The Guardian

Penny rolled around in her bed as she slowly came back to the land of consciousness. She tried to curl herself up in her blanket and pillow, but despite how comfortable both of them were she knew that her sleep time was unfortunately over. With a grumble she sat up in her bed and stretched out her arms while yawning. After a moment of sitting Penny opened her eyes, finally realizing that she was back home and lying comfortably in her bed hole in the wall.

She looked around her dimly lit cave room and counted out the various dream catchers that hung on the dirt walls, reaching twelve before losing focus and ending the count there. Feeling giddy with youthful energy, Penny hopped out of her bed and rushed out of the brown curtain separating her room from the cave main room, feeling ready to stimulate her brain.

The cave was massively dug out with a high ceiling and far off walls to allow as much relaxing space as possible, about enough space to hold about 5 full grown diamond dogs comfortably. To her right were a few cushioned seats positioned towards the fireplace low to the ground, and to her left was a rack filled with hunting and gathering equipment that her brother would use. There was a trident, a fishing pole, a large net, some heavy balls that were attached together by a rope, a wooden bow with a quiver of arrows, a role of wire, a role of rope, and a few more smaller ceramic balls with strings coming out of the tops of them.

Penny looked over on the far side of the room where the table and containers were and saw her big brother sitting in one of the chairs fussing over the offering plate. She walked across the room, the soft pattering of her paws on the hardened floor echoing throughout it, and came up to his right side. She walked over to the table and rested her chin on it, her long brown fur and limp ears spraying across the surface of the table cutely as she did so. She looked up at her brother and knew immediately from his expression that he was stressing out. He hadn't even noticed her cute display of concern as his eyes were still glued onto the immaculately decorated offering plate that he no doubt still felt was unfinished.

"Brother, what wrong?" She asked, already knowing the answer but just wanting him to speak his mind.

"Can't you see Penny?" He said pointing at the offering plate accusingly. She looked closely, noting how the perimeter of the plate was lined with nightshade flowers without the stems, and how in the middle of the silver plate was an assortment of blue and red berries organized from largest to smallest, with the largest in the middle and the smaller pieces surrounding it. In between everything was the centerpiece, the largest wampa fruit they had found when gathering, finishing off the entire offering piece perfectly.

"Yeah! It great!" She smiled at her brother and hoped that her positive response would help him relax, but all he did was narrow his eyes and lean closer to the plate.

"Look, right here!" He said pointing towards the pile of berries. Penny followed his pointing, but she only tilted her head in confusion as she struggled to find what he was even referring to, and eventually Calypso just sighed in defeat. "It's not symmetrical. The middle wine berry, and the middle sky berry need to be the same size, but look that one's too small!" Calypso threw his head back and grabbed it in frustration, but all Penny could do was look at him like he was crazy.

"It fine brother! Fairies will eat it anyway, they always." She said trying to reassure him.

"That's not the problem Penny," He lifted up a light blue berry in his hand to show her. "I can fix it with this berry but if I try it I'll only mess up the parts that are finished." Penny looked at the berry in her panicking brothers grasp and back to the berry that was wrong and could not tell the difference even if she tried. Still, the sight of her distressed brother made her feel bad, and no matter how small the problem may have seemed it was certainly important to him. With a nod of determination she backed away from the table and reached her arms out towards the plate, focusing as hard as she could on the items on top of it.

"I don't know Penny, maybe I am overreacting." Calypso pondered as he looked down to his sister. Suddenly he froze as he saw his little sister be engulfed in the brightest green light he'd ever seen. Her fur began to float upwards, a ring of pebbles began to circle around her, and finally her eyes began to glow a bright green. He watched all of the fruits and flowers on the plate be surrounded in the same green light, all except for the one berry he needed to replace. Wasting no time he lunged at the plate and carefully plucked out the sky berry and replaced it with the perfect one he had been holding onto this whole time.

