The Guardian's Kitsune
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NarutoxHarem
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Story Start
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Cornelia and her fellow Guardians were tromping up yet another cobble-stoned Metamoorian street skulking in the shadows of yet gloomier, imposing houses.
'I wonder how long we've been here,' Cornelia thought with a sigh. 'If only we could use our powers to find the castle we on Irma's map. Hay Lin could fly us there on a pillow of air. Or Ira could create a river that would float us there. Or I could coax the trees to pass us from branch to branch until we reached the castle, well rested and fresh as daisies. '
The image of tree branches bouncing the girls across the land of Metamoor was so comical Cornelia almost laughed out loud.
There was just one catch. She was way too tired and cranky to laugh.
''Irma,'' she finally said impatiently. ''Lemme see that map of Metamoor again. I aim to know if we're even remotely closer to Phobos's castle. We've been searching of hours.''
''All right, all right,'' Irma said. She began to rummage around insider her brown cloak. But she froze when a voice rang out in the street.
''There she is!''
Irma gasped and looked up. 'There he is,' she cried.
Cornelia and her friends followed Irma's gaze. And what they discovered was not good.
A big, brooding, blue-skinned brute with red, greasy hair and a serious under-bite pointing at Irma. Not to mention he also had twenty-five green skinned soldiers with him.
''Yikes!'' Irma squealed. She turned on her heel and started running down the street.
''C'mon!'' She screamed over her shoulder to her friends. They began pounding after her. And then, the hulking, scaly army began pounding after them!
''Okay, Irma!'' Will demanded between huffs and puffs. ''Who's that guy? And more importantly, who's his army?''
''He's the vendor who sold me the map,'' Irma cried.
Hay Lin was running next to Irma. ''Obviously, he wasn't satisfied with your watch!'' She said, scowling suspiciously.
''I don't know why not!'' Irma declared. ''It's perfectly decent. I found it in the bottom of a cereal box.''
''Ugh!'' Cornelia said in disgust. Then she saw a staircase that veered off the narrow street.
''Up there!'' She screamed.
Will was the first to veer off and begin racing up the stairs. Even though the girls were running for their lives, Cornelia couldn't help but smile a tight, satisfied smile. For once, Will had followed her lead. So, why not try again?
''Will,'' she gasped as hey hurried up the stairs. ''Don't you think it's time to transform ourselves?''
''No,'' Will said, with a quick shake of her head. ''The right moment hasn't come yet.''
''What?' Cornelia yelled. ''Listen. You may hold the Heart of Kandarkar, but you're taking about our lives here!''
''I didn't ask for this responsibility,'' Will declared, shooting Cornelia a surly glance. ''But since I am the keeper of the Heart, there's nothing you can do but follow me.'' Cornelia was about to hurl a nasty retort at Will. But before she had the chance, the Guardians reached the top of the stairs.
They stopped cold. They had arrived at the top of a landing surrounded on three sides by looming, windless walls. It was a dead end!
'A dead end that I led us to,' Cornelia thought with a gasp. 'Um, Maybe Will has a point.' Cornelia felt grateful that the other girls were looking to Will for guidance. Because, frankly, Cornelia had no idea how they were going to out of this fix. Especially with an army gaining on them every second.
''I hear them coming!"' Irma squeaked, peeking over her shoulder at the staircase. Cornelia, too, could hear the rumble of angry voices and the thunder of dozens of feet.
Will stared in complete shock at the in climbable smooth walls towering about them.
''A staircase that ends in a blank wall?'' She breathed. ''How is that possible?''
A raspy voice suddenly echoed out of nowhere. ''Everything is possible, here in Metamoor,'' the voice declared.
Cornelia looked wildly around the alley.
''Wha...aaaah!'' She screeched.
