Guardian: Protectors of Light

by Melanie Houtman

  *

  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.

  There had to be something like a small lake or stream nearby.

  “I don’t think it’s really necessary, Antonio,” James said. “I think it’s more for their own purpose. You know, for their own safety. I wouldn’t be eager to be under control of that creepy sorcerer that roams these lands as soon as the shadow falls over my land and he gets free game to do whatever he wants... It has probably nothing to do with us.” He finished his statement with a shrug, without moving his hands out of his pockets.

  “Are you sure about that, James? I mean, they’re pretty much stalking us, lighting up any area we are in.” Antonio looked at James, uncertainty reflecting in his eyes.

  “Curiosity?” James replied. He pulled an uncomprehending pout with his lips and shrugged again at the Guardian of Day and Night. “Tonio, to be honest, I have absolutely no idea. Anyway, whatever it is they’re trying to do, they’re doing their job very well and that’s all that matters.”

  “James, you’re probably right,” Antonio replied, rubbing his chin. “But still...”

  He walked off, towards a group of fairies. “Hey, little girls! Can you tell me what’s going on?”

  The fairies made exited, chattering sounds and smiled widely at Antonio. They surrounded him and started to fly at a fast pace in circles around him.

  “Hey- little ones- what are you doing?” Antonio mumbled a little worried. “Guys? A little help, please?”

  “I think they like you, Tonio!” Bella replied with a smirk. Even Thomas and Samira couldn’t refrain from chuckling. 

  “Ah, shoot!” Antonio shouted. “Just tell me what you want already!”

  One of the pixies flew up to Antonio’s eye-height, and started to talk. Her voice was actually lower than Antonio actually expected.

  “Please don’t go into the forest,” the pixie exclaimed. Her long, silver hair danced around her as she floated. She’s beautiful, Antonio thought.

  “Um, why not? We need to visit your Queen and ask her for advice; according to the information we’ve been given, she lived inside the forest! So I’m afraid we’ll have to go into the forest.”   

  “You are The Five Guardians, the Bond of Light, the Last Generation, the Last Hope,” the pixie continued.

  “Yes, we were already aware of that,” Antonio said. “Can we move on? Like, go into the forest to finish our quest?”

  The fairy shook her head. “No, you cannot enter the forest. It’s too dangerous,” she said with a rather strict tone in her voice. 

  “Why is it too dangerous?” Antonio simply continued to ask questions.

  “If your ignorant mouth would just let me finish without breaking in all the time, I could tell you,” the pixie sighed. “Please tell your friends to get over here, then I can explain. It’s important for them to hear, too.”

  “Oh, sorry,” Antonio said. “You’re right.” He turned around and gestured at his friends that they had to come closer. “She’s got some important news to tell us, guys!

  “I’m hoping for finally some good news for a change, because I think we’ve been getting enough bad news lately,” Bella commented, while they walked towards Antonio.

  Bella was right. They had been through a lot since they’d entered Lunaria. Trickery, dangerous wolves... They’d even been ambushed in the middle of a dark forest. Twice. 

  But of course, they could’ve known that the pixie had nothing but bad news to bring them.

  And a warning.

  “Please, sit down, Guardians,” the pixie with the silver hair said and gestured at the ground.

  The grass was soft and fluffy, so none of the teens protested as they sat down.

  “Oh, miss, I love the flower crown you’ve got there,” the pixie commented at Samira’s flower crown.

  “Oh, please, call me Samira,” Samira said smiling. “And thank you.” Bella, James and Samira had spent the day making flower crowns, despite of the endless teasing from Antonio and Thomas that repeatedly had come their way.

  “Of course,” the pixie replied. “Why, how rude of me; I haven’t even properly introduced myself.” The pixie took a short bow in apology before telling the teens her name.

  “I am Violina, Sister of the Queen,” she said. “I protect the Valley together with the other pixies.

