• The sky had grown it darkest as I studied, the wind kicking up dead leaves as the trees bent to its will. The storm brewing over the sea had its arms searching greedily through the lands, it lonesome tears would soon follow after it realized there would only be destruction as it made its way to the land it so hoped to befall. On the campus many had left for home or a shelter, my roommate taking her Knight and heading several hours inland to a family members house. In my bag, nestled lightly against the soft throw blanket my mom had picked out for my dorm room; laid my two Knights, cozy in their eggs. I hadn't shared the information about receiving two with anyone, the discovery would raise questions as well as suspicious that I couldn't, and didn't want to, deal with at such a time. I was happy for their arrival, but the sheer fact that they came years late, in the middle of my first semester of college made me wonder what the Guardians were thinking.

    I watched as the hour turned from 8 to 10, staring into the world the books explained as the words spun a wicked tale of the darkness that came before the saviors, our precious Guardians, came to our rescue, though, my mind was on other things, mostly the storm brewing outside the coast. It had been years since the coast had suffered a major hurricane. The last one I was in, and the first, happened to be nothing but mild rain and rough winds after days before it had been hyped up to a Category 4. The Guardians placed blame on the Weather Wizard of Mare Island, who had earlier admitted he had caused the storm by confusing one ingredient for another in his potions that would turn the seas, helping the receding reefs gain strength and the Mers keep their homes. Instead it caused much destruction. Shortly afterward he was stripped of his powers and made an example of on international television.

    Another incident was the Earthquakes that had been tearing across the fault lines all around Rosaria. Though no one knows who, or what, is causing them, the discrimination is turning toward the ground wizards who are supposed to give an early warning. Each time there is a quake that cost lives in an area that one of them was stationed they took the heat, either being publicly punished or, in the worst case, stripped of their abilities.

    In the University we all minored in a form of wizardry, taking into account that even though serious magic was forbidden unless appointed by the Guardians, we were required to know at least the basics of each element for defense purposes. If anything I was good with ice and fire, which concerned my professors a little.

    I sighed as phone vibrated at 10:15, probably another message from my 'mother' or 'father,' telling me be safe and if I needed them they were only a call away. I pushed ignore and continued reading, void of the fact that the room around me was becoming less and less illuminated until my phone went off twenty minutes later. I gave up on ignoring whoever was sending me a message, picking it up and sliding the screen up to read. As my eyes skimmed the text, it hit me that it wasn't just another lousy game of phone tag with my ‘parents,’ it was an announcement from the Head of Security at the University, warning everyone that the campus was locked down.

    Several phrases hit my eyes at once: 'Extremely dangerous,' 'stay inside until notified otherwise,' 'Find a hiding spot if not in dorms and sit tight,' 'Do not panic,' and, finally, 'The suspect was last seen headed toward the Library or Robertson Hall.'

    I hit the deck when my phone went off again, the vibration sending such a shock up my arm that I could have sworn I dipped whole arm into a tub of lava. I didn't think about anything, grabbed my bag, and shoved my phone into my back pocket, huddling in the corner of a long dark hall of books. I held the eggs in my bag close to my heart, praying that the two Knights within them could hear my pounding heart if there was a chance that they would hatch and help me.

    I tucked myself deep in the corner of the shelf, which was a tight squeeze. Try as I might, I couldn't get as far as I would've wanted. I was never really a small girl; I was always a 'well rounded' young lady. From the time of elementary school to middle I was teased for this fact. Afterward no one worried about that, I was ridiculed for not having a Knight from high school on.

    Down the hall someone opened a door, shuffling in the room. The sound of paws hitting the tile floor echoed through the empty halls. It didn't take long before the steps came closer, walking with a purpose that was clear; this person was hostile and on a mission. He, or she, wasn't going to give up til the job was done.

    "I know you're here," he whispered, though through the acoustics of the hall it was heard everywhere. He stepped forward, standing in front of my isle. "You don't need to make this any harder than it already is. Come out, I only wish to talk."

