Author's Notes: Okay everyone, first of all, this story goes out specifically to Racewing and BigWired, who were kind enough to beta-read it for me. Second, as I always say, endless thanks to everyone who reads and reviews my stuff… if I do good, it's because of all of you. Thirdly, have you noticed it seems to rain a lot in my stories…? Anyway, on with the show.
It was a lovely day in Heatherfield. The wind was just right, as was the sun. You could
just walk right out the door and have the time of your life just getting where you were going.
...if you were a duck, that is. If you were a human, on the other hand, going outside
would be a distinctly bad idea. Rain and thunder made a seat on a couch with a good book and
cup of tea look like heaven, which of course meant that in the eyes of the students of Sheffield
Institute (who had little choice but to brave the weather for the joyous reward of education), it
seemed like someone upstairs was having a nasty laugh at them.
Despite all that, however, there was someone who didn't mind the weather so much.
After all, just as they saying goes that there's a rotten apple in every barrel, you'll always have a
handful of people in the world whose spirits seemed to be above everything in the world, able to
be happy with almost anything. In the case of our little story here, that someone was a pretty
Chinese girl who spent so much of the day leaning over her sketch book that the state of the
weather departed her mind as soon as she got to school. Her name was Hay Lin.
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Max "Black Cat" Sanvein presents...
A story of epic(ly small) proportions.
"Support"
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It looked good so far, she decided to herself.
Far from the 'magnificent', 'striking', or 'amazing' it would be when she was finished with
it, but at the current point it was okay to take a break from it. She'd see what her four friends
thought of it when she showed it to them after school. It wasn't really a complicated design, but it
was something that had special significance to her, and that meant that it would take a while to
get things just right. Because for this, things had to be perfect.
People always thought art was fun and games. Granted, most of the things in her life
were fun and games, but she took her art rather seriously. After all, anyone could make pencil
marks on paper, but to turn those marks into something more than simple media - to render a
soft mineral and pressed tree remains into an expression of your mind and personality - was a
power bestowed upon only a few very lucky people. She thanked the stars now and again that
she was one of them. It was more than just a talent, or a way to have fun - it was a passion. It
was special. It was... well... magical.
Yes, that fit it perfectly. And so it was with a light heart - as if that were unusual - that
Hay Lin skipped out of her last class of the day when the bell rang.
Now, earlier we mentioned bad apples and there being one in every barrel.
Unfortunately, to extend the metaphor to Sheffield, there were a few rotten apples about. And
unfortunately for Hay Lin specifically, they all happened to travel in a group, led by a red-haired
miscreant by the name of Uriah.
On the day in question, said miscreant and his clique of clueless cronies were on the
watch in one of Sheffield's main halls, looking to do what they did best: make other people's day
a little more miserable. And when they say a particular girl skipping in their general direction as
though all were right with the world, they knew their moment had come to step off the sidelines
and go to work. Their leader nodded in her direction, and the others followed as he stepped into
her way.
"Well well, look what we've got here. Where're you goin', little girl? Off to the Girl
Scouts?"
For the first half-second it looked like Hay Lin wasn't going to notice him and Uriah was
going to be the newest addition to the hall floor, but at the last instant she snapped out of her
reverie and looked at him. "Oh, Uriah. For a second there I thought a red-haired orangutan got
loose in the school. I'm going home."
The aforementioned circle of slack-jawed simpletons chuckled dumbly in response, and
Uriah got a bit of an angry flush. His guys were supposed to laugh at what he said, not the
goody-goody girl galloping gallantly by his group of goggling goons. It was time to turn the
situation around, and as soon as he spied the sketch in her hand, a slimy sardonic smile slithered
across his scowling semblance. In a deft darting of digits, he pilfered the paper and peered at it
with a puzzled, perplexed profile.
"What the heck is this supposed to be?" He held it at arm's length as the author finally
decided to stop the annoying alliteration. "Some kinda Geometry junk? What a piece of crap!
