Keeper's Oath

Chapter 21: The Runaway Guardian

Hari was a guardian now?

Hope was stunned by the news, nothing had been said by anyone that was the case. Far as she knew, Hari had been one of the survivors of the Shadowlight village that got attacked by the shades. She didn't expect Hari to be someone like her. They seemed so similar when Hope thought about it. Their past lives, they were both gone. Neither one of them were able to go back to their regular lives. For Hari, there was no life or family left to go back to.

"Pardon but you mean to tell me that Hari is..." Ritter left his sentence hanging as he was still wrapping his head around the fact. He wasn't able to say the word. A shocked expression was still washed over the Shadowlight's face. "But I spoke to her, she never mentioned anything about it to me. It wasn't clear that night when she came here."

Guardian held his head high looking down at the Shadowlight.

"She must have not been comfortable enclosing that information with you. Don't worry, I will take good care of her. Her guardian doesn't seem to be around anymore. Perhaps he's too busy now." Guardian started to walk past the two. Ritter blocked the leader of the guardians before he could get further down. The Shadowlight looked up at Guardian without hesitation. The dragon snarled down at the man. His tail swished behind him quickly.

"You don't have permission to go through these halls. I can escort you to Hari but you aren't taking her away if she doesn't wish to leave. With her own free will, she has to agree to join you." Ritter spoke with authority in his voice which Hope was used to hearing when he would talk to Gresham Nass. "I don't keep anyone here without their will."

Guardian snarled once again. His eyes scanned Ritter's eyes to see if he would back down. The man stood still as he had been previously. Hope watched both of them. She wasn't sure what was going to happen. It seemed that Guardian would take Hari by force or go past Ritter and just grab her. For a while, Hope feared that was going to happen.

"Very well, if that is your condition. I shall respect it without question." He finally said realizing that Ritter wasn't going to back down from this one. The dragon's long tail swept side to side a few times. "If it's the same to you, I wish to take care of this right now."

Hope was rather hungry, she assumed that Ritter could use some breakfast as well. Though, Guardian was being quite forceful by his actions. She didn't want him to stick around here that long.

Ritter nodded.

He turned around and glanced at Hope for a brief moment. Hope saw the weary look on Ritter's face which she shared with him. Sooner that this was dealt with, the better.

The two of them walked towards the guest bedrooms. Hope looked into the dining hall. Other people had not been focusing on them anymore but on their breakfast. Part of Hope wished to go and join the others to eat. The guardian knew that she needed to go after Ritter and the dragon. Hope didn't want him to harm Ritter or anyone else at the Court. Back of her mind, there was a nagging feeling that she couldn't shake off.

Once she had decided to go after Ritter, Hope started to jog slightly to catch up with them. Just as she was going to be a few feet away from Guardian, Livius' door opened up wide. The bearded man was still in his night clothing as he approached the two in a hurry.

"Is there a reason for why Hari would be going through her window to outside?" Livius asked Ritter. He was taken aback a second later seeing Guardian right behind him.

Hope ran over to Hari's room after hearing what Livius had said. She quickly opened it up to reveal the window of her room being wide open. The young red headed woman was nowhere to be seen. Guardian along with Ritter poked their heads into the room to see that she was nowhere to be seen.