14: Air

Emma exited her fold arriving at her destination. She stood on hard dark gray rock that was ridged all over. The sky above had a slightly green tone with very dark pink clouds surrounding a mountain that was in the distance, the top of it hidden by the clouds, and going by how big it looked it could go on for a good distance above them as the clouds there seemed to go on upwards forever. In all other directions the ground seemed to be this flat-ish ridge lined rock.

"Well, they said Hay Lin was in the mountains above the clouds" She muttered looking at the only mountain she could see. "And as that is tone only one around here, I think that is the place to look."

She spread out all 4 of her wings and flapped away, lifting herself off the ground, she rose a couple of feet up and looked down to make sure it was safe for her to flap hard to pick up high speed. It was then her fear of heights griped her again, she then lost rhythm of flapping her wings and fell back into the ground on her front.

"Why, I can do it now" she moaned in pain as she stood back up. "I flew back then. Why did I beat my fears then and they come back now?" She was panicking and confused as to what was going on.

After spending a couple of moments trying to calm herself she flapped away again, but as soon as she could feel she wasn't touching the ground she felt her fears take over and she dropped back down.

"No, no, no" She called out in frustration, kicking the ground a little, her talons left a little scratch mark.

She stomped around for a few moments to vent her anger. Once she was calm she looked towards the mountain and just sighed, she was going to have to walk it, something overall she was use to doing, having spent all the time walking up and down the mountain back home which meant she had very strong leg muscles, and fortunately despite the fact she hadn't been able to fly, having strong arm mussels for flying was natural so when she did fly only that short time before she had the strength for it, just maybe not the stamina for flight, but she did for jogging. So she set off in a jog for the mountain.

As she set off she didn't notice something flying above her, a raven. It had been watching her from high up. It gave off a little call before flying off upwards into the clouds.

It didn't take long for her to reach the base of the mountain, something she was surprised by, she must have taken only about 15 minutes and she had thought it was farther away. As she had approached the base, looking up she could see there was a ledge that could fit a few people on it only about 20 meters above and possibly the same the whole way up scattered around all over the mountain. There were also small outcroppings, holes, alcoves and ledges covering the rest of the surface.

"Wow, long climb" She gulped a little as she looked up, seeing the clouds above that covered the mountain. Rock climbing was something she had taken up because of her lack of flight, it meant she could get up things that others can do with flight, yet strangely this never triggered her fears, it was only a fear of heights when flying, if she was standing or holding onto something solid she was fine. The climbing meant she had a strong hand grip and her arms were more then capable of pulling herself up, something that her father's species didn't really have, they had the strength and stamina for flying, but not climbing.

She walked along the cliff face a bit, all the while looking up to see where the best point to climb was. Despite all the time she had been climbing since she was 10, that was all on indoor climbing facilities, with full safety gear. Now she was 13, and with no experience on a real cliff, or no safety what so ever she would have to do this, she couldn't count on her guardian or normal wings to save her if something went wrong. She took a deep breath once she found a spot and then made sure her arm wings were tucked back fully, she found her guardian wings made good for feeling the wind along with her antenna in practicing so she would know when to hold in tight. She took another few deep breaths as she reached up a bit with her right hands and griped a little bit sticking out, her claws meant she could grip into the small cracks and crevices around bits. She then took grip with her left hand on a point slightly lower to what she had with her right before bringing her left talon up to a little foot hole and then lifted herself up of the ground, moving her right talon up above her left and also bringing her left arm up above her right arm and both found a point to grip, she then pulled herself up again, this time raising her left talon and right arm above the over. She would then keep repeating in cycle the movements to climb up.

Still above the raven was watching from just below the clouds, as it circles over head something catches its eye from above in the clouds and it flies up into the clouds to investigate.

Time passed as Emma climbed up, stopping occasionally as she got to ledges she could sit on to catch her breath and recover a little, something she found didn't take as long as she would call normal. It was one of the benefits of being in guardian form, increased strength, stamina, recovery time, durability, healing and the powers. Once she felt ready (a minute or so) she would continue climbing up. She had not been going for maybe an hour or so, tho she wasn't sure of the time as there was no sign of the sun in the bright sky. What she did know she was now entering the clouds.

As she passed the base of the clouds she found that ahead she could see clearly, like the clouds were just a barrier, all around the mountain the clouds meant she couldn't see the sky or the ground. Once she stopped for her next rest she heard something make a bird call above her. She looked up and saw the raven standing on the ledge a short distance up. She looked up at it as it looked back for a few moments before taking off and flying up higher.

"Ravens aren't known to be on any other world" She muttered to herself as she got up and started again, only to find herself having to pull herself against the cliff tightly as a strong wind blew across from her right. Once it finished she continued to climb.

