Return to the Realm

 

 

         Thirteen long years passed since we, the Killer Pixies, defeated the Elemental Wraths.  We left the realm, our palaces, our magical mounts, familiars, and Queen Efrit.  We appeared right where we left off in this world, only we knowing of the years we spent defending the Queen and the KP realm.  We made it through high school fine, but every one seemed so immature, so child-like to us.  I completed almost half of college in high school with the others.  I became an engineer, working for N.A.S.A and ‘discovered’ an amazing new fuel for rockets that uses electricity to propel the rockets instead of the standard hydrogen and oxygen.  And of course, I made millions in a project that only cost me a bit of energy from creating so much lightning then finding a logical way to do it without me.  I also was the first woman and person to walk on Mars and one of its moons.  Ulani made it huge in the solar power business.  She made billions with it then sold it for a couple billion more.  After that she was went to live in a tent in the Rocky Mountains.  Janelle, she became a meteorologist and was made famous with a new warning system for tornadoes, hurricanes and literally every kind of severe storm that can be dangerous to humans and animals.  Since then there has only been one death from severe weather, it was really a strange demon that got knocked out of its realm and into ours.  We didn’t kill it, we just knocked it unconscious and sent it back.  Phaedra, well, she is the only one so far who is married.  She’s married to a broker who is very rich, funny and just happens to also be a big Monkees and Beatles freak just like her.  She is also in the process of writing a very accurate and detailed book of the Beatles, she had Tarana check on exactly what they did.  She also had just recently had a baby boy named Michael.  She stays at home obviously to take care of him.  All of us have been wondering if Michael will inherit any powers of his own.  Her husband is the only one who knows of our powers, he said it was ‘groovy’ and left it at that, thank God!  Tarana, she got really interested with the theory of relativity and time travel.  She actually came up with a logical equation to time travel, since she could do it almost with out thinking.  She has also re-written some history books, putting in the stuff that really happened.  None of us disagree with her for obvious reasons.  Elyse became an author of Science fiction and fantasy books.  Those books are so realistic, you thought that they were honestly true.  Some of them were true in fact; we got the stories from when we visited different realms.  Her stories changed the way the entire world thought.  It brought an almost new order.  As you can guess, they never left the very top of the bestseller list, they only moved down when a new book of hers came out.  Bruce, he started a scuba diving school that is now the most famous in the world.  He also invented new equipment and techniques, which made him more famous than Jacque Coustou.  He and his band Chodust, with Ben, Jack, and Bruce are now one of the most popular punk (or what ever) bands in the entire world.  Their songs have been translated into all different languages, even those really wired ones that the only speak in Swaziland and odd countries like those. They have even collected a few big awards too.  And like they first thought of doing, they went down the red carpet and excepted their awards middle finger up.  They had this whole big controversy over it for a while, but they gave up after a while, only the old crabby politicians really had a fit over it.  They made millions of dollars from the records, but you could definitely tell, they were in it just for the fun of it.  Estelle became a zoologist and did most of her studies in Alaska and Upper Canada.  She also discovered a new species of Polar Bear.  This discovery made her very rich and very famous in the animal world.  Heather became a botanist and has come up with a ‘miracle’ fertilizer that makes a farm field never dry up and be unusable.  This also has saved an amazing amount of the world rain forests.  She is highly respected and of course, rich. 

We all stayed in touch with each other over the years.  We used telepathy to communicate, phone prices are pretty high now.  The only person we had a hard time keeping track of was Tarana, because of her frequent time jumps.  We never had to pay electric, heating, water, and air conditioning bills thanks to Phaedra, Elyse, Bruce, Ulani and I.  We hadn’t seen each other in a while, so we thought that maybe some time in the future we could have a reunion. 

The day we talked about a reunion, the dreams started.  They kept coming that night, one after another, they were the exact same dream repeating itself, except each time the image got clearer and clearer.  In it was an older yet strong looking woman in long robes running frightened away from what looked like a thick black fog that kept reaching out for her.  In the final dream I had that night, the woman turned her head.  It was Queen Efrit.  I sat straight up in bed, small beads of icy sweat was running down my trembling face.  Immediately I tried to set up a telepathic link with Bruce, he was in the Florida Keys and I was in Cape Canaveral.  The closer you are distance wise to a person, the easier it is, animals also speak through mental telepathy so it can get confusing trying to find one person through all the mental noise.  I was screaming in my head for him, then after a few seconds he responded.

       “What?!” he said in an annoyed voice.

       “I think I received a message from Queen Efrit in a dream I just had, she was in trouble,” I said nervously.

       “You had a dream with Queen Efrit in it?”

       “Yeah, she was running down a hallway and this strange black cloud kept reaching out for her, she turned her head then…”

       “Then you wake up. I had a dream that was the exactly the same.”

       “We have to get to every one to see if they had the same dream.”

       “I’ll get Ulani, Phaedra, and Heather.” Bruce volunteered.

       “OK, I’ll get Janelle, Elyse, Estelle and hopefully I’ll get Tarana.” I said.

       “Hurry, where should we meet if this really does turn into something more than a coincidence?”

       “Where this whole ordeal started 13 years ago.”

“OK, See ya soon I guess.”

       “See ya…”

 

~*~*~*~

 

       I contacted Janelle, she was barely awake.  She had the same dream too.  She said she would contact Elyse for me while I tried to get Estelle and Tarana.  It took me a while too get Tarana, she was in between time jumps.  But she had experienced the same dream too.  Estelle was the same.  This was too strange to be coincidence.  I talked to Bruce again; we all had the same dream.  Because it was late at night, we were all able to fly to Dellwood undetected in the thick blanket of darkness.  We all met at the side of the road, a few feet away from where the first portal opened up.  It was good to see everyone again; the last time we all met again together at one time was when Phaedra’s son was born over a year ago.  Every one was nervous and very worried for the safety of the queen.  It was wonderful to see how everyone had changed over the past year.  Janelle still had her long hair but it was shorter then usual.  She looked very intelligent and professional.  Elyse still had her long hair too, at the moment it was in a long braid.  She had a writers’ look about her; easy going, and a look in her eyes that made you think that she was seeing way more in the world around her than you were.  Estelle, like always was fashionable; she was wearing zebra stripe p.j.'s with a silk leopard print robe.  Bruce had a goatee that was much anticipated by Estelle.  He had what looked like swim trunks on and a T-shirt from his scuba school, and he was very tan from constant days on the ocean.  Ulani was in baggy kaki pants, green T-shirt and was as tan as Bruce and I were from being in Florida, except she actually lived outside, so she obviously got tan from that.  Tarana had come right from her last time jump, which must have been during the medieval times because she was wearing a long and elegant gown and her hair was woven with strands of pearls.  She looked very stunning, all of us, especially Bruce, couldn’t help but stare at her beauty.  Heather was wearing a rainforest print p.j.’s and looked like she must have very quickly wiped off a botanical mask before she came, she had little bits of green on her face.  Phaedra was in great shape; it was hard to believe that she just had a kid a year ago.  She looked tired like every one else, and also like the rest of us looked like a gallon of adrenaline was being pumped through her veins.

“So now what do we do?” Ulani asked.

       “Yeah, we can’t do much to help Efrit if we’re in the 3^rd realm and she is in the 12^th.” Phaedra added.

       “Well, a portal will probably open up if the queen needs our help,” Elyse said, “and we know that she does.  The question is when it will open.”

       “Oh my gosh!  I just remembered that at midnight it will be exactly 13 years since we saved the realm!  It’ll probably open up then … and that’s only 3 minutes away!” Janelle exclaimed.

       “But what if some teenager just happens to drive by and see us jumping in and calls the cops or something, or worse gets a stupid idea to jump after us before it closes?”  I said.

       “Oh, that’s a good point … oh duh!! How stupid can I get! I’ll put a Moon shield around us! Man it’s been a long time since I actually needed to use my powers.” Elyse said.

       “OK, that’s solved. How much longer Janelle?” I replied.

       “15 seconds! …14… 13… 12… 11…” she counted.

       “Oh I sure hope that this will work and the queen’s OK,” Tarana said nervously.

       “5… 4… 3… 2…”

       Right as Janelle said ‘1’ there was a burst of light and there it was, floating in the middle of the road.  We looked around to make sure there wasn’t any cars or people around.

       “C’mon let’s go” Heather said and we all ran into the portal.  We felt the familiar weightlessness as we normally did in portals, except this time was a little different.  I looked around and saw every one including myself be encircled by a strange cloud. My cloud was swirling blue clouds with lightning in it. Estelle’s was swirling with flickering shadows of mythical animals, Phaedra was engulfed with a cloud of flames, and Ulani was covered in glowing yellow light.  Janelle was covered with storm clouds, Elyse’s cloud looked like liquid silver flowing around her, and Heather’s was swirling with flowers and ivy.  Bruce’s was swirling with water, and Tarana’s was full of little hourglasses and sundials.  And when I looked closer at Tarana’s hourglasses they were all flowing backwards.  Then I felt myself change a little bit, I couldn’t understand what was happening until I looked closely at the others who were going through the same change, we were being transformed into who we were when we left.  And we were a little over eighteen when we left!  I still had the same thought process and memories of when we jumped into the portal only a minute before, but all the knowledge I had when we were still fighting in the realm came back.  All my attacks, best techniques for fighting certain creatures, and a vivid map of the whole KP realm that I had forgotten, came flowing back from the magical cloud. 

