Kirk couldn't believe what he just saw, "You mean, that person was, Cecilia's queen?!" Alister nodded as he swung his sword, causing it to vanish. "She never use to look that way. Cold and dark, she use to look full of life." Kiara said as she loosened her grip of her staff, her lion ears seemed to droop. Alister sighed, "I was hoping that I would be able to keep her from finding out about you, at least until you had begun your training." Scotty and Lexie exchanged a look of confusion. "Umm, what do you mean by training?" Asked Lexie, she had a feeling she already knew the answer. Alister turned and smiled faintly at her, "You need to learn to control your new powers, otherwise you may end up hurting not only yourselves but others too." Lexie knew that Alister was right, with their new abilities they could really hurt someone. Scotty also knew this was right, he knew just how much these powers could hurt since he had burnt his own hand with them earlier and that hand was still burning. Kirk had noticed that Scotty had been holding one of his arms close to his body, ever since he had entered the room.
"Scotty, you OK?" He asked, "Fine Jim, just burnt my hand when I shot that lightning bolt across my office." McCoy instantly turned and stared at him. "God dam it Scotty, why didn't you say anything?" He said sternly as he walked over to him, tricorder in hand. "We kinda had more pressing matters to deal with." Scotty replied through gritted teeth as McCoy poked his hand, "You've burnt it pretty good." "Well, it was from a lightning bolt." McCoy just glared at the Engineer, he wasn't in the mood for sarcastic comments. At this point Alister stepped forwards, "This is a perfect opportunity to start your own training Leonard." McCoy turned to face him. "I'm sorry, what?" "You were granted the ability to control water, since water helps sustain life it can also heal it." McCoy just blinked, Alister could see that he was slightly befuddled by this so turned to Kirk. "Do you have any way to get some water? A small amount will be fine." Kirk nodded slowly, "Yes we do, just give me a sec." Kirk walked over to the replicator which was in the room and asked for a glass of water, which soon appeared in front of him. Kirk walked over to Alister and handed him the glass, "Thank you." Alister then walked over to the table where both McCoy and Scotty had taken a seat, he placed the glass next to McCoy before taking a seat across from him.
McCoy looked slightly worried, but that faded when he saw Alister's reassuring smile. "Don't be nervous Leonard, you'll do just fine. Now, hold out your hand towards the glass." McCoy simply nodded and did as Alister instructed, he held out his hand and to his complete amazement the water in the glass began to move. "Good, now slowly remove the water from the glass and place it on Scotty's burnt hand." McCoy slowly moved his hand up and the water seemed to follow, so he then moved it over to his friend's injured hand. Scotty squinted his eyes as the cold water touched his burnt skin, "Good, now concentrate on healing the wound." Alister said calmly. Despite being slightly confused McCoy closed his eyes, picturing the burns on Scotty's hand would heal. Just then the water began to glow with a faint blue light, Kirk and the others just watched on in amazement. After a minute McCoy opened his eyes to see that Scotty's hand was completely healed, there wasn't a single bit of burn left. Still gobsmacked at what he had just done McCoy removed the water from the Scotsman's hand and placed it back into the glass, without spilling any of it. "Nicely done Leonard, you're a natural." Kiara said with a smile, McCoy just couldn't believe what he just did.
Kirk then turned to face Alister, "So when does our training begin?" Both Kiara and Alister looked in shock, "You mean… You'll help us?" Asked Kiara. Kirk turned to face the others, who all simply nodded. "Of course we will, we were given these powers to help you, so that's what we're gonna do." Alister smiled, "Thank you Kirk, this will be extremely dangerous." Lexie chuckled as she placed a hand on Scotty's shoulder. "Nothing new there then. Being on the Enterprise we're kinda use to danger." Scotty smiled up at her, "I can see why our Guardians chose you, but to conduct your training we must return to Cecilia. Will that be possible?" Alister asked. Kirk didn't answer, instead he walked over to the com which sat on the wall and pressed the button. "Spock?" "Yes Captain?" "Me and the landing party who beamed back a little bit ago are going to spend a bit of time on Cecilia, however the Enterprise does not need to remain in orbit." The was a short pause before the Vulcan responded, "Are you sure Captain?" "Yes Spock, I think we deserve a little more shore leave after recent events, we'll be leaving momentarily." "Very well Sir."
Kirk then looked back over to Alister, "So, when do we leave?" Alister smiled. "As soon as you are ready." Lexie turned to face Delta who was still sat on her shoulder, "I was going to try and get you to stay here, but I can almost guarantee you won't listen to me." Delta just smiled at her. "You're dam right I won't listen, I'm coming with you. Sure I may have absolutely no idea what the hell's going on, but that's never stopped me before." Lexie chuckled as she booped her robotic friend on the nose, Kirk gave Alister a gentle nod. "We're ready." Alister nodded in response before glancing over to Kiara, who simply tapped her staff on the ground and they all vanished. When they re-appeared they were back on the planet, deep within a thick forest. Kiara then tapped her staff on the ground again, which confused the others. Kiara could see that, "You'll see." Several minutes past but still nothing happened, that was until a creature came charging out from the forest. Well, two creatures came charging out while two others flew in from above. Lexie stared in amazement, one of these creatures walked over to Kiara who gently rubbed its head before turning back to face the shocked crew.