The voice had come from a Hand. A fleshly hand clad in what looked like brown armadillo skin. The hand was not attached to an arm or any other body part. It jutted out of one of the stone tiles of the landing's floor, like a wild weed that had taken root in a cement sidewalk. The hand's plump forefinger waggled, beckoning the girls toward it. Then it pointed downward at a square of darkness on the floor. The whole landing was cloaked in shadow, but this particular part was pitch-black.
''You have no alternative,'' the creepy voice declared. ''Enter the shadow now!''
Will cast a wild, fearful look at her fellow guardians. Then she glanced over her shoulder. Cornelia followed her faze. The leader of the pack of soldiers was only about twenty steps behind them.
''I saw them,'' he growled to the soldiers behind him. ''They're up there!''
''The hand is right,'' Will said, shaking her head in disbelief even to be uttering such a ridiculous phrase. ''We have no other choice.'' Without another word, Will ran three steps and jumped onto the black square.
Make that into the black square. Will plunged through the floor as if it were made of paper. Suddenly, she was gone. The remaining guardians gave each other quick glances. Then Irma started running. Hay Lin was on her heels. Taranee followed close behind and Cornelia was right behind her.
The Guardian of Earth was last to plunged into the shadow. She felt herself falling swiftly. But it wasn't a hurl-inducing free fall. Instead, Cornelia felt something buoying her up, like a virtual parachute, or some sort of safety net. Whatever the force was, it allowed Cornelia to land on another cold, stone floor as delicately as a bird. In the pitch-dark, Cornelia blindly felt around for her friends.
''Are we all here?'' Will asked.
''I'm here!'' Taranee stated.
''Here!'' Hay Lin piped.
''Me, too,'' Irma said.
''And me,'' Cornelia answered. ''Now, the real question is, are those guys going to be joining us, too?''
Together, the Guardians held their breath and braced themselves for the roar of soldiers tumbling after them. But a few moments of silence convinced Cornelia, at least, that they were safe relatively anyway.
''I can't believe this,'' Irma said. Suddenly, the crumbly voice...the voice of the hand that had spoken to the girls up on the landing...pierced the darkness.
''Forget the laws of physics that regulate your world, Irma.'' It said.
''How do you know my name?'' Irma cried into blackness.
''Wait a minute,'' Will said. ''That voice...''
A dull, white light erupted in the center of the shadow. The light emanated from a small, glowing pyramid rested on the hand of.
''Mrs. Rudolph!'' The Guardians cried. They blinked in shock at their math-teacher-turned-monster. She was still in her Metamoorian shape. Jutting out her long, red dreadlocks were wide, floppy ears. Her face had a mass of crust jowls and in its center, a squashy snout. Dotting her fleshy neck were three red horns. Her eyes were blood-red. But they were also strangely, kind. As were Mrs. Rudolph's words.
''I don't want to harm you, even if I should be angry with you,'' she announced, holding her source of light out towards the girls. ''You forced me to abandon my home on earth. But...well, you're still my former students, and I still care.''
With gratitude in her voice, Will said, ''You move well in the dark. Is this where you live now?''
''This is not the dark,'' Mrs. Rudolph retorted. She let the pyramid go free, and it floated from her hand. It drifted out in front of her and began bobbing away. Mrs. Rudolph followed its light and the Guardians, followed her in silence.
''This is only Metamoor's immense underworld,'' the teacher explained.
Cornelia gazed above her. Mrs. Rudolph was right. They were surrounded by tall pillars and hardy crossbeams...an entire infrastructure that must have been supporting the city up.
''You're hiding down here,'' Will said to their teacher quietly. ''Just like you hid in our world. But from what?''
Over the dull glow of the pyramid Mrs. Rudolph addressed the girls, with weariness in her eyes and in her voice.
''There's a cloud that covers our sky and the hearts of our people,'' she said sorrowfully. ''We are millions of black hearts. Anger. Desperation. This is Metamoor. This is the true darkness.''
Cornelia hung her head. Mrs. Rudolph's despair was infectious. But then a thundering boom made her, and everyone else in their crew, jump! And then it came again!
Ftoooooom!
