The Ancient Guardians

The Ancient Guardians (Chapter 18)

THE ANCIENT GUARDIANS

Chapter 18

Suddenly, it wasn't dark, as it should be. Everything was brightened by fire. Fire everywhere. The path appeared. I was getting used to this. It kind of felt like when I practiced surrounding myself in fire. The pulses came, and so did the light, which seemed like a light through the window of a house across the street. The light pulsed and I waited. I knew I had a question to ask, but I couldn't figure out what. The light started to pulse harder. I waited some more. It pulsed again like a giant heart.

I felt myself wake up, but for some reason I still only saw fire. I was definitely awake. Then, I noticed that instead of waking up steaming, I had woken up with my body covered in fire as I had been yesterday. The flames quickly died out as I noticed them. This dream was getting weirder and weirder. Clint appeared at my room's entrance, I guess the other ones are awake since I didn't hear anything.

"You never fail to wake up, I see." He said. "I'll see you outside in a bit."

"Yeah..." I got up after he left. I lit the fireplace and took in my fill of flames. It'll still be a while before I get used to eating with my hands. I wonder how Marla and Will are doing with that. We met up with Clint outside, as was now usual.

He was taking bites out of a round rock in his hand, as if it was an apple or something. The crunching of the rock sounded like crunching chips, only ten times louder. He finished his mouthful before addressing us. "I love these." He said as he put it in a pocket inside his cloak. "They never get rotten. Now, let's begin. First, sit."

We all sat down cross-legged except for William, who sat with his legs extended.

Clint looked at Will. "Cross-legged, please."

Will seemed unsure why this was mandatory, but he did it anyway.

"Now," Clint continued, "considering your overall slowness to summon your elements, I didn't think it would be necessary at first but it seems we have no choice; from now on, every day we will start with meditation."

"You're kidding, right?" Marla said.

"This is nonsense." Will exclaimed.

They were both a bit skeptical. I thought it was a good idea. I knew the benefits of meditation, but I never found the time to practice it. It's an obvious requirement for any sort of training involving the mind.

"Believe me," Clint said. "at the rate you two are going now we'll never get strong enough. Separating yourself from your physical body will get you closer to the spirit of your element, and the closer you are to your spirit the more power you will be able to draw."

"Fine..." William responded.

"What if we don't know how to meditate?" Marla asked.

"It's simple, just follow my instructions." Clint answered. "Close your eyes."

I closed my eyes, same as the others.

"Then, empty your mind. Focus it on one thing; namely your element."

My thoughts went to flames, the bonfire, my weird dream. I tried not to think of memories, mostly to imagine it.

"Breathe at a regular pace; inhale slow and exhale slower. Then relax your muscles and slowly loosen your mind from every part of your body, as if nothing existed."

I found this fairly easy to do, considering my experience yesterday. Oops, mustn't think.

"There are only two things you should hear: your breathing and your heartbeat. Forget place. Forget time. Forget space. I will now stop speaking, and you will now let your mind fly free..."

As he stopped talking all other sounds deafened, except for the small breeze that was my breath and my pulse. I couldn't help feeling like in my dream, if it was a dream. I gradually stopped feeling my limbs. I remained in this state, keeping my mind focused on fire. As it went on, the flames slowly stopped being dictated by my imagination and moved and flowed with their own will, as if I was just...witnessing them.

After a while, Clint knocked us out of our daze. "Alright, enough for now." Then he stood up.

As I opened my eyes and got to my feet, I felt a slight numbness. I'm guessing the others felt the same since William stretched his arms and Marla almost tripped.

"Let's get back on those weapons now." Clint said. "And Alex, you go over there and do your thing."

I went my separate way and we started training again. I soon heard cries of joy from sudden success after a little bit. I had my own small success in summoning my element around myself faster and faster. For me, the faster I could feel that cozy feeling the better; it's a bit addicting. The effects of our meditation surprisingly showed quick results, in just nearly three days Will and Marla finished mastering their weapons and I could control my flames fluidly. I could now summon them in under two seconds and move around as much as I wanted without them wavering. That last part was what took most of my time; it kept dying out when I did some complicated maneuvers. The others had to summon their weapons fast and learn to manipulate them while constantly keeping their shape so that they wouldn't break down. Almost every day, Clint told us about what he read in the old books compiled in our home. It mostly was about their journeys through their campaign against Bob. They started out in Greece in the city of Athena, from there they went all the way to Babylon and then Jerusalem. They acted as odd-job takers to make money and not look too suspicious, helping people who needed it. Why they needed money escaped me. They also occasionally did performances when the odd-jobs were low in coming, doing 'magic tricks', acrobatics and such. To an average crowd they just looked like a researcher, a hunchback, a mercenary and a priestess. I wish I could've been in their place, seemed like they had loads of fun and experiences during their travels. Unfortunately for us, the travel logs were the only things Clint had found for now; he hadn't come upon any battle histories or anything useful for our current situation. It was still nice to hear about our predecessors, told us a lot about their personalities and how much they resembled us. The first Guardian of Fire was truly fascinated with all he could discover about fire itself while the first Guardian of Wind was always laying back and didn't like talking about his past. The Guardian of Water was a straightforward woman and always took pity for the poor and needy. The Guardian of Earth seemed like Clint's twin: hard of character yet ignorant of the modern ways of the time, as well as responsible and noble. When we heard their stories it was as if we were reliving them along with them, probably because the spirits in our bodies still had the memories fresh within them. During those three days, the relationship between Marla and I didn't change much. The first day we could barely look at each other, since we both remembered what had happened the day before. The second day was pretty much the same, but after training was over, Marla stayed behind outside. When I noticed she wasn't coming down, I went back up and found her sitting beside the rock where we had talked the first night we were here.

I had sat down beside her and waited a long while before she broke the silence. "It's hard for me."

"What is?" I had asked.

"In my previous relationships, I always thought that my boyfriend's body was something to be close to. I thought that if we weren't close enough we'd drift away from each other. That physical contact was like something to bind us. I didn't have the courage to say it before, but you don't have to be sorry because it wasn't just you that was weak, the moment you turned away I was at my limit too and was about to do the same..."

"I'm glad you found the courage to tell me, I had really felt like I had failed you, but it seems that we're more alike than I thought."

"You're really different from my other boyfriends, and with our current situation I've been wondering if a relationship without physical intimacy is possible for me..." She had told me, turning her gaze into mine.

I pulled my sleeve over my hand and brushed her cheek through it. "We'll just have to find out together, won't we?" I had said. She then smiled for the first time in two days; seeing her smile made me happier. "What kind of boyfriends were they?" She had giggled, happy to start a conversation again. I was just happy she was smiling again.