THE GUARDIAN
BY: DIANA M.

Chapter Eight

 
   Scarlett opened her eyes. She had somehow managed to fall asleep in the freezing cell, but something had woken her. The room seemed lighter than before; lighter than it should be in the middle of a night, in a room with no windows. Scarlett rolled away from the stone wall and sat up in amazement.

  Her cell was literally packed with swarms of fireflies.

  Scarlett shook her head. Was she dreaming? How could these thousands of glittering insects have gotten into her cell? The dungeon was underground, in the cellar of Destro’s castle fortress. As in all castles built to withstand siege, the nearest window to the outside would be an arrow slit high in a tower or wall. Could the littlebugs have flown all the way down the many twisting hallways and staircases to her cell? Was the castle full?

  Scarlett crept to her door and looked through the small barred window. Her four guards sat undisturbed around the room. She could see no fireflies outside, and the vipers were apparently unaware of strange goings on.

 Scarlett returned to her palette and gazed at the fireflies flittering all around. She remembered their dance over the playing fields, and her odd conversation with Spirit. Fireflies were bringers of the truth. They took away the dark so you could safely see the way. What way should she be looking for?

  "Do not be afraid, little one."

  Scarlett jumped up and looked around the cell. There was no one at the door, no one in the corners. It had been a woman’s voice Scarlett had heard; her guards were all men, unless the shift had changed. Scarlett went again to her door and glanced out. A viper sneered at her from where he sat, face mask raised so he could east his late dinner. He licked his turkey leg suggestively. The other three vipers laughed.

  Definitely all men. Scarlett stood back from the door.

  "It has been difficult for you, I know. It will all be over soon, I promise."

  The voice had come from nowhere. Unless one of the fireflies had decided to strike up a conversation, Scarlett was unable to account for who was talking to her.

  "Just wait patiently, he is coming."

  The voice was so familiar, so soothing. The lilt and accent relaxing Scarlett with comfort she hadn’t felt in years.

  "M-mother?" This couldn’t be happening. Scarlett felt insane.

  "My sweet Shanna, you will be safe. Nothing can stop them one they choose to come."

  "Mother, where are you?!" Scarlett’s voice rang from the cell walls.

  "Quiet in there!" The viper didn’t even bother getting up to look, "listen to that,night’s not even over, and she’s calling for mommy," Scarlett’s guards chortled again, " We’re not finished with you, missy. You’ll really want mamma and papa when you see what we’ve got planned for tomorrow!"

  "Shush, darling, they can’t hear me."

  "Mother, where have you been?" Tears rolled again down Scarlett’s cheeks, "All these times I’ve needed you, and you weren’t there." She whispered, hoping not to draw the guard’s attention again. Talking to one’s self was to be expected in a cell, but the fireflies would be hard to explain.

  "I have always been with you, Shanna. With you and your brothers and sister. Everything you have done, I have been there."

  "You are dead, mother. You were never there."

  "Darling girl, love transcends death, and dying is not an end to a soul. I live in you. I am around you. I see you. I have been watching over you, and have made sure you were always safe."

  "Sometimes I felt so alone, mother!"

  "You were NEVER alone. There was always one there to protect you. They promised me that."

  Scarlett was confused. "Who is ‘they’, mother, what do you mean?"

  "Some things are hard to explain to one who lives so much in the modern world. The old beliefs have fallen by the wayside."

  "Fairies? You mean fairies, mother?" Now Scarlett felt insane and silly. The voice sighed tiredly.

  "You believed me when you were a baby. Then you grew up, and it was a joke to you all," Scarlett could sense a hint of frustration.

  "But mother, we never saw any fairies, and you kept telling us they were there. It seemed stupid. All my friends were embarrassed." Scarlett felt ashamed, "so was I."

  "Why must you see something to believe? Can you see me now? Do you believe I’m here with you?" The voice was irritated. Scarlett was taken back to the second grade, when her mother had found out from a teacher that Scarlett had copied a test from a classmate. Her mother had been more annoyed than angry. Scarlett hadn’t really needed to copy, and her mother knew it.