'Okay,' Cornelia thought dryly. 'So much for our soulful moment. Can't a Guardian get a moment of silence?'
'Ftoooom!'
The noise was stronger now. Its thunder echoed through the cavernous space.
'Those 'booms' are not a good thing,'' Mrs. Rudolph said gravely. ''What shall we do? You must decide quickly. Even in Metamoor, time does catch up with you.''
''What do you mean by that?' Will asked her. ''Is time different in Metamoor?''
''Why... yes...'' Mrs. Rudolph said. ''In this prison like world, time passes much more slowly than it does on Earth.''
''What?'' Will squeaked. ''So, one earth day equals how much Metamoor time?''
''One or perhaps two weeks,'' Mrs. Rudolph said, shrugging her plump shoulders.
''Naruto!'' Will wailed, clapping her hand to her forehead. ''I've left him in the hands of those monsters for all that time?''
''Don't blame yourself,'' Mrs Rudolph said to her. ''You couldn't know.''
Suddenly, Hay Lin step toward the teacher.
''My question is, how do you know?'' she demanded coldly. ''How do you know why we're here? Who are you, really?''
Cornelia blinked in surprise at Hay Lin's display of suspicion.
Of course, I guess I would be doubtful, too, if the last time I'd seen Mrs. Rudolph, she'd tied me up and thrown me in a closet.
Because that's exactly what Mrs. Rudolph had done when she'd caught Hay Lin and Irma sneaking around her house. It had been a desperate effort on Mrs. Rudolph's part to avoid being discovered as an Earth intruder. But the effort failed when Will and Naruto had discovered the girls and rescued them. That was the reason Mrs. Rudolph had fled to Metamoor.
But now, the teacher was not going to be cowed. After all, this was her turf. So, she merely gave Hay Lin an impassive gaze and announced, 'Today's lesson has come to an end, girls. The bell is ringing.''
Mrs. Rudolph began to shimmer away! In an instant, she'd evaporated, like a puff of steam. And the moment she was gone, another ftooom rang through the underworld. The girls dodged a sudden shower of rocks, which was followed by a shaft of light.
Terrified, Cornelia clung to her friends and peered upward. A large hole was breaking through the ceiling. Peering down through that opening were the venomous snake-creature and his blue sidekick, Vathek!
Cornelia cringed and got ready to scream. But then she realized something. When Mrs. Rudolph had disappeared, she'd taken her glowing pyramid with her. Once again, the Guardians were cloaked in darkness. As long as they stayed away from the shafts of sunlight shining down into their hiding place, they were as good as invisible. That is if everyone stayed quiet.
''Ah...'' Irma began to scream. Cornelia reached over and clapped her hand over Irma's mouth. ''Shhhh,'' she whispered to all the girls.
''Let's hear what the bad guys have to say.''
They didn't have to wait long. Vathek let forth a guttural laugh and announced, ''Ha! I've opened a crevice!"
''Wonderful work, Vathek,'' the snake-man replied calmly. Cornelia watched his face contort itself into a ghastly grin as he peered down into the darkness. ''Now all we have to do is find them!''
Deep within the shadows of Metamoor's underworld, Will clutched at her friends in terror. The snake-man and Vathek were lurking above them, threatening to drop down upon them at any minute.
'Once again, we're in hiding,' Will thought. 'And once again, we're fleeing.'
Will hung her head and heaved a shuddered sigh.
'When will this end? When we're sitting in a cell next to Naruto?' Suddenly she gasped. She turned to her friends and whispered to them excitedly: '''I have an idea. It seems like a crazy one, but you'll have to trust me. Are you with me?''
''Of course,'' Hay Lin squeaked into the darkness.
''I'm with you Will...'' Taranee stated.
''You got it,'' Irma said.
From Cornelia, there was a skeptical silence. Will held her breath. If Cornelia refused, her plan couldn't possibly work. She braced herself for one of Cornelia's trademark barbs, or a shrill argument. But what she got instead was so surprising it moved her almost to tears.
