The Eternal Flame

Chapter 4

We stopped just shy of the grand door to the throne room. The same pictures that were on the palace doors were on these doors. Ula stood to my right and Ren and Mala stood to my left, taking a deep breath, not to calm my nerves, but to cool my temper that was sure to rise as the Two Great Moons do in the sky, I nodded to the doormen and the door began to open. Not wanting to draw this out any longer, as soon as the doors were open wide enough, I walked into the room as the others quickly followed suit.

I stopped at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the thrones. There were five sits, the biggest for the king, second for the queen, and the others for the royal children, i.e. me and my siblings. Soft pillows placed by each of the thrones, for our Guardians. I bowed my head to my father who was currently sitting on his throne, with Ula's father Nipus on his pillow looking down at us with disapproval.

"Father," We all said.

"For once I wish you would stop evading your guards Lunatris. They are there too-" I cut him off.

"'Keep me safe'. You have told me this many times Father." I said, trying my rigidness to keep the argument out of my tone.

It was a failed attempt.

I heard a sigh. No doubt it either came from my other sister Nixlaka or Hasani our caretaker and former Nikata or right-hand to my mother and my siblings' mother.

"And yet, you still chose to disobey me." He snapped. I looked up at him. His hair down. It was mostly blues with a few strands of dark scattered here and there, he was wearing dark blue pants with a matching jacket, with leather Sovo shoes. The outlines of his jacket and just coming up to his knees were covered with Jajo fur. But his gloves were black with Kako fur on the edge. His dark blue eyes held irritation, and his mouth was in a firm line.

Good job, Luna. Ula sent me through our bond.

I rolled my eyes at her. She was my Guardian and me her Keeper. You see, our Goddess Satara could not bear children with her mate and protector God Kenward. So, one day, the beautiful, yet sad Goddess wept for days. She did not eat, did not sleep, she only wept for the child she was unable to bear. God Kenward would watch his beloved mate, the pain of watching her cry when the day began, till it ended, to start again, was almost too much for him to bare. So, one day he formed two small children out of the water, one girl and one boy. Then he gathered the tears from his beloved's eyes and placed them on the eyelids and hearts of the two small water children, first the girl, then the boy. Soon enough the small children were no longer water, but flesh. Pale and beautiful, with blue hair and blue eyes. The Goddess was so overjoyed at this that she wanted more children. But with the more children they created, the Goddess knew that she could not protect them all, not at once. But the Goddess wanted them to have a connection so deep that no one would be able to break it and use them against her children.

So, taking her children souls, she split them in half, formed animals for her children, each different than the other, and told her love to breathe into them. He did.

They were known as The Guardian. And us their Keepers. They were gifted with the ability to shift into different animals, speak mind to mind and verbally, feel their Keeper's emotions, and enhance their powers. Seeing her children grow, the Goddess wanted her children to know what it was like to feel more than the love of their Guardians and their parents, but the love that she and her own beloved shared, she took the souls of her children, and her beloved's children, and split them in half once again, each matching their counterpart. They would call them Mate. Soon the kingdom that the Goddess and the God had created was no longer empty but filled with their children' children.

"I'm no longer a child father. You cannot keep treating me as such." I said boldly.

He gave me a hard look. A lesser child would have shrieked and asked for forgiveness, but I wasn't that kind of child because I was no longer a child. But then again, is it true to say that I was never that kind of child to begin with?