Looks like some little balloon things in squares!"
Now normally, this would be where one of Hay Lin's dear friends would step in, retrieve
her piece of work, and deliver a verbal blow to their tormentor that would likely blast concrete
and/or be barred from appearing on television. Unfortunately for her, however, though it wasn't
easy to get just one of the five of them alone, that was just what Uriah and his egregarious
ensemble of... ahem... guys had done. And just her luck, it had to be Hay Lin - the one who
always stayed back when these confrontations came up and thusly had little practice with them -
who found herself in that place. Even more unfortunately, Uriah had her drawing, and she didn't
estimate that her chances of getting it back undamaged were that good. If only Will had been
there to transform her...!
"Who told you you could draw, anyway?" Uriah tossed the piece of paper to the side, and
his sidekick Kurt caught it with some difficulty. "You girls never make any sense, y'know that?
Especially you, prancing around like some kinda elf with those dumb-looking goggles on your
head, lookin' like bug-eyes or something."
"Yeah, what is this?" Kurt turned the paper upside-down, then sideways. "Looks like
one'a those posters in the science room with all the little dots flyin' around it."
"Hey, lay off! It's..." Hay Lin started to protest, but Uriah was on a roll and not about to be
taken off it.
"You draw the dumbest things too! Boring stuff like birds and trees and clothes! Holy
cow, clothes! All those stupid-looking outfits... why in the world are you always doodling that
worthless crap?" He snatched the paper back from Kurt and held it right in front of her face.
"Your drawing sucks!" Then, right before her eyes, he crumpled the middle of it in his palm,
before leaning in so close she was able to feel his breath, leaving her temporarily frozen in
surprise. "...and so do you!" He leaned back again, and threw the half-balled paper at her so that
it bounced off her face and landed on the floor. "C'mon, guys. Our work here is done." And with
that, they all turned and strode from sight.
Now, if Hay Lin prided herself on anything, it was her drawing. If she prided herself on
anything else, it was her ability to stay happy through pretty much anything. And while most
people would say she was a pretty good artist and that she rarely failed in being happy, no one
could doubt that she was still very much human, and all humans have points beyond which they
can be dragged resulting in uncharacteristic behavior. For some, it took the form of swearing at
traffic. For others, standing blankly still and silent when dumped. For Hay Lin, whose favorite
thing in the entire world had just effectively been treated like toilet paper (and whose most recent
attempt at a masterpiece had just been half-destroyed), it took the form of a single warm tear
sliding down her cheek. Lost in the stunning effect of having her entire viewpoint turned upside-
down, she didn't immediately react. Instead, her gaze fell slowly to where the paper she'd held
only a minute or two before sat half-crumpled on the floor. If it had been a movie, there would
have been dramatic music playing in the background as she slowly leaned down to retrieve it.
But since it wasn't a movie, all that surrounded her was the din of celebration as her fellow
students thundered toward the exits in a torrent, completely oblivious to her existence.
It wasn't until four of the five Guardians of the Veil had been standing about outside
school for far longer than usual that one of them noticed something distinctly awry, aside from
the fact that Cornelia wasn't talking their ears off about a fashion show that had been on
television the night before. The wonder of that very fact might well have been what insulated
them from making the observation earlier.
"Hey", Will said, "where's Hay Lin? She should've been out here a long time ago."
Slowly, as if Caleb had just peeled off another guitar riff from the school rooftop, the
others came out of their collective trance and looked around.
Irma scratched her head. "Yeah, it was sounding a little too quiet around here."
"Wow, is it really four o'clock already?" Cornelia looked at her watch. "I've got to get
home... if I'm late for dinner, mom will have my skin!"
"Same with me", Will said. "You don't think she's in trouble, do you...?"
"Nah", Irma replied. "The Heart of Kandrakar would have let us know if there was evil afoot. At least, evil that's not school-ish in origin."
