Young Guardian Trilogy by Lady Adellandra Dratianos (the lemonade war series .TXT) 📖

My friend announced. She looked at me. “Would you like to meet him?”
I grinned, happy. “Why not? I’d love to see how Kit is doing.”
Katherine grabbed her daughter and Wolf’s hands. Celine held her hand out for me to take and Wolf replied. “Take our hands. The Magic will get you there quicker.”
I nodded, taking their out-stretched hands. “And away we go.” I announced, closing our eyes.
I reopened them to find a little boy running up to us, laughing. Kit and Toby were behind him.
“Young Guardian, watch out!” Kit cried, once seeing us.
It was too late. The boy Companion ran smack into me, knocking me down on the ground.
Oofff! My back hit the ground hard, and it hurt for a moment.
The boy got up.
“I am sorry, did I hurt you?” The boy stood and held his hand out to me in assistance. “Let me help you up.”
“Thanks.” I brushed myself off, playfully chiding Katherine. “You never told me he was rambunctious.”
Katherine grinned. “Surprise.”
I laughed, turning back to the boy. By the face, he was a White Tiger, with black stripes. Toby was a jungle tiger, I knew, with orange and black stripes. Kit was like Katherine, a Balinese feline.
“I am Tiger White Snow.” He bowed. “And you are?”
“Ariana Reading.” I told him. The name sounded strange on my lips. “You may call me Young Guardian.”
Tiger White gasped. “You are Young Guardian? Mother and Father have been talking about you since I was born. They think very highly of you.”
He sounded so mature for such a young Companion child.
“Never mind him, Young Guardian.” Toby laughed. “He only tries to impress Elders.”
“He thinks it makes him sound smarter.” Kit ruffled Tiger White’s head.
“Let him be who he is, Kit.” I laughed. “I think it’s adorable.”
“Adorable is one way I wished not to sound.” Tiger White blushed, murmuring under his breath. He noticed Celine and ran to her.
The five of us let the Young Companions go play while we caught up on things.
I sighed, and then hugged Kit and Toby. “How have you two been? It seems so long ago I’d been here last!”
“As you see, soon after we wed, we had Tiger White.”
“The same time Wolf and I had Celine.” Katherine interrupted her sister.
“What of Marie and Panther?” I asked my friends. “Last I knew, Marie was pregnant, and Panther saw the birth in his Crystal.”
“You have been gone a long time.” Toby teased.
“Well, I have been Earthbound, you know.” I told him seriously. “Living my life, going to school, raising my children. I’ve been pretty busy.”
“So busy, you are unable to fulfill your duties to Lord Guardian?” Katherine asked, warning me.
I gulped. “I’ll talk to him about that later. For now, about Panther and Marie?”
“Their daughter Destiny is so beautiful.” Kit spoke up.
“Nearly as you were when you were a child.” Katherine added. “Or even as the Enchanted Child was when she was born.”
“What does she look like?” I asked, curious. “More like Panther or Marie?”
“She is a special child.” Toby replied. “She has the Unicorn Magic from Marie, but is headstrong and serious, like Panther.”
“Destiny has long, white-blond human hair, but the face and tail of a black feline.” Kit told me.
“You should see her eyes.” Katherine took my hand and said. “Violet, as her mother’s.”
“Half-cat, half-human.” I said with a smile. “Also familiar.”
“Do not be fooled.” Wolf warned. “She is no ordinary child. Destiny Grey can do very extraordinary things.”
I laughed. “I believe you! I believe you!” I cried. “What made them name her ‘Destiny’?”
“To tell the truth, I believe it were you.”
I was impressed. “Me?”
“You were the one to get them together once again.” Kit replied seriously.
I shook my head. “They did that on their own.”
“It were you who met a Young Dreamer named Mark. You were also the one to meet a ghost from the Epsilon at the Parker Mansion, reaching out for help.” Katherine told me.
The day I met Mark came into my mind. It was the same instant I met the strange blond-white ghost I knew now as Bonnie Marie.
“You’re right, Kat.” I gave up. “What about me made them name her “Destiny’?”
“Your own.” Katherine said softly.
“It were destiny for us all to be Crusaders, as well as for them to meet.” Wolf took Katherine’s hand and squeezed it.
“By them meeting each other, and falling in love once again,” I began, “their own destinies have been fulfilled. Now, with their daughter, a new life has begun for them.”
“For us all.” Kit supplied.
I thought back to the mall conversation with Luna. “We’re not children anymore, Companions. We’re all adults, growing up and having children of our own. New lives have begun for us, and it’s up to us, as Crusaders and Companions, to live it to its fullest.”
The kits and Wolf looked at me, smiling.
“Your words ring true, my Young Guardian.” Wolf replied. “You sound so wise now.”
“You would be wise too, if you had grown up as she had.” Katherine told him, sneaking a look at me.
“We may be Elders now,” I told them, “But that doesn’t mean we have to stop being friends.”
“Friends visit as often as they can.” Kit announced.
“Friends are always there for each other when wonderful things happen.” Toby said after her.
“Friends care, and share what is in their hearts.” Kat replied.
