I see you've found the sequel, a feat that deserves congratulations for two reasons: 1) you actually FOUND the sequel, you smart cookie, and 2) you actually read The Guardian. How bold.

Now if one of those two reasons does not apply to you, either you've not realized this is indeed the second book of two (and therefore need to go back as to not explode with confusion), or you are a seriously confused individual who should not be dabbling with unstable and imaginary extracurriculars of fanfiction reading.

Now that the greeting is well and done, it's time to commence in the actual story. I hope you enjoy it. To say it holds the same emotional caliber as The Guardian would be a lie. No. This one is much more hilarious.

Song for this Chapter: Wonderwall → Oasis. I truly wonder what the heck this song has to do with this chapter. To be honest, it has no real relation save for the fact that for whatever reason, it helped me write it.

Disclaimer for all chapters: Most of the aspects of this story are original. However, every now and again you may recognize a familiar face or recognizable place. That would be TP's work.

I would also like to thank my wonderful Beta reader, Dares To Dream, for her Beta-ness.

Chapter 1: Birthday

Once a year every year, a very special celebration comes around: the birthday. The holiday is a celebratory one, calling upon holiday enthusiasts of any nationality to respectfully acknowledge the idea of growth. Then again, the true meaning of birthday is often forgotten among its bounty—money, parties, and gifts.

The only gift Romeli received on her special day was the gift of last goodbyes. She took the opportunity wholeheartedly, bidding farewell to Corus' palace inhabitants; both inanimate and animate alike. Tapestries, squires, parents, extended family, royalty, moderately decorated vases, friends, and other various occupants she had come to know and love—none of them were abandoned without adieu.

These so longs did not last long, and yet each was as painstakingly difficult as the next. Tears, awkward incoherencies, and life advice overcame her from every friend and family member she knew. Her somewhat less emotional goodbye to the tapestries was a blessing—they did not say anything at all.

Of course Romeli realized months before her birthday departure that telling everyone of her next escapade would be just as dumb as it would be pointless. Only close friends and family were informed of her Divine Realm Excursion. All others were left to believe that she was departing for the lower provinces of Carthak as a giraffe diplomat and activist. There were no leads to alert Corus of her lies.

James was left with the same situation, since he too would be parting along with her. Their duple Divine Realm departure was thankfully just that—duple. Alone, Romeli knew the alternate world would be just as scary as it would be alternate. The alternative was having James along with her—a decision he had determined only seconds after being invited. He was bound to the Divine Realm's destiny just as much as Romeli and James were coincidentally bound together.

Romeli sat at the foot of a kind tree, staring at the open space of the clearing before her. There was a slight breeze, making her swipe away her green hair in agitation every few seconds. Her hair had nothing of it, and teased her more with every sudden flurry. To her left sat a small pile of packs.

To her right sat the impatient enticement of adventure.

"They're late," she muttered to the swaying blades of grass at her feet. The grass agreed with her, but secretly did not care who was late, or why.

Conveniently on cue, James gracefully stumbled out of the foliage across from her, packs situated on his back steadily. He sported a fine traveling ensemble, complete with a heavy emerald tunic and black breeches. Around his waist sat a trusty belt, ornamented with a sword and various other weapons fit to be brought to an alternate dimension.

Romeli got to her feet, ignoring assorted complaints as she trampled the grass under her feet. She met James midway, the two standing in the center of the clearing. He set down his pack on the ground and looked at her expectantly.

Romeli's eyes narrowed as she looked him over. "We're matching," she pointed out, eyeing her own green tunic and tight black breeches. The only difference between their ensembles was Romeli's own belt, which held only two daggers. Romeli's belt would have loved a sword, but its owner could not wield it any better than the Carthakan giraffes the palace thought she would be fostering. Coming to this conclusion, the belt said nothing.

"I doubt the Divine Realm's inhabitants will be criticizing our cleverly synchronized sense of fashion," reasoned James, giving her a warm embrace. His green eyes were dancing with his latest witticism.

"I rather like it actually," she confessed as they made their way towards Romeli's designated sitting-tree. "It makes us look like Nonconformist Divine Realm Identity Assassins."

James stopped short, setting his pack down next to Romeli's. "I didn't know we'd be executing the Gods en route to fulfilling our destinies."

"You're right, that's not the word I was looking for at all. We're more like...Identity Scouts."

"Or Name Conquerors."

"But it's more wandering than conquering..."

"Identity Voyagers?"

"No, no...it's on the tip of my tongue." Romeli mused, tapping her forefinger to her chin. Her face lit up. "Pioneers!"

