Guardians - A King's War

3

A week later I was walking through the woods with Hero, and we were talking about other guardians.

"So are there others like you?"
"Why do you ask?" Hero deflected casually.
"I'll take that as a yes, what are they like?"
He rolled his eyes.
"They're fine."
"Fine like 'not as good as me for sure but not bad' or fine like 'they're fine'?"
Hero raised an eyebrow at me.
"What? It's a valid question."
He sighed.
"There are others, but they're busy and I don't want you bothering them."
"Why would I bother them??" I replied sarcastically, smiling a little.
"You can't blame me for being curious when you don't tell me anything."
Hero was about to respond when he stopped and looked around. I stopped next to him.

A half second later a practical army of hellhounds and draugrs emerged, dripping with the usual black goo. I scooted closer to Hero apprehensively as he summoned his sword to his hand.
We were surrounded by black gooey monsters, and they were hungry.
"Keep an eye on any exit points or breaks in their circle." Hero commanded, shooting a quick glance at his sword as if something about it was off.
"Stay behind me and try not to get hit."
"Sure, I can do that."
After what had happened before, I trusted Hero to protect me, even in this impossibly large crowd of monsters. But the look on his face didn't reassure me.
It was the kind of look that showed he didn't think he could deal with all of them, and all he wanted was my safety. I didn't want him to be reckless, after all he'd never told me if he was mortal or not.

He killed many of the monsters and I tried to stay out of the way as much as I could, some of his movements were too fast so he had to work around me.
Finally, a route was cleared but it was closing quickly.
"Run!" Hero shouted. I took off as fast as I could, even ducking under a hellhound or two and letting them collide in midair.
Part of me felt like a hero, the other was worried about the Hero.
When I turned around, he wasn't following me.
"Hero! Come on!" I called, taking a few steps away from some hellhounds who'd taken interest in me.
Hero ignored me and my heart almost stopped when I saw him go down.
"HERO!!"

Suddenly I was in my house, in my living room. The mud was still on the bottom of my shoes, a leaf had landed in my hair. I was confused but I ran for the door, just to hear someone knock. I hesitantly threw open the door.
"Hey Destiny!" She grinned, ignoring how messy I undoubtedly looked.
"Surprise!"

Stacy Lawrence had been a friend of mine since 3rd grade. The story of how we'd met isn't important, but we were fast friends. When we'd turned 18, I'd gone to a science university, and she'd moved to some farther place I didn't remember the name of.
To see her in such a long time was huge for me, but I wasn't sure how to get back to Hero with her standing there in front of me.

Out of nowhere a lady slightly taller than Stacy stormed over to me. She was dressed like a full pirate captain, with some beads braided into her hair and thick black eyeliner.
"What happened to him."
Her words resembled a hiss, like a snake, and I scrambled backwards a little, hoping to put some space between us.
"Wait, who's-" The woman whipped around.
"You, stop talking." She turned to me.
"You, speak."
I hurriedly explained what I remembered and could describe and when I finished, the woman tilted her head upwards slightly with an air of satisfaction.
Stacy repeated her question again, quieter, after a few moments.

"Who is this, Destiny?"
"It's..." I sighed.
"Complicated, as all things with me apparently are."
I tried my best to explain to Stacy what guardians were and the pirate lady almost seemed patient while I did, pacing around my living room.
"So, she's a guardian?" Stacy asked, pointed to pirate lady.
"Yours, I think." I answered.
With the introduction finished and so many questions hovering around us, the guardian came back to the area we were waiting in. Her eyes glowed as she reached up, the seeming fabric of reality tearing at her touch, and pulled down a silver sword with a glowing jewel at the center of the blade, the handle adorned with white engravings like what I'd seen on Hero's weapons.
I got a really bad headache, and the world went black.