Author's Note: Hey! Thanks so much for all the support! They're all awesome. Seriously. Every view/review/follow/favorite makes me smile. So keep them coming! And now here's Chapter 4! Enjoy!
Everybody was always so confident that Number Four would be strong and powerful. That he would eventually rescue Lorien from every single being out there.
He wasn't so sure, though. He thought the others were already much more powerful, even at their young age. Number Nine, for example, was always eager to train; eager to be more powerful than he already is. Number Six, too, was always up to do calisthenics and one-on-ones. She was super confident that she would protect Lorien from the big meanies.
Four always liked training too. He wasn't as fast or as strong as the others, but he was determined.
On one of their daily lectures about Lorien, Brandon was saying how one of them would be Pittacus Lore, the strongest Elder in all of Lorien.
Of course, Six and Nine wanted to be him even though they didn't fully understand everything yet.
After their little lecture, Brandon secretly told Four that he thought he'd be Pittacus Lore.
"Really?" Four asks, eyes glistening.
Brandon nodded. "Yup."
Four looked down. "But… Six and Nine are… stwonger!"
Brandon smiled at his little Garde; still so innocent, not at all like the warrior he will soon become. He was confident, though, that Number Four would be one of the most powerful Garde that would ever live.
"They are right now. But soon, you'll be even stronger than they are."
Four looked up, his big blue eyes getting even bigger. "Pwomise?"
Brandon chuckled. "Promise."
For some people, it would take a whole lot of convincing to make Four believe their words, but for Four, Brandon's promise was enough.
…
It was playtime for Number Six and the other young Garde.
On this particular day, Six was bored. She already played with all of the toys with her bestest friends, Number Five and Number Seven. So she decided to have some fun.
She walked over to where Number Four was playing with his Cêpan, Brandon.
She snatched the superhero action figure Four was playing with and waved it in the air.
"Hey! Give that back!" he squealed, balling his tiny hands into tiny fists.
Six just smirked. "Why should I?"
"Because… it was mine first!" he sputtered, standing up.
"Well it's mine now!" Six exclaimed, walking out of the room and into their sleeping quarters, feeling quite proud of herself. Now I can have fun, she thought.
Four merely watched as the young brunette walked away. He felt sad that he couldn't defend himself. No, he didn't feel sad. He felt weak.
Finally, he couldn't handle it anymore and walked right out of the room, his Cêpan trailing behind him He marched to Six's room, stomping his little feet one after the other.
"Hey!" he screamed when he saw Six sitting on the floor, his action figure in one hand and a glass of chocolate milk in the other.
"What?" Six yelled back, her pretty face messy from the milk.
"Give me that back!" he exclaimed, pointing madly at his toy.
His Cêpan just stood back, prepared to step in any minute. But right now, he was curious of what his little charge was up to.
"Why should I?" Six glared.
Four stopped to think for a while. He didn't really know why. He just knew that he wanted his toy back.
He grunted and walked inside the room.
"Because I said so!" he shouted, all his anger finally showing. Six was a little bit shocked. Four was always the shy, meek boy and seeing him be all up in her face like this was definitely new.
She grunted, getting up on her feet and placing the glass of milk on the floor.
"Well what if I don't want to?"
Four lets out a small battle cry before snatching the toy from the girl's hands. Six toppled backwards from shock, knocking over the glass and breaking it into a million bajillion pieces.
Some of the glass shards hit her arm, causing them to bleed. Six cries, her arms flailing by her side.
"Oh no!" Four shouts, rushing to help.
He helps her up but she just keeps crying and crying. Finally, that's where Brandon stepped in, carrying the little girl and rushing her to their clinic.
Luckily, her Cêpan, Kater, was there, cutting up cotton balls and putting them inside a plastic cylinder.
"Kater!" Brandon shouts, setting Six down the bed. One has already recovered and is now stubbornly training with the other Garde.
"What happened?" Kater replies, getting some tweezers, cotton balls, and rubbing alcohol.
"She and Four had a fight."
Kater nods and uses the tweezers to pull some of the shards out. Six winces with every move, tears running down her cheeks.
"Shh, baby. It's going to be alright, Six. This is just going to hurt a tiny little bit."
Six was nodding as Kater soaks the cotton balls in alcohol and very carefully dabs them on Six's wounds.
"Ahh! No more, please!" Six begged, squeezing Kater's green tunic.
"I'm sorry, Six, but I need to do this."
"Why?!"
"So your wounds won't be infected."
Six grunts and closes her eyes, readying herself for the pain.
Kater dabs once again. Six whimpers but tells herself to endure it. You'll never be Pittacus if you're such a crybaby! she told herself.
After the painful dabbing, Kater bandaged up Six's wounds and sent her back to their room. She says she needs to take a nap.
…
Just when Six was about to go nappy, she heard a small knock on the door.
"Kater?" she asks.
"Umm, no…" the voice replied. It was Four.
Six immediately scowled. "What do ya want?"
Four shifted in his place nervously, twisting the doorknob from left to right.
"I… wanted to apologlise…"
Six furrowed her brow. What's apologlise?
Finally, Four opened the door. The room was dark. There were crayon paintings all over the walls—courtesy of Five—that were visible through the glow-in-the-dark moon and stars stickers on the ceiling. On the far left corner of the room, Number One was sleeping, her hands squeezing her doll.
Number Five was also asleep, her arms and legs spread out on the bed.
Four felt intrusive in entering the girls' bedroom, but he has to do what Brandon tells him to: apologlise to Number Six.
He slowly crept closer to her, careful not to bump into anything in the dark.
"I… I apologlise!"
"What's apologlise?" Six asked, tilting her head to the side.
Four shakes his head, sitting down on the bed next to her. "I don't know! But Brandon told me to apologlise to you! He said it was like… saying sowwy to someone!" he sputters.
Ah, Six thought. Apologize! Not apologlise!
"You mean apologize, silly Billy!"
Four nodded vigorously even though he wanted to say his name wasn't Billy.
"Okay! I apologize. I'm sowwy for giving you boo-boos, Six…"
Six crossed her arms defiantly.
"Why should I?" she asked, but she was smiling to herself in the dark. Four is such a silly Billy…
"Because I really super duper meaned it! I meaned it!"
Six giggles, patting Four's shoulders. "Okay, okay. But if you do it again, I'll smack you! Deal?"
Four nods. "Deal!"
