The earth gave way beneath his feet, and as he plunged into the nothingness below, he slammed his fingers against the edges of the crevice and swiped a summons into it. The grass and reeds heeded his call. Roots and leaves stitched across the crevice, and he gripped them as they grew to his aid.

  The dirt shifted all around him, and he took no time to gaze about his near and quick demise before pulling himself out of the cracks of the earth and making sure he landed both boots onto the surface.

  “What a start to the morning,” he took a breath. Ellio ran to him, eyes wide and eyebrows scrunched with unmasked worry.

  “What’s happening? The earth is trembling!” Ellio spun around, looking in every direction until landing on the looming figure of the Guardian. “What… do we do?”

  Taiga could nearly applaud the forced logical reasoning in such a situation. His shaky hands and unfocused gaze betrayed him, though. Ellio’s eyes lingered on the Guardian Spirit, apparently now visible to all. But first things first… what do they do?

  The screams of the farmers and builders occupied his mind. If the Guardian started spewing corruption, they, Ellio, and Jule would be the first to fall. “Get the civilians back. Have them retreat back down the road at least a kilometer, understood?”

  Ellio nodded. “And you?”

  “We’ll,” he paused. He hadn’t told these two about their true mission yet. Could they handle it? Killing the most revered creatures in the world? The Guardians of the land, of life, and of death?

  Screams rang out and the ground shook them off their feet. He didn’t have time to debate this. He’d handle the fallout later. “Mouse and I will take care of the Guardian. You two focus on getting them out of here!” He pointed to the source of the screams.

  Ellio hesitated, but Taiga’s stern order was enough for now. Ellio nodded before running off. Taiga searched around him, only seeing true fog for what it was. If corruption began pouring over the land, then none of the humans would be safe. “Ellio!” He turned back, calling out to the bear of a man. Ellio spun towards Taiga. “Take Sweet Bun with you! She’ll keep you all from the corruption.”

  He waited for Ellio’s nod before turning away. With them out of harm’s way, Taiga and Mouse could focus. He glanced around, trying to make out his companion from somewhere in the darkness. With day’s light still beyond the horizon, the shadows of grasses and reeds hid Mouse too well. He brushed fingers to a small bunch of weeds. “Where is he?”

  The grass trembled beneath the Guardian’s wrath, but it did not fail in its duty. It whispered his location to him, and Taiga took off. He felt the grass’s fear and pain, but Mouse’s footsteps grew bolder as Taiga approached. “Mouse, what happened?”

  His friend whipped around to him. “They called for me.” His breathing hitched, hands unsteadily gripping his sword. “They asked me to…”

  He cut off. Taiga waited for him to continue, but when Mouse didn’t, Taiga asked again. When he did, Mouse’s eyes focused solely on him. “Nefedjukasb asked for death.”

  Silence fell over his ears for a moment before Taiga shook himself from a dazed stupor. “They… asked?”

  The two of them looked at each other a moment. What happened within the Guardian to such a degree that they would beckon death? Until now, they’ve killed Guardians already far too gone to even consider them still Guardian Spirits. This one was still mentally intact enough for Mouse to communicate with them. No corruption even spewed from their body yet. Surely, there was time to help them, wasn’t there?

  Mouse shook his head, as if knowing all Taiga didn’t say. “They won’t wait any longer. I don’t think they can.”

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Their soul is still—”

  “I know!” Mouse snapped. A frog croaked from its perch on Mouse’s shoulder. Taiga hadn’t noticed it before, and he blinked at it as the creature stared deep into Taiga. “But they won’t listen to me! Nefedjukasb outright refuses to even want to be saved! They only desire death, and they decided the best way for that to happen is by our hands.”

  There was much Taiga wanted to say, but the words caught in his throat. From what Mouse told Taiga long ago, Guardian Spirits were partially all of one mind. They could communicate to each other while also simultaneously being the receiver of the message. It was possible, then, that whatever remnants remained of the previous Guardians communicated with those still living. Did every Guardian Spirit on the continent of Anu know Taiga and Mouse were killing them?

