Thirteen

What was I thinking

What's wrong with me? I wondered as I got up from the ground. But my head was woozy. Spun, so I stood for a moment to let it all settle. I tried again after a minute, but... Damn! Nope! Not gonna cut it.

My back screamed at me and I almost cried as I got up from the ground, slowly. Damn, my back! My back. My back. I stood and stretched, carefully. I spread my wings and felt waves of energy shoot out of me. Like a current was streaming out of me. Draining me.

I froze. I'm leaking! I felt my body or rather me, feel a bit free. Unrestrained. But still, it didnt feel right. Like I was stretching over something that wasn't mine. I stopped.

Before I could move, and see what was happening, the sky was as dark as dark can be and a pillar of lightning lit the sky. The base of the pillar was... my back? Puzzled, I looked up again. It wasn't a pillar. I stretched my wing and saw the huge pillar of lightning in the sky stretch. The same way my wing was supposed to stretch. I looked at the ground. The little pebbles around me slowly rose up and sparks shot from them. I folded the wings and realized the giant wings in the sky were my wings. They disappeared.

I fully stretched them and the whole dark sky cracked and lightning rained all around. Shit! I quickly folded them back again and stood as straight as a log. What was happening?

Boom! Rat tat tat tat! Thunder went moments later almost stopping my heart. This was not good. Not good at all. Save... someone whispered again.

Shit! the swan! I looked at the house almost half a mile away. I took a step and I was instantly in front of a house riddled with bullets, hanging only by a thread from collapsing. As I stood in front of the house wondering what was happening to me, the scent of blood emanated from it. Too much blood.

My heart hammered my chest so hard, I contemplated going in. But still, I didn't feel like whatever attracted me here was in the house. But it was somewhere. Just not here.

The house reminded me of another scene I'd seen ages ago.

I slowly raised my leg and stepped forth one step. I didn't zoom ahead. I tried again. I didnt zoom again. Must have been disoriented by the salts earlier. Yeah, must have been disoriented.

I took another step and went through the door. Like shooting through the door and breaking it, that through. I momentarily wanted to complain but stopped short. No... this... this can't... this wasn't...

I stopped. All my personal problems vanished as I saw the scene in the living of the farmhouse. I covered my mouth and closed my eyes. This couldn't be real.

This... this can't be happening.

This has got to be a dream.

Yeah. A nightmare.

I know my once-in-a-blue-moon dreams can be a bit... off. But this is not a good dream. Not a dream I want. I want those blue movie dreams. The wet, R-rated dreams. Not this. I should be worried about those dreams. Not this.

This...

We are in the twenty-first century and in Southern Africa. This can't be real.

The whole room was decorated in blood spatters and splinters of wood and... basically everything was shredded. But that wasn't as heartbreaking as the one I was staring at right now. A head was at my feet. A pained expression was clearly written on it. But that wasn't all, it was decapitated.

Not far from it was a decapitated man kneeling in front of a woman who lay haphazardly. Both of them had four white wings, which meant they were royal blood. I took a proper look at the disfigured faces and I recognized them. Derrin and Jacqueline Whaler. Bullet-riddled king and queen of the Swans.

I kneeled to their bodies and wished them a safe journey to the land beyond as I choked on horror and rage. Whoever did this! Whoever killed Derrin and Jaquelin Whaler was going to die by my hands. I wiped my tears off and looked around for bullet shells and came out with nothing. Now I know why the spells were multi-layered. This.

Their kids! I remembered. They had kids. Twins, like every other swan.

"There!"Jacque pointed towards the hill. I turned in the direction of the hill and... Jacque? I turned to her and she looked at me with a bowed head. Ghost! I saw her tears, her scared worried face. I turned away from her and ran to where she pointed and I heard heartbeats on the ground. But caught no other movement.

In the small cave, the two little bodies of the twins lay, alive but covered in blood too. Derrin appeared in front of me with balled fists and a golden Swan sword. Behind me, Jacque was shaking her head at Derrin. This wasn't bad. This was worse. This spelled political disaster. But I am not supposed to interfere.

This was a possible war.

The king and queen of the Swans were here, gruesomely executed in the land of the Alkebulan, the land of the dark dragons. But not just in the land of the dark dragons, but within a thousand-mile radius of the Palace. This was going to be war.

Derrin drew his sword and I touched Jacque's ghost on the forehead two fingertips and she lit up golden. I went through Derrin who was ready to attack me and touched the burnt hands to the boys and... one was dying. The other, he didn't have much time left either.

I can't screw up again. I remembered. But fuck it, I can't let twelve-year-olds like me die. Besides, every one Swan death is an equivalent of two. Whether the murderer intended to or not. If a swan dies, another somewhere, a mate, would grow depressed and end up killing himself or herself without any second thought. Whether they have met and claimed each other or not, she would die. Werewolves were better, they could find a new one, not the swans.

I relieved the twins of their pain and activated their swan DNA before walking off as soon as they stirred. The mother ghost jumped in joy as life returned to her little boys' faces and the father bowed.