"Okay! That's perfect! Thank you Penny!" He said happily as he looked over to her, but when he saw no change in her expression or use of energy he became a little concerned. "Penny?" He questioned as he got up and carefully moved towards her. Penny was seemingly locked in place as she grit her teeth and continued straining herself. He could hear a low hum being emitted from her body as she glew brighter and brighter until the green light was nearly blinding. "Penny! Stop!" He shouted as multiple objects including the table, all of the chairs, and the all of the pieces on the offering plate began to glow green and float into the air. He attempted to grab her but in doing so he was blasted back against the wall by the sheer force of her energy that had quickly started getting out of hand.

“No! Not again!” He screamed with worry before attempting to close his eyes and summon up his own energy in order to counteract hers, but due to his most recent use only a few hours prior he was completely tapped. He reopened his eyes and saw the energy coalescing around her in a circle on the ground, the power forming green tendrils that rose up and surrounded her. The humming grew louder and soon the entire room was filled with a slight pressure that grew stronger the closer he got to his out of control sister.

With very little in the way of options Calypso focused as hard as he could to force what was left of his own energy out. He screamed in pain as a flash of yellow engulfed his right hand, and with a rush of adrenaline and determination he lunged towards his sister, barely managing to grab her shoulder with his hand and pull her into a hug. Suddenly the humming stopped and the green energy along with it. At the same moment that he'd pulled Penny into a hug all of the items that had been afloat crashed into the ground simultaneously, leaving a mess all around the room. Calypso looked down at his sister who was violently shivering and panting in his arms.

"Penny? Penny! Are you okay?" He asked as he gave her a quick shake.

"W-wha happen?" She asked with a slur as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Calypso looked all around the destroyed room, from the hunting tools and furniture littering the ground, to the splattered berry's that he had spent so long perfecting, and finally the cracks in the condensed dirt walls of their home. The thought of what might have happened had he not stopped Penny made him shudder.

In the aftermath, Penny eventually regained her bearings and looked around the room herself. "I…did it again?" She asked nervously between breaths, her voice sounding guilty. Calypso didn't answer her and only continued to hold her close as he let his adrenaline and heart rate fall back down to normal. In all of the times Penny's energy had gone wild she had always been manageable. This time however, it was far more destructive than ever before. Had Calypso not been able to summon up even that small fraction of energy that he did, he feared that neither of them would be breathing.

"Yes...yes you did…" He paused as he struggled to control his shock. He felt his sister wiggle out of his grasp and break away from his grip. She stood in front of him, her ears splayed back in guilt and embarrassment as she slowly walked around the room with an unmistakable look of fear and shame as she looked at the mess. Calypso tried to get up and stop her until he felt a sharp pain in his stomach that made him fall down to one knee and wince loudly.

“Brother!” Penny yelled worriedly as she turned back around and helped him up to his feet. Calypso stood back up, the pain quickly fading, and reassured her that he was just fine, Even though he knew he still felt a twinge of pain. “All my fault! All my fault! So stupid Penny!” Penny chastised herself as she harshly facepalmed multiple times in a row. Calypso wasted no time in grabbing her arm and pulling her towards him.

“Penny that’s enough!” She looked away towards the ground with a frown and refused to face him. “You are not at fault. We are okay, and we will move on. You. Are. Not. Stupid.” He emphasised while still trying to get her to face him. He grabbed her chin and moved her head so that she was looking at him, the newly formed tears unmistakable in her eyes. After a moment of silence she nodded her head slowly while still trying to hide her face from him. Calypso hesitantly let go of her wrist and gave her With a sigh of relief he let go of her wrist and gave her one more quick hug before standing back up and looking around the room nervously.

“Well Penny, let’s get cleaning. We have an offering to get to.” He said as he stepped towards the fallen hunting tools and picked up his father's bronze trident. Penny, who still felt incredibly guilty, began cleaning up and salvaging the squashed fruits while her brother handled the heavier items.

The sibling dogs continued working in silence for the next few minutes until the cave looked nearly as clean as it had before. They shifted the furniture back into place, while setting aside a now splintered chair, and finally managed to remake the offering with what little they had. While the plate didn't look nearly as ornate as it previously was it was still filled with berries and fruits that would make for a decent offering. Not a great one, but a decent one.

