Crimson Guard

by Rebecca Challoner

  I was a little taken aback by his tone. Until that moment he had been nothing but accommodating, even after I had been captured. The change in attitude was a shock.

  This must-have shown on my face because Volorn sighed, "Fawn, I can't keep sugar coating things for you."

  I felt myself stiffen, and I tried to detach myself from the feeling of embarrassment and anger that almost overwhelmed me.

  "In the army, you need to take orders and get things done. You can't question me and I don't have time to make sure your feelings aren't hurt. It's nothing personal."

  I gave a stiff nod, trying to stop myself from feeling insulted whilst internally ranting. How dare he suggest I was some soft little girl. That he needed to sugarcoat everything for me.

  He studied me, "I need to know that in any situation, I can give you an order and I won't have to worry that you will follow through with it."

  "Yes, Sir." I coldly cut him off, keeping my face void of expression. Like the good little soldier he wanted.

  He continued to study me but I kept that wall between us until his own features cooled and he ordered, "Sit," pointing to a grassy patch underneath a large swaying oak tree.

  I settled down on the floor, crossing my legs as he sat opposite me a small distance away, close enough that I could see a faint circle of silver within his cornflower blue eyes.

  "The first lesson of unlocking your potential is to focus."

  I tilted my head contemplating his facial structure. Even though I was angry with him, I couldn't help but think I had never seen a male face put together so beautifully. Such high cheekbones, artfully arched eyebrows, thick eyelashes that framed such striking coloured eyes. The small scar on his lip seemed to his only imperfection, but it only served to make it easier to look at him, making him look more approachable and human.

  "Focus is the key to any soldier's strength."

  The more I studied him, I was convinced I could morph into him without much difficulty. His features already imprinted itself into my mind, the way he stood tall and confident, his steady strength and air of authority, the furrow in his brow whilst he looked at me with frustration like he was at this moment.

  Oops.

  "Yes. Focus. Very important. Yes!" I blabbed out, fighting the rising blush that wanted to sweep my cheeks.

  He briefly closed his eyes and let out a sigh before capturing me in his sights again, "To focus you need to breathe and become in-tune with your surroundings. So I want you to close your eyes for a moment."

  I closed my eyes, letting the darkness fill my senses. The soft breeze and the rustling of the trees reached my ears, soothing me as I awaited my next instruction.

  "Now take a deep breath, fill your lungs and hold it for four counts." He waited whilst I followed his instructions, "And release. Now do it again...and again until I tell you to stop."

  I filled my lungs, held my breath and exhaled until a sense of calm overcame me.

  "Now, listen to your surroundings."

  The rustling of the leaves in the oak above me sounded almost noisy in the calm and I worked to tune it out and hear for more. In the distance, I could hear the metal clang of Zan and Axel training, the soft sound of their grunts of exertion sounding louder in their silence.

  "Tell me what you hear," Volorn softly ordered, the slight puffs of air from his words gliding over my lips.

  I tried to ignore it and tune into the background buzz, focusing on each separate bit of sound, "I can hear the oak above us. I can hear you breathing."

  "What else?"

  I filtered out the sounds close to me and turned my attention to the more distant vibrations on the wind, "I can hear Zan and Axel train. I think..." I tilted my head as I focused on the grunts, "I think Axel is winning?"

  Volorn paused a second, "Why do you think that?"

  I kept my attention on Axel and Zan's breathing patterns, ignoring the clash of blades, "Zan's grunting more. She sounds like she's getting short of breath."

  "Hmmm." Volorn's hum sounded off. I had become so in tune with the steady breathing that I focused him out, but now he seemed...

  "You've moved," I stated, fighting the urge to open my eyes.

  "Yes." He softly replied.

  I searched for the sound of his soft breathing, but all of a sudden I couldn't find it. I felt the frown start to etch into my face and started to open my eyes.

  "No, don't open your eyes," Volorn demanded, his voice sounding a small distance away to the right.

  I tried to listen out for him again, but couldn't find him amidst the sounds. I re-centered myself, breathing in and out for four counts when I heard it, almost felt it. The soft pad of a foot upon the grass and the small gust of air that was almost undetectable had me leaning to the left and rolling almost into the solid trunk of the oak tree. I opened my eyes to see Volorn was standing behind where I was sitting, his hand raised as though he was about to pat my shoulder.

  Volorn caught my startled gaze, a small smile upon his lips, "Why did you move?"

  I blinked at him, my mouth dropping slightly as I tried to think of an answer, "I felt you, behind me. You made a sudden movement."

  His smile spread, "Good." He straightened and walked towards me, holding out a hand for me to stand. Grasping his palm, I allowed him to pull me up, "You have good reflexes. Now we just need to hone them."

