The Guardians of the Forest: Book One

by Kelly Napoli

CHAPTER 8

  TEMPER

  Kiethara was walking to the center of the forest, having been called their by Aaron. She was humming as she always did when she strolled leisurely through the trees. It was the same tune she hummed the previous days, yet she still didn’t know where it came from. It annoyed her to no end, but she continued the rhythm as she walked.

  In no time at all she reached the center of the forest. The surface of the lake shimmered beautifully in the full sun, smiling up at the perfect sky. She plopped herself down into the grass and waited patiently.

  Not long after she had sat down he came and she rose back to her feet. He was in his usual calm mood.

  “Hello, Kiethara,” he greeted her.

  “Hello, Aaron,” she replied promptly.

  “I believe it’s not hard to guess our agenda for today. Though I must warn you that this lesson will be a little impromptu, for I had not expected you to accomplish this as quickly as you have. Invisibility is quite useful, but it isn’t full proof. Not to mention, it will take much patience, power, and practice to perfect,” he explained.

  “Then how was I able to do it yesterday?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “If it’s supposed to be so difficult?”

  “I think it was the shock of how powerful the emotion you felt was what triggered your power to act.”

  “So what does that mean? I have to experience some overwhelming emotion to use my magic? That every time I want to use my shield my hands have to be shaking and every time I have to become invisible my cheeks have to be scarlet?” she cried, exasperated.

  “Of course not,” he said coolly, unruffled by her response. “When you first use a new skill you need a powerful emotion to use it, but the more you become practiced at it, the less of the emotion you need. You have to train your body and powers how to do something with as much guidance as possible at first, that guidance being your emotion, but as time goes on, you know it so well that you don’t need as much emotion to tell your powers what to do. Does your shield give you any more trouble?”

  “Not exactly…” she admitted. “But I still need a memory to hold it.”

  “Soon you will be able to use it without the memory at all.”

  Kiethara mumbled, unconvinced.

  “Don’t give up on your abilities, Kiethara,” Aaron said sternly. Then he sighed. “You are such a close semblance to your mother.”

  “My mother?” she blinked.

  “You look exactly like her, your facial expressions, your hair. Almost everything, except for your eyes…”

  “My eyes?” Kiethara asked.

  “Forget it,” he said too quickly. “Your mother had blue eyes to.”

  Right then and there a curious thought struck her, a thought that had never really crossed her mind before this point. What was the most unnerving was the fact that she hadn’t thought of it before. How could she not? Was she really that naïve?

  “Who was my father?” she demanded.

  A father. How come she had never imagined a father, never questioned who he was? All her life, Kiethara had only considered two people in her life as family, Aaron and her mother, both of whom were dead.

  “You don’t have a father,” he said almost rudely.

  “I’m not a fool!” she said indignantly. “Of course I do, I have to!”

  “How do you know? Do you, a guardian, think the normal rules apply to you?”

  “So what your saying is I’m a…a freak of nature?” she asked, raising her voice.

  “Control your temper, Kiethara!” Aaron warned. Only until after she unclenched her fists did he continue.

  “I did not say you were a freak of nature.”

  “You implied it,” Kiethara said in a restrained voice.

  “I did no such thing. Now we will cease with this absurd argument and continue with your training,” Aaron ordered in a stern and final voice. Kiethara recognized that she had been defeated.

  “As I was saying before,” he continued, stressing his voice a little. “Your strong emotion is what caused you to become invisible. If you can conjure the same emotion, you will receive the same result.”

  Kiethara sighed and closed her eyes. She conjured up the memory, cringing as she ran over the details. She embraced the embarrassment, however, and focused on becoming invisible.

  After a moment of what she thought was considerable concentration, she opened her eyes. The embarrassment was quickly replaced by disappointment when she caught sight of her feet. She looked at Aaron with questions in her eyes.

  “I didn’t expect you to get it the first time,” he told her. She snorted.

  “Glad you have so much faith in me,” she muttered sarcastically. It was Aaron’s turn to sigh.

  “Why couldn’t I do it? I got my shield down right away,” she complained.

  “You shield was very basic, for it involved a simpler emotion. This is a little more complex,” he explained.

  “If my shield was basic, why didn’t I learn it sooner?”

  “Because you had nothing to fear,” Aaron answered simply. She nodded.

  “Let’s try it again.”