They continued to tidy up in silence until the ticking wooden clock above the fire pit began to let out a little chime, signaling that it was time. Both he and Penny looked to the clock, and then back to the messy room while letting out a sigh of defeat.

"Come on, we have offering." Penny said tiredly as she grabbed hold of the offering plate and made her way to the exit tunnel.

"Yeah, we'll just...clean this later." Calypso replied as he picked up his father's trident, his bow, and his quiver of arrows before following after Penny. They ventured through the six by six tunnel for a few minutes as it twisted left, right, and finally upwards until they reached a hatch that when opened led to the starry night outside within a thick bush that concealed it. They carefully exited one at a time with Calypso being first, then taking the plate from Penny as she hoisted herself out and onto the grass below with a soft pat.

Calypso placed the plate back in her hands and began to lead the way to the altar in the dead of night. The darkened forest was filled with cold winds and the feeling of all kinds of eyes watching from the darkness but with how often they'd run this route he knew that there would likely be no trouble. Still he'd always bring the bow and trident just in case, he had never needed them before, and he hoped he wouldn't need them tonight.

The loud wind continued to grow more and more powerful to the point where he actually felt it beneath his thick coat making him shiver ever so slightly. He looked behind him and noticed Penny starting to lag behind as she did her best to keep the offering in tact while she walked, slowing her down significantly. He backtracked towards her position so that he could help push her along, and as he did so he raised his voice to grab her attention over the loud rustling leaves in the tree branches above them.

"Are you okay Penny? Usually you put a shield around the offering." Penny's eyes widened as she began stammering in an attempt to answer.

"W-w-well, I'm j-just tired." She stuttered out as she smiled nervously. Calypso wanted to question it further, but given the circumstances he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. They continued walking in relative silence, and as they did Calypso thought about himself as well as Penny. Normally he would think about the now, like how were they going to eat? How was he going to keep her safe? How could he better improve Penny's speech classes? For the first time however, he couldn't help but be focused on their future. Why was Penny so powerful at such a young age? What would happen if her power kept spiking like this? How long would they both be able to control it.

Thinking this hard about powers and systems that he knew next to nothing about made his head hurt, but still he knew that it had to be done...even if he didn't know what he was going to do about it. A sharp tug on his right thigh broke his train of thought and brought him back to the dark and windy forest where both he and Penny now stood, stationary. He was about to question why she had stopped him until he noticed where they were, a dark and hidden depression about seven feet lower than the rest of the forest ground. They were surrounded on all sides by damp jagged stonework that formed the walls of the pit, with some vines and roots poking out of the sides of them. A few small trees dotted the circular area beside them, their bark thin and curved due to their malnutrition and lack of proper sunlight.

Turning their attention back to the front they saw their destination, a tall and smooth stone slab that nearly reached the height of the depression itself. The slab had dark engravings on it that were nearly impossible to distinguish in the dead of night, but for the two dogs it was merely the confirmation that they had arrived. The juxtaposition of this monolith with it's unsettling surroundings was only intensified as a single ray of moonlight travelled up the face of the stone and into the middle of all of the engravings, making them glow a similar soft blue.

Calypso let out a calming breath and began muttering the prayer in the ancient tongue of the fairies, and sure enough the engravings flew brighter and brighter with every word. He didn't know what he was saying, all he knew was that his father had etched these words into his mind so that he too could carry on the responsibility of offering. As the final sentence left his lips the engravings began to light up, letting out a melodic tune as they did so. The engravings dimmed down and sank into the stone, a loud crunch accompanying the action, and finally the slab parted in the middle and swung open to allow them entry.

After stepping through the gate the stones shut themselves, sealing them both inside for the ceremony. The location they had now entered was very similar to the forest they had left. It was still dark, and the wind was still blowing, but instead of the trees blocking almost all of the night sky they were now in a large clearing with a clear view of the sky above them. Now the night sky was the most different thing of all, because instead of a few bright stars surrounding the moon, the night sky was lit up with waving oranges, blues, and reds of bursting stars.

