The Guardian's Kitsune
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Naruto x ?
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Story Start
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Cornelia stood at the edge of the water. She crossed her long arms over her chest and gazed out over the water. The stretch of buildings that made up Heatherfield was just beginning to glitter with evening lights. Cornelia thought she could even make out the steel-and-glass-skyscraper she lived.
Beyon the tableau, the sky was turning flame-orange as the sun set. It looked shimmery and almost painfully pretty. As it dipped even lower on the Horizon, Cornelia shook her head over the contradiction of it all. There was the sun...A serene, beautiful, perfect sphere, getting ready to dunk itself into the rolling, cold ocean.
'I know just how the sun must feel,' Cornelia thought with a sigh. I was living this life that anybody would called charmed. I have a fabulous Wardrobe. Skating medals. A nice enough family, if you don't count my annoying little sister, Lilian. And most of all, an amazing group of friends. Friends I could always count on to be there for me.
Now my nice, orderly life is about to be plunged into chaos. That stinks, she continued to muse petulantly.
''Where is Will? It's cold here,'' Cornelia said brusquely, turning to look at the other three members of Witch. They had just arrived after she had. Now they were standing behind her, Hay Lin and Irma huddling around Taranee for warmth who produced a ball of flame about the size of her hand for warmth.
''She called me to say she's running a little late,'' Irma said with a shrug. ''I think she wanted to take a shower.'' As Irma spoke, a particularly large breaker crashed onto the sand.
Cornelia had to skitter backward to avoid getting her sneakers soaked. ''We'll be taking a shower ourselves if we stay here much longer,'' she declared. ''These waves are out of control!''
Irma flashed Cornelia one of her trademark, cocky grins...the kind that usually made Cornelia's blood boil. But this time, Irma had a welcome retort.
''Don't be afraid of the water, Cornelia,'' she said. ''At least not when I'm standing next to you!" Irma planted her red shoes in the sand and turned to face another frothy wave that was headed straight for them. She threw her arms into the air. A shower of blue magic arched out into the ocean, dappling the giant wave just as it began to speak. The moment Irma's mystical blue stream hit the water; the wave seemed to stop in its tracks. In fact, it reared back like a shying horse! It flipped over, flinging itself back into the sea without ever connecting to the shore.
Irma turned to Cornelia, Haylin, and Taranee with a pleased smile and dusted sparks of excess magic off her hands.
Cornelia felt a little spasm of jealousy. She knew just how Irma was feeling just then. After all, Cornelia had used her own swirls of green magic to make vines grow instantly out of the earth. She could break through walls of thick brick and even metal. She'd sped up time and tidied her bedroom without lifting a finger. She'd known true power and she'd been thrilled by it. But, unlike Irma, Cornelia felt compelled to rein her magic in when she was in public.
'Out magic is a gift and a curse,' she thought broodingly. 'I'd never use it as frivolously as Irma does. Besides, what if someone saw us? They'd think we were circus freaks! We'd become instant outfielders.''
Outfielders, of course, was name given to the unpopular kids at Sheffield Institute. Cornelia had always been an Infielder at school and she really wanted to keep it that way. That meant keeping her magic a thoroughly private matter.
'If that's even possible. Frankly I feel like I'm losing control of this whole situation. I mean, Will's calling the shots. And, if I want to be a team player, I just have to go along with what she says.'
Cornelia was even more disturbed by the mystery surrounded Meridian. The place was only a dark and shadowy puzzle in her mind. She had no idea of what to expect when the girls crossed through the portal in a few minutes. She didn't even know if they'd survive this!
Of course, Irma and Hay Lin aren't thinking so bleakly, Cornelia thought, glancing at her grinning friends. They're still giddy over Irma's little parlor trick.
Taranee seemed to be lost in thought. ''I can't believe what you just did!"' Hay Lin was sputtering to Irma. ''Can you control all these waves?''
''Well,'' Irma said with false modesty. ''It's not like I can make them go away. But I can ask them to take their foamy selves elsewhere!''
''Tell them to stay far away from our cave!" called a voice behind the four guardians. They spun around in time to see Will pedaling her bike to the edge of the beach and grinding to a halt. She looked windblown and harried. ''I think it's time for us to head for that portal.''
