Page 18 of The Hidden Guardian
Renall turns and starts walking into the darkness, that’s when I realize we are not just in a cave, but a corridor. We continue through the darkness for a short while, the farther we go, the softer the thrum of the waterfall becomes until I can barely hear it at all. That’s when I see a light in front of us. Sounds erupt and echo about us. Renall grips my hand tighter, bringing me closer to his shoulder with every step we take. The light opens into a doorway, and a bustling cavern comes into view above and below me. It’s round like a beehive, but as long as a football field. Ledges wrap around the circumference and are lined with dozens of arched wooden doors.
We’ve entered on the center ledge and there’s two above and two more below us where the floor of the cavern opens up into a dining hall of some kind. Handmade timber tables and chairs line the floor in two rows. The aisles end in a raised platform upon which two thrones sit. The walls of the cavern are lined with vines and flowers are scattered throughout what greenery is left, but most of the vines are dried up and the remnants of what once was alive now line the floor. It’s loud here, the growling language Renall speaks is vibrating around me and echoing in my bones.
A door slams to the right of me, Renall flinches as a naked man and a red-haired woman wearing a long green dress appear in an alcove. Embroidered in the center of her velvet dress is a symbol. Oh Gods, it’s the same symbol as the birthmark on my arm. I rub at the spot on my skin unconsciously. The ginger-haired woman tosses her tousled hair into a tight bun as the man tries to kiss her neck. She leans into him like a lover would, and he growls. Then, she does something I’m not expecting, she growls back at him. He pushes her into the door again, lifting her skirt, and enters her from behind. She growls again, louder this time, ending in a moan. The man grabs her by the throat as his fangs elongate and sink into her neck. Renall tightens his grip on me and walks us past them briskly.
The other women we see are all dressed very similarly, in a velveteen dress of varying colors and embroidered accents on their edges. Another detail I notice, the women are never alone, they are either in a group or with their boyfriends. I can safely assume they are their significant others because a few are not so secretly humping each other. In doorways and dark alcoves, one pair is even taking each other on one of the tables below in plain view. The males are everywhere, and they are all stark naked. It’s quite literally a sausage fest here and it’s obvious that there are at least four men to every one woman.
As I continue looking around, I see that we are starting to get noticed. Renall’s death grip on my hand has somehow grown tighter and he grabs me to his side and shields my body with his as he drags me up a pair of stairs and around the ledge on the right. Men growl at us, they reach for me, a few attempt to smell me until Renall growls at them protectively. I don’t like the way the men eye me. I feel like a turkey that walked into Thanksgiving dinner a few hours late and everyone ishungry. His death grip is no longer suffocating. I welcome it, leaning into him, grabbing his arm and attempting to make myself smaller beside him.
Until Renall stops at a doorway a little more than halfway around the bend of the second level. Carved into the center of the wood door is a crescent moon and a sun. He reaches above the door with his free hand, pulls down a skeleton key, shoves the key in the door, and opens it into a dark room.
The door slams shut behind him and the lock flips before Renall turns around to look for something. I spin on my heels as he lights a candle and shakes a few rocks in the corner. They light up the room in a greenish light that emits from them. A round room comes into focus before me, in the center is a firepit covered with soot, an end table, and a couch that is made from logs of wood and cushioned with handmade pillows. To the left is another alcove that has a raised step, this one has only a large bed, dresser, and a night table filling it. Then there’s a smaller alcove to my right with a curtain covering it. Small and quaint, but after sleeping outside for the past few days, I’m just happy there is a bed and a roof protecting us from the elements.
There’s a scent in the air, it smells familiar. Earthy and a mix between a dog and freshly mowed grass. For a second, it reminds me of Colton. He was always smelling like grass and flowers. Now that I think about it, his sheets and clothes used to smell like a dog and I always thought it was just the growing pains of puberty.
A wave of realization hits me, I will never be able to return there and smell those sheets or Colton’s scent. Sadness washes over me and I hold back tears as I wander behind the curtain. A small alcove comes into view. On the rounded wall to the left is a black, smooth basin about thigh high must be a toilet. Copper pipes line the wall behind it, coming down from floor to ceiling. There’s a spout that connects another tube to the right that leads to the largest amethyst geode carved into the shape of a very tall, deep tub. In front of the tub, a sink extends out of the wall of smooth black rock with a copper spout above it, a rock so smooth my reflection stares back at me. I turn away, leaning my backside against the hard tub. It’s not quite as smooth as the sink or toilet, and if the cool, damp air of the cave is any indication, I doubt there’s going to be hot water. But any form of indoor plumbing is more than I expected from wolf people. This is my life now, this small cave, these growling people I don’t understand, this overprotective werewolf. I finally allow the tears to escape.
