*
The heart of the forest was breathtakingly beautiful. The grass was bright green, with fireflies and bumblebees fluttering all around the exotic flowers that grew all across the ground. You didn’t have to be a genius to know that the Heart was protected by Magic barriers that even the Master himself couldn’t break (or so said Violina).
In the middle of the open place stood a small temple-like building of white marble in the style the Greeks built their temples.
Around the temple grew red and white roses and other pretty flowers, which seemed to grow all in a row around the moat that streamed around the temple for protection. Built across the moat was a bridge, to allow humans to get to the other side as well.
James had to keep himself from jumping out line sticking his head into the bright water of the moat that surrounded the temple. Yeah, I am that thirsty, he thought.
But his thirst had to wait for a minute. He was going to visit a queen, and it wouldn’t look very impressing if he entered her temple with his clothes completely drenched because he felt the need to drink out of the moat. First impressions counted, of course. So it’d be wiser to make a good first impression rather than a bad one.
Violina had told them multiple times that no creature with a dark heart could enter the Heart, but there was simply something Thomas didn’t trust. He couldn’t tell what it was, but there was something that didn’t feel right. Anything could still go wrong.
Violina sank down to the ground and in a silver flash, a big version of the little pixie was standing where the pixie stood at first.
Violina walked over toward the door of the temple. Even though the temple was in a style inspired by Ancient Greeks, there were differences that made it look slightly more like a fantasy palace.
She knocked three times.
“Eloine?” the Fixie whispered. “Are you there?”
The heavy white wooden doors cracked as they opened slowly in front of the Fixie and five teens’ amazed eyes.
In the door’s opening stood a rather tall figure. She was female, and about approximately twenty centimetres taller than Violina.
Her wings had the most beautiful golden glow, and her facial features were very similar to her sister’s. The same nose and freckles. The same bright, warm smile. And yet there was something about her that made her look even more beautiful than her younger sister.
The colour of her dress was a very pale blue which seemed white in the sunlight, with golden accents which were sewed on the light blue fabric.
A long, white see-trough cape with the same golden patterns fell behind her back.
Her long, golden hair had silver highlights all the way from the roots of her hair to the tips, and was braided back at the front, but fell loose over her shoulders at the back.
The four boys gasped at her beauty, but snapped out of it when Samira cleared her throat exaggeratedly loudly.
The woman in front of them smiled. Her wings fluttered for a second. “Welcome, young Guardians,” she spoke with a warm voice.
The five teenagers nodded. “It’s a true honour to meet you,” Samira said.
“Oh, no, dear Samira,” the Queen replied. “We, as inhabitants and protectors of the Silver Valley, are honoured to have the right to welcome you here.”
She stepped aside, gesturing toward the hallway behind her, inside the temple.
“Please, come in. I can’t leave you waiting outside the door.”
“We shall wait here,” one of the pixies said to Thomas as he passed by to enter the temple.
“We are not allowed inside the Queen’s Palace without permission, and it’s our duty to keep the Shadow Creatures away from the magical barrier.”
But one pixie managed to sneak away from the crowd. She had a dark red glow around her, and her hair was deep red with black streaks. Her eyes glowed red, but her pupils were normal. A pixie, undercover for the Master.
No one knew she was even there.
She snuck into the temple right after Violina, and right before the doors closed.
Guardian: Protectors of Light Page 17
