The Guardian's Grimoire

by Oxford, Rain

  Edward gave me a cold expression, but I could see in the moonlight that it was masking sympathy. Or maybe even empathy.

  “I doubt it, and I doubt more that it would be a good idea.” He was not sugarcoating anything.

  I gave him a sour frown, sat on a metal rail, and waited for the hungry beasts to find me, and my little book, too. Edward sat next to me without the frustrated sigh I had expected. I figured it had to be hard on him, helping me save a woman he didn’t know. I was putting him and both books in danger, and by doing so, both his world and Earth.

  “Can the monsters get over the fence?”

  “If that fence can stop a creature sent by a god, he’s not even trying. As far as I know, the beast can fly.”

  “Why did they send you?” I asked. “Knowing that your powers are faulty here, why did they send you and not a different Guardian?”

  “I asked them to send me. Like I said before, I knew the previous Guardian of Earth, Ronez, very well,” he said. I didn’t speak, and after a few minutes, he went on. “The idea of Guardians was not popular, and there were many hundreds of years of experimentation. Ronez and I were not born to be Guardians like the others; we were experimental. We are twin brothers. I asked to come because it was possible I would find the ones who killed him.”

  There was silence for a few minutes as I thought what he must be feeling. I was his brother’s replacement. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  He nodded.

  “Did you find the people who killed him?”

  He shook his head.

  More silence.

  I shyly looked at the bag and he pulled out my book without being asked. I took it and searched through the thick pages. There were many names, though some were difficult to determine if they were one name or several clustered together. Some I could recognize were clearly human, but most were not. There was one that was just three parallel lines. One was a symbol around a pentagram.

  “Which one is your name?” I asked. He tensed and I gave him my most innocent smile. “I won’t erase yours if you won’t erase mine.” He reached over and turned the page a few back, then pointed to a small, elegant signature that I was sure before was Japanese or Chinese. “That’s how you write Edward in your language?”

  He chuckled. “My name is not really Edward. I simply needed a name you would find plausible,” he said. I laughed. “What?”

  “Nobody has that name anymore. It’s like Frank or Albert. I think that was the name of Vivian’s grandfather, and twenty other grandfathers I know. I think that name is some universal old peoples’ name.”

  “You’re very disrespectful to your elders,” he said with mock scorn.

  “What is your name then?”

  “Kiro Yatunus,” he answered.

  I blinked. I expected it to be something I couldn’t pronounce, but instead, it sounded to me like something between Japanese and Latin. The three islands he had mentioned had sounded Japanese to me, and his name even looked it. I started examining the other names closely.

  “What is it you are looking for?”

  “Other Shomodians.”

  “There is no citizenship, and there are only three languages: Modo, Vido, and Sudo. My name is written in Sudo, which is most standard. Everyone needs to know Sudo if they ever want to do any traveling or marketing. You would have to learn. Sudo is more formally called Tzoku. Tzoku, which loosely translates to ‘common’, is the universal language; every world has at least one dialect version of it, though the dialect is often too adverse to really communicate.”

  “Where is Ronez’s name?” I asked. I feared that the question would upset him, but he seemed indifferent as he turned to the next page and pointed to a signature in the middle of the page that was similar to Edward’s. Ronez; my predecessor. “If the wizards are the descendants of Guardians, and if I am a wizard as you believe, doesn’t that mean he was my ancestor?”

  “Not necessarily, for other Guardians have visited Earth. Since you’re a wizard, you are a descendent of a Guardian, but possibly one other than Ronez. He is most likely to be your ancestor, though, since he has had many children. I can honestly that all of his children were very gifted; however, they tended to be impertinent and loved to cause trouble.”

  Good thing I’m not like that. “What is the name of your planet?”

  “Duran. The people are called sago.”

  I had to struggle to keep from laughing. “Seriously?” He stared at me, confused and annoyed. “Duran Duran was a hugely popular eighty’s band.” I didn’t feel the need to admit that I had a CD with “Hungry Like the Wolf” on my coffee table any more than I felt the need to admit that I still used CDs. I couldn’t afford an iPad or smartphone.