"No problem", Taranee responded. "She's probably talking with the art teacher again... I'll
find her. You guys head home."
"Right", the other three agreed. They set off down the sidewalk, and Taranee herself
jogged toward the school's main doors...
...and right into the path of a certain jumble of jug headed jokesters.
"Man, did you see her go?" one of them said. "You'd think there was a monster behind
her!"
"Hey, look what we've got here!" Uriah stopped in his tracks, and the rest of them
followed suit.
"Oh no", Taranee said as she fairly skidded to a halt in front of them. "It's the dingbat
squad, led by Captain Clueless. Have you guys seen Hay Lin?."
"We've seen her alright", Kurt replied. "You shoulda seen it! Uriah crumpled up this
piece-o'-crap thing she was doodlin', an' bounced it right off her goggly head!"
Taranee paused for a moment, eyes wide. Sure, Uriah was a bit of a moron, but would
he really do that?
"Sure did", the redheaded rapscallion replied as he high-fived one of his cohorts. "Now
you'd better run along too, if you... uh..." He paused then, suddenly fixated on what he'd just
seen. Everyone had heard if someone having fire in their eyes, sure, but Taranee's eyes were
usually brown, and now they were looking distinctly... orange-ish. In fact, had he another second,
Uriah probably would have decided that he did indeed see flames therein.
As for the reason why he didn't have another second, well, as we saw earlier, sometimes
circumstances cause a person to behave in an uncharacteristic manner. And just such an
occasion arose for the second time that day as Taranee, the cute, shy wallflower of the group,
kicked Uriah in a very particular spot with a power that might have landed her a spot on the
football team had the school's coach been watching at the time. As it was, he folded like the
metaphorical house of cards and, keeping an appointment he'd missed with a prancing Hay Lin
earlier, became the newest addition to the Institute's floor.
There was little the others in the group could do but stare as Taranee rounded on them.
Before anyone could react, she'd frozen Kurt with the same look as a moment ago. "Where...
did.. she... go?"
"Umm... uh..." Kurt took a wary step back, but the Fire Guardian immediately closed the
distance. "I dunno...! She just ran out the front doors! I swear!"
Out the front doors... that probably meant she'd gone home, which must have meant that
she was avoiding company, and that in turn meant that company was probably exactly what she
needed. No time to waste. Summoning the last of her anger, she threw her hands up and
shouted "BOO!"
The whole group scattered and ran, Uriah clambering to his feet and limping away as
fast as he could. With another uncharacteristic sign - a smirk of self-satisfaction - Taranee spun
on her heel and began the jog to the Silver Dragon.
Taranee regarded her best friends and fellow Guardians with a good number of different
emotions. Considering what they'd all been through together, that rather stood to reason. But as
she made the trip to the restaurant where she'd no doubt find one of them in need of help, she
found a new one as her mind wandered to the fact that if she had Irma's command of water, the
rain would bug her a lot less. That new emotion was envy.
A quick greeting and questioning of the parents upon entering the building confirmed
what Taranee had already puzzled out (one of the benefits of being a good student) - that Hay
Lin was in her room and had been rather quiet for a while. With that in mind, she ascended the
stairs to the living area, and walked to her friend's bedroom door, where she knocked softly, to
no avail.
"Hay Lin?" She called quietly. "Are you in there?" When she didn't get a response, she
slowly turned the knob and opened the door a few inches, enough to get her head in. "Hello...?"
The Air Guardian sat by her window, looking out at the clouds and the falling rain. Near
her, on her bed, sat her school supplies and a half-crumpled piece of paper. Upon hearing her
door being opened, she turned her head slowly. Her look was rather strange in that instead of happy
energy it seemed possessed of a glum melancholy, but Taranee could see that her eyes weren't
bloodshot, nor were her cheeks tear-streaked.
