User blog:The Zero of Faram/Happy Birthday to Me/Guardians' Peril: Chapter 10

Hey guys, so before I begin this chapter, I'm going to do what people are mostly obligated and out a birthday message. I wouldn't blame you for skipping this actually if you want to read the chapter so go ahead if you want to. Well, I don't exactly know what to say but thank you for those who have been keeping up with Guardians' Peril. I know I'm not exactly the best out there, Read: Carol of the bells, Thrycius, etc. or the most frequent poster of this stuff Read: people who have spare time, but I've been trying to make this as good as possible. And those who read this, they say I'm doing a good job. Feedback is accepted, good or bad because it's nice to know I'm doing a good job and also as good to know where I'm stumbling. I'll stop now and for now, enjoy this big chapter filled with my sweat and tears. This will be longer than most other chapters BTW.

"Ack!" I said, barely managing to put my feet down on the stairs. I tripped, almost dropping the food but I managed to catch myself. I let out a big sigh and kept walking up the stairs that linked the second floor to the third.

It was never easy having to do everything Lunaris did when she went out. I always was the one they made take over her duties for some reason. Maybe it was the fact I helped her with her jobs or maybe it was the fact she was teaching me for when Farlon and I have a child. Marriage at the time we were in was as useless as Raydn trying to cook or as useless as pairing him with Farlon as it would usually end up with them having to surgically remove one of their weapons from another.

I made it up the stairs and walked down the hall to the left. I heard some chatter from Rina's room, which I had to memorize to help Lunaris. I opened the door, and saw Daniel and Rina talking. It wasn't clear on what they were saying but Rina laid in her bed with the cast and Daniel sat on it's edge. They seemed to be enjoying themselves and I bet they didn't even notice me coming in. I set the food down next to the door and walked out of the room. Daniel got up from the bed and rested his arms on the edge of the bed while kneeling down and Rina started laughing. I stood outside the room and closed the door. I sighed before I walked back down the stairs to do whatever I had to do next. Farlon and Raydn were still gone and Alyut and Ophelia were eating downstairs. Lunaris went out for the two and Daniel and I was left there to be the maid or slave or mom or whatever.

I didn't get what Lunaris found in this job. I knew she was good at the job, it took up her career until the took up cooking in college and then she went to work at this place with this famous person and it only went on from there. Not counting Ophelia for being in the militia as the most recognized in the Guardians and not counting Luly's insane family, especially her insane sealed cousin, she would be the most recognizable of us. Even more than Sodis and Alyut, our leaders but not as a Guardian but rather a famous cook.

My feet were feeling numb when I reached the bottom of the stairs and yet I probably was going to have to deal with them like that for a while since Lunaris wouldn't be back until maybe late noon. Again I walked down the flight of stairs and I made it to the bottom floor. I took a right and opened one of the doors to the kitchen. Alyut and Ophelia were nowhere to be seen and I was the only one there. I couldn't put my finger on it but I felt somebody watching me. I turned around but nobody was there so I went the sink to do wash a few dishes. I started with the biggest I remember was from last night.

I couldn't help thinking about this one thing. This one biting thing about Lunaris. She was okay with being a maid to us all. I'm not one to exactly be against people who try to serve other people, but she claimed she wasn't a good fighter and preferred to be our maid on multiple occasions. What irks me is the crap about she isn't a good fighter is a lie! Not many of the Guardians, even counting the other side can defeat me and Farlon in a two vs one match. Only Alyut, Ophelia, Sodis, Zephyr and her did so, all but her and Ophelia did without having to suffer heavy wounds. I get that it was her preference but the problem was that it felt fake how she avoided fighting. She even complained she sprained her ankle sometimes and even cut herself to get out of it and Alyut couldn't punish her for it, she helped around the Inn or wherever we were and her cooking always helped. And she could still yank our chain with her 'Death Stare' which has happened to all of us at least once and it even put Sodis and Alyut under it's effects. It feels weird that she fell into that kind of woman, wanting to be the maid and clean and cook.

"Venting to yourself?" I heard somebody say.

"Gah!" I yelled, jumping a little before shutting off the water and putting down the dish. I turned around and there was the reaper, standing there in his red hood and black vest and long red scarf that ran down his back.

"I thought you would be less surprised. I'm a presence you should expect."

