Prologue

One stormy night, a blood-soaked tiger ran amok. A ****** couple slept. The tiger tore their door off of its hinges. He prowled to where the couple slept, his huge paws gently stepping on the floor as he walked, and let out a low growl. The couple stirred from their peaceful slumber. “Mister Griffin, you have sinned, you took the lives of my wife and, thus, doomed my child to die, so I will just make you pay,” said the tiger, “You,” he placed his oversized paw on the man with a growl, “Will be imprisoned for the rest of your life, however, I am not heartless, I will allow you to say goodbye to your wife, even though I couldn’t to mine, and you,” he placed his paw on the terrified woman, “you married a man that took a very important life. My only heir will die… unless it has a new mother. You will finish carrying my child, as it has not been born yet, and you will take care of it until I die. If you don’t, I will kill him and the rest of this planet as well.”

As the man was dragged away, with a weeping woman, a light ascended from the ceiling, surrounding the woman and making her belly bulge. She started to scream as the pain of a 6-month pregnancy set in. Her husband was gone and she was going to have the child of a tiger. The world had forsaken this poor woman, and for only a little bit of love, no less.

Chapter 1

“Carrie! It’s been so long since I’ve seen you!” exclaimed my best friend, Charles.

“I’m glad the year of torture is finally over. We finally get to go to actual school again, instead of staring at a screen all day,” I replied. Oh, did I forget to introduce myself? I am Caroline or Carrie for short. I usually pick up on things pretty quick, but otherwise? I’m pretty much the most normal kid ever, not exceptionally beautiful, but not ugly. Not rich, but not poor. Not a genius, but not stupid, either. I like horses and music, I play the double bass, and I also got one for Christmas last year. My parents went a little over budget to get me an amazing German Pfretzschner one. They don’t look cool, but their sound is just so unique!

“Yeah, 2020 sucked. At least, we finally got the vaccine for coronavirus. Now we’re not always so holed up in our houses all freaking year again,” commented Claudia, my only other friend. We usually called her Claud, though.

“So, come on inside,” I said, we were a band. We called ourselves the Three Seas because all of our names started with C. I had known Claud and Charles for as long as I could remember. We usually practiced in my family’s music room. Charles played the guitar, and Sandy played the piano. We usually performed in parks and other public areas, but recently, our band was starting to get noticed a little more by other bands. The Two Cellos had invited us to play a song at one of their concerts in three weeks, to promote music for teens and younger. We would, of course, be playing with a whole bunch of other people, and we had two times, before the concert, where we would all play as a whole. Until then, we all would practice in groups.

“It always amazes me how you have such a big room dedicated to only music,” commented Claud.

“Well, we are pretty well off, and even though we aren’t rich, my family has always been a family of musicians. We never really had a purpose for this room. When we moved in, we put the piano here and after that, we started moving other instruments here too,” I said.

“I can’t wait for the concert,” said Charles as he started to unpack his guitar.

“Me neither, we have been so small time, but now we might actually get some attention, and I won’t have to play the keyboard at the concert, I will have a real piano there!” Exclaimed Claud.

“Yeah, the keyboard just doesn’t sound the same,” I agreed.

“I’m excited that we get to play with more people. We were all taught by our families, so we never really played with anyone else before,” said Charles.

“I just hope we do well. I hear that coordinating with that many people is hard,” I explained as Charles started checking the tuning of his guitar. At this point, Claud was setting up the music and music stands for all of us.

“I’m sure that we’ll be fine. After all, we are the Three Seas!” said Charles encouragingly, earning a couple of giggles from Claud and me, “I’m also glad that we get to play rock, after all, we have been playing it for a while. It’s kinda cool that we get to switch off with other players for different styles too.”

We then practiced for a few hours, working both on our various instruments as a group, and doing vocals. Claud had been offered the main vocals spot on the stage, while the rest of us had background vocals. Usually, we would switch off main vocals, but Claud had the voice of an angel, I could see why she was chosen for main vocals. At around noon, my mother brought us all sandwiches and carrots, as well as some fruits. She was always a good mother, and though she was on the weightier side, she worked hard to get money for the family, and she was really glad that I was working so hard for my dreams. Unfortunately, my father had died right after my brother was born. He was a year younger than me, and he hated music. He was probably out right now being a little punk, like the stereotype of teenagers suggested. Kids like him gave our age group a bad name. I hated it. Still, he was my brother, and he most certainly would be coming to the Two Cellos concert. Oh, didn’t I mention it before? The song we were playing was called “Thunderstruck.”