''Will,'' Irma breathed, ''Finally!"
Giving them an apologetic look, Will got off her bike. Then the girls walked over the huge, looming cave whose mouth was the shape of a perfect scallop shell. As they went inside, Irma said, ''Since you've just arrived in town, Will; and you're relatively new to Taranee, let me introduce you to the shell cave!"'
''A bit unusual!" Taranee commented adjusting her glasses.
''Kinda strange!"' Will agreed, gazing up at the almost perfectly round, craggy ceiling. As she peered into the cave's gloom, she scratched her neck. Then she scratched one of her wrists. Then she moved back to her neck, scritch-scritch-scritching away.
''What's up?'' Hay Lin asked, giving Will a fishy look. ''Why are you scratching yourself?''
''Because nettle bushes have hateful, irritating leaves!"' Will said with a grimace...and another scratch.
''That's not really an answer, is it?'' Hay Lin replied with a cocked eyebrow and sly grin.
''Well, it's the truth,'' Will responded as her cheeks darkened a shade of cherry blossom pink. She didn't want to give her friends any specific details about her sudden itchiness.
''Okay, whatever,'' Cornelia said, butting in. ''We've got some work to do. I think we should create some astral drops to substitute for us.''
Hay Lin's face fell. ''Is that really necessary?'' She squealed.
''I don't know when we'll be coming back," Cornelia said with a curt nod. ''To tell you the truth, I don't know if we'll come...''
''Of course we'll come back, Cornelia,'' Will interrupted her. ''All of us...Naruto too!"' The girl said clutching her hand.
Cornelia turned to gaze at Will. ''If you're so certain of that,'' she said,''...then why don't you put your money where your mouth is? Make an astral drop with the rest of us, so we can be on our way to Metamoor.'' She knew her voice was dripping with challenge. But that was just the way if had to be. If Will was going to fight her at every turn, she'd fight back.
''Be quiet, and I will whip up a double!'' Will declared, sticking her chin out. ''But I'm doing it for Naruto. Only for him.''
Taranee was surprised by how determined Will was. She had this strange feeling beating in her chest. Will seemed to really care about this guy. So she should be happy for her friend right? So what was this feeling?
Will clamped her eyes shut and balled her hands into fists. Following her lead, Irma, Taranee, and Hay Lin became still, too. In fact, as they fell into states of deep concentration, they began to...glow! Streams of cool, blue light began to swirl around their bodies. The glow grew so bright and strong it began to stream out of the shell cave's entrance.
Cornelia closed her eyes as well. She imagined her astral drop...her double, her clone separating from her. She envisioned that phantom Cornelia sleeping in her bed, kissing her sister good-night, flirting with boys in the halls of school. She felt a stab of pain at the idea of this specter...an intruder...living her life.
But then, Cornelia thought of Naruto...the guy trapped in Metamoor. How he sacrificed his freedom to help them escape and to help them against their enemy too.
'It's worth it.' Cornelia thought to herself, 'to help this Naruto all, what is friendship, if not giving up a bit of yourself?'
As the thought skimmed through Cornelia's mind, she felt suddenly lighter. She felt empty. She felt...a presence, hovering right in front of her face. So Cornelia opened her eyes. She gave a yelp of surprise. A second Cornelia...three-dimensional and blinking in surprise...stood before her!
Through her lowered eyelids, Will was dimly aware of a bright blue glow. It was swirling and shimmering around her and her fellow Guardians. Abruptly, the light disappeared. Will felt the darkness return, like a light, cool cloak. In fact, she felt light from within, too! She had become somehow airy and ethereal and...
Suddenly, Will's mouth went dry. I bet I know why I feel so light, she thought with a tremble. I think there's a bit of me that's missing...namely, my astral drop!
Sure enough, when Will's eyes popped open, she saw a version of herself standing right in front of her! The sight of her double was extremely disconcerting.
Are my knees really that Knobby? She thought. And, Whoa is that what the back of my head looks like?'
Will tried to shake off her freak-out. Get a grip, she told herself. It's not as if this is the first time you've doubled yourself. We all created astral drops in Metamoor once before, to provide decoys for those Metamoorian henchmen.