"Nonconformist Divine Realm Identity Pioneers." James let the title sink in before speaking again. "I like it. It makes me feel like a traveler in the unknown."

"Coincidentally that's exactly what we'll be doing," Romeli pointed out laughing. "Once my Guardians get here, that is. They're later than you are."

James ducked his head in apology. "My goodbye to Alanna was...extended."

"How did she take your knighthood abandonment, anyway?"

He winced slightly. "Well..."

OOO

James knocked on Alanna's bedroom door timidly, swallowing down a wave of fear that rivaled his courage for rapping on the door in the first place. Mere seconds after, Alanna was staring up at him and ushering him inside, awarding no opportunity to fall back and reconsider his next actions.

"Make it quick, Queenscove," grumbled Alanna as she plopped herself down in one of her multiple chairs. "My niece informed me just yesterday that she's off to checkmate the Divine Realms. And I don't use my chess piece vocabulary lightly. The whole situation has put me in a foul mood."

Thankfully the foul mood was the most common of moods known to Alanna's character, and James had witnessed it many times before. Her snappy remarks and intellectual board game jargon were nothing new to him.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," he started, sitting down as well. "Romeli leaving will certainly...change a lot of things."

Alanna nodded, glancing at him with an impressive display of sympathy. "You will miss her, a lot, won't you," she started with a nod. "I know what it's like to be separated from the ones you love for extended amounts of time. You don't know what they're doing, if they've changed, or even if they're alive. Just promise me that you won't sink to the state you were in after Romeli's escape from Scanra. No one wants to see you like that again. Romeli will be fine—she's strong enough to take care of herself now, no matter how far away she is."

James blinked a couple of times worried that this conversation had taken a turn he had not anticipated. He held up his finger in pause. "Um."

"But in order to keep your thoughts away from her travels, I've set up an intense agenda that will assertively distract you," she interrupted, her eyes shining with newfound enthusiasm. "We'll be training from sun up to sun down. Starting next week we'll be on the road to the Southern Desert, where you'll learn the healing and fighting ways of the Bazhir. After that, we'll sneak into Galla where I'll teach you the basics of spying and disguise. I was also thinking of taking a trip to Carthak. I know how much you like learning, so maybe you can attend the University for a while. I hear the book collection they have is—."

Unable to take much more, James was forced to interrupt her. "Alanna," he started, shaking his head. "I'm not going."

Alanna's left eyebrow twitched. "What?"

"I'm...leaving with Romeli."

The moment of silence that followed could make any being of less caliber than James ungraciously pee their pants.

Alanna exploded.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THIS MEANS?!" she yelled, making James sink into his chair with wide eyes.

"Y-yes?"

"SIX YEARS, JAMES!!! YOU'VE WASTED AWAY SIX YEARS OF TRAINING!! ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME THAT I'VE BEEN DANCING AROUND TORTALL EDUCATING AN UNENTHUSED, UNAPPRECIATIVE, I'D-RATHER-FROLLICK-AROUND-IN-DIVINE-REALM-FOLIAGE, ADOLESCENT?!"

"Alanna, I have never been any of those things," pointed out James, starting at her frankly.

She didn't seem to hear him. "MORE IMPORTANTLY, I'VE WASTED MY TIME!! I'VE THROWN AWAY TWO YEARS TRAINING A SQUIRE MORE INTERESTED IN...ROMPING...THAN BECOMING A KNIGHT! I'M NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER, JAMES!! DO YOU SEE THIS GREY HAIR?!"

Alanna threw herself to her feet and began to pace the room, furious. James stood up as well and intercepted her pathway.

"Let's look at this reasonably, shall we?" he recommended, holding his hands out in front of him.

"Reason?!" she started. "Don't even talk to me about reason! You're running off with a...a...green haired bimbo!"

"That green haired bimbo just happens to be your niece," he pointed out flatly, holding strong to her sharp tongue.

"A niece I know and love," she admitted. "But that doesn't mean you can go off and run away with her! You can't just abandon your shield!"

"I have to."

She threw up her arms in disbelief. "You don't have to do anything! What you should do is stay with me! I can make you the best swordsman in the country! The best healer in the country!"

He shook his head, as if he were shaking away the temptation. "I need to go with Romeli. It's my destiny. The Gods—."

"THE GODS?! SO NOW THIS IS ABOUT THE GODS?! GODS THIS, GODS THAT. GODS EVERYWHERE WE GO. GODS, JAMES! WHAT HAS GOTTEN INTO YOU?!" Deciding it would be appropriate, Alanna flung a nearby vase at the wall, watching it shatter before turning back to James with a fuming glare.

