prologue

Arcadia: 1997

As the thunder roared and lightning flashed furiously, I stood within the forest cover waiting patiently. The rain started pouring down in buckets. I looked up at the sky and almost cursed Gaia, but I held myself. The cold wet breeze picked up the pace and turned into a gale. But I stood still. This was one of the eight reasons I hated my job. Whatever the heck it is.

I closed my eyes and said, "I know you anxious he'd get killed, but please stop trying to kill me too!" I almost shouted. But when dealing with gods and werewolves hunting. You don't make noise.

I tried to remain calm and still as the rain pelleted me and the tree from all sides. I thought this was supposed to be a forest. Why am I…

I held myself. I shouldn't complain.

I should remain calm.

yep, I should remain calm. A lot of people's lives depend on it.

I should not be angry at the god of the Earth. Or the Guardian. Or Selene, or is it Phoebe the moon goddess? I don't know. Probably I shouldn't.

But I wanted to curse them. Better not.

Remain calm. I told myself.

The wind changed direction again and speed and a bucket load of water went straight onto my face. Now, this was intentional!

Can you please stop it, I am Eight years for fuck's sake!

Lightning flashed right in front of me. a threat. A clear threat, I knew it was from the Guardian god, I think. Or Gaia. Didn't know which.

I kept quiet and leaned on the tree as I listened to the trees talk. The energy radiated from one tree to another even the earth. I heard his paws as he ran straight for me. smelt the blood he was drenched in. felt the pain he was going through. The coldness of his skin as his fur was completely drenched not only with the mad rain but with the blood of the girl he was carrying. Felt his weight on the earth as he came closer and closer to me.

Now, he is a big one. I had to admit.

He was maybe a hundred yards away from me. but that wasn't his problem. I wasn't his problem. His problem was twenty yards away from him, a pack of twelve wolves chasing him and closing in.

I felt him try and run farther but his legs were growing tired. The weight of the dying girl was too much for a thirteen-year-old werewolf that haven't even eaten in a week due to bereavement. He wasn't going to outrun them anywhere with that blood making a trail to him.

I need to do something.

I crouched with one knee on the ground and closed my eyes, listening to everything. I touched my throat and thought of a snake and how it saw and I saw. I looked into the matrix code of life and saw the absolute bendable energy of the area around me. the was no fire, adequate earth, and abundant water all around. Then there were trees and insects, rodents, and other small animals beneath the earth in the forest.

I am a guardian I can't hurt those just to save two people. I can bend the rain. Wait, the blood.

I touched the tree and… told. Yes, it's easier to say. I told it to tell all of its brothers and sisters to grow.

They all agreed with a little "yes sir' at the end.

Damn! I love being a guardian.

I grew myself into a small bat and flew alongside Laurent as he ran by past me. Not that it was comfortable, it wasn't, trust me. I hate transforming smaller. Especially in the rain, but I could bend it, so I had an umbrella. At least.

All of the blood that the girl was bleeding I froze it and sealed the wound with a small sheet of ice I made out of water. Before Laurent could turn and fight, I harnessed just a little of the energy of raining water and passed it to Laurent, and transferred a little happy thought to him.

Run, they on your ass. Or you wanna die?

He picked up pace as I deviated from his trail. I took his form with extra fur to mimic the girl on his back, formed blood similar to that girl's lifeforce code, and ran not as fast as I could but fast, as the bent blood made a new tail after me.

The wolves after him changed and followed me.

I ran like my life depended on it, and it did. If they caught me, I was dinner. They just almost killed their Alpha's daughter and are chasing the daughter's only hope to live. I know what'll be if they caught me. Dinner.

A starter? Maybe. Maybe desert. But I really hope it's the main course. at least I'll have a little bit of dignity when I die. maybe a joke to go with it. the Ra would be like, 'hey saint, why you dead?" and maybe I'll be like, "took one too many shapes, fell off, woke up werewolf main course."

So I ran and ran until I was atop the buried temple, most people think it is only a cliff, but I don't. I know the Arcadian castle buried three hundred years ago wasn't put underground by the guardian. No, it was made a cliff, covered with dirt, and made to look like part of the mountain. And now, it had a crevice the size of the grand cannon making it look like a death sentence.

The wolves slowed down as they thought I was going to fall. I ran faster and jumped.

They stopped. I landed, paused, and looked at them as my heart drummed in my ears, muting half of all the conversations I could hear all over the hidden island of Arcadia. And some naughty lesbians talk a few hundred miles in the island of the Amazon, Themis-Kyra.

I looked at them and almost stuck out my tongue. But Laurent wouldn't do that. He would snarl at them and run off the girl's life was important.