When everyone’s transformation was complete, our clouds swirled out in front of each of us, swirling in a circle.  They started spinning faster and faster and shrinking smaller and smaller until they stopped suddenly, they were our magical stones, which we left behind when we left the realm.  They were giving off enormous amounts of our magical power and came close to our foreheads then rested up against our heads.  I was immediately bombarded with information.  The last and most powerful wrath had been released and is destroying everything.  Mental images were projected in my mind, of horror, rage and immense pain.  I winced at the images, they were so vivid.  Then the images ceased and I felt a falling sensation and the next thing I knew I was standing in Queen Efrit’s throne room, with Janelle standing on my left and Estella standing on my right. Their foreheads were shimmering a bit as the last bits of their stones were sinking into their minds. 

       “Oh thank God it worked, you’ve come, I was so worried it wouldn’t work.” Efrit said seeming very relieved, she must have been very worried because the ghost of King Sodough was holding her shoulders to steady her, which took a lot of his death magic to actually hold something solid.

       “Why were you so worried we wouldn’t come?  We saw you were in trouble.  You are OK though?”  Elyse asked, her voice was so young and different.

       “Oh, only a few years after you all left, the Wrath was released, when this happened, the portal that contained your stones was thrown into the 13^th realm leaving us all defenseless.  Because without your stones, you can’t destroy any evil, you only have barely a millionth of your full power.  If I brought you here, the wrath would kill you without your stones before you even made it through the portal.  So eventually the wrath destroyed all the realms, threw them into the 13^th realm, where evil presides, and all of the people and creatures of the destroyed realms were turned into slaves of evil.  I was killed and so were every one in my palace and everyone in yours including your mounts and familiars.”

       “Woah, hold on a second, if you died and everything was destroyed, why are you and everyone else here? And you said our stones were put into the 13^th realm.  We got them when we came here, and we were turned into who we were when we left here.  I think you kind of lost me with all of this.” Bruce said to Efrit.

       “Yeah, I think he said that for all of us.” Phaedra added.

       “Why I was so nervous you wouldn’t make it was because I had to make a very complex portal.  Oh, I’m sorry but I feel very weak from creating that portal.  Please, go now to your palaces, the head servant will tell you everything.  I must rest.” Efrit replied, she really did look tired.  Even though she looked like the young Queen we had left behind, it also seemed like she was carrying the entire universe on her shoulders, and she needed a break.  We watched as King Sodough’s ghost escorted her to her chambers.  Then we all looked at each of our younger selves, everyone’s eyes reflecting fear and confusion. 

“She’s never acted like that before,” Janelle said.

“Yeah, now I’m really worried,” Phaedra agreed.  A palace servant passed by and Estelle grabbed his arm before he left to follow the queen down the hall.

“Is the Queen gonna be O.K.?” she asked the servant.

“She will be in bed for days, but she will regain her strength.” He answered, then added, “welcome back.”  He then bowed to us and left.

“We might as well get to our palaces and settle in again.  I know some one will tell us if anything happens to the Queen,” Heather said after a bit of silence.

“Suppose your right.  Well, I guess I’ll see you guys later,” said Ulani.  Then we all left down the opposite corridor the queen had taken to our own portals that transported us to our palace.  My mind was spinning with thoughts and questions.

       ‘Cleoom will tell me what I need to know’ I said to myself, trying to quiet my mind as I stepped into the portal.

 

~*~*~*~

 

       As I stepped through to the other side of the portal, I forgot for a moment all of what happened at the queen’s palace, I felt as if I had finally come home.  I walked up the golden walkway floating in the sky that led to the front gate of my palace.  As I swung open the gate, all of the servants came running out the front door to greet me with warm smiles on their faces as they escorted me inside.  Once we were in the entrance hall and most of the servants had left to go back to their duties after welcoming me back, I stopped Cleoom before she left and asked her if she could fill me in on what happened and everything about the wrath.

       “Your majesty, you’ve just come home!  Go look around to refresh your memories of your palace, take a nap.  I am not going to tell you one thing until the feast so you have time to relax.”  She said kindly to me with her usual joyful smile then bowed, turned and left.  It kind of bugged me when the servants bowed to me and called me ‘majesty’ and all.  They were like my family to me.  Especially Cleoom, she and I could talk like the closest of sisters to each other, and she could also comfort me if I had a really gruesome battle like she was my mom.  I was lucky I had such wonderful people to live at the palace with me.  When Cleoom had disappeared down the right passageway, I headed to my left and through the corridor, up the stairs to my room.  When I stepped in I was especially surprised at what I saw.  It looked as though I had only just left the palace that morning, my bed was still unmade, and one door of the wardrobe was open a bit.  It was kind of comforting, it was definitely my room all right.  I walked over to the wardrobe and opened both doors.  It was at least 85 degrees outside, and I could feel the warm air from the two French doors that led to the managery which were swung open.  I reached in, grabbed a light yellow halter-top and blue shorts, and quickly changed into them.  The other clothes I had been wearing had become a little too big and uncomfortable from my change in the portal. I folded them up and set them in the bottom of the wardrobe. I brushed my hair and pulled it up into a ponytail.  It was so absolutely wonderful to be back here.  I was setting down my brush when I heard the flapping of wings.  It was Dreshom, my dragon.  I ran out the French doors and down the steps to the managery.  There she was waiting for me.  I jumped off the last five steps and ran over to her, throwing my arms around her smooth-hided neck.

       “I just heard that you arrived.  I came as fast as I could.”  She said to me as I finally let go of her neck.

       “I haven’t seen you for years and years!  I missed you so much!”

       “To me, I just saw you this morning.” she replied.

       “Huh? What do you mean.  I left hear 13 ye…”

       “Oh, never mind Cleoom will explain it to you later,” she said, “ I wish that there were dragons in your realm.  Then I could go with you when you leave for good.”

       “What do you mean leave for good.  This is my home, it’s always been.  I left it once and I’ve never ever been that homesick.  I’m not leaving it again.”  I answered back.

       “But what about your family?  Your work?” 

       “My mom and dad could retire here and everyone at work knows how to do everything that I came up with.  And all the other little problems that could come up I could go back and fix.”

       “You would really do that?”

       “Of course I would.  Hey, do we have enough time to fly around the island before the feast?”

       “Yeah, and even if we didn’t, they wouldn’t exactly start it without you.” She said then I turned into my pixie self and leaped into the air, my wings full spread.  Dreshom followed close behind.  Within no time we had cleared up and over the palace towers and were rocketing downward to Ulani’s palace in the mountains.  It was weird, in our realm she ends up living in a tent in the mountains, and in this realm she lives in a palace in the mountains.  It was kinda funny to think about.  We made a few circles above her palace and were about to leave when we saw her and Apollo, her Griffin come out the front entrance.  I mentally called down to her telling her I was above her and asked her if she and Apollo wanted to fly around the island with Dresom and I.  She and Apollo enthusiastically agreed and flew up to us. 

       “It’s so cool to be back!” she said with now I guess a normal kiddish glee.

       “Let’s get every one and fly a bit!” I said smiling, “it’ll take to long to fly and get people. Let’s just call them, k?” 

       “Yeah cool!  I’ll get Phaedra, Janelle, Tarana and Estelle.  So you’ll get Bruce, Elyse, and Heather.” She responded.  Within a few minutes, all of the pixies and their mounts had gathered in the air above Ulani’s palace.

       “So where to?” Phaedra asked. 

       “I dunno lets just fly and see where we end up and if we know how to get back!” I answered.

       “Sounds good to me!” Estelle chimed in and we all headed west to the coast.

       In the back of my mind, I felt something knocking against my consciousness. 

       ‘Dre, I feeling this weird thing in my brain.  It feels like something is shoving against my mind.  Do you have any idea what I’m talking about or what it is?’ I asked mentally.

       ‘Oh, that’s your younger consciousness trying to knock your now mature consciousness out of the way.  Here, try to open part of your mind up so those two consciousness’ can become one conscious.  Then one will come into play whenever those two decide necessary.  So every action you need to make with those two becomes more natural. Does that make sense at all?’ she answered.

       ‘Err, I guess so…’  So I tried what she said and sure enough, I felt the two meld together to become one.  And immediately I felt the mature consciousness back away and the younger one come into full control.  It was so great!  I looked over my shoulder and saw Bruce.  I quickly turned my head back because I had turned a quite bright shade of magenta.  I had a crush on Bruce for a while when I was the age, before I had met Liam.  Remembering it was really weird.  Phaedra swooped over noticing my color change.

       “What’s up with you?” she asked.

       “Do you feel a weird sensation in your head like something is pushing up against your mind?”  I asked.

       “Uhh, yeah I guess so.  Why?”