Cornelia reached out through the blackness and found Will's hand...her right hand, the one that housed the Heart of Kandrakar. She squeezed it. And then, the most reluctant Guardian uttered one simple word.
''Yes."
''All right!"' Will whispered. ''Follow me.'' The girls began creeping up a long stairway that seemed to be leading directly to the ugly gash Vathek had made in the ceiling. Will swallowed hard as the Guardians got closer to the light. With every step, her fear intensified.
But when she saw the giant, long-chinned serpent at the top of the stairs, her fear melted away. It was replaced by a wave of pure and absolute anger. ''So,'' the snake-creature was saying to his craggy, blue henchman. ''We'll go down there and search.''
The lump in Will's throat dissolved. In fact, with her friends behind her, she felt as though she could let forth a shout that all of Metamoor would. But she didn't to. The beast's slithery tail was only inches from her face. So, Will merely announced, ''Don't bother! We're right here.'' The serpentine creature turned to gape at her. His eyes narrowed behind his red mask.
''You!'' He growled.
''We have nothing to say to each other,''' Will said. She heard the other girls catch their breath behind her. She knew they were wondering how this could be a good idea. But she pressed on: ''If you care to do anything to us, do it now!''
''Don't mind if I do,'' the creature said with a casual cackle. He waved his scaly hand at the girls. Will gasped as she felt her feet fly out from under her. Then she caught herself, just before her face banged into a pane of glass that had suddenly popped up before her.
In fact, the glass had formed a sphere all around her. She was floating in a bubble! But this one wasn't soft and pliant like the air bubble Irma had created for them. It was cold and smooth and flawless. It was also, Will realized as she pounding on the hard surface with her fists, impenetrable. There was another difference, too. While the Guardians had shared Irma's air bubble, now each one hovered...eyes wide with terror...in a spherical cage of her own.
''Here are your prisons, Guardians,'' He said to the girls with a menacing cackle.
In response, Will just glared at the monster. In the bubble cage next to hers, she saw frantic tears welling up in Hay Lin's eyes. Irma was speechless. She simply clutched her knees within her bubble shivered.
The villain laughed at their fear. But the grotesque Vathek, peering into their glass cages with his beady little eyes, seemed utterly bewildered.
''I don't understand,'' he said to his master. ''Why did they allow themselves to be captured so easily?''
''This world is immense,'' his master replied dismissively. ''They have chosen the fastest route to a reunion with the other prisoner.''
Will gasped. How could this beast have known? And now, her friends knew her plan also. She snuck shy glances at them.
Hay Lin's tears had dried and she flashed Will a defiant smile! Taranee nodded, her eyes still showing confidence in their leader. Irma gave Will a thumbs-up. Even Cornelia arched her eyebrows in surprise. She was impressed! Will couldn't help smiling for a split second.
Of course, this feel-good moment lasted only for a second. Then the creature stepped in, as usual, with a buzz will.
''I will grant you your wish...''he said, swooping his snaky head down to make eye contact with Will. ''And you Will, shall give me the Heart of Kandrakar!''
'Never!' Will thought. But again, she refused to speak. Ignoring her silence, the towering Villain rose up on his curly tail and announced: ''First, though, there is someone who wants to see you personally.''
He waved a meaty green arm, and suddenly Will was knocked off balance again! Her bubble, along with hose of her friends, began skidding forward on a swath of whiteness. It was...snow!
'We're on a sleigh ride, now?' Will though indignantly.
''What's happening?'' she asked, as the girls sped through the snow. The snake-creature zipped along next to them, moving dozens of yards forward with every flick of his powerful tail. ''Where are you taking us?''
''Nowhere,'' the monster spat. ''The place you are about to see is denied to you. This is only a projection of...Phobos's garden.''
As the world's left the creature's mouth, the girls' bubbles swooped up off the ground. The blinding whiteness of the snow disappeared and was replaced with visions of such color, and such scope, that Will could only blink at them in disbelief!
