Guardians Of The Helms

by Baconkatz

Chapter 5

What a thrill.

That was the one thing floating around Glowing Glass’ mind as she calmly walked on the branches, they swayed under her weight, but remained perfectly silent, the leaves moved as if they were being ruffled but made no noise, instead creating a space of silence.

How easy it was to capture such a stupid little Hunter. They were always such a prideful race to start with, acting like the hopeless victims of the Earth Gypsies horrible tyrannical reign of evergrowing violence.

Oh go suck a big male chicken.

Earth Gypsies had it just as bad, if anything worse. They were the supposided tribal ones, the ones constantly attacked by the Gypsies. But one good look shatters that entire argument, Hunters live in peace, the best richest parts of the forests, while Gypsies were forced to live in the swamps. Rotting and festering away, filled with wildlife yes, but they weren’t the meat eaters were they?

Glowing Glass shook her head lightly, her mane obscuring her vision as she walked above the male. Once the trees started thinning she pulled the magic out of her deepest memories, pain, distrust, broken, all wrapped in a veil of power. Black tears of ink trailed down her cheeks, as she stepped on air as if it was solid.

She was silent none the less, he was interesting, he had a woodsy smell, like pine and maple.

Gods she’d love to see one of them in person. If it wasn’t for the one or two Birds of Paradise guarding the perimeter she would. But, of course, the Kirins chose the Hunters, no matter how much the Earth Gypsies, they’d never be seen as more than tribe of insane ponies with insane ideologies.

If she wasn’t aware she was following a particularly juicy kill, Glowing Glass would’ve snorted. Of course, she wasn’t alive for the Tainted, nor was she around for the Purge, better known as the Purga de chivo expiatorio among Gypsies.

Gypsies were a wonderful species, if it wasn’t for their species The Helms would’ve never been made in the first place, the Tainted would’ve never been stopped. But, no matter what the masses did, the majority spoke for them all. And then. They all paid.

Everyone had blamed Earth Gypsies for the Tainted becoming so strong, for Gypsies allowing their numbers to grow so vastly by sleeping with other species.

Tensions were high, especially with Earth Gypsies and Hunters being next door neighbors, already high strung. And then, something or another happened, and hell broke loose.

The Kirins cast a dampening field with the strengths of thousands behind it, the Birds of Paradise patrolled the sky, chasing any of the Gypsies that tried to leave back in, Frost unicorns froze mares with their young inside caves to suffocate slowly, Dusties healed the injuries just to throw them back in and watch them suffer, Hippocampi pulled Gypsies under waters that they tried to pass and drowned them, Valkyries set fire to the trees and burned colts and mares alike alive, Thestrals made sure to shut down any resistance attempts. And just when the Gypsies thought they would be safe, the hunters arrived.

It was horrible before, but after that it was slaughter.

Millions of Gypsies died that day, and more were injured. The simple thought of how easily their species could be wiped out left a bad taste in her mouth.

Apparently, if her mother hadn’t been away for trading she would’ve been killed as well.

Glowing Glass shook her head and stopped when the Hunter did as well, heading over to a branch and laying down on it. If that pathetic Hunter didn’t have a purpose he’d be dead and hung on a willow by now.

If she thought about it, he’d probably die anyway. Good riddance to him. She’d already lead more than a dozen away, Hunters and their pride. They’d never escape it, that’s all they were about wasn’t it? For a species so content accepting the pity of others for something that happened thousands of years ago, they sure enjoyed making it sound like they were the only species with honor.

Enough of that.

Glowing Glass landed on the ground behind him silently, he was rather well built, perhaps if tensions weren’t so high, if she didn’t want to place her dull teeth around his delicate throat and rip it out, then perhaps they could be friends.

But that wasn’t the case. The prophecy was coming, it was already spoken yes, an old mare's tale, but Gypsies always knew. And if that was the case, The Helms would be needed, and to do that, they needed subjects. As cruel as it sounded, some would have to die before Guardians could be found, as far as the totems could tell none have been found yet.

That would change of course, species after species were already feeling the effects. The Helms were persuasive creatures, how? Now that was a secret only an elder could tell, and since they were all killed in the purge, it would remain a mystery.

