The Chosen And the guardians

by Liviu Costin Sociu

  Chapter 2: Revelations

  [Present]

  Drake seemed a little confused after the story and asked with renewed calm "What happened after?" the young girl smiled while answering "You slept for 3 days...still, it's a miracle you survived, it's rare to survive such a hit without having to pay for it...and you just had some scratches and the pain from hitting the wall....". Trying to remember again a headache began to rise "Argh!" Iris took his hands again and smiled a little troubled "Please calm down...do not try to remember now...it's true that you didn't got injured, but the hit you took shocked your body pretty badly".

  After a little hesitation, he calmed down and relaxed looking at the ceiling while putting his head on the soft pillow "Who, or what, was the beast you were fighting?" his curiosity was legitimate but the girl seemed troubled about such question "Look, its not something I can explain freely....you must swear to not tell anyone about this, otherwise we might have to retain you or....even worse" Her eyes were very serious and her look was directed to Drake, which, seemed a little agitated about what he heard but, something in him, made him feel right to go ahead on this path "Very well, I shall not reveal anything...". The young girl took a deep breath before starting to explain the situation "You see, we are guardians of the world, more precisely chosen ones by the primal beasts which gave us the powers we have. Thanks to them we can see the darkness in his forms and fight it. No one else can sense them and, even if their origin is still unknown, the war between we guardians and the creatures of darkness, like the one you saw, began ages ago".

