As the woman stepped
closer to the hesitant and alarmed Katsume, the woman smiled with a
glow of fascination in her eyes.
Bright blue orbs that seemed to
pierce into Katsume's own eyes, making her command herself to stand
up and face the woman who was only a few inches taller then
Katsume.
"Who are you?" Katsume blurted out, her voice
wavering on the edge of a threatened and absorbed tone. The one thing
everyone always seemed to ask at times like these.
A slight wind
blew a few strands of hair whipping at the sides of Katsume's face,
but she dare not move to pull it away, for she didn't quite know if
this woman was friend or foe.
Even though the presence of this
woman was yet un-detected, somehow Katsume knew the beautiful elfin
looking woman in front of her meant no harm.
"I am Sora.
Ancient Guardian of the Lunar flowers and Wolves." The woman
replied, her voice silky and smooth.
"My name is Katsume. Are
You..... a Guardian like me?" Katsume asked, raising her shoulders
to a strong and secure posture to hide the uncertainness in her eyes.
Sora looked at Katsume through slanted eyes for a second, as if
scanning something unseen. Then she opened them wide once more and
smiled a small warm and understanding smile.
"I understand you
have yet to learn your purposes, but sadly I cannot tell you, for I
think you will learn them better through yourself with the help of
others. But I am here to tell you something. It might not be long,
detailed, or very good at all to answering some of your questions,
but it is something. So if you like, I will tell you the ancient past
of the Flower and Wolf Guardians." Sora told Katsume, her hand
quick and clear with small gestures as she stared openly, her
monotone voice speaking crisp and clear.
Katsume could only
nod in response and quietly in her mind repeat to ask herself if this
was really real.
"You see," Sora started as she carefully
pulled away a lock of hair that had blow over the line of her high
cheekbones, the rest of her long golden hair falling around her lower
back like a cascading water fall. "I may look like an immortal elf
to you, but too true has it been for the last long years that I've
only been a shadow. The power of one to create things like this blue
world around us, because I am part of it. Part of the shadow."
"Were
you, are you a Guardian too?" Katsume asked, her question sound
simple and child like compare to the mature and wise words of
Sora.
Sora titled her head to one side and replied,
"Yes
and no. You see Katsume, I am of a higher power. For generations, we
the Guardians have protected all sorts of Lunar Flowers, Lunar Flower
Maidens, and Wolves too. Everyone has a guardian angel. I guess you
could call our kind that. And I guess I could call you an earthly
angel. An angel yet to find her wings." Sora beamed at Katsume,
letting her fair long fingers stretch out and gently pat Katsume's
fake wings, now ripped and shredded up a bit from adventure.
"Me? An Angel?" Katsume more asked then said bewilderedly. "It
was more then I could understand when hearing I was a Guardian to a
Flower maiden experiment on the run, but now an angel too?"
"You don't have
to be an angel, because of being a guardian. You're already an
angel for taking such a task." Sora spoke, her voice quiet with
grace.
Katsume smiled at Sora's thoughtful words and thought,
'Is this really real? It all feels.....so warm and new at the same
time. Confusing the most.'
"Now, about the Guardians and
about you. You were born from the likes of an angel being like us and
a wolf, but, because you aren't very wolf at all, except for maybe
some of your sense. Well that is because of an old ritual that wolves
did when they wanted to become human. You might of heard of this
before. Drinking a Flower Maiden's blood."
Katsume gasped as
she remembered the words Darcia seemed to have burned into her mind.
Words so odd and un real that she couldn't stop thinking of them.
"But, how?"
"Some say a Flower itself is very spiritual
and holds great power, but when they become a maiden their power must
increase for reasons I am quite un sure of. So if a Wolf were to
drink even the slightest drop of a Flower Maiden's blood, then the
spiritual power would transfer into the Wolf, therefore changing them
fully into their fixed state of hiding their wolf side behind their
human figure." Sora replied.