  This time the memory came easier to her than it had before. She remembered whipping her hair out of her eyes and spotting Navadar. His face had sent a strange, crawling feeling through her torso. She could remember the details easily; however, she could not say the same for the emotions. It was a bit of a struggle to replicate the clenching of her stomach and the burning of the blood rushing to her face. But she willed herself to feel it…it came to her a bit more clearly…her hope raised…her crystals grew brighter…

  She looked down and saw her feet clear as ever.

  The only thing that had changed was that a white rose had bloomed between her feet. Its petals were not completely unfolded, as though it had frozen halfway through blooming. With a lazy wave of her hand she helped the rose complete its task.

  “I should have just stayed invisible,” Kiethara moaned. Aaron chuckled.

  “Again,” he ordered.

  The training went on for hours without a break. Every time she conjured the key memory with the key emotion, it would slip away and she would fail. As the day wore on, her temper and temperature rose. These two things did not suit well in a combination, so when Aaron finally dismissed her, she was literally simmering in heat and frustration.

  Kiethara stomped through the forest in her agitation. Why had she failed so miserably? She had done it once before, why could she not do it again? Never had she had such a disastrous lesson as that one. Her thoughts traveled down this murky path as she plopped into her hammock and grew herself something to eat.

  She greedily devoured the strawberries, hungry from her days work. They cooled her down, too, and relaxed her, so she was able to take a deep breath. She tried to look at her failure from a different point of view for a moment. Aaron had warned her that it was complicated and that he hadn’t expected much. Still, she wanted to have accomplished something today. Now the day felt like an entire waste.

  Well, except for the conversation about her father.

  She highly doubted what Aaron said, that she didn’t have a father. How could she not? Sure, Aaron’s words sparked his own form of doubt, which only stressed her further. His words and her suspicion started their own raging war, with neither side making any advances.

  But who had her mother fallen in love with? That was an intriguing thought. Of course, her mother would have had to have fallen in love with a sweetheart. The number of things Aaron had told her about her mother all led to the same conclusion: she was the most empathetic person there was. She would have only loved someone of equal value.

  She needed something to do, something to distract her from her tangled thoughts. Perhaps a little hard work would be the perfect remedy for that.

  She grabbed the brown bag and flew over to where she had left off in healing the forest’s great wound. To her great pleasure, the area that had been burnt was shrinking every day.

/>   She smiled at the thought as she took a seed out of the bag, which was becoming lighter and lighter. By the look of things, she didn’t think the seeds would last for the area she still had left…would Aaron be able to refill it? She dropped the seed to the ground and watched as a fully grown cedar took its place. The red bark and emerald leaves were so magnificent that Kiethara took a step back to marvel at her work.

  Her marveling was interrupted.

  A fierce, hot grip grabbed her wrist, spinning her around. It grabbed her other wrist, too, together pinning her to the tree she had just brought to life. Fear spiked through her blood, which had run cold, at the sight of the man who had her.

  He was a young man, though his face was angular, all boyish features lost long ago. His thin lips were pulled against his white teeth in a sneer; his skin was very tan, a severe contrast to her own skin. Sleek black hair was pulled back by a strong blade of grass, yet it still ran down the length of his back. His most alarming feature, though, were his eyes. One of them was a light brown and the other was a murky blue. Unlike Gandador’s eyes, which resembled empty pits, they were shallow and beady, narrowed in dislike. Kiethara shrank underneath their gaze, which stood almost two feet above her head.

  The attacker’s tall body was lean and slightly muscular, clothed in baggy, faded brown trousers, which played host to two red belts wrapped around his lean waste. Attached to both were two small daggers. She took them in with wide eyes before looking back up at his face.

  “So this is the famous guardian?” he asked with a laugh. She didn’t know how to respond to that.

  “He was right, you do look something like your mother,” he mused. “Shame the same pretty face has to die twice.”

  “Who are you?” she finally asked, outraged by his words. Her anger unfroze her.

  “Sinsenta,” he said, dripping the name with overdone pride and arrogance. “I work for Gandador.”

  Reality crashed down on her as his words sank in. She glared at Sinsenta, furiously aware of their position. She was all too sensitive to his hot grip on her wrists, how uncomfortable the proximity of their close bodies were, how she was at his mercy. She hated it, and she wanted out. She was too bewildered to use her magic, so she brought her knee up between his legs.

  Sinsenta doubled over in pain. His hands released Kiethara and without another thought she took off into the forest without looking back. As she ran back to the cover of the healthy trees she took a great leap and soared up, climbing until she was a few feet over the tree tops.