  I practically lead them. We are protecting this Valley like this for over a thousand years. It’s gone wrong only once; the pixies’ flowers were closed too long by some kind of spell, causing the Valley to remain dark. The Guardians of that Generation were then ambushed, and, sadly, separated. The Warlock Spirits took one of the Guardians with them, and the other Four were lost without him.”

  The pixie paused, waiting for reactions; she was lucky to get some out of the teenagers.

  Samira raised her voice and asked, “Violina, this might sound like an odd question, but which Guardian exactly did the Warlock Spirits capture during that ambush?”

  “They took the Guardian of Imagination away back then,” Violina answered. 

  “And there was a reason to that?” Samira asked again, with a concerned look at James.

  “The Guardian they usually take is one of the Leading Guardians, because without them, the other Four cannot reach the Castle of the Spirits,” Violina replied. “So they’d try to take whoever leads your group. But they could seize anyone of you, since they are trying to do anything to tear the Bond of Light apart.”

  “How do you know our names?” Bella asked, fascinated by the fact that the pixie knew who they were. Violina looked at her and smiled. “Because it’s been foretold, my dear Bella,” she said. “This had been planned thousands of years ago
, when the Master conquered our world.

  “As you might know, the Spirits of Light used six Sources to make this world. The great amount of darkness and evil that roams these lands was never a plan of theirs. It was someone else’s.

  And as Guardians of the Five Sources of Light, the Sixth being the Master’s Darkness, of course, it is your job to restore the balance between the Five Sources and the Sixth. Asura, the man you know as the Master, or the Demon, was the only one of the Spirits that had been tasked to create darkness. But he was different from the other Spirits. The Spirits had made an agreement with each other to keep the balance between each of their powers fair. But Asura, as young and hungry for power as he was, wanted more. He grew hungry for power. He almost succeeded to grow more powerful than the Spirits themselves. But before he succeeded to do so, they overpowered him and punished him. But instead of destroying him, they took away his memory and... well, most of his powers. Not the smartest thing to do. He was still left hungry for power.

  When he was casting spells one night, he retrieved his memory. Ever since he retrieved them, he tried to become the way he was. But he never succeeded to become more than half-human half-spirit. But it was enough to lock the Spirits away and scatter the Light Sources to pieces.

  That led the Spirits to gather these pieces and send them to Earth. You are, more or less, the personifications of the Light Sources.”

  “Thank you for the in-depth background information,” Antonio said. “But why can’t we go visit the Queen? We need to visit her to gain more information about the Fantasy Valley.”

  “Antonio! Haven’t you been listening to what I just said?” Violina replied, sounding incredibly irritated. “In case you haven’t been paying attention, I said: ’They’d try to take whoever leads your group, but they could seize anyone of you, since they are trying to do anything to tear the Bond of Light apart.’ Got that, sir?”

  Antonio nodded. “But I just still don’t understand why-” he said, but Violina cut off his sentence.

  “Before you spout any more ignorant stupidities,” she said, “The answer to your question is just that simple. That forest back there is crawling with Warlock Spirits and Nightmare Fairies. Creatures that want to find you. Capture you. Bring you to the Master. Bring you to your imminent death. Or worse.”

  She gestured towards the Fairy Forest that was located somewhere in the dark behind them. “And trust me; with just the four or maybe even three of you, you’re lost.”

  “But we really need to see the Queen,” Samira complained. “We’ll have to take the risk.”

  “We can’t let you put your life in danger,” Violina decided, crossing her arms. 

  “We’re already doing so just by being here, so who cares,” James said. “Just let us go into the forest, Violina. We’ll be fine.” He was lying on his back in the grass, staring at the skies.

  “Are you sure, James?” James could by the way Violina spoke that she was truly worried about their safety.

  “Well, yes, since if it weren’t for the Keepers, we would’ve been dead already, or worse,” James with a crooked smile. “So... Actually? I definitely think we should go.” 

