The Guardian

Chapter 4

-----Little Guardian-----

Gabriel

I was tired and lost, I had nowhere else to go. I felt woozy, my head was spinning. I could hear the grumbling of my own stomach, I'm so hungry...I wanted to sleep. The trees made it hard for me to figure out where to go. I sat down and could feel my eyes slowly closing.

A little girl found me sitting on the ground, against one of the trees. She didn't speak, she just stared at me. I watched as she touched a scratch on my wing. I didn't even know that I was wounded, and once she touched it I winced in pain. The girl held her hand out in order to help me on my feet, I willingly took it and stood up.

"Do you know a place where I can find some water?" I asked.

The girl stared at me. Perhaps she didn't understand what I was saying... Perhaps she couldn't speak at all.

"Wa-ter." I said, pretending to drink something.

The girl pulled my hand, I followed as she lead me even further into the forest. She stopped by river that was situated in an open area, I ran towards it, knelt down and cupped my hands so that I could drink the water. I rinsed my face and stood up in order to face the girl.

"Thank you.", I said.

She again took my hand and took me even further into the forest. We stopped at a tall tree that had a rope hanging from it. I looked up to see where it was coming from, and once I did I saw a house in the tree. A tree house. The girl climbed up the rope, through the door beneath the house. I climbed afterwards and followed her into her wooden home. There was a mat, window, two spears standing against the wall and a door on the left that lead to one of the branches of the tree. She took me to the mat and pointed at it. I sat down on it. The girl left through the door that lead to the branch and she took one of the leaves. She walked towards me with the leaf, and squeezed it on the scratch on my wing. The leaf let out some strange smell and the liquid that came out of it looked green. My wing started to burn. The girl walked over to the door that we came through and opened it.

"Where are you going?" I asked, but she left anyway.

I followed the girl out of the house and saw her walk through the forest. I followed her, she stopped at the river. She held the each spear in her hands and started stabbing through the water. Every time she took a spear out there would be fish stuck to it. I walked over to her, wanting to help, she gave me one of her spears and I helped catch some fish. She laughed when a fish flew against my face after I missed.

"Okay you're name is River. You're probably the queen of the waters.", I said.

My face felt a bit sticky and luckily the fish landed on the grass so that I could stab it onto the spear, properly this time.

It was dark, we were cooking the fish on a small fire, which River lit with a flint. Once it was ready, the girl gave me a cooked, headless, fish. I've never eaten meat before. Aphrodite always said that eating an animal makes one impure. Even if it was only a taste, we were told that our wings would rot and fall off. Then she would banish us out of heaven for eating something that was once living. Of course, I found this absurd and really unnecessary. How does meat make one impure? Was what I would always ask in my head. The fish was on some kind of a rock that was as flat as a dinner plate. I broke a piece of the fish with my fingers. It smelt...good... I put it in my mouth and chewed slowly, trying to get used to the taste. This was so much better than what I was used to. I almost forgot about the vegetables and fruit that I used to eat or as Aphrodite used to call them: "Pure food." I put a bigger piece in my mouth after taking out the bones. I was so hungry, I ate everything in less than 10 minutes. River stared at the fire and started singing. She had such a soft and gentle voice, one that was melodious. I listened carefully as she sang. The girl then drew a man and woman with their child. It was her parents. She then drew a demon with it's claws through her parents hearts. Her last drawing was one where she ran away into a forest and next to her us an angel. A guardian angel. She drew an arrow by the angel and it pointed at me.

"You think I'm your guardian?" I asked, a little amused.

The girl nodded her head and watched as the smoke of the fire went up into the air. We decided to go into the treehouse, and went to sleep.

I woke up by a loud scream that came from outside. I looked around the treehouse and saw that Ocean was missing. I went out of the treehouse and saw that the fire died out.

"River!" I shouted, trying to figure out where she went.

I heard movement behind the trees and stayed quiet. I heard it again, the sound came from behind me. I quickly turned around as a demon came roaring behind me. It pounced on me and tried biting my face off, but I kicked it off me. River came, shouting with a spear in her hand. The demon grabbed her and stabbed one of it's claws through her torso.

"No!" I screamed and started running towards the demon.

I grabbed it's neck as I jumped over it's head and pulled it with everything I had left in me. The demon's head ripped off. I immediately dropped it and ran to River. She lied on the ground, gasping for air as she was bleeding out. I sat down beside her and held her in my arms.

"It's my fault... It's all my fault. -" I said.

"- I'm so sorry River I didn't mean for you get hurt. Please forgive me."

The girl touched my hand as she took her last breath. I closed her eyes as a tear fell down my face.

"Now you can be with your family." I whispered.