James' brows rose, impressed. "Love," he answered casually, meeting her hardened eyes with softer ones.

Alanna looked sure to explode a second time, but her threatening expression fell and she sighed. "Sometimes I hate that word," she grumbled before collapsing into the chair again.

"Love makes you stupid," he admitted, settling down across from her again.

"Yeah," she snapped, glaring. "Brainless, idiotic, foolish, senseless, naïve, moronic, unintelligent, inept—."

"I get it," growled James, having enough of her versatile vocabulary.

"Well what am I going to do without a squire?" she complained, her amethyst eyes boring into his.

"Whatever you did before you had my father," reasoned James with a shrug. "Besides, you can always ask my sister. No one has asked to be her Knight Master yet."

Alanna ripped out a stray thread from the chair's upholstery, pretending to be displeased with the last resort. Her chin was stubbornly set, though both of them knew that Alanna would have a meeting with Ryoku the second James walked out the door.

"Fine," she sighed. "I suppose I'll ask the youngest Queenscove. Hopefully she's more dependable and...talented...than you ever were."

"I'm sure she won't disappoint."

"I hate you."

"I'll miss you too, Lioness."

"Leave my room this instant."

James stood up uneasily. "Can't I say goodbye to my favori—."

"GET OUT!" Alanna was glowering, holding another victimized vase in her hand.

He slipped out the door wide-eyed, narrowly missing the porcelain ornament as it flew past his ear and into his closing retreat.

OOO

"...it went better than anticipated," he told her, thoughts still consumed by the dispute with his former Knight Master.

Romeli blinked. "I guess that's good then, as long as it went better than your talk with Numair."

The two of them fell victim to bouts of laughter at the memory.

OOO

James knocked on Numair's office door timidly, swallowing down a wave of fear that rivaled his courage for rapping on the door in the first place. Mere seconds after, Numair was staring down at him and ushering him inside, awarding no opportunity to fall back and reconsider his next actions.

He stole a glance back at Romeli who stood on the other side of the door uneasily.

"What can I help you with, James?" asked Numair as he settled down at his desk. James glanced around the room, eyeing the impressive collection of books before sitting down himself.

"I...wanted to talk to you about something," he started hesitantly. Suddenly Numair's coal black eyes looked much more intimidating than usual. There were odd mechanisms on his desk that practically screamed Court-My-Daughter-And-I'll-Kill-You.

"Your vague introduction has me curious," replied Numair, somewhat amused. "What is this thing you wish to discuss?"

James bit the inside of his cheek. "It's not much of a thing, but more of a human. And to clear away any vague sense you may be feeling...by human, I mean your daughter."

Numair's brows rose as he leaned towards the young man in front of him. "And what do you want to talk about that concerns my daughter?"

The room seemed to rise in temperature, and James found himself beginning to perspire. The charcoal eyes boring into him would be much less intimidating if they weren't the eyes of a black robed mage. "Well...Romeli and I have been through a lot, as you can imagine. I mean, we've been friends since she arrived in Corus. I was there for her all the way up until Scanra, and even helped her escape. I know we've been through a couple rough patches, but in the end she saved my life—and I saved hers."

Numair's stare didn't budge. "Your point?"

A little confidence came from James' words, and he took out a small box to display to the man across him. Inside sat a small silver ring ornamented with glassy emerald stone. "I wish to formally court your daughter."

Numair ran his thumb and forefinger along his chin, looking the part of a philosopher in thought. "What does the word 'courtship' mean to you?"

James froze. "Is...this a trick question?"

Numair's identity of philosopher was thrown away as quickly as it was lead on. "It means sex doesn't it," the mage replied blatantly, looking down on his prey with burning eyes. "Because every sixteen year old boy wants sex. You breathe sex, eat sex, sleep sex, think sex! It runs your life! It runs your brain!"

James held up an apologetic finger. "Um. I'm seventeen."

"WHICH IS TWICE AS WORSE!" Numair roared, slamming his fists on the table. James cowered into his chair. "The only reason you want to court my daughter is because you want to put your penis into her vagina."

James blushed at Numair's forward terminology. "I assure you that I would never—."

"Yeah right." Numair chuckled blackly as he got to his feet. James rose out of his chair as well, hoping that perhaps Numair would look less intimidating if he didn't seem so tall. He inched around his chair as the mage walked past the desk. "You're a teenage boy. I know your type. I've been your type. You're the nice, sensitive, sweet guy. You reel in the woman with a pretty hook, but once you're satisfied with the catch, you throw it right back—dead."

By now Numair had James completely cornered between a malicious bookshelf and an ancient globe. There was no squirming through an escape.