  In the air, Kiethara was able to take a minute to clear her mind. She had known something of the sort would happen eventually, but why was Gandador acting so quickly? Did this mean he considered her a larger threat than she thought, or he was growing impatient?

  “You can’t out-fly me,” a rough voice from behind her called. Kiethara looked over her shoulder.

  Sinsenta was flying right behind her.

  The shock of the image hit her full in the face. Flying, which was second nature to her, had never been a problem. But someone else sharing the sky with her was so much that she fell right out of the sky. Kiethara made contact with the highest branch of a tall pine, continuing on to the forest floor. The branches slowed her fall, and she finally landed with a thud on her stomach, the air coming out of her lungs with a whoosh. She moaned and pushed herself of her side, sucking in great gulps of air. Sinsenta landed a few feet away with a mocking grin and laughter in his strange eyes.

  “Did you honestly think you were the only one who could fly?” he asked.

  Still dazed and desperate to get away, she jumped back into the air. She pushed herself faster, knowing she would be pursued. She didn’t take the time to check behind her, to see how fast he could go. She shook her head. Never had the thought crossed her mind that someone besides her could fly; however, she knew that he, unlike her, did not have an unlimited supply of magic. He couldn’t fly forever.

  Suddenly, the same hot, fierce grip grabbed her ankle. She yelped and swiveled in the sky, only to see his nasty sneer playing on his face. He began dragging her back, using his other hand to continue to reach up and grab hold. She gasped and kicked him in the face with her other leg. He hissed and struggled to keep his grip as she kicked at him again. They began sinking before she kicked free and blasted toward the ground. If she couldn’t out fly him, she could certainly out run him.

  Her feet touched on the soft grass for only a moment before she took off. There was no time to think. Instead, she concentrated on dodging the oncoming trees. This time, she decided to risk a glance behind her to see where the monster was. He leaned forward as he ran and his large, bare feet crunched loudly against the twigs that Kiethara avoided effortlessly. She saw that he had unsheathed his two daggers.

  Kiethara turned back around and pushed herself harder. Her muscles began to burn steadily, but Sinsenta’s long legs were gaining—she could not stop. Still, it wasn’t long before he was only feet behind her.

  She noticed that the landscape around them was changing. She was in an area of the forest she had never ventured before. She had never felt the need to venture from her common radius around the center of the forest. She had everything she needed, why wander into more trees? But there were more than just trees here; large rocks scattered the ground and a gurgling of water could be heard. She leapt over the rocks with ease, hoping they would do more to hinder Sinsenta.

  Kiethara became desperate for an escape. She took a sharp left, almost hitting a small tree. She had to stumble to avoid running smack into it and the small miscounting made her lose what slim lead she had had. So she stopped in defeat, the only sound in the forest her labored breathing and the gurgling of a stream nearby. She turned to face Sinsenta, a small plan forming in her mind…Would it work?

  “I told you running was pointless,” Sinsenta sighed.

  “You were right,” Kiethara agreed. “But that’s not the only way to get away from you.”

  She took off towards the gurgling sound of the stream. She didn’t have to look back to know he was right behind her, so she pushed her feet harder against the loose soil and tuffs of grass. The stream should be close by…yet doubt plagued her as the seconds slugged by.

  Her concentration was broken as Sinsenta suddenly leapt out at her from the right and ran the tip of his dagger down her arm. Like the trail of a snail, blood followed the tip of the dagger until it covered her arm and trickled down her fingers. She watched it for a moment with wide eyes before she began to feel it.

  Kiethara let out a bloodcurdling scream. She fell to the ground in agony, clutching her arm as even more blood pulsed out of it. Out of the corner of her eye she could just see Sinsenta wiping his knife with his fingers and gloating down at her.

  Kiethara ignored him. Instead, she reached down to her vine belt and pulled out one of the corked bottles with her left arm. Inside this bottle was sparkling silver liquid; it looked as though storm clouds had been melted to swirl angrily inside the glass vial. She carefully pulled the cork out with her teeth, the small pop causing the pain in her arm to flare atrociously. She moaned aloud.

  “What are you doing?” he asked suddenly. He sounded nervous.

  “Watch,” she growled.

  Kiethara began to drizzle the potion onto her wound. She ran it down the scarlet line, hissing as the potion made contact with her open flesh. Scarlet was now mixed with silver, and Kiethara watched the two trickle down her flesh as she emptied the bottle out.

