The First Guardian

Chapter 9: Athanasios

Welcome, lovelies, to the game where I tear your heart out and twist it into a million pieces in this thrilling chapter of The First Guardian. Remember, if you have any questions or concerns, you can email me at thefirstguardianiridescent@gmail.com kay? Kay. Oh, I listened to these songs while working on this super long chapter: Immortals - Fall Out Boy; Empire - Della Mae; Kings and Queens - Audio Adrenaline; Demons - Imagine Dragons; Top of the World - Imagine Dragons; I Want Crazy - Hunter Hayes; Restart - Newsboys; Girl in a Country Song - Maddie and Tae; Your Side of Town - Maddie and Tae

I suppose that it's time to move on from myself. I'm really a quite boring person. I suppose you're wondering who the guy is that attacked me on the Moon. That's Nebulous - he's my evil counterpart. I don't think that he's really evil parse ... but that's just me.

A young boy ran across the streets of Germany 400 AD. The cold winter wind whipped harshly across his face, making it sting. Tears dripped from his face as he stumbled through the midwinter blizzard.

"Mother! Father!" He screamed through the flurry of the undulating snow. Sobs from the dark haired boy filled the air, but were soon lost from the howls of the wind.

"Boy!" a man's voice called out. A man in a white robe hurried out of a snow mound. "Come, come into the church!"

The boy stumbled into the snow mound, which, apparently, was a cathedral serving as a church.

"Sardre!" a woman called, hurrying over to the old man that was dressed in the white robes. "Sardre, are you okay? Who's this?" The woman looked at the boy with caring eyes.

"I found him amidst the snow."

"You poor thing! Come with me, c'mon."

The boy nodded and sniffed. The elderly woman took the boy's hand and hustled him to a back room.

"A nice bath is just what you need." The woman said, starting to boil some water. "I'm Cybele, what's your name?"

"M-my name i-is Athanasios."

"Well, Athanasios," Cybele said, "you're going to stay with us until this wretched storm blows away." She shook her head. "Honestly, why we have this much snow is beyond me. Jack Frost must have come a-knocking."

"Who?" Athanasios asked curiously.

"My daughter used to call an imaginary friend 'Jack Frost'. Apparently he was the god of winter, or something like that." Cybele shook her head and laughed. "I'm glad we turned from polythesim. Those gods did nothing for us." Cybele had been holding a bar of soap in her hand. When she uttered the last sentence, she crushed the bar of soap. "Oh dear." Cybele said, looking at the misshapen bar of soap. "I hope this is okay."

Athanasios nodded. "Yes, ma'am. It'll do fine."

Cybele nodded. "Very well, then." She hefted the boiling water to the small tub and dumped it in. Scurrying across the room, she took out a bottle of ice and dumped the contents into the water. The ice cubes fizzed and were gone.

"Sardre!" Cybele shouted. "I need some snow, could you get some for me?"

A grunt was heard from the other room. Pretty soon there was a slamming of a door.

"That would be my Sardre." Cybele said, laughing. "Athanasios, you look cold, are you okay?"

Athanasios, by this time, was tuning blue. It had started at his toes and soon spread to his legs.

"N-no, ma'am."

Cybele shook her head. "Come, let's get these things off you. They're doing no good." Pretty soon Athanasios was only dressed in his underclothing.