She kept climbing till she found she was pulling herself over a ledge into a large opening surrounded on 3 sides by more cliffs going up and hidden away by the clouds. At the other end of the area there appeared to be a tunnel. She walked forwards before the raven flew down over her head and across the area into the tunnel. The swooping raven caused her to duck down, as she raised her head back up she saw something light grey marked out on the ground before her. She walked up some more as she looked around the marking on the floor and then she released what it was, the mark of the air guardian, she was certain she was in the right place.

She kept walking along up to the entrance of the tunnel and walked in. Inside was well lit by small tunnels rising up what she thought was a good 50 or so meters. She kept walking down reaching a junction, both went off in different directions and round corners that meant she couldn't see what is at the end of each.

"Now which way?" She muttered to herself. She looked back and forth between the 2, before clearly hearing the raven coming from the tunnel to her right. She decided that was better than nothing and went down that tunnel, going around it and entering a large cavern about 50 meters across, it was domes to be about 30 meters high and then going up a chimney that was about another 40 meters tall and was big enough for her to fly through if she used her guardian wings. In the middle of the room the raven stood pecking away at the floor.

"Hello, aren't you a long way from home" She softly spoke to the raven as it looked up at her. She slowly crept into the room, crouching down a bit, she then muttered to herself "What are you saying, you are a long distance from home too."

The raven just looked at her.

"You may think me a fool for talking to you don't you" she sighed as she now stood only a couple of feet away from it, then crouched right down, crossing her arms across the top of her knees. "So what brings you to this place then?" she sarcastically asked. "Me? I am searching for someone's granddaughter."

The raven just kept staring at her, occasionally pecking away at the ground.

"What am I doing, talking to a bird, makes me seem like some crazy person from those comics on the internet which were written back in the 20th century, and we are in the 26th now" She rolled her eyes as she sighed. "Wow, I really must be losing it if my whole quest replies on me interrogating a little bird. Granted being sort of related to them probably makes this less silly."

"What is silly is the mistake you made coming here!" A slightly Asian voice called out behind her that made her jump.

Her eyes went wide as she froze in place. The raven didn't seem to be bothered by the loud voice. After a few moments Emma nervously called back "Would you believe me if I said I am only here seeking someone important?"

"Please, I have already about you, pretending to be a guardian to take my key part." The person spoke again. This caused Emma to suddenly became concerned. "Stand up and turn around now!"

The raven took flight past Emma as she slowly stood up, keeping her arms to the side to hopefully show she wasn't a threat. She then slowly turned around to face the voice, seeing in the entrance of the tunnel she came in from a cyan spirit with her lair tied back into 2 long tails that came all the way down her back there. She clearly had a Asian face. While looking at this face Emma could see some familiar traces in it to that of the Oracle. The raven circled the spirit before landing to the right of it.

"You happen to be or know of a Hay Lin?" Emma calmly asked.

"Why should you know, especially considering you are only here to steal something that you want to use for evil" she seemed pretty angry. She floated forwards a bit causing Emma to step backwards up against the far wall, leaving the spirit in the middle of the chamber.

"Who told you I was coming?" Emma curiously asked.

"Why does that matter to you?" The spirit clearly wasn't going tell in a hurry. "Now give me 1 reason I shouldn't just take control of your body and use you as a way of destroying the other imposters that Will told me of."

'Will' Emma thought. As soon as the spirit said the name, clearly by accident because of its anger it all fell into place for her, the Will copy had got here before her and must have tricked this spirit, who going by the way things were playing out must be Hay Lin into thinking that she and the other new guardians were after the key parts, and were pretending to be guardians. She then called out quickly as the spirit approached "Hay Lin! If you think I am a fake then I won't stop you taking me, but know this, your grandmother, the Oracle is deeply concerned about you, and Overseer Will is the reason I am a guardian, she has been copied. Ignore me if you wish and take on the Kandrakar forces, but in the end it will only be yourself you hurt." She stared at Hay Lin as she took a couple of steps forwards prepared to be possessed if it came to it.

Hay Lin stopped just before her, she just stared right back, looking into Emma's eyes. She then started to take a shocked look on her face. "You speak the truth, but that means..."

"I am sorry but you were visited by the copy of Overseer Will created by Demal" Emma sighed a little, relived she wasn't about to be possessed. "He had her access the heart to try and take the key, only to find it wasn't there and then she brake into Kandrakar and still the part from Overseer Will, now he seems to know the locations of the other parts, so she came here, possibly hoping that she would get to you before any of us did, using a familiar face to trick you...wow I am sounding like Terri"

Hay Lin hovered there for a bit, thinking this over. "Now you mention it she did seem a little off, but I thought it was because she said time was short."

"What exactly did she tell you?" Emma curiously asked.

