Guardians - Fear
#2 of Guardians
Second part, hope you enjoy. Pretty short but eh.
Kaden woke with a start and practically tore off his covers, inspecting his arm and staring with awe at the sight before him. He did it. He finally found his power. Filled with a sense of pride at the fact of finally getting a power and that he managed to beat that monstrous beast that Ikon had challenged him to face. He grinned and began to laugh, louder than he ever had, full of joy. It was a genuine laugh, a genuine smile. Not just something he used to cover up what he feels or a hollow smile to fit in. This was something new. "I did it!" He exclaimed at the ceiling of his room, not caring who heard him or what they said, this was his moment and he was gonna embrace it.
Vince threw open the door to his room and glared as ice formed around his footpaws. "Shut up bro! I just got up." The eleven year old cub looked incredibly irritable, he was always like this in the mornings.
"Sorry Vince, I'm just happier than I have been in a while." Kaden found himself laughing again as his brother rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah save it for your girlfriend." And with that Vince left his older brother's room and out of his sight. Kaden leapt up, grabbed some new clothes and showered before putting them on, he just generally felt better, like a weight had been taken off his shoulders. He felt confident in himself, like he could do anything.
He almost skipped downstairs with excitement, he was going to tell his family during breakfast. "Oh god I can't wait."
"Can't wait for what Kay-Kay?" Tommie tugged on his arm before he managed to sit down and began to stare at Kaden's newly formed tattoo "What's that?" he tilted his head as he asked the question and Kaden simply smiled crouching down to Tommie's height.
"Last night I got my power and now," He raised his arm "I have this."
"That's so cool bro!" Tommie hugged him as Kaden smiled, returning the embrace.
"Aww." The two pup's mother grinned down at them as she took a seat at the table. "Aren't you two chummy this morning."
"Mommy, mommy, Kaden go-"
"Shh bro, I wanna tell the rest of the family myself." His younger brother pouted.
"Okay...."
"Dinner you two." Their mother piped up as Tommie was floated up into the air and down on his seat, giggling at the strange sensation of flying. Kaden returned to his feet and took a seat next to Tommie, the siblings sharing a smile before digging into the plates of steak before them.
Shortly after Vince joined them for breakfast, "Morning."
"Good morning Vivi!" Tommie spoke with his mouth full and spilt food onto his plate.
"Morning dear," Her mother smiled at the middle-sibling before turning her attention to the younger of the three "And Tommie, no talking with your mouth full." The pup swallowed his food and replied a few moments later.
"Sorry Mommy."
"Good morning again Vince." Kaden smirked, still full of the newfound confidence that he gained from attaining his power. His brother grunted in reply as their father occupied the final seat at the table, kissing his dearest wife on the cheek getting a nuzzle in return.
"Morning pups," He took a sip of tea from some mug with a famous anime character on it, not that Kaden knew anything about anime. "So, what's happened to all of you this week?"
This was even better, now Kaden wouldn't be drawing as much attention to himself, he could just casually bring it up in their ritualistic Sunday recap.
"I made a new friend, he's really nice!" Tommie piped up first, a trademark smile plastered across his muzzle.
"That's great to hear son, what about you Kaden? You seem awfully chipper today." Kaden smiled.
"Well I managed to get a girlfriend, and more importantly, I got my power." His father looked at him curiously.
"You serious?" He asked, leaning forward slightly.
"Yeah," He extended his arm. "And it kinda gave me this." His father smiled and chuckled in joy.
"That's wonderful son! So what is it?"
"I bet he doesn't even have anything, just got a tattoo done and hid it till today." Vince scoffed, not even bothering to look his brother in the eyes.
"Think whatever you want, I got a power." Kaden replied, unphased by his brother's mocking tone. He took a final bite of his food before Vince sprung up from the table to snarl at, what he still thought of as, his pathetic, weak and miserable older brother. Blocks of ice began to form around his feet as he growled out, "Why don't you prove it then weakling!?" six great block of ice darted in the direction of his older brother who sat frozen in shock at the sight until, in the corner of his eye, he saw a spike that was going to miss him. It was going to hit Tommie.
Suddenly, a great blade was brought crashing down upon the table shattering the spike that was headed towards the youngest sibling, Kaden pulled his arm upward to shield himself as three spikes pierced his body, the other two stopped by a wall of flame conjured by his father. All the spikes shattered, falling to pieces as Vince stood paralysed in fear by their father's fiery form. A roar echoed out from his father "Vince! How dare you strike your brother." The whole room's attention was shortly fixed on Kaden's limp body that had crashed into the ground. Three bloody holes now resided in the wolf's body, one in his paw, another in his lower forearm, and finally, a gaping, gory hole had appeared in his stomach.
"Oh god, Kaden!" His mother cried out as the family rushed towards him, his vision slowly fading into nothingness.
It had been a week since the incident and his family had called upon a friend of theirs to treat the injuries that Kaden suffered. The wounded wolf decided he' d rather not stay with his family, instead deciding to stay at his girlfriend's house so that he wouldn't have to be around Vince. He was currently standing in the shower tracing a claw over his recent scars. "Good thing Mom's got Dale on speed dial." Dale was their family's.... Witch doctor? Magical medic? Something like that anyway, he came right over and fixed him up pretty damn well. His paw reached down to the scar on his stomach and traced the outline of it, remembering the look of anger and satisfaction on his brother's face, a feral grin and eyes that reminded him of the beast in his dreams. He found that the water was washing away the fearful sweat had developed whilst he thought back on what had happened. He stayed there for a while before stepping out and chucking on a shirt and jeans that were tighter on him than before, he hadn't just been sitting around all week. He had gained a decent amount of muscle in the time away from home, asking his girlfriend to hypnotize him to keep improving his body till it became unhealthy. She wasn't fond of the idea at the time but once she saw the results she warmed up to his training methods.
He took a seat on the couch next to Sarah, he had just finished another training session and needed to relax for a while. The red scaled dragon put her arm around him and gave a comforting smile to ease his mind. "You alright there cutie?" He returned her smile and nodded.
"Yeah, just tired. I think I'm gonna get some sleep." A yawn escaped the wolf's lips as he offered his reply, eliciting a giggle from the taller woman.
"Alright puppy, head on up. I'll follow in a bit, gotta talk to sis."
"Okay." Kaden soon found himself laying in the nineteen year-old dragon's bed, his body sinking slowly into it, mind dropping down deeper and deeper until he found himself drifting in the void, a familiar presence filled the endless nothingness but didn't speak to him this time. Instead Kaden found himself in a bedroom, most likely belonging to a cub of some sort from the way it was decorated.
His attention was drawn to the bed in the corner of the room that was furthest from the door as a fearful whimper reached his ears. On the bed a young fox kit, around six or seven, sat in the fetal position with a pink horse plush tucked against her chest, the kit had her tear full eyes shut tightly. He began to walk toward her, his face full of concern for the small kit. "Hey, hey." The kit's eyes opened and darted to him. She crawled away and hit her head against the wall, yelping as she did.
"Relax, I'm here to help."