Thankful for Life

The guardian moved a few steps forward then he quickly launched himself into the sky. I watched as he and his opponent exchanged blows, each time their fists made contact, a large explosion went off above me. The fire seemed to cover the entire sky and the gusts of wind caused by the blast were so strong I was forced to close my eyes. When the wind finally died down I looked up and saw that our Angel was now standing there alone, with smoke surrounding his hands and ashes swirling in the air around him. His opponent, apparently, now nothing but charcoal and dust.

"Akina!" Nacina yelled as she ran up to me and hugged me tightly. "Thank Goodness you're okay!" I could feel her body shaking and I held her in return, to calm her.

"Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry," I assured. Maybe I'm wrong for this but part of me is happy she cares so much. As I was relishing in my happiness, Nacina slapped me, very thoroughly knocking the taste out of my mouth.

"Don't you ever do something that dangerous again!" She shouted angrily. I held my cheek and nodded fearful that she might decide to slap me again, but it seems like once was good enough. Nacina sighed and hugged me again. "You're my best friend, I couldn't take losing you." She whispered and My heart felt a tingle of warmth because of her concern, but, my cheek is also still stinging,

"I'm glad that's over." A voice from above commented. I looked up seeing the Angel lowering himself towards us. "No one was hurt right?" He asked while scanning his eyes over us both and the crowd who had circled the area to watch the fight. His eyes never focused on any one person long. As if he was skimming through pages in a textbook, and uninterested.

"We're fine!" One man shouted.

"You were awesome!" Yelled a group of girls. The crowd continued shouting praises until their words blurred together and became incomprehensible.

"Sorry for letting the fight get so close to the city." The Angel stated apologetically.

"It's fine!" Many people shouted in response.

"Thank you for protecting us." Another group yelled.

"Thanks, everyone." He shouted, then his eyes turned towards me. Why is he looking at me? Did I do something? He then lifted his hand in my direction and I heard a noise that sounds like rocks tumbling over each other. I looked to where the noise was coming from to see the crater he left earlier had been completely repaired. Oh of course... he wasn't looking at me. After he finished fixing the road he vanished completely from sight; it was like he was never there, to begin with.

"We saw the guardian up close! We're so lucky!" Some girls screamed, amongst themselves. Dozens of similar conversations erupted around me. Nacina grabbed my wrist and yanked me in the direction of the school.

"We're going to be late for class!" Her statement brought me back down into reality.

"Oh yeah... I wouldn't want that." I replied with a hint of sarcasm.

"You're not allowed to make jokes, I'm still mad at you." She retorted. Once we reached the school gates we promptly separated. She went to the musical education section of the school while I headed to general education. Our school has many divisions that have classes directed toward one's individual passion and future career. I have no passion so I'm stuck with regular classes only; math, science, etc. As soon as I entered my first-period class, my teacher, Ms. Smith stopped me.

"You're late." She noted. I opened my mouth to explain myself but she cut me off by yelling. "No excuses! You know the rules." With a groan, I got down on my hands and knees and quickly began doing push-ups. "You have 1 minute, to complete 50 or you'll get detention." Ms. Smith reminded me, with cold indifference.

Today is just not my day...

In my city, Liliona, today was just a normal day. Not exactly for me personally, since I was in more immediate danger than I've ever been in before, but other than that nothing out of the ordinary happened. Everyone calls the Guardian of our city the Angel. Even outside of Liliona he's famous for protecting over 900 km without any assistance for about a century. People have to get on a waiting list for months just to move into our city. I am grateful for that but... his presence never felt so real before today. The Afarions are alien invaders who periodically abduct humans because their own population is waning. We're taken as servants, slaves, and even food for them, and the only thing that can stop that is a competent Guardian. That's why living here is such a privilege. I tried to keep my thoughts on this while doing the push-ups, sure I'm late and being punished publically but... there's no telling what would have happened if our Angel wasn't here.