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Elily glared back at Cid, ignoring his question, silently daring him to say or do anything in front of the proffesor. Her attention was torn away from Cid when the professor left, and was replaced by the headmaster. Forgetting her annoyance at Cid, Elily turned to listen to what the headmaster had to say. She grew impatient when the Headmaster appeared to be stalling. There was absolutely no need to announce all four of their names out so painfully sloooowly. At the sound of her correct name, Elily stole a glance at Cid, at the same time feeling relieved that Proffesor Simir wasn't around at that time.

Phalan shuffled abit inside the room, deep in thought. What they were dealing with was no small thing. In the olden days he would have mustered the armies immediatly and sent a brigade to fortify and gaurd every city in the kingdom until the problem was solved. But he was a wanderer now, not a general and these were humans, not dragons. This would be a great undertaking, and evil and danger would not be far behind. He had accomplished such feats before in his lifetime, but now he wanted nothing more than peace. He sighed and raised his mace, gazing at the polished steel surface of the spiked, globed head, "You think we got one more in us," as he asked the question a feeling of reassurance came over him, "And many more to come right?" he felt a wave of confidence wash through him, "Alright, let's go," he hunched down on all fours and slithered out the doorway, "Headmaster, count me in."

"No. There are no objections, Ms... Secretary", Isabella replied without an expression. She sat down in the chair the secretary had gestured to.

"I shall... I shall do my best, and I'm afraid that's all I can say for myself right now." she said softly.

Lukas was looking, staring with wide eyes at the headmaster for a second. "That was a new way to start a speech for punishment"

"Something else must be going on." The thought struck him.

Red scales blinked behind the headmaster. Lukas clenched his hands. His face stiff. The dragon.

A memory half-forgotten of red scales gleaming in the sun above a burned house slipped through his mind. But it was too hazy.

His attention turned back to the Headmaster.

The secretary brightened up, now that the new substitute was agreeable. "That's lovely! Now that that's settled, how would you like a mug of mead? Or would you prefer some other drink while you wait?"


The Headmaster was glad to have Phalan's assistance, as well as Alzi's.

Elily, Cid marked down firmly in his mind. Her name is Elily. He wasn't sure why he was remembering a name, as he didn't think any of them would be alive after this.

The Headmaster walked closer to them. Cid gulped, doing his best to avoid the man's gaze. He realised the four of them were standing in something that resembled a line and that the Head was pacing up and down. The silence was overbearing.

"Three of you were eavesdropping earlier on," he said a low, dangerous voice. "As you heard, the Orbs are no longer alight. Since they kept the elements of our world in order while they were lit, it stands to reason that the elements are now in chaos with the Light gone from them.

"Alazira has informed us that all other Orbs protected by the human race, be they the Orbs of Time or other, are also no longer working. We stand to lose our own magic within what may be a short period of time. We stand to lose the very existance of the World.

"To fulfil a prophecy that was once made in regard to this situation, the four of you have been chosen to go out on a mission to find the Light. Each of you will carry the Orb of your own element and you must search for the Light and return it to the Orbs. You will be known as the Guardians and help, should you need it, should not be hard to find. You are the Guardians. You are our last hope to surviving.

"You must leave at daybreak tomorrow morning. There is no time to be lost; every moment is precious. We do not know what will happen at what time so you must, and I stress that you must find the Light with all due haste. You will have three guides to aid and help you in all the ways they know how: Alazira the wanderer, who was the one who informed us of the other tragedies regarding all Orbs; Phalan the dragon, who was once a general in his Emperor's army; and Isabella Shane, a healer and a teacher from our own School who will be responsible for training you further so that you may become Masters at your jobs, if that will help you in your search."

He looked at the four and smiled sadly. "Any questions?"

Elily lowered her gaze to the floor, staring at nothing in particular as the Head started to speak. She was done for. She found herself holding her breath, nervously expecting the worst of punishments for eavesdropping. However, to her surprise, the Head didn't mention anything about intending to punish them, but instead that they were supposed Guardians and were to be sent out on a mission. Huh? Did the Head get the wrong person? But then he had so seriously said her name out before starting, so he couldn't have mistaken.

