Guardians Of The Zodiac

Chapter 9

We took a shortcut through the woods to hopefully cut our time in half and make it to our destination by noon. I was less nervous than when we first left the Guild but I still felt a little uneasy about everything that could go wrong.

And Naudia wasn't making it any easier.

"Don't any of you realize that we took a job not completely knowing what it entails and so on top of going in blind we also have to worry about dead weight over here?" Naudia crossed her arms in a huff while pretending I wasn't even there.

"The flier said they needed the touch of a Guardian. And they need help. That's all we need to know," Ryder gritted his teeth.

"And Tara is not dead weight!" Iris exploded.

"No offense pip squeak, but if we run into trouble and Tara is unable to give you a Command strong enough to put up a fight, then you're all pretty useless." Naudia continued.

"You're underestimating us," Trinkette realized but Naudia ignored her.

"Guardians don't do any of the fighting. That's what they have their Sprites and their Royal Knights for. They're basically just magic vessels that Sprites use to recharge and stay alive and in return they are forced to use that magic energy to shield and protect their Guardian Charge. It's the whole balance of the universe thing. It's a give and take relationship," Naudia explained matter-of-factly.

I was trying not to take her words to heart, but she was making it seriously hard on me. Training...remember my training...

"Damn it, Naudia. Do you always have to be such a jerk about everything?" Ryder spat aggressively as his natural Aries persona revealed itself.

"That's not true! We protect Tara because we want to, not because she makes us!" Trinkette squeaked.

"Tara is a lot more than just a magic vessel," Serena furrowed her eyebrows, appalled by how Naudia could even suggest such a thing.

"Yeah! No one forces me to do anything!" Iris spat as she lit both her fists on fire while Serena and Trinkette pulled her back before she could do any damage.

"I didn't mean anything personal by it. It's just what I've read..." Naudia kept her arms folded, standing her ground.

"In what? Your witch books? Because that's what you sound like," Ryder got in her face.

"Do I look like a witch to you?" she scoffed.

When I saw the steam begin to flow off them both I knew that was when I had to step in.

"Hey, it's not a big deal. That's something a lot of people say about us and she isn't completely wrong, so let's just take a breath. Okay?" I tried to mediate between the two of them.

"Yeah, I think you both need to cool down," Cooper commented as he summoned water to him from a nearby puddle.

The water hovered above their heads for a couple seconds before he dropped his arms, releasing the water to fall on top of both of them. Hazel erupted in laughter which pissed Naudia off even more.

"Seriously, Cooper?" Naudia screeched before stomping off ahead of the rest of us.

"Good one, Coop," Hazel laughed as the two of them high-fived and they skipped a few steps forward to make peace with Naudia.

They all knew each other so well. They knew which buttons to push, but also knew how much each one of them could handle because just like that they were friends again. And for a split second, even though Naudia was the target of Cooper's prank, I caught a glimpse of her smile.