  He inspected me before giving himself a small nod, "I want you to practice your breathing every morning before training. Time your breathing, focus on your surroundings through your other senses. Before long you will find it helps you in your other training and in battle."

  "But until then, it's time to start your real training," Volorn gave me a small smirk before turning towards the training arena, "Axel! You're up."

  I looked over to find Axel jogging towards me, still wearing his armor from his battle with Zan, the sun caught the plains of his physique and the sweat that glistened on his muscles. His ebony-black hair fell limp in front of his face as he reached me, his ocean blue eyes lit with inner mirth that I had to stop myself from smiling back at him.

  "Have a good time?" I asked, looking back at Zan as she repeatedly beat into a training dummy. I couldn't help but wince at the savagery she was bestowing upon it.

  He smiled, showing me a set of pearly white teeth. "Better than Zan."

  I let out a little snort of laughter when a teasing glint entered Axel's face, "You laugh now little Fawn but you won't be laughing once I'm done with you."

  I felt my smile drop from my face and I straightened, "Okay. What am I to do?"

  "Today you're going to learn how to use the enchantment in your armor."

  I looked down at the leather amour I had donned on. Intricate swirls and carvings framed a feminine outline, embossed inside the leather was a topaz gem, glistening in colour and as I held my hand over the gem I felt a small pulse of heat.

  "This?" I asked.

  "That's a shielding enchantment, and I'm going to help you learn how to channel your magic into it."

  Chapter 16

  "Not again Fawn. Get your ass up."

  Axel's voice rang out across the training field whilst I lay on my back yet again.

  No matter how hard I tried over the last couple of hours, I couldn't get using enchantments right. I kept trying and trying but nothing happened. I couldn't help but feel embarrassed at how useless I was. That fact that I had learned how to trick and break enchantment shields with Tawney, but couldn't even summon one small, tiny shield...the irony was not lost on me.

  I pushed myself back up onto my feet and looked at Axel, who stood with his legs braced and arms crossed, a furrow in his brow and a look of frustration on his face.

  "Concentrate! Feel the enchantment, the bubble of protection that surrounds you. Concentrate on that connection. Feed your energy to that bubble."

  I closed my eyes to concentrate. Within my mind's eye, I could see a topaz ember emitting from the stone and I searched for a link to the enchant
ment through my armor. I tried using that energy like I used my own and finally got a sense of the bubble, of the feeling of being guarded. I let out a slight nod, letting Axel know I had it.

  Before I knew it, I was slammed back into the ground, my shoulder throbbing from the punch he delivered. "Damn it." I exploded, my eyes snapping open, anger and frustration filling me.

  "I can't do it. I can't get my energy into the bubble." I snarled, annoyed at myself. "Which is ridiculous, since I can trick and break shields. This should be easy for me!"

  "What do you mean you can trick shields?" he asked, brow furrowed and his strong hand stroking his chin.

  "How do you think I got into Wildecrest's volt?" I continued on my rant, frustration at myself taking over, "When I change shape, I turn into that person completely. So to the magic, I am the Shielder or the person it is keyed to. I can walk in and out of shields with no hassle."

  "But apparently, I can't summon one of my own," I bit out with disgust.

  "Hmm. Interesting. That will be useful." Axel replied thoughtfully.

  "Well, it was useless when I was taken by surprise by Volorn." I retorted.

  "You would need time to shift into the person beforehand, Volorn ambushed you so you had no time to react." He tapped his fingers against his chin, "It would be interesting to see if you could trick Volorn's shield."

  "It's well known that he's the strongest Shielder ever recorded..." I trailed off, doubting my powers would be a match for his.

  "As I said...Interesting." He tapped on his chiseled chin once more whilst gazing at me, then dropped his hands, swinging them before him and clapped a hand over a fist. "Back to the subject at hand. We need you to find a way to connect to your energy."

  I barely refrain making a sarcastic comment and squashed my bitter disappointment in myself.

  He continued swinging his hands, clapping his left hand over his closed fist in a subconscious gesture as he decided his next step. "Okay, you need to find the source of your energy. Clearly, you've not been trained properly at all. I keep forgetting that."

  I eyed him up, a little insulted. "I've managed to use my own powers for as long as I can remember. I think I've done well all things considering."

  He waved a dismissive hand, "The fact is you don't know the basics because you were never taught. We were all taught after being taken for training at ten. You weren't."

  He caught my eye, making sure he had my full attention. "Our powers come from our flow of energy at the center of our being. We all have this energy and it is our life force. Some of us are born with more energy than others. These people are Ceruleans. Close your eyes."

  I did as he commanded, darkness now surrounding me.

  "Block out all the sounds surrounding you. Listen to your own heartbeat. Feel the flow of air in your lungs. Become attuned with your body. Just like you did with Volorn."