Elily refused to look up throughout the entire briefing. She was listening, yes, but her eyes remained stubbornly on the floor. A flurry of questions suddenly appeared in her mind, and she found herself swarmed in her own thoughts which distracted her from the scene at the moment. Elily appeared to be in some trance.

Guardians?

And assistants? How come they were only notified now? And did the school have no faith in their abilities, thus thinking they need assistance in the mission? Did they believe her healing magic was too weak, until needing the help of another healer which was probably deemed to be more proffesional? Did that mean she was weak and no good enough in white magic?

Did it mean the school has no confident in the so-called "Guardians"?

"Water's fine", Isabella replied weakly. She looked around the secretary's office. There were some paintings there- mostly of the orbs. But a few of them were pictures of the current Headmaster. Isabella studied these select picture- on the bottom of the frame, there was some small, golden text.

Probably just stuff about the headmaster...[/b] she thought to herself. But she couldn't help but wonder what it really said. However, she stayed glued to her seat. She had upset the secretary enough already.

Phalan paused, "These.... are the Gaurdians?" He looked them over, "Not to disrespect your judgement Headmaster, but they're little more than hatchlings, and probably haven't even begun to fathom the true deepness of their magic. I had at least hoped that we'd have some real mages, you know, ones that might actually be capable of fighting. We're trying to save the world here, and you expect me, Alazi and Professor Shane to stand against the forces of evil with," he paused and hissed, "children."

Lukas shifted, uncomfortable when the headmaster started to speak.

"What?"

Did I hear that right, Lukas thought. Where, besides, would we find the 'light'. He imagined himself chasing a flying light bauble with an orb in his hands. Now, that would a horrifying thought.

He stepped forward, to say something, but then the dragon spoke. Somehow, he felt slightly offended.

"I must object to that, sir dragon," he said, with a semi-serious voice, "we have faced un-imaginable dangers, like..." He looked at Cid, "cleaning the toilets," as a punishment, "moving the whole library up and down the square different times," yeah, well, it wasn't the whole library, but it were bloody a lot of kilo's of books. Also as a punishment. "And.. well."

Rachelle turned to look at the headmaster as he spoke. His words were filled with such a genuine sorrow that Rachelle found tears welling in her eyes. She grew afraid listening to his story of what had happened. Then... Then this really was the end of the world.

It was difficult to believe. Rachelle knew, had known all her life, that as long as there was magic in the world, there would be dangers that, if given the oppurtunity, could drench the world in eternal peril. But it had never occured to her that it might actually happen, especially not in her lifetime.

But that wasn't the worst of it. Now she was a Guardian? She blinked, her jaw slack, heart beating fast. She imagined a scene where she and the other three were standing just outside the boundaries of the town, watching it crumble into ash as fire and darkness enveloped it and its people. The word "failure" rang out menacingly in her mind.

But somewhere else in her head, a tiny voice sqeaked out its words. "I don't see why you're scared." It said, its high-pitched tone making it extremely unconvincing. You've been in danger before. You've done great things sometimes, even when you were on the edge of failing miserably. Surely you do that just once more, can't you?"

But Rachelle shook her head. The voice was incompetant and immature. It had no idea. Yes, she had gotten herself out of rather large dilemmas before, but those had been so long ago, and she had been lucky. She was older now, and this was the end of the world they were talking about. Either she succeeded, or she didn't. There was no in between, no "you tried your hardest, and that's all that counts."

Rachelle stared at the boy that she had laughed at earlier. He disagreed with the dragon called Phalan, saying that even as youngsters, they had been through a lot. She buried her face in her hands, sighing. She felt so small compared to the world now. Her once inflated ego was gone. She was as as strong now as a mouse was when facing a cat.