  The girl stopped a little to look at Drake, leaving him enough time to realize all the information she gave him and waiting any questions that might arose, all while observing his reaction at the same time. "So practically, you are some kind of superheroes who fights evil?" even if the question seemed to be sarcastic, it was quite serious and the young girl seemed a little troubled once again "Well not quite. You see, we have powers thanks to the primal beasts and we are driving a war against the darkness, its not like fighting crime or anything like that, it's really the darkness itself, the evil materialized under spoils of creatures...its complicated, but the idea, more or less, it's that we are guardians fighting against a dark enemy who tries to destroy what we guard and protect". Drake nodded a few times before looking back "Well...I think I got the idea, still, you said that the war itself it's very old, why is that or, better yet, how is that?" She smiled a little "I see, you are curios, then let me tell you the story of the guardians, it's long, but I guess it can answer more questions of yours about we guardians..." she smiled again looking at him in the eyes before resuming "Well in origin, when the world was very young, a deep darkness covered almost all its surface. Everything was darkness, and by it, swallowed. Still, sparkles of light kept fighting against the enemy which was about to engulf the entire world, those were the guardian clans, divided by the primal beast that were giving them power. At that time every man, woman and child, had a primal beast with them" Drake seemed a little troubled and, Iris, stopped after observing that "Something wrong?" The young Drake answered with curious eyes "More exactly, those primal beasts, what are they?" another smile flashed the girl's face "Good question, I forgot to tell you I guess. Primal beasts are like animals: dogs, cats, lions, tigers, turtles and so on but different in some ways. The main differences is that they can talk, fuse with a human and give them their immense power, which, is quite something considering they have powers we human can only imagine about. They can talk mentally and can create a certain link between them and their guardian, which, makes their bond stronger and their power mightier. When fighting, the guardian can use his primal beast power and, certain details of the animal itself, becomes visible on the guardian's body. For example: cat ears, tail,claws and fur. All those help the guardian in fight." After the explanation she smiled again "I hope I answered your question, and if so, I will continue the tale about our origins..." Drake simply nodded, paying attention while the girl resumed "Very well...as I was saying, the guardians, or every human in that time, were fighting to survive against the beasts of darkness. Even if there were lots of clans, 4 in particular were in the spotlight for being the most important in helping winning the war. The 4 were as follow: The Shielded Turtle, the Flashing Tiger, the Immortal Phoenix and the Mighty Dragon clan. Those clans had some particular and immense powers which led them to fight effectively against the beasts of darkness, helping them become the most important clan in the first war of darkness. The Shielded Turtle had a particular shield, made by a material still today unknown, but surely indestructible. The shield was in the form of a turtle carapace and, even if they may seem invincible, they cannot block an all-around attack, which, is their first weakness. The Flashing Tiger clan was made of people with incredible speed and agility, they could attack faster than the speed of light and their peculiar power was their fur. The fur of the Flashing Tiger can light itself until reaching a pure white-yellowish light that seemed to bother and even stun the darkness beasts and, most of times, gave them an opening on them. But, even if they were strong, their power wasn't in strength, so in long and difficult fights, with tough enemies, they were easily worn out by brute force and higher stamina than their own. The immortal phoenix clan is made by a single man, also commander of the other clans. His powers were immense, he could defeat, head on, even an army of darkness beasts by himself and use a lot of magic of various effects. He was the strongest on earth and rivalled only by the higher, and most powerful, of the dragon clan but, being a loner, he usually refused to group up too much or avoided other clans. He guided the rebellion against the darkness and was the one that allowed today's humans to live in peace...but I will come to that later. As a loner though, if someone succeeded in defeating or block him, he was pretty powerless by himself, with time he became more and more careful about this aspect, making him a very dangerous being. The most impressing power about him is that he revives even if he dies, but it takes a lot of time, usually years and, once alive, he regain all his experience and knowledge gathered till the moment he died. It is said that he still wanders the world as of today. The Dragon clan was one of the most aggressive and powerful of the four. Their members had the ancient power of dragons which was considered one of the most dangerous powers that a guardian can get. Still, this power must be gained and only pure heart ones could gain such power, that, or a very powerful willed person. Their color usually gave them different powers and personality and, some of them, were even neutral to the war or even became ally with the darkness creatures. They had many powers and few were the ones following the path of the dragons, becoming one with them until the very end. It is said that the clan masters, and guardians of the Creator's reign, were able to become fully dragon, considered an, almost, impossible technique to achieve. They were the gold and silver master of the dragon clan. Most of the dragon clan's weakness was their lack of unity, since every kind of dragon was independent from the others. Another weakness was their arrogance, usually because of their powers. Most of times, those weaknesses, let them open to attacks or brought them to do silly, but dangerous, mistakes" The girl stopped and looked at Drake, waiting for him to make some questions. He looked at the bed sheet like he was hypnotized and was trying to swallow all the information he got from the young girl "I guess I got the idea of the four clans, still, you said that there were some of the dragon clan who allied themselves with the dark ones, they were the only ones? And why did they allied with something that was destroying their purpose as guardians?" Iris sighed "Well, its true that a guardian usually uses its powers to protect and fight the darkness creatures, but...there is no rule, magic or anything that forces them to do so, one can even choose to fight other guardians for the darkness creatures or for pure adrenaline and fun...let's say that each guardian chose his destiny by themselves and, usually, the creature that chose them agree with those choices. The reason why the dragon clan or, better say, the black dragons, agreed to fight for the dark creatu
res is because that's their nature....the dark hearted ones, the evil guardians, usually choose to fight for the darkness creatures since they promise power and reign over the world once conquered. Those achievements are a goal for such creatures with no heart...and so they choose to fight their brother guardians for lust, power or other reasons. Such a pity indeed, but, that's what happened. Even today there are some rogue guardians, also called destroyers, that are trying to oppose our efforts to protect humans from the darkness creatures and avoid a second dark war.". While nodding, Drake seemed a little troubled while thinking about the news he heard, he preferred to avoid too much thinking, even cause his headache was not helping him in that, he focused on the girl again, waiting for more information, like a child is eager to hear a story from his parents. "Well, since you seem to be all right for now, I shall continue. Those four clans fought hard against the darkness creatures and, for the first time, they were united and covering each other weaknesses, fighting together. The fight was very hard and many lost their life and powers in the dark war but...they managed to push back the darkness and began to drove it away from the land until, the phoenix, sealed them for good with a powerful magic seal that let him without strength for a year.