The Guardians' bubbles bobbled by a tree with a hundred sinuous trunks. Burnt-orange ferns waved and bowed. The Guardians saw mushrooms of the deepest burgundy; flowers that looked like ruffled lions' manes; sunflowers with petals of scarlet; egg planted-colored rocks.
''It's...it's...'' Irma stammered.
''It's useless to try to define it,'' the snake man said with a leer. ''Everything here is inspired by pure perfection.''
''If it's so perfect,'' Will retorted, ''...then why do I have the creeps?''
It was true. Though her bubble was no longer skimming through snow, Will was still cold. Sadness dappled the flowers as surely as did sunlight. And, somehow, Will could feel that melancholy herself.
''Maybe you're scared because everything you see is lethal,'' the snake-man sneered. ''Now, be quiet. Here they are. The murmurers!'
'The what?' Will thought.
'These are the members of Phobos's court,'' the monster continued. ''They are the voices and eyes of the prince of princes!"
The snake-creature clamped his thin-lipped mouth shut. For a moment, the garden was silent. But then, Will heard a low humming. No, not a humming. A hissing. A...whisper!
''You...Guardians...'' hundreds of ethereal voices said. ''You guardians...earth...Guardians...earth.''
Will gasped. Figures were beginning to unfurl form the flowers! An elfin, golden creature with long fingers and hair like Spanish moss emerged from beneath a yellow stone. A sinuous blue female stepped form a bell-like bloom. Everywhere, the Murmurers were crawling into the open. This one with gleaming purple skin, that lone with a long, turquoise mane, and still another with a body that was the bark of a tree.
''Their voices are barely whispers,'' Hay Lin exclaimed, as the creatures continued to murmur. ''They're almost thoughts.''
''What you see dims your other senses. Close your eyes and listen.''
Though she was loath to do the snake-creature's bidding. Will was too curious to refuse the order. She squeezed her eyes shut. The murmurs swirled into her head.
''You, earth Guardians...not worthy to approach us...may your end be quick...May the Oracle learn to respect us...''
As the whispers drifted away, Will's eyes opened. She watched the Murmurers retreat back into their foliage.
''I don't understand,'' she cried.
''It's not important that you understand,'' the beast said. ''What is important is that they have seen you. And now, you will see something else...the prison of Metamoor!''
Will cringed as their bubbles went for yet another swooping ride. But she barely had a chance to find her balance in her spherical cage before it came to a halt again. The four Guardians found themselves floating in a line of tall turret constructed of stone seemingly endless walls were interrupted at points by tall, arched niches. ''What a dreary place,'' Irma declared, Gazing sullenly through her glass walls. ''I bet those beauties in the garden don't know anything about it.''
''They do not exist to live in Phobos's Castle.'' He was looming before the girls, glaring down at them from a great height. ''They live beyond its walls.''
''And you?'' Will asked tauntingly. ''Where is your place?''
''Here, for now. Until, that is, you hand over the Heart of Kandrakar. Save yourself from the suffering you'll endure if you refuse!''
''Forget it!'' Will answered, turning her back. A moment later, she heard a reply. But it didn't come from the snake-creature. The voice was thin, girlish, and full of sarcasm.
''Wrong answer, Will!''
Will gasped. 'Elyon!' She spun around and stared at her former friend, who was walking into the turret from a long, dark hallway. Both her white cloak and ice eyes made Will shiver. But the thing hovering near Elyon made Will positively jump. It was another prison bubble. And floating within it was none other than Naruto.
''Naruto!'' Will screamed.
''Yes!'' Elyon declared.
Out of the corner of her eye, Will saw the beast slither over to Elyon and hiss at her angrily. But Elyon just grinned and pointed smugly at Will.
Will didn't stop to wonder what the villains were whispering about. She had eyes for only one person.
''Naruto! Are you okay!?''
Naruto opened his eyes as a smile slowly formed on his face. ''I'm fine Will. I'm fine."