Disclaimer: Any characters or familiar content you recognize belongs to Richille Mead! The rest was just something I thought up. Hope you enjoy!
The dream began as it always did. I watched as my five year old self laughed and cheered on the little boys at her side, as happy and carefree as any child can be at that age. We were playing save the princess, and of course I had to be the princess since I was the only girl (much to my annoyance). I would have loved to be a knight, but those positions were already filled by the two blonde haired, blue eyed brothers Lucas and Zach. It was their job to save me from the evil dragon, played by my older brother Cayden who loved having an excuse to torment and antagonize me any chance he could get.
At this point in the game, the knights were battling the dragon and trying to keep him from capturing me again. Both Lucas and Zach stood in a protective stance in front of me, holding their improvised versions of swords made out of wrapping paper tubes and shields made from cardboard. After a short scuffle they managed to slay the dragon, though it took a couple more times of this for the dragon to actually stay dead as he refused to admit defeat.
With a final fake roar, the dragon stuck his tongue out at us and collapsed on the grass, finally giving up. I cheered for my knights in shining armor as they turned towards each other, hollering in delight and gave each other congratulatory high fives. They turned to me then, kneeling before me and gravely looked up at me.
I curtsied to each in turn, and with as grave a look to match theirs I said the words that were always said at this part of the game. "I thank you Sir Knights for your bravery and servitude. You are now the heroes of the land!"
At this point we were interrupted from the rest of my speech by my mother's voice calling from the house.
"Boys! Lexie! Time for lunch!"
Lucas and Cayden immediately raced inside, eager to beat their younger siblings to the food that awaited them. Zach and I began to follow but right before we reached the door, he turned to me and asked, "Can I be your Guardian when we grow up? That way we can always have fun adventures together and I can always be there to protect you and battle evil Strigoi."
"Only if you promise to let me battle them too. It's no fair being the princess all the time and having to watch you have all the fun." I replied sullenly.
"Ok, deal." We pinky swore on it then turned and hurried inside, eager to get to lunch.
*******
I woke up with a smile on my face, the memory a reminder of a time when things were simple and trouble free. I looked at my bedside clock and sighed with regret. I had woken up thirty minutes earlier than I had too. Figuring there was no point in going back to sleep, I took my time getting ready for the school day, glad that I was one of the luckier Moroi that didn't have to share a room with someone else. I took advantage of this by blasting music through the speakers on my stereo and singing along at the top of my lungs while I dressed and did my hair and makeup.
I was almost finished when I heard what sounded like a faint knocking on my door. Crossing the room, I turned my stereo off and made my way to the door just as another much louder pounding resonated from the other side of the door. I yanked it open to reveal the older version of one of the little boys from my dream this morning.
The dhampir standing before me had an athletic build and was tall, almost 6'3 and most likely still growing. His hair was the same dirty blonde, but shorter in length then when we were kids and his eyes were still the same shade of ocean blue that always held a hint of laughter in them.
At the moment a huge grin was spread across his face and his eyes twinkled with glee. "So I see you're still hoping that music career will work out. I think the entire floor could hear you belting it out."
"Ha ha, very funny Mr. smart ass." I replied with a roll of my eyes. Leaving the door swung open behind me, I turned around and walked back to the mirror hanging in my room so I could finish applying my makeup. He followed me into the room and closed the door and then proceeded to flop on my bed in order to wait for me to finish getting ready.
"So guess who I heard from randomly last night after lights out?" he asked me, with a slight hint of anger.
"Who would that be?" I replied curiously as I covered my lashes with another coat of mascara.
"Prepare to be shocked, and try not to collapse when I tell you. It's too early to cart you off to the hospital wing just yet," he joked.
"Wow, you're just on a roll today aren't you?" I said sarcastically. I'll admit, I am a bit accident prone at times but Zach just always had to rub it in and make me sound worse then I actually was. "Anyways, what's so shocking that you think I'll injure myself just hearing about it?"
"Lucas called me last night. Said he and Cayden might be coming by the academy to see us."
My hand jerked and the mascara wand I was using just missed jabbing into my eye. Instead, it slashed across the top of my eyelid, leaving a black streak in its wake. I spun around to face him, my jaw dropped in astonishment.
Since graduating from the academy, Lucas had become Cayden's official guardian and the two had gone off to a university together. One of the last times they had come back for a visit, Zach and Lucas had gotten into a HUGE fight that ended with bloody noses and black eyes. To this day nobody really knows what it was about, and though Zach and I are really close he still refuses to tell me. Rumors flying around claimed it was because of a girl, but I had my doubts about that one.