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The time passed incredibly quickly. As the time neared for the actual concert, the entire orchestra got riled up with excitement. Our band was up first. We were dressed like real rock stars, with our hair gel, face painting, and spiky clothing. The concert started. We were able to listen from behind the curtain, after they came backstage, the whole orchestra would go out onto the stage. We would play first, play some of the more memorable measures from Thunderstruck than the hip hop band would fade in with their song as we faded out, this would continue until everyone had gone, then we would all play a finale together. That was when we would do vocals, Thunderstruck didn’t have any vocals, so that would be when we would sing. After that, we would go to the tables in front of the stage where we would answer questions and encourage any kids who came to play music as well. We would sign autographs if they were wanted, but we weren’t famous people, so I doubted that would happen. As our turn neared, we prepared to go on the stage, checking our clothes and makeup to make sure nothing had changed.

We heard the two cello songs finish. They announced us. Then, they came back behind the curtain as us kids came onto the stage. Then, they were the ones listening to us. Claud sat at the piano. I set down my bass with the rock stops ready there. The lights came on. I was going to do the introduction because Charles (who was supposed to announce us) had gotten a scratchy throat today. I knew the intro by heart.

“Hello everyone, I am Caroline, all of us are here today to inspire the next generation to pick up music and to follow your dreams. Learning an instrument is difficult, but it is well worth it when you are the star on the stage.” We started our part, and as we did, I saw something peculiar. I saw a white tiger glowing with a tinted blue light. He was watching us. My breath caught as I watched it and it watched me. Its ribs were showing and it looked so frail that the wind could blow it away. It stared at me with a burning intensity. I continued the song, and something about the performance just seemed right. The other bands played, and I realized something I had never seen before. Every style of music was special, but they were all more similar than we believed. It was the same way with people. Animals too, and plants as well. We’re all the same. We’re all living creatures. What was wrong with me? I didn’t know. I never thought about this stuff before. Why now? The finale came and we finished off the song. We went backstage to put away our instruments.

“You alright, Carrie? You looked distracted,” asked Claud.

“I’m fine, I was just thinking about how awesome it was to be on the stage, in front of so many people. How there were so many people looking up to us, both literally and figuratively,” I lied.

“Yeah, it is awesome, isn’t it?” replied Charles.

We sat at the tables and answered questions, talked with people, etcetera. I even signed some autographs, more than I thought I would. By a lot.

After that, since it was late, I went home with my mom. As we pulled into the driveway, I saw something peculiar. On our front porch sat, like, 20 Basses. My mom stopped just outside of the garage and we all got out of the car. We walked over to the instruments. At least they were in cases. Having them out in the cold of the night would be bad for their strings. At least they had some padding. There was a card on top of the one closest to the door. It had my name on it. My mother silently picked it up and handed it to me.

I opened it. “To my dear daughter,” It said on the cover in a colorful font. My mother didn’t seem surprised as if this had happened before. My brother just walked inside and said “Bruh.”

“Mom, what the heck is going on? I thought dad died,” I inquired.

“I hate your father. Your brother is adopted, and your father took my husband and forced me to have his child. Still, I have raised you as my own, because you are not your father. You are a child that deserves everything any other child does,” she replied, with a trembling voice.

“Thank you mom,” I croaked, hugging her.

“As for the basses, I’m not sure what to do with them. Why don’t you take a look at them before we decide what to do? You know Basses better than I do, anyway,” She stated after she recovered.

“I don’t know about you, but I am going to sleep first, I’ll do it in the morning,” I said, bringing the basses into the music room.

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When I slept that night, the white tiger was there.

“Who are you?” I asked.

It tilted its head. “Why, I am your father.” He had a deep voice, one that I felt I recognized.

“You can’t be. I’m a human I can’t have a tiger father. Plus, I would prefer not to violate animal abuse laws for what my dad did to mom, also, there is no such thing as a glowing tiger,” I sneered, crossing my arms.

“Fine, then come to the park where you always play tomorrow. I will be waiting,” He bellowed, fading away.

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To check the Basses, I looked into the F-holes to see the labels of the workshops they came from. There was an ALCOA, another aluminum bass, they usually look a lot cooler than Pfretzschner and are “seamlessly welded,” but their tone isn’t as great. There are said to be only 50 ever made. There was a Master Dario Giovanni 2011 Bass as well. These were rare, last I checked, there were only 4 Dario Giovanni instruments for sale online. It was incredibly miraculous how whoever my father was was able to buy a Dario Giovanni Bass. There were other incredibly rare and incredible instruments in the area. I wrote down everything I knew about each of the Basses.

