Chapter 2
I am flung through the air, my hair flying back from my face as I fly away from the smoke and fire that are spitting through the air behind me. After being air-borne for much longer than I should be, I lightly glide to the ground, landing with a soft thud next to Leo, who is staring at me in amazement.
"You love me and what I am capable of, admit it." I teasingly say to him before blasting a group of Erolights who are charging towards me away. I grin at him and realise that he is holding a bow and arrow in his hands. "Where did you get that?" I say with envy as he shoots an enemy running towards my back. "And how did you learn to use it?"
"While you were inside the robot, our diamonds started flashing, and the cat told us to shout out our element, so I shouted out Fire. Then the diamond transformed and turned into this," he replies. "Look yours is doing it too!"
He's right. My diamond has started flashing. I suddenly know exactly what I have to do. I shout water and throw my diamond in the air, the diamond turning into the shape of a sword as I launch myself in the air, turn a somersault and grab the sword by the hilt. I hit the ground, my legs tucked safely underneath me, the sword held lethally in front. I raise the sword above my head just as everybody, friends and foe, look at me and I yell "AIR, EARTH, FIRE, WATER, UNITE!"
As the last word is said, the sword glows a brilliant blue. I throw my arms in front of me and the blue light bursts out of the tip of the sword, down the line of the ground and hitting the remaining Erolights, making them brightly glow, then disappearing to nothing.
I drop the sword to my side, glaring at the spot where the Erolights were standing. The sword, which was pulsing with blue light, has now stopped, so I lift it up to examine it. The blade is shiny, gleaming silver, cut perfectly. The hilt is blue, with gold engravings all around it. I try to make out what the engravings say, but it is written in a language unbeknown to me, so I give up and glance behind me. Leo is standing there, with the bow and arrows clutched in his right fist. He takes a step towards me and pats my shoulder.
"I think this may be your most memorable birthday yet," he tells me with a grin that I can't help but return. I look past his shoulder and see Drake holding a mace quite comfortably, as if he'd have been holding the weapon his entire life. This comes s a shock because I never thought that he knew what one was till now. Zeke's weapon is a crossbow, which he is now examining, paying no attention to anything else. Behind the two boys, the rest of our school population is fixated on us, no one has moved, and no one is making any signal to involve movement.
Then the cat comes sprinting towards us.
"Well done, you did that much better than what I expected, I must say," the cat tells us in hurried, excited words.
"Yeah, about that. What the hell is going on?" Zeke demands, dropping his crossbow to his side, eyes boring into the cats.
"Look, Zeke, now is hardly the time or place to tell you such things. But you will find out. Meet me at the front of the school when school's over, and I promise you, I will explain," the cat says as he turns to go away.
"Wait!" I yell out, "how do we get out of this?" I point down at our clothes.
"Oh, that's simple, just imagine yourself changing into the clothes you want to be in and it shall happen," he answers before sprinting off.
"Is it just me, or does this day keep getting weirder and weirder?" Leo asks
" I think it's just you really, everything seems normal to me," Drake replies before walking off in his usual strut.
Rolling my eyes, I follow him and make my way up to the crowd. About halfway up the hill, Amelia comes running down before me. After Leo, I rate her as my best friend. Her shoulder length red-brown hair fans out behind her as she lunges for me, and I have to take a step or two back to regain my balance. "Sarvana, oh my, how did you, you could've, but…wow," she finally gets out after a few tries.
I push her back and looks into her teal coloured eyes, which show alarm.
"Amelia, are you ok?" I ask her gently.
Her eyes widen and she sighs. "I don't know about this thing Sarvana. What if you get hurt?"
"Hey, I don't think it's gonna be that big. Stuff like this doesn't happen to people, it's basically impossible. It's most likely just a one time thing." A sharp pain enters my chest and I flinch slightly. "I'll be right back," I tell her as I sprint to the bathroom, running faster than I ever have before, but that thought is pushed out by the thundering pain in my chest. I clutch the sink and heave into it, the pain is so real and so painful it's blinding me and I slump to the ground, hands clutching my chest for dear life, tears spilling out of my closed eyes. I groan and curl my body on the ground, my hands at my chest trying to claw out the pain within.
Then it stops.
I wait a few moments, wait for it to start again, but thankfully it doesn't. Slowly, I pull myself up to my feet, using the sink as support. I look into the mirror and see my glorious face staring back at me, with eyes wide and glistening with tears. There is a thick strip of bright blue that starts from my corner to the middle of my eyes, and reaches back to my temple, widening out as it goes. My hair is blue on the underside, the top of it remaining my glossy, dark brown.