"I—I hope you're not implying that I'm some sort of unorthodox fish murderer..."

"I will say this once," Numair warned. "Go hook a different fish."

James swallowed hardly, meeting Numair's eyes with his own. "Romeli is the only fish I want."

Before James could comprehend what just happened, he was on the ground. He brought a hand up to his cheek bone to see it had split. There was blood on his fingers. Numair hovered over him with a clenched fist.

"You punched me!" he gasped, dabbing at his bruising eye as he rose to his feet.

"You're so stubborn," continued Numair shaking his head. "I know your secrets, James. You're the palace heartthrob. You use the privy with the door open and go river gambling with pirates on the weekends. You skin rabbit fur and make holsters out of them! I can not allow such a man to court my daughter."

James brows furrowed. "I literally have never done any of those things."

"And how am I supposed to know that?" he demanded.

"I don't know, you're the black robed mage!"

Numair's jaw clenched, caught. "So it seems."

James threw his arms in the air. "Why does it even matter?!" he insisted. "I've been in a relationship with your daughter for nearly five months! What's the difference between that and courting?!"

"The difference is sex, Master Queenscove!"

"I will not have sex with your daughter!" James told him, hands in the air as if surrendering.

"How am I supposed to believe you when you two are both leaving for the Divine Realms? There's no parent supervision there!"

"We are perfectly capable of supervising ourselves," James pressed, matching Numair's cold gaze. "It's the difference between belief and trust."

Numair's shoulders fell and he nodded slowly. "Then you may court my daughter."

James froze. "Just like that? No fight? No argument?"

The black robed mage laughed, staring at the young man in front of him with disbelief. "What was all this quarrel before, then? A performance? Look, I knew you'd be asking me this question eventually, especially with your departure just around the corner. I was always going to say yes. I just had to test you first."

He nodded, dumbfounded. "You're a very intimidating person."

"You can thank Carthak's university for the acting lessons," Numair explained as he led James towards the office door. "Come back in a couple days and we'll have a good laugh about this."

James gave the mage a small bow, ignoring his throbbing eye as he did so. The only body part pounding harder than his latest injury was his heart, which began to slow with relief when Numair let him free through an open door.

"Oh," Numair started again. "And no sex."

The door was slammed right in James' face.

OOO

Romeli toyed with the ring embracing her finger as James, in turn, embraced her in his arms. "I still can't believe he punched you in the eye," she told him as they leaned against the trunk of the tree.

"For a while there I really thought he was going to kill me."

"I almost interfered, but decided against it...twice," she told him truthfully.

"Well it's nothing to worry about now," he murmured, stroking away a bit of hair that the breeze had teased into her face. He closed the distance between them, pressing his lips gently against her own.

Hate to break up the burning passion, but it's time to leave, cut in the sly greeting of Old White. Romeli's other two Guardians Sclythe and Naraya trailed behind him with the air of business.

Said burning passion dissipated as quickly as it had come, and Romeli and James hopped to their feet expectantly. The feeling of anticipation morphed to that of nervousness as the two Nonconformist Divine Realm Identity Pioneers stood before them.

You are both prepared then? asked Sclythe, looking at them more with his tongue than his eyes, seeing as that's usually what snakes of any variety did.

"As ready as we can be," Romeli replied with a shaky sigh. She glanced at James for only a second before looking her Guardians in the eye again.

Good. Grab your packs and we'll be on our way.

And so Romeli and James grabbed their packs, containing not only food and shelter, but a strong sense of adventure, recklessness, and motive. All of which, including the food, they needed to survive.

There was a silver flash, and suddenly the party was gone, leaving only a cleared clearing, a cloud of smoke, and a complaining patch of grass in its wake.

So, you like? You may have noticed, if your reading eyes are keen enough, that this writing style is a little bit different than The Guardian's. I'm hoping you like this one better, seeing as I'm attempting to master the genius writing flavor of Pushing Daisies (a show unfortunately discontinued but will be continued in spirit through this story).

I loved writing the fights, and whenever I got stuck, all I had to think of was a man asking his girlfriend's father permission to marry gone bad. To say the least, Numair got a little out of control. With Alanna, well...it was all to be expected.

Replies to chapter 62 of The Guardian:

Selene224: All right. I will address your numerical points one at a time. 1) haha. I completely forgot that there were only seven black robed mages. But we all know how sneaky Maggur is. If he can hide a historical scandal, convince his own counry that he's dead, AND kidnap Romeli, than I'm sure he can keep a few secret black robed mages. Also, TP can't count. Haha. 2) Well...it says in the slavery code that a Scanran Slave can't be physically involved with someone without the King's permission. I guess that sort of makes the rule obsolete when it comes to the king. 3) ya Romeli did sleep for a long time. But I don't think any of us have necessarily gone through what she did. I slept for a whole day once. It was awesome...