  Samira smiled at him. He could do things to people no one could, since he was like a Magician if it came to words and conversations. As little kid, he always had been good in talking himself out of trouble.

  He never simply blamed someone else, like his sister always blamed them for everything that went wrong, but he simply explained the situations.

  Both his mother and father had always found it adorable. So that caused him to assume it was a good thing to do. 

  And it didn’t seem to work on just his parents.

  Whenever he got in trouble at school (which wasn’t often, but still, sometimes he would “borrow” something from the supplies closet from their Chemistry class, and that sometimes seemed to seriously bother the old man who was their chemistry teacher (and who could blame him, right?). But he always got away with it by talking some smooth talk and convincing the teacher it had been for a good cause.

  He was rated “Teacher’s Pet,” but then in a good way. All teachers loved James for his ingenious ideas and plans. He was always busying around on planning school activities, but still managed to get great grades.

  Like, the perfect student. Well, almost perfect, save the “borrowing stuff from school and teachers without asking” part.

  School... Home... Every time anyone brought up anything home-related, it was painful to realise how much they missed home.

  James felt his eyelids getting heavy, and Violina’s words faded out. He could hear that she was talking, but couldn’t hear what she exactly said. It didn’t take long before his eyelids closed and he drifted off asleep.

  “So, if that’s your decision then- 

  James? Are you even listening? James!”

  “Jimmy goody-two-shoes seems to have fallen asleep,” Antonio said chuckling. “Guess he found your story something really boring, Lina!” He grinned broadly, but Violina’s eyes said murder. “They at least could’ve chosen someone more polite...” she sighed. “But if the boy is really asleep, he must’ve been really tired. Let him rest.”

  Thomas simply shook his head and smiled when he looked at the redhead lying in the grass next to him. The kid looked peaceful when he slept. Like a little, redheaded angel. Thomas hoped that James would finally be able to sleep the night through.

  Thomas hadn’t finished his thought, or James screamed and shot upright. He jumped to his feet and pulled out his sword.

  There the sixteen-year-old was standing on his feet, breathing heavily, ready to fight.

  “I felt something,” he simply said. “I sensed something. Something’s approaching.”

  “James, I bet it was just a dream,” Thomas said, in an attempt to calm James down. 

  “No, it was real. I’m for one hundred percent sure,” James replied. “Get packed and get going, guys. We should be getting out of here to a more lit-up place. We have to find a place to make a fire. And that is anywhere close to the forest.”

  “James, entering the forest at night isn’t a good idea. While you were asleep, Violina explained that the pixies can’t protect the Forest- it’s crawling with monsters.”

  “We’ve fought them before, so we know how to defeat them,” James simply replied; he’d already begun to walk. “You coming or what?”

  “I think we have no choice, or he takes off on his own,” Samira commented toward Violina’s concerned looks. “It’s either this or that.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Violina said and flew towards Samira. “I’m going to be your ‘torch’ and guide tonight.”

  “Are you going to help us get to the Queen before the night ends?” James asked.

  “That, my young Guardian, I cannot guarantee. But I will guarantee that you will get there safely, that you won’t do anything stupid while you’re on your way,” Violina replied.

  “Shall we go, then?” Bella said. “The night has only just begun. I’d guess the sun has set about an hour ago-”

  “Bella, please spare us your boring lectures! Don’t you see absolutely nobody in this world gives a heck about time? It’s useless here!” Antonio mumbled.

  “Well, as a person living in the modern world, I am used to living with time!” Bella replied.

  “Bella, it’s just “day” or “night” here! We have no concern of the time! I mean- it’s not like we’ve got a strict appointment with that Asura Nightmare Guy at 2 o’clock! So just zip it!” Antonio shouted.

  “Zip it yourself!” Bella made a comeback.