I take a couple of step back to examine the outfit I have been changed into. I have a dark blue singlet that ends about a centimetre above my belly button, which shows off my newly tanned, toned stomach. "So much for modesty," I think. I have dark indigo skinny jeans on, with black boots that reach my knee and cover the bottom half of my jeans. The heels must be around 4 inches, so at least I won't look as small next to the three towering boys. I have knuckle busters on my fists, the sharp pointy spikes gleaming from the ray of sunlight seeping in through the window. My hair has grown from a few centimetres below my shoulders to about the end of where my shirt is, gleaming and glossy. I have a black belt with a gold buckle, which has intricate patterns on it. This is where my whip and various daggers are held into place. Lastly is the necklace, still sloshing around like water, which hangs from my neck. All together, I think it's so much better looking than wearing underpants like superman has to.
I gently wipe the tears from my eyes, noting that my nails are now uniform shapes and painted blue, which I consider to be part of this outfit. I walk out of the bathroom and find Amelia there waiting for me. "How do you get out of that?" She asks me.
"Oh," I say and imagine myself being in my school uniform again. In not even half a second, I am changed. Amelia stares at me, eye wide in shock. I give her a smirk and say "that other outfit looks so much better." She laughs, grabs my hand and pulls me to our next class.
After school, I sit out the front of our school, waiting for Leo or Drake to show up. Zeke is standing a few meters away from me, but is ignoring me completely. I have no problem with this, so I don't bother making an effort to talk to him. After about 5 minutes of this, he sighs and walks over to me, blocking out the sun. "Where are the others?" he asks me in a bored tone.
"I don't know Zeke, why don't you go look for them?" I reply.
"Look, I don't even want to be here, I have better stuff to do. So why should I bother looking for them when I don't want to waste my time listening to that cat or whatever it is explain what is going on?" he says, irritation entering his voice.
I jump to my feet and tilt my head upwards towards him, my eyes burning into his. "I don't know what's going on either, but I want answers. My life was fine the way it was, I don't need whatever is happening to us to be happy. So why don't you just back off. I have no idea what your problem with me is." I yell at him.
"My problem with you is, is that I think this is happening because of you. Or was it just coincidental that these changes occurred on your birthday? Use your brain Sarvana." He answers.
"Well, come to think of it, I have a few problems with you too. Want to know what they are?" I ask him.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Drake says and walks over with Leo by his side.
I take a step back from Zeke and look at him with loathing. "Nothing, absolutely nothing," I tell them, trying to get the anger out of my voice. Zeke makes a sound and I glare at him.
"Where have you four been? I've been waiting for 15 minutes. We have lots to do, come on!" a voice comes from the tree towering over us.
We glance up and see the cat perched on a branch above us, observing us closely. "You've been waiting for us?" Zeke says in an aggravated tone, "We've been here this whole time, you could have told us you were up there."
The cat leaps down from the tree and stands in front of us. "It shows how observant you are doesn't it Zeke? Follow me."
The cat walks off expecting us to follow, which we do. He stops about 100m away from the front of the school and draws a sign, which looks like the peace sign except it's rotated right 90 degrees and has a vertical line going through the horizontal line at the bottom. The sign lights up and all that is left is a tunnel leading into blackness. The cat looks at us, motioning for us to go. I look at the boys who have a curious, although worried look on their faces. "Ladies first," Drake says looking at me.
"Age before beauty," I reply and push him down. His scream echoes back up to us, then Zeke sighs and follows. Leo looks at me and I nod. He jumps and not even a second later I follow, plunging into darkness.
I slide down a dark tunnel, my voice caught in my throat so I cannot scream. After about a 10 second drop I land on top of a hard landing. "Ouch! Sarvana, get off please," Leo says from underneath me. I hop off quickly and have to laugh at the pile up we have created on top of Drake. The cat skids down and gracefully lands next to me. "Before we go on," I begin to ask, "do you have a name, so I can stop calling you cat?"
"My name is Eamon, you'll get a better idea of who I am later," he answers and walks off.
"What does he mean later? Why does he have to do everything so mysteriously?" Leo whispers in my ear. I turn to him and shrug, and we follow Eamon down the long corridor.
It's simple, but lush, with black carpet and white walls. There are a few large pictures dominating the walls, but we don't get to linger and look at them, as Eamon is hurrying down the corridor, and we basically have to run to keep up with him. Finally, we come to a thick sliver door with a screen on the left of it. "How do you get through there?" Drake asks.
"You put your hand on the screen, or paw in my case," Eamon answers, "put your hand on there Drake." Drake takes a step and cautiously places his hand on the screen, squeezing his eyes shut in case it malfunctions. The buttons around the screen light up and the screen beeps. Drake opens his eyes and takes his hand slowly off the screen. The doors open quickly, quietly, and we peer through.
Inside are thousands of humans and animals rushing around. They hear the doors open and they all stop and stare at us, which we return.
"Well don't just stand there, go on!" Eamon urges us, so we tentatively step forward into the building. Personally, I think it looks like the Men In Black headquarters. It looks like it comes out of the future and I am absolutely gobsmacked, I have never seen anything like it.
