The Guardians of Deities

5

Before she began with the questions, they decided to eat something and let Arline do her magic with fishing. Once warm, full and comfortable, they allowed her to ask anything she wanted, without any boundaries. They still had adrenaline circling in their blood and couldn't bring themselves to sleep despite their exhaustion.

"Those are dragons, aren't they?" she signaled the gigantic lizard-like creatures on the other side of the cave.

"Yes dear" Zeroun answered. She somehow expected it but still couldn't believe that her own eyes were appreciating a real life dragon. Her inner child was screaming in excitement.

"How did you tame them?"

"We didn't have to, not everyone gets the chance to have one" Calix said.

"They're only accessible to a certain kind of people" Larsin explained.

"What kind of people?" she was really engaged in the subject, which the boys found fascinating.

"Mostly royals these days, but legends say dragons only appear on behalf of those with particular abilities" Larsin exposed for her. She raised an eyebrow, confused. She wanted to know more about dragons, but she was more curious about their little hand-thing.

"Now, you can totally not answer if you don't want to" she clarified, they were expectant "How do you do that thing?" She signaled their hands.

"Oh you mean this?" Calix asked while snapping his fingers and letting a flame the size of his palm appear and he started to play with it.

"Don't let him fool you, that's just the most basic skill he can perform" Zeroun leaned in closer to the fire "He's more powerful than that"

"You didn't answer" Arline couldn't stop looking at the flame to try to figure out how he did it.

"We are born with it" Calix scuffed and shrugged as if it was a very normal thing, he didn't elaborate on the matter.

"How can you make a literal element from nature appear in the palm of your hand and call it a day" she needed more information than just We're born with it. The three of them had to laugh at her reaction. They all enjoyed her being so interested and invested on getting to know about them and wasn't spooked at the idea of them being different.

"What's yours Larsin?" she asked sweetly, her slightly raspy voice made his stomach turn "Calix's fire and apparently Zeroun's air?" Zeroun nodded.

"Earth" they both held stares for a second until he turned around "So you have the lot of elements surrounding you"

"Oh please just show her" Calix dared him "Entertain us" Larsin accepted the challenge.

He walked behind Calix. Picking his right wrist, he pulled a very long vine from his sleeve. She looked impressed, so he decided to go over Zeroun. Larsin picked his friend's back pocket, pulling a very large pine nut. Everyone laughed at how uncomfortable Zeroun looked while sitting on it. Finally he got close to Arline, waiting for her permission. She nodded with a tired smile. He placed his hand behind her neck, softly, and pulled a bright pink camellia from in between her dark brown hair. They applauded and laughed. He offered her the flower, with the charm he was recognized from back at home. She took it without hesitation.

Suddenly, Vatra, Larsin's dragon, came behind Arline and curled her in between her legs, letting her lay on her cozy and warm stomach. At first, she was petrified, but when she came to the conclusion she meant no harm, she arranged her body in a comfortable position, closed her eyes and let the exhaustion take over her mind and muscles. The boys relaxed and decided to join her.

⎯

A soothing melody started in the back of Arline's head, quickly surrounding her entire set of thoughts. She woke up, disoriented, her eyelids were heavy. She violently rubbed her ears, but the sound and buzzing didn't go away. Arline was growing worried, but chose not to wake anyone up.

She felt a whisper in her ear and turned around, scared. The dragon didn't move. She saw an ethereal figure hanging by her side, it had the looks of a very beautiful, young woman. Perfect features, floating hair and a melodic voice "He is waiting for you" the woman sang in the cave but the boys didn't wake up.

Arline didn't understand, but she felt the need to get up. And did it, carefully and started walking towards the sea. A numbing freezing breeze slapped her cheeks. She forced herself to stop, shaking her head to make that feeling go away.

"Come with us" the figure insisted "We will guide you to him" Another two figures emerged from the sea but had a morecorporeal look, just as beautiful. Arline felt like she was in a dream, one she couldn't wake up from. She tried fighting that voice that invited her into the water, but they were too gentle to say no to them.

Larsin woke up, feeling uneasy about something. When he focused his eyes, he saw Arline's figure walking away in company of these creatures, he knew exactly what they were. He woke up his friends as quietly as he could and signaled at her direction.

"This has to be a bad joke" Zeroun whispered, almost inaudibly "How did they came all the way here?" The boys just denied with their heads, not knowing the answer to his question.

Calix and Larsin didn't waste a second and took hold of their bows. They aimed, knowing they wouldn't hurt anything. They were using it as a distraction to scare them off and take Arline away.

She was on the edge of the cave, directly over where the sea touches the rock. She kneeled on the ground and was trying to reach for the water. She wasn't conscious, her mind was screaming at her to run over to the boys but her body didn't allow her to make choices anymore.

These figures were pulling her into the water. Arline felt a slight sting, as if someone had puck her with a needle on her finger, and gentle goosebumps taking over her body once her hand touched the water.

The mermaids started singing. The mumbling meant nothing to them because it wasn't meant to affect them, but when Arline's hair started levitating and her brown eyes started lightening with a white veil over them, that was the limit. Larsin took his shot and so did Calix. The arrows flew past the beings. They were warned and dissipated like smoke but with a horrible and deafening screech that made the boys' hair stand on end. Arline passed out.

"We need to leave" Larsin mumbled "And we can't leave her" he picked her up and carried her next to the inexistent fire. His friends looked at him as if he was talking in a foreign language.

"Just a question" Calix articulated "How do you pretend to explain to your father you've brought a human into the kingdom?" He was trying to be the voice of reason, considering his friend came up with that horrible idea.

"We can all agree she is not human" Larsin rolled his eyes "What just happened is proof of it" he went back to where Arline was laying.

"I would be more afraid of another person rather than your father" Zeroun said while looking at Arline.

"If your father doesn't kill us, your brother most certainly will cut our heads off and exhibit them in the compound, and then throw her from the top of your home" Calix rightfully exposed.

"Let me handle my brother" he sounded uneasy at the description Calix gave of their possible fate.

"I hope you can" Zeroun let out.

"We leave tomorrow" Larsin commanded.

Calix and Zeroun looked at each other, sensing the tension and tried to go back to sleep. Larsin didn't. He stayed right by the water, looking for something. He was about to give up, when he found a bag filled with sea pearls. He looked concerned and shocked. He picked them up and kept this information a secret from the others. He would have to talk to his brother after all, despite his disgust.