New Dawn

1.
There has always been a guardian to save all races from one great threat that lurks somewhere deep in the universe, waiting... waiting for her chance to rule the universe. Every guardian has come and gone, most of them killed by the beast herself; however, she still did not start her attack. Now the most recent guardian has died at her hand, and the universe must look to the newest guardian...
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         The music blared loud in Mari's ears as she strolled down the street, she took notice of the details that we going on around her. Everything was shown in sharp relief, she had always had excellent eyesight; in fact she had excellent senses in general. She could always smell things better than everyone else in the room and could easily tell between the minute distinctions in smells, the same went for hearing, and she was hypersensitive to touch. It was just another ordinary day in suburbia, she lived in a small town in Minnesota where everyone knew everyone and there were rarely any well-kept secrets. She had just finished her shift at one of the local diners, Pete's, where she worked as a waitress. Her beloved little redbrick house was an easy five miles down the road, and there really was only one main road in this god forsaken town. She did love it though, it was where she grew up and it was beautiful in its own way, but it also held its fair share of bad memories as well, and she couldn't wait until she had saved enough to move out town, heck out of state, and go to a good college and just live her own life.
         She let the sound of Josh Grobans voice wash over her as she made her way home, she had always loved the sound of his voice, especially when it was telling her how she was loved; it was something that she didn't really hear a whole lot at home. As her house drew nearer she realized just how much she didn't want to go back yet, so she strayed off the main road and headed for the park. The park was beautiful, especially during the fall when all of the leaves started to change, everything just seemed to be thriving off of a magic that only it could possess; however, it was August now, and autumn was still a ways off, yet the trees still seemed to have magic in them. Everything was just so green and vibrant and full of life. Her Auburn hair fell in waves around her face as she let her head sink forward, just enjoying the sounds of nature, her pale, yet stunning, green eyes momentarily shut against the world.
         Mira felt a light breeze begin to brush lightly over her, and then she noticed the light getting brighter, at first she thought it was the sun but it was 7:00 at night and there had been no clouds in the sky. She sat up slowly and opened her eyes. She had to blink spastically for a couple of seconds for her to really wrap her mind around what was happening and even then she still couldn't.
         The light was actually some sort of golden glowing substance that was swirling around her faster and faster until she could barely breathe, and then it just stopped; everything seemed suspended in time, like nothing else mattered but this right here. She held her breathe waiting for what seemed like eternity for something to happen, when in reality it probably wasn't even half of a second.
         Then a voice, like no other she had ever heard before surrounded her and it filled her with joy, sadness, fear, courage, and so many other conflicting emotions that she recognized the voice of wisdom and age without ever hearing its life before. Whoever this was, they were ancient, and they had seen so much, Mira broke down crying right then and there from both happiness and sadness. She had no idea what would become of her after this moment, but she did know that she would accept it wholeheartedly as she had done for nothing else in her short life.

2.

         The Voice comforted her with soft words and then called to her, and said "Come, my child, there is much to be done." With that time resumed with the fury of a tornado and without even having time to blink, Middle River was gone and before her was a world she could have scarcely imagined in her wildest dreams.
         Mira found herself in a Glen that was more beautiful than words can describe, there were flowers everywhere, she could pick out the blues and the reds, and then she saw some exotic looking plants with colors that she had no name for. The grass was a darker shade of green than she had ever seen grass before and it was so soft and inviting. The trees we enormous, even taller than the redwoods in California that she had read about and seen pictures of. She took in the scents almost greedily barely even registering the rest of her surroundings. The sky wasn't the blue that humans are used to seeing, instead it was a light purple, it reminded Mira of the colors that she would sometimes see when the sun set. It was only after she noticed all of the details of nature that she took note of the people standing just at the edge of the glade, watching her explore and revel in this new world.
         She jumped a little in shock, yet just by their demeanor, she knew that they meant her no harm. There were three of them total, she guessed that two were male and one female. The female reminded her more of a tree than anything else. Her skin was smooth but her features were somewhat hard and uneven, she had long platinum blonde hair that she had pulled into a bun. She was tall and everything about her was thin and graceful; although, Mira got the sense that if they got into a fight right then and there, she would not come out the victor. The tree woman was dressed in khaki colored pants, but they were not a material that Mira was familiar with, and she didn't wear shoes. She also had on a fitted plain t-shirt that would allow her to move easily. The males were completely different, one seemed to be older, as if he had lived a great many years, yet he did not seem like he would have the voice that spoke to me and transported me here. He was much shorter than the woman and he had four legs but he walked upright with two arms. He was much rounder than the woman as well, overall he kind of reminded Mira of the librarian she had had in Middle School. The third man looked completely human, and about the same age as Mira, 22. Mira found him quite attractive, his black hair was about an inch or two long and it framed is face perfectly. There were some scars that marred his facial features and Mira found herself wanting to trace those scars for a moment before recollecting where she was. She was interested in his past though, and why another human was here on this still unknown planet.
         All of this took place in less than a minute, yet a minute was still not enough for her to process the astonishing amount of information that was relentlessly bombarding her senses. This was perhaps the only time where she had felt overwhelmed by her ability to perceive so many things at once.
         The lady was the first to speak and break the silence while Mira was too busy gawking and wrestling with her attention span.
         "Are you the one that they call Mira?" her voice was like wind washing over her, it was the most soothing voice, besides The Voice that she had heard, and she could just picture her being a tree.
         "Yes." She answered slowly, still trying to process everything, "who are you? Why am I here, and whose voice was that that I heard, the one that brought me here? Where is here?" After the first question was asked the rest just flowed like water in a river, and it took a great amount of personal restraint for her not to ask more.
         "You are in the Guardian Sanctuary, the place where every single guardian has trained and prepared for their roles; this is now your place, Mira."