I realized what they were doing. “If you guys are trying to make me feel guilty for not being there when your own children were born, it already worked.”
Katherine giggled, as did Toby, Kit, and Wolf with her.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, which made me jump, startled.
“What seems to be so funny here?” Panther’s laughing voice spoke up.
I smiled at him. “We were just talking about friendship.”
“Ah, the most wonderful word – and feeling – a Companion like me could ever have.” Panther laughed. He hugged my shoulders. “How are you, my Young Guardian – oh, I’m sorry, Ariana.”
I shook my head. “Fine. How are Destiny and Marie?” I asked him.
He turned red at the mention of them.
“You’ve heard already, have you?” He teased. “I wonder who told you?”
“Our Companion friends, that’s who,” I replied. “Well?” I prodded.
“Destiny is doing fine, as is Marie. You’ll meet her at another time. They’re both busy training.”
I looked to Katherine, who grinned. “Training? You mean, Marie still isn’t a full Companion, yet?”
Kat shook her head. “She is still in the beginning stages of the Unicorn Magic. Once she and Destiny grasp the feel for it, and learn to control it, they will be tested. If they pass my test, they will have to be tutored by the Elemental Mistresses themselves.”
Kit nodded. “Even we have not been able to pass their rough tests.”
“You were born Companions.” I reminded them. “You didn’t have to take them, did you?”
“I don’t know about the kits, but I had to.” Wolf replied. “I guess it is to show loyalty to Lord Guardian O’Dell and the Mystic Sisters.”
“I still don’t understand.” I told them, confused. “All four of you were born Companions. Why did you have to take tests to prove your loyalty to Lord Guardian?”
“Wolf and I grew up as Warriors, taken from our families during the Wars to be a part of Sabrina’s army.” Toby said softly. “We had to prove we were worthy of their trust.”
Katherine nodded. “Kit and I, growing up with uncle Orthos, were punished every time we tried to use our hidden Magic. Whenever a good thought went through our heads, and the Dominionites were listening, they would tell Orthos and Jezebel.”
“More than once I have feared for my childhood.” Kit replied. “That is why I felt safer being mean then nice. I saw what was happening to Kat, how she was lonely and shunned from Dominionite society. I did not want that for myself, so I played the role of a mean kitten.”
“Well, the past is left in the past, and the future is here for us to live.” I replied, which put a smile back on Kit’s lips.
“We are all still learning, not just Marie, you know.” Panther said softly, glancing at me.
His eyes – gray, yet caring – told me a tale I didn’t want to hear. “May I speak with you, alone, Panther?” I asked, and the kits looked at us.
Panther nodded his head in respect, not meeting my eyes. “Certainly, Young Guardian.”
“If you’ll excuse me.” I told the four Companions, and they nodded their approval, so I left them.
“Why don’t we take a walk in the Wood?” I suggested, starting to walk.
Panther agreed and followed my lead. “Is there something the matter, Young Guardian?”
I looked at him. He still wore the necklace I gave him during the Crusades. “Do you remember your Earthbound life much?”
He looked down. “Just glimpses. Not much else. Why?”
I stopped and took his necklace in my hands. I smiled at it. “Do you remember where you got this?”
“From you, in the Crusades against Sabrina.” He supplied, taking it from my hands. He examined it. “It holds some of your power in it, you know.”
I nodded. “Yes, I know. Do you know why?”
“Any Magic a Mystic or Wizard uses on an object stays on that object as a part of their aura trace.” He replied. “Do you have a point?”
I grinned at him. “Do you know the real meaning behind my gift?”
Panther looked at it once again, then back at me sadly. “Is it a gift of love and protection?”
In one way, he was right.
At the time, I had loved him so much. Almost tearing my heart away from Derrick enough to want to stay with Mark instead of leaving to meet my family. “You could say that, yes.” I huffed. I began to walk again, thinking of my words before I said them.
“I still have a place in my heart for you, Panther.” I told him. “I’m glad you’re happy for me, and I’m happy for you and Marie, too, but there’s always going to be an empty spot in my heart where Mark died, and you lived.” I looked at him. “Do you know what I’m saying?”
We stopped in our tracks and he took my hand. “If it weren’t for you, I would never have reunited with Marie in the first place. I understand what you’re saying, though, and it goes double for me.”
Softly, he kissed me on the lips. I read his mind and saw a feeling of a special friendship that not even Aaron and I shared.
“You’re always going to be special to me, Ariana.” Panther whispered. “Now that Marie is my betrothed, and our love grows daily for one another, we have to stop pretending to have something that’ll never be there.”
“I know you’ll never love me as you do Marie.” I told him, staring into his gray eyes. “I just wanted to let you know that I still care about you in a different way then Derrick, or Aaron. No matter what, we’re always going to be Crusaders together.”
“I guess you can call me a Companion now.” Panther grinned.
“Yeah, you are a Companion.” I replied, and then thought of what Panther did for us during the last Crusade through time. “If I had the power, I’d give you anything you wished for, just to show you my gratitude.”
He looked away, his face turning sad. Panther began to walk away, and I had to race after him. “What