Guardian: Protectors of Light (28 page)

“
So now our
objective is getting up there,” Thomas said.
“Safely.” 

“
Well, then,
what are we waiting for? Come on, guys! We have an entire mountain
ahead of us, so prepare for this to take a couple of days!” James
shouted, and ran toward the huge mass of rocks.

“
Looks like
he’s back to action,” Antonio said and the others grinned in
amusement.
*

“
Ugh- Never thought- it was going to
be 
this
 hard...”

“
Antonio,
quit complaining! You ain’t seen nothing yet,” James shouted at
Antonio, who was climbing underneath him, on Thomas’s
advice.

If James passed out, and
Thomas failed to grab him, he wanted to make sure Antonio would
succeed into doing so.

“
James, you
know that “ain’t” isn’t-” Bella said, but James interrupted
her.

“
Bella, do you 
really
 believe
this is the right moment for a grammar and vocabulary lesson?” he
snapped at her.

“
No, you’re
right. Sorry, it’s just my brain which works that way... I didn’t
mean to upset you,” Bella replied.

James sighed, while
pulling himself up another few centimetres. “I’m sorry, it came out
angrier than I meant,” he said. “But this is really not the right
moment to correct people’s grammar.”

Then, out of nowhere,
while they were climbing, something really funny came to the
redhead teenager’s mind. 

Something that might have
suited the situation they were in at that very moment, but also
could’ve offended everyone in his company, since he was the one who
kept telling everyone not to joke around about the entire situation
they were stuck in.

That was the main reason why he hesitated and waited until
they had climbed a few metres at first, but James couldn’t refrain
from making the joke that just 
had
 to be
made.

“
You know... Now we’re talking about Bella and her pet
peeves... Why don’t we just let Bella make an impossible math test
for the Master? I’m pr
etty
sure he’ll just
run away crying after five minutes,” he said.

Luckily for James,
everyone laughed, as he had hoped, and - more or less, though he
wasn’t completely sure what their reaction would be -
expected. 

James sighed in relief.
“What a relief to hear that they’re still able to have a laugh at a
terrible joke,” he said.
Thomas smiled, although James couldn’t see. “Your terrible jokes?
Of course we can still laugh at those,” he said. “Some of them are
so disappointingly sad, that they are actually funny. Like this
one.”

James snorted. A typical
Thomas-comment, just the way he liked them.

They climbed further in
silence for a while, which seemed to suit them quite well, and
helped them to hurry up quite a bit.

But, of course, as
always, there had to be a part where someone would make that one,
stupid comment or would get that one stupid idea that would totally
screw everything up.

“
The air’s
getting thinner and colder by the minute,” Antonio said. “Thomas,
do you think we’re nearly there? I can’t see through Jiminy
Cricket’s butt.”

“
Yes, I think
we are nearly there,” Thomas said, while trying to look up. It was
getting foggier, and his arms and legs were getting a little tired
of the climbing.

“
Wait-” James said, receiving a sudden revelation. “You’ve
been staring
at my
butt
the whole time?” he
shouted at Antonio.

“
Well, not that I 
wanted
 or 
chose
 to look at
your butt, but yes! Since that’s the only thing that’s above me,
I’ve been looking at your butt when I wasn’t looking where I was
putting my hands and feet on!” Antonio shouted back.
Antonio’s comment caused Samira to laugh so hard, that she didn’t
watch where she put her feet, which unfortunately enough turned out
to be a weak spot in the mountain wall. The rock caved in beneath
her feet, just before she could place her right hand on a safe
part.

“
HELP!”
Samira yelped, clamping on to the rock with her left hand.”I- I’m
afraid I can’t hold this for too long!”

“
SAMIRA!”
Bella shouted. 

James looked up, and saw
that they were nearly at a flat platform where they could rest on,
and ordered the others to climb on the flat edge.

“
I’ll fetch
Samira! You guys go ahead!” he shouted, while climbing in the
opposite direction of the other three boys.

“
Are you
crazy? What if the rest of the mountain over there is just as
instable as that particular spot and you two both fall?” Thomas
said.

“
We won’t,
Thomas, trust me,” James replied and continued climbing down.
“I hope you know what you’re doing, kid...” Antonio
replied.

“
By the way,
Antonio... were you serious about the butt-thing?” Bella whispered
after James had passed them.

“
Nah, I was
just kidding,” Antonio replied with a grin. “I just wanted to see
his reaction.”

James kept climbing down
until he was hanging right beside Samira, on her right side. It was
going to be tricky, but it had to be possible.

“
Samira, put
your arms around my neck,” he said. “I’m going to bring you to
safety.”

Samira stared at him for
a second. “Are you sure?” she asked.

“
Yeah, I can
do this,” James replied. “I can do it.” He had to repeat it to
himself to be completely sure.

“
All right,”
Samira mumbled. “Well, then... here I go, I guess.”

She slowly moved her
right arm over to James, and clamped herself around his neck. Then,
she quickly added her left arm.

“
Hold on
tight,” James said, and Samira nodded.

It was harder for James
to get up with about 69 extra kilos – his sister was somewhat heavy
for her height, and she was very insecure regarding her weight,
despite the fact that she was absolutely gorgeous – hanging around
his neck, but eventually, he managed to climb up.

It went slowly, because
other parts of the mountain threatened to break apart when James
placed his feet and hands on them, forcing him to climb aside, but
it were only fifteen metres or so which he had to climb up to get
him and Samira back to their friends.

James pulled himself up
on the flat platform, and Thomas and Antonio ran in to help him
immediately. They dragged him onto the platform until he had his
full upper body laying on it, and James himself pulled his legs
up.