       “I was just having that same feeling and I asked Dreshom and she said that it was my younger mind or something.  She told me how to make it better by letting the mature mind and the younger mind meld together.  When I looked at Bruce I remembered that crush I had on him for a while and now it’s back again!” I said, “Look you’ll know what I mean if you just do this: try to get in a meditation sort of state and mentally invite the younger mind into your older mind.  They kinda melt together and they work together, each coming into action whenever that mind is most useful, k?”

       I could see that she was doing as I instructed right as I was telling it to her.  She soon opened her eyes again, looked back at Bruce, then back to me and started laughing hysterically.  She lost some altitude to get away from me knowing that I would be very angry.   I started laughing too and dove after her.  I saw the others look at us out of the corner of my eye.  They looked quite confused.

       ‘I’ll tell the other mounts what’s going on and to tell the other Guardians to meld their minds.’ Dreshom said mentally. I knew that she realized that I didn’t mind so I didn’t respond.  So after a few minutes of chasing after Phaedra, I finally just kinda gave up.  She was still laughing and her face bright red when she flew up next to Dreshom and I.  I just glared at her trying to hold back my own smile.  Soon I heard giggles behind us too.  I looked back and the others (except Bruce who didn’t quite get it yet) had their hands clapped over their mouths to hold back their giggles.  It had been so long since all of us felt so, well, giddy.  A few seconds later Bruce must have got what everyone was laughing about and turned a bit red and dove down below us all.  His Drake following him, ‘laughing’ (or at least that’s what it sounded like) at his embarrassment.  After a bit we realized that that the situation really wasn’t all that funny.  Bruce’s Drake finally convinced him to come back up to fly with every one else.  It’s so fun to be young, giddy, and practically carefree again.  I really didn’t realize how much I missed it until then, having lived without it for so long and then finally having it back again.  By the time we all piped down about it all, we had reached the coast.  It was a crystal clear blue ocean.  There were shimmering fish darting beneath its surface.  Then I saw a most magnificent creature I had almost forgotten about.  The mermaids.  They leaped above the water waving frantically at us to get our attention.  We all flew lower to see what they wanted, Bruce leading the way (hehehe, he must have missed them!).   Within seconds we were all hovering above the water.

       “Hey, what’s up with you guys?” Elyse asked the beaming mermaids.

       “Oh, ve just heard zat ze Guardians had returned safely back to ze realm!  Ve vas so overjoyed.  Zen ve zaw you flying and had to speak vith you all!  Ve missed you all zo, zo much!  Especially ze Water Guardian.  He iz our hero!”  After that they broke out into giggles at the sight of Bruce’s face, which was now about five shades of magenta.  We all just shook our heads at each other.  The mermaids were very friendly to everyone, but man are they clue-less! 

       “Vell, ve iz very, very happy to zee you all again!  Please visit us zometime! Good bye!”  And in one splash of salty ocean water the mermaids had dove and disappeared below into the dark depths of the ocean. 

       “Well that was an interesting conversation.” Ulani said.  Then we all flew back to the coast and headed south along the beach.  

       “I bet you missed them, huh Bruce?” Elyse said with a laugh.

       “They’re nice people.” He answered back with a trying-to-be-serious-while-holding-back-a-smile look.  We laughed and he did too a bit.  We flew down really close to the water, close enough that our noses were only about six inches from the surface.  The giant sea snakes were gliding effortlessly under the surface.  So we raced them a bit, it was pointless, they were a lot faster then us but oh well.

       “I’m getting really bored.” Phaedra whined.

       “Yeah, let’s do something interesting before the sun sets.  I have to be back at my palace around sunset for a feast.”  Janelle added in.

       “Same with me.  Can anyone think of anything we could do as we do our little lap around the island?”  Estelle asked.  We all just kinda flew for a bit thinking in silence. 

       ‘Heh, I know!’ said Apollo in our heads, ‘there is an old palace in the sky to the west right exactly where the sun sets.  It’s made entirely of crystal so it makes sunsets especially beautiful.’

       “I almost forgot about that!” Ulani exclaimed, “Let’s go! Do you guys want to?” We all looked at each other and nodded.  Then we followed Ulani and Apollo west out to sea.  We flew for what seemed like forever.

       “Hey, I think I see it!” Tarana said excitedly pointing to a shimmering place in the sky, it seemed to be about the size of a small book right then, but it grew bigger the closer we got.

       “Yeah, I see it too!” Heather added in.

       “Yup, that’s it! We’re almost there!” Ulani said with a grin, and we all quickened our pace. 

       The sky ahead of us was already started to turn a light tint of gold and red.  The crystal palace was gleaming brightly.  We soon landed at the front gates of the palace. 

       “Oh quick!  The best colors are going to appear any second now!” Ulani shouted.  She then started running up an outside staircase that lead up to the highest balcony on the whole palace.  Then mounts settled on the front steps far below us.  We all lined up on the railing, Ulani almost jumping up and down with anticipation.  Then there was an explosion of light, the palace walls absorbing and radiating the bright yellows, reds, and oranges the sunset produced.  Then, instead of the light slowly fading as the sunset, the light got brighter and more focused.  We all had to look away and shield our eyes to the bright light.  Suddenly a huge burst of magic appeared causing us all to turn around in surprise.  The air in front of Ulani and Apollo looking like it had turned into a ‘blackhole’, but for only light.  The pockets of air in front of them were sucking all of the brilliant colors of the sunset.   Within moments all of the color in the air had been absorbed into the ‘holes’.  All of the light captured in the space was glowing brightly.  The ‘holes’ when I looked closer, were actually crystals, their shape was hard to see from the glowing light they produced.  Then the light stopped, the crystals glowed while slowly hovering towards Ulani and Apollo.  I looked again at the crystals, they were shaped like a Celtic-style sun.  Soon the crystal was only millimeters away from Ulani’s fore head and the smooth space between Apollo’s eyes.  Then, the crystals touched them and they were immediately engulfed in light.  The others and I were blow completely off the balcony and the mounts by Apollo were knocked on their backs.  Then the light was sucked back into the crystals, which had been absorbed into Ulani’s skin and Apollo’s hide.  They then collapsed down to the crystal floor below them, still glowing slightly.

       “Oh my god!  What the heck happened to them?!”  Phaedra yelled in shock.

       “Something happened all-right.   Are they O.K.?”  Tarana responded.  We all ran over to Ulani, the mounts went to Apollo. 

       “Ulani!  Wake up!  Can you hear me?!  Are you O.K.?!”  Janelle said frantically to the unconscious Ulani.  Ulani didn’t move.

       “Is she even breathing?” Heather asked, on her tiptoes trying to get a better look.  I put my fingers on Ulani’s throat, her heart was beating and I could feel her inhale. 

       “Yeah she’s breathing and her heart is beating too.” I answered

       “C’mon Ulani, wake up!”  Bruce said, then sprayed a thin stream of water on her face.  Within of few seconds of the water on her face, she started to stir a little.  A vibration in the floor told us that Apollo was waking too.

       “Let’s get her sitting up.” Estelle said as she carefully picked Ulani up slowly by her shoulders.

       “Wha…what happened?  What?  You guys look really white.”  Ulani said bluntly.  She then stood up, looking completely energized.  We stared at her in disbelief.

       “What?!” she asked getting a little annoyed.

       “When the sunset, there was this big flash of light and these crystals sucked up all of the light and magic and went on your fore head and Apollo’s and then you were surrounded by light and then you collapsed.”  Phaedra sputtered out quickly in one breath.

       “I think we should get Ulani and Apollo back to the mountains.  Then we can sort this all out.”  Elyse said grabbing Ulani by the arm and slowly leading her to the stairs.

       “Elyse I can walk…geez…would you let go?!”  Ulani said yanking her arm away from Elyse and bounded down the stairs.  We all just stared with our jaws hanging open like a bunch of dumbstruck fools. 

       “What is with you guys?  I thought we were heading back to the mountains?  Or did you change your minds?”  She said staring back up the stairs at us.

       “Yeah we’re coming.” Tarana said, still looking a bit confused and worried.  We all followed her down the stairs, passing confused looks to each other.  We got to the bottom to find that Apollo seemed extra energized too.

       “Race you guys!” Ulani said gleefully as she and Apollo jumped off the front steps into the air.

       “They both got blasted with huge amounts of energy.  They should be out cold.  Do any of you guys get this?” I asked.  Everyone, including the mounts, shook their heads. 

       “I guess we better go before anything else weird happens.” Phaedra said then jumped off the steps too.  One by one we all jumped off and headed toward the mountains. 

       When we were directly over Ulani’s palace, the thin sliver of moon was already high in the sky.

       “Whoa man!!!!  I gotta get back to my palace!  See ya guys!” Phaedra exclaimed.  All of us decided we better head to our own palaces too.  There were feasts in our honor waiting for us.   It is one thing to be fashionably late, and to just be obnoxiously late.  We were heading toward being obnoxiously late.

        

~*~*~*~

      

The feast was amazing, Eline, the head cook, prepared all of my favorite foods, and others that I have never tried.   Cleoom had the dining table set up out side in the courtyard so Dreshom could join in, I looked around for Indra, but I couldn’t find him.  Cleoom then told me he and all the other familiars were out doing a task for the queen.  Everyone was talking and laughing loudly, getting a bit drunk from the mysterious drink Cleoom made herself.  She refused to say what was in it saying ‘only head servant’s can know’, none of us pestered her that much about it.  It tasted really good.

