Episode 2

“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.

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