Legend - Age of Resistance (Book 1 of the 'Legend' Fan Fic Short Story Trilogy)

CHAPTER 10

"This is as far as I can take you. Give your mother my love" Gump whispered and unwrapped his wings from around the princess.

He shook his head and Jasmine softly tumbled to the ground as she disconnected from his brown feathered chest and smiled, watching the rest of his bird frame fade away to reveal his elf body.

Gump often shapeshifted into an eagle if he needed to leave the forest.

"It's the easiest creature to go undetected" he would explain when questioned by the other elves.

Over the years, he tried to help Jasmine hone her magical skills by teaching her to shapeshift into different creatures and objects but his student could only manage to transform into a crystal, which didn't help when she needed to travel.

"Why is it always a crystal?" Gump questioned his wide-eyed student.

"I don't know. I just keep seeing one when you tell me to focus on what I want to change into" Jasmine would innocently reply through squinted eyes as she attempted to transform into something else.

Magic within humans was rarely heard of, which is why her father always wanted to keep it a secret but Lili never agreed.

"Maybe she got it from you?" She often posed to her unsure husband.

"I never had magical powers in the forest! All I could do was use the flowers and plants in potions" Jack confessed as Lili encouraged the leaders to teach her daughter magic and the ways of the forest, much to the princess's delight.

Jasmine had always loved her lessons with Gump, although he father was always vocal about his reluctance on the subject,

"It's dangerous and not something a princess needs" he would complain when Lili would remind him that it was Jasmine's birthright as Gump was one of her guardians that they both appointed before she was born.

When Lili announced she was pregnant, Jack and the rest of the kingdom rejoiced at the news.

Parties were held in the castle, forest and in neighbouring lands to celebrate the happy royal news but when the excitement, of welcoming a newborn into the world, faded, Jack changed and was left with fear and anxiety, with constant flashbacks of nearly losing Lili all those years ago.

Visibly shaken and with his temperament becoming more paranoid and agitated by the day, Lili tried to ease his worries by suggesting extra protection,

"What if we appointed three magical beings to be her guardians?" She proposed to her tense husband.

He stopped looking at the blueprints of the castle for a moment and thought about the idea.

"You mean to perform the Tribus Custos ceremony?" He replied attentively.

Lili nodded and rubbed her small stomach before walking over to her husband and sitting on his knee.

She cupped his strained face in her hands and kissed his forehead lovingly.

"Who would you choose?" He pondered as the trepidation began to disperse upon his wife's soft touch.

She wrapped her arms around her tired husband and replied with certainty,

"Oona, Gump and Brown Tom?"

Jack hesitated for a moment, knowing the risk the ceremony posed, then gave a slight smile and looked into his wife's warming eyes,

"Okay, I will go and ask them but I cannot promise you they will accept as they would be risking their lives for us again" he stated nervously.

"I know but we need them, my love and I wouldn't trust anyone else with the task" Lili continued with hope.