Chapter 11
All through breakfast, conversation was quiet and tense. Matt noticed that Kelsey and her friends seemed uneasy. It was if they knew something even more sinister than anyone could imagine. And he had a feeling it had something to do with Tyler's disappearance.
That's why, when the five girls slipped away, Matt followed them. They trekked through the woods, then stopped about a half a mile away from the dining hall. The boy quickly ducked behind a large tree.
"Julia!" whispered Hayleigh. "Go close to the cave and see if you can tell where Tyler is."
But Julia wasn't listening to Hayleigh. She stood, staring into the distance, one hand cupped around her ear.
"They're reviewing a plan… the spot they showed us is not the real entrance to their cave… their entrance will be hidden, and they will sneak up behind us… Tyler is in the back of the cave… a soldier just told him to stay put while they were gone…" Julia spoke in short phrases, as if she were putting together these bits of information in her mind and not telling them to her friends.
The girls stared in disbelief.
"How did you hear that Julia?" asked Lacey. "We're still about five minutes away from the cave.
Julia shook her head. "I don't know. I heard something, and I concentrated on listening. And then I could hear everything!"
"Alright then, skip that part of the plan. You guys have to distract them, and I'll get Tyler. Okay?"
"Wait!" said Julia. "Do we transform?"
Matt blinked in confusion. Transform?
"No. We'll stay like this. Tyler won't see us in Guardian form unless it is absolutely necessary."
Julia nodded. "Come on, let's go distract the guards!"
The four of them ran off to the cave entrance. Hayleigh stayed behind. She took a deep breath, and then ran off in a different direction.
Matt followed close behind her. She twisted through a patch of thick trees, and then stopped again.
In front of her was the mouth of a large cave. She could see that the soldiers were already distracted. Her friends had done their job well, tossing bits of water and fire at them, creating whipping winds, and ordering trees to swipe them over.
Hayleigh snuck past the absorbed guards and into the cave. It was very dark and cool. Stone walls rose around her, making her feel secure and claustrophobic at the same time.
She walked about twenty feet before she saw a shadowy figure hunched up by the wall. Hayleigh crept closer, hoping it was Tyler and not another guard.
Her hope came true. The shape was Tyler. He shifted, seeing that she wasn't a soldier.
"Hello?" he said softly. "Who is that?"
"It's Hayleigh. What happened?"
Tyler smiled, although it was invisible in the gloom of the cave. Hayleigh had come to his rescue! "I don't really remember," he told her. "I was sleeping, and then, when I woke up, I was here! The soldiers paid no attention to me, so I just sat here."
"Why didn't you run away?" she asked. Tyler gestured at his feet with difficulty, as they were tied up. His ankles were also bound with thick ropes.
"Oh."
"Yeah. So can you untie me?"
"Um, of course! Sorry!" she stuttered.
"It's fine." As she loosened the ropes, he massaged his wrists. "Those ropes hurt!"
A shout from outside sounded through the cave.
"Uh-oh," muttered Hayleigh. She pulled Tyler to his feet. "Come on, let's go!"
They raced through the cave to the forest outside. The scene they were met with was not pleasant. The four girls were bound to trees with the same thick rope Tyler had been tied with. Their powers weren't strong enough to fight that many guards when they weren't transformed.
Someone else was tied to a tree. Hayleigh gasped when she saw him.
"Matt? What are you doing here?"
He shrugged. "I followed you."
But now the guards saw them. Hayleigh gulped.
"I'm sorry you have to see this, Tyler." She held out her hand. The Heart of Candracar appeared, bursting with pink flames in all its glory.
"What is that thing?" he asked.
Hayleigh shook her head. "It's an unbelievably long story. But no time for it now. Guardians, unite!"
Tyler looked on, not able to comprehend what he was seeing. First, rays of fire shot out of the charm that Hayleigh was holding. They flew around her until she began to float. Then the necklace thing drifted away from her and separated into five teardrops. The turquoise one flew to Mandy, the orange one to Lacey, the green one to Kelsey, and the blue one to Julia. The ropes tying them to the trees snapped. The four girls were lifted up also, and wrapped in light the color of their teardrop. The last teardrop, fuchsia in color, formed a fiery orb around Hayleigh. She curled up in a tight ball. Something was happening to her, but he couldn't tell what it was through the globe of light surrounding her.
