Nature's Spirit Chapter 9 Guardian
I woke up the next day, remnants of that dream still floating in my mind. Tom helped me. He saved me. I got up and was about to get dressed, until I remembered it was Saturday. It was early, the sun was only just rising. I thought of going back to sleep, but my mind was wide awake. It was then that I looked outside again, at the balcony, and gasped. The chairs had been knocked over and there were a few scratches and bumps on the whole area. There was a fight on my balcony last night. Tom. I rushed outside and placed the chairs back to their original positions, tracing my fingers gently over one of the bumps left on the railing of the balcony. I shuddered at the thought of the power it took to cause that much damage. I tried to eat as much as I could and got dressed. I knew my mom wouldn't be up until an other few hours, so I got up and headed out. I had time to walk to the woods...
When I reached the street in front of my school, the street I knew he lived on, I made sure to walk extra slowly. If he could sense my presence, he might come out and join me. I went to our usual spot in the forest, but was met with an unusual sight. Tom was indeed here, in slender form, in his pyjamas and looking asleep. His breathing was slower than usual but not slow enough for me to think he was actually sleeping. He uttered out a senseless grumble and began rubbing his face. He smiled when I approached, but didn't move from his position.
"I thought our shouting would wake you up early, and I knew you'd come here."I looked at him, concerned. "You didn't get any sleep at all?" "None." I sat down next to him, my back agains that rock face. I felt two of his tendrills find their way to my ankle and wrap around it. He sent me that comforting static sense. I blushed and looked to my feet. "Thanks for saving me in that dream. You made that tree appear, didn't you?" He smiled weakly. "Not exactly. Jessie made that tree appear. I'm not gifted in any way for my powers, so I can't really affect the way people think. The most I can do is mild calming. Or overwhelm them with static, like all slenders can, but I never had to do that... I simply whispered in her ear while she was focused. Her subconcious made that tree appear." I smiled. He was so smart...I noticed a few bruises on his pale arms. "We had a fight..." "I'm sorry" He pushed himself up a bit. "Why are YOU sorry?" "Well, none of this would happen if I wasn't here."
I'm not entirelly sure what happened next, but his hand reached over, brought my chin up, and light as a feather, his lips brushed against mine. My eyes widened in surprise. I was stunned, unable to move. He laid back down, back against the rock and stared off into the distance. I felt the tendrills around my ankle cling to me a bit harder, and noticed all of his other tendrills winding around anything they could, clinging on for dear life. I gazed into the same spot he did, my mind seemingly having stopped. I couldn't breath, I couldn't think. Slowly, my mind began to work again, my cheeks turning red. He spoke, barelly a whisper. "I broke-up with Jessie. I don't know how our parents will react." I impulsively grabbed his hand, holding it tight.
"I never really liked her, but she fell for me." I couldn't help but say "I can see why." He smirked a bit. "I just went along with it because, well, our parents wanted me to be with an other slender. Both of them have been pure blood 100% slender for generations. I don't know if they'd want me to be with a human. Over time, Jessie took over. I just did nothing. I let her take me around, I let her say all that stuff about us, but I could feel that this wasn't meant to be. Then I met you." Our fingers intertwined and we got a bit closer to each other.
"I've even had several people come up to me to tell me that we appeared to be made for one an other." We both blushed slightly and I nodded in approval. "Yeah. You're not the only one they went to." It wasn't always in a positive way, but there was indeed a large number of people who'd say things like "Hey freaks! You two should totally get together!" or some more kind things, like this one girl who said to me once "You two look like you were just made for one another!" He gave a mighty yawn, fully showing off his teeth, which could be better called fangs. I grinned to him, still feeling a slight tingle on my lips. "You need sleep. Thanks for helping me, by the way." He grinned. "Yeah, I should. And it was no problem. Jessie had no right to do that." We both stood, up, only a few seconds later realizing our hands were still connected and his tendrills still clung to my foot. He retracted the apendages into his back, but instead of letting go my hand, he took the other as well. My heart rate increased as I felt his slightly colder than average hands.
I looked up over to him and he bent down, this time trully giving me a kiss worthy of being called "first kiss" He was warm, gentle and soft, like the feathers of a baby bird. I could hear the rapid beating of his heart, knowing he could hear mine. I felt like I had lightning going down my spine, all my hairs stood up. I felt the first rays of the morning sun warm me and once again, a fire lit the pit of my stomach. This whole moment probably only lasted about a second, but it felt like an hour to me. When I looked up again, we were no longer in the woods, but on my balcony. He let my hands go and fadded like smoke on the wind. I climbed back into my window and flopped down onto my bed, staring at the ceiling. He kissed me. Angie was right. It felt so weird, but good. My heartbeat slowed as I fadded into sleep, thinking of my guardian.