Katsume nodded. Even though it was
still a fully detailed subject that she found hard to grasp, she
somewhat understood it better now.
After every word Sora
spoke, Katsume felt a new overcoming feeling rushing through her
veins, as if telling things hidden inside her body to wake up.
"And now, The last of things that I have to tell you before
letting you go. A long, long time ago we angel guardians used to
presume our chosen job on earth peacefully with whom we were supposed
to guard, but then Jaguara came in and banned us farther then the
skies stretched. To another dimension. So now our job was a bit
harder and more lonelier with out being at the side of the things we
guarded. Very few, like you were mistaken for humans and left on
earth, but your lives were hard and cruel as you always searched for
something you did not know of, because of being raised with people
who do not believe such things. But, lucky you earthly angels were
blessed with the rare power of protection. It is not an easy thing to
forgo, and it only comes up once in a while when you really need it.
You will find that most earthly angles like yourself find themselves
with moonstone necklaces one day." Sora finished her long speech,
pointing to Katsume's necklace which was in fact a moonstone.
"So, you are saying that my kind is somewhat different from yours,
us being....earthly angels." Katsume said, her words intent on the
subject.
Sora smiled with respect.
"Guided by ambition and
protected by love." Katsume said aloud, reading from the Japanese
engravings on the silver plated back of the moonstone.
"That
is what you earthly angels are. You have found the person you are
supposed to guard, or have you?"
"What do you mean, Sora?
Cheza herself told me I was to be her guardian." Katsume asked
puzzled.
All around them the blue hue lingered on, waves of it
colliding with everything else blue.
"Like I said before, I
cannot tell you everything. You have to find the answers for
yourself, but right now the only advise I can tell you is to follow
the chosen wolf. For you may be the chosen earth guardian and grow
wings so you can fly from earth to the dimension of angel guardians."
Sora said to Katsume as she smiled at her like she knew something
Katsume didn't.
"But how will I know who the chosen wolf
is?" Katsume asked desperately as everything quickly faded away,
leaving her to herself in the light of the moon.
"Listen to
what your dreams are telling you." Came Sora's soft voice
suddenly, echoing through the trees as if she were the night time
itself.
Katsume's eyes grew wide and her heart thudded against
her chest as sudden flash backs from her dreams of a white wolf
entered her mind.
That white wolf was Kiba.
Katsume found
everyone asleep by the time she came back. She had no idea of how
long she was gong.
Katsume sat down besides Cheza who
automatically as if by sense leaned herself against Katsume in a
state of younger to older sister or daughter to mother way of feeling
safe and protected.
Leaning her head against the rough bark of
a tree Katsume closed her eyes, an old poem that she used to sing
like a lullaby to the trees, flowers, and animals at night time ran
passed her head, which reminded her of this moment.
The poem went
something like this,
Stay with me in my sleep, for your presence
calms my slumber.
The night I touch, shifting beneath the moon.
The scent of Lunar flowers caressing my breath as I breathe in the
white petals, haunted by a snow colored wolf.
With the
remembrance of the old verse ringing through Katsume's ears she
soon fell asleep, un aware that she was silently and softly singing
it as she drifted off, and also unaware of two eyes watching her and
two ears listening to her sugar coated voice.
Kiba watched as
Cheza was instantly drawn near to Katsume as she sat down, and
wondered where Katsume had been for the last hour, but then he had
suddenly felt something twist and turn inside him as the words of
what Katsume sang floated around in his head.
Kiba stepped out
from the shadows to tend to the small fire a bit before sitting down
next to Cheza and staring up at the stars.
Kiba was only a
little offended when Cheza didn't sense him and lean closer to him
like she did to Katsume.
(Thank you peoples who tried to
help me out with that woman's name. After your reviews I actually
found the name and the way it was spelled. It may not seem like it,
but soon this story will be coming to an end. =( I know it's
sort of rushed and a bit spread out everywhere, but I'm slowly
working my way to making an end to this. Thanks again!)
MissKagome
