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Chapter 9:
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"No!" Hay Lin cried. "What does the mark mean? I take it back—I don't like your surprises anymore. You can't make Ash a bad guy—I like him too much!"
"Quiet, Hay Lin," her grandmother commanded. "I can't control a true story. I cannot control the characters actions, though in retrospect I wish that I could… You will know soon enough if you are patient… and silent!"
"Sorry…" Hay Lin cowered, and awaited her grandmother's continuance.
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Yan Lin looked around everywhere for Cassidy and Nerissa after school the next day. After they had discovered Ash's strange mark, things had been quite uncomfortable, and they went home. Kadma, most of all, seemed quite distressed by it. If it had not been for Kadma, Yan Lin might've not given it a second thought, but as Yan Lin went straight back to her apartment to look it up in her book, she wished she had done just that and shrugged it off. She had vowed then, to talk to Ash about it first, before revealing the truth about him to the others.
Yan Lin tapped her foot impatiently, waiting by the angel fountain in the courtyard like the friends had agreed while passing notes in class.
She spotted Cassidy making her way over, her head down and her eyes ahead glued to her destination.
Yan Lin couldn't understand why they received such strange looks when she and her new friends talked, or when they sat together in class, but today, as Cassidy walked so determinedly over, ignoring the jests of those she passed, Yan Lin began to get it.
It should have seemed so obvious, how different they all were. Yan Lin was the 'new kid', a lost foreigner who barely had a grasp on the language. Cassidy was the Southern sweetheart, too nice to say anything bad of anyone without great excuse, much less fight back to mockery. Nerissa was a loner, a dark individual with no friends. Halinor was the popular with secrets, for though she dressed like she had money, those closest to her knew she hadn't two dimes to rub together. Thank goodness Kadma had a home tutor, so she wouldn't have to suffer the daily horrors of high school in the 1940's.
"Where's Nerissa?" Cassidy demanded, her face flushed with embarrassment from the jokes at her expense. "She's usually the first one here."
"I do not know," Yan Lin explained, equally worried for her.
"Psst!" she then heard from the nearby shrubbery. Yan Lin immediately began to look around for the source, but Cassidy was too busy hiding her face from her oppressors to notice.
"Pssst!" the hissing noise was heard again, but this time Yan Lin had found its origins.
"Nerissa?" she wondered out loud. "Why are you in bush?"
"Shhh!" Nerissa commanded her, much to her confusion, then motioned for her to come closer.
"Are they gone?" Nerissa whispered worriedly.
"No," Yan Lin replied. "Girls still there."
"Not the girls," she said. "Steve West and his friends!"
"Oh, him!" Yan Lin said, finally getting it. "No, he not here."
"Steve West?" Cassidy repeated in wonder, tuning into the conversation. "Isn't he a jock? You have some sort of fancy for him, or what?"
"No, you misunderstand," Yan Lin struggled to explain as she helped Nerissa from the bushes that didn't want to release her just yet.
But before Yan Lin could finish, Nerissa thrust herself back into the hedges, taking Yan Lin down with her. Cassidy saw why.
For just then, a gorgeous brown-haired, blue-eyed boy and his friends came passing by. The handsome one excused himself from his friends and came running up to Nerissa with an anxious look.
"Hey, you're Cassidy Engelbert, right?" he asked her hopefully.
Cassidy could barely speak at this boy's splendor, so she just nodded.
"Steven West," the boy went on. "You're good friends with Nerissa, right? Nerissa Donovan?"
Suddenly Cassidy's smoothness returned, and she put her hand on her hip flirtatiously to the boy.
"Sure am," she said in a low voice, over-accentuating her accent a bit.
"Is she around?"
Cassidy glanced at the bush, where Nerissa was furiously shaking her head no.
"Nope, I'm afraid she's in over her head in shrubbery right now," she joked for her friends. Yan Lin stifled a giggle, but Nerissa was not amused.
"Sorry?" Steve spat in confusion.
"Biology homework," Cassidy recovered suavely. "She has a paper due on plant life."
"Gotcha," Steve replied. "Well, next time you see her, could you tell her I'm looking for her? Our families are very old friends, but she's always so busy…"
"Sure thing," Cassidy agreed.
"Thanks so much," he said, flashing his amazing smile. "See ya."
"You know it," Cassidy promised with a similar grin, and watched as he went back to his friends and went on his way.
With that, Cassidy turned to the bush.
"Oh yes," she said with strong sarcasm. "Very much worth avoiding with every breath in you."
"Which I have," Nerissa said, climbing back out of the bush, her sunny dress now very dirty. "Since kindergarten."
"He's practically a Greek god!" Cassidy protested.
"And he used to throw mud at me and pull my hair."
"Surely he has grown since," Yan Lin added in.
"You don't know him like I do. He's about as annoying as they come."
"And as dreamy," Cassidy swooned. "So you don't mind if I…You know…"
Nerissa threw her arms up to the sky, as if praising the Lord.
"By all means!" Nerissa exclaimed happily. "Give him something to do besides stalk me. Is Halinor coming?"
"You know her," Yan Lin replied sorrowfully. "She will not let friends see her with us. She say she will meet us at her work. Kadma too."
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Cassidy thrust her book bag on the counter, and took a bar stool next to Kadma, as the others followed suit.
"Hey Kadma," she greeted her friend, who appeared to be still distressed. "What's wrong? Still upset?"
"I cannot believe Ash would hide something from us," she lamented. "What could the mark mean? Yan, did you look in your book?"
"I did," Yan Lin replied quickly, fumbling over words. "I saw it there, but…"
Yan Lin gulped, wondering if she should reveal Ash's secret to her friends. She decided to stick to the plan and talk to Ash on it first, before anything.
