Kaze: Guardians

The Invalid

     I woke up to the girl shaking me and trying to talk to me. She seemed worried. When I opened my eyes, she seemed to relax a bit. I even saw a smile.
     "What did I miss?" I asked, only halfway kidding.
     "Well," a boy with dark blue hair, olive skin and navy blue eyes scooted over to us. "they took away your sword, kicked your mute friend around a little bit, and--"
     "I'm sorry, but who the heck are you?"
     "I'm Juno. All of the people here have done something wrong. Not me. I don't understand why Guardians are hated so much, but I was interviewing some of the general populace to see why when I got arrested... Heh..."
     I wanted to call him an idiot. I really did, but he had a point. "It's a stupid way to go about it, but I guess that's pretty smart. People hate Guardians, why not ask the people why?"
     He shrugged. "I feel so useless. I could've run from them, but..." His gaze traveled down his torso and landed on what should've been his legs. In place of his shins were stumps. I shuddered, but started to apologize when he stopped me.
     "It's okay. I get it. A lot of people do that. I'm used to it. As a child, I loved the outdoors, studying the bugs, the grass. However, I technically was never allowed to go outside. It was great fun! I even had an assistant--. Whoops, I'm missing the point of my story." He chuckled before continuing. "The point is, people often look at my legs instead of my face..."
     He went on but I put my hand over his mouth. "Yeah... That sucks... But this is Earth! Hima, no less! You can do anything if you get it into your head that you can."
     He perked up. "I can? Even me?"
     "Especially you. You have something to prove to the world. You aren't a part of your disability, right?"
     He seemed encouraged by this. I was instantly smiling. He had every reason in the world to be upset, but for some reason he wasn't.
     The mute girl tapped me on the shoulder and pointed. "So sorry I ran behind!" I thought for a moment that she said it, but it was instead the priestess. I was still shocked, but it would've been cool if it had been her.
     I jumped to my feet but nearly fell over. My feet were locked inside a block of wood chained to the wall. "Uh... Let me unlock you guys." She laughed. "Are you okay?"
"We're fine. What are you doing h--?"
"Shhh!" She clapped her hand over my mouth. "I'm not supposed to be down here. Juno, how are your p... Prosthetics?" She said the word slowly, with quite a struggle. I stifled a laugh.
"My prosthetic legs?"
"Yes! Those."
"They're great! I finished them last week, and I've been practicing walking on them. They aren't very comfortable, but better than nothing, right?" He smiled at his genius.
"Right. So, are you ready?"
"I hope so. I've only practiced walking, so running is quite a big leap into the unknown."
"Wait." I said. "You know the priestess, Juno? How?"
She smiled. "My name is Yara. I am the Guardian of Flight. Juno was brought here almost a month ago. I felt bad for him, but it turns out, he was actually really smart! He could easily be a Guardian, but alas! He isn't. He had plans to build legs for himself, but he needed supplies. I'm the one who brought him the stuff he needed!"
"I was going to escape with a few other groups of Guardians, but I couldn't run, and nobody wanted to carry me." Juno continued. "Yara and I decided that if I created some fake legs, I could run with the next group of Guardians she led out of the palace. And I finally finished them!" He held up two creaky metallic objects that looked like they could barely support a ping pong ball. "Let me just strap myself in..." He stood proudly. "There! I... I did it!" He took some very wobbly steps. It was clear that he was concentrating on walking. I smiled.
Priestess Yara threw my sword and sheath to me. "I grabbed it on my way here. Now, let's get you guys out of this mess!" She proclaimed. Prisoners reached out to us, hoping to keep us in the jail, but they couldn't reach. We had escaped!
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The banner is Without You from the musical Rent. I put it in here because it's a good song and it sums up the Yara and Juno dynamic nicely. Yara feels responsible for him, so I imagined them in my head as a big sister-little brother type deal.
     Hope you enjoyed!