"Well, the only ones were used to is the Gods but they don't scare us while we're doing trivial things." I told him. He laughed a bit before walking from the entrance to the sink next to me. He turned the water on, pulled his sleeves back and started doing dishes for me.

"Take a seat, relax a little." He told me. I pulled out a chair from the big round table and sat down. I was amazed, he was willing to do this for me. Flames came from his back and flew to the refrigerator. "I'm surprised you guys have a fridge. Anyway, did you have breakfast yet?" He asked me.

"N-No. Are you goi..." I stammered.

"I got it." He interrupted. Flames searched the inside of the refrigerator and more got a plate from the cupboard. The plate landed on the table and the ones in the fridge left to search the cupboards. "You like pancakes, correct?"

"I love pancakes. Lunaris makes the best though." I said. I didn't like how she was committed to being our slave but I loved the benefits.

"I think I can try to challenge her throne. Challenge accepted." He said before many ingredients floated above him.

"Is there a reason you're doing this for me? Are you trying to win my affection? I have a boyfriend."

"And I have a girlfriend. This is only to help you out and to make you relax. That Lunaris chick is used to this already, it isn't easy." He said. I dug my face into my arms and breathed against the wooden table.

"You don't need to do this for me. I can make my own breakfast." I said poking my head up.

"Aren't you used to Lunaris cooking for you yet?" He asked me. I dug my head deeper into my arms. My eyes poked out and my hair fell, almost reaching my eyes.

"Yes but... I prefer my own food sometimes."

"Food tastes better from another person. And also a better cook."

"Since when you had experience with this?" I asked him, my head shooting straight up.

"I was a cook and waiter at this restaurant in Faram. Fancy one, like where you would hold a big party at."

"Aren't you a reaper?" I asked him. He shut off the sink and placed a stack of dishes next to the sink.

"I am but that was before I was. I practically ran the restaurant since the others took almost every day of the week off and the owner was sitting down and doing nothing." He told me. The plate landed on the table before me, pancakes on it and syrup and everything. A fork and knife fell to the sides of the plate. "Bon appetite, miss." He said before playfully bowing to me. I think he was expecting me to laugh but it didn't work. I took the fork and poked the pancakes with it. It didn't feel right, these were much different. It even looked a little different. I took my knife and cut a piece. I looked at it before putting it in my mouth. I swallowed it and I almost fainted. The Reaper grabbed my falling chair and set it down.

"Uh.... My mouth is numb!" I said, my words garbled. Speaking with a numb mouth isn't easy to make clear.

"Is that a good or bad thing? Was it how it tasted or is it killing you?" He asked me. I shook my head and refreshed my senses. I looked up at him stranded beside my chair and felt my eyes widen.

"That was amazing! I didn't expect you to outdo Lunaris!" I told him. He stood back a little.

"So I did it. I think it may have to do with you not being used to it. Recipes might vary." He told me.

"Don't give credit to that, it just might be your skills." I said encouragingly.

"Thanks. Now can you tip?" He asked me jokingly. He walked to the sink and took a glass. Hands flew back to the fridge and opened it. "Something to drink?"

"Orange juice would be fine. Just don't ask for money." I told him. We both laughed a bit before a glass of orange juice placed itself to the right of my plate. I bit into the pancakes and feared a piece off. I chewed on it while the reaper paced across the room. "You don't have anything else to do? Or are you just killing time?" I said with food in my mouth.

"Huh? Oh, well I want to get away a bit. I stick with Eve a bit too much and Azure I feel I remember him. The person reminds my hometown which got destroyed by the shadows." He said. I swallowed the food and drank a bit of the orange juice.

"What was that place? Actually, no, I don't want to depress you, you did go out of your way to make me breakfast."

"Yeah, things important to me were lost there. Makes me hard to believe that was my hometown. Now it's shadow food and all the people there are dead. One reason or another." He said sadly while throwing himself over a chair near me. "I don't exactly want to remember it. It was the part of my life that I was young. My mother a reaper and my dad a soldier. I can still remember the place. Something I don't want." He said. I ate more.

"Well, tell me something. Enlighten me about why you're here." I asked him. I drank a little bit more of the orange juice.

"Well, like I said earlier, I came to escape from the others. Honestly speaking, I could care less for them but I still need to help them get back home one way or another. I also need to stop that tyrant Cyrus from getting all the Cyphers and going back to uniting and dropping the walls of the divisions." He said, slamming his fist down on the table, cracking it a bit.

