The Cursed Guardian

Chapter 13

"Your grandmother is the one who trained me when I was your age."

Chancellor Barnabee said when were taking a break for training. He just let me catch butterflies in the garden. I thought he will let me fight some trained warriors and get beat up.

It's been three days since Raeco and the others left to England. And it's been three days that I've been catching butterflies. Without a net. I thought it was easy by every time I try to catch one, it already flies away. It was a hard work. I don't know what he is trying to teach me but, at least, this was kinda fun.

"How old are you when you discover you're a Guardian?"

He seems too young when he became one. And my grandmother in the painting is in her middle age when she defeated the Shallows.

"I was only seventeen." He turned to me, smiling. "At first it was hard. I cannot accept the fact that I was extraordinary. Other teens are avoiding me, afraid that they will got hurt when they got near me."

"People were afraid you?"

How can someone so wonderful can be avoided by everyone? He is a great man, I can see it and he's so kind. Of all people in the Academy he volunteered himself to guide someone like me. I thought everyone wants to be around him.

"Because of our extraordinary abilities, people pictured me as a dangerous man. They thought I was engaged into sorcery. They say I'm a witch, a horrible man." He smiled gently. "When the Shallows attacked our village, they thought I was responsible for them. They thought I send those creatures to avenge myself to them."

Seeing him now, no one would think that he undergone such a horrified past. They accused him of something far from mundane accusations just because he is a Guardian.

"How did you meet my great grandma, Chancellor?"

He turned to me while reminiscing the day he met my grandma.

"It was when my neighbors tried to kill me. They thought that when they have killed me the Shallows will disappear. While I was in my slumber, they set our hut on fire and blocked all our possible escape. Just like you, my parents died protecting me. Just when I lose the courage to survive, I heard a great roar and the fire dispersed. Your grandma rescued me. Then she brings me here and I became who I am today."

Wow!

My great grandmother possess such bravery and strength! I want to be like her. I wish I was as brave as her. And I wish I was like the Chancellor. He survived his parents death.

"I wonder if they are proud of me." I look up on the blue sky. Some clouds formed into shapes was drawn on it. "I wonder if I will become someone they imagined me to be."

"Of course, they are proud of you." A yellow butterfly landed on the bench arm. "And, yes, your becoming the one they imagined you to be." He catches the butterfly effortlessly. "Because it is your destiny."

He gave me the butterfly but before I can even touch it, it flies away. My brows met in confusion. How can he catch the butterfly before it flies away?

"Why are you letting me catch the butterflies?"

"I am teaching you a lesson."

"By catching butterflies with my bare hands?"

"I am teaching you a lesson to hide your presence. Offense attack is good but it is better if your presence was concealed. Try  to catch that."

He points to the butterfly on flower. I walked ever so slowly and silently to catch it. I even hold my breath. I stretch my arms to catch it but, I failed. It went to the other flower.