Looking up, she stared at the boy, shaking her head in disagreement. "The dragon is right." She said softly. "We're only children."

Phalan looked at Lukas and chuckled, "Your honor, I rest my case. But what about you Headmaster? What can you be thinking sending these younglings against such perilous forces, such terrifying foes, do you truly belive that they can oppose the elements themselves!?! Fire, Water, Earth and Air, they are uncontrolled now and answer to no one, Darkness is coming and with the Orbs gone dark.... not even Light, the one force we could always trust, not even Light is on our side," the dragon hung his head, "This is not the time to test your students Professor, our world hangs at the brink of destruction, we should be out rallying the greatest mages in then world, alerting the rulers of every tribe and nation, and doing our best to find a force powerful enough to bring the elements back under our control. I cannot see any other course of action, if you send us," he waved to Alazi and Isabelle, "Out with them," he pointed to the students, "Then you send us and them to our deaths, and at the same time you will have decided the fate of the world."

The Headmaster looked calmly at Phalan.

"You yourself understand that if we have strong signs of the future, it would be best to follow them rather than try to oppose Fate. Most things in life are a consequence of our own actions, but some things are left to Fate. The Guardians is one. Their faces and names were the ones that came up time and time again. We must trust our instincts that our fortune-tellers are not wrong because there is nothing else to trust.

"Yes, they are but children. Yet each of them have studied for a minimum of ten years and all their teachers have concluded they are capable of reaching a master level in their own area of expertise. Real potential comes only when one becomes a master. That is what defrentiates between the good and the great.

"If we boil down to the essence of the matter, is anyone suitable to save the World? Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. These children's knowledge and expertise may not be the best but that might not be what is truly needed in this mission. Maybe it is because they are simple and young that they may succeed. They will be able to see simple truths older, wiser men could not because they complicate situations in their minds.

"I cannot guarentee success for these children, nor could I guarentee it for any group of people. All I know is that these young ones will hang onto the Orbs and never give up. They have the courage to keep going no matter what goes wrong and the belief that they can do it, if simply because young people can believe they can do anything. They may have untold of strengths in the face of danger that no one knows of. Honoured Phalan, they may be the ones who are to save the World."

"Excuse me, Headmaster sir," Cid interuppted, face pale. He had been struggling to come to terms with what was being said and the only thing he did understand was that he, an idiot boy according to his professors, was being asked to save the World. Lapsing into the thick street slang he knew as a child that he always unconciously went into when he was afraid, he went on: "But I don' think we can save anyone, least all the World. We're just - kids. An' I dunno what you're mean when you say we got untold strengths 'cause I don't feel strong, Headmaster, sir. I mean - "

He broke off nervously.

"Light help us," Alzi muttered under her breath.

"Cid, children," the Headmaster looked at each in turn, kindly. "You are the Guardians. You must and will do it."

A horrible thought krept in Lukas' mind, entwined with a dark feeling of humor.

'Probably they have send others and we are the best of what is left.'

Immediatly, he shook his head, 'no you stupid! The Headmaster is better then us! And Phalan. I bet he could do it on his own.'

Then all the sudden, a thought struck him.

"Mother! She won't let me go!"

It was like the importent-ness of the situation hadn't reached Lukas yet. But one thing did: mother.

Phalan sighed, "There is no end to your wisdom is there Headmaster?" Then he ruffled his the scales on the back of his neck with one claw, and turned to the kids, "Forgive me Gaurdians, I am a solider by trade and by birth. It is my way to leave nothing to chance, belive in few things greater than myself, and, if at all possible, to never trust Fate. But it seems that Fate has had it's say." He went on to grumble somthing in his own language.

"Fate has a tendency to play tricks like these" murmered Alzi to herself.
"The Gaurdians of the orbs...they sound like powerful mages with entire armies to back them.
"But of course, the tittles of fate never fit the owner in aperance."

If Alzi were capable of growling and lashing her tail, she would have done so as she eyed each child from her position in the room.

"We will just wait and see then."