I did exactly that and went up the mountain, far from Laurent's direction. Once I was sure I was out of their eyesight, I turned back and went to look for Laurent.

I watched Laurent search hopelessly for medicinal herbs while crying. His eyes were so pained it hurt me. I scanned the grounds too for medicine to help him but there wasn't a lot. If, not a lot meant nothing. Then yes, there wasn't a lot. He wiped tears out of his eyes and continued searching. I heard a suicide option pop up on his head should the girl die and I couldn't blame him. I've been there. I think.

Save her. I asked the earth mother. Please, can you grow something for him? I can't watch him be this pained. Please.

But I knew that it was all futile. They weren't going to answer me. I knew long ago, after the fall of Zaramelha that the guardians were on their own, thanks to the little revolution they had. add or subtract a tiny tiny wee bit of fault from me. I think.

I knew that I was technically not in a position to touch any guardian without breaking the treaty between the God of the Kingdom of Alkebulan and the rest of the Gods. But I was pretty pissed after the death of a guardian fifty years ago or is it sixty, while I was asleep. dead. But I wasn't going to forgive the gods as the Saint of the Guardians.

I asked the forest to save me a few spots and a little bit of energy to make a new life.

they did and I grew Aloe, Garlic, comfrey, and Calendula plus a few of the Alkebulan secret herbs and made an ointment to use on the girl's wound.

After sealing the wound temporarily with the ointment, I touched her belly button, taking all the blood she had on her womb lining, I put it back on her bloodstream and increased her blood volume a little to give life to her skin.

She regained a bit of her strength and started breathing strongly.

Seeing it, I grew proud of my healing I smiled and…

I hate being a kid!

why?

good question. this...

Laurent returned from his search with the plants I just grew and he saw me in front of Diana. The girl. He lunged at me in wolf form and before I could react, he had me by the shoulder and was soon tearing me apart. But I couldn't do anything.

All the pain he felt when he watched a Lycaon tearing his parents apart, his memories of that day I felt them. Saw them and they tore at me way more than his teeth ever could tear my skin.

The memory of him defenseless being torn apart by Paul, his uncle tore my heart apart. Worse was when this girl jumped in between him and Paul and got a swipe of death meant for him. it hurt way more than anything.

It reminded me of her. Reminded me of the last look she had on her face before she was gone forever.

I promised to protect her. I promised to keep her safe and die for her. I promised I would keep her brother safe and here he was…

"I'm sorry," I told him. "I'm sorry I couldn't... I'm sorry I…" I hit my head on a stone and he let me go as I fell, like a sack of potatoes into the hole at the base of the tree. "I'm sorry." I said feeling myself cry.

Two thousand years and it still hurt like shit. My head, I felt it bleed. Heard the forest grow angry at him, but I wasn't angry in any way. rather I was torn. I told them off as the roots of the tree I had fallen at the base of covered me to offer shelter. He reached in with his claw to try to pull me out with a claw, I think. I couldn't see in his head because I was woozy.

He tore my chest as I thought of her.

Bleeding, crying from the pain of having a sword on her chest. A sword I was meant to take. I remembered her body laying limp on my hands. Her soul being engulfed by the earth.

I remembered the very same pain that tore my heart apart and built me all over. I remembered the heat I felt rising from within me. I couldn't heal. I hadn't ascended yet.

But I could kill. But I could tear all of them to pieces. I could take their bodies and tear their DNA apart. Break every single cell they had apart. And I did. I remember the mess I made. the bodies I left piled.

Was it so wrong that she loved me? was I so undeserving of love that the very first person I had loved and my millenniums of existence had t be killed by the very people I fought for eons ago from being wiped by their own gods? was it so wrong that that little girl could just be killed when she had a long life in front of her?

She wanted to have a small farm. Three little kids running in the backyard. She wanted…

"Your wounds," she had said the first time we met. Her cute small smile, so full of love, warmth, and life. I was just a hurt animal when I met her. I was being punished for hitting the emperor of Alkebulan. But I ran, stole a ship, and crash-landed in Zaramelha. I remembered the ointment she had given me, even when her brother told her off from aiding me. but she just jumped out of the chariot and handed it to me. "I can't leave another being while it's bleeding." She had told her brother.

but as I stood hurt, bleeding, and torn, it dawned on me. The midnight Hound in front of me wasn't just any hound. it was Him. the very same soul I saw back then was in front of me. her brother was right in front of me.

I applied the ointment on him and sealed every wound he had.

I should have seen it. Laurent was her brother. did he become a guardian because of me? did he...?

Laurent was Kiara's younger brother.