"You seem to being going through a lot. That doesn't sound nice at all."

"I know. I snapped at Mira and Rame because of it. I still feel terrible. That's why I ran here yesterday and talked with Rina on the roof. I also broke through a wall in the process and we lost the only Cypher we had to Cyrus." He said. He pulled out a chair and dug his head into his arms.

"I see why you really want a break from that. Honestly, I don't want to be in danger with your affairs, Cyphers and Cyrus and whatever else but that doesn't mean we can't help you. The Guardians owe you and the other two a bunch for the victory against Sodis and reviving Daniel and Ophelia and Rina. It's like unlimited reviving."

"Not actually." He said, raising his head from his arms. "I can only do it once to the person. Second time, they die, rampage, and then die, or become a shadow which die at the hands of me or another reaper. I wish it was unlimited, too."

"At least it's like a second chance or a once more thing." I told him. I bit another piece of the pancake.

"Haha, clever. Sorry, Kingdom Hearts coming back to me..."

"Reaper, back to Grand Gaia. Away from the games." I told him.

"So I heard you venting earlier. Lunaris was the basis, right?" He asked me while he pulled out a chair and sat. I sighed heavily.

"Correct... I wish she could fight more or at least accept how good she fights. Feels like lies and more lies."

"She hurts herself to get out of it, right?" He asked me.

"Yes. She even used dark magic against herself. It took a while to fix her the three times it happened. If it was against a normal person, the person would've maybe died or got corrupted. Lunaris is a wielder of dark magic and shadows, so she didn't take much or as much as a person should have taken but she almost lost limbs to it."

"Maybe, she doesn't want to. She has her preference."

"She almost got us killed. She didn't fight to instead attempt to help us while we were incapacitated instead of just stabbing the demon. She was able to, yet she did the idiotic thing and almost got all of us killed. Luckily that was before the split and Sodis and the group with him saved us. The demon got away but we ended up killing it. Zorbadel...."

"Well, people aren't limited to only fighters. Imagine if she was a fighter and not what she is now. You'd be more stressed, you wouldn't have as much knowledge about being a mother which you were planning to do and even still even after the Gods invaded."

"Not many of us know this, but only Palmyna Archipelago and Mistral were rid of humans. There was no invasion, just an attack. The survivors are from those places only. The rest are populated, living good lives, and maybe even amazing lives. The ones that don't see that are blind to the truth, apart from you and the others of you since you didn't know."

"Right now that doesn't matter. Either way, we are almost alone on this Archipelago and the point is Lunaris." He told me.

"Fine. Well I get that but what happens when that person is forced to do other jobs?"

"You haven't heard of Desmond Doss I presume. He was an Christian who refused to bear arms and was forced to fight in the Second World War."

"So?"

"He still refused to bear arms, which was required in the war. He was a medic, but even medics carried a small weapon."

"So?" I repeated. His expression changed to an annoyed one.

"So, he became a war hero. He didn't fight but still was a war hero. Fighting doesn't make you famous. It isn't for everybody, that's why people go for support and not fighting." He said annoyedly.

"That doesn't matter whether this Doss fellow became one. We are talking about Lunaris, black almost purple hair, wielder of a lance and shadows." I said like he was stupid. He became almost angry.

"Fine. You have a head as thick as an Ursa's skull, Ramna. I'm done here." He said while pushing his chair out and then pushing it back in.

He walked to the door and opened it. Then there was a roar. Sounded like a beast's roar. The reaper drew his scythe and fire channeled through it. He whispered some words before booking out of the door. I drew my sword and ran after him. When I got outside, a giant dark bear and smaller wolves were standing on their back legs. The reaper was running in and he swung his scythe to his side. Fire engulfed the blade and Josh sliced at one of the wolves, cutting it's head clean off. Then the angel flew to his side, guns in hand and the Azure had a sword attached to his arm. I started running to them but a red light to my left caught my vision.

