Shadows of The Guardian

Preface

When Darkness finally rises,

When the world will rise in flames,

When Satan’s slaves kill the innocent

Only then

The girl will recur

With a mind that speaks for centuries

With an essence that harmonies with magyik

With a voice made to lead armies

Only then

The girl will save us

And Redemption will be justified.

 

PREFACE

Sneaking out was always the same.

It was last summer that I found the gap through the garden. Actually, a lot of things happened last summer. But this leads to them all – that hole.

I was in the garden, just observing. For some reason, wildlife always appealed to me. And this garden was full of it – from plants to animals to fungi. I sort of felt right along side the earth and its qualities – one of the reasons I would sneak out. Anyway, my eyes caught the cavity when I was watching a particular squirrel. I’d been seeing it for days, but it was suddenly disappear out of my garden with the blink of an eye. I thought: hey, maybe it’s just fast. But unless it was some sort of vampire, I was wrong.

And that day, my curiosity got the better of me. I kept my eyes on the squirrel alone, watching it run along my fence and scurry across my garden. I must have been stood outside for a couple of hours; maybe more. Time suddenly wasn’t a word when I was outside.

The squirrel didn’t even bother to hide the hole from me. It went just…straight…into the bush. And never came out.

It was have made complete sense if it had hopped onto my fence and jumped off the side at the very back of my garden. That lead to the woods. A place I wasn’t allowed to go in. But it was a place that most of the wildlife in my garden came from.

But, no. It ran into the laurel hedge – or a bush – my mother had a dark fence around the whole garden. Well, that’s what I thought. My garden was the shape of an uneven rectangle. One side of the fence hid away the next door neighbour’s property, while the other two guarded me from the woods. Our house was placed on a corner, the entrance to the woods on the street in front of my house.

I peered into the laurel, pushing its leaves aside. Then I saw it.

Tree’s. More wild green foliage. The squirrel timidly nibbling on something. Grass. A dim light.

An entrance to the woods.

At first, I was disappointed. I thought maybe I would’ve found my own Wonderland like Alice. Actually, I was a little peeved.

After a while, though, of sitting beside the laurel, the discovery didn’t seem so bad. I mean, it was sort of a Wonderland; just one I couldn’t enter. One that no one else knew of – or at least I thought. I’ve have to ask my mum and dad about it.

Wait, hang on. If my parents are so protective of the fact I shouldn't enter the woods, then wouldn’t they have told me about this hole? Told me to never go in? Of course they didn’t know.

I glanced to the veil of laurel that hid the hole. It was, in fact, well hidden. My mum never cut the hedge – I always told her not to. We worked in a team when we were in the garden, my mum and I. We decided the wild look was more preferable and we only cut, planted and mowed the front lawn. My brothers and sisters never hid inside the hedge when he play hide and seek – the leaves would tickle your skin and your feet would stick out at the bottom. We made it careful to not throw any balls while we played ‘catch’ in the hedge in the fear that we would throw the ball too high and it would go over the fence, stuck in the wood.

Thinking about it, the secret entrance was…perfect.

I looked back at the house, making sure no one was watching, then I took another peek into the laurel.

The scent of wildlife and the cool breeze hit me. Not hard – it was a gentle whistle of air and a hidden tint of wild flowers.

And suddenly I wanted more. I leaned in more, gasping.

The woods wasn’t scary like my parents would always say. Yes, it was wild, but then again, my garden was too. Yes, it was dark, but many shots of light shone through the gaps in the leaves at the top of the trees. Wolves? No. Bears? None in sight. Suddenly I begin to think all the things my parents said were wrong. The only animals in sight were the squirrel that lead me here and small, tiny birds perched on the trees.

And, that’s when I decided it wouldn’t be so bad to go inside.

The first day I found the entrance to the woods.

I wasn’t scared. Curious, more. I walked slowly around the tree’s, past the squirrel, and explored. I came across many dead ends, but that didn’t bother me. In fact, it made me want to search more.

I belonged here, with the earth. Not hurting it; but being a friend to it. Caring for it.

My mind remembered the meaning of time when I came across the lake.

Okay, the lake wasn’t hidden. But it wasn’t on maps either. It was word of mouth around Redash, where I lived. No ships were in the lake – it was too narrow. If I sort of did a running jump to the bank of the lake, I’d easily make it to the other side.

But then I remembered when my cousin, Harry, told me some facts about the woods. When he visited our family for vacation, he was always allowed to go in there.

Harry told me how the river runs deep into the forest, and is a four hour hike there and back to the entrance.

Well, he didn’t tell me like that. More like: “You know what, sweetheart? I travelled through that damn woods in hope I’d find something actually interesting, and four hours only gave me a stupid lake. You're not missing anything.”

We were never alike.

But four hours? It seemed almost unreal. Had I really been in these woods for four hours? And I didn’t even go straight to the woods… so… how long?

I gulped then, fear rising in me. I wasn’t scared of the woods; I was scared of going home. It was early afternoon when I found the hole. It was bound to be late – would my parents be looking for me? Would they ground me, send me to my room? But I like it here, I want to stay here. Here is friendly and safe. It’ll be night when I get back.

I closed my eyes and put my hands in my face. As a last resort, that moment of time, I whispered something.

“Please, don’t let my parents be mad. Please, just go home quick.”

I repeated the words in my head, and squinted my eyes harder.

When I opened them, I was stood outside my house.

Expressionless.