       “Now about the information I am supposed to give you,” Cleoom said loudly to quiet the table, “as you learned in the portal, the final and most powerful wrath has been released.  The wrath is said to be created by Medusa and Aseed themselves.  Most people, including the queen and king, thought it was only a legend.   In only 36 hours, in a rare occurrence, all the planets and realms will align with the 13^th realm and the wrath will be released.  As the legend goes, its task is to destroy the Elemental Guardians, and bring all the realms into the 13^th, where every living thing will become a slave and evil will thrive and take over every realm on every planet everywhere.”  She said in a serious tone.

       “All the realms!  Well if we can trap it in one realm we can destroy it a little easier right?”  I asked.

       “It’s a little more complicated.  The wrath can spread its self over all the realms at once, after a realm is put into the 13^th, that part of the wrath joins up with other parts in another realm.  So for every realm you can’t save, it only gets stronger.  And you and the others will inevitably have to go into the 13^th and bring back the lost realms and their inhabitants.”

       “Please say your joking. We all can’t be in all the realms at once and expect to destroy it!  And we won’t get any time to heal after battle either!”

       “I wish I were joking but I’m not.  But I do have a bit of good news too about fighting the wrath.  You and all the others will be receiving an ancient power source, I believe that sun pixie has already received hers at the Crystal Palace.  Well, the power source is passed down to each Guardian when they are in need of it.  And you will obviously be needing it soon.  Yours will appear when the time is right.  This will bring you to your full magic capacity.”  Cleoom answered.

       “OK. I have another question.  Why did the others and I change in the portal and why have I only been gone since this morning to you people?  You also said that the wrath will be released in 36 hours, and you said you thought it was only a legend.  How do you know all of this?” I asked, extremely perplexed.  

       “Hmmm,” she sighed.  Tired from her drink and all the things she explained and still needed to explain.

       “We’ll start with how and why you changed in the portal.  Queen Efrit told you that the wrath was released a year after you left and threw your stones into the 13^th realm.  This left the realms defenseless because the radiant stone was also with the other stones.  The wrath then destroyed all of the passageways between the realms and sealing off all magic channels that allow for portals to form.  This left each realm isolated and forced to fight the wrath on their own.  The realms had no chance against the wrath.  On a last resort, Queen Efrit conjured up a very difficult spell to create a very vivid dream to herself and all of the mounts, familiars and head servants like my self.   It was to inform them on the situation that was about to occur for us here in this section of time.  So we would believe the dream, she mentioned something each of us would experience that day.  We all obviously believed the dream.  The next task of course was finding a way to bring all of you back with your stones.  Because of Queen Efrit’s timing of the dream, we had enough time to set up a portal.”

       “But why did you have to send the portal so far forward in time?”  I interrupted. 

       Cleoom gave a little laugh at my normal impatience.

       “My Lady, I was just getting to that.   Now, back to what I was saying.  Also in the dream’s information, was the obvious fact that we needed a mature adult mind to contemplate and decide the best course of action to fight the wrath.  But we also needed nimble, flexible young bodies with creative and spontaneous minds too.  So we decided to just find a way to get both.  And that we did.  So after the queen received her own dream and met with all of us, she created a portal into your realm.  This portal would have to stretch forward in time then bring you back to this time.  Then the portal had to transform you physically but not mentally.  Then the portal would have to meet up with the Portal of Stones, which contains your stones.  When I explain it, it may sound relatively easy but to actually do it is much harder.  And it’s risky too.  If anything went wrong we could have had you trapped in the portal forever, or even worse, tear your mental self away from your physical self.  It’s risky and difficult to transform one part of a living essence but not another.  That would leave a living, breathing body but with no mind or personality.  It would be what you call a zombie in your realm.  And your thinking conscious and unconscious self would be floating around all of the realms, eventually ending up in the 13^th.  Everything that is destroyed yet still living like that is eventually sucked into the 13^th where that mental self will soon go insane and destroy it self.  It was a horribly risky step to take, but one that we had too.  That’s why the queen was so shaken and relieved that you all had made it here in one whole piece.  It may be weeks before the Queen will recover to her full strength again.”  Cleoom said, then pausing, letting me soak up all of the information and for her to catch her breath.

       “Whoa,” was all that I could whisper out of my mouth after that.  I really hadn’t thought of anything bad happening in a portal, and how hard it was to do all that was needed to bring us back here. 

       “What all did you learn about the wrath in the portal?”  She asked.

       “Only that it is the last and most powerful wrath and it is destroying everything.”

       Cleoom gave a sigh.  She knew she still had to explain a lot more.  I don’t think she liked the idea that much either.

       “Well, like I said before, the wrath can spread itself out over all the realms.  Each part of it first heads to the most magical point in the entire realm.  From there, the wrath can use the magic there to cut of all magic channels that allow portals to form.  After it has isolated the realm it can destroy it by sucking any and all magic power into itself then dumping the realm and everything in it into the void of the 13^th realm.  What is needed of you, and the other guardians is to destroy the parts of the wrath before they isolate a realm and also to find a way to get the magic channels flowing again.  Each realm probably won’t be attacked at the same time.  Our guess is that it puts all of its magic force into the part that is destroying a realm.  Then after the realm is destroyed, the part of the wrath will join up with another part to destroy another realm as I have said before.  It may also need time to regain energy lost during it’s attack, so this could give you time to plan another attack, attack while it is still weak, or rest up and heal injuries from previous encounters.  Is there anything that you don’t understand from what all I have said?”  She concluded.

       “Uh, no I don’t think so… I think I am going to need more of that drink of yours!”  I said.  The table chuckled a bit, as the large pitcher was passed down the table, everyone pouring a bit of the liquid into their goblets. 

       “To the Guardians, may they fight honorably and well to bring peace and harmony back to all the realms forever.”  Eline said as she raised her goblet.  Everyone raised their goblets too toasting to our success.  I took a sip. 

       ‘We’re going to need every bit of luck we can get.’ I thought. The table was silent for a long while, then I laughed.

       “C’mon!  We have all of this food to eat and a lot more to drink!  Let’s not sit here and wait for the inevitable!”  Everyone’s face brightened a bit and conversation grew louder and laughter spread. 

       ‘I am not going to have the last feast before the wrath comes be silent and depressing’ I thought, and joined into the happy laughter and voices around me.

 

       I laid in my bed wide awake for a long time that night I kept thinking about everything Cleoom had said.  Then I thought about what would happen if we failed to destroy the wrath and were killed ourselves.  Phaedra had a kid.  That thought was kind of hard to conceive we were all young again.  But all the same, what would happen to him?  Would he simply vanish, as if he never existed?  What Tarana, Ulani, Janelle, Bruce and me?  We had all made ‘discoveries’ that dramatically changed the realm we lived in.  Would some one else end up doing the same thing some how?  It was a scary thing to think about.  I wondered if anyone else was thinking the same thing.

 

      

~*~*~*~

 

I woke up as something big black and covered in soft fur jumped on me.  I gave a shriek before realizing that it was Indra. 

       Good morning to you too. He said with his usual attitude.

       “Nice way to wake me up” I laughed a bit, “What have you been doing for the queen?”

       You’ll find out soon enough.  I have to rest a bit before going out on another round.  I’m glad you came back safe.  Then his large black jaguar body curled up at the foot of my bed.  I stroked his silky fur, he purred quietly in his sleep.  He seemed really tired.   He usually never tires easily.  I wondered what kind of task the Queen had sent him on.  I got out of my bed slowly as not to disturb Indra from his sleep.  I walked out onto the balcony then spread my wings and flew up to the highest tower in the palace.  It was summer in the realms so the night air was warm and moist.  I sat down and gazed at the stars.  The moon had set so I knew dawn was fast approaching.  Since my palace was on a cloud I never knew where it drifted to during the night.   I made a glowing orb of magic and set it on the roof next to me to I could see a bit in the darkness.  I found a piece of metal laying on the roof a bit above me so I grabbed it.  Then I remembered my Compass Needle spell.  It wasn’t really an attack so I guess it’s really just a spell.  I looked at the metal and concentrated hard. 

 

North, South, East, West .

The sun travels its endless quest .

The compass needle will always show me right . 

Where in the sky will I find the light   .

 

       I said the spell and watched the metal rise out of my palm and spin in the air in front of me.  Then it stopped suddenly.  The narrower end pointing to my left.  Then the piece zoomed through the air toward the left horizon.  Right as the glinting metal was out of sight the first of the morning light started poking up into the sky.  I sighed, I knew that the others and I were going to put our lives of the line again for the realms.  But never before had the thought that one of us wouldn’t come back ever cross my mind until now.  I shivered, ‘What if I was the one who wouldn’t make it through this alive?’  I heard noises down below.  The servants were waking up and preparing breakfast.  I rose into the air.  ‘I am going to survive.  And I will make sure my friends do too, no matter what.’ I thought.  I flew down to my balcony to change out of my p.j.s and into normal clothes.  Indra was sitting on my bed looking at me.   His stormy eyes flashing brightly.