"This is my partner, Akela." Kiara said happily, Akela was a large white fox with three tails which were tipped with pink fur, her paws were black and the fur up her leg slowly faded into grey then white, the same with her ears. Around her neck was a collar of white and red, were a gold bell hung, on her face were red markings. Alister had walked over to greet another one of the mysterious creatures. "This is Shibuki, my partner." Shibuki was a huge white lion, with a pair of wings on his back which consisted of mainly white feathers, but they were lined with gold ones which seemed to glisten in the light. "Kiara, who are these strangers?" Asked Akela, Chekov just blinked, did that fox just talk? "I too was wondering that Master Alister." Kiara smiled as she once again stroked Akela's head, "These are the ones the prophecy spoke about Akela, they have the Guardians powers." Shibuki turned to face Alister, who simply nodded almost as if he knew what the lion was going to ask. Alister then waved over the two other creatures who had appeared, "These are Kiko and Tarika, friends of ours." Kiko was a gigantic white tiger, while Tarika was a griffin. "We can talk more later, but first we must return to our base." "How do we get there?" Asked Kirk, it was then when Kiko walked over to him. "We ride, climb on." Kirk didn't bother arguing, both himself and McCoy climbed onto Kiko's back, Akela crouched down and smiled at Lexie. "You can ride with me if you like." Lexie smiled, "Thank you." Kiara helped Lexie up, along with Delta who was sitting on her shoulder, while Alister and Scotty climbed onto Shibuki, leaving Chekov with Tarika. Once they were ready, they rode off into the forest.
It didn't take long for them all to arrive at what appeared to be… Nothing, there wasn't anything but more dense forest. Chekov was confused, "Umm, where's your base?" He questioned. Shibuki turned to face him, "Sometimes what is real, is something you cannot see young one." Shibuki then spread out his wings and the golden feathers on them began to glow with a soft light, which in turned seemed to open some sort of door. Chekov just blinked as they all walked through the doorway, which led them to some sort of small manor. "How was this hidden?" Asked Lexie, "It's due to Shibuki's ability of illusion, it helps hide our base from Queen Alisandra." Kiara replied as she hopped down from Akela's back and then preceded to help Lexie down. "Thank you for the ride Akela." Lexie said sweetly as she stroked the fox's back, Akela smiled at her.
"You're welcome." Scotty slid off Shibuki, he looked around in amazement at the sight which was around him. "This is where you live?" Asked McCoy, Kiara nodded. "Yep, this is also the place where I study." Kirk when to speak but Alister got there first, "We can talk more when we are inside, come." Alister led them inside the manor which stood in front of them. "Please make yourselves at home." They all sat around a table which sat in the room, "So when does our training begin?" Asked Chekov. Alister chuckled, "Patience my boy, we will start your training in time. But first I assume there are many questions you have about a variety of things." Kirk nodded before turning to face Kiara. "You said this is where you study, what do you mean by that?" Kiara smiled softly, "Here is where Alister teaches me magic." Kirk looked over at Alister, "You know magic?" Alister slowly nodded before clicking his fingers to create a table full of food and drink right before their eyes.
"Kiara is quite unique among her species." Alister stated as he poured himself a cup of what seemed to be tea, with a simple movement of his hand. "In what way?" Asked Scotty, "Like I said earlier, Shikari's can have more than one animal characteristic. Typically these characteristics are past down from parent to child, but with Kiara this was not the case." Lexie looked over at Kiara to see her tiny lion ears were slightly drooped. "Both my parents were Shikaris but, they weren't lion Shikaris. Both of my parents had wings." Kiara's ears drooped completely, "But that wasn't all, from a young age I began to show magical abilities which didn't go down well with my people." McCoy took a sip of his drink before he asked why that was.
"Never in the history of my people has there been a Shikari who had magic, I am the first and very well the only. I knew I would never be excepted so I left, that's when I met Alister, he took me in and taught me everything." Kiara looked over at Alister who gave her a soft smile, "Kiara is a wonderful student and has been a great aid in fighting against Queen Alisandra." "Did you have to fight against her long before, being frozen?" Alister nodded slowly as he placed down his cup. "Our fight against her went on for almost four years, our Guardians wished to find another way to defeat her but, in the end there was only one." Alister then stood up quickly, "We should begin your training, you've got a lot to learn in such a short time."