    His Knight stepped forward, a large panther with bat like wings. She sniffed the air, glaring around the corner and into the chair I was just sitting in. She pranced over, sniffing my still opened books and the slightly warmed seat. "The trail is fresh, though hard to track on tile floors, Dominec," she said. "But she is still close."

    I felt my jaw drop and hang there. A Knight talking was completely unheard of. If anything, it would take an extremely skilled wizard to gain that ability or there was something the Guardians had withheld.

    "Young one!" The panther spoke loudly, her wings extending then retracting quickly. "We do not wish to bring harm to you, we just want to talk. If you don't want this to escalate to anything more than it already is, please come out."

    I was tempted, but in the end my gut wouldn't let my legs move. Instead I huddled closer to the corner, holding the bag closer to my chest to see if it would muffle the sound of my pounding heart. The two stood in complete silence before someone, whose voice sounded as far away as the next isle call out, "Wh-what do you want?"

    The man looked at the Panther, nodding lightly. The large cat became as quiet as a mouse. She slipped forward as the man took a deep breath. "We come in search of a package that was sent by mistake," he announced. "By order of the Guardians, that package is due to return to us and the receiver is to come with it."

    "Well, I think if you want the information about who got what, you'd have to go to the administers," another voice broke the darkness. The man named Dominec looked a little confused. He walked toward the voice as the panther stalked the other.

    "Really?" he asked. "So, what you're saying is that the administrators should have records on anything...suspicious?" His voice was growing fainter as he stepped away from my isle. I relaxed, letting myself slouch against a few thick old books.

    "Yeah," the voice Dominec was after said. "Anything from mailing records to Knight Classification."

    "The one I want doesn't have a Knight," Dominec said loudly. "Do you know where they are?"

    There was silence. I felt my heart begin to pound again. Dominecs' footsteps quieted to a halt as he waited for a reply. I bit my lip, bracing my legs to make a dash when something caused a commotion on the other side of the room.

    It sounded like the scream of child who had just been found playing hide and seek and didn't hear the seeker, but then it turned nasty. There was a roar that rattled the bookshelves followed by a yelp of pain. The first voice screamed a name but his voice was soon cut off. There was a hollow thud against the floor followed by the thick smell of something metallic.

    Dominecs' steps quickened suddenly, chasing something, perhaps. I felt my legs were like weights. They wouldn't move. I couldn't relax anything; will myself to move an inch, not even breath. The world around me was starting to fill with the same muffled screams.

    "Move."

    I looked up, the curse broken by a pair of voices, willing the same things. I looked around to see who had spoken them but quickly slid to my feet, holding the bag close to me. A little farther away the panther roared again, this time sounding in pain as Dominec grunted from someone trying to resist him. I saw a flash of his sword, dimmed with what I perceived as the blood of the innocent.

    "Move, Lynnette! Move!" The voice shouted this time, one angered and one calmed. It took me a while before I realized that whoever had spoken now had control over my clumsy body. I fell down the marble, carpeted stairs, tucking into a ball around the eggs to keep them from the impact I felt. It would only take a moment before Dominec and his panther Knight realized they cut down innocent students. I only had a few seconds to call the campus police.

    "What's your emergency?" A rough voice, belonging to the Chief of Campus Police, also known as Chief, asked.

    "Library!" I started, jumping through the doors and into the storm. The rain must've started while I was studying. "In library! Killed people! They killed people!"

    I didn't know what he said next. I slipped my phone in my pocket as the doors banged open behind me. There was a flash, lightning perhaps? But I didn't know; I looked back for a second just in time to see the cloaked figure glaring at me. His face wasn't visible, but his crest was.

    My heart sank as I made it to the dorms. The security personnel let me in after they saw my badge. I didn't want to explain my babble as they escorted me to my room, and lucky me that they understood the bulk of it.

    I felt bad as the door slammed behind me. I had withheld information, something I didn't do often. The man in the cloak was after me, for one.

    And his crest was that of the Guardians.