Both boys had been and still are popular with the ladies, but I knew they took their guardian duties seriously enough to make girls secondary to their training, plus they had never let a girl get between them before ever. There was the occasional rivalry but for the most part they left each other's conquests alone. As far as I knew, there wasn't a girl in the world that would cause a rift between them but then again it had been almost two years since they had even seen each other so who knew? I figured Zach would have told me if it was about a girl though, so I had immediately dismissed the gossip pouring out of the rumor mill.
"What?!" I said incredulously. "Why didn't I hear about it first then? I would have thought I'd hear from Cade before…you know… since you and Lucas…" The fight was still a touchy subject for Zach, so I never really liked to bring it up. Over my initial shock for the moment, I turned back to the mirror and swore when I took a look at the huge black streak on my face from my mascara mishap. Grabbing a tissue from the top of my dresser, I wet it using a half empty bottle of water I had lying around and began fixing the damage.
Chuckling at my reaction to the mascara on my face he answered, "That's what I would have thought too, but I guess Cade doesn't know that they're coming yet either from what I could tell. He made it sound like it was a spur of the moment decision."
"Huh. Well this should be interesting," I replied. Capping my mascara, I put it back into my makeup bag and took out a tube of lip gloss, applying a quick layer then returned that to the bag as well before turning back to Zach. "I wonder though…do you think it has anything to do with-"
"Don't even start Lex," Zach said, cutting me off. Standing up, he grabbed my book bag off the floor for me, slinging it over his shoulder and began making his way to the door. I followed close on his heels.
"Yea, but what if-"I started again. He spun around suddenly, almost causing me to run into him.
With a scowl on his face he said, "Seriously Lexie, I don't want to talk about that." Turning back around, he opened the door and ushered me out before him and closed the door behind us.
"Alright, alright I won't mention another word about it." I said as we began walking to breakfast.
As we walked, we talked about other things, such as the recent return of Lissa Dragomir and her dhampir friend Rose Hathaway. Like me, Lissa was a royal though sadly the last of her family. Her parents and older brother Andre had been killed in a horrible car accident that miraculously, Lissa and Rose had survived. Though Lissa and I weren't that close, Andre and Cayden had been so out of respect for her and the Dragomir family we'd been at the funeral. It was a huge shock to the Royal world, and I could only imagine how Lissa had felt to lose everyone she cared about. I was glad she had a good friend like Rose to help her through it.
Their return had been a huge topic of interest for all the gossips at school. No one thought they were ever coming back as they'd already been gone for two years. I was glad because I had always liked Lissa, and she was one of the very few Royals I actually liked. Most were stuck up and always somehow took advantage of their status, but Lissa had never been like that and I liked her for it. Rose I didn't know as well, though she and Zach had become friends from training together for so many years. He was usually a good judge of people, so his endorsement was enough for me. Plus, any girl that could kick some ass as well as I remembered her doing rated high in my book.
I was about to respond to something Zach had said when I felt a weird but familiar tingling sensation in the back of my mind. Stopping suddenly, I cocked my head and concentrated on the feeling. Nothing happened at first, so I closed my eyes and waited.
I heard Zach's footsteps stop when he realized I wasn't next to him. They picked up again, backtracking until I felt him stop next to me.
"Lexie?" he asked curiously. Instead of answering, I held up my hand and pointer finger in the universal gesture for "one sec" and went back to what I was doing. There. I felt it again, this time stronger.
A picture began to form in my mind. There were two giant sized figures standing next to a massive sized tree that I realized immediately were Zach and me at this exact moment in time. I turned towards my right and I watched as the picture of me in my mind changed direction at the same time, only in the picture I was now directly facing whoever or whatever was watching me. I continued to watch as the picture got closer and closer, continuing to zoom in on Zach and me, then just me. The picture stopped changing suddenly, and now I had the weird sensation of looking way, way up at myself from the ground at my own feet.
With a smile, I opened my eyes and bent down to pet the cat that now sat before me. To anyone else, what had just happened might have seemed strange. To me, it was a normal occurrence. You see, every Moroi has some kind of specialization in one of the four elements: fire, water, earth and air. Mine happened to be earth, but it was a very rare and unusual kind of manifestation that, as far as I knew, no one else had ever had before.
I could talk to animals.
Please review and let me know what you think and if I should continue!