Needless to say, I went to the park. It wasn’t a long walk, I was going to see the scenery, I told myself, but I knew I was wrong. When I got there, there was more wildlife than usual, but they were also not as skittish as usual. A woodpecker even landed on my shoulder. I left him (or her) alone as I walked through the trees. I went to the clearing that I usually practiced in and laid down in the grass. The woodpecker took off as I plopped down. I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, he was there, looking down on me. I sat up and turned around to where he was facing. He was quite frail. I watched as he morphed into a human shape. He looked at me with eyes the color of the ocean, and he would have looked handsome, had it not been for the fact that he looked dead. He also was wearing clothes, thank goodness. “So, believe me yet?”

“So you really are my father then. Why did you hurt mom so much?” I asked.

“Take my hand,” he reached out his hand. As our fingers brushed each other, a memory filled my head. I walked into a palace and the terrible stench of blood filled my nostrils as I opened the doors. I rushed in, following the smell. I found a mangled body of a soft green doe. I felt pain. Anger. And I smelled a human. My pregnant wife was dead and my child was doomed to die. I took my child fetus with me and followed the scent of the one who had taken her life. I wanted revenge. My crackling rage would allow no less.

I scratched the door down and prowled to where the man was. He had a woman. They were sleeping with ringed hands intertwined. I would be better than this scoundrel. I took the man with me for imprisonment as he said goodbye to his own wife, and his wife would carry my child. I left, and the memory ended.

I cracked my eyes open. I was lying on the ground with the man sitting and watching me. He was still holding my hand. He had an unreadable expression.

“She didn’t do anything wrong,” I stated.

“She was married to that scoundrel. They took an oath to take care of each other in sickness and in health. So I spread the punishment between them. At least she didn’t have to go through the death of her husband,” he replied.

“So what am I?” I asked. I wasn’t sure what to ask. I was shooken by the cruelty of this world.

“You are one of the guardian spirits, though few are left. You are their only heir to the throne as well,” he replied.

“Why didn’t you tell me before? Why did you leave me to think my dad just abandoned me?”

“I needed to keep you safe. The guardian spirits are being hunted. As soon as you are seen as one of us, you are in danger. I sealed your powers before I put you inside of that woman’s stomach so that they couldn’t sense you, but you are a music type guardian spirit, and your powers were released during the concert. I can no longer hide you, so I came after you to release your powers. You need to be awakened and you need to have the power to protect yourself,” he explained.

“Well, what do I need to do?”

“You, my dear need to forsake this realm and come train with me in the spirit realm,” the answer suprised me for some reason. I would leave my mother… my friends… my brother. I loved them all. How could I just leave them behind? There was a moment of silence. Even the birds in the trees seemed to stop singing. My father stiffened. He morphed back into a tiger. There was a rustle of leaves. My father launched himself into the tree. I heard a battle. Roars and growls coming from one side, the sounds of a sword coming from the other. They jumped from tree to tree, my father and a cloaked person. A sweet-smelling cloth was pressed over my mouth and nose. I slipped into unconsciousness.

When I woke up, I was chained to a wall with all four limbs shackled and a collar around my neck. I was in a cage barely big enough for me. There were other creatures with the same.

“Where…” I asked.

“Poor thing, hunted so young,” sympathized a crimson lioness.

“Yeah, I wonder what her bloodline is. She is in human form still,” a yellow stag replied, “care to tell us?”

“I truly don’t know. I was raised with a seal and only recently found out I wasn’t a human,” I answered.

“Really? Does that mean you were raised with humans? How did you find out?” inquired the crimson lioness.

“Well, a white tiger told me. He also showed me the death of my genetic mother and how I ended up with humans,” I replied. I heard a gasp.

“Does that mean… are you his daughter? And your mother is a green deer right?” Asked a purple eagle.

“Uh… yeah, he mentioned something about me being an heir? Anyone care to explain?” I asked.

“It means that you will one day be my queen. Our queen. All of your bloodline have been born leaders. We are sworn to follow your bloodline, but who we fight with is our choice completely,” explained the yellow stag. I heard footsteps. Three cloaked figures stopped in front of my cage. One of them pointed to me and the door to my cage was opened by one of the others.

My shackles were unlocked and a leash was attached to my collar. I was forced into new shackles, but this time they weren’t attached to the cage wall. Just restraining my movement then.

“Come,” ordered the man who had pointed at me before.

“Take one of us, she’s just a kid,” said the crimson lioness, pawing at the bars. Her voice was even, showing no emotion.