  “Are you going to continue like this all night or what? If there’s one thing that attracts Shadow Creatures aside from darkness, it’s noise! And after that capturing and kidnapping story of Violina, I’m really not feeling like meeting any! So please don’t argue so loud!” Samira shouted. “Please! Shut up!”

  Both the teenagers looked a little startle
d; their eyes shifted from each other to Samira, who was looking over her shoulder, giving them an angry glare.

  “Samira-”

  “What Samira!?”

  “Samira!”

  “WHAT!?”

  “IN FRONT OF YOU!” James shouted and ducked to the side to slice something that looked like some kind of Warlock that was about Samira’s arm in half.

  “Turns out I was right,” James gasped. “Violina! Please call on the pixies to surround us! They’ve found a way to get into the Valley! Everyone, stay close together!”

  “Got your orders, sir!” Violina shouted, and flew up into the air, and stopped when she was about a metre above the teenagers on their horses, who started to move closer toward each other.

  She made a high-pitched noise, which was too high for the human ear to hear, but pixies could hear it properly.

  The noises she made formed a song, sending a message to the other pixies around her. ”The Bond of Light is in Danger. Warlock ambush! Protect the Bond of Light.”

  The pixies responded nearly immediately. They seemed to come from everywhere, surrounding the teenagers in a bulb of colours and light.

  “That should scare them off,” Violina said, as she came back down.

  “Yes, thank you, Violina. James, you are a genius!” Thomas shouted. But when he turned around to high-five his friend, nobody was there.

  He checked around. Samira, Antonio and Bella were there. But James was nowhere to be seen.

  “Where is James!?” Thomas shouted.

  “We don’t know! He was here just this moment!” Bella shouted. “Then he suddenly disappeared! Out of nowhere!”

  “Oh, he’s going to play the hero again, isn’t he!?” Thomas grunted through gritted teeth. “You three! Stay here! I’m going to fetch him! Violina, come with me!”

  The pixies made an opening to let Thomas through, who ran off into the suddenly dark night. Violina followed him.

  “Violina! Wait! Should we stop or just keep moving?” Samira shouted up at the silver-haired pixie.

  “Keep moving! We’ll catch up!” Violina replied, before disappearing into the night.

  As she went after Thomas, her silver glow became even brighter. “Thomas! Where are you?”

  “Over here!” Thomas shouted. “Look: there he is! He’s nuts; fighting two of those things at once!”

  He rushed toward the battlefield, while pulling out his sword, holding it ready to charge.”What do you think you’re doing!?” he roared at James.

  “Saving the pixies!” he shouted. “As long as these creeps are here, they have nowhere to return to! These Warlocks will destroy everything they have!”

  “What’s with the sword?” Thomas asked, while slashing away against the Warlock Spirits. It didn’t help as much as it did with the Shadow Walkers, but it kept them at a distance.

  “That’s called ‘instant kill,’ Thomas! Watch!”

  He stuck the glowing sword into one of the Warlock Spirits’ stomachs; it collapsed and dissolved into smoke, like the Shadow Walkers back in the Twilight Forest had done.

  “Amazing,” Thomas said. 

  “Thomas! Watch out!” James suddenly hollered. He ducked forward, but this time off his horse, because Thomas was just too far off. He slashed his sword out toward the Warlock Spirit that tried to stab Thomas with something that shot out of the sleeve of its deep purple and blue robe. Thomas couldn’t exactly see what it was, only that it was as sharp as a razor.

  Instead, it hit James, tearing his entire upper arm open and piercing his flesh. James yelped in pain, but while he fell to the ground, he cut the Spirit’s head off.

  “James!” Thomas shouted as James rolled over the ground, away from him, and lay still as the dead in the grass.

  Still as the dead.

  “Don’t worry!” Violina shouted, who was suddenly ten times as large as she was before, about as tall as a thirteen-year-old. “He’s dropped his sword, I’ll use it to finish them off! You go and take care of your friend!”