  “Yes, Ronez informed me about them.” He observed my book as spoke. “You know, I’ve not met you but a few hours ago and already I’m doing foolish things for you. I doubt our time will ever really be boring. It may sometimes even be fun. I can’t say that I will enjoy being your mentor in magic.” He looked at me. “But I do know that I’ll come to regret not giving you a chance if I don’t.”

  He reached into the bottom of the bag and pulled out what looked like plain wood carved into a pencil shape. There was no eraser and the pointed tip had no lead in it. I gave Edward a questioning stare and he nodded. I took the pencil and he stopped my hand.

  “You have to be sure. This is not something you can ever go back on. If you sign it, you will forever be responsible for the safety of this world. Your life will revolve around it forever.”

  I studied at the odd pencil in my hand, just an inch away from the paper.

  All my life, I tried desperately to overcome the hand I had been dealt, and I wasn’t exactly successful at it. I hated my job, but I dreaded graduating. I was working on a degree in psychology because I liked psychology, not because I wanted a career in it. Honestly, I preferred taking the classes and working at a fast food joint. There was nothing that ever felt right, no career that I could look forward to. No calling.

  Of course I worried about the unknown; adventure was dangerous and so was being a Guardian, obviously. But living this life was easy and safe, and that was never my thing. I had a chance and I would take it. Responsibility never frightened me. I would give it everything I had to protect this world, whether the book made a mistake in choosing me or not. Maybe Edward was wrong and the book fell to me on accident.

  Right below his name, I signed my own. My name appeared.

  Edward took me by surprise when he yanked the book away and shoved it back into his bag. As I opened my mouth to speak, I fell forward. Edward put his hand on my gut to keep me from pitching forward and his other hand on my back to keep me from falling back. I couldn’t breathe. It was like all my organs had been paralyzed except for my heart, which grew very loud and frantic.

  Then a hole in my chest split open and let frigid air in. The cold became a ball of ice in my chest that grew larger with every beat of my heart. I felt like my stomach should have been heaving, but it was paralyzed along with my other organs. I couldn’t scream.

  “Don’t fight it,” Edward advised.

  Yeah, easy for him to say. Not me, though; I couldn’t breathe.

  The thought popped into my head of vampires having to die to be reborn, even though that was buried under the thought, I’m dying! Oh… crap, which my body seemed to agree with. Somewhere deep inside, I was sure I was going to die and become an undead. I would be an undead outcast, forced to life on Shomodii locked in Edward’s shed like a leper. My head was spinning and, though my organs seemed unable to move, my hands were clawing at my chest, as if trying to force a path of oxygen to my lungs.

  Then the biting, clawing cold started to retreat back to that stinging part of my chest. When it once again felt like a small patch of ice, it dulled to numbness. My internal body parts started doing their jobs and I sucked in air for dear life. I tried to stand but Edward’s hand was as steady as a brick wall. I was able to twist around to the g
rass to let my flipping stomach do its job. I lost the hamburger I didn’t know I still had.

  Edward let me go and I fell, narrowly missing my dinner.

  “Holy Hell, what was that?!”

  Edward crouched beside my head and I could feel him staring with curiosity. “It was a lot quicker than it should’ve been. Then again, most Guardians are born into it.” He sounded far less worried than the situation called for.

  It took a few minutes before I was able to sit up. I opened the top button of my shirt and revealed a new symbol across my heart. The symbol, about two inches across, had most of a pentagram with other lines crossing it and looping around themselves. Despite being brand new, it was faded black like an old tattoo.

  “Is that gonna go away?” I asked, still panting. The skin around it was numb, but pink from irritation.

  “No.” Edward pulled the neck of his shirt down so I could see his mark. It even managed to look slightly Japanese. “Can you stand?”

  I nodded, but didn’t try. “Why didn’t you tell me it was going to hurt like that?”