       Don’t you worry.  Dreshom and I will never let anything happen to you.  He said.  He was my familiar, and he knew what I had been thinking.  I ran over and hugged him burying my face in his fur.

       “I don’t think I have ever been this scared before.” 

       Worry about the future when it meets you. C`mon, let’s get down stairs and eat before I go.   So we headed down stairs and out into the courtyard.  This was going to be a long hard war, and I knew that I needed Indra and Dreshom to protect me too.  Even if I was a Killer Pixie. 

 

~*~*~*~

      

       I ate a small breakfast.  I flew a few hundred laps around the castle.  I had to try and get my mind off the wrath soon to be released.  Plus, I had to get used to fly and doing quick maneuvering again.  I also brought out Reaper’s, my scythe, to practice with.  Soon Dreshom came up next to me.

       ‘You seem kinda agitated.  You’ve been like this all morning.  It’s the wrath your thinking about, isn’t it?’  She asked, as she stretched out her wings to soar next to me.

       “Yeah.  I’ve never been this nervous before a battle.  I know this is the worst wrath we will ever encounter, but I think that’s not the only thing that’s bothering me.”  I said.

       ‘Well, normally you never have any time to think before a battle, you just go out and fight.  With this you know what’s coming long before and it tears at your mind,’ she responded.  ‘Heh, how about this.  Remember that old Thunder Dragon Temple?  How about we go there to watch the sunset tonight.  You remember how beautiful they are there don’t you?’

       “Oh yes!  The sunsets there are the most beautiful I ever seen!  That’s a great idea!” I said.  The day seemed a little brighter with that thought in my mind. 

       ‘O.K. then.  Well I gotta go catch some lunch!  Fish sounds good…’ she remarked.   Then she banked right and started toward the sea.  I watched her for a few seconds, then put away Reaper’s and headed after her.  I could talk to the mermaids for a bit. 

       ‘Ha,’ I thought, ‘You just want an excuse to run into Bruce, or even better, Liam.’  I laughed at myself.  I really did just want an excuse to run into one of those two.  Oh well, if I was going to die tomorrow fighting a wrath, better make today good.  So I dove down after Dreshom to the crystal blue sea.

          When I had finally reached the ocean, Dre had already snatched up two giant silver fish and was heading back for a third.

       “Gorging yourself like this doesn’t exactly help your figure!” I shouted jokingly to Dre.  She turned her head back to look at me and then created a large clap of thunder.  Then dove back down towards the scattered fish.  I laughed and headed down too.  When I was about fifty feet above the water, I folded back my wings and dove toward the water.  I had never been cliff diving in the realm of Earth, but I knew that this was definitely better.  I crashed into the water, rocketing downwards.  I used my wings to swim up to the surface faster.  Then behind me I heard two other things break above the surface of the water.  It was two exceptionally beautiful mermaids.  I knew that they must be princesses of the Royal Mer-family.  

       “Ve zaw you diving zo ve thought ve vould come and talk to you!”  One of them said.

       “Um, I don’t think we have met before.  My name is Levinia.” I said.  They gasped, then burst into giggles.  They soon stopped when they saw the extremely confused look on my face.

       “Ze zame Levinia who loves Liam, ze Thunder Dragon rider?” the youngest looking one asked.

       “Umm, yeah…” I said, blushing slightly.  Again they burst into giggles.

       “Oh, ve iz very zorry.   Ve vould tell you vhy ve vas laughing but ve can’t, ve promised.” The older looking of the two said, “I am Larkia, and this is Verrla.  Ve are friends vith ze Vater Guardian.”

       “Bruce speakz of you often and…” Verrla began but was cut off as Larkia clamped her hand over her mouth.

       “Verrla!!!” she hissed.  Verrla suddenly looked very embarrassed and blushed a color shade that almost could match Larkia’s magenta hair.      “Um, did you hear vhat Verrla zaid?” Larkia asked urgently.

       “Just a little bit.  Why?”

       “Oh, nothing, nothing at all.” She responded quickly, “Oh, he iz going to be very upset at Verrla. Hmmm.  Can you promise to tell no one of zis conversation if ve explain ourzselves?”  Larkia asked urgently. 

“Of course I won’t tell,” I answered.  Verrla and Larkia looked at each other quickly before Verrla spoke up. 

“Oh, vell, ever zince you and Liam made your love known to ze realm, ze Guardian has been acting very jealous of the great Rider.  He kept zaying how he vished he vould have zhown zome affection towards you before Liam came and you two fell in love.  Just today he vas saying how much he hoped zat you have forgotten about Liam so he could maybe have a zecond chance at your heart.”

“He seriously is jealous of Liam?!?” I exclaimed, quite astonished, and not exactly believing the words coming out of her.

“Yes,” Larkia answered, “If you don’t mind me azking Lady Levinia, do you ztill love Liam?”  I paused, then smiled when I thought about Liam again.  He was the most amazing person I had ever met.  And I loved him more then any one else ever in all of the realms.

“Yes, I do still love Liam.  But if the conversation ever comes up between you two and Bruce, tell him I love him as a great friend, I always have and will.  And no one can change that.  But Liam and I have…umm… a different kind of relationship,” I said, “There is someone for him in the realms, I am sure of it.”  The two mermaids grinned.

“Ve vill tell him zat if the conversation arises,” Verrla promised.  A moment later, a giant shadow moved over us bringing with it a strong wind.  It was a dragon, but not Dreshom. 

“It’s Liam!” I practically shrieked with happiness.  I looked back at the mermaids and blushed in embarrassment for my little outburst.  They started giggling again and so did I.

“Vell don’t just float here vith us!” Verrla exclaimed, “go and follow him and meet him vhen he lands!”  I hesitated, not sure what I should do.  I looked at the mermaids, to Liam and Copth who were landing on the shore, then back to the mermaids. 

“Go already vill you!  He’z waiting!” Larkia said as she splashed me. 

“OK then,” I said, “Hope to see you guys again soon!”  I rose out of the water, waved good bye to the mermaids and headed towards shore.

“Good bye Lady Levinia!” Verrla shouted up towards me.

“Ve vill talk to you zoon!” Larkia added.  I looked back as they dove down beneath the surface and disappeared.  I raced towards the landed Copth, the Thunder Dragon, and watch Liam leap off his back. My heart skipped a beat with the thought of seeing Liam again.  I pinched my self and thought, ‘don’t act stupid’.  I saw Dre rise from the cliff where she was sunning herself to go and join Copth.  I reached the coast and landed, folding my wings back and felt them disappear into my skin.

“Liam?”  I said, my voice sounding funny.  He turned around to face me.  He had not changed a singled bit.  His crystal blue eyes, coppery-bronze hair, smooth tan skin and rippling muscles.  I sighed in spite of my self.  I knew my thoughts sounded very pathetic, but hey, this is me we’re talking about isn’t it?  He smiled as he stepped toward me, lifting me up and of the ground in an embrace. It was like being in heaven to be near him again.  He lifted my chin to look into my eyes.

“You made it back.  I was worried about you,” he said to me.  He pulled me closer and gently kissed me.  I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him deeper.  He pulled away after a moment and grinned at me.

“You missed me that much, eh?” he asked with a little laugh.

“How could I not miss you, the amazing Liam!?” I answered back with a joking tone.

 “Well, my most beautiful, why don’t we stop all of this non-sense talking and get back to a better subject?” he laughed, then pulled me back to him and started kissing me again.  All of my worries of the wrath and the new discovery of Bruce’s secret crush and every other silly trouble in all of the realms were instantly forgotten.  I was once again with Liam, and life couldn’t get any better. Well maybe it could, but we won’t go there…

 

 

~*~*~*~

 

I left the coast with Dre only a few hours before sunset so we could still have time to pick up Indra from where ever he may be in the realm and go to the Thunder Dragon Temple.   Indra ended up meeting us at the front steps of my palace.  He knew exactly where Dre and I had been and what we had been doing.  But he didn’t say a thing about it.    

“Well, we better get going so we make there with time to spare,” Dreshom said.  Then she lowered down and dropped a shoulder so Indra could get on her back.  Then she took off into the air in one leap, I followed a few seconds behind them. 

“Well, no use trying to ignore the subject,” Indra said after a few minutes of silent flying, “What all did you and Liam and Dre and Copth do all day?  You must have gotten your hands, or claws, off each other at some point.”  I heard Dreshom chuckle a bit.  I tried to hide a smile, it didn’t really work.

“Yes, we did get our hands off each other after a while.  I don’t know about Dre and Copth though…” I winked as Dre spun her great head around to glare at me, “He and I went swimming a bit, walked on the beach, talked and …yeah…never mind…” I said.  Dre and Indra both laughed a bit.

‘Before though you had a chat with the mermaids… about Bruce…’ Dre added in.

“You did?!” Indra said pricking up his round ears with interest, “did they tell you about his pathetic little crush?”

“Yeah… you knew?!”

