Chapter Twelve
North sat on a chair. She was surrounded in a circle of her daughter, and her new friends. Dark was leaning on wall in the room. She smiled. She could see their eagerness. Even Dark was curious.
"It seems that we are in the presence of an ancient power," she said. Dark and East looked at each other with confused looks, while the girls started to look uncomfortable. "Don't be shy, girls," North encouraged them, "Come on! Show us what the Guardians can do."
"'Guardians?'" Irma inquired, pretending to not know what North was talking about, "Where? What are they guarding?" North laughed. She looked at Dark. He nodded, and stared at Irma. Then at Will. Then Cornelia, Taranee, and Hay Lin. Then he laughed."
You can't lie to someone who can look into your eyes and really be reading your mind," East said, trying not to smile.
"So?" North asked Dark.
"Well," he began, "I saw a lot of things. I saw one girl talk to her electric appliances." He turned towards Will as he said this. Then he turned to Irma. "I saw another girl that could make water dance, by just thinking about it." He turned from her to Cornelia. "I saw yet another girl clean her room without lifting a finger." He turned to Taranee next. "I saw a different girl who could shoot fire out of her hands." Then he turned to Hay Lin. "And then I saw a girl who could create a tornado from a cool breeze."
Instead of walking back, he sat in front of Hay Lin, took her hand, and rubbed it between his hands.
"Your hands are cold," She said, rubbing her hands together. Dark smiled warmly.
"So is everything else," he said, taking her hand. He put it on his chest. She could feel his heart beating, but he was still cold.
"Shouldn't your blood flowing make you warm? she thought.
"Yes," Dark replied, "but not mine. It's special."
"What do you mean?" Hay Lin asked.
"Can we stay on topic please?" East's annoyed tone made Dark and Hay Lin decide to continue their discussion later.
"Good," North said. She pulled out a small, black, glowing orb, the size of a golf ball. "This is the Heart of Phoenix," she announced. "It contains unimaginable power. It will transform you into powerful beings, called Keepers of the Gate." She looked at them with a strange gaze.
I knew this was coming, the girls heard Dark think, It's story time.North began to speak,
"Once there was a great war between two nations. The war lasted for ten thousand years. After that time, the children of the nations began to start thinking, and decided to be peaceful. But then one of the Darkness Nation's and one of the Death Nation's, the two fighting nations, people decided to be married. This didn't sit well with either of the two Nations' officials. They decided that, instead of executing the couple, they would be exiled from both Nations for eternity."
"Before they were exiled, the Death Nation woman had a son. She named him Nrey. After exiled, the couple took Nrey and fled to the Earth Nation. They stayed silent about their origins, since the Nations were all at war. Nrey grew up and married the daughter of the Gaia King. They had a son and daughter. Unfortunately, the son didn't live very long. The daughter was named Nreyda. But this is not the end of the story."
"Nreyda wanted peace for her world, So she traveled to the Water Nation. There she created peace between the Earth, Water, Darkness, and Death Nations. While in the Water Nation, Nreyda married a Water Nation farmer. Together they had a son, called Nreyd. She encouraged him to go out of the four Nations and try to unite the other Nations. He left, on his 17th day of birth, to go to the Air Nation."
"He wasn't there for long. The Air Nation wanted peace since the first War of the Elements. But while he was there, he married an Air Nation warrior. They had a son. Together, Nreyd and his wife, whose name has been long forgotten, taught their son, Will, how to make peace with the other Nations. Each Nation has an ability, special to their element. Will had the ability to use Darkness, Water, Earth, Air, and Death abilities. He decided to go to the Nation of Quintessence, the purest of all energy.""He stayed there his whole life. He married a young woman, and had two sons and two daughters. He taught them how to use the powers he had, and their ,mother taught them how to use energy of all kinds, including lightning. The four decided to carry on what there father started, and together went to the Nation of Light."
"On the way, the two sons died. Then one of the daughters died. In the end, the one daughter made it to the Light Nation. There she met a young villager, of whom she wed. They had three daughters and two sons. They wouldn't make peace with this Nation for one hundred years. The three daughters left, to try to bring more Nations together in the truce, while the brothers tried to persuade the leaders of the Light Nation to join the truce. The three girls went to the Life Nation."
"There, two of the girls stayed and had a son and daughter each. The sons and daughters left with their Aunt to the next stop, The Fire Nation, The biggest and most powerful of all Nations."
"The five of them each married a Fire Nation person, and had children. They taught them how to use all the different Nations' powers. But as they learned their powers, the children became vicious. Exiled from all Nations, they fled to the only place left. They fled to the Vampiric Empyre, also known as The Vampyre. While they were there, they had children, and taught them how to use all powers. And being vampiric, they were even stronger. But they were kind, and knowing that their parents were evil, they trapped all of their power in a small, onyx amulet."
"This is the amulet," North said, "It contains the purest of all power. It will help you close the portals that lead to Nreyda. The portals were created by the kind Children of the Vampyre. They scattered them all across Nreyda. The once peaceful world chose a king to be ruler of all Nations. His home would be The Vampyre. This worked for the longest time. Then one king became ill. He had two sons and a third one coming. His two sons were evil, so he gave the kingdom to his soon to be born son. But the two evil sons decided to kill the king before word got out. Together, they planned to kill the youngest son, but their mother had escaped."
"She was a resident of the Vampyre, and had helped create the portals. She had made a portal opener that only the purest of heart could use. She used this to open a portal save her son. The two older brothers have ruled Nreyda in fear after that. It is your jobs to save the Nreydans from the evil brothers, and restore peace to their world."
North stopped. She stuck out her hand that held the Heart of Phoenix. It floated over her hand, and seemed to be looking at each of the six girls. Then it flew to Dark.
"Dark," North said, "you are the Keeper of this Heart, like Will is the Keeper of the Heart of Kandrakar." She looked around. The she said, "You and East are the new Keepers of the Gate."