  “The buildup for it is worse. I was warned about the pain, but I was marked as a baby; I don’t remember. Do you still hurt?”

  “No, it’s just numb. Is your book going to be that bad?”

  “The pain was caused by becoming a Guardian, so signing other books will not be painful. You should try to stand.”

  I stood just fine… in my head. In reality, I got halfway up before falling face first into the grass. I screamed out a few words I would normally have been ashamed to say and Edward pulled me back into a sitting position.

  “Magic really won’t help you fight if you can’t stand up.”

  “I can, just give me a minute,” I said. Edward looked around, almost like a predator sensing another predator. “Do we have a minute?”

  “At least a few, but they know we’re near. I believe they’re searching for traps.”

  “Maybe we should have set some. Do you feel a little like a worm on a hook?” The stare he gave me made me roll my eyes. “Never mind. Help me up.” I reached out my hand and he took it.

  “I can help you get up, but I can’t help you stay up.” He pulled me up to my feet with surprising ease, even when my body felt like lead to me.

  “Yeah, I know,” I said.

  Edward turned to peer into the woods behind him. He didn’t need to tell me; I had heard the twig snap. I thought I heard leaves rustle before thunder drowned everything out. I glanced up as thick raindrops fell from the clouds. A storm had come.

  Edward grinned with relief while the rain made his hair stick to his face. “The gods are good.”

  I nodded and scanned the forest. “So, how do I make the lightning strike?” I asked.

  He looked horrified at the idea. “Don’t try; it takes too much control. Just focus on defending yourself.” There was another sound ahead, but Edward looked behind us, toward the skateboarding area.

  It was too late by the time I could turn around; the creature was there. I could feel the cold radiating from it and suddenly, I was back on the ground. Instead of it coming down on top of me, there was a blinding light and deafening noise that sent the beast rolling away. Then it caught its footing and was gone before I could even identify what had attacked me.

  Edward grabbed my arm to pull me back up. “This was possibly a very bad idea.”

  “What’s the fun in life without a few bad ideas? Mistakes and bad ideas caused a lot of scientific breakthroughs.” I knew I would have rambled if I weren’t so out of breath. We looked around and judging by Edward’s posture, we were surrounded. “How many are there?”

  “Still only three. One is very angry.” There was silence. “And one is walking away. The other two are circling.”

  How come I already knew that? “I think I can feel them, Edward.”

  He spared me a doubtful look. “That’s very unlikely, for it takes skill and training.”

  “You were just saying I had one of those two. I don’t feel any different, though, I just think I can sense them. It’s like that feeling you get when you’re being watched, except it’s stronger.” I looked behind me as he did. From the black shadows of the pine trees came forth a beast I really wasn’t expecting.

  I believed that if a dark god was going to send some creature to retrieve something, the god would be creative. I was expecting a demon of some horrifying disfigurement or even a shapeless spirit of black smoke. I was wrong.

  My first impression was that it looked like a giant, scaly cat. However, as it came to a stop under a streetlight, I could see very little resemblance. Its head was much flatter and its ears were sharp and to the sides of its head, more like horns than anything else. Its lips curled up rather like a canine’s to show ridiculously sharp, small teeth. A lot of sharp teeth. Its body was also thinner, and more reptilian. Its scales ended with wicked sharp edges and they glittered black in the rain.

  It was actually much more frightening in its realism. As opposed to the fear of the unknown or supernatural, I faced a giant, carnivorous animal that wanted to eat my face. At the same time, it was alien enough that I couldn’t predict how it would attack or what supernatural advantage it might have.

  Before Edward could do anything about the cat-like beast, the other one emerged out of the small patch of forest from the opposite direction. Running similar to a rabbit, but too fast to see clearly, the beast took Edward down before he could react.

  I turned in time to see the first one in the air above me. Fortunately, since I was already going down when it landed on me, its attack was slightly off and it kept rolling forward, off of me and into the metal rail I had been sitting on earlier. The pole snapped in half without even slowing the creature down.

