Guardian: Protectors of Light by Melanie Houtman
*
Timothy’s hideout was located somewhere with pretty strong ground, since the house was made of stone and fairly big.
“I know it’s kind of a big house to put in the middle of such a dangerous place,” Timothy said as they entered the stone house, “but it’s mainly so big due to the dorm. There are nine beds in there... I’ve built them all myself, over the years.”
“So did you build this yourself?” James asked. “Like Gabriel did with his tree house?”
“No,” Timothy said. “Not all. The Light Spirits have helped me. When they had just resurrected us - I believe you’ve heard of that story, we were all separated and alone. I found myself here, in The Edge, so I had to find shelter. And that’s what I got. I’ve done the rest myself.”
They sat down at a big wooden table, which seemed to have been carved rather professionally.
“It wasn’t easy,” Timothy continued. “I had to travel a lot to get all of this done. Luckily, my father had been a carpenter and his brother-in-law a smith, so I knew how to get things done...”
“But why didn’t you choose a different location to live?” Antonio asked. “If you could travel, you could’ve decided to stay anywhere.”
“Because I wasn’t allowed to stay anywhere else,” Timothy said. “We’d all been given a task. And we had to guide the ones that went before you... So I had to return here eventually. But to be honest, you’re the first Generation that got this far – by one piece, that is. Some Generations made it here – with a person or two missing. All I could do is guide them as well as I could, but I knew that their hope of succeeding was lost...”
He paused a few moments to lower his eyes. “It’s hard to see people, young people, go through this. But there were also older men and women... Sometimes of over forty. Just because their shared belief in Magic and childlike minds were strong enough to be able to take on this task.”
He looked up again, showing a kind of sad grin. “And then those men come here, only to leave and do what some nineteen year old idiot has told them to,” he said.
“It’s sad. I also recall meeting a woman one time, who was twenty-nine and had two very young children... She had done nothing but crying and worrying about them all of her journey. And that was the reason her life ended...”
He paused again and nodded a few times. “That really gives you a wake-up call. How serious the situation here actually is.”
James, who had been listening to Timothy’s story closely, allowed his eyes to wander around the room a bit.
There were candles everywhere, giving the cold stone walls a warm glow. He noticed something on a shelf further in the room, but he couldn’t make up what it exactly was.
He then quickly returned his eyes to the table, where he listened to Timothy finishing his story.
“So actually, before we move on and I tell you anything else,” the blond nineteen-year-old said, “is that I want to give you one advice. Be careful of what you say and do here, because anything could be used against you. If the Master happens to mean harm toward you specifically, he’ll try to pursue it in as many ways as possible.
The Master is a master of filling one’s heart and mind with fear. If that man finds your weakness, it could mean your end.”
The Bond of Light had spent about an hour chatting with Timothy, while he gave them information about The Edge and told them stories of previous Generations.
The blond nineteen-year-old knew plenty of interesting stories to tell, though almost every single one of them had a sad ending.
Timothy knew a lot about the area, but not just only about The Edge. He was the first and only Keeper to ever travel through every Realm in Lunaria, causing him to know much more than most of his fellow Keepers knew.
Even though all of this, he had to admit he’d never went to the Land of Void, so he knew pretty much about that place.
And who could blame him for that? At least James and the others didn’t. They could understand that after Timothy had returned to his own Realm, he didn’t have energy – or courage, for that matter – left at all to pay a visit to the Land of Void.
“I shall be your guide through the Edge, and the Land of Void,” Timothy said. “It’s about time I got to learn all the secrets to the last Realm. Just to complete my collection of knowledge and get you guys to the end of the line safely, of course.”
“But I thought you weren’t allowed to leave the Realm you were chosen to protect for too long,” Samira said. “What happened to that rule?”
