The Last of the Guardians Part 1 - A Hobbit Fan Fiction

Chapter 15

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"Come inside, little one. It's getting cold." Sienna, the old wise-woman, called to her from her doorway.  

Nema, then aged only five, turned to her and smiled her sweetest smile. "Just a little longer. Please Mama?" She begged, then tilted back her head again and gazed at the bright lights above her.  

"Nema, love, you know I'm not your mama," Sienna fetched a blanket from inside then wrapped Nema in it and lifted the little girl into her arms.  

They looked up at the stars together in silence, until Nema turned her big round eyes on Sienna and asked her the very question the woman had been dreading.  

"Where is my mama?"  

Sienna grimaced, but tried tried to answer as best she could. "Your mama's up there, little one."  

Nema scanned the stars, frowning. "Which one?" 

"All of them. Your mama is all the stars in the heavens. Your mama is all the clouds. She's the snow that makes the ground all white and she's the rain that makes our food grow. She's the sun that warms our backs and she's the colour of the sky." Sienna held Nema close and kissed her round cheeks.  

"I don't understand." 

Sienna sighed. She knew this day would come, but she had wanted to protect her Nema for just a little while longer. Now she knew she had no choice.  

"Nema, you know you are special, don't you? You are more special than all the little girls in the village. You are a Guardian." 

"Is that why sometimes I got feathers and sometimes I don't?"  

Sienna nodded. Nema looked up at her, knowing that this was the moment she had been waiting for all her life. She needed to know who she was.  

"You are a beautiful little Guardian. You were born from a silver cloud from the sky. The sky is your mama, Nema. That's why you always want to climb the trees and get higher. You want to be closer to your mama.' 

"But you never let me climb the trees. You said I wasn't old enough."  

"I know Nema, just listen to me." Sienna looked at her sternly and carried her inside. The woman tucked Nema into her tiny bed, then sat in the chair beside it and told the little girl who she was. "All Guardians are born from the sky. You don't remember because you was just a babe, and an eagle at that. You landed right outside my porch. As soon as you touched the ground you wasn't a bird no more. You was just a little bairn.  

"I took you in and raised you, all the time knowing exactly what you was. See, when a death is foretold that needs to be avoided, Guardians are born. They grow up and when the time is right they go and find this fated person and they protect them at all costs. They don't need to be told who to protect, they just know. A feeling in their gut I suppose."  

"Thorin?" Nema whispered. It was the name that had danced around her mind long since before she could talk.  

"Aye, that'll be the one. Anyway, once the death has been avoided, the Guardian can either choose to stay with the one they protected, or they can fly off and eventually enter into the White Heavens." 

Nema listened attentively, but then a thought crossed her mind. "But what about my feathers?"  

Sienna smiled. "When they are young, Guardians change into eagles to fly, using that Taegra round your neck. You know what I'm talking about. But once they reach a certain age, Guardians go through the Change. They get their own wings and can fly in their normal forms. But be warned. Once the Change is upon you, there's no going back and let me tell you, the Change is hell on earth." 

Nema's eyes widened and she clutched the blanket closer to her.  

"Now I don't mean to scare you, but it will hurt. As long as you keep that Taegra on, it won't happen, but that ain't recommended. The longer you delay, the more painful it will be. Also, when the time draws near, you have to fly regularly, or it will happen whether you're wearing your Taegra or not." Sienna continued to tell Nema about her the myths and legends surrounding the Guardians, and the little girl listened, filled with awe and wonder. The Guardians sounded so brave and so fearless. Surely she couldn't be like that. Could she?  

When Sienna had finished, she kisses Nema'a forehead and bade her goodnight before leaving the room. Nema rolled over to stare at the dark sky through the window, before she slowly drifted off the sleep and dreamed sweet dreams of angelic creatures that could change the fate of others.

*** 

Nema woke suddenly, not realising that she had fallen asleep for a good few minutes. The orcs had all abandoned their fires and had dozes off in the starlight. Nema glared up at the sky, fighting back her tears. She wasn't like the other Guardians. They never failed. They did their duty. They had been brave and gone through their Changes without batting an eyelid. And what had she done? She had kept wearing her Taegra. She had ignored her call until the last moment. She had failed.

***Again, I'm so sorry for not updating when I said I would! I've tried to make it up to you by making this chapter a little bit longer. Don't panic! All will be revealed in the next chapter so keep reading! (Well, some things will be revealed). But anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! Please leave any comments you have because I'd love to hear them! Special thanks to AshMartin450 because if not for you then this wouldn't have been posted when it was! Just so you know, I haven't edited this yet for mistakes so I'll go over that later. I just wanted to get it out. Love you all for reading!***