  She didn’t have to tell him twice. Thomas ran toward the figure lying in the grass; there were more Warlocks approaching. He had to get James out of there.

  Thomas turned James from his side on his back and carefully took a look at the wound. It looked extremely painful; the weapon was still in it, even.

  “Thomas...” the redheaded sixteen-year-old moaned. “Are they gone? Did we do it?”

  “Yes. Violina’s taking care of them.”

  “My arm... What’s... that thing?” James mumbled.

  Thomas carefully lifted James’s arm up and moved it onto the boy’s chest, so he could examine it.

  “It’s too dark to see, James,” Thomas said. “All I can do, is get you to a safer place. Until then, I have nothing.”

  Violina landed on her feet next to Thomas. She was still big. “Can I help? With some light perhaps?”

  She moved over to James’s other side, throwing her light on his injured arm.

  “Oh my... that’s not a knife.”

  Thomas didn’t know what the object sticking in James’s arm was at all. It looked like... A ninja blade in the shape of a claw.

  “Black claws,” Violina said. “Those can cause deep wounds.”

  “The slash in his arm the claw made doesn’t look bad. I’m more concerned about the depth of the wounds it made where it got stuck...” Thomas said.

  He carefully pulled the claw out of James’s arm, causing him to wince.

  “Sorry,” Thomas whispered.

  “Violina, can you bring us to your Queen overnight? I think it’s important to have him healed as soon as possible.”

  The claw had made a pretty deep gash in James’s upper arm, right under his shoulder. It was bleeding like crazy. 

  “I can do something so he’ll survive the night,” Violina said. “We’ll be lucky if we arrive at the Queen four hours after midnight. 

  I’ll show you the shortcut through the woods. The pixie shield will come along, to keep you safe from other attacks.”

  “Thanks, Violina. Are you coming too?”

  “Do I look like I’m crazy?” Violina replied. “Of course I’m coming. James, please close your eyes. I’m not sure how much I can heal the wound. But the slash in your arm is small enough to disappear completely.”

  She laid her hands over the wounds in James’s arm. James winced again and closed his eyes. Silver light surrounded his arm, wrapping itself around it. In a matter of minutes, the slash closed up and healed. The gash closed, turning into a scab.

  “It will still be painful for the next two weeks, but you won’t need any more healing, I guess,” Violina replied, while examining his arm.

  “Thanks, Violina,” James said, while he stood up. “Luckily you guys noticed I was gone. I don’t know what would’ve happened if they got me with those things.

  “Luckily you noticed that thing trying to drill a hole in my chest,” Thomas said. “Just unlucky that your arm caught it.”

  James grinned. “Hey, look. I’m fine now,” he said. “But we probably should get back to the others.”

  “Of course,” Thomas said, and the brother-like duo started to walk back. They would catch up with the gang soon, with Violina, who had shrunk back into her normal size, in their wake.

  Past and Present

  “Hey! Hold on for a second and wait for us; we’re still here, you know!”

  The shield made of pixies stopped floating forward at once as soon as the pixies heard Violina’s voice. The three Guardians who were walking in their midst turned their heads to see who’d made it back. The pixies made an opening in the back of the shield by simply flying to aside, so Violina and James and Thomas could get through.

  “James! Thom! You made it!” Samira shouted happily. Antonio and Bella smiled as well, but their smiles faded away as soon as they saw James’s injured arm.

  “James? Can we have an explanation regarding what exactly happened there?” Samira asked, refe
rring to the blood-stained and ripped sleeve and the five scabs on the sixteen-year-old’s right upper arm.

  “One of those Warlock Spirits that were chasing us thought it would be fun to attack Thomas with some kind of claw-like blade thing,” James commented dryly. “I jumped forward with my sword to cut its head off and hoped to be able to block the attack with my sword at the same time, but unfortunately my arm caught the damage of the attack and my sword was only capable of slicing the creature’s head off. There was also a pretty large slash all over my arm, but that wound was small enough for Violina to heal completely.”