“We’ve been wondering when he would tell you.  Bleukat and Stilla (?) have been hinting us in on this little secret of his for a while now.”  Dre replied.

“Of course, we had hopped he would grow up a bit and tell you him self.” Indra concluded.  ‘Ha!’ I thought to my self, ‘I knew he would chicken if he had to say that to anyone!’  Indra and I pestered Dre about telling us what she and Copth did the whole day but she would only let little bits slip, then she finally gave in.  She laughed after telling us because we thought it would be some thing ‘interesting’ and it really wasn’t.  Oh well.

 

“We’re almost there!” I said excitedly, “I can’t wait to see it again!”  I could see the temple coming into view.  It was made entirely out of a rare magical black stone found only where a Thunder Dragon had hatched.  It was an amazing sight for anyone.  We landed at the front gates of the glinting black temple.  Indra jumped down off Dre’s back and stepped up next to me.  Dre pushed her head up against the gates and opened them up for us to enter.  I was awestruck, like I always was when I came here.  The intricate carvings on the stone, carved by the first Thunder Riders.  Now there were only a few Thunder riders left, in a remote part of the 7^th realm.  I knew that by ancient laws, I am their leader, because I am the Guardian of Lightning and rode a queen Thunder Dragon.  The first Guardian was Ruler of the Riders and so were all of the other Lightning Guardians before me.  The Riders were an ancient religion, almost a race of their own, only the highest bred human could have the privilege of riding a Thunder Dragon.  And to think that this entire Temple was made by the hands of the Riders and the claws of their dragons.  It was honoring to know that that race, my race, were so full of honor for who they were, yet so humbling to their dragon friends.  We walked up a stone staircase that led to the front balcony in front of the doors that lead inside.  Every thing was designed to fit a dragon’s size too, so we all sat on the balcony including Dre.  Indra perched on the railing, blending in with the stone.  I put my elbows on the railing and my head in my hands as the first colors appeared.  I looked all around me, behind me the sky was dark and the stars were shining brightly while the rays of brilliant yellows, reds, purples, oranges, and pinks of the sun still reached up between them.  From the east there were huge thunderheads building, lightning flaring within the cloud’s surface.  I turned back to the amazing scene of the sunset not taking much notice to the clouds.  The sun sank beneath the horizon, it’s very last rays still dancing in and out of the stars.  I smiled, I always felt a bit rejuvenated watching the sun rise and set here.  Thunder rolled in as a whisper to our ears, then louder, clearer, and closer with in seconds.  I looked back over to the thunderheads.  They were no longer in the distance, they were almost enveloping the temple.  Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled all around us.  I grinned.  This is exactly were I loved to be, in the center of all of the lightning.  I am sure that some people would have been a bit scared maybe even terrified, but I laughed, I was loving every second of this.  So were Indra and Dre.  Then all of the lightning ceased.  We all looked around confused.  Then, without warning, at least a hundred separate bolts of lightning raced toward the space of air in front of all of us.  The point in which all of the bolts met each other exploded with magic and energy.  I felt the shock wave hit me, but instead of knocking me off my feet, I absorbed it into my skin, feeling stronger then I did before.  I looked back to the source of the energy it was a black stone radiating yellow-white light.  It looked like the same kind of stone the temple was made out of.  The black stone looked like it became liquid and separated into three parts, each solidifying into the shape of a lightning bolt.  Each of the stones headed towards us.  I watched in amazement and excitement as the stone hovered over and settled on the skin directly below my collarbone on my chest.  The moment it made contact I felt warmth spread through every inch of me.  My muscles felt stronger and less fatigued from the flight here.  With every beat of my heart I felt myself becoming stronger and stronger.  Then it over took me and … 

I woke finding Dre and Indra also stirring on the stone balcony of the temple.  I blinked a few times to focus my vision the clouds had left and the sky was clear with a new moon making the stars shine brighter.  I got up along with Dre and Indra.  I looked closely at the space underneath Indra’s collarbone.  There was a white vertical zigzag in his fur, like a lightning bolt.  I looked over to Dre.  A scale on her neck below her collarbone had a black lightning bolt, radiating gold light, was on her too.  I looked down at my neck as best I could, there was a black lightning bolt glowing gold light on my skin also.  I touched it.  It felt a little warmer then my own normal body heat, but felt like my skin all the same. 

“That was really weird,” I said.  My companions nodded in agreement. 

“Huh, well I feel really good! I bet Dre and I could beat you home!” Indra said as he leaped onto Dre’s back.

“You could not!” I said back with a grin.  We both leapt into the air and flew back to the palace.  I didn’t really notice till I was in bed that I flew back at twice my normal speed, and I felt like I hadn’t had any work out to strain my muscles at all.  I yawned.  I didn’t feel tired, but I still fought a bit to keep my eyes open so I lay down in my bed next to Indra’s warm fur. I let my mind drift into nothingness and relaxed into a wonderful dream-filled sleep.

 

~*~*~*~

 

I woke up later that night to some one kissing me gently on my cheek and lying down next to me in my bed.  I sat up and saw it was Liam.

“Oh, I didn’t mean to wake you up.” He whispered.

“No, I don’t care that you woke me but what the hells are you doing in my bed?!” I exclaimed.  He sat up to and looked at me like he wasn’t exactly sure what I was saying.

“What do you mean?” he said looking a bit uncomfortable now.

“Well, geez… umm…don’t you stay in the guest room?” I asked a bit uncomfortable too.

“I haven’t stayed in the guest room for a year or sometime around that,” he answered.  Then I thought, ‘oh crap! He has been staying in this room for that long! I completely forgot! Now I look like an idiot and a jerk to him! Great!’

“Oh, yeah…umm… I’ve been gone I while…so I’m sorry… I guess I forgot…” I stammered.  He brushed my face with his hand.

“I know.  It’s gonna be different for a while, you and I guess me too, are going to have to get well… closer again… and I thought… you know with the wrath being released tomorrow at noon… this may be our last night together under, some what relaxed circumstances…” he said.  He ran his fingers down my arm.  I got goose bumps from his soft touch.  ‘Now I remember!’ I thought.  He leaned over to me and kissed my neck, then my cheek, and then my mouth. 

“I guess I’ll go to the guest room now.  We always have after the battles to be together.” He said after a kiss.  He smiled and kissed my cheek again.

“On a second thought, why pass up a genuine opportunity with a wraith like that approaching?” I said as I slid back onto my pillow.   He gave me a little grin.  He lay down next to me with his head propped up on his hand.  We just stared at each other for a while as he absentmindedly ran his fingers through my hair. 

“Man do I love you,” he whispered after a while.  Then he slid off his pillow and we kissed each other.  We made out for a long time before we stopped and just lay in each other’s arms.

“I don’t want this to go to far,” I said,

“Or for you to have barely any sleep so you won’t have to fight a wraith tired from kissing me all night long.” He said as he grinned at me and then reached down and pulled up the sheets to our shoulders.

“Now go to sleep, love.  We all have a big day ahead of us.” He said quietly as he closed his eyes.  I lay there still with my eyes open.

“Liam?” I whispered.

“Hmm,” he responded.

“I’m really scared,” I said truthfully.  He pulled me closer to his soft warm skin.

“It’s gonna be O.K.  Don’t worry.  I’m having all the Riders stay at the Temple ready to fight whenever their help is needed.  Just say the word and we’ll all be flying along next to you into battle.  You and all of your friends are powerful and you know how to fight.  Dre, Indra, Copth and I won’t let anything happen to any of you, too.  I promise.  I don’t know what I would do if I lost you Lev, so I’m not going to loose you,” he answered soothingly.  I moved even closer to him, closed my eyes and we both drifted into sleep.

 

I woke as the fist rays of the morning light slid in through the glass doors in my room that lead to the menagerie.  I slid out of bed and got dressed.  Liam was just starting to stir when I left the room to head the menagerie and courtyard below.  I walked threw the grass still covered in cold dew.  I found a sunny spot and started to stretch all of my muscles.  I didn’t know what I might have to do today after the noon hour.  After I was satisfied with my stretching I went to the kitchens and made a quick breakfast.  Eline came in just as I was leaving.

“You’re up early today,” she said. 

“I wanted to see as much peace as I could before that damn wraith is released,” I said, a little scared/angry at the thought of having to battle the wraith.

“I know what you mean.”

“Well, I am going to head to the Palace and check in on Efrit and get any last minute information.  When Liam comes down can you tell him where I’m going?” I asked.

“Of course.  Could you tell her Royal Majesty that I send my best wishes to her heath?  All of the servants and I are thinking of her.”

“I’ll do that. Well, I better go.  I will make sure to see you and everyone else later,” I said as I stepped out the kitchen doors and down the hallway to my throne/ball room where the portal to the Palace was. 

 

I found Efrit pacing around her throne, looking anxious.   The healer was trying to convince her to at least sit down if she wasn’t going to go back to bed. 
       “Lady Levinia, can you try to convince Her Majesty to please sit down!  She isn’t listening to me,” the healer said a little crossly as she folded her arms on her chest.

“I told you I am perfectly fine!!” Efrit said sternly.  Then she turned to me. 

“Good morning!  Have you eaten yet?” she asked me.