  She held her breath as her concoction started to work its magic. Her skin slowly began to pull itself together as a sharp pain paralyzed her arm. It felt as though her arm was on fire, but there was nothing she could do about it. All she could do was close her eyes and wait the moment out. As it began to fizzle out, the pain subsided, and she was able to flex her muscles and move her arm. The potion had done its work.

  Kiethara gingerly lifted it up and down. When no pain came in response, a small smile lit her face in
relief. She took her other hand and whipped the hot, wet blood off of her extremely pale skin. The loss of blood had given it almost a sickly pallor, but as she removed the gore, she saw something else.

  Beneath it was a long, dark pink, angry scar that ran from her wrist, where her bracelet ended, and stopped just a couple of inches from the short sleeve of her dress.

  Her eyes widened as she fixed upon it. It was fierce and as obvious as it was ugly, and she hated it.

  White hot anger boiled inside of her. It bubbled to the near surface, and she grinded her teeth against it. It was so close to the edge, but some logical part of her mind kept it just under control. But only just.

  “How did you do that?” Sinsenta snapped. Kiethara looked up at him. He was wearing a slightly awed expression that took her off guard for a second. Surely his magic was more powerful than that, even if his was limited?

  Sinsenta suddenly grabbed her arm, so quick that she hadn’t been able to react. He pulled it towards him and probed it with his long, thin fingers. His hot touch was the little nudge her anger needed. It boiled up, hotter than before.

  It was released…and unrelenting.

  “Let…me…GO!” she screeched, yanking her arm from his grip. She brought her foot back and kicked him hard in the stomach.

  Sinsenta’s breath came out in a small grunt of pain, but he didn’t move back any. Furious, she aimed another kick at him, but this time he caught her foot in his grasp. His touch acted as fuel to the hot anger burning inside her, and it pumped through her veins. Kiethara twisted her ankle out of his hands as her crystals began to glow.

  Vines started to snake their way up from the ground. They twisted around his foot and started to work their way up his long limbs in a silent, slithering motion. They made their way up to his knees, growing thicker with each passing second, before he noticed.

  Only then did he realize his silent imprisonment. He gave a startled cry and started pulling at them with his hands, fear now more prominent on his face than it had been at any other time. She wrapped them thicker, all too aware he was at her mercy now.

  “It’s useless,” she told him as the vines started to twirl up his left hand. “Time to get a taste of your own medicine.”

  She really had no idea what she was going to do with him. All she really wanted was his fear, his horror, and perhaps a little bit of his pain. Something to quench the anger inside her, to drive him out of the forest. He deserved a scar of his own. Kiethara rose and took a step toward Sinsenta, who was still struggling with his bonds so much that his dagger fell from its sheath. His face flickered up at it with an angry expression—and then he smiled.

  “What—” Kiethara began to ask, but she realized what was going on before she could finish.

  Sinsenta’s free hand had reached down to pick up the dagger that had fallen free. In one fluid movement it was cutting through all the vines that had been holding him, sending them to the forest floor. Before she could even blink, a heavy weight threw her back and slammed her into the ground. Kiethara landed flat on her back, skidding to a halt. She had no time to catch her breath before he was upon her again. He pressed his knees down on her legs and grabbed her wrists, crossing them across her chest. Kiethara yelled and pushed against his hold, but to no avail. She couldn’t move an inch.

  She was trapped.

  “Taste of my own medicine? I have to admit, that sounds a little dark for you,” Sinsenta commented, looking down at her with wicked eyes. Kiethara thrashed harder against his weight, anger burning like a fire that had no way to spread.

  “It’s useless,’” he repeated with a laugh. “Well, now you’re at my mercy, aren’t you? What should I do with you first?”

  “You’re not just going to kill me? Get on with your day?” she spat.

  “I wasn’t going to kill you in the first place. I was just ordered to capture you and burn down the forest...Which reminds me,” he said suddenly. “Why was some of the forest already burned?”

  “Like I would tell you,” she hissed.

  “Like you have a choice,” he repeated calmly, tightening his grip on her.

  “Do your worst,” she challenged. It was his turn to scowl.

  “You’re as pathetic as your mother,” said Sinsenta. “You both thought you had a chance. As you can see, your mother turned out to be wrong, too.”

  “My mother was not pathetic! She could have killed you easily,” Kiethara told him, raising her voice.

  “She was weak,” he mocked. “Gandador took her with ease.”