But then that had been a crisis situation. The moment the Guardians had spun out their astral drops, they'd sent the Metamoorians running after the doubles. Sure enough, Frost the Hunter had caught their astral drops...giving the real guardians a chance to make a run for it. And they'd all gotten away...except Naruto.
The point was, Will hadn't had but a moment to contemplate was her astral drop. Now, she was staring right at...her? It? What was she, or it, anyway, this other Will?
'I know one thing that she, or it, is,' Will though as she watched her double begin exploring the shell cave. She's a little loopy.
Astral Will was spinning around in giddy circles, staring up at the ceiling with an empty little smile and twirling tendrils of her red hair around her fingertips absentmindedly.
'Weird,' Will thought. 'Then she shrugged. 'Well, I guess that's astral-drip behavior, right?' She mused.
She glanced at the other girls' doubles. She watched them walk like the other four girls. Talk like them and ever their eyes had the same way of glimmering as theirs. Will's shoulders climbed up to her ears nervously. She bit her lip as she watched her friends meet their astral selves.
''You seem to be the perfect copy...''
''Simply amazing,'' The Taranee's said as they adjust their classes.
''Amazing,'' Irma cried, as she stared at Astral Irma. ''You are...me?'' As if she couldn't quite believe it were true, Irma reached out and tweaked Astral Irma's nose. Astral Irma glared at the real Irma irritably and pulled away.
''Hey!'' She sniped. ''Pinch your own nose!''
At that Irma grinned. She turned to her friends and their double and declared, ''I don't know about you, but I think I look pret-ty good!''
''All I know,'' Hay Lin said, staring at her ow astral drop in bewilderment, ''...is that I'm definitely seeing double.''
''It's fantastic,'' Cornelia declared. Her astral drop was looking at her with a typically knowing smirk. ''It's like looking at our reflections in a mirror!"
''Ooh, I hope not,'' Astral Cornelia retorted drily. She pointed at the actual Cornelia. ''I'd likely to think I'm prettier than that!'' Cornelia blinked at her double in utter amazement.
''What did you just say?'' She shrieked at herself.
Irma rolled her eyes and smirked at Will.
''Oh, yes,' she said with a glib nod. ''They really are just like us.''
''Uh,'' Will quavered. She watching Astral Will slump onto a boulder at the shell cave's mouth. Her double looked positively lost. ''Maybe not all of them!''
Suddenly, the other girls, even Cornelia and Astral Cornelia...feel silent. They all formed a circle around Astral Will. She responded with a blank, vacant stare.
''Er...Will,'' Irma said to Astral Will, with exaggerated slowness. ''Where do you live?''
''I live in...um,'' Astral Will stuttered, ''I live on a street in, um, a...place...''
Will felt her heart sink as Irma threw up her hands. ''She's a blank!'' Irma cried. ''Empty! Zero!''
''I wondered how that happened,'' Hay Lin said to Will. ''Our Astral drops know everything we know...every sensation...ever memory. And yours is just the opposite.''
Will's mouth dropped open in dismay.
Quickly, however, her shock turned to guilt. All at once, Will knew exactly how this had happened. It was all her fault!
She hung her head and stumbled away from her friends. In a small, tremblingly voice, she admitted, ''While I was creating her, in the back of my mind, I was afraid that she would...''
''Take your place indefinitely?'' Cornelia cut in. For the first time since the girls had arrived at the cave, Cornelia's harsh voice softened. Will looked up and caught her friend's gaze. Behind the hardness in Cornelia's eyes Will saw a glimmer of understanding.
Will and Cornelia had definitely had their differences since the memorable debacle in Metamoor, but at this moment, Will felt as though Cornelia was her best friend. Cornelia seemed to understand Will's fear that her astral drop might be just as special as...or perhaps even more special than...Will herself.
Will felt a surge of warmth and gratitude. Of course, a moment later, a glance at Astral Will brought in a quick cold front. Sympathy from Cornelia wasn't going to make Will's problem go away.
And Irma's idea didn't seem feasible, either.
''Hey if it's no good,'' she declared,"...just make another one!"
''No,'' Cornelia said, shaking her head.
''There's no guarantee that this won't happen all over again.''