3

“What Guardians? I don’t… I don’t even understand what’s going on here, who are you guys?” Mira asking, feeling the first tendrils of fear sink in.
“We are your trainers, we will guide and help you whenever possible, but there are some things that you can only learn, and do, on your own,” the tree lady said solemnly, almost like she was starting to feel pain. u
“You are a guardian, the first one from Earth at that. You’re new job is manifold, there will be many worlds, species, and individuals are going to start looking to you for help, and it is your job to help as much as possible; however, there is one thing…” the young man started before he was interrupted by the more portly guy.
“Ahem! Grayson!” The portly four-legged guy gave Grayson a meaningful look, and he automatically clamped his mouth shut and wouldn’t say another word, no matter how much Mira asked.
“Enough now! She must be tired, and we have already kept her long enough. Come Mira, I will show you to where you’ll be staying while you’re here.” Mira followed her through the forest of towering trees for about a mile until they came to the base of one of the giants. The trees were all very thick, it would take at least five of her 5 foot wingspan to surround the tree. It wasn’t until she focused on the base of the tree and the tree-woman was opening the door that she realized that there was a door seamlessly made into the tree. There was a spiral staircase that went at least 200 feet into the hair and as soon as we stepped off of the stairs and into a gorgeously crafted tree mansion. The place was huge and everything was wood, with a few animal articles thrown in; there was nothing at all that was metal or artificial except for the glass windows. There was no refrigerator, no coffee pot, nothing. The bed was wood with a mattress of fur and leaves. There were designs carved intricately into the floors and walls that one could stare into for hours and still never completely follow the pattern. The spiral staircase continued up to an upper floor that was more like a living room than downstairs was. Downstairs was more kitchen and bedroom; however, upstairs was roomier, and there was a giant balcony on that went all the way around the tree and was connected to at least ten bridges that gave people in other trees access to this one. They were very simple bridges, yet they were stiff, and sturdy, because they were completely made out of wood, no rope whatsoever.
“This is… Amazing!” Mira said to the tree woman.
“These are some of my people’s greatest achievements, we take great pride in our homes.”
“So this your planet? Not the other two guys?”
“No, they are just my fellow trainers, Grayson is one of the best fighters in the galaxy, and Vinor is one of the most knowledgeable beings, he can tell you pretty much anything that you ever wanted to, and didn’t want to know.” She said with a small smile.
“What’s your name?”
“My name is Anriel.”
“It is very nice to officially meet you Anriel, I just wish I knew, really knew, why I was meeting you all.” Mira said slowly, she was still in a sort of shock over her surroundings and was still trying to convince herself that she was dreaming.
“I will leave you now so that you may adjust and relax, someone will come by with food in a little bit for you; until then please feel free to explore, the people here are generally very nice, just take care to be polite and not offend them, we do not easily forget things.”
“Thank you for the advice, I think I might just stay here though.” Anriel just slightly bowed and descended the staircase. The staircases were surrounded by wood with a door at the landing and a few windows so that inhabitants of the tree could see if someone was ascending or descending through the tree.
Mira went up the spiral staircase and into the living space and stretched out onto one of the wooden couches which was surprisingly comfortable. Through the glass doors that led to the balconies that surrounded the room she saw, in the distance, the sunlight filtering through the tops of the trees. The trees trunks were all bare except for at the very top where there were plenty of leaves and branches. Occasionally she would hear strange animal noises coming from both above and below. They were like nothing she had ever really heard before; the bird calls, if they were birds, sounded as if two birds were chirping at once; however, after listening for some time she realized that it was actually the birds singing in dual tones, and when multiple birds were singing at once they managed to create the most beautiful songs. Listening to the songs Mira was quickly finding herself becoming more relaxed with every passing minute. She started wondering whether or not this wasn’t actually a dream, but she actually was on some distant planet, and was destined to be some “guardian” for the universe. The more she thought about it the more absurd it seemed, and it wasn’t long before she was laughing uncontrollably. She could see being on another planet, she had always suspected that there were other species out there, after all it just seemed like a huge waste of space if there wasn’t.
