The Guardian

I dream about space goats

I tried racking my brain on where it was, but the scratching of talons across the sandstone immediately made me realize. As I turned around, I saw Artemis. She had orange scales with green patterns and sad red eyes that looked directly at me. She moaned loudly, clearly in pain. It looked like there was something sticking out of her neck, but I couldn't make it out. This dream was just too foggy to make anything out. But it was clear that Artemis was in danger and needed our help.

Slowly, the scene started to melt into darkness as I heard a man's cold voice from behind me, his Egyptian accent boldy grabbing my attention.

"Rest, Artemis. The land will be safe in my hands."

His words echoed throughout my head before another voice interrupted. It was a voice that sounded like my father's

"The path of the ancients is nothing more than a mask."

Then there was my mother's voice.

"The man of three faces cannot save."

Finally, I heard Mamble's voice.

"In order to fight, you must wake up...
Wake up..... Harlen, wake up!"

I felt my eyes open quickly. Sweat drenched my face as I tried to get up quickly but got held down by the king... both of the kings. The rat king's face was much uglier up close, but that wasn't what shocked me. What shocked me was that he sent an Igneadon to swallow me alive and nearly got Rosslyn eaten by the Hawks. Even though I wanted to be mad, I couldn't because I was too busy being confused and scared.

Mamble seemed okay, though, so that was good. Vivian and Rosie were on standby with a bucket of ice cold water, ready to drench me awake. La Lo sat in the back with three books in his right hands and three beers in his 7 As for Rosslyn, she was on my forehead, or at least she was before I got when I woke up. She was the first person to ask.
"What happened? You kept saying something about a mask and an ancient path."

I told them about what happened in my dream, and after, they told me about what happened outside of my dream.
Apparently, they found me on the roof, using the hammock as a blanket while I sucked my thumb. Right now, we were in the hotel part of La Lo's tavern, which he had just in case someone wanted to fork over a couple of coins for a place to sleep.

Coincidently, Mamble woke up from his sleep right after I fell into mine. All in all, he was rested now, and that was good news. As for the rat king. He apparently said he was sorry and was willing to make a truce with us and even offer us transportation. After being on my feet this entire trip, having a form of transport was a lot more desirable than walking anymore, especially with how sore my entire body was. I was covered in bandages and soaked in fresher water, which was good for my outsides, but my bruised up bones still ached at the thought of walking anymore.

As I sat up, Rosslyn jumped up in surprise after remembering something. She scurried off to my backpack and ristled around inside for a bit before pulling out the tablet from earlier. She ran over to me with it in her hands and showed me how it changed from the rat king to something much different.

It was a crooked curved blade with feathers on its unsharpened side. It looked like a strange weapon, not one that I could think of any stories for.
I was glad Rosslyn knew, though.

"It's a forbidden sword from the old ages of Artlandia. Officers of the Old Testament used it to enforce the Old rulers' agenda."

Now I wasn't so glad that she knew about it. The Old Testament was the order of a failed way of rulership. It failed for a good reason, but two men named the Old Emperor and the Old Ruler tried to reinforce it, thinking it would work in a more modern society. That's how the war that killed the three Guardians happened. So if the Old order was back, then that meant the Guardians would be heavily challenged and maybe even killed.