The Water Warrior(Book 1)(Completed)

Chapter 6: The Guardians' Camp

     The Forbidden Forest, as Firestar called it, spread out for as far as the eye could see. It was beautiful, trees as green as an emerald covered most of the forest. At first, it appeared to have no creatures inhabiting it, but after a few seconds a chipmunk would run up the trunk of one of the trees or a monarch butterfly would flutter by, proving the environment was inhabitable. The trees rose like skyscrapers in New York and hid the blue sky behind their branches and leaves; it would have been completely dark if it was not for the hundreds of tiny holes between the leaves that let a little bit of light in.

Aqua had never seen anything so beautiful in her whole entire life. Taking a large breath in, she realized that the forest almost felt magical, like something in a movie or out of a storybook Maudie use to read to her when she was four years old. Aqua could live here and never care to see the city again with its noise, traffic and hundreds of grumpy people. Here she felt safe from the dangers of the outside world and free to do whatever she desired, but reality would soon set in and she would wish to see her friends and what she had of a family.

Aqua's fantasy was interrupted when she noticed Firestar start to head off, so she decided to follow him. She had so many questions to ask him, but the most pressing one was, "Where are we going?" "Well, I was going to throw you into my own private dungeon and call you my prisoner." A look of fear spread across her face. She did not know this- man? - really well, so who knows what he was capable of. Firestar noticed her expression and realized his joke did not come across well, "I was kidding. I'm going to give you a tour of my world before we see Darkmoon." Aqua relaxed and laughed at Firestar's joke, easing the tension, it felt good to laugh. With everything going on in her life it was hard to find humor in things, except when she was with her friend Serina.

Aqua and Firestar hiked through The Forbidden Forest for an hour before finally reaching a large cliff edge. It looked far out into the distance, Aqua could see mountains on the horizon and a large river that crossed right in front of a CASTLE! Usually, castles in fairy tales where bright and cheery with bright flowers growing and birds chirping, but this was far from it. The castle looked dark with its murky water running under the bridge and all the dead plants were thrown everywhere. It seemed like a castle were dead people went to when they died. If it were not for the ant-sized people milling around inside, she would have guessed no one lived there.

"What is this place?" Aqua asked with a confused look. "That is or was the Lamada kingdom, but it didn't look like this when I left. It was always bright and cheerful, giving people hope even in their darkest hour. But now it looks like a tornado hit it," said Firestar looking sadly at the ground. "If the Lamadians' kingdom looks like this I bet the Cadars kingdom doesn't look any better."

Firestar was going to show Aqua around more, but the devastation of the Reynold's old castle had given Firestar a new motivation to find Darkmoon and figure out what was going on. The two acquaintances headed silently back into the forest to find the Guardian Camp deep in the woods, but when they got there they were met with another devastating sight.

From what Aqua could tell, there once were small houses made out of tree branches and blankets or sheets. Now the whole camp was left deserted for at least a few years with their remaining supplies thrown all over the place and their houses ransacked. In some parts of the camp, there were bones scattered about suggesting a battle had occurred when this camp was destroyed.

After Firestar left, the Guardians lived in peace for another ten years before Sinergy had pillaged enough towns, kingdoms, and villages to become powerful enough to take down the Guardians. During the course of several days, the Guardians fought for their homes and loved ones, but when the situation grew dire, they had to give up and flee with what few had survived. Some made it and others did not as the remains showed Aqua and Firestar.