“Ahem.” Sounded a voice from behind her. Mira quickly stood up and spun towards the voice.
“Oh! Hello Grayson, I didn’t realize you were there… How long have you been there exactly?” He was outright grinning at my embarrassment, and she had to admit it was rather a handsome smile. His black hair still framed his face perfectly, she didn’t want to be caught staring so she quickly looked away and didn’t look back until he answered.
“About a minute and half, your laugh is cute.” If she hadn’t been blushing before, she certainly was now; she hated her laugh, she thought it was ridiculously loud and obnoxious.
“Right. What have you got there?” She had noticed he had brought a container of some sort, she assumed it was the food Anriel had promised earlier.
“Food,” he said simply and passed her the container, “it’s a salad with some Versar that I found in the forest.”
“What’s Versar?” Mira asked curiously as she opened the container, it all looked delicious; the salad was full of colorful berries and things that she was pretty sure were tomatoes, plus some other things that she couldn’t really identify. The meat also smelled delicious, it reminded her slightly of venison.
“It’s a small animal around here, an herbivore, kind of like deer on your planet.” Mira just nodded and Grayson started walking towards one of the glass doors, presumably to head to his tree house.
“Wait! I’m not all that hungry, do you mind staying and sharing with me? I would really appreciate the company.” He just smiled that gorgeous smile again, nodded slightly and started back towards me. As they headed downstairs towards the kitchen so she could try to find utensils and sit at a table she suddenly thought of something.
“You said ‘your’ planet, so are you not from Earth? You look human.” I rummaged quickly through the drawers and found two forks and knives, although they looked slightly different here, they were both wood first off and the fork only had two very long tines.
“Technically speaking my family is from Earth, but I’ve never been there.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, a really long time ago probably about a thousand or so years ago, two of my ancestors were taken from Earth, almost like how you were transported, but less showy. Anyway, they have no idea why or how it happened but they found themselves in a much more advanced society of humans on a much larger planet than Earth. Talk about a culture shock. They were taken in by an old librarian woman who showed them the ways of my planet and they assimilated very well apparently and then, well the family continued and here I am today.”
“So was that other civilization started from Earth, or was Earth started from them?” Mira asked, curious, she had always wondered if there were other humans out there. She could just feel so many questions bubbling up in the back of her mind, it was taking a lot of practiced self-control to not ask them all at once.
“Earth was started from my planet. It originally started out as a new colony for my overpopulated planet, but for some reason, once on earth, everybody seemed to regress into a more primitive state, it still can’t be explained by my people, so now you guys are very far behind but who knows, maybe you were given a chance to start over, to become better than my people.” Mira was slowly chewing her food and Grayson was just picking at the salad, like this was a normal, everyday occurrence, which for him, she guessed it was.
“That’s amazing! I had always really kind of hoped there were more civilizations out there, I’ve always loved the stars, I could never get enough of them as a kid.” Mira paused for a second, then “Grayson… Why am I here?” She looked at him questioningly, she still couldn’t quite believe what they had told her earlier. Grayson avoided her eyes.
“I was told I couldn’t talk about it yet, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow when we can all explain it to you. I do have to go though, I’ll be back to get you tomorrow morning.” With that he was already heading up the stairs towards the balconies and Mira was left alone with her thoughts in turmoil.