I took out my mother's phone and sent Natalie a quick message, "Check the royal house of the Swans. Their King died at their farm near Guardian Corp watch station 3. Send the copy of all files recorded between today and a week ago to the Golden city for them to review it."

I knew it would not diffuse the situation but it was worth a try. The Palace would do all diplomatic stuff later. I don't want to screw those up too. Just hope the White dragons understood.

I watched from within the shadows as the Swans cleaned up their king's parting place. Their gods, the White Dragons watched from a distance too. I heard their chatter but it was not in any way what I wanted to hear. I herald myself home and found Cyraon and Shay standing in front of the house entrance.

I ignored them and went to shower. I needed that the most right now. not screaming at my face or anything. All I needed was a hot shower to relieve me of the horrors I had just seen at the house of the Swans.

"James!" Cyraon called me and I ignored him and continued standing beneath the hot shower I didnt even know where the water came from and I couldn't even care.

"James!" he called again. I stopped the water from flowing and it just floated around me. I hit the water bubbles and they burst into a chain reaction all around me. some bubbles even bounced off shower walls. "I'm sorry." He started. "I should have been a bit understanding since..."

"Fuck off!" I growled at him and kept on playing with the water. It was fun to play with the water bubbles. I made a few bubbles that I tried not to burst, though I knew all million combinations that all led to the bubbles exploding. It was all fine until I realized that I was home, but I was using my powers.

I walked out of the shower and found Cyraon and Sharifa arguing about apologizing to me. "did you break my spell?" I asked Cyraon.

"No." He responded looking at me. "I couldn't even teleport here, and Sharifa almost lost her hand... why are you wearing a..."

"was it you?" I turned to Shay. She shook her head.

"it wasn't me," she responded with her eyes wide. her hand looked like it was struck by lightning. Did I do that? she hid her hand behind her. she looked down at me and saw the skirt I'd made with ice.

"James, did you...? the spell isn't broken, it's... Did you ascend?" she asked as Cyraon inspected me.

"no, I didnt ascent," I responded as my stomach grew obnoxious. I felt worry engulf me. I focused on the feeling and saw him. The crown prince of the Swan planning his revenge. He brandished his parent's weapons and put on black clothes.

I felt myself collapse somewhere far as I stood in the shadows. On the other side, a white dragon spirit stared at me. I took a quick look at him then looked at the kid. He jumped out of the third floor of the hotel he was tucked in and he sneaked out, evading the Swan guards who were sent to watch him.

He jumped over the hotel fence and ran off in the distance. I followed him with the dragon spirit looming not far from me and him. The kid ran over the hill to the farm located in the depression in between the hills. I saw him hide and wait for the full moon to from behind the clouds and walk in its lights.

He approached the farmhouse like he was a little ninja, moving in the shadows only. I started wondering why he was behaving the way he did. Waiting for the cloud cover to clear and let the moon illuminate the world while he walked in the shadows only. It didnt make sense. Especially since the Swan were also powerful on the day of the full moon.

There was only a single man the building and he was sleeping.

I wondered what the crown prince really wanted to do. What sort of revenge he was planning on taking. He slid quietly into the house. He didnt draw his sword. Or anything. He just took a frying pan and the shoelaces of the boots kept by the door and went silently to the bedroom. Like he knew where everything was. But why did I feel like I am the one showing him everything?

He silently tied the feet and hands of the sleeping guy to the bedpost, loosely. Then when he was done, he woke the guy up by stabbing him in the leg. The guy woke up with a scream and a jump. His movement caused the loose knots to tighten.

The kid hit the grown-up so hard on the head with a frying pan and silently told the screaming guy to keep quiet. The guy tried to break free and the prince stabbed him again. He screamed in agony and the kid hit him again.

"Don't make me tell you to keep quiet twice." The kid said with gritted teeth. The guy went quiet but moaned. " That's better." The kid added.

"Now, let's talk. Who was the blond guy who shot my mother?" The kid asked talking out a paper from his pocket.

"I don't know." The guy responded and the kid looked at him with a menacing look. He sighed. "I don't know who he is!"

"What about the guy who called him son?" The kid asked walking around the bedposts and tightening the knots around the bedpost, pulling the guys legs apart. "Do you know who they are?"

"I don't know."

"Too bad," The kid said taking out a bastard sword he stole from his dad's belonging. His calmness, his demeanor reminded me of something i had seen in my childhood thousands of years ago. Cold, calculating, fearless and overall scary.

"I really didnt want a mess." He added tearing the guy's thigh apart the guy screamed and he went for the pan again. He flipped it and smashed it on the guy's face.

It quickly dawned on me as i watched the kid. There are four types of guardians. the Watchers, the Keepers, the Guardians and the Judge. I was starring at the most fearsome of the four. The judge. Shit! I have unintentionally made a judge.

But i didnt make him. I didnt rewrite his DNA. I just changed his death date by adding a few decades to it. I cant have made him a judge. Did I save someone I wasnt supposed to save?

What the fuck have I done?

Damn! Now, I'm gonna have a lot of gods of my ass. Fuck!