  Using my own momentum, I rolled back to my knees and then up to my feet with rare agility. Normally I was a complete klutz. I grabbed the smaller piece of the pole, about three feet long, and turned to Edward. Weapon retrieved; five points. Please don’t level up. Edward was dazed, still on the ground, and the cat grabbed the bag in his teeth. Driven by instinct, I swung the bar like a bat into the cat’s face. The bag went flying but the cat didn’t even falter. It snarled up at me as the scales on the injured side of its face turned a pale shade of purple.

  The cat was on me before it even crossed my mind that I made a mistake. I wanted Edward to use his lightning trick again so that if the cat did eat my face, at least it would get fried as it feasted. I imagined the lightning striking the beast and making it light up like a Christmas tree. My fantasy was so vivid, I saw the blinding light that left spots in my eyes and heard the thunder that made my ears ring.

  To my honest surprise, the cat released me and fell to its side. I sat up, dumbfounded, as it lay there, twitching. Its eyes were closed, but it still breathed. The growl from right behind me was my only warning before I was swept right over the injured cat by a massive paw. The cat that had rolled away didn’t miscalculate its landing again.

  I put my arms up to protect my face and neck, but the pain as it bit into my limb was much worse than I had anticipated. Its jaws enclosed my entire forearm, my bone broke in several places, and the beast’s cold saliva burned. It let go of my arm with a fierce jerk and I saw its teeth coming down on my throat. I wanted to close my eyes, but couldn’t. When the sound of metal on rock filled my ears, I didn’t understand what it was. I didn’t even understand why I saw Edward standing over me instead of the beast.

  He had the longer part of the pole and had swung it to knock the cat away from my throat. With the same momentum of the swing, he struck the cat with the other end, forcing the cat up and away, but only a couple feet. Edward turned away from the cat and slammed the jagged end into its chest. Its screech was so alien I couldn’t compare it to the cry of any animal or monster I knew. As if the pole weren’t plunged inside the huge body, Edward pulled it back out to rise in front of him and drove it straight down into the cooked cat at his feet. He turned back, grabbed my uninj
ured arm, and pulled me up. And all that happened before I realized the monster wasn’t eating my face.

  I remembered then that my body felt cold, drained, and wet. He shook me as I wobbled. “Did you use the lightning to electrocute that beast?” he asked. I nodded, unable to comprehend why he was spinning. “What were you thinking?! That was very dangerous.”

  My following hysterical laugh would have gotten me into any psych ward in the world. “I was being creative. Where is the other one?”

  “I don’t know. Quite possibly, it’s going for reinforcements.” But then, as if to prove Edward wrong, it was back.

  My mind was quickly becoming clear, my body began to return to normal, and I could feel it, waiting just out of sight. When it didn’t come any closer, I looked at Edward for direction. “Why isn’t it attacking?”

  “It’s probably the little one who left in order to stay out of the stronger ones’ way. It knows it isn’t strong enough to take on two wizards when they can kill two of its superiors. That… or it’s much wiser and more powerful than the other two.” He looked at me and I could tell there was a plan forming in his head that I wasn’t going to like. “When you used the lightning, you hit the beast perfectly. You have great power and great control for such a young wizard who’s had no training at all. And the fact that you can still stand is impressive.”

  “No, killing two of those things with the speed of lightning, like you did, is impressive. Will I be able to get that fast?”

  “Not on my world. The gravity of Duran is greater than Earth’s; therefore, I weigh less here, so I can move much faster. Normally, I wouldn’t ask this to someone who knows nothing about magic, but do you think you could control the lightning again?”

  “If it’s trying to eat my face, probably. I’m kind of hoping you can.”

  “I did what I could on this weak world and shocked the stupid thing. You thought about it and burned its insides out. If I could keep it off you and keep it in relatively the same place, do you think you can fry it? And… try not to fry me?”

  “I don’t know what I did, really, but I can try it. If I burn your leg or arm off, you’re not gonna be mad at me, are you?” I asked.