“Ah, yes,” Timothy said, understanding Samira’s confusion. “This particular rule is only in effect when we are off-duty. But when we are guiding the Bond of Light,” he took a second to gesture at the five teens sitting around him at the table, “we’re doing our duty, so that means we’re allowed to leave our Realm temporarily, as long as we return to our Realm after our duty’s been done.”
He smiled through his grey eyes at Samira. “I am allowed to stay with you five until I’ve fulfilled my duty and I know for sure you’re all safe.”
“That’s good to hear.” Samira smiled back at him.
“Uh- so- is there anything else we should know?” James interrupted the two, clearly uncomfortable seeing how well Timothy seemed to get along with Samira. Thomas let out a small snort hidden behind his hand.
“That’s my sister, you pervert,” James muttered behind his teeth.
Timothy either pretended like he hadn’t heard what James had muttered, or just really hadn’t heard, because he smiled at the redheaded sixteen-year-old while speaking.
“Well, there’s one thing I could help you with...” he said. The next moment, he stood up from his chair and walked off into the room.
James turned his head to follow Timothy around the room with his eyes, and saw that Timothy had picked up the mysterious object James himself had been staring at earlier.
As Timothy sat back down in his chair and put the brown, rectangle object on the table, James finally knew what it was.
A book. A big, brown book.
“This book,” Timothy said, “is called A Guardian’s Guide to the Light. It contains information of every single Realm from a Guardian’s point of view. I’ve been writing this for over nine-hundred years.”
“Oh, and that’s why you travelled so much! To get information for the book!”
“Yes, that’s why,” Timothy said. “I wrote down everything I’d learned from our journey in Lunaria as Guardians first, then started adding information from my travels. This book might come in handy if you need to save yourself out of nasty situations.”
He shoved the book across the table toward James. It didn’t make it all the way, but James got the hint. He took the book and placed it inside his leather sac.
“Read it as often as you can,” Timothy said. “Whenever time allows it.”
James nodded. “Got it.”
“You see,” Timothy said, “it contains more information than what any other Keeper has told you before. Of course Madeleine, Gabriel and Rikki know almost as much as I do – since they went everywhere I went. Except for Rikki and Gabriel... Since, you know – Rikki was killed on Imber Lake by – some kind of shadow monsters, which seemed to come from underwater. Did you encounter them?”
“Almost,” Thomas said. “We got out of there as soon as we saw fog.”
“Good,” Timothy said. “You’re vulnerable out on the water. One of you could’ve died like Rikki did... And Gabriel lost it after she did. He committed some heroic suicide...”
Timothy paused for a second and swallowed. “At the end of the Edge, there’s a ravine to prevent Lunariae to cross to the Land of Void. Sabrina had gone missing just after we’d left Linmor Village, and we had to get to the other side of the Ravine...Gabriel had climbed down the ravine and had tied a rope tied to a rock... He then jumped, still holding the rope, and it seemed as if he’d climbed back up to a higher spot in the ravine and somehow managed to tie the rope around anoth
The last we saw of him, was when Madeleine and I had climbed to the other side by using the rope, and he said: ‘I wish you both good luck, and I hope you find a way out of this hell... But it’s too late for me.’”
Timothy paused again. Telling this tale was the hardest so far. “He... Then...We noticed the blood stain... He’d got hit by one of the rocks while taking the rope to the other side – it looked really severe, and – he then just fell backward into the ravine...”
He buried his face in his hands for a few seconds. “That was the worst thing I’d ever seen.”
The Bond of Light just sat there, in complete silence. “We had no idea...” Samira mumbled. She looked at Bella, then at Antonio, then at James. “So...”
“Madeleine and I tried to keep our promise to Gabriel that we’d find a way out, and we made it to the end of the Void... But... We never got out. We didn’t save Lunaria,” Timothy said.
“But we are,” James said. He noticed that he’d stood up as he spoke. “We’ve come this far, we’re still all in one piece, and I’m not giving up.”
Thomas looked at him and stood up as well. “I’m with you.”