I turned and saw a blade with a red light shinning out of it. It was a red blade, it seemed to split at the middle and black lines were scattered like machinery and the handle was also red and black. I ran picked it up and I saw a few white feathers were next to it. It felt cold to the touch since the handle was metal but as I held it and I got used to the cold handle and my warmth made it more tolerable. I put my other blade back in its sheath and ran to them. The angel's wings spread as she was knocked towards the inn's wall, catching her. Light energy engulfed her hand and she threw an orb of light at the monsters. She then flew in to the others. The reaper was angrily slicing at the monsters. Were these the shadows the reaper was talking about?

"Azure!" The Angel yelled to him as a giant claw was slicing downwards at him. The Angel flew and grabbed Azure, turning around and blocking the attack with her wings. She left go and Azure looked uneasy.

"This would be easier if we had a Cypher right now!" The reaper yelled to both of them. Azure shook his head to regain his senses.

"Well sorry! It was either we died or we had a chance to get all of them to stop him." Azure yelled back. There was another roar, louder than before and then a giant dark dragon flew from the horizon of trees. The reaper pounded his fist into the ground and created a small crater.

"Why are there Shadows here?! Can't they just leave us alone?!" The reaper said angrily. His eye became black besides his Iris which became red instead of his brown ones. The Angel ran to his side.

"Calm down, Josh. We don't need your cursed force to activate now." The Angel told Josh? That was his name? I guess it was fine enough. The dragon flew into view.

"Hey guys? Shelong isn't going to give us only a dirty look." Azure told them. The shadows approached more while the dragon flew over head. I ran and jumped in and sliced with the sword, killing it. The three stared at me. Josh gritted his teeth together and snapped at me.

"Ramna! Why are you holding that?"

"What? I can use another sword?" I told him. I gripped the weapon tighter and the weapon shifted and split, a red beam of light shooting out and red energy flooding out of me. It hurt to hold and it drained me. The dragon was above us and diving. I could barely see Josh throwing the others and running to me. The dragon scooped us both out along with some of the earth below us and closed its mouth. Josh quickly held out his scythe and stopped the closing mouth.

"Let go of the Cypher, Ramna!" He yelled at me. But I couldn't speak back, the 'Cypher' prevented me. He yanked it from my hands and pushed me off from the dragon's mouth. A flaming platform caught me and landed me on the ground. The dragon forcefully closed his mouth, snapping Josh's scythe in to and trapping Josh in there. We heard buzzing and Josh forcefully opened the dragons mouth. His eyes were completely black except for his irises which were red. His cursed force seemed to had activated. The dragons mouth snapped back down and the buzzing grew louder. A red light shot out from the top of the dragons head and spun around, slicing the dragon repeatedly. The red light sliced down with flames following and the dragon disintegrated into flames. Josh fell to the ground and the two halves of his scythe fell to his sides. The struggled to hold the cypher but when it closed, his cursed force stopped and he collapsed. The Angel and Azure ran to him along with another person with black hair and big gauntlets run to him. I also ran and I knelt beside him. He opened his eyes and tried to push himself up.

"You saved me. Why?" I told him. He coughed before turning his head and spitting blood beside him.

"Because I care, Ramna. Because I care. If I didn't, I would've killed you or let the Cypher kill you." He told me. The others helped him stand up. The Angel walked up to me.

"Be less stupid with the Cyphers next time." She told me. Azure came and defended me.

"Be nice, Eve." Azure told her. Eve scoffed and carried Josh back and the others followed while Josh still carried the Cypher in his hands. I thought about what Josh said. He cared, if he didn't he would've let me die one way or another. Did this apply to Lunaris? Did she truly do this because she cared about me? Alyut ran to my side along with Ophelia and Daniel.

"What happened? Are you hurt?" Alyut asked me. Daniel came in front of me and Ophelia to my side.

"Do you guys really care about me?" I asked them. Daniel came and hugged me.

"We do. That's what team is for." Ophelia told me. "I might not like your boyfriend too much but hey, I do care."

"Why are asking, Ramna?"

"The reaper... Nevermind." I said to them. I stood up and turned to the Inn. "Come on guys." I told them before walking towards the inn. I saw them follow behind me. "That's why. I'm sorry for doubting you Lunaris.." I said to myself.

I guess I was a bit to hard on myself on the intro thing. Maybe I was, maybe not but was trying to not sound like a tool. Anyway, now the cycle is over because everybody knew about it.... I'm not ending GP yet, I want to do it to the end of it. Basically, back to Alyut next time. Hope you enjoyed. ~ZeroGx