'At least she doesn't seem to have been crying', Taranee thought to herself. 'That's good
news.' She slowly stepped further into the room, and closed the door behind her, suddenly
realizing that had she any sense, she would have given some forethought to what she was going
to say. As it was, though, she would just have to wing it.
"Hey", she said as she walked slowly toward the window. "I heard you had a little run-in
with a certain bunch of dimwits at school."
"Don't really feel like talking about it", came the response. "Not like it really mattered
anyhow."
Now, Taranee certainly wasn't a whiz at psychology, but she could tell when a best friend
was putting on a facade. She wore a look for a moment, one that was halfway between quizzical
and concerned, until she could give words to a thought that finished forming in her mind. "Let me
take a guess here. Uriah and the screw-ups decided nothing would do more to make the world a
nice place than ragging on your artwork and making you feel like dirt. It made you sad, but
nobody feels like being sad, so... you hide away from everybody and try to convince yourself that
the whole thing didn't matter, so it won't make you sad any more." She paused for a moment,
and Hay Lin met her gaze, the Air Guardian's eyes reflecting a feeling she just couldn't quite pin
down. "...and after a little while, you find out that not caring doesn't work for your personality
either, so the whole thing kinda blows up in your face."
There was another pause then, wherein Taranee waited for some kind of response and
Hay Lin pondered just what kind she'd be giving. Finally, she replied. "How... how did you..."
"Hey, we're best friends, right?" Taranee offered a small smile. "Not only that, we're
teammates. To be able to guess what you're thinking is an ability I need to have, right? We need
to be there for each other in times of need. It's what we're all about."
"Well yeah, I guess... but what I meant was, how did you know what those guys did?"
"Oh, that." Taranee waved a hand dismissively. "After a little while the four of us
wondered where you'd gone. I went looking for you in the school, and bumped right into them. I
asked if they'd seen you..."
"Okay", Hay Lin said with a nod. "The jerks..."
"No kidding!" Taranee clenched a fist. "When that big oaf Kurt told me what they'd
done..." She trailed off.
"...you came looking for me?"
"Yeah, after giving that rat Uriah something to think about. I don't think he'll be bothering
you again."
"What did you say to him?" Hay Lin leaned a little closer, the gloom at least partially
obscured by curiosity.
"Nothing, really." Noticing that the look on her friend's face hadn't changed, she brought
back that little smirk from earlier. "Well, let's just say I made sure he'll be walking funny for a
little while."
The effect took a moment or two, as realization spread across the Chinese girl's face like
sunshine at dawn and she slowly got to her feet. "You mean...?"
"Bam", Taranee replied as she mimicked the kicking motion.
"Wow, you did that?" Now Hay Lin was looking incredulous. "You're the quiet one,
remember?"
"Quiet until someone messes with my best friends, filling their heads with garbage. I
mean, you're the happy one of us, remember?"
"I guess so... but I was thinking. I mean really, what am I accomplishing with this stuff?"
She turned away, and her voice softened. "Sure, I can draw pretty well, but in the end what do I
really get out of it?"
"What are you talking about? You do all kinds of great stuff! That costume you put
together for Halloween last year was ingenious, and you know it." Taranee touched the bottom of
her friend's chin, and made their eyes met again. "I'm not going to have you paying any attention
to a bunch of low-life punks who wouldn't know creativity if it turned into a larvex and bit them on
their collective butts. Besides..." She leaned closer and winked. "...a frown just doesn't look right
on you. You need that cute trademark smile of yours. C'mon, let me see it."
"Like this...?" Hay Lin smiled then all right, but something in it wasn't quite convincing.
"Almost, but not quite. Come on, is it really bothering you that much...?"
"I... guess, maybe."
So something else was needed. 'It must have been one heavy shock to her system', the
Fire Guardian thought as she looked around. 'There must be something else I can...' She ended
the thought when an idea hit her... the half-crumpled paper. "Hay Lin? Can I... see it? Y'know,
the thing they tried to destroy?"