  “So... That claw-thing you’re talking about... That thing was stuck right into your arm?

  Didn’t that hurt an awful lot?” Antonio asked confusedly. “Doesn’t it still?”

  “Well, as I mentioned before, I forward, between Thomas and the Spirit. During my landing I rolled across the ground, which actually worsened the impact of the claw on my arm, because the rolling caused the claw’s razor sharp blades to push even deeper into my flesh. I felt a little dizzy when I lied there in the grass, and it took a while before I came back to my senses.

  So... You could say it did hurt quite a lot.”

  James smiled weakly, as if he’d just told a genius joke no one understood, but dropped the corners of his mouth as soon as he saw that he wasn’t going to make anyone else smile.

  “Don’t worry; it’s fine. It’s just a little bit stingy, that’s all,” he told his worried sister. IT seemed to relax her a little to know that her brother wasn’t gravely hurt.

  “You got lucky with that sword of yours,” Violina said as she handed the sword she’d been carrying since she defeat the Warlock Spirits back to James. It was miraculous how she could still hold the blade in her shrunken form.

  “Oh, yeah, the trick with the sword. I don’t and can’t take any credit on that one, unfortunately,” James said, while taking the sword back from Violina.

  “What do you mean?” Violina asked. “How did you pull that off?”

  “Well, to be honest, it wasn’t my idea at all, nor was it any of ours,” James replied, while he shove the sword back into its scabbard.

  “Gabriel did it. I don’t know how, but all of our weapons have a magical glow that makes it possible to defeat Shadow Creatures. It’s all thanks to him, really. Otherwise, we probably would’ve been dead by now”

  “I remember Gabriel,” one of the Pixies floating in the shield said. “He was very brave.” She had long hair that was braided down and had a lovely golden colour, that reminded James of sunflowers.

  Her hair had brown streaks through them and her eyes were big, brown and puppy-like.

  James wondered if there was any kind of connection between a pixie and her colour, or that it was randomly and genetically chosen, like human hair colours.

  “It was a true honour to help the Last Generation,” a pixie with blue hair and blue eyes said. “We really don’t know how those Warlocks got past our protection spells, though. This realm should be nearly completely protected against the Feared One’s power.”

  “Feared One?” Bella repeated. “Who’s that?”

  “That’s how pixies call the Master,” Violina answered. “He is feared by all of us, and that has practically formed the nickname. Kind of obvious, don’t you think?”

  “Violina, if I may be so bold... Now I am the one with a question for you,” Thomas said. “I was wondering how you can shift between your small and tall shape?”

  “That is because I am practically not a pixie,” the silver-haired girl said as she sat down on Thomas’s shoulder. She looked at the others. “I am a fixie.”

  “Fixie?” Bella repeated. “Like some kind of half-fairy, half-pixie?”

  “Correct,” Violina said. “I can swap between a small fairy and a big pixie. That’s actually why I am taller than the most of the pixies, but smaller than a fairy. It’s the Royal Fairy Race.”

  “Are you the only one who’s that way?” Samira said, while taking the ribbon out of her hair and redoing the sank-out braid. Strands of hair had been sticking out everywhere, and Samira didn’t like it whenever her hair was a mess.

  That was practically also the reason why she hated the heck out of high humidity, as her hair would become all frizzed up. That had happened quite a lot in her life, especially during summer. When it happened during the weekend or a vacation, like summer vacation, it didn’t really bother her, but she could be extremely embarrassed if her hair suddenly started to frizz halfway through a school day. There she sat in the classroom, with a blonde afro-like haircut.

  She quickly swapped the strings of hair between her fingers, braiding it all back together. In a matter of seconds, she was done, and bound it back together with the ribbon.

  “Certainly not, Samira,” Violina replied to Samira’s question. “There are thousands like me. Or... there were. The Master either destroyed most of the Royals or forced them to submit to his power.”