"No meaning," she lied. Kadma didn't seem convinced of her lie, but she was the only one, so she let it go.
"So it could be anything," Nerissa said. "It could mean he's had some horrible disease. He could be contagious!"
Cassidy laughed and joined the game.
"He could be part of embarrassing club! Or some support group," she laughed. "Maybe he's a recovering alcoholic."
"Who's a recovering alcoholic?" Halinor asked, coming back from the kitchen and hanging her apron on the wall.
"Ash," Yan Lin giggled. "They trying to decide meaning of mark."
"I figured it meant something sad that he didn't want to talk about," Halinor added her own opinion in. "Maybe it's the mark of his dead dad."
"I didn't think of that," Nerissa said thoughtfully. "I think you might be right."
"No," Kadma said gloomily. "I fear it could be worse than that. What if he is working with Roarke instead of against him?"
Yan Lin bit her lip to keep from bursting out. It took all she had in her not to speak.
"That's hogwash," Cassidy insisted. "Why would he put all his men in danger like that? Or why would his evil friend stab him if they were on the same side?"
Kadma remained silent, deep in her own thoughts.
"Even so," she insisted. "I do not believe we should trust him to take us to Roarke. Not if there is a possibility it could be a trap."
"Listen to you!" Halinor exclaimed. "Just yesterday you were all over him, now you want us to avoid him like the plague. Make up your melon!"
"Whoa, settle down, ladies!" the diner's owner called cheerily as he head over to them. Bill was a jolly, round fellow, who enjoyed his work immensely. He had grown fond of the girls over the past couple of days, getting to know them upon their many visits to see Halinor.
"Hello girls," he said. "I know what will turn those frowns upside down! Howzabout a milkshake for the lot of ya? On the house, of course."
Cassidy perked up with a smile.
"That would sure brighten my day!"
"Coming right up," he promised, then headed through the swinging door to the kitchen.
"Alright," Nerissa said seriously, standing up to face all of them. "We can't spend the whole weekend in Meridian with Ash if we aren't in agreement. We'll take it to a vote: All in favor of continuing with said planned royal rescue mission, say 'aye'."
"Aye!" Cassidy, Halinor, and Yan Lin said, raising their hands. Nerissa stared at the motionless Kadma, who said nothing.
Kadma looked to the others and knew she was outnumbered. Sighing heavily, she unenthusiastically raised her hand as well.
"Aye," she mumbled gloomily.
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"Ash," Sydrin sprinted to his leader as fast as he could, seemingly very out of breath from his run. "Sir, a portal has just opened and--"
"Good, the Guardians are coming," Ash interrupted.
"No, Ash," Sydrin insisted to his dearest friend, running his hand through his white hair anxiously. "They have opened the portal in the Forbidden Marshes."
Ash's brown eyes grew wide.
"What should we do?" Sydrin asked. "Do we risk the men--?"
Ash replied by immediately grabbing his sharpest weapon.
"The Guardians are in very overwhelming danger and they don't even know it," Ash answered him calmly. "They must be saved. You and the rest can stay if you wish."
Sydrin grew serious, his bright green cat-like eyes narrowing and growing darker in color.
"Ash, you know we would follow you to death and beyond."
Ash strapped the leather bindings over his staff, hooking it to his back.
"Then take me there."
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Yan Lin looked around once they stepped through the portal, confused at their strange surroundings. The air was so thick and so wet that she could barely breathe. It smelled horrendous, like sewage and thick smog. The place was dark and ominous, with many unidentified noises to frighten them all around. The trees overhead blocked all manner of light, which only allowed the fog to linger. The mud was deep underfoot, so deep she could barely move in it.
Nerissa came next, as did the others, and they too seemed confused.
"Gross!" Halinor cried, looking down at her once white dress, which was now an ugly shade of mud brown and moss green. "My dress!"
"I think we have worse things to worry about," Cassidy said. "Look!"
In the trees, a shadow moved about, a large silhouette of a dog-like animal. They could all hear it's low growl.
"Nerissa," Kadma hissed with worry. "I think we'd better go back."
"No," Nerissa said bravely. "We're Guardians, aren't we?"
"Well, only according to the book, really…" Halinor muttered.
"It's time we started acting like Guardians," Nerissa said even louder, to contradict Halinor.
"Don't say it," Halinor commanded Nerissa.
Nerissa responded by pulling out the Heart.
"Please don't say it…" Halinor begged.
Nerissa grinned broadly at her and held the Heart up in her hands.
"God, I hate this part…" Halinor grumbled, squeezing her eyes shut.
"Guardians unite!" Nerissa shouted and once more, the beam of light burst from her, enveloping the girls in their bubbles once more. The beast watched in amazement from the shadows at the girls lifted into the air and burst from their cocoons looking almost completely different.
"Sound off again!" Nerissa commanded. "Heart!"
"Water!" Cassidy called.
"Fire," Halinor disdainfully called next.
"Earth!" Kadma shouted too.
"Air!" Yan Lin was the last to say.
"Good," Nerissa said, smoothing out the teal dress-like outfit over her blue and lime colored leggings. The odd Guardian outfit was already beginning to grow on her. "Now I feel much safer. Halinor, can you make a light so we can see?"
Halinor lifted her hand up in the air and the others watched in amazement as it brightly ignited, lighting everything around them.
Including the beast, which they could now see very plainly, it's fangs dripping hungrily as it gazed at them with its red demon eyes.
"I changed my mind—I don't want to see anymore," Cassidy screamed. "TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!"
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Please review.
Signed,
--RedRogue