  "I want to believe," Scarlett looked again at the fireflies, "Yes, I believe."

  "Whether you believe now or not, is not important, Shanna." The voice regained a loving lilt, "Before the night is over, you will believe more than ever."

  "What do you mean?" Scarlett eyed the door and felt apprehension trickle over her, "What’s going to happen?"

  "They promised me to always have one looking over you. There was one when you were little, and he watched you as you grew. While you were becoming a woman, he grew old, and his job was eventually passed to another."

  Scarlett was swimming in cryptic riddles, "One WHAT mother? A fairy?"

  "No, sweetling, fairies never grow old, and they prefer to avoid the iron bindings of men’s modern cities. But they have helpers throughout this world. Creatures who have been watching over men for centuries. They are related some of us through blood. They need us to survive, and so care for their kin over all others."

  "And one of these has been looking after me."

  "The one who watched me also took care to watch you and your brothers and sister. He continued to do so after I died. But he grew old, and could no longer watch after you as well as needed. They are long lived, but cannot go on forever."

  "Who are they, mother?"

  "They have many names. They live in tribes across the world. When old Caedrach grew tired, he couldn’t find any of the Fian to follow you and your career. The few in Atlanta had their hands full with your brothers and Siobhan. Caedrach had to go outside of the family. You were lucky he found one who was always so near to you. It seems to have gone beyond a mere protection duty. Perhaps it will go even farther."

  "And that means?"

  " As I told you they need us to survive. They cannot mate amongst themselves. They find a human to love."

  Scarlett wondered. An inhuman boyfriend? "WHAT are they?"

  "You will find out soon. He is coming. Please, Shanna, do not be afraid of him. He is, has, and will often be, your only hope."

  "He’s close to me? Then I know him?" Scarlett thought of all the people she knew. None of them looked particularly inhuman, "Who is he?"

  "You are about to find out, dear," The fireflies’ brightness grew tenfold, "I must leave you for a while. He comes."

  "Mother!" Scarlett could whisper no more.

  "Hey, I told you to shut up in there!" A viper came to the door and peered in the window. His eyes grew wide at the sight of the fireflies, "What the Hell? Hey, Pierre, get the key, you gotta see this one."

  "You have got the legs, no? Get it yourself."

  "Listen, froggy, I outrank you, don’t tell me to-MOTHER OF GOD!" The viper’s last words were drowned out by a loud snarl. Scarlett could hear Pierre begin to scream, but couldn’t see what was going on; the viper standing in front of the door blocked her view.

  "Merde! Merde!" Pierre’s screams increased in pitch over the viscous growling, "Mon Dieu! Tuez-le! Tuez-le!"

  "What are you waiting for?Shoot it!" Scarlett heard a shot ricochet off the stone wall.

  "Fuck, how’d I miss that?! Get it!"

  "TUEZ-LE, TUEZ-LE GAROU!" Pierre’s cries grew ragged. "TUez-lleeeee," his breath hissed and bubbled out its last.

  "OH GOD OH FUCK! Get it off! AHHHHHH!" The viper blocking the window, frozen in shock, apparently was unable to move to help his friends, who sounded to Scarlett as if they were being torn apart. "Teddy! HELP ME!! HELP ME PLEASE!!" Teddy wasn’t budging.

  The screams slowly died away, but the snarling remained. Scarlett could tell that whatever it was had turned its attention to Teddy, and was coming closer. The viper, before so cruel, began to shiver uncontrollably.

  "No, don’t. Please. Get back!" Teddy sobbed and begged. "Oh God, get away from me! Oh please, SOMEONE HELP!" A fetid stench filled the air; the viper’s bowels had let go.

  The snarling grew louder. "NOOO!!!!!" Teddy the viper was slammed hard into Scarlett’s cell door. "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" he screamed like a madman, Scarlett could hear wet flesh tearing. Teddy suddenly went limp, his life torn from him. His corpse slid bonelessly away from the door. The snarling stopped.