Samira looked at the duo and smiled before standing up as well. “I’m with you two, too. We’ve got to do this.”
Antonio now stood up as well. “If we stay together, we can do it,” he said.
Finally, Bella rose to his feet too. “Indeed,” he said. “We’ve got plenty of brain and brawl, we should be able to do this. It won’t be easy, but we just have to believe in ourselves.”
The five teens looked at Timothy. “And you, Timothy? Are you with us?” James asked.
Timothy lowered his eyes and sighed, but then smiled as he rose from the chair. “Of course I am,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I be? Payback time for the guy that had to ruin millions of lives? Always.”
“All right then!” James cheered, before letting out a yawn. “We’d better catch some sleep... I don’t think we’ll be able to sleep during the night safely when we’re in The Edge. Due to the Dark Magic, even the Day isn’t completely safe around there.”
“He’s right,” Timothy said. “You better go spike up your energy levels before we leave this place. It’s about the safest place we’re going to have from this moment on. I’ll wake you up; we’ll leave at sunset.”
And so they did. Timothy showed them the bedroom as the Bond of Light got rid of unnecessary and/or uncomfortable clothing and accessories and lay down.
Fire and Water
While his friends spent their time asleep, James spent most of it reading the Guardian’s Guide to the Light Timothy had given to him.
It contained information about literally everything in Lunaria, from its creatures (A short bit of what Timothy had written on Fairies: Most Fairies are cute and adorable and are not bigger than a hand, but some of them, known as either Warrior Fairies or Dark Fairies, are as big as a normal human and have been created by a curse, and are meant to attack any creature that enters the Fairy Woods in the Fantasy Valley.) to different types of eyes (Each creature has their own kind of eye. But the Cursed Eye is always the same; an orange glow, and a cat-like pupil. Some Cursed Spirits have the ability to hide their eyes, so always be careful whenever someone’s acting strangely! Side note: Cursed Eyes are the same eyes as those of Shadow Creatures.)
Timothy sure had gathered an impressive amount of useful and interesting information, and he had written it in such a fashion which made James enjoy reading it, despite of the obvious old-English fashion the writings had to them. Maybe Timothy knew something, a solution, which would prevent the scary fate the Master had mentioned after they completed the Ritual. Keeping that thought in mind, James closed his eyes.
He must’ve fallen asleep as the afternoon went on, because the sun was setting when he was awakened by Samira, telling him it was time to go.
James packed the heavy book in his leather sac and put his cape back on before joining the others.
Before leaving, the five teenagers ate whatever was left of the food they had received from Queen Eloine. They had barely eaten anything in the past few days, with the lunch in Linmor Village being an exception, so they were grateful for the given time to eat the leftovers of that lunch.
Timothy advised them to fill their water sacs at the Lake’s edge before leaving, which they did. The Edge was very hot (hence the lava pits), and water would probably be more precious than food there.
After all the water sacs had been filled, there was no more reason for procrastination. It was truly time to go. Off into the unknown, leaving the safety of Lunaria all behind, to finally end this journey and free Lunaria’s inhabitants from their tyrant.
Timothy’s house had truly been at the absolute edge of The Edge (pun intended), since there seemed to be a tiny stream of lava with some sort of stone “bridge” separating the island his house was on from the true dangers of The Edge.
It was obvious that no Lunarian dared to tread there; as James looked up to the sky further in the horizon, he could see the clouds pack together, turning darker and darker every kilometre. He could almost see the blackest clouds above the Land of Void, and shuddered.
They were coming very close to the end now. Too close. He remembered the Prophecy... And the weird dreams he’d had over the past weeks...
What if all of that was true? He’d tried not to think about them, but as they got closer to the finish line, the thought of everything being true crept up to him more and more.
He heard Timothy explain something to his friends in the distance, and it sounded rather important, but James couldn’t listen to what he had to say right now. He was too busy thinking about the future, the dark shadow that awaited the five of them.