Will shook her head and sighed. ''Cornelia's right,'' she said to the group.
''This is my problem so I'll fix it. It should be easy enough!"' Will took her backpack off her shoulders and fished out a paper and pencil. She began making a list.
A list of everything...absolutely everything...she did during the day, from brushing her teeth in the morning by her locker after lunch to watching Boy Comet on TV every Tuesday night.
After some careful detailed jotting, Will thought she'd covered it all. She thrust the list into her double's hands. Astral Will read the list, then gave Will a simple smile. Thank god she could read.
''Do you get this?'' Will asked her severely. ''On this paper, I've written everything you should and should not do. You can understand that, can't you, Will?''
Astral Will shrugged in a way that looked…Will had to admit...pretty Will-like. Then she nodded and smiled sweetly.
Will felt her shoulders tense a bit. 'Maybe this will work,' she thought hopefully. All the astral me has to do is follow these simple instructions and we'll put this off without a hitch. 'She'll be totally me and everything will be fine.'
Astral Will flashed her maker another wide smile, then folded her list and put it into her jeans pocket.
''Sure, sure, I've got it,'' she declared.
''Thank goodness,'' Will sighed in response.
''I've only got one question,'' Astral Will interjected.
''Uh-Huh?'' Will responded skeptically.
''Hhmm,'' Astral Will wondered with wide eyes. ''Who's this Will?''
''What?'' Will cried. She sat her double down on the ground and crouched before her.
''We need to have a long talk,'' Will said to her double sighing.
Twenty minutes later, Will emerged from the shell cave, just as Hay Lin was waving goodbye to Astral Hay Lin. The double gave Hay Lin a wink, and then scampered over the boulders towards Heatherfield with a quick, light, and very familiar gait.
Will heaved an envious sigh. Adding insult to injury was the fact that Cornelia immediately began chatting with Hay Lin about the very successful astral drops. ''So, yours has hit the road, too, huh?'' Cornelia said. ''I said good-bye to my drop a few minutes ago. I think she'll do fine.''
''Yeah!'' Hay Lin marveled. ''I've questioned her about all my habits, and it looks like she knows everything! She'll go home, lie down in my bed, and probably even have my dreams.''
''While we on the other hand,'' Cornelia scowled,''...head straight into a nightmare!''
Will sighed. Cornelia was right. As their journey to Metamoor grew ever closer, her hands were feeling more trembling and her stomach was quaking.
'It doesn't help,' Will thought irritably, "that my astral drop is...''
''Ready,'' Said a very familiar voice behind Will. ''I think I'm ready!''
Will turned around to glower at Astral Will as she emerged from the shell cave. She was scanning Will's list attentively.
''Okay,'' Astral Will said. ''At seven A.M. wake up. Seven-fifteen...shower. At ten to eight, kiss Mom good morning. Then breakfast, then...''
''Okay, okay, I think you've got it,'' Will said sternly. ''Listen, if you just follow the instructions, you can't go wrong. And remember...''
''I know, I know,'' Astral Will interrupted impatiently. She was slinging her leg over Will's red bike. ''I'll study what I'm not supposed to. You've written those things in bold and underlined each one three times!''
Before Will could say anything else, Astral Will gave her a cavalier wave and began to pedal away. Will watched her double go, and then hung her head in worry.
''Oh man,'' she sighed. ''I hope she finds her way home, at least.''
She felt Irma's sympathetic hand on her shoulder.
''She'll be fine,'' Irma assured her. ''It's us I'm worried about. We'd better hurry. It's us I'm worried about. We'd better hurry. It's time to head to Metamoor!"
With her fellow Guardians, Hay Lin watched Astral Will pedal up the hill and away. Then she turned to walk with them back into the looming shell cave. She gazed up at the scallop-shaped mouth of the cave and was transported...just for an instant...back in time. She and Irma were little kids again, playing Hide-and-seek.
Then she, Irma, and Elyon were in the shell cave, giggling and toasting marshmallows over a campfire.
Next, it was summertime. Hay Lin had been body surfing all afternoon, and she'd sought shelter again in the cave, laying her sunburned self-down on its cool, dark, sandy floor. The place had always been a haven.
Now it was a gateway to the unknown.