  Scarlett waited for a few minutes. Nothing more happened. She looked around and was surprised to see the fireflies still hovering in the air. Somehow, she had thought they would be frightened away. She slowly approached the door, and peered out.

  The dungeon was a mess of ex-vipers. Blood and gore dripped from shredded flesh into great pools. Scarlett could barely tell which one was which amid the gobs of steaming entrails and viscera. She struggled to look at an angle to see Teddy, and had to jump back from the window. Sitting calmly in the middle of the room was a white wolf.

  She stood in the dark for some time, thinking. Was this her savior? She heard a quiet whine, and moved back to the window. The wolf was huge, the size of the small ponies whose backs Scarlett’s father would place her when she was a girl. It sat, covered in gore, looking quizzically at her, it’s clear blue eyes hauntingly familiar. It whined again, and swished it’s tail twice across the cobbled floor.

  "Hey, how’s about getting a girl out?" Scarlett couldn’t believe she was talking to a wolf. Still, stranger things had happened in the past few days. All in all, talking to a fuzzy killing machine didn’t seem beyond the borders of reality.

  The wolf snorted and stood.

  "Thanks. Just bring me that key on the wall." The wolf turned and looked at the keys hanging above the steaming viper meat, but made no move to get them. Perhaps it wasn’t as complex as Scarlett had thought, "Good wolf, good boy. Get the key. Bring me the key. C’mon boy. Gooood Wolfie."

  The wolf snorted again. Scarlett could swear it had rolled it’s eyes at her. "Well, do something! Someone’s going to wonder what all the screaming was about." Scarlett pointed a finger through the bars, "There’s the key. Fetch it or something."

  The wolf sighed and closed it’s eyes.

  "Don’t get that way with me! Get me-" Scarlett’s words caught in her throat. Before her eyes, the wolf had begun to bulge and stretch. As she looked on, the wolf’s muscles shifted underneath it’s fur. Its bones and sinews cracked and popped sickeningly. It rose on it’s haunches, and it’s chest flattened. New muscles filled in along the front and back. It’s shoulders filled out, and the toes of it’s front paws lengthened and grew into fingers and hands. It’s legs lengthened, but the paws remained basically the same. Scarlett had expected the form to shrink into a man; her savior revealed. Halfway through, she realized it was growing. The fur did not recede, but rearranged itself around this new form. The head changed little, only moving to sit atop the new upright neck.

  Two minutes later, the wolf stood like a man. It towered above her; fully nine feet tall, covered in knotted muscle and silky white fur. It held its tail proudly behind, its ears stood erect atop its head. Everything about it suggested nobility, and quiet danger.

  Scarlett couldn’t resist glancing down to where its genitals should be. She was surprised and relieved to see they were covered by a thick mat of white fur. The man-wolf made a sound halfway between a snort and a bark. It, he, stepped towards the door. Scarlett hastily moved back. The light in the window was blocked out by the wolf-thing’s huge shaggy bulk. The fingers of its huge hands slipped around the iron bars of the window. Scarlett heard a grunt, and with a single yank, the wolf pulled her cell door right off it’s hinges.

  Scarlett took a few more steps away. The wolf-thing crouched, and swung it’s shaggy head underneath the lintel. It looked at her, into her, with glowing sapphire eyes. Scarlett backed against the far wall.

  "Uhh, Thanks, I can take it from here," The wolf didn’t move, "Really. I think I can make it out. Besides, mother said never to talk to strangers, and right now I can’t picture anyone stranger than you." The wolf whined placatingly, crouched lower, and held a long-taloned hand out to her.

  "Go with him, daughter."

  "I don’t think so." Scarlett kept her eyes on the wolf’s tooth filled maw.

  "Shanna, he is your Guardian. He is here to rescue you. He could never hurt you." Her mother’s voice was insistent. The wolf whined again.

  "You didn’t see what it did to those vipers."

  "Shanna, there is no time to argue. You must go. Your comrades are coming to bomb this fortress shortly. You must get out."

  "I’m scared," Scarlett watched several fireflies alight on the wolf’s ears and head. He whined a third time.