I'm glad you liked the story, and yay. Some people do have a problem with Romeli now and again. She's kind of dumb. If I have time to confess, I actually have to say that I don't really have a characterization for Romeli. She's sort of just my train of thought. I always ask myself how I would react in that situation and have her do what I would do. I guess that also explains the somewhat sporadic suger high Romeli's you see throughout the story. :) Happy reading! And I'm looking forward to our own collaboration.

OddAly: Oh no worries!! haha. Business is a requirement in life, and we should embrace it. Yay camp. I love camp. Didn't go to any this summer, but I needed a couple months to relax. Yeah I'd been planning on a panther third Guardian for a long time. I'm glad you liked it! Haha. Yeah. GET BACK ON ALUMINUM! Heehee.

Itachihater: It is over...but alas!!! it has begun again!! You know, I think you were the keep on Moosin' inventor. Applause to you! Omg yay another Moose brethren. I do love moose, though I must confess that I am also partial to the giraffe. It's a problem, really.

Alliekat1996: YAY SEQUEL!!! (celebration) Well I actually took out the antlers all together. In in the chapters that they used to be mentioned. :) hmm. Definitely, thanks for the tips on converting. I think I know what I'm going to do. To make it really different, I'm going to make the perspective from Romeli's view—first perspective. It'll change a lot of things around I think. All I really need to think about is the names. Well thank you for your long review, your help, and your compliments! I'll definitely be talking to you for help when it comes to converting. :)

LittleMissGiggles'94': OMG I KNOW I WAS FREAKING OUT TOO! I really still can't believe I actually finished it. Probably because it's really not over yet. But to be honest I was a little sad. I loved writing The Guardian. I honestly can't believe I persevered through six years of writing a single story. And it's twice the length of HP 5!!! can you believe that? Crazy. Thank you for reading!!!! 3

Meathead-the-1st: lol. No worries, I love reviews with no particular meaning. Haha. Ya well, I love moose. They're just so random. Not to mention the name is so random. I mean, how can I help it? They rock. Haha. OMG YEAH! I love that part with the moose crush. There were a few references to moose in that story. Couldn't resist, really. It's a trademark. Yah I hate good fanfictions (which is pretty rare to find) that are discontinued. It's really sad. I'm very proud that I finished it. :)

dares to dream: AHHHH OMG I HI BETA!!!! Yea she did almost die ten times. When I was rereading the story, I went back and counted just because I was curious. Imagine my surprise (or lack thereof) that she reached the double digits. Haha. James had a pretty high count too. I always imagined Romeli as being older too. When I covert everything to non-fanfiction I think I'm going to start the story when she's seventeen. Originally (when I started writing in middle school), I made her 13. Then I pushed it up to 15 when I was editing. Yes, she will definitely find out why she has green hair. She'll find out a lot of things actually. Awww...I remember back in the day when I started the story. I think I was insane. I just can't believe I finished it. Hmm. And I know. Even when I end the story, it's a cliffhanger. Oh, Moose. You are just so...bold. Oh, and I'm totally planning on publishing it! Once it's good enough. :)

Saphiria: Yay I did finally finish it! ...only to start it again, really. Haha. Yay panther. Ya I've been planning on it being a panther for a long time. I really couldn't think of any other animal. I was tempted to have it be an eagle or something...but panthers are too cool. Omg I'm so glad that you understood Romeli's train of thought when everything clicked together. I was concerned that everything would be too confusing. So your words are a relief. Thank you so much for you awesome compliments!!! Love it. :) And your email didn't show up in your review, so I really hope you find this. I'm kind of worries. Hopefully you're stalking my profile page. Haha. Hmm. You're right. There never was a moose was there. Huh. Perhaps in this story then? You never know...

inktounge: THANK YOU!!! I still can't believe I actually finished it. It's a bit depressing really. I love that story.

Grace: I KNOW OMG I FINISHED IT!!! I'm glad you liked my ending. I was worried that it would be lame. I've noticed that the weakest part in any story is the ending. Hopefully I can pull off another adequate one. And I followed your advice. It seemed like such a good idea, that I couldn't help but throw in James and his scary conversations into this chapter. Hope you liked it! You inspired it! Haha...yea I did scrap the antlers. Omg. James Franco is only one of the most amazing actors ever. He plays Spiderman's best friend in the spiderman movies. Harry? I think that's his name. He's also the stoner in pineapple express. Yesss. I hope you found the sequel. Haha. :)