Samira let go of James’s
neck, rolling over the platform. She sighed in relief, and smiled
broadly at James.

“
Well, we
made it up,” she said, and James smiled back at her.

“
Yes, yes we
did, luckily,” he replied.

“
So... What’s
up next, guys?” James said, while he got up from the ground. “The
climb up here took us quite a while. It took less time than
expected, but still... I’d guess that it’s somewhere near
sunset.”

Thomas looked up at the
sky and nodded. “You could say so,” he said. “The sky’s turning
pink.”

“
How about
taking a quick nap?” Samira suggested. “This climbing adventure has
exhausted me a little. I mean – the climbing wasn’t easy, and then
the near death-experience... No, thank you, I wouldn’t like to
repeat any of that.”

James rubbed his neck.
“The walk up to the top of the mountain is now left... It takes
perhaps about a two-hour walk to get to the top... Plus the snow...
Possible blizzards... Three hours.”

Bella made a step
forward, but didn’t notice a piece of rock sticking out, and
fell.

“
Ouch!” she
moaned. When she pulled her trousers out of her boots to check on
her leg, she noticed that the rock had scraped a new, fresh wound
at the place her bone had been broken.

“
I’d suggest
we find a cave and just go with that nap while we still can,” Bella
sighed. ”I don’t really feel like walking around here at
night.”

James looked at Bella’s
leg and swallowed. “Good point,” he said. “We’ll go look for a
place to set up our camp.”

“
Speaking of
possible blizzards, is it just me, or is the wind getting stronger
as we speak?” Samira said.

“
I’d suggest
we put our snow coats on while we search for a
sanctuary. 
James, you had kept them in your leather bag, right?”

“
Well, since
Thomas took my bag, he’s got them, and not me,” James
replied.

Thomas nodded and dug in
the leather shoulder bag hanging over his shoulder. He pulled out
Violina’s last gift, and handed it over to the others, who
thankfully put on the coats and stuffed their capes into the
bag.

The snow began to fall
faster and the wind got stronger as the teens travelled up the
mountain. But they didn’t have to walk through the beginning
snowstorm for too long.

After the teens had
walked for a while, they walked past a cave hidden in the mountain
wall, out of the wind’s path and safe for the night. The five teens
decided to enter the cave and sleep inside of it for the
night.

Antonio helped Bella to
sit down, and examined the status of her leg.

“
Samira, do
you think you can heal it?” Bella asked the teenage girl. While
Samira’s eyes were adjusting themselves to the darkness of the
cave, she scanned her friend’s leg and nodded after a while.
“I- I think so,” she said. “I’ll have to.”
Samira knelt down next to Bella’s wounded leg, while the others
watched and waited. Samira hummed a quick song, while holding both
her hands over the wound on Bella’s leg. At first, it seemed like
nothing happened, but after a couple more seconds, the wound
started to heal itself.

“
Amazing,”
Bella gasped in awe as she looked at the now perfectly fine, save a
small scar, leg.

Samira shrugged. “I guess
it’s what I’m here for,” she said. “Helping others, like I used to
do back home.”
James tried to hide a broad yawn underneath his hand, but Samira
already noticed it.
“James, if you’re really that tired, I’d just say that we all go to
bed tonight. No shifts.”

“
What?”
Antonio said. “But-”

“
It’s most likely that they’re busy looking for us in the
Forest for the rest of the night,” Samira replied, while she lay
down on the rock floor. “Plus, I wouldn’t want to go out in this
weather.” A cold shiver went across her spine. It
really 
was
 cold.

“
I don’t have
enough energy left to make a fire out of nowhere,” James mumbled.
“I’d at least need some burnable objects...”

He lay down next to
Samira, and Thomas joined him shortly. “e should you took off as
blankets,” he said, while showing his own, dark green cape. “It
might help.”

Not just James and
Samira, but Bella and even Antonio followed his advice, and went to
sleep. 

This was certainly going
to be one of their most uncomfortable nights ever since they had
arrived in Lunaria.
“James?”

“
Mmh?”

James turned around, and
saw that Samira was staring at him. Perhaps she had been doing that
all night.

“
What if we
don’t make it back?”

“
What do you
mean, Samira?”

“
What if- if
one of us dies? Or if we get separated? What if we never go home?”
Samira asked again. There was a certain level of worry in her voice
which James had never been able to see or hear at daylight. Guess
she cleverly kept it covered.

Samira was one of those
girls who would keep themselves together, pretend to be strong
throughout the day, but break down in fear and worry at night.
That’s what made her a sensitive girl.

James smiled at her.
“Samira. Of course we make it back. I’ll do anything to make sure
to get you all home.”

“
What about
yourself?”

“
You guys –
Thomas, you, Bella, Tony... You guys are on my first place.
Together with my family. I come as a second matter.”

“
Promise me
you’ll look after yourself.”

“
I promise
I’ll look after myself.”

“
Pinkie
promise it.”

Samira stuck out her
pinkie at James. That’s how he used to make promises to Samira and
Anna if they wanted to prevent him from breaking it.
He hooked his own pinkie in hers.

“
I pinkie
promise that I’ll look after myself,” James said.

“
I pinkie
promise that I’ll make sure you keep your word,” Samira
replied.

“
Do you think
you’ll be able to sleep now, Samira?” James asked.
Samira smiled. “I think I can now,” she said.

*

The morning seemed to
arrive way too early. Waking up went slowly, due to various back-
and headaches from the cold and uncomfortable rock
floor.