"That Demal is back, with 5 followers who he is trying to use to get the key parts we have by having them pretend to be guardians, and they not human" Hay Lin explained. "She was collecting the parts to re-locate them somewhere better to hide them as Demal has worked out our hiding spots. She showed me her piece to prove she was doing this, and I was the 1st she had come to."

"Seems she was twisting the truth" Emma decided to put thing right. "OK, it is believed Demal took out the previous guardian team to try and take the heart of Kandrakar, believing it had a complete key in it. Overseer Will was sent to earth to gather a new team, this time of half humans like me, during that time we battled him twice, 1st time we managed to force him back because he wasn't expecting us, as he had gone after the Overseer. The 2nd time we were lured into a trap, he revealed his copy of Overseer Will and he had taken someone from our school as a mind slave. During that fight the copy forced the heart of Kandrakar out of its storage inside it's holder and found the key wasn't in there. While at kandrakar she then broke into the Overseers room and stole her key part, so now we have been sent to find you, Irma, Taranee and Cornelia to get the parts back to Kandrakar to keep them from him." Emma talked quickly knowing they were possibly short on time.

"Aww, I fell for the copy method, and I read all those comics where it is pulled off a lot" Hay Lin complained. "I should have noticed something was off because Will seemed cold rather than her normal caring self."

"You like comics too?" Emma asked realising she was getting distracted. "But forget that for now, how long ago did she leave?"

"I left her in the other chamber where it was kept to take the key from a behind a stone where my skeleton is to come and deal with you, It was when I said there was someone else up here she mentioned about you." Hay Lin said turning around, the raven which had been by the entrance to the tunnel the whole time flew off into it with Hay Lin following and Emma ran after them.

The 2 of them reached the junction as the raven flew from down the other tunnel that would have led to the other chamber and hovered before Hay Lin, it make some screeches and then flew off down the tunnel that came from the surface. Hay Lin followed after, then Emma as Hay Lin then spoke to her "Will isn't in the chamber and the key is gone from my remains, but she can't be that far ahead, so we have time before she can get to a distance to fold."

After a few moment they made their way out of the tunnel onto the opening on the mountain and Halfway across the opening was someone wearing a black cloak.

"Hey fake!" Emma called to it as she held her left arm out beside her and her wing opened up on it fully, she then swing that arm before her sending out a strong gust of wind knocking the person over, she then ran forwards, stopping a few steps away as the person stood up. Hay Lin floated a short distance behind Emma with the raven hovering alongside her.

"Pity, I was hoping she would take you as a body as I had plans for the pair of you" Will's voice came from it as she dropped her cloak off she was holding the gold U bit of the key in her left hand as she smiled darkly at them. "Least I got what my dear love wants."

"Love?!" Hay Lin exclaimed. "Matt passed away years ago."

"She is a copy" Emma reminded Hay Lin. "But I did forget to mention Demal has been making her mind as he wants her to be."

"All he has done is set free what my pathetic original just denied herself of truly being" copy Will happily informed them as she stepped back reaching the edge of the cliff. "I feel more as a creature of darkness then she ever can as one of light, and I have her memories, so I know what she knew and ever felt."

"You still are just a madman's creation, to be disposed of when you are done with" Hay Lin called across.

"That is where you are wrong, I am created from 3 sources: DNA from the original, dark magic from my love and the quintessence power of the new guardians. And that dark magic he used on me was a permeate transfer, not a loan like the mind slaves get that returns to him when he wants. He permanently halved his power to give me mine." The copy yelled back as her wings spread from behind her. "Would stay and teach you a lesson but got to get a flight." She then jumped off the cliff. Emma and Hay Lin charged up the edge, only for the copy to be hovering just below it, she then waved as she took flew off into the clouds.

"Better get after her" Hay Lin said. "The clouds can slow her down as within them the winds blow you all over the place, sending you back to where you came from if you aren't prepared or allowed past, and she isn't now."

"About that..." Emma muttered under her breath, realising she should just get it out. "...I can't actually fly."

"You what?!" Hay Lin was clearly shocked by this.

"I managed to fly a little off the ground in practice but only properly when we got into the trap, but I haven't been able to at any other time" Emma told her disappointed in herself. "I am afraid of heights when I am not able to be standing on climbing on something solid."

Hay Lin was clearly panics now, she then calmed herself and spoke. "What was happening when you managed to do it properly? Feeling wise."

"I was afraid of losing my friends, I wanted to get to them." Emma sighed as she replied. "Once I was flying, I was determined not to let anyone down."

"Then find that feeling again" Hay Lin said. "Or another feeling that makes you determined, because if you allow the fear that stops you from flying, that means you can never truly be the guardian of air, who has any wind beneath their wings and is swifter then the wind itself. Find a feeling that fills you completely, one that is stronger than the fear you feel when you try to fly, and then you will be able to blow all your troubles away."