Hay Lin sighed. ''I've come to this cave thousands of times,'' she told the others. ''I would never had expected it to be the site of a portal!'' As the girls plunged deeper into the cavern, darkness surrounding them.
''Hay Lin and I brought equipment,'' Irma said, pulling a flashlight out of her bag and clicking it own.
The bright beam of light skimmed over a chaos of painted scrawls and etchings...words, initials, hearts, pictures...all mementos of people's time in the cave. ''There's so much graffiti on the walls!'' Will gasped. ''I didn't notice it before.''
''Yup,'' Irma mused. She paused before a couple of inked phrases.
'The first said I love Anne. S.R.' the next read 'Anne+Billy. Sorry, S.R.
''It's cutthroat,'' Irma said with a giggle. ''He goes out with her one summer. And the same summer, she's dating someone else. Cruet! Every carving is a love story.'' They're little bits of history!"'
Cornelia scowled. ''No they're not Irma,'' she scoffed. ''They're acts of vandalism!''
Cornelia skimmed her tapered fingers over the cave wall and squinted at the graffiti angrily.
''Now that I have the power of the earth,'' she said,''I realize more and more that people don't respect it!''
'She's got a point,' Hay Lin thought, with a nod. But she didn't have time to voice her opinion. Suddenly, on a section of almost-bare wall up ahead, she saw something.
Something that made her blood run cold.
Hay Lin made herself run to the wall.
''Look here!'' She cried to her friends. They hurried after her. Breathing hard, Hay Lin slapped a hand onto the wall, right next to a picture. Unlike the other scrawls, this image was composed of blue paint. It was a cluster of five swirly flames.
''Blue fire, five flames,'' Will said dully. ''So? What's the big deal?''
''It's the same one that Irma doodled in class this morning,''Hay Lin cried. ''In her diary!"'
Irma gazed at the blue flames. Her eyes widened in disbelief. This was unbelievable.
''That's impossible,'' she croaked.''I haven't been here for a year...at least.''
She put a hand on her furrowed forehead. ''I was lost in thought when I drew that,'' Irma added.
Will suddenly let out a muffled moan, and her knees buckled. She felt woozy. She felt woozy She fell backward and would have hit the hard, cave floor if Taranee hadn't caught her.
''Will!" Irma screamed, jolting herself out of her reverie.
Hay Lin knelt down next to Will and held her breath. Will's head lolled for a moment. But only a few seconds later, her big, brown eyes fluttered open, and she managed to give her friends a weak smile.
''Everything's okay, you guys,'' she rasped. ''It's just the usual dizzy spell.'
''The dizzy spell you have whenever you're near a portal,'' Hay Lin pointed out.
Ever since the girls had discovered their extraordinary powers, Will had been having those spells. Her head would fall forward onto her chest, and her face would become paper white. She'd groan, and a cold sweat would break out on her forehead. The closeness of Metamoor made her ill. The one good thing about the attacks was that they also let the Guardians know when they'd hit their mark.
''Maybe this means the portal is here,'' Hay Lin said, staring in awe at the blue flames scrawled on the stone wall.
Will lurched to her feet and stood next to the bit of graffiti. She beckoned to her fellow Guardians. The girls joined hand and formed a semicircle around the flames. Will shook away the last of her dizziness and gave each girl a serious look. When Will's eyes met Hay Lin's, Hay Lin tried to smile. She tried to draw on the strength and determination she saw in Will's eyes. This was no time to back down. She had to be brave.
''Let's try to open the portal,'' Will said somberly. 'Stay strong. ''I'm going to touch the drawing...''
Looking around, Hay Lin observed each girl's was determined, albeit a bit nervous. Irma's eyes were open and curious. Cornelia's face remained unreadable. And Will looked terrified. Hay Lin could only imagine what 'she' looked like. She watched, with wide, fearful eyes, as Will's fingertips stretched toward the blue flames, reaching out for the next chapter in the Guardians' overwhelming destiny.
'Here we go again,' Hay Lin thought. it was another moment of truth. Once more, we are going to step through a doorway that seems to go nowhere. We are going to risk our lives because are the guardians. And what's on the other side? Who knows? But something will be there...waiting.'