Forsaking The Shadows

Meeting A Shadow Guardian

June 5, 1110 BP. It's Six O'clock in the morning I should be asleep not writing, I have a lot of work to do tomorrow. Well today but it's such a beautiful morning, to beautiful to sleep trough. My name is Cora and I'm twelve years old. My family and I live in a small village in Missouri. Our village is old ruins from where these creatures called Shadow Guardians used to live. Everyone says those are just stories that there is no such thing as a shadow guardian.

Later that morning my mother and I were working in the garden and it's seven thirty in the morning still dark out when we saw something come tumbling out of the woods. My mother was the first to see it tumbling out, we both walked over my mom with an ax that we use to cut the weeds I was walking behind her. When we got over to the creature I heard my mom gasp, when I looked around her shoulder I saw a beautiful young girl lying on the ground with blood on her face and she was holding her side, but she was past out. My mother walked closer to the girl and sat down next to her and moved her hand I could that she was bleeding a lot, it looked like she had been stabbed by something. My mother looked at me and told me to run into town and get my brother and father from the blacksmith shop.

I ran as fast as my twelve year old legs would go, I ran straight to the blacksmith shop and burst through the door my brother and father just looked at me with concern. I stood there for a minute trying to catch my breath, my father finally ask "what is it girl, why did you come here, is your mother hurt." I looked at him and said "no but mother does need both of you now, she needs your help with something important." My brother and father dropped what they were doing and ran outside, my father picked me up and put me on his horse then got on behind me. Once my brother was on his horse we took off back towards the house where my mother was still sitting next to the girl trying to stop the bleeding from the girl's stomach.

When we reached the house my father and brother jumped off the horses and ran over to my mother. My father looked at her and said "Katherine what is it you need our help for?" My mother looked up at him and said "the girl is hurt and I cannot lift her to take her inside where it is warm." Then my father realized the girl on the ground, he looked over at my brother and told him to help him with the girl. After the girl was inside we could all see the tribal tattoos that covered the girl's body.

After they laid her on the bed my father asked my mother to speak with her outside. I don't know what they were talking about but my father looked concern, angry, and doubtful. I looked at my brother and said "hey Abel what do you think they are talking about?" he said that they were more than likely talking about the girl and her strange tattoos, and where she came from. I looked at him and said sarcastically maybe she's a Shadow Guardian, then started to laugh.

My brother got mad and said "that's not something to joke about those thing are dangerous!" I stopped laughing and said " I thought you didn't believe in that type of stuff?" My parents came back inside and said "we know what she is but no one in this house can tell another soul what she is or it will bring grave danger to the whole village. My brother and I just looked at them with fear mixed with concern. Then my brother said "what is she?"

My father looked at my mother and my mother said " Neal we need to tell them, they need to know." My father turned back and looked at the girl then looked at us, then he said "she is a Shadow Guardian" "what, I thought they didn't exist" my brother protested. My mother said "we were trying to protect you" "By lying to us my brother snapped." We did not lie to you my children our father said in a calm voice. Then the girl Shadow Guardian started coughing, and my mother said I need to tend to her wound now. Then she looked at my brother and said that they can go back to town and back to work that, that was all she needed and then she looked at me and told me to get some herbs from the garden.

A few days later the Shadow girl woke up in a fright, my mother calmed her down and asked the girl for her name she had the most beautiful accent when she said her name was Slea Skyshade. My mother then told Slea her name was Katherine Emsworth, and that she was safe to stay with us as long as she needed. A few days had passed since Slea woke up and she decided to stick around and help us for what our family did for her. Some of the other villagers had started talking about the girl that had been staying with us, and one of the king's knights that had been with the tax collector over heard some of them talking. The knight and a few other knights came by the house and they saw Slea helping my mother and I in the garden. My mother looked up and saw them on their horses, before she could say anything the knights and their horses took off back toward the castle and told the king about Slea.

That night the king and his knights came riding into our village and started burning houses while the king yelled as loud as he could come out Shadow Guardian. Come out and fight like a true warrior, the warrior your kind is told to be. Slea just looked at us and said I have no choice but to go out there and fight him. Then she stood up and before she could walk out the door my father grabbed her arm and said "wait we can't let you go out there without a weapon," and he handed her an ax with blades on both sides and a skull in the middle," Take this with you." Slea took the ax and said thank you all for everything you have done for me and she took off out the door.

Slea was fighting the king's knights, when six knights came barging through our door, grabbing us, and dragging us outside. The king told his knights to stop and get out of the way. When Slea saw that the king's knights had us she dropped the ax and said please don't hurt them, It's me you want just let them go. The king got off of his horse and walked over to me and put a knife against my throat and said "what are you willing to do to stop me from killing them?" Slea picked the ax back up and said " I would kill for them, I would die for them." The king walked over to my mother and said I hear that Shadow Guardians are fast let's see how fast you really are. Before Slea could even blink the king cut my mother's throat. Then Slea was right behind the king and she killed him. But there was no time to save my mother she was gone. The next day was her funeral we were all standing by her grave all of us but Slea. Slea left and went back to the Shadow Guardians and we see her every now and then when she comes to protect the village from anyone who tries to harm it. The other day I saw her at my mother's grave and I walked up to her and all she said was. Katherine Emsworth death by king, Once loved Never forgotten.