fireflies, I don’t really see anything we
should be totally worried and concerned about.”

James kicked away a
stone; it bounced off against a tree and disappeared out of sight
as it fell down in the ankle-high grass. Aside from having fun,
they’d been walking all day, and he was yearning for some fresh
water; they’d been nowhere near the river for the past couple days,
and the water sacs were almost empty. The others were thirsty as
well, but since their provisions were so limited, they decided that
it would be best to wait until they would find a pond.