Shade and Dusk: Guardians of Analysia

(1) Enter Analysia

Analysia was once a world of peace and prosperity; filled with mysteries and dark secrets. The citizens that lived there are called Analyans. Everyone was happy . . . until the beasts appeared.

     These beats are called Shadow Dragons, created by the Witch of Darkness herself: Vyla. Born with dark magic, she unleashed a portal from a realm to free them and unleash them on Analysia. They are pure evil, able to bend the shadows and darkness at will, just like the Dark Witch.

     So the King of Lyeria, the capital of this country, decided to order some Knights to find a mysterious Mage. This woman was said she could grant power to four chosen heroes. The King picked the most loyal and bravest four of the guards ―two male, two female― to travel and find the Mage so they can have power to destroy the Witch. The powers the Mage gave them where Sun, Moon, Star and Mist. They then became the Guardians of Analysia.

     The new guardians now travelled as far west of the Dead Woods, a forest with nothing but bones and dead plants, with the occasional mountains and murky caves. Finally they found the Witch in a series of caves, and challenged her to a battle. The Witch smirked, for the idea of four puny mortals battling her seemed amusing. She cast a portal as she unleashed the Shadow Dragons on the guardians.

     Once the battle started, they used their powers: the Sun user was able to summon flames, the Moon user being able to summon water at will. The Star user can summon darkness, a lot like the Witch, though of course the hero used it for good. And then there’s the Mist user: able to make allusions seem real. Out of the four, the Mist abilities were probably the hardest to master, but the hero managed it anyway, and just in time for the battle.

     Screams and roars echoed through the cave as the battle raged. Just as the Guardians were about to be overthrown by darkness, they combined their powers and defeated the Witch. Soon the Shadow Dragons were gone along with Vyla, or so they thought . . .

     As the Guardians grew older to have families and kids, and their powers passed on to the chosen children in each generation. However, as the powers of the guardians passed on, so did the powers of Vyla. Now that Vitylia was born, the Shadow Dragons return to take revenge on their fallen mistress, and the new era of guardians shall be chosen to save Analysia.

 

     Shade ran as fast as she could, her long silvery black hair flowing in the wind and her dark blue eyes filled with determination. She could not afford to be late!

     She made a shortcut through the woods of Kalica: a poor city in the west of Analysia. None of the Alayans would want to come here, mostly because of the dark evil forest in the east of the city, near Shade’s house. Shade couldn’t blame them though: her own home gave her the creeps sometimes.

     The bell rang just as she opened the doors of Kalica School. Shade hurried to her locker and put the stuff she doesn’t need and ran to her History Class. She opened the door as she gasped for air, panting like a moron as the class looked at her in surprise, the Professor raising an eyebrow at her.

     “So nice of you to join us, Miss Darkrider,” said Professor Leer. He had gray hair and brownish eyes, with a gray suit and blue tie. They don’t get along very well.

     “I . . . I overslept,” she said, embarrassed. The popular girls in the classroom snickered as Shade sat down next to her best friend Celeste. She has short black hair and silver eyes, like the moon. She can be pretty sarcastic, but also serious when things go wrong.

     “You are so in trouble,” whispered Celeste, “That was like your fifteenth tardy!”

     “Thanks for the support Celeste,” grumbled Shade.

     “Hey, I’m just saying.”

     “Ah, you know how Celeste is,” said a male voice, “Her mind is too weird to handle.”

     Shade looked at Ray and smiled. Ray was her best friend, ever since they ran into each other in the forest a few years back. Apparently he was tracking down this wolf: who attacked him in the forest and ran away. He went searching for it with his bow and arrow, figured he could get good practice out of it. That’s when he ran into Shade, almost shooting her in the chest. She remembered Ray asking who she was, and what kind of a girl will walk alone in the forest at night?

     She replied by smirking and saying, “Hey, you’re alone here as well.”

     Ray shrugged, “Eh, got a point. Wanna help me find the wolf? I can teach you how to do archery if you want.”

     Shade grinned, saying she would love to. Only, she soon realized how bad at archery she was. They only spotted the wolf once or twice, leading them farther into the forest.

     “Man,” said Shade, “this wolf is insane.”

     “I know,” said Ray.

     They kept running, until they found themselves face-to-face to smooth ice crystal wall, like on a flat vertical side of a mountain or something, only made of ice-like crystal. Shade could have sworn she saw the wolf go right through it and disappeared.

     “What the?” mumbled Ray, “I never seen anything like this in the woods.”

     “Maybe we can . . .,” Shade mumbled as she started to touch the ice, but there was a distant roar that they both know a little too well. Everyone knows what that sound means . . .

     “Shadow Dragon,” mumbled Shade.

     She could see a dragon like shadow moving in the trees just as she said it.

     Ray got out his bow and got out an arrow, pulling it back as he aimed.

     “Wait!” she hissed, but too late. For he then notched the arrow and let it fly. Shade could hear the thump, thump, thump as it flew. It landed on the beast’s right side next to its wing. The dragon roared in pain and disappeared deeper into the forest. Ray and Shade ran out of the woods as fast as they could, Shade promising herself she would never enter the woods again.

     Her eyes blinked as she heard the sound of snapping fingers.

     “Wha…?” she said.

     Professor Leer frowned down at her, “I asked you a question. Care to answer it?”

     “Uhh . . . what was the question exactly?” she asked.

     Professor Leer sighed with disapproval, “Honestly, Shade! I don’t know how you even got into this school. The question was who is the Dark Witch’s minions, and where do the people believe they come from?”

     “Uh . . . the Shadow Dragons,” said Shade, “They’re these evil dragons, probably the only type of dragons in Analysia. And the king of Lyeria ordered all his knights to kill them on sight so they don’t overthrow the Alayans.”

     “Correct,” he said, “And where do they come from?”

     “From a magic realm, no one knows exactly how, but people seen it in action as the Witch summoned them.”

     “Very good,” said Professor Leer, like she was surprised that she would remember.

     The bell rang, and people started to pack their stuff.

     “Remember class, two page paper due Friday!”

     There was a lot of groaning to that as everyone left.

     After school, Shade, Ray and Celeste were walking down to their houses.

     “I can’t believe he would make us do a two-page paper on the history of Analysia!” groaned Ray, “I mean, I’m an archer, not a history guy!”

            “Well if I don’t get this paper finished, I’ll end up history,” said Shade as she headed home.