There was a tug on my collar as the men started walking. I followed obediently… for now. I was taken to a room with a table int eh center. There were needles, scissors, and many other sharp objects strewn about the room. It looked like a laboratory. It had blood everywhere, but though it looked gruesome, it also looked clean. I stopped outside of the door. I did not take a single step into the room. Another creature came down the hall after where I had come. It was a white lioness with a soft blue glow. My father’s glow had been brighter. What were they doing here? The lioness had a blank expression on her face as she was led into the room. There were cuts and bruises all over her and she didn’t seem to car when one of her scans on her shoulder broke open.

I watched her go into the room. One of the men behind me shoved me in. Then he let go of my leash. The lioness stared at me with a blank expression. I looked back. After a few minutes, a woman came in in a lab coat. Her face was covered by a blank mask. She sat down at one of the counters and set Down the lap top she had been carrying. She typed on it then turned around and said “we are here because this child hasn’t been awoken yet. You,” she pointed at the lioness, “will supply us with the power to awaken her.

“I will not,” replied the lioness.

“Fine, then we’ll have to do it the hard way then,” I could hear the sneer in the woman’s voice. She threw a dart at the lioness and she didn’t even flinch as she took the weapon. This was a gruesome place, and I wanted nothing else than to leave… no, that’s not it. I wanted nothing else than to save all of the guardian spirits.

Next it was my turn. Before I was able to dodge, a dart was thrown right into my shoulder. I slumped onto the ground, paralyzed. I could tell that it was the same for the lioness. My restraints were taken off and I was put on the table. The woman didn’t bother with restraints. I felt a needle being pushed into my forearm and saw that on the gorund, the lioness’s forearm was also penetrated. A blue light came from the lioness and went into a machine, then the tube connected to me on a different part of the machine was pushed into my forearm. A searing sensation crawled up my arm and into my body. I wished I could scream, but I remained silent. I felt a barrier inside of me break and power flooded into me, no, that wasn’t it, power was flowing from my own heart and into the rest of my body.

I began to transform. My arms and legs grew longer, a tail broke through my pants, my fingers began to change. I felt my face enlongating and horns spreading from the back. Wings tore right through my shirt, and I began to grow. I began to regain control over my limbs as I did so. I tore through the ceiling, gontinuing to get larger. I grew up and up and up, tearing down the facility. As it turned out, it was all underground, as I felt the sun on my scales, I felt power surging through my body. Then, my mind went to the guardian spirits, trapped inside in those restraints. The ground next to me started to bubble and heat up. The crimson lioness climbed through the earth with a whole bunch of other guardian spirits as well. I climbed out of the hole I was sitting in.

“Is that everyone?” I tried to ask, but it sounded more like “In bat ebriwob?”

“Everyone is here except for the silver lioness, I assume she was used to awaken you,” replied the purple eagle. The cloaked people started to appear again.

“Bo,” I said, as I reached into the hole to find the white lioness. The paralysing darts were now being shot at us all, my body could take a few  more because it was so bog, but the others had to go.

“Young one, allow us to get on your back? It’ll be harder for them to follow us,” suggested the yellow stag.

“Burry,” I said, setting down my wing so that they could get on. Once everyone was on my back, I attempted to fly. I didn’t know how. What to do? I didn’t know how to even use my power. Wait, my father said that I was a music type. I thought of some songs by AC/DC and hummed them. I closed my eyes and thought about how it felt to play the bass. How everything just clicked at that concert. I spread my wings and flew. I tried to sense where I was going, but I didn’t know- not until I heard a voice in my ear.

“I will guide you,” it said, it was my dad, I knew it. “Feel my voice and try to come to me,” I did, “I felt an odd sensation, then a wealth of power. Something I had never before felt in my life. I felt like I was truly home. By now, my wings were getting heavy and I was doing all I could just to stay up. I descended quickly so that I wouldn’t fall too far when my wings gave out. I saw the palace from my father’s memory. I was here. I crashed. I had trouble, but I managed to crack my eyes open. Most of the spirits that were with me gathered around my face. Some of them were unconcious or paralyzed and others were running toward the palace. I then, knowing I was safe, slept.

When I woke up, I was in a grand chamber. It was gigantic. I couldn’t even move, but I saw my father in front of me. It was nighttime, I could tell from the window, and my father had fallen asleep right in front of me. I was glad he was there, there was just something about knowing that you are where you belong. That’s when I saw Claud and Charles. They were curled up against my cheek, so was mom and my brother. That made me feel good. Having them there. Why, though? I decided to go back to sleep. It wasn’t like I could get up anyway.

As it turned out, my mind was too restless to sleep. I watched the world on the other side of the window. I composed a song in my head based off of the cold night outside. As night turned to dawn and dawn turned to daylight, the song changed to the warmth of the sun.

My father was the first to wake up. He stretched, then saw me awake and gave my snout a hug. I tried again to raise my head, but I couldn’t. He sat down in front of my nose.