  I began to focus on myself, soon the sounds of birds fluttering around ceased. The sensation of the air swirling around me in a calm breeze fell away. All I could sense was myself. The heaviness of my limbs, the rush of my blood, the beat of my heart, the fullness of my lungs...and something else.

  "Now look beyond your body. Beyond your organs. To your life force."

  There. In the center of everything that made me myself was a pearly glow. A fiery mass of energy, flowing through every fiber of my being.

  "Found it?"

  "Yes." I breathed back.

  "Now play with that energy. Move it around."

  I concentrate on moving the white mass, of encircling the smoke like energy and directing it around my body.

  "Now try again. Reach for the shielding enchantment again. On that bubble. And feed your energy out of you and into the shield."

  I reached for the topaz, a golden mass of power and this time merged my frost white energy with it rather than try and use the enchantments own, strengthening the shield with a moderate portion of my energy.

  "Huh,"

  I opened my eyes, looking towards Axel but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

  "Umm...Axel? Did it work?" I asked him, baffled.

  He looked at me without seeing me, his focus on something beyond I could see. Before I knew it he was smashing his fist towards me in a move that made me flinch before he backed off, shaking his hand.

  "Axel? What the hell!" I exclaimed, my heart thumping in panic.

  He finally focused on me, "Good. For a first try. You repelled this hit but...."

  "But?" I asked, mystified.

  Axel focused on the energy again before nodding, "Yep, you're channeling a lot of energy into the shield but it's not all transferring properly."

  I concentrated on my energy and the stone again, trying to guide it towards the stone.

  "Think of it like you're pouring water into a waterskin. You need to trickle it in or else it will overflow and water will go everywhere, you'll waste water. You're expelling too much energy."

  I closed my eyes again, concentrating. I silenced everything around me again, focusing on energy, only this time I focused on tunneling my energy into a stream, finding the mixture of gold and white fusing together in a beautiful marble effect. Another flicker of colour caught my attention, a beautiful lilac flame before I concentrated back on my task.

  I opened my eyes to find Axel studying my energy again.

  "Impressive. Well done." He looked around the protective shield. "You've done really well for your first try."

  He turned and looked at me, intrigued. "Are you not exhausted? This should have used a lot of your energy."

  I took stock of myself, trying to sense my energy without closing my eyes. "No, I feel fine. I have more energy to use."

  He turned and smirked at me, a glint shone in his eyes. "Well don't just sit there, get off your backside, absorb your energy again and let's get to work!"

  He held out a hand and I slapped mine in his. Something told me if I wasn't tired now, I would be exhausted by the time I was finished.

  Hours later I staggered my way to my room, drained after my training session with Axel. After learning how to connect to my energy properly, it was considerably easier to use the enchantments. Axel wanted to start off small, not wanting me to run out of energy too soon. Before the end of the lesson, I could just about hold my fighting form whilst holding a shield intact. It took a great deal of concentration to focus on dodging incoming blows, keeping a shield around me whilst also looking for an opportunity to attack. I could already feel the bruises forming along my exhausted body from where my focus slipped and Axel gave me what he liked to call 'love taps'.

  By the end of the session, my body could no longer take the abuse and I had to call for a time out. Axel graciously allowed me to limp away, my tail between my legs and frustration mounting in my mind. All that kept circling my thoughts was, 'How do you expect to avenge Tawney if you can't even fight?'.

  After almost crawling up the stairs to my room, I flopped face-first into my bed, hand grasping Tawney's necklace around my wrist, it's weight now a comfort to me. Rolling on my back, I gazed at the necklace, the family heirloom which he had entrusted to me.

  It was plain in design, nothing flashy. A simple chain made of silver that looked worn as though it was old, passed down generations. On the pendant of the necklace was a large gem, beautiful gold in colour that seemed to flicker as though it was made of liquid. I brushed my thumb over the jewel, feeling as though it warmed in my hand at the touch.

  A strange impulse compelled me to unwrap the necklace from my wrist and placed it around my neck and a flush of heat sweeping over my body once it laid upon my chest. It was an odd sensation, one that confused me greatly but I assumed it was my imagination from my exhausted mind and I soon found myself losing the fight between awareness and the darkness of sleep, the warmth of the necklace comforting me into my dreams.

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  A flash of heat zipped through my body and I awoke, unaware of m
y surroundings for a moment. I blinked, gathering my wits. I grabbed the necklace resting below my neck and felt another flash of heat and awareness before is dissipated. What was that?

  I waited for the same thing to occur again but nothing happened.

  A muffled knock sounded in the room and a voice called through the door, "Fawn?"

  I blinked my sleep out of my eyes and tried to focus on the blurs around me.