Right now, all Glowing Glass had to do was knock him out. And she did. It was simple, Hunters tails were sharpened at the end for efficient fighting, but it would be useless if he couldn’t sense her. So, all she had to do was find his precious little bonding gland, a soft breath of air on the sensitive skin made him bristle up, but not turn. Next, the gentle press of a muzzle against it, followed by a churning noise no matter how faint. Hunters were so physical, so close that touch like this wouldn’t be seen anywhere else, felt anywhere else.

Then you strike.

While the Hunter was dazed, eyes half lidded and tail flicking in lazy pleasure, Glowing Glass bit down on the precious spot, a little to the left of the gland. It was a fail safe she’d like to think, after the purge the remaining Gypsies came together for one last spell, one that would give the Earth Gypsies an advantage if it was to happen again. On a Hunter, all you had to do was bite, and they were out like a light. But you had to be careful, too hard, and their heads roll off their necks.

Once the Hunter was grounded Glowing Glass whistled, And out of the trees came eight colts, each with merged features. Hybrids.

“Little Glassy came through.” Raven, Glowing Glass’ older brother purred, the nubs that would’ve held his wings shuddered as he stretched himself. His slender dark purple body slinked out of the shadows like a sly cat, his peacock tail was shorter than a regular Bird Of Paradise. But his eyes were warm brown, meaning that he was kind at heart.

“Of course she would,” Waxing Candle hummed, his swirling horns barely curved behind his ears, the flames that floated an inch above his skull gave him a ghostly aura, he was lean and tail like his father, his clear eyelids blinking as he looked the Hunter over. “She’s our sister, we raised her well.”

Wolfsbane snorted at that, his long hair was mostly held back by a metal band, but a good portion was covering his eyes. Even as his sister, Glowing Glass wasn’t sure what color his eyes were, or what his voice sounded like.

“I hope you mean I raised her well,” Red Chalk said as he followed the other three out, taking point as the oldest soon enough. He had a thick coat, and a horn with little shards missing, “While the rest of you were off gallivanting I want procuring the education of our younger sibling.”

“Geez,” Nightshade said, stretching his leathery wings outwards as he materialized next to the group , “Don’t anyone tell big bad Chalk that he’s the second oldest. Or related to us even, that works too.” He snickered, his light colored iris’ contrasted his black eyes sharply.

“Too late,” Stonefish chuckled wetly from the river, his gills and spines flaring up in anticipation, smacking his tail against the water to keep himself preoccupied while watching. It was a new record at this point.

“At the end of the day, just remember.” Moth said, shaking his dusty brown wings a bit, “when in doubt, just blame Crossthread. He doesn’t have a spine anyway, do you?” He asked brushing his hair out of his own face.

The cloaked one with a curved horn rolled his eyes, “Correct.” Was all Crossthread said, and that was it.

Glowing Glass rolled her eyes at her siblings, “Would you all get going? We’re going to burn through the ten we have real quick, finding a guardian is harder than it looks.” She said, she still had to hear from Gold Dust, or Sacred Jewel for that matter, they were all across the land at this point tracking down candidates from all species. Whether the government allowed it or not.

“Really?” Nightshade asked sarcastically, “I though the first one who kneeled down in front of it and recited old mare mary would be crowned.” He said, rolling his eyes.

“Run.” Was the simple, unanimous response from the other seven brothers as Glowing Glass glared at him. Nightshade, being of considerable intelligence, ran. Disappeared was more like it, ah, the beauty of being half Delude Thestral. Specifically Delude Thestral.

Glowing Glass rolled her eyes at her brothers as they dispersed to look for more subjects. She looked back down at the Hunter. He was still asleep, sighing she caught him in her magic.

So maybe she lied to herself a bit earlier. This was far from a thrill, far from a fair fight, had she lost all eight of her older hybrid brothers would swoop in to save the day.

Someday she hoped that she would truly be able to fight him, just as they were, no intoxication, nothing like that. Just pure fighting. But right now, that wasn’t the time, wouldn’t be for a very long period to come.

Until then.

He was fresh meat.

Comments

[Bluecatcinema]

This a really compelling story. I hope you update again soon.