Chapter 17: Welcome, Sacred Animals!
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"You look worried. What's wrong?" Mdm. Marinda expressed her concern before continuing, "Anyway, David. Since that you have done exceptionally well in your studies, I was wondering if you would like you to attend this..."

"Not interested."

"David, you don't even know what good I'm offering to you..."

"I said 'Not interested'," David quoted himself as he stormed out from the office. The weird vibe faded off his shoulders as soon as he stepped into his room. His safe place. It was simple, not as complicated as the rest's but still simple. He moved towards the window and pulled the window back, sealing all oxygen away. The air-conditioner activated by the clap of his hands two times while a light tap on the door sent his senses on alert. But the knock was followed by a voice, "Mr. David. Your book. CL service."

True enough when David opened the door, the green CL uniform stood out. Figis' smile dropped. It looked like someone didn't like his first 21st Century job. "Wow, Figis. Are you sure you're a CL or maybe CG will suit you better?" David joked.

"Definitely not CL, guardian of Earth. I'm no 'Cleaning Lady'. More of 'Cleaning Servant', Sir," Figis believed, "I'll always be, here and back at the castle. Anyway here's your book." David held onto the empty black book. He thought about asking Figis about it but he had already left his room. How could Xana's book land here? Was this a trick? He carefully placed it in between his two favourite books, Book Of Secrets and Tales Of The Dark. It stood there like as if it was never read for a long time. David walked to his table when the door knocked again. Who could it be this time? "Forgot something, Figis?" David asked but there wasn't any reply from the outside of his room.

He got anxious and concentrated on his element. The green sphere glowed brighter green and flashed a dim light. His steps were silent as he strolled casually to his door. "Who is it?" David tried asking again but there was no reply once more. Irritation and suspicion aroused as he turned his doorknob clockwise slowly. Whatever was outside, he couldn't hear any breathing. Temptation overpowered him as he forced the wooden door open. Whatever was outside, it knocked him out onto the hard ground.
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"How about now?"

"No." Five seconds passed.

"Now?"

"No." Another painful second passed.

"How about..."

"Kiara, please give them some time together. Tiadora needs to sightsee the whole new world. And if they're doing something, I doubt they would want any interference, especially from you," Cornelia stepped into the cafeteria. "Aren't you the least bit anxious? It's your brother?" Kiara asked pleadingly.

"I know my brother very well. You don't have to tell me twice," Cornelia snapped accidentally. She recalled the time when she understood that she and Jason were twins; it was the shock of her life. No wonder they looked too identical when they were only an infant. The blond hair, the blue eyes and the passion for sports were the ones in common. The charm they radiated, making other people so attached. It makes Cornelia sick but Jason just loves the attention. She doesn't mind his silliness and weirdness that he displays in front of her. Though both are similar, like any other twin, they are different.

Cornelia remembered the moment when she saw Jason begging dad to bring him to a sewing course or the library. But his sewing was amazing. He created many cute jerseys for Cornelia's team, though Jason forced her to lie about who the great fashion designer was. A consistent reader, his room is practically a library itself, filled with hundreds of library books as his walls. Cornelia, on the other hand, adores classical music instead of hard rock. Her instrument, violin. She keeps one golden violin in her vault, that even Jason doesn't know the code.

"How about now?" Kiara asked once more when the cafeteria-lady placed noodles on Cornelia's tray. "Fine. But let’s sit first, can?" they spotted their usual seats empty. Reserved for the Kingstons that what Kiara always thought. She whipped out her blueberry and dialed a familiar number. The ringing went on and on but no answer from Jason. Instead, Cornelia's handphone rang. She answered it in her sweetest voice, "Good evening."

"Cut the crap and get your butts in David's room. Bring your trays along," Jason hung up with only that. Cornelia hesitated for a while and turned towards Kiara who was still fumbling with her mobile. "Jason called. He wants us to meet at David's room. Sounds pretty urgent," Cornelia snapped her phone shut as she carried her tray to head outside.

