Legend of the Sky Guardians

Chapter 5

Soon we’d arrived on the island. It was much bigger than the last one, and it was quite busy.

Miki had given me an apprentice uniform; it was a white dress shirt and pants that were white with gold dragons crawling across the clothing. There were gold shoes to match. It felt weird. Almost too different from home, but I didn’t want to bother Miki with questions about the clothing. After looking around for a bit, I saw many wearing clothes like mine.

Most kids there looked my age, although some were older. Everyone there seemed to be apprentices. Nothing looked to intimidating, except for some rings floating around and off one part of the island. Most were flaming.

The place smelled of freshly cut lawn, but it was very loud. Many people were yelling, some were practicing magic, and others were reading on benches or against large trees and stones.

There was a pond in the middle, which was surrounded with cattails and bushes. It seemed friendly.

But on one edge of the island there was a dark metal black cube of some sort.

When Miki saw me looking around, she just patted me on the shoulder, smiling.

“It’s quite impressive,” she said, “isn’t it? Go enjoy yourself. I will be back soon.”

“Where are you going?”

“That’s not of your concern.” Was that bitterness I detected in her voice? “Don’t worry, you will find out soon enough.” And with that, she scurried away.

I couldn’t decide where to go. Trying to practice my flying, I went over to a group of kids standing by the rings. It seemed the most interesting to me at the time.

The people there were huddled in a circle; most seemed a little older than me. I didn’t care.

“Hi!” I said. No one heard me.

I walked around the circle.

“Hello?” I asked, quieter this time. No one said anything. Then a girl with long blonde hair flipped around and glared at me.

“What do you want?” She yelled.

“Sorry,” I said, “I didn’t know…”

“Who are you?” Her stare did not let up.

“I’m Gwen.”

“Oh,” She laughed, “the new kid. You’re a battle guardian, right? What a shame.”

“What?”

“You will never be as efficient or as fast as us,” she turns and strokes her wings, “everyone knows flight guardians are the best kind.” Her wings were different. They were a darker

Grey and they were much thinner than mine.

“Isn’t that just an opinion?”

“It’s everyone’s opinion, Gwen,” She sneers. “By the way, I’m Mia. It’s not really a pleasure to meet you.”

By now, most kids had surrounded us.

“Sorry I bugged you,” I said, remembering Miki’s words, “I’ll be going now.”

I begin to fly away, but Mia stops me.

“What?” she says, “You don’t want to prove yourself? Just like Hikaru, useless.”

I continue to fly away. Mia comes up from behind me, grabs my shoulders, and pulls me back down.

“I just decided,” She said, “We’re going to have a race. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?”