The Guardians (draft 2)

Chapter 16

It had been a week since Briar first came to the castle, initially as a prisoner and now as a guest. Her and her dad had gotten used to palace life surprisingly quickly. He now worked as a palace servant, mainly in the kitchens so he could stay busy and be useful.

Lumina made it a rule that he had to work if he wanted to stay at the palace and he quickly accepted. It only took a couple days until people stopped giving him wary looks, he always had been good with people. Briar on the other hand never felt truly safe.

Whenever she would walk down the hallways, she would get looks from the palace staff, they were mostly looks of fear but there were groups of people who always looked at her with hate and anger. What did I ever do to them? Briar would always think.

She often made the effort to make eye contact with them and not break it until they did. It was a fun game she liked to play, watching them squirm uncomfortably under her dark gaze... Such a fun time. The few people Briar trusted were her father, Lumina, Officer Stevens, Adams and a really nice palace servant named Robert. He usually worked on the floor that Briar lived on and he was so nice. He often told Briar stories of his daughter whom he recently had gone to visit. I wonder if he gets back today, I want to ask him how it went! Briar thought as she pulled on a knee-length tunic and fastned a belt around her waist, and slid on some boots.

Briar quickly brushed out her raven hair and zoomed out of her room, once again startling Adams.

"Jeez Briar! Do you have to come out of the room so loudly?"

"You are supposed to be a guard, you shouldn't be scared of a door opening quickly. Now come on, I have to meet Lumina and I'm gonna be late."

Briar dashed down the maze-like hallways, following the now familiar route that she had imprinted in her brain. Briar had spent a whole day exploring the castle, making sure she knew it inside out and it had proven to be very helpful. She quickly got down to the gardens with Adams puffing behind her. Lumina sat on a bench with her legs crossed, Opal laying down beside her.

"The student has finally arrived." Opal grunted, lifting her head and looking down her long elegant snout at Briar.

"Calm down Opal, she is only two minutes late. Welcome Briar. Officer Adams, you may leave. I will call for you when we are done."

"Yes your majesty." Officer Adams bowed deeply and walked out of sight.

"Good now that he's gone, can you please summon your wolf?"

"Um... Sure.." Briar gave a loud sharp whistle and waited. Shadow wasn't allowed in the castle due to too many of the palace workers being uneasy with him around, so he stayed outside, but he had lots of room. Briar visited him all the time and he had a little cave that Lumina had gotten someone to make for him. He got fed meat scraps from the kitchens and he hunted all the rabbits that got into the gardens. He had a pretty good life, even though he wasn't allowed in the palace.

Briar heard a bark and Shadow came bounding into view, tongue lolling in a canine grin. "Hey pretty boy!" Briar said as he skidded to a halt in front of her, wagging his shaggy black tail excitedly. He licked Briar's face a couple times and ran over and greeted Lumina. He went to sniff Opal, but Opal let out a low menacing growl, causing Shadow to whine and hide behind Briar. "It's okay Shadow, Opal wont hurt you as long as you don't bug her." Briar chuckled, ruffling her wolf's head. He plopped down at her feet and began gnawing on some jerky Lumina had brought for him.

"So, why do we need Shadow today?"

"Remember how last week we talked about trying to safely communicate with Edarek? Well, I had a meeting with my advisors yesterday and we agreed that no human should go there until we have an idea of what they want, so I was thinking that we could send Shadow with a message for them. He must have come from Edarek, or at least have lineage there with his colouring and size. We don't generally have wolves his size here in Lyera, let alone black ones."