Kiara did the same and grumbled silently but just as they were to step out someone blocked their way. "Hey girls. Where do you think you're going?" gym teacher, Jim, guarded the door of the cafeteria. It wasn't hard getting pass him even without powers. His bulging tummy was able to fit his huge red and blue jacket with a white band worn on his forehead. Kiara and Cornelia did eye contact and winked. They knew how to topple him down literally.

"What's wrong, Jim?" Cornelia crossed her legs and leaned her left arm on the door's edge. It was a good thing that the door was opened. "Yeah, Jim. We just want to eat outside," Kiara put on her sweetest voice as she also crossed her legs and rested her right arm on the other side of the door. Both put on their cunning smile synchronizely at Jim.

The side of the door glowed very dimly blue and white on both sides at where Cornelia's and Kiara's arm was at. The glow moved swiftly under Jim and diffused together, spreading to the end of the stairs. Puzzled by the looks on their faces, Jim scoffed, "Uh school rules, ladies. Back into the cafeteria." That's when Jim turned his back in front of them and tripped over the blue and white substance on the ground. His body bounced on the ground as he blacked out from his fall. Cornelia jumped over him and high-five Kiara, "Awesome, gal! Water and Air equals to Ice!" Kiara just smiled and leaped over Jim as both of the girls ran carefully, not spilling any contents of their trays, to the boys’ dormitory.

It was quite a distance as it was behind the girls’ dormitory. It was quite a distance as it was behind the girls’ dormitory. The dark corridors covered their tracks if any teacher were to be lurking about. When they stumbled over the dormitory, only one window was lit in the second storey. David's room. Kiara was about to head for the stairs when Cornelia pulled her back.

"We'll take a shortcut," she winked as she made a gun shape towards the ground and shouted, "AIR!" Immediately, a tornado circled the two girls and pushed them upwards, outside of David's room. Still floating, Kiara gently tapped onto the closed window. For a moment, no one answered. Then the window was pushed forward, causing Kiara to be taken aback.

"Bout time," Jason peered through the rectangular window and cautioned, "Hey. You sure no one's looking?" Cornelia just patted her brother on the head as she slide into the room easily. Kiara took hold of Jason's hand as he pulled her in. What she saw made her jaw drop. The room was in a mess. David's bed was unkempt with his bed sheet on the floor. His cupboard's door was broken as the debris was neatly swept aside. The table was littered with blue pen ink and for a moment, Kiara thought she saw some footprints. Tiadora was seated obediently on David's bed while David had grabbed himself a chair.

Jason sat beside Tiadora and placed him arm around her shoulders. Tiadora flashed a small smile and leaned onto him, lying down on his left shoulder. Cornelia broke the silence, "Woah, David. I didn't know you could turn into my brother." He chuckled and offered her to sit on two other chairs. Kiara took a bite at the chicken on her tray as her tummy rumbled. She sighed, "So Tiadora, how's Seattle?"

"Confusing," she laughed.

"Oh. I thought Jason would have brought you to night-shopping. What happened?"

Jason then injected, "We met her mother." Cornelia shot out the water that she was drinking. Luckily, it landed right under the table. David grumbled furiously, "Like my room isn't messy already."

"Well sorry. Didn't mean to," Cornelia turned towards Kiara and showed her the empty glass, "Some water, gal." Kiara put her finger on the outside of the green glass and concentrated. Water formed slowly and rose to the brim.

"Careful. It may not be distilled," Kiara leaned back and continued to look at Jason and Tiadora.

"We met her at the beach," Jason continued from where he had stopped, "It was very weird. First, we were just playing and then a whirlpool covered us and poof her mum floated out of no where."

"She had a message for me," Tiadora's weak voice interrupted Jason's explanation, "She said that one of the guardians have not died and have teleported his way here. The thing is I have no idea who he is."

"Oh then what was that other thing? The thing about sacred animals who also teleported?" Jason recalled back.