“I had a little bit to eat before I came.”

“Hmmm, I was planning to have a big breakfast here at the palace for all of you,” she said a bit disappointed.

“That would be in a few hours anyway, I’ll be hungry by then. Oh, and everyone at the palace is thinking for you and hoping a good recovery,” I said trying to cheer up the obviously exhausted Queen.  I could see why the healer wanted her to sit down.  She wasn’t even acting like herself.  I was trying to think of something to say when Phaedra and Julian walked in. 

“Hey, Lev,” Julian said cheerfully.  ‘He’s a morning person, yet he still loves Phaedra, a complete opposite,’ I thought to my self.

“Hi,” Phaedra said in the middle of a yawn.

“Hi guys, you to had a late night, eh?” I said jokingly.  Phaedra glared at me.

“We could hear you and Liam half way across the realm,” she retorted. 

“Yeah we were a little loud weren’t we?!” I replied just to annoy her.

“Ugh, stupid idiot…” she said grumbling with her early morning grouchiness.  Julian just laughed and led her away.  I followed them into the courtyard to sit and talk a bit.  Lance, Estelle, and Bruce showed up a moment later.  So did Liam, Elyse and Adrian.  Liam sat down next to me on the bench and out his arm over my shoulder.  Bruce looked a little left out from all of us who had some one to sit close to.

“Bruce looks a little left out,” Liam whispered in my ear so Bruce couldn’t hear.  I looked over at him and he was looking silently around at all of the ‘couples’.

“Yeah, he does.  But he doesn’t exactly try to get a girlfriend either.”

“Maybe he’s just to shy.  I should introduce him to Seira,” he suggested.  Seira was a friend of his who was also a Dragon Rider.  She was, in my opinion, drop-dead gorgeous, really friendly and like all Riders, kind of tough and stubborn too. 

“That’s a good idea, hey why don’t we invite the Riders over here for breakfast?  Then we could introduce them!” I said.

“Don’t you think the Queen will mind?”

“Nah, but we can ask her anyway.  The Riders are her allies too.”

“I think those two would look good together, don’t you?” 

“Yeah, I think they would.  They have the same personalities too.  Both stubborn, frustrating at times…”

“She’s not that bad.” He interrupted.

“He is though.”

“We’ll just wait and see I guess.”

“Yeah, well I’ll ask the Queen if they can come.”

Queen Efrit?

Yes?

Liam has all of the Thunder Dragon Riders waiting at the Thunder Temple to help in battle whenever we need the help.  I was wondering if they could join us for breakfast.  How about it?

Oh of course!!!!! They are really offering to help us? Wow.  Well sure, it’d be great to have them!

Cool thanks!

I’ll see you at breakfast then!

Yup, ‘til then!

“She would be happy to have them,” I told Liam.

“Great!  They will really appreciate it.  I’ll have Copth and Dreshom relay the message to them then.”  I chuckled a bit at the thought of getting Bruce and Seira together, they would be so perfect. 

“What?  Why are you laughing?”

“It’s fun to play Cupid.”

“To play who?”

“Oh… to play match-maker.”

“Yeah, it kind of is.”

“You know,” I heard Phaedra say, as I listened back into the conversation, “You look a lot like a guy I know in the third realm.”  At first I wondered who that could be, then I looked at Julian more closely and realized who it was he reminded her of, *John*, her husband!  Estelle, Elyse, Bruce and I all had our jaws hanging open as we realized the resemblance between *John* and Julian.  Hell, they looked like the same person…  then a strange idea hit me, they could be the same person, he could have gotten a different name and moved into the third realm and find Phaedra again. I brushed the idea aside, he would have told her, wouldn’t he?  Julian looked around at all of us who were staring at him and turned red with embarrassment.  I looked at Phaedra.  She looked at me as if to look for a sign that she wasn’t just imagining the similarities.  I gave her a little nod, and she gave a little sigh but still looked a little uncomfortable, but comfortable enough to keep his arm around her shoulder. 

“Sooooo…” Estelle said trying to think of a new topic.

“Hello everyone!  I had to get away from that healer.  I know she means well but she is really annoying!!!” Queen Efrit said as she joined all of us on the porch.  We laughed as the healer glared at the Queen from the doorway. 

“Well, everyone,” said the Queen getting our attention again, “I would like to inform that the Thunder Dragon Riders of the 7^th realm are going to joining us for breakfast this morning.  They have also promised to help us in our battle with the wrath,” all of us shuddered at the taunting thought of the wrath.  I looked up at the sky and saw planets looming above.  They were literally hours away from aligning and setting free our worst nightmare.  I turned my attention back to the Queen.  “I have been in formed that they have been spotted a mile away, by now a half mile.  So if you could all please try to act like, well, Elemental Guardians.  I know that you may feel comfortable acting like… like you do in front of Liam, but show a little more respect to the others of his home.  They are putting their lives and their dragon’s lives on the line for us.  So try and be polite?” the Queen said teasing us a bit.   Usually when foreign ambassadors came, they expected older and polite acting people to be the Guardians.  They always were disappointed as we made sure that they were dead wrong in what they expected of us.  We got a little carried away once and got into an all-out food fight and the Queen wanted to rip all of our heads off after that.  Since then she always threatened or at least glared at us a bit before important people came to dine.  She obviously wasn’t in the mood for threatening so she just asked this time.  We grinned.

“Us?  Acting rude?  I couldn’t imagine!” Elyse laughed.

“Don’t make me get into threatening…” just then giant shadows passed over us bringing with them strong down blowing winds.  One dragon swooped low to the ground and whooped a greeting to Liam.  It was Arram; Liam’s older brother who had called.  Liam laughed, got up and started running over to the front court where they were all landing.  I just shook my head.  When Arram and Liam were together, they acted like ten year-olds with way to much creativity of how to have fun for their own good.  They were just bound to pull off some prank or stunt that would nearly kill them or the people around them just for kicks.  This was going to be a very interesting breakfast indeed.  I walked with the others and the Queen as we went to greet the guests.  Ulani, Tarana, Janelle and Heather ran out one of the side doors to catch up with us.  The Queen immediately went to Brocma, the oldest and most war experienced Rider of the whole group, to thank and talk to him about the upcoming events.  I met up with Liam and Arram who were laughing about something.

“Levinia!  It’s been to long!  How’s everything going?” he grabbed my hands and looked at them,  “You and Liam aren’t married yet?!” He said with his normal handsome grin.  He looked exactly like Liam except for green eyes and lighter brown almost blonde hair and the few inches shorter he was below Liam.  Hearing the last statement Liam elbowed Arram in the rib cage.  Arram had started laughing again at his younger brother’s obvious embarrassment. 

“Good morning to you to Arram,” I responded, blushing too from his remark.

“What?  It was an honest question!  Touchy subject for you two or something?”

“No it’s not a touchy subject.  Just you didn’t have to bring it up in public like that!” Liam said a bit annoyed already with Arram.

“I bet you two haven’t even thought about getting hitched.  You really should you know.  You make a great couple.”

“No we haven’t talked about that, we we’re actually we planning on introducing Seira to Bruce.  What do you think?” I asked, changing the subject to save Liam and I from any more embarrassment.  Arram turned to look over his shoulder to find Seira.  She was now talking to the Queen.  Then he changed his gaze to look at Bruce.  He turned back to face us. 

“That’s a great idea!  I think they would like each other,”

“I was thinking on introducing her to him at breakfast,” Liam added in.

“Oh!  Could I introduce them!  It would be better, you two could talk about marriage!  Get you guys used to that subject!” He said with another grin.

“You don’t let up do you?  No, Bruce doesn’t know you that well.  It would be better if I did,” Liam said, looking as if he could tackle Arram if he said ‘marriage’ again.  The look made Arram’s grin grow even more.

“Hey, why don’t you to get married right now?  Before that damn wrath comes?!” He said just to push Liam over the edge of self-control.

“That does it!” he said swinging at Arram then going to chase him as he bolted off, laughing hysterically. 

“They will never grow up,” I muttered to myself.

“Well you never know.  Maybe they will someday,” a voice said behind me.  I turned and saw it was Seira.  “No, I take that back.  They’ll always be this crazy together.  You two would look good married though, Arram has a point,”

“How about a new topic?” I said.  She laughed. “Hey, are you seeing anyone?”

“No, I’m not.  Why do you ask?”

“Well, I have a friend.  He’s right over there,” I pointed over to Bruce, “He isn’t seeing anyone either.  I was thinking about introducing you guys to each other.  I didn’t want to catch both of you off guard, so I thought I would introduce you two right now,” I said.   

       “Thanks for the warning,” she laughed.

Hey, Bruce?

Yeah?

Come over here.  There is someone I want you to meet.

Uhh, O.K.  Then he started walking over toward us.   

“Bruce, this is Seira.  Her dragon is Dria.  Seira, this is Bruce,” I said.  Bruce smiled timidly, and Seira blushed a little.  Both actions I thought I would never see from these two people, they obviously liked what they saw.

“Hi…” Bruce said using his really pathetic ‘low voice’.

“Hi…” she responded using her normal voice, at least one of them can talk to a stranger without making a fool of them selves.