  Was that why this Guardian, Nefedjukasb, had decided they were the ones to kill them?

  Taiga wouldn’t utter such possibilities, even if they were true. The hurt and damage of this fact already etched itself across Mouse’s face. “Alright.” He forced a calm tone. “What do you want to do?”

  Even if it was what the Guardian Spirit wanted, Taiga needed to know where Mouse stood in all this. And if Taiga needed to make the hard decision, he would. Mouse looked from Taiga to the Guardian. When the frog on his shoulder croaked, Mouse looked to it. “Yeah, I get it already.”

  “Mouse?” Taiga realized the frog was likely an attendant. He’d heard of them from Mouse, but he’d never seen one before. All of the acolytes shimmered in the slightest of magics that colored the Guardians talons and feathers. But the frog upon Mouse’s shoulder radiated the magics of its owner. He’d not realized it within the chaos, but the attendant had likely found Mouse through the Guardian’s will.

  The resolution in Mouse’s eyes told Taiga his answer before he even spoke. “We’ll kill them.”

  The words trembled, though firm nonetheless. Taiga nodded, unsheathing his sword. “Keep them at bay. I’ll do the rest.”

  The ground shook, and crumbled a few meters to the right. The Guardian boomed a roar, their attention shifting to the screams of the humans. Taiga turned toward them, catching sight of Ellio picking a child off the ground and Jule helping an injured man onto the wagon.

  The Guardian sped towards the group, and Taiga took off running towards them. Sweet Bun was first to notice the Guardian rushing at them, and jumped between the humans and the Guardian. She arched her back legs, lurching her chest closer to the ground, threatening as much as something a fifth the size of her target could be. She let out an alarmed shriek at the Guardian. But her warning went unheeded to the Guardian’s unmoving mask.

  Jule spotted her and the Guardian. Taiga caught her shouting at the crowd as he ran. He sped his legs, whispering words of aid to the grasses and reeds. They abided by his wishes, springing him out of the reeds, across the water canal, and onward.

  He stumbled, caught himself, and gripped his sword. “Get them out of here!” He yelled to Jule. She whipped towards him, then turned to the wagon, loaded herself onto it, waited for Ellio to load the last of the farmers, before ushering the horses down the road.

  The Guardian swung their tail out towards the humans, and Sweet Bun leapt between them, striking her talons out to parry the tail. She managed to save the wagon as it sped off, but she cowered her arm beneath herself. Taiga took two fingers to his lips, breathed deep despite his haggard breath, and whistled high to low to her; retreat.

  The side of her head perked, shifted to him, before she turned and galloped after the wagon. Good girl. A small bit of relief until the Guardian began chasing after the wagon. But the horses outpaced them just enough to give them space to breathe. Sweet Bun ran alongside the wagon, occasionally checking behind them.

  Taiga yanked magics from the earth, rippling them outward and back into the grasses ahead of him. The grass blades elongated, stretching out and grasping onto any fur and feathers they could reach. But the Guardian ran onto the dirt road, where his plants were not. He stretched them as far as he could, but the Guardian’s pace and distance from the plants hindered his plans.

  Another roar shattered the air. The ground gave way beneath Taiga. He felt his boot slipping and sidestepped, hopping to the right as a crack formed in the ground. Screams and hollers drew his attention back forward. The wagon tipped into a newly formed crevice, flinging everyone out of it.

  The Guardian roared again. Ellio quickly grabbed two children from the ground, who screamed and cried, and ran with them as several adults sprinted away from the Guardian as quickly as they could. Jule sat up from where she’d been thrown, dazed and bleeding.

  One of the builders pulled on her arm, trying to yank her up and drag her to safety. But she didn’t respond, and as the Guardian slammed their arms against the earth, the ground shifted, and Jule, the wagon, Sweet Bun, and several of the builders slipped beneath it.