Emma looked over the edge, then spread all 4 of her wings, she crouched down, leaning forwards over the edge, taking deep breaths. 'A feeling stronger then my fear' ran through her head, after a couple of moments she then dived off the edge, tucking her arms down for a few moments as she fell away from the cliff face first, after a few seconds she spread her arms again, catching the air, she then levelled herself quickly, the instincts of flight quickly took over, she then flew into the clouds as she focused on a path to the copy, opening a hole in the clouds to create a tunnel. Hay Lin smiled as she watched then floated after with the raven flying in too.

Emma flew through the tunnel, focusing on getting to the copy. Before her the path opened up constantly, taking her round bends going in all directions. Eventually she saw the copy flying around, clearly struggling to escape the clouds because of the winds that Emma was able to ignore that pushed the copy all over the place.

"Give me that key part!" Emma shouted to the copy as she flew right at her. She looked back at Emma, clearly concerned by the fact she hadn't been able to leave yet.

"Not likely" The copy replied as Emma rammed into her as she folded her arm wings back so she could wrap her arms around her waist to keep a grip and she held tightly, not wanting to let the copy escape.

"You will surrender it" Emma called as she started to have the winds lower the temperature while the copy struggles trying to get Emma to let her go.

"Let go of me!" The copy demanded as she started feeling the chill in the air now, both their breaths now coming out as a white mist. She then grabbed Emma by the head, pulling her hair. After a couple of moment she realised that Emma wasn't going to let go easy. "If you are going to be stubborn." She then sent her lightning across Emma who screamed out in pain from it, her back wings stopped flapping and the shock caused her to let go and start falling. After a couple of moments she regained her composure, spread her arm wings and flapped away, hovering a short distance below the copy, who gave a dark smile as she saw Hay Lin and the raven nearby. "Tell me little guardian, what do you know about familiars?"

"What do you mean by that?" Emma asked back.

"A familiar protects something or allows a spirit to act in reality. And destroying it allows what they protect to be taken, or in this case, severs the connexion the spirit has to the worlds" The copy laughed a little as she then turned to face the raven, holding her right hand towards it and launched a fireball at it. The raven immediately tried to fly away, but the fireball flew after it, homing in.

"No!" Emma called out as she then used all 4 of her wings to launch herself after the raven. This allowed the copy to quickly fly off, Emma being around had calmed the wings and she could just see a faint light on the other side of the clouds, clearly the exit she needed.

Emma flew up right behind the raven as the fireball closed in, Hay Lin watch on unsettled, she knew there was nothing she could do. Emma tried a blast of wind to blow the fireball out or off-course but that failed, it closed in more and more on the raven. Seeing the fireball about to hit Emma made a decision, she flew in, swinging her talons around to grab the raven gently and she pulled it out the way, taking the flow from the fireball on her back. The hit made her cry out in pain as her entire back and guardian wings felt like they were on fire from within. The hit and pain caused her to stop flapping her arms and she started to fall. Hay Lin saw and quickly flew after her.

Emma fell down, getting faster as she went through the clouds, the winds ignored her, she was no threat. She exited the clouds, as she now fell head first, trying to get since of where she was. "Pull up!" Hay Lin called as she flew a short distance behind her, calling out as Emma was getting closer to the ground every second.

Emma eventually came to her senses, seeing the ground closing in fast before her, she quickly spread her wings and flapped them hard and fast to pull herself out of the dive, ending up in a swoop going only a foot off the ground. She pulled up and slowed down, hovering only a few feet off the floor. She then let go of the raven allowing it to fly around her as she then landed, looking up seeing the copy high up in the skies going into a fold.

"Sorry, she got away" Emma apologised as she rested her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath.

"No it was my fault, I gave it to her without checking that it was the real Will, it has happened before, a copy of her causing problems" Hay Lin apologised as she landed next to Emma, the raven then landed on the ground besides her. "Anyway you protected my little friend here, the only company I have had all these years. If anything happened to him I would not be happy in the afterlife."

Emma looked at the raven which then flew up to her and landed onto of her head. "Seems he is perfectly fine" She said, inside smiling, something she couldn't show with her beak. "But still, she took the part."

"What is important is that you tried, and you proven that you could do what you feared. You proved you can do anything that you put your mind to." Hay Lin comforted her. "Well anything within reason."

"Guess I better go and inform Oracle then" Emma sighed as she took the orb she was given, holding it before her opening a fold.

"I'll tag along, I am certain grandma will be wanting to see me safe" Hay Lin happily smiled as the 2 of them went though, raven still on Emma's head. After going through the fold closed.

Next Time: Bonding time and a decision to be made.