Episode 3

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.

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