  After what happened, the phoenix decided, with the primal beasts, to leave the humans alone and cancel the magic from the world so they could be in peace forever and, like that, giving no escape chances to the sealed darkness to ever escape. Ever since, the world grew little by little more complex and prosperous while, magic, was a thought lost in the sands of time, same destiny suffered the existence of the guardians and primal beasts. The beasts left their children on earth, so they could live a peaceful life, spoiling them from powers and magic, leaving them simple animals which evolved as we know them today. But, somehow, it appears that the darkness freed itself, we do not know how, but the darkness is starting to regain presence in the world and trying to take it over like many ages ago. Since then, many suffered from mysterious accidents, humans lost their ability to see the darkness and, little by little, guardians started to activate again, regaining power and sight of the darkness creatures. Many were confused and didn't know what to do but, eventually, with the help of the primal beasts assisting them, they began to fight back and kept the creatures at bay momentarily. Even with the power to protect others, the guardians are just becoming active and it's hard to organize ourselves and do proper resistance so our situation is kinda weak and dispersed. We managed to identify guardians by their power, if they have it, or the fact that are 'chosen ones', which means that they can see our transformation, powers and even the dark creatures. The dark creatures can read minds and use every weapon they can to attack us, most of us had to leave their lives and join the fight, some of us even lost precious ones..." the girl stopped a little, she seemed a little touched by the words she said herself...still she regained her composure quickly "Sorry...like I said, most of us had to leave their own lives to fight the darkness, some of us preferred to remain anonymous and keep their life simple or hidden from the fight and, others, refused the gift and lost their memory of whatever they saw or knew about the guardians, usually by the action of other guardians or some primal beast." once finished she smiled a little "Very well...I guess this is all for now. So, that's where you enter in the game..." Drake seemed confused but knew about what she was talking about "I am a guardian..." the girl just nodded silently "So I must fight with you?..." again the young girl nodded "You aren't forced of course, but remember that your life, as you know it, will change and most of the people you know will forget you, or better say, they will have to...otherwise the darkness creatures might take advantage of that. I know it's hard, but many will be in danger if we don't fight...it's a difficult choice and I know very well that...trust me, ponder it carefully...there is no going back if you accept".

  After some moments of thinking, Drake's expression remains troubled and confused "Listen...you don't have to answer now but...you cannot leave this place if you don't choose what you wish to do...." Then she clapped her hands together "I have an idea, I will show you the other team members and let them answer some questions, and explain their choices to you, maybe that will help."

  The door behind her opened up, a strong light gave life to the room in which the 2 were talking, thanks to that, more details could be seen easily, and after the dizziness of the strong light faded off, the room itself seemed simple with wood walls and little furniture, what caught the Drake's eyes were the 2 new figures entering the room, as well as the now fully visible already present girl, who got up and smiled widely "Let us introduce ourselves" "I am Iris, a pleasure to meet you" The girl smiled again, her figure was slender and agile, she was smaller than drake, emerald eyes flashing lively and pink long hair, a little lower than her shoulders, her eyes add a certain aspect to her cute face, while her body remember that of an athlete with refined curves. The second Girl to join her side was taller than Iris, almost as Drake, with yellow and scary eyes and a mysterious look on her delicate and gentle lined face, with a waterfall of long straight black hair that touched her back. The body was slender and agile, more curved than Iris's but bigger at the same time, even if by little " I am Lifia". The third figure came by the other 2, with two bored and provocative red eyes towards Drake and said with a bored tone "And I am Reit..." the bulky and strong body of her stood out clearly, the muscles more visible and developed, wavy red hair getting past her shoulders, taller than Drake, and a feminine strong body. "We are the 3 guardians that are fighting the darkness, we chose to give away our lives so that we could fight freely and save the others...now we will like to hear your answer...what do you wish to do Drake?" the question remained unanswered while he was still analyzing the 3 girls in front of him, until he came in eye contact with Reit "What are you watching so focused?" her provocative voice seemed to be annoyed by the his presence, Iris rapidly got between the 2 "Now Reit...what did I asked you before?" Reit nodded while snorting and got herself near the wall, resting her back on it while keeping her arms folded and eyes closed.

  "Sorry about her...she tends to be a little short tempered..." She smiled toward Drake, Lifia made a step forward "You are truly an interesting specimen of guardian...resisting such blow, even Reit had problems with th..." "Hey! That's not true!" "Yes it is, you know that" "...." "...As I was saying, you are quite impressive, I am curios about how much potential you have, that is, of course, if you choose to fight with us" Iris seemed troubled and sighed "Lifia...I gently asked to avoid analyzing him so fast...." Lifia just got a seat on the chair near the entrance of the room and crossed her legs waiting, and watching intensely Drake, without answering Iris's words. "Ehm....e..excuse her, she likes to analyze the situation and study everything she is interested in..." She sighed again "Well.... I guess you are curios about many things, so please, take your time to collect thoughts and ask away any of us about anything you wish to know, we will try to satisfy any curiosity and questions you have" Then she smiled brightly while waiting for Drake's questions, still he seemed perplexed by the behavior of the other 2 girls but, once the surprise was over, he began thinking about what to ask.