Guardians - A King's War

1

Destiny's POV

I stared blankly at the 15th sketch on my desk. I'd tried to draw the entity from all those years ago at 24, but every time I recalled the scene, he looked slightly different. No amount of art or science schooling would help me to remember what the guy looked like.
Did he have wings? Were his eyes just glowing white, or was there yellow too? What had he been wearing?
I groaned softly and ran my hands up my face, tousling my hair as I did.

I'd become a scientist, the head of my own team and research facility. I'd devoted every resource I could to uncovering this creature who had saved my life, it was obvious he wasn't human. Humans don't have glowing yellow -or white- eyes, and they don't hold trees off of 4-year-old children with one hand.

I wondered briefly if he was still watching me somehow before a knock on my door came.
"Come in." I cleared my throat, sitting up and adjusting my glasses.
"Hey Dr. Hamilton." Timothy, an employee glanced back at the door and I could see he wasn't wearing his lab coat anymore, and his backpack was slung over his shoulder.
"I just wanted to let you know I was clocking out. Did you need help with anything else today?"
"Not particularly, thank you for all your hard work."
Timothy smiled slightly, nodded, and trotted away.
"Have a good night!" He called over his shoulder.
I sighed quietly to myself.
A long night, but maybe a good one.

I checked the clock a few hours later, it was 1am. I frowned softly and stood, not bothering to organize my things and heading for the door, grabbing my purse as I left my office.
Things were quiet, as they should have been, and the hallway was dark.
I flinched at a sudden thud behind me and whipped around.
It was the creature- he was back, and someone in all black was lying on the ground unconsciously.
Before I could stop myself I'd reached into my purse and shot the guy with a tranq gun, nailing him in the shoulder.
He blinked in shock, glancing slowly from the dart to me.
"Are you seriously...?" He mumbled, stumbling a little away from the man and studying me with confusion in his dusky purple eyes.
He collapsed onto the floor and I blinked before my heart picked up.

Hold up, what had happened? Why was he there??
I hurried to examine them both and came to the conclusion that the thud had been the guy in all black being thrown to the floor or something of the like. The knife loosely clutched in the man's hand allowed me to guess he meant harm to me, the person I'd tranqed had been protecting me once again.
On one hand, I was sorry I'd freaked out and shot some guy with a tranquilizer dart. On the other hand, I finally had him! I could study him and do whatever I wanted and finally get my answers.

I got my secret protector -after much work- onto a couch and my assailant on the concrete outside. I did as much of a study on someone so foreign as I could and was in my office 2 hours later, reviewing what I'd learned, which wasn't much but it was all still exciting.
I'd made a perfect sketch, mapped out everything I knew, and was jotting down a few more notes when I noticed something move outside my window. I paused and took two steps towards it, curious, before a large monster sort of thing launched into the room.

I squealed in shock and hurried away from it, it blocked the door before I could get to it and I tensed. The four legged beast's jaws were open hungrily and a black gooey substance was dripping from it.
I wasn't sure what it was or how I'd survive but it was obvious the monster wanted to eat me.
The thing leapt at me, making noises that resembled a jackal or a hyena, and once again the guy I'd shot with a dart saved me.
He appeared in front of me in a flash and sliced the monster's head off cleanly, watching it slide to the floor and turn into coarse ash.
He then looked towards the window to a beast I hadn't seen, which appeared more humanoid but still dripped with black goo like the other monster.
This one too was killed and reduced to ash before the being turned to me.

He looked a little irritated and groggy, probably still struggling with the drugs and fighting a headache by the looks of it.
I shrank back a little into my coat. He flicked his sword around, which had a white handle and delicate white and gold engravings on the silver blade. Black muck flew onto my perfect sketch and I opened my mouth in protest.
"Destiny, right?"
I blinked back at him nodding timidly.
"Firstly, don't ever shoot me with that again." He ordered firmly. I dipped my head again.
"Secondly," He paused, closing his eyes against the light and collecting his thoughts, "There's a reason why people like me don't wander around in public."
The sword vanished from his hand into what oblivion, I didn't know.
"Ah, about that, what exactly are people like you?" I asked, looking around for a notepad and pencil.
"A-and what were those other things? And can I have a blood sample? And-"
"That's already way too many questions for someone you just tranquilized." The guy rubbed his head and I blinked and muttered a quick apology.
"You can call me Hero, thank you, and I'm a guardian. Which means no, I'm not human, and no, I'm not telling you any more than that." He looked down at the ash piles.
"The first one was a hellhound, the second was a draugr."
"What's a draugr?" I inquired, writing down as much as I could.
"The corrupted soul of a dead person." He answered simply, patting himself off.
"How long was I asleep?"
"Roughly two hours!" I chirped.
Hero looked back at me.

He wore a white uniform, a turtleneck tank top and Arabian style pants and no shoes. He wore a golden belt and the rest of his white clothes had golden patterns similar to the engravings on his sword. He had a white mark that almost looked like reptilian scales on his right cheek.

"... It's not safe here."