  “SHUT UP!” Kiethara yelled. Anger overwhelmed her; she was blinded by hot, fresh tears. Her hands clenched together, shaking as they raised themselves a couple inches off her chest.

  “Never tell your enemies what they want,” he informed her. “They will do the exact opposite.”

  Her teeth clenched in response.

  “Your mother was arrogant,” Sinsenta continued. “She was blind to anything but her precious little forest. Even blind to you.”

  Kiethara, even though she knew it was useless, thrashed harder against his weight in her fury. Sinsenta leaned down towards her face until their foreheads were almost touching; his hot breath tickled her neck. He shifted his weight, holding her tighter. Every part of her body screamed in protest.

  “Am I making you uncomfortable?” he laughed. “But before I get off you, I’d like some information. Information I don’t think you’ll give me once I have you tied up.”

  “Never tell your enemies what you want,” she repeated with a snarl. He laughed, blowing more of his hot, sticky breath in her face.

  “That’s true,” he smiled. “Got some wit to you, now, don’t you? A bit smarter than your mother, I’ll tell you that. Not that that counts for much—she was a fool.”

  “My mother was not a fool!” she yelled with venom in her voice.

  “Yes she was. It was amazing she managed to protect the forest for so long. All she did was make mistakes. You were one of them.”

  “STOP!” Kiethara yelled, anger shooting through her so fast it was almost painful.

  “Well, look where you are now!” he reasoned. “At my mercy, about to die. Once you do, the forest will be gone. The forest was better off without your mother.”

  A cry of despair and frustration rang through the forest as she thrashed against him.

  “If your mother hadn’t awakened the Spirit of Aaron, none of this would be here. That’s how pathetic she was! The dead had to make up for her mistakes! And he’s another fool, too.”

  The last insult pushed her over some edge she had never seen before. Some boundary was crossed that overwhelmed her with furious rage, rage that seemed to expand inside her. Her crystals grew brighter and brighter and the fierce light brought out the details of Sinsenta’s face, throwing his blue and brown eye into perspective. They looked at her with cold amusement. The sight of his enjoyment sent her anger mounting in such a way that she couldn’t hold it anymore.

  Her hands burst into flames.

  The heat from the flames that licked harmlessly at the skin of her hands was astonishing. Her face seemed to burn as she pulled her head as far away from her hands as possible and pushed her hands as far away from her chest as her strength allowed.

  Kiethara was then deafened by a harsh, painful cry in her ears. All the other sounds of the forest were drowned out as this scream of agony ripped through the trees. The weight that had been holding her down disappeared and suddenly she was able to hold her hands away from her body, seeking relief from the heat. As she took a deep breath, the flames began to shrink.

  Kiethara pulled herself to a sitting position, searching for where he had gone.

  She hadn’t realized that the shrieks of pain and agony were still continuing. He was bent over on his knees, with his hands over his face. At first, she was confused, but as he moved his hands away, Kiethara understood. Her stomach clenched.

  The lower half of his face—his lips, his chin, and part
of his cheek—was burnt. Blood was dribbling down his chin. The top layer of skin was pink, but it was curling and peeling back to reveal an even darker layer underneath. Kiethara sat there, frozen and disgusted, as Sinsenta let loose another howl of torture. Blood continued to trail down his chin and, as Sinsenta looked up at her with half crazed eyes, she understood what he was trying to tell her. Her stomach dropped as she swallowed back bile. Sinsenta was very clear: I hate you.

  The message was as clear as a dagger in the skin was. She looked at him with a mixture of emotions, cringing away from the man in front of her, overwhelmed with pain. Pain that she had caused…She felt no remorse. This is what he got for insulting everything she held dear, for arrogantly claiming his victory before the battle had been fought... She felt sick for partially enjoying the sight before her. Her stomach turned, she wanted to stop watching, but every muscle in her body was locked into place.

  Sinsenta managed one last glare before he disappeared, vanishing as suddenly as Gandador had.

  It took Kiethara quite a while before she was able to move. She got up slowly, stumbling forward, walking through unfamiliar forest. She didn’t know where she was, and there were no carved symbols to guide her…What would she do now? How would she get back? Her thoughts were suddenly slow and fuzzed. Kiethara shook her head in attempt to clear it, but nothing changed. She felt as though…she knew the answer…she clenched her fists in aggravation…The light-headed feeling grew more powerful with every step she took.

  Kiethara collapsed onto the forest floor.