  “And your sister? She lives in the forest, right?” Bella commented. “How did she protect herself?”

  “Very few of us escaped,” Violina said. “My sister is a fixie as well. I believe there are two more of us out there, which makes four in total.”

  “Well, that’s a lot of confusing information,” Bella said. “I think I’m never going to understand everything before we di- I mean, before we reach the Land of Void.”

  “If I may add more information to the list, Bella,” James said. “Warlock Spirits-”

  “Please don’t, James. I think I’ve had enough for tonight,” Bella cut James off mid-sentence.

  “Um, okay, but if we get attacked again and you don’t know something important, it’s not my problem,” James replied.

  “Fair enough. My answer is still no.”

  “Okay, whatever you say, Jingle Bells.”

  James shrugged and started to walk slightly faster. He didn’t know why, but he had to.

  During the rest of their journey toward the Fairy Forest there wasn’t much time to talk; there was tension in the air. Strange tension

  The pixies that framed the shield around the Guardians remained loyal and didn’t move from their side for a second, so they wouldn’t have to worry about any further attacks while the night lasted.

  The shield the pixies formed around them reached from their ankles to just about halfway their chests, so the five teens could all clearly see where they were going.

  Violina floated about twenty centimetres above the edge of the shield, giving directions to either James or Thomas, depending who she was the nearest by at that moment or who would hear her first.

  She knew the Valley like the back of her hand; she knew exactly where the dangerous plants, like the flesh-eating ones grew – and it wasn’t quite a good idea to have to pass any of those in the dark.

  James knew they could trust these pixies blindly, and the level of trust they had allowed him to get wasn’t easy to let him gain in these lands. Not by any creature. It was different with people like Gabriel and Rikki, because they were clearly human. And they were two of the many Guardian’s Keepers. How many were there again? Ten? Four Main Keepers, and a bunch of hidden ones – the ones that usually didn’t count. Violina was one of those hidden Keepers, James then realised.

  But trust wasn’t something the red-haired sixteen-year-old could give away easily. Especially not now he could feel the presence of Shadow Walkers around them, lurking in the shadows, ready to attack whenever they’d get the chance.

  Though they hadn’t been bothered on the rest of the journey since the last ambush a few kilometres ago, James was alerted twice as alert as he was before, and he had a lot going on in his mind. He kept worrying about the same things.

  If the Warlock Spirits and Shadow Walkers could even reach them in the safest realm in Lunaria, they could find them everywhere. They would never be completely safe without having to worry about a possible enemy popping out of the blue and attacking them.

&n
bsp; Nowhere.

  If every time it would turn night the Shadow Walkers would come after them, and the Warlock Spirits, who could even appear in broad daylight, would grow twice as powerful than they were at daytime, they would be- be- screwed.

  James couldn’t think of a different word to explain their situation more politely. No. They would just be screwed, full stop.

  Like they hadn’t been doomed to die already.

  “Don’t worry, Mum. We’ll come back. I promise.”

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, James.”

  “It’s not a promise. It’s an oath. We will come back.”

  “Then I’ll trust you with that.”

  The promise he had made to his mother started to get to his mind more often lately. Was it because he felt guilty?

  James felt kind of lucky that Thomas and his friends had been too busy saying goodbye to their own friends and family to hear the conversation between him and his mother. Samira and Anna understood the way he felt of course, after all.

  Cheyenne was everything to him, and he knew he and Samira were the same to her. He always promised his Dad after his death to take care of her, even though he wasn’t there anymore to see him keep the promise.

  And he wouldn’t break a promise. Ever. And so he wouldn’t break the promise he had made to his mother, either. They would return home at all costs, just because James had promised her they would do so.

  “We’ll come back, Mum.

  I promise.”

  And for a second, it was as if he could hear his mother’s voice coming from somewhere.

  “I know you will,” her voice said.