"It's amazing," I think out loud and I get three nodding heads as an answer. A lady walks up to us, with long, lush black hair flowing down her back and ending at her hips, large, doe shaped green eyes observing us with interest. "The guardians are finally here, and finally ready," she says, seeming to address both us, and the crowd that has gathered behind her. Her features and looks are not quite as perfect as what ours are, but she is still utterly stunning none the less. "My name is Lena, I work with Eamon here, to advise and look out for the guardians of our planet." She smiles at us, which I cannot help but return. "Look at you four, hardly changed at all. But of course, I don't know how you've been bought up, so I can hardly make decisions can I?" she says.
"We've hardly changed at all? I'm sorry, but how could you compare us, I have never seen you before in my life, and I'm sure I would have remembered you," Leo answers her remark.
She gives Eamon a darting glance. "You haven't told them of their pasts?" she accuses him.
Eamon sighs, "I've hardly had the chance Lena, when could I have told them? Tell them whilst they were concentrating on destroying their enemies, or just now when they were to busy gaping at the place when they wouldn't have payed attention anyway?"
Lena's look softens, "of course, you're right. We should tell them here, it's the closest thing to home, so it will help." She looks at us again, "please, do follow me, I'll give you a quick tour around." We follow, as if in a trance. She guides us down a hallway and opens the first door. "This is where we train all our up and coming warriors," she says and points a story down below us, where there are humans and animals alike being trained. Fighting, archery, lessons with swords and axes, and more is being taken place, with at least one hundred pupils. "You may find, that if you are ever in a fight with the enemy and you need help, the best of the fighters will come forward to help, moving along." I stare at the fighters for a few moments longer, all these pupils willing to fight, where I am having doubts about what I am supposed to do.
I quickly catch up with the others where Lena is showing them some of the new weapons that are currently being invented, and which we will later get to use. I get bored with her talking and walk out of the room. I pass a few doors and reach one that is slightly ajar. With curiosity getting the better of me, I cautiously open the door and walk inside, leaving the door still slightly ajar.
It is like the hallway in which we took to enter the building, with huge pictures on the walls, and a large book in the centre. I wander over to the book, and find it is encased in a glass case. It is standing on a stand, the book closed and the cover reading "The Book of Element" "I wonder what that means," I think aloud and walk over to look at the pictures.
The first in the row is a picture of a man and women. They look like me in a way, especially the women I think. Her hair is long, wavy and medium brown and reaches her waist, as mine does now since the transformation. She has the same large, bright, brown eyes, and even the way she smiles reminds me of myself. The man has a sense of self-importance about him, the way he's holding himself and the way he looks. I look underneath the picture to see a plaque underneath that says "King Lucifer and Queen Elanora, one week before the Days of Chaos." Well that explains why the man looks so self-important; he's a king.
I move onto the next picture and gasp. It's of a palace, and it's beautiful. It is a light shade of blue, with a huge fountain out the front, gushing clear, and sparkling water. The gardens out the front are immaculate, perfectly kept, but the palace itself keeps my attention. It's possibly the grandest place I have ever seen, beats all the castles in England.
I quickly walk past the next few, which are basically of the same thing, but one of them stops me abruptly. It's a picture of a teenage boy, with brown, wavy hair with shimmering silver running through it, green eyes framed with thick dark lashes and a smirk. He has strips of silver running from his eyes to his temple and is swinging a mace. "Drake," I whisper curiously. How could a picture of Drake be here? We only did our first transformation today. I move onto the next one and see Leo holding his bow and arrow, winking, his deep, dark hair flopping over his eyes. The next one holds Zeke, actually laughing, pointing his crossbow towards the camera, light brown hair being flicked to the side. Preparing myself, I look to the next one. The girl in front of me is smirking, leaning against the hilt of her sword.
I am shocked, I don't understand. How could these pictures be here? It's impossible. Shocked I sprint out of the room and find Lena and the boys in the hallway, staring at me. "There you are Sarvana, we were getting worried," Lena tells me.
I look at her for a few more moments before I realise my mouth is half open and I look like a complete moron. "Um, can I show you something?" I ask tentatively, and lead them into the rooms, and show them the photos. I see the reactions of the boys are no different to mine; they're speechless. "Would you mind explaining Lena?" I ask her. She stares at me, as if deciding something. "I'll need Eamon to tell the whole story, as I might leave some out," is all she says and leads us out the door.
"Where's Eamon?" Zeke asks, "I want answers, now!"
"Patience Zeke, you never did have it much," Lena answers and leads us to yet another door and opens it. Eamon is inside, reading what looks like an ancient manuscript. "Eamon, they saw the pictures, they want to know the story," she says to him. He looks up at us and sighs, "I would have preferred to tell you a bit later, when you understood a bit more, but Zeke seems determined for answers and you all will bug me for the story anyway." He walks towards us and sits down. "This is the story, of how you all came to be Guardians."