"I guess so... it's right there on the bed."
Taranee reached over, picked up the paper, and smoothed it out, then held it toward the
window to catch extra light. It took her a moment to figure it out - it was still a sketch, without all
the clarity of a final, inked drawing - but it was plain enough to see after a few minutes' sustained
attention. A square, with a corner each pointing up, down and to each side, and a level square at
each corner with a fifth in the middle linked to the others four by bars. And within each of the
squares, obviously enough, was one of the five seals that represented the powers of the
Guardians. Around the whole thing was a pair of circles that made a ring, within whose borders
the words 'Guardians Unite' repeated over and over. Also, within the sides of the larger square
and the bars that connected the central small square to the other four, the words 'Friendship is
the Ultimate Power' repeated likewise. It wasn't a striking design really, but then, it was still a
sketch. Somewhere in the back of her mind Taranee figured it would be very impressive when it
was finished.
"Y'know what?"
Hay Lin looked up then. "What?"
"I have a favor to ask you."
"What's that?"
"Actually", Taranee set the paper in her lap. "It's kinda like two favors. First, I want you to
snap out of this funk, okay? You're so much better than this... you're a great artist. And even if
you don't believe that, believe that you will be some day. And as for what you've accomplished,
well, you've certainly impressed a lot of people. Me included."
Finally it seemed that something had broken through. The Air Guardian looked out the
window again and smiled, but this time the real her started to show, with a sort of energy in her
countenance that certainly hadn't been there for the last few minutes or more. "I..." she began,
but closed her eyes and tilted her head down. " I wanted it to be, y'know, special. A thing that would say 'look at us, we're strong, we're cool, we're great."
"Well, I can see the beginnings in there. It's pretty good right now, and I know it's going to get better. Y'know, like you."
Hay Lin looked sheepish and blushed a little. "Thanks."
"Nah." Taranee shook her head. "Thank you for coming out of the blue. And speaking
of thanks, my second favor..." Here she handed over the incomplete drawing. "Finish this,
okay?" She paused long enough for Hay Lin to look up at her again. "See, you've got me
interested, and I really want to see what it'll look like when it's done."
"You really mean it?"
"Of course I do."
There, that had done it. The last of the gloom faded away like fog, and the Chinese girl
looked her right in the eyes with all the energy of a kid in a candy store. She bolted to her feet
and saluted. "You bet! Just wait and see… I'll make it the best thing I've ever done!"
With a relieved sigh, Taranee stood too. "Good. I'm really glad that's over." She paused
again. "You're sure this time, right?"
Hay Lin responded by wrapping her in a tight hug. Not so hard as to be crushing, but
strong enough to make it perfectly clear that she was feeling a whole lot better. "Thanks", she
whispered. "Thanks for being there for me."
"That's what friends are for", came the equally soft reply.
"But I've got a bunch of other friends too, and it wasn't one of them who came. It was you."
"Aw, don't worry about that."
"Worry?" She finally let go and stepped back a bit with a smile that could out-shine a mirror. "I never worry about anything. Didn't you know?"
"Now that's my friend talking."
Hay Lin tilted her head in a mock-puzzled way. "And who was talking before?"
"Oh, I don't know." Taranee shrugged. "So, see you at school tomorrow, right?"
"You bet. And if anybody tells me I'm lousy again, I'll know just what to do!"
Taranee left, and Hay Lin watched her through the rain-streaked window. "Y'know", she whispered
to herself as she held out her hands and spun around a few times, "I so wish you knew how special you are. You picked me up and reminded me that I should just chill out and believe in my dreams." She sat down by the window then, put her head in her hands, and sighed in a wistful way. "You and those eyes… those pretty, pretty eyes. And the cute, short hair. And the…" She trailed off and focused on her own reflection in the window, thinking silently. Then her eyes widened, and she put a palm to her forehead. "Uh-oh, I think things just got a lot more complicated!"
END