“I’ll leave you two to talk.  I have to go stop Liam and Arram from doing something stupid,” I smiled, then turned and left to find Liam and Arram.  

 

       I found Liam and Arram on the roof, daring each other to go and get one of the gargoyles guarding the palace roof p/o.  Luckily I found them before Liam went to find the gargoyle.

       I sat between Liam and Arram at breakfast.  More like I sat by Liam like always but Arram decided to get the marriage conversation going again.  But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that marrying Liam wasn’t that bad of an idea.  By the look on Liam’s face I could tell he was thinking like-wise.  I saw Bruce and Seira entering the dinning hall, dangerously close to one another.  I tried to hold down a laugh.

“What’s the matter?” Liam asked.

“Those two!  I introduced them about ten minutes ago!” I said as I pointed over to them.

“And it looks like time well spent too!” Arram and Liam both laughed.  I elbowed Liam as Arram moved father down the table to flirt with the princesses.

“Oh just shut up.  If Bruce heard you saying that he would probably try and kill you,” I said to Liam.

“Fine, I won’t embarrass him… but seriously, look at them!  They look like us about five minutes after we met!”  He said, the last sentence whispered in my ear.  I turned and glared at him, trying not to grin. 

“Yeah right!  The first time we really met each other was at that big ball when you asked Janelle to go as your date and you only danced with me because she went home!"

“You know I only did that because, well I thought Janelle was nice and that you were probably already going with some one and … and… OK I was nervous to ask you.  But that’s in the past,” He leaned over and gave me a kiss as Bruce took Arram’s place with Seira beside him. 

Thanks for introducing us. She is so amazing!!  Bruce said through telepathy.

Hey, no problem.  I’m your friend remember?  He smiled and moved closer to Seira, shyly trying to slip his arm around her shoulder.

Woah, slow down there Sparky.  She’ll break your arm.  Try that some other time, OK?  I advised him.  So he slowly pulled his arm away.

Thanks for the warning.

       Liam and I sneaked out of breakfast early, into the ‘make-out clearing’ in the forest behind the palace. 

       “Right when I think Royal conversations can’t get more boring, they do.  Do they do that on purpose just to piss us off or something?” I said as we finally reached the clearing. 

       “ I dunno, Efrit looked rather bored herself.  Brocma isn’t around royalty that much so he must have thought those conversations would interest her or something I guess.” He answered.

       “Why did you want to come any way? Other then this is the very popular ‘make-out clearing’?” I asked. 

       “Well, actually…” he started slowly.  He started to look really nervous and he started fumbling with something in his pocket.

       “Liam, what is it?  Just tell me, you look really nervous.” Then he got quickly down on one knee and pulled a small silk pouch out of his pocket.  O my god is he doing what I think he’s doing!!!  I practically shrieked in my head.  He opened the pouch and pulled out a white-gold ring.  On it was a diamond in the center that was at least 1-½ karats in size then on either side of it were two small sapphires and a polished piece of the black stone that the dragon temple was made from.  He took my hand, we both were shaking a bit.  O my god!  I thought. 

       “Levinia, I know this may be a little sudden, but… I have loved you more then any one and… will you marry me?” he sputtered out.  I just stood there probably looking really stupid, but I was shocked.  So that’s why Arram was talking about marriage so much! 

       “I…uh… yes… I’ll marry you,” I said, my voice quivering.  I didn’t know how to answer, I hadn’t exactly done this before.  He slipped the ring onto my finger.  I could tell that it was magical, I could feel it through the gold, and also by the way that it shifted to fit my finger perfectly.  Liam stood up.  He grinned at me, then kissed me.  Ahh!!!  I’m engaged! I’m gonna get married!  I can’t believe I am actually going to marry Liam!  I thought to myself.  Then I kissed Liam back, hugging him tight with all of my excitement and shock of his proposal. 

       “Is this why Arram was pestering us about marriage this morning?” I asked after a few minutes.

       “Yeah, he was getting impatient with me about proposing to you.  I’ve has this ring for a while now and I finally found the guts to ask you today.”

       “Well you did ask and that’s all that matters.  So, do we head back to the palace now and tell everyone or should we wait till after we defeat the wraith?”

       “I guess we can just tell if any one asks where we were, or if any one notices your ring,” I looked down at my ring then back up at Liam and kissed him again.  Just then the Tower Bells rung 11 o’clock.

       “We better be heading back, we only have an hour left before… before the wraith comes.”

       “Yeah, we better head back.  Wait, about your ring.  It’s magical, it’s so that when you’re off fighting, we can still talk to each other and find each other.  It’s the black stones that are the magical part.  See, I have the same stones too,” he said as he pulled a silver chain out from beneath his shirt.  On the chain there were also two black stones held onto the chain by white gold tongs.  “One stone is for me, the other is for Copth.  I have one for you and one for Dre.  So if you ever need help, from me or from Copth, just be in contact with the ring and concentrate on one of us, what you need to say and I will get the message.  If I try to reach you, the stones will start to glow and you just need to touch the stones to hear me.  We will always be in touch with each other, I don’t want to loose you.  It was bad enough with that fake portal from Enigma a few years back, I don’t need to get scared like that again, and neither do you,” he said then drew me close for a hug.  “Let’s head back,” he added softly and we headed out of the forest.

      

       We tried to sneak back into the dining hall the way we had left in hopes that they didn’t all know that we had been gone, or if they did, they wouldn’t make a big deal out of it.  Sadly enough, it didn’t really work, go figure.   We just had turned around from closing the secret door in the wall when we saw that almost everyone was staring at us.

       “Hi,” I squeaked, I hated this many people looking at me.

       “We were just wondering when you two would come back.  Where were you anyway?”  The Queen asked with a smirk.

       “I can guess!  Have anything to do with a certain clearing!?” Estelle laughed and gave me a very obvious wink.  Lance started laughing and then a few of the others too.

       “Really Liam! Leaving so rudely when in the presence of the Queen!” Brocma said sternly to Liam.

       “It’s no big deal Brocma.  I am sure it was for a good reason,” Efrit said sweetly to Brocma before turning back to us, “care to explain?”  She grinned again.  She just wanted to annoy us.  She must be feeling better.

       “Well… we…” I started.

       “I… umm…” Liam started too.

       “Well, here.  Look!” I said as I held out my hand.

       “AHHHHH!!!!” was the unanimous squeal from the majority of the females at the table, including Efrit, as they all got up and hurried over to see my ring.

       “Finally!” I heard Arram shout over the bustling of feet and screeching of moving chairs to Liam.  Liam just glared back at Arram as he chuckled and started coming over to the small crowd that had formed around me.

       “I’m so happy for you!” Phaedra squealed as she hugged me.  Soon I had about all the girls giving me hugs with enthusiastic smiles on their faces. 

       “Oh, I hope you will have the ceremony here.  I love weddings in the palace!” Efrit said cheerily as she gave me another hug.

       “When will the wedding be anyway?” Heather asked.  I looked at Liam.  He shrugged. 

       “I dunno, I only got engaged fifteen minutes ago!”

       “Engaged? Is that what the squealing is about?” I heard Julian ask Liam.

       “Way to go Liam!” Eyros said as he smacked Liam heartily on the back.  Soon all the guys were thumping Liam on the back.  Except for Brocma of course who was shaking his hand and was probably about to start to give him some speak about marriage or something but was interrupted by Arram shouting, “Well kiss her!  You just got engaged for gawd sake!  I wanna see ya kiss her!”  Liam and I grinned at each other.

       “OK then!” Liam answered Arram.  He stepped over kissed me and bent me backwards.  You know, one of those corny movie kisses.  Arram and the other guys started whooping and clapping.  I smiled back up at Liam before he brought me back up to standing.  He smiled back and kissed me again as he pulled me up.   It was the best morning I had ever had.  Estelle and I had just started talking about wedding dresses with all of the other girls and the guys were talking to Liam about whatever guys talk about when one of them had proposed when the palace alarm went off.  Everyone went pale.

       “Everyone, the Vision room now.  Pixies, get ready,” Efrit said trying to be strong for the rest of us.  We all changed into our Killer Pixie selves and ran to the Vision room.  Well, it was a good morning.

 

~*~*~*~

      

       We all circled around the vision pool as the image of the opening to the 13^th realm swirled into view.  I clasped Liam hand tightly as the image steadied and stopped swirling to show us as the dark void started to open, readying to release the wraith.  Soon, a black fog started spilling from the cavern in the vision pool.  The center of the image started to stretch towards the opening, the fog of the wraith swirling around in the image.  Then the entire image faded out.

       “It has already begun to destroy.  It will have separated into parts by now and is heading to the magic summits of the realms.  I can protect the palace for now.  Brocma, if you and your fellow Riders would please stay to guard the villages near-by.  Pixies, you will be splitting up, each of you will go to the magical summits of each realm and shield it as long as you can.  I am guessing it will start in the first realm, and work back to the thirteenth.  If needs be, we will call upon the Lessers for some of the remaining realms.  Probably the realm of nightmares, who knows what monster it could create there,” Efrit started up calmly.