  "Scrrrrrlltttt." the wolf rumbled. Scarlett couldn’t tell if it was a word or a growl.

  "Scrrrrllltttt," her eyes were drawn to his. She was unable to look away from the glowing pools. They seemed sincere. She felt like she was falling. "Scrrrrrllllttt."

  The eyes were so familiar in that alien face. Scarlett reached out, and grabbed the wolf-thing’s huge hand. It folded gently around her fingers; completely enveloping her hand. She felt a tingling run down her spine.

  "Go now, daughter, the bombers are coming! Quickly!"

  The wolf pulled Scarlett out of the cell. She hesitated at the sight of the recent carnage; there was no thick door between her and the congealing puddles of gore. The wolf wasted no time in picking her up effortlessly in his arms, and carrying her over the mess and out the dungeon door. Waiting in the hallway was a unit of COBRA vipers, armed to the teeth.

  "WHAT Is ThaT THING?!?" a thin viper in the front rank wailed.

  "Its got the prisoner. Whatever it is, shoot it!" A viper officer lifted his gun to fire.Scarlett could feel the wolf’s answering snarl start deep in his chest. The hallway was brightly lit as a thick plume of fireflies swooshed around from behind the wolf to swarm the vipers.

  " AARRGHHG! Killer bugs!!" The vipers began to swat madly at the fireflies. The wolf used the distraction to shift Scarlett to his back and begin a rush at the group of vipers crazily waving their arms at the glowing insects. She barely had time to wrap her arms around his thick neck and hang on tight. They were moving quickly towards the confusion.

  "You idiots! They’re FIREFLIES!! They can’t do anything!" The officer swatted a viper on the helmet and turned to readdress his prey. He found himself looking right into a mass of fur and chest muscles. He slowly looked up, and felt hot coppery breath on his face. There was a ripping sound, and the officer looked down again to see his stomach spilling from the wolf-thing’s claws. He was too surprised to notice the fanged maw that came down and snapped his neck.

  Scarlett shuddered. That couldn’t have been a good way to go. She hid her face in the wolf’s soft mane. He lunged and rushed headlong through the confused and frightened vipers, reaching out to rip and rend any foolish COBRA soldier who managed to stumble in his way. He made it out the other side, and headed for the elevator.

  Scarlett kept her face buried. She heard the viper’s screams fade as the wolf carried her down the hallway. Then they stopped. She looked over his shoulder at the elevator doors.

  "Did you press the button?"

  The wolf whuffed in surprise, and twisted his head to regard her with one blue eye.

  "It took forever last time, you know." She remembered the Dreadnocks hauling her like a side of beef up to Destro. The wolf rumbled, and looked again at the doors. He plunged his hands into the rubber-lined seam, and pulled them apart. Scarlett hung on as he grabbed a cable and swung into the shaft. She looked up, and could see the car a few floors above them. The wolf began to climb effortlessly. Scarlett hung on and didn’t look down.

  They soon reached the bottom of the elevator car that had hung above them. The wolf reached up and pounded. The metal floor dented, but did not open. The wolf had to hit it several more times before a tiny tear appeared. He quickly thrust one hand through, and worked the rip wider. Finally, he clung to the cable with his legs and used both hands to rip a hole large enough to climb through. The metal yielded with a tooth rattling itch.

  The wolf pulled himself up and into the car. He forced the doors again and simply walked through the security gate. They stepped into a madhouse of confusion. The communications room was a flood of vipers and televipers, rushing back and forth between terminals.

  "Joe bombers are less that ten minutes away, sir!"

  "Our radars indicate a huge squadron, sir! They’re looking to flatten us!"

  "Nonsense!" Destro stood in the middle of the confusion, taking in each report, "They would never destroy a fortress that could possibly contain one of their own."

  McGregor sidled quietly up to Destro, "My lord," he whispered, "green squad just reported in."

  "Hmmmm? They are in charge of internal security, McGregor. Hardly a concern now." Destro waved dismissively.

  "The prisoner is missing, my lord."

  "WHAT!?"

  "Fontaine, Keeny, Chanel, and Jones were torn to shreds, my lord. And the door was torn from it’s hinges."