"Sacred animals?" David questioned. Jason looked at Tiadora for an answer but she just kept silent, not daring to speak. He patted her arm which made her look up towards his face as he said encouragingly, "C'mon."

"The sacred animals are..." Tiadora started to stammer, "...powerful animals from my time. These animals have volunteered themselves to assist us guardians in our battles. The mighty Pegasus aided the guardian of Air," Tiadora was careful to not say the knight's name as none of them understood which knight had which element, "The ferocious Griffin for the guardian of Water. The majestic Phoenix that helped the guardian of Earth and the grand Dragon that helped the guardian of Fire."

"Awesome! I've got a Dragon," Jason cheered in delight.

"No, you don't understand. The dragon may have been Sir Lancelot's animal but that doesn't mean that the dragon would want to assist you. The sacred dragons volunteered themselves because of the knights. However," Tiadora hesitated for a breath, "since all of the sacred animals had took the trouble to teleport themselves here, there may be a chance that they would want to assist you all too."

"So where are they?" Kiara became excited.

"I have no idea. It depends on them. If the previous guardians had taken good care of his sacred animal and did not mistreat it, then the sacred may come to you earlier because it knows that if the previous guardian is a kind-hearted soul, so will be its descendent," Tiadora finished.

"Wait," David stopped her short, "You said that my ancestor had a phoenix, right? Well, how big was it? Was it like the height of an A4 sized paper?"

"No," Tiadora answered him back, "For the Phoenix and the Dragon, its about half a boys dormitory big whereas the size of both Pegasus and Griffin are about human size. But," Tiadora reluctantly stopped.

"But what, Tiadora?" David almost yelled.

"But sometimes these animals want to enter the castle grounds, so they are able to transform into a smaller, cuter and different version of themselves," Tiadora remembered. David looked at his broken cupboard and uttered, "No wonder."

"Why? What's the matter, David?" Kiara asked. David sighed and kept asking himself if he should tell them about it. He stood up from his seat and walked towards his broken cupboard. "Well," David faced the broken pieces, "just now when I came back from the principal's office, I had an unexpected visitor." David kneeled down and took out a brown box. He sat down again at his chair and stared dully at the opaque object. Suddenly, it vibrated furiously out of control. David tried pushing down the top but in an instant whatever was inside leaped out of the box towards Tiadora.

"Pukeek, princess!" a strange white animal hugged Tiadora tightly. Stunned for a while, Jason pulled the creature away from Tiadora and stared into its small eyes. The creature was about six-inches tall and weighted very light. Shaped like a pear with long ears that drop on its sides and long no-toe legs, its round red sphere on its forehead glittered. Its tiny paw reached out towards Jason's face and gently patted on his nose three times.

No one moved as they observed the creature patting on Jason's nose. All of a sudden, the creature squeaked out what sounded like a gasp and kicked the hand that was gripping onto the animal. Once loose, it hopped on the floor towards David and jumped onto his lap, tugging comfortably on his light blue t-shirt. "Mokona?" Tiadora leaned forward and stroked its back as the creature's ears flapped in delight.

It turned around to face Tiadora and hugged her again. This time it didn't cheer or squealed in happiness. It shakes its head on her shoulder slowly and let out a piercing scream. "Its okay, Mokona. It's alright," Tiadora patted its butt as she hugged her back. Mokona looked up, full of tears and sadness as it communicated with Tiadora, "Galahad left Mokona forever! Why?! I thought he love me!" its cute face squashed from a frown into a smile all of a sudden as it pointed to David with its little paws, "He Sir Galahad baby. I like. Very cute."

Tiadora patted on its head this time and turned its body to David. She lifted its left paw and pointed its small hand towards David as Tiadora whispered behind its ears, ”He’s not a baby but now he’s the guardian of Earth,” Mokona shifted its head to look at her as she continued, “…And his name is not Galahad, but David. David Vincent Fields.”