Then she was free, and he saw what had happened to her. Hayleigh was taller, and older looking. Her hair was longer and curlier, and her freckles were gone. And her outfit was very… odd to say the least.
Then it hit him. They were the girls who had saved the school. The ones that all the boys had been talking about. No wonder she kept changing the subject whenever that day was mentioned.
Hayleigh saw him staring, and gave him an apologetic smile. Then she launched into the air, her wings a multi-colored blur behind her.
"Hey ugly!" she yelled to the leader of the soldiers. He looked around in bewilderment as she zipped over his head. "Over here!" He finally found her, only to get a blast of energy in the face.
Kelsey went immediately to Matt, who was still tied to a tree. She ripped the ropes, and then grabbed his shoulders, flying him over to Tyler. Setting him down, she studied both of them.
"Better safe than sorry." Raising one hand, she shot a bolt of green at the ground beneath their feet. It shook, and both boys nearly fell over.
But before they could hit the earth, a tree erupted from the soil. Its branches securely cradled the two boys high above the battle.
"Perfect." Then she strode over to a soldier. Crouching, she placed both hands on the earth. Green light sparkled. A vine thrust through the ground, grabbing two soldiers on its way up. They struggled, but couldn't get free. Kelsey laughed, and went to help her friends.
Lacey was busy flaming all the guards' weapons. She hit each one with orange light until it turned red, and its bearer dropped it in shock and pain.
Mandy was making large watery bubbles, while Julia filled them with air. They pushed the bubbles around the trees, and they absorbed every soldier they touched. Soon they were all enclosed in bubbles.
"Good work girls," Hayleigh said, holding up the Heart. Energy shot from it, and a portal opened before them. The girls rolled the bubbles through the portal.
Kelsey touched the tree she had created, and it sank slowly into the soil, releasing the boys.
"What just happened?" Tyler asked.
"What was that blue thing?" Matt wanted to know.
Hayleigh sighed. "Well, alright. Since you saw it…" She took a deep breath. She had a lot of explaining to do.
"Earth isn't the only world," she began. "There are other worlds. One of those worlds is called Metamoore."
"Is that where those… things came from?" Tyler interrupted.
"Yes. Anyway, Metamoore was once taken over by an evil prince, named Phobos. A Veil was created to protect Earth. But the Veil needed strength. So Guardians were chosen to strengthen it and repair it when holes formed. After years of rebellion in Metamoore, the Guardians and the Metamoorian rebels overthrew Phobos. The Veil was destroyed, because the rightful princess, the Light of Meridian, was back on the throne, and all was well."
Matt blinked. "Slow down a bit."
Hayleigh shrugged. "I told you it was a long story. But there is another evil. Nerissa was one of the first Guardians. But she went bad. Now she has taken over the throne of Metamoore, and the Light is missing. The Veil has been recreated, but it is weak. There are many holes. That blue thing was one of the holes, a portal. That's where we come in. We are the current Guardians. Mandy has power over water, Lacey has power over fire, Kelsey has power over Earth, and Julia has power over air."
"What about you?" asked Matt.
"I am the Keeper of the Heart of Candracar. Oh yeah. This," she held up the Heart, "is the Heart of Candracar. It is the key to our powers."
The boys just stared, struck dumb.
Hayleigh smiled. "I know how you feel. Just imagine finding all this out plus discovering that you are the one with magical powers and a responsibility to save the world."
Suddenly, something rolled back out of the portal in a flash of blue. The soldier inside was attacking it with his sword, and it was obviously weakening.
"Oh, why didn't we close the portal?" Hayleigh moaned.
Lacey rushed towards the bubble, ready with firepower. A slash of the sword cut through the prison, and the soldier tumbled out. Right onto Lacey's leg.