  "Where is McCleod? I want his report now!"

  "Whatever freed the prisoner got him too, my lord. Green Squad seems to have gone insane. They say it was a giant-"

  "AAAAHHHHHH!!" the three Dreadnocks had come into the communications room across from Scarlett and the wolf. Uninvolved in the chaos around them, they had noticed the towering lupine right away.

  "Bloody ‘ell! It’s the blooming wolf man!" Buzzer turned and ran back out of the room.

  "Christ! I’m out! Lets go, Torch. I didn’t sign on for no ‘orror movie." Torch and Ripper high-tailed it out the door.

  The wolf snarled and headed to a console, tossing a televiper out of the way like a rag doll. The hefted a chair in his massive claws and smashed the keyboard. A ways down, another televiper screamed.

  "Joes five minutes away! The wolf just axed our def-AHHHHHH!" Scarlett amazingly still clung on as the wolf rounded the communications room, tossing vipers left and right, and smashing terminals to useless piles of silicon.

  Destro turned and calmly headed towards an unmarked door, "McGregor, I would say we are compromised. I am going to my escape tunnel. I would suggest you do the same." The door slid open, and Destro stepped into his own private elevator, which carried him to an underground monorail. The small train sped away from the fortress the speed of a Japanese bullet train, the tracks ending two miles from the fortress at a waiting private airport. Once again, Destro had slipped away from the Joes.

  Meanwhile, McGregor was enjoying a less than comfortable fate. The wolf had caught the viper before he could make it to the door through which the Dreadnocks had fled. A massive hand rested on his helmet.

  "Do I smell too much for you now, boyo?" Scarlett smiled over the wolf’s shoulder at the Viper.

  McGregor pulled out a small handgun, and aimed it at Scarlett’s face, "Not for much longer, lassie." His eyes narrowed. Before he could pull the trigger, however, the wolf squeezed his helmet. It collapsed with a crunching sound, and McGregor’s skull popped like a grape. The corpse thudded to the ground, and the wolf bent to wipe the brains off his hand on the front of McGregor’s blue uniform, smearing the COBRA sigil with gore. Scarlett heard the whine of the Joe bombers, almost upon them.

  "Run, daughter!" her mother’s voice boomed in its urgency.

  "Let’s get out of here!"

  The wolf swung her into his arms again and bolted for the door the Dreadnocks had used. The outer hallway sloped gently downwards and came out at a dock on the moat. Scarlett could see the sun rising over distant hills. The whine of the bombers was louder than ever. The wolf plunged into the frigid moat and quickly pulled her across to the other side, his teeth clutching the fabric of her robe.

  By the time they had reached the bank, the wolf had shifted form once more. He was again the pony sized creature on four legs. Scarlett sat panting, but there was no time to rest. The wolf shoved his head under her stomach, and somehow managed to flip her onto his back. He galloped into the trees, and Scarlett barely managed to stay on, clinging to its sodden fur. She heard and felt the concussion of the first bombs exploding atop the fortress. The wolf galloped quickly until they were a safe distance, then slowed to a lope.

  He continued on to a small clearing in the trees, then stopped and sat. Scarlett slipped off his back and listened to the cacophony of falling bombs and exploding masonry. There wouldn’t be much of the fortress left.

  The wolf nuzzled her and whined. She smiled and rubbed its neck.

  "As Guardians go, I guess you’re a pretty good one."

  "Sccrrrrrlllttt." The wolf purred as she sunk her hands deep into his mane to scratch his neck. She looked around the clearing, and was only slightly surprised to see uniform lying neatly folded next to a tree stump. "Rrrrrrrrrrrrmmm." The wolf nuzzled her again. Her fingers scratched through his fur, and came upon a chain. She followed the balled links, pulled tight around the wolf’s massive neck, till she came to the two tags. She pulled them out, but she knew what would be embossed there before she read the name.

  "Thanks, Duke."

______________________________________________________

Continued in Aftermath!
Back to Diana M.'s Fics!
Back to Authors Page!