Moon Rise

Chapter 17

There was a second wave of the bird creatures heading our way. I made my way to where dad stood over the man who had tried to take sky. He swung Sunfire in an arc and dozens of the creatures fell in flames around him. I twirled Moondance above my head like a helicopter blade and dozens more fell and pieces to the ground.

"Man, these things are ugly," I said out loud as I waded through a pile of dead creatures. "They look like Crows with bat wings and teeth."

Dad paused momentarily to bolster the fire ring that kept the man imprisoned behind him.

"They're somebody's idea of an overpowering army so Sky could be taken." Dad answered as he went back to swinging Sunfire. "Take Sunchaser and Inya back to help Cloud Spirit and Trixie guard Sky. We may need Liz's help shortly."

I turned and fought my way back to Sky and Liz with Inya and Sunchaser snapping bird creatures out of the air as they went. Sky was still rolled up in her cloak on the ground. Liz stood over her slapping bird creatures out of the air with the flat of her sword while Trixie and Cloud Spirit snapped, bit and squeezed the life out of them.

"Chaser and Inya will help guard Sky," I told Liz. "Dad says we'll need you shortly."

"I hope that means getting rid of these things," Liz grunted as she slapped down another stream of creatures. "they are seriously getting on my last nerve!"

We both laughed at her understatement as we brought more of the flying hoard to the ground.

"Snowmother comes to guard Sky," came Star's voice in my mind. "You must advance and listen to StarQueen."

"Mom's coming to guard Sky. We need to move up." I told Liz.

Liz nodded and we saw mom coming down the rise as we turned to go. Andromeda was remounted on Jasper. We could see her golden light up ahead. The light grew brighter and we could plainly see Andromeda, her Silver staff raised high and its blazing flame driving back the black cloud of flying creatures.

"Come to the right, left and center of my light." We heard her voice say in our minds.

I saw dad advancing to Liz's left. I moved over to my right and left Liz in the center. I glanced back to see the man still imprisoned in a ring of fire.

"He will not get far." Andromeda's voice said to me.

We moved forward with the aid of our swords, but the sheer numbers of the bird creatures was starting to become overwhelming.

"Listen to my voice. You will know instinctively what to do," said Andromeda. "Here Guardians trump magic."

Andromeda pointed her staff in dad's direction.

"Sun, rise!" She commanded.

Suddenly dad began to get taller, as though he were a sprouting tree. His armor shone like the sun and his sword blazed like wildfire. He didn't stop growing until his head was well above the cloud of the bird creatures.

"Moon, rise!" Andromeda ordered, pointing her staff at me.

I felt myself growing bigger. My armor was blue white and my sword shone like a full moon. It began to sing as it had that first night I became a Guardian. I was as tall as dad, looking down on the chaos below then I heard, "Earth, rise!" from Andromeda.

Liz soon completed our giant trio. Her armor pulsed in color from red to brown and her sword glowed the golden green color of new leaves.

Dad raised his blazing sword and cut a circle in the sky above Andromeda's light. The snap of his fingers ignited the circle. He repeated the cut inside the first circle and it, too, was set ablaze. Moving his sword in a circular motion, the circles began to rotate, becoming one giant wheel of fire. I pointed my sword at the center of the burning wheel. Extending my free hand, I pulled down slowly and the center of the burning wheel began to fill with water, which ebbed and flowed like the ocean.