"Ahhh!" she shrieked in pain. The others rushed to help. Kelsey called a tree branch to lift the soldier off of Lacey and throw him through the portal. Hayleigh let the Heart float above her palm and the blue light disappeared.
Mandy and Julia knelt next to Lacey, and were joined by Kelsey and Hayleigh in the next minutes.
"You okay Lace?" Kelsey asked softly, squeezing her friend's hand.
Lacey nodded and sat up, wincing. "What are we going to tell everyone?" she asked.
Mandy bit her lip, deep in thought. "How about we say…"
"Tyler was sleep walking, so we went to find him. The note was a prank, we think," Mandy told Mrs. Roan, upon her question of where they had been.
The red haired teacher gestured toward Lacey, who was sitting on a chair, her ankle now wrapped in a bandage from the nurse's station. "And how did she badly sprain her ankle?"
"I… I fell!" Lacey answered quickly. "Actually, I stepped in a hole, and twisted my ankle. I guess it wasn't twisted though. It was sprained."
Mrs. Roan looked skeptical. Finally she sighed.
"Well, you shouldn't have gone off all alone. I'll have to give you all three weeks of detention when we get back. And you must tell your parents, or I'll call them."
The girls nodded, happy that Mrs. Roan was a particualarly gullible teacher. Their secret was safe. Everything was fine. Only Tyler and Matt knew, and they weren't telling. Hopefully.
"Go back to your rooms now. We're going to lunch in a few minutes.
Brooke watched as the girls passed her open door.
"There is something strange about them," she declared. Callie nodded in agreement.
Alison thought back to the girl she had met. "Remember that necklace? That definitely had something to do with it."
"And it shouldn't have glowed," Callie pointed out. "There was no light bulb inside, and no battery. The way she just pulled it out of nowhere…"
Brooke had already tiptoed past her room. She put one ear to the Guardians' closed door.
'Well, our secret is safe," Hayleigh said, sitting on her bed and hugging her knees. The orb was floating above her hands.
"Matt and Tyler know, though. They even saw us transformed."
"Yeah, but, come on Mands. They're trustworthy. Who would they tell?" Kelsey put in, to defend her boyfriend.
"And who would believe them?" Julia added.
Outside the door, the eavesdroppers giggled. "Maybe they do voodoo rituals or something!" Brooke whispered.
Alison frowned. "I think… that they are magical!"
The other two looked at her and then at each other.
"Brooke, she thinks their magical!" Callie laughed, and Brooke joined her.
Back in the room, Hayleigh was pacing. "We need to figure out what our job is. We can't just keep waiting for her to attack us."
Julia thought back to the video. "Wasn't their something about a Light of Meridian? Meridian is the capital city of Metamoore."
Brooke elbowed Callie, telling her silently to listen. This was good stuff here.
Hayleigh paused and nodded. "You're right. And we need to find this Light of Meridian."
"And how are we going to do that?"
The leader sat down and bent over. Tousled waves hid her face completely. "I don't know, Mandy," she said, from inside her protective cocoon of hair. "I really don't know."
"Well," Julia began. "If you were hiding a person, where would you put them?"
Kelsey laughed at how this sounded. "How many of us have actually tried to hide a person?" She rested her chin on her hand thoughtfully. "Except ourselves, I guess."
Hayleigh sat up again. "We need answers! And we need help!"
A single word seemed to echo through the room. Outside, the three girls wondered at the almost reverent silence coming from their enemies. But the Guardians all heard it.
Candracar.
They stepped towards one another. Hayleigh released the Heart in the center of their circle. Hands clasped. A beam of radiant energy seemed to reach from each girl's heart to the pendant.
Candracar.
The word wrapped around them like of Julia's breezes. The air was filled with longings and fears. And then…
Candracar.
Callie couldn't take it anymore. Patience was never her strong point. She twisted the brass knob and opened the wooden door.
"What are you…?"
Candracar.
They were gone.
So there it is. I hope you enjoy!
I was just wondering, which character of mine is your favorite? Why?
You don't really have to answer if you don't want to, but I want to know who's the favorite.