“I’m glad you’re awake. You used a lot more streingth than you should have, but you made a good choice. I would have done the same, I am so thankful that you’re alright, you saved so many of the guardian spirits. I thought that they were dead, and you brought them back,” a tear ran down his cheek, “thank you. You brought me my sister back. I am so blessed to have a child like you.”

I closed my eyes. There wasn’t anything I could say. Literally. I wasn’t even used to this body, and it wouldn’t budge. After a little while of him talking to me, my mom, my brother, Charles, and Claud woke up. When they saw me awake, they seemed startled. After all, I was a huge beast that was rumored to have destroyed cities and even whole countries in midevil times. Oh, did I forget to mention? My new body was a dragon. Yep, fearsome, evil, deadly dragon. Honestly? I think dragons get a bad rap. Still, it’s not up to me, is it?

I watched as my father moved toward the group. “She can’t move, her energy still hasn’t recovered,” he addressed mom and my brother, “but I do believe that she is glad you’re here, after all, you are the people that raised her. And you two,” he addressed Claud and Charles, “Thank you for protecting my daughter, though I do wonder. Why? You are not bound to us by oath or blood.”

“We may be wild spirits, but that doesn’t mean that we’re ruthless or heartless. We saw a guardian spirit child with sealed powers and a human family. When we met her, we liked her, now I see why all of the guardian spirits made those paths in the first place,” replied Claud. What the heck was going on? Claud and Charles were spirits?

“So you’re not shadow spirits then?” My father asked.

“No, of course not,” Charles shook his head, “we’re still wild, neutral spirits. We retained our freedom all thruout our lives, at least so far.”

“Uh, what is going on here?” Asked my mom. I was confused as well, but she was the one who could say the words.

“There are three types of spirits, Guardian spirits, who protect the light of the world, shadow spirits, who are the opposite of us, only caring about power, and neutral spirits. They never really chose sides and their not bound by any oaths, so they are usually like the balancing force between guardian and shadow spirits. For most spirits, they start out as neutral, but they can still choose sides. My bloodline is the leaders of the guardian spirits, and once they swear the oath to become one of us, they are bound by it, and they have to follow the command of my family. Who they follow, however, is their choice. As for the shadow spirits, they have a similar system, except for them, it is survival of the fittest instead of sharing is caring,” explained my father. That sirt of made sense, but then why don’t I sense anything from neutral spirits. If their spirits, I should at least sense some magic or whatever it was called.

“Yes, however, it is possible to renounce your side if your leader agrees to release you from your oath. The dark aura around the shadow spirits is what distinguishes them, as is the pure aura around guardian spirits. Those of us who are neutral don’t have an aura,” added Charles.

“Oh, and there are different types of spirits too, like seers, musicians, leaders, etcetera. I am a musician type spirit,” Claud patted her chest, “meaning that my power comes from music, and Charles,” she pointed at Charles, “is a Seer, meaning that he can always sense spirits even if their powers are sealed and their aura is suppressed. That’s how we were able to tell what Carrie was. Charles is a really good seer, so he was even able to tell her bloodline and whether she was a guardian or shadow spirit, he was even able to go as far as seeing that she was a musician. Less talented ones would only have been able to see that she was a spirit. Nothing else.”

“Well that’s… interesting.” Said my brother. He seemed to actually care about something for once in his life.

“So have you seen a lot of spirits around?” Asked my mom.

“Yeah, most of them were hiding. Other neutral spirits hiding from the humans and shadow spirits, mostly. You see, we don’t really have a domain we can hide in. You guardian spirits have this realm, the shadow spirits have their own realm, and guess what we have? Earth. The middle ground where we are hunted every day by power hungry humans looking to suck out our auras,” said Charles.

“We were kinda expecting the guardian spirits to do something, but you all just got captured and killed, so all of the places where neutral spirits used to gather got disbanded, making us weaker, but if one of us is found, then at least the rest of us are safe. When we found Carrie here, we couldn’t tell why the guardian spirit royalty was being sealed, so we stuck by her, she is a kid, after all. She needed protection,” explained Claud, “even as she grew around us and semi-invisible shadow spirits terrorized those around her, she seemed unaware of her predicament. So, we did our jobs and kept an eye on her over the years.”

“...Thank you, you know, for protecting Caroline,” croaked Mom.

“It’s no problem. There are few enough of us as is. We need to protect other young spirits if we can,” replied Charles.

“Well, I guess that’s that. There are a ton more things you need to understand about this world if you are to use your powers correctly, Caroline, but I suppose this is a start,” sighed my father.