Shade and Dusk: Guardians of Analysia

(18) Training and Stealing

A couple hours later the sun has disappeared in the sky, revealing the darkness of the night. Shade could see dozens, millions of stars over her head as they flew― almost as if the sky itself is glowing with different colors.

     Ray looked over Shade’s shoulder and said, “Over there.”

     Shade nodded, and they landed in a grassy spot near a sparkling river. Celeste immediately ran over to it and took off her new boots, and put her bare feet in the water, “Ahhh,” she said with a dreamy expression, “that’s the stuff.”

     Dusk rolled his eyes as Shade laughed, “So now what? Set up camp?”

     “Well yeah,” said Ray, “but I was thinking after that we can do a training battle.”

     Shade looked at him, “I just discovered my powers, I don’t think I’ll be much of a match.”

     “Plus there’s that problem of slicing each other in half,” added Celeste helpfully, kicking her feet in the water. Ray glared at her, and Celeste said, “Uh, sorry.”

     “No problem,” said Ray, “Leona gave me a spell guide before we left. It’s in my satchel.”

     Celeste stifled a laugh, “Satchel.”

     Ray rolled his eyes and got out his brown bag. He opened it up and got out an old looking fake leather book, with symbols of the celestial zodiac as well as the constellations, and the four symbols of the Guardians in the middle. Along the edges of the book is a curly gold design, and the book itself is almost as thick as an averaged sized brick. Shade was surprised that Ray didn’t collapsed when he held it.

     He opened the book and flipped through the pages, Ray muttering, “Protection Spell . . . Protection Spell . . . ah, here we go. Force Guard,” Ray pointed at the description, “’this spell can protect a caster’s body for up to ten minutes, using a misty aura around the caster, perfect for training battles. Warning: if used too much this spell can wore out the user’s energy, and might cause the caster to go unconscious.’ Huh, sounds friendly enough.” Ray closed the book, “Okay, first camp set up, then battle training.”

     Shade nodded. A few minutes later they managed to get a fire going, and Celeste watched as Shade and Ray got in battle position.

     “Alright,” said Ray, “let’s use that spell.”

     At the same time, Shade and Ray both said, “Force Guard.” In an instant their bodies flashed silver as a silvery aura appeared around their bodies. Suddenly a rock flew towards Ray on his right, and when it landed it simply bounced off his skin harmlessly, making a vibrating sound as it bounced off. Ray looked at Celeste with an annoyed look.

     “What? I just wanted to make sure it works,” she said with an innocent face. Dusk chuckled from behind her. Ray just rolled his eyes, “Time to train.”

     Shade put down the sword for the Mist Guardian next to Dusk, and then she charged with her sword Nox at Ray, who somehow managed to block with his sword, Solaris. They parried, strike, and blocked as they used their swords.

     “Sun Blade,” Ray chanted, and his sword suddenly burst into flames, causing Celeste to yelp. Ray sliced the blade in the air, the fire sliding off the blade and making a wave of flames toward Shade. Instead of dodging, Shade’s hands glowed with a shadowy aura and chanted, “Dark Sphere!”

     The two spheres of darkness in her hands soon grew into one big ball of darkness. The wave of flames collided with the sphere of darkness, and when Shade did a pushing motion with her hands, the sphere pushed forward towards Ray. Ray jumped to the side to dodge, and when he looked up he saw Shade had vanished, unknowing that she was on the tree branch above him. Shade then jumped off the tree branch and before Ray knew it Shade is on his back.

     “Ow!” complained Ray, “Come on, that’s a foul!”

     Shade laughed, “Not in my rulebook.”

     Celeste giggled, and that’s when she noticed that Dusk has been writing something in the dirt with his claw. She cocked her head when she noticed that it’s a group of Greek letters: Alpha, Omega, Sigma, Delta, and Theta. Since when did Dusk knew Greek? thought Celeste. Dusk noticed her looking, and he simply cleaned it off the dirt with his tail, as if he had never drew anything on the ground.

     Celeste looked at Dusk and decided to shrug it off. After a few minutes of more training, Shade and Ray are both exhausted and decided to take a break for the day. “Let’s take a break,” suggested Ray, “We’ll sleep for a few hours, and then we’ll get back in the sky.”

     “And who made you leader?” said Celeste.

     “I didn’t say I was,” Ray protested, “I’m just making suggestions.”

     “In all fairness though I think Ray is right,” said Shade, “We’re all exhausted. Let’s get some sleep.” In the corner of her eye Shade saw Ray sticking his tongue out at Celeste, who just rolled her eyes. Shade laughed, and then she snuggled against Dusk and started to fall asleep.

     While they slept, someone hid in the bushes, watching them. It’s a young boy about ten years old, poor and hungry, with brown shaggy hair, named Sam. Sam saw three teenagers and a huge monster with them as they slept. It’s black with dark purple wings and scaly and looked mean as it growled in its sleep.

     “Dragon,” Sam whispered. Immediately he got nervous, knowing how evil they can get. Does that mean those teenagers work with the Dark Witch? He probably shouldn’t risk it, but he needed the food. He’s just going to have to risk it.

     He scanned the area, and saw a brown leather satchel next to the blonde guy sleeping near the fire. Sam will have to be quick to make this work.

     Once Sam moved slowly out of the bushes, he ran towards the satchel and picked it up. When he did, the blonde guy groaned in his sleep and turned his back toward Sam. As Sam started to walk away with the satchel he looked inside it. There was nothing much in it, just an old book, and a few silver coins inside. No food, but this plus selling the book should get him through some meals.

     Sam walked a few more feet until he tripped. When he looked up, the dragon appeared in front of him as he growled.