Footsteps sound up to the edge of the alcove. A two-footed shadow appears on the other side of the curtain.
“Rokay?” Renall asks through the curtain. I struggle to respond, fighting back the tears and trying to find a word he knows. In the end, I don’t have to say anything. Renall peeks an eye behind the curtain and slides it open. He collapses to his knees before me. “No rokay.”
In one swift motion, Renall lifts me into his arms and carries me over to the couch. He sits, positioning me on his lap. Once again, he holds me as I continue to cry into his bare shoulder.
Renall is warm, and now that I’ve been to his home, I recognize he smells of earthy morning dew and fire. He allows me to cry unbidden. A warm hand caressing my back and hair before just holding me tight. Eventually, my tears dry up and I shift in Renall’s lap until I can see his face. Silently, he inspects me wiping the trail of tears off my cheeks.
“Rokay?” he softly asks.
Still unable to answer, I nod. My stomach calls my bluff growling embarrassingly loud.
“Rood,” Renall announces, pulling me to my feet. “Tay rere. Tay.” He points to the ground.
“Stay?”
He nods, handing me the skeleton key he used to open the door, and I notice it’s now on a string. He’s giving me the only key to his cave.
He looks at me expectantly. “Okay, I’ll stay,” I acknowledge.
On those words, he opens the door and I lock it behind him.
Now that I’m alone, I notice Renall has started a fire in the center of the cave. The green glowing rocks are still casting eerie light onto the cave walls along with the shadows of the flickering fire. I wish I could tell Renall how I’m feeling. I wish I had someone to explain the gaping hole in my heart to. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel so alone. There’s no use wallowing in my pity, I should do something productive and wash the few clothes I have in the sink before Renall gets back. I swing my backpack onto the couch and empty its contents.
Some clothes and other hygiene products, Colton’s pants, water bottle, the shard of her china … and the last thing I wrap my hands around is Colton’s notebook. My knees grow weak at the sight of it, and I collapse onto the couch with it clasped in my arms.
I’m not sure if I’m strong enough for this right now, maybe I never will be, but I’ve seemed to run out of tears … for now. Slowly, I open the cover. Colton’s scent and handwriting are all over it. Closing my eyes and fighting against the tears, I breathe it in. The first few pages are just notes. A few names and phone numbers. The next few pages are all dates, his eighteenth birthday I recognize is the first listed. Then a few more dates that seem to happen every few weeks, until the next page the dates increase in frequency. Could this be? Could he have been tracking his … changes?
The next few pages are blank, and then the symbols begin. They start out as sketches and then they get more defined and deliberate as the pages continue. Then my fingers still on a familiar symbol, a bubble letter M that ends in points at the bottom, under the arch of the M is a single line V. Colton had this birthmark on his shoulder. The more I look at it, the more I understand it. Although, it’s not in any language that I’ve ever seen, but I know in my bones this symbol means ‘wolf.’
I flip the page and goosebumps prickle along my arm. I see two figure eights, one slightly before the other, and beside that, my name. My soul tells me what this symbol means. Renall had even called me it.Guardian. Colton knew before I did. Colton didn’t tell me … or maybe he tried to and I was so focused on simply surviving that I didn’t hear him. Guilt ripples through me. He was afraid and he wanted to leave town. Fear. I ignored my brother’s fear. Maybe if I listened …
A knock comes at the door. I rise slowly and take a few steps toward it when it becomes louder and more impatient.
I open it slowly, peeking an eye out when Renall’s wild eyes greet me. He pushes the door open wider. A plate of food in his hands, but his eyes scan the cave from wall to wall as if he was expecting someone else to be here.
“I found something.” I hold out my brother’s notebook. He nods in recognition, placing the plate of food on the table beside the couch and takes a seat. I sit beside him, flipping the pages until I find the one I’m looking for.
He offers me a charred piece of meat still on the bone. I grab it with my other hand as I rest the notebook on his lap and turn it to face him. I point to the symbol and state, “Guardian,” while pointing to my chest. “That’s me.”
Renall’s eyes widen, taking the notebook into his hands.