It also reminded him of something Sabrina had told him while Thomas and the others had been talking to Aubrey. Something which caused him to question everything he’d seen and done so far.
“One of the Keepers around here in Lunaria is not what they seem. Keep your eyes open, or else you might wind up in some serious trouble. Don’t let them trick you. Especially not in over-using your Magic... Like you did yesterday, that’s wrong. It’ll cause you to end up completely drained from all of your energy. You should be more frugal when it comes to your Magic. That trick with the glowing path? Really cute, but it drained your energy.”
One of the Keepers is not what they seem... What did she mean by that?
“James?”
James turned his head toward the direction his name had been called from, and he discovered that he’d somehow turned away from his friends and had been staring into nothing for nearly five minutes straight.
“James? Are you all right? Is there something wrong?” Timothy said.
James shook his head heavily, his slightly curly red hair flapping around his head. The gel in his hair had become nonexistent in the past few days, causing his hair to curl more.
“No,” he said. “I’m all right. I was just thinking.”
“About what then, silly?” Samira asked on a teasing tone. “Timothy just explained how careful we’ve got to be in The Edge. Thomas even has to wear the hood on his cape.”
Thomas nodded at James. He was wearing the hood of which James had always wondered what it’d be useful for.
“Huh?” James mumbled, realising how stupid he sounded. “What’s the hood for?”
“Huh?” Antonio mimicked James in a slow voice. “That’s exactly why you should’ve listened while Timothy was explaining why, Jiminy Cricket.”
Timothy chuckled. “It’s all right guys,” he said. “I’ll explain it again. You see, James, Thomas’s sceptre has the ability to read thoughts, minds and feelings of all sorts of creatures, but it also makes it easier for the creatures to attack him – or us - by sending him false information. This hood protects his mind from anything which is sent out purposely.”
“Sweet,” James replied with a smile. “Anythi
“Not that I can remember, no,” Timothy said. “I think that that’s practically all. We’re good to go now.”
“Well, then what are we waiting for?” James said. “Let’s go kick some butt.”
But the six teenagers had barely entered The Edge, or disaster was already upon them.
“Guys, do... do you feel the ground shake?” Samira asked, as they walked across a small road, surrounded by lava streams at both sides.
“So I’m not nuts?” Antonio asked. “It’s almost as if-”
Instead of finishing his sentence, the seventeen-year-old let out a loud yell. The others quickly turned around to see what had happened, and they found Antonio kneeling on the ground, holding on to his leg.
“It’s only a first-degree burn,” Antonio grunted. “But- something – just grabbed my leg! What the heck was that thing?” he said, as he stood up.
His question was soon to be answered by one of the lava pits. The lava seemed to rise up from it, but...
“Fire sprites!” James exclaimed. The others clearly didn’t know what the tiny, fairy-slash-terrifying lava monster-like creatures were, because they gave him a look of complete incomprehension.
“I read some information on them while flipping through the book last night,” James breathed. “We’ve got to run.”
And so they did. It was risky to run though, as was mentioned before, since the ground was unstable and started to crumble apart all around them as they moved on.
Aside from that, the Fire Sprites spewed fire and bulbs of lava at them wherever they’d go, following the six teens from their precious lava pits.
They jumped from platform to platform as they dodged the falling lava.
“This is getting too dangerous!” Samira shouted. “We need to get rid of these creatures!”
“Water!” James exclaimed. “Water! Make yourself wet! Absolutely drenched! These things hate water, and everything covered in it!”
He hastily got their water sacs, threw them at the others, and then threw his own over his head and clothes, drenching them quickly.
It worked. The Fire Sprites hissed angrily at the now drenched teenagers, and then disappeared underneath the lava’s surface.
“How did you know that?” Thomas gasped, as they stood still for a few moments.
James shrugged. “I like to read a lot,” he said. And he was glad he did.