Calypso tapped Penny's shoulder to grab her attention away from the sky and refocus her on the task at hand. She apologized and caught up with Calypso as they made their way to the middle of the large clearing and towards a simple stone altar. It was a rectangular stone slightly covered in moss that came up to Calypso's waist. As they walked closer to the altar a soft chorus of chimes and bells came to great them, the melody was soothing and filled the two with a sense of nostalgia. They both stopped about three paces from the altar and knelt down before it, setting down their trident, bow and arrows, and offering plate respectively. Then they bowed their heads in respect and stayed silent as they felt the energy of the altar gather around them and it.

After a few minutes of silent prayer the chimes had stopped, once they had the wind quickly began to pick up and ruffle their fur in all directions. Once their cue had been given Calypso looked over to Penny and pointed his head at the altar. Penny nodded in understanding and quickly placed the offering on the stone pedestal located at the base of the altar. The moment she had placed the plate upon the stone, the harsh winds stopped, leaving the entire area eerily silent. They waited nervously and stared at the offering as if it were about to explode, then suddenly the altar began to glow a bright green, revealing various inscriptions and patterns that were previously hidden by the moss.

The two dogs sighed in relief as the light glew brighter and brighter until a spire of green light shot into the air spectacularly. Calypso and Penny smiled gleefully as the area around them became filled with tiny balls of light that were revealed by the spires light. The tiny balls of light started to dance all around them in a beautiful display of different colors like pink, yellow, purple, blue, an entire rainbow of light greeted them vibrantly. The balls of light all gathered around the offering plate, creating the best rainbow light show that the two had ever seen, and eventually the lights dimmed enough to reveal the gaggle of fairies all happily eating from the offering plate.

Penny smiled widely and dropped down to her stomach so that she could see the fairies more clearly as they ate. She took note of their tiny forms, how they looked very similar to diamond dogs except for a few key differences. They weren't covered in fur like them, instead they only had small patches of colored hair on their heads. Their body's were much thinner than a diamond dogs as well, and their snouts were very close to their faces and triangle shaped. They all wore clothing made out of colored leaves that matched the color of their light and hair, and every one of the fairies had large wings that looked like a mix between a dragonfly and a butterfly. They only flapped their wings about once every few minutes, yet despite this they were still able to maneuver all around the air with ease so Penny just assumed it was their strange magic helping them do so.

Calypso once again nudged Penny with his elbow to grab her attention, then reminded her that it was impolite to stare when someone else was eating. Penny returned to her kneeling position and watched from farther away as the now tired fairies finished their offering and flew up into the air yawning. Both Penny and Calypso watched as the fairies started to aimlessly float around the area, until a single blue fairy began to idly float towards Calypso. She was snoring in the most adorable display of sleep flying ever, and once she got close enough Calypso reached out and caught her in the palm of his hand. He watched her sleep happily and began to pet her on her small tuft of blue hair, taking notice of her pointy ears and cute blue leaf dress she was wearing.

Penny watched her brother happily until she heard a little bell jingling next to her ear. She turned to look at the source of the noise and saw a small yellow fairy floating in front of her. She looked very similar to the blue fairy with a yellow leaf dress of her own, except her hair was much longer and fell past her shoulders. The fairy tilted her head curiously, an action that Penny reciprocated as the two stared at each other in confusion until the fairy spoke.

"Ve lu, con ten dish?" The fairy asked in a high pitched ethereal voice that made Penny's ears twitch. Penny shook her head in confusion and pointed to herself questioningly, an action that made the fairy lean forward and nod her head happily with a soft bell noise accompanying the action.

"No, I no have anymore." Penny said innocently. The fairy made a sad face and hung its head in disappointment, an action that made Penny feel really bad. Feeling sorry for the fairy, Penny quickly looked around for a solution to the problem and noticed a leftover berry stuck in a crack between the altar and stone pedestal. She was about to reach out her hand, but hesitated when she remembered what she had done earlier in the cave. She looked down at her trembling hands nervously, she wanted to help, but she also didn't want to hurt anyone by accident.

Closing her hands nervously, Penny instead crawled over to the crack and used her long claws to dig out the berry herself. After a minute or two of scratching she finally managed to dislodge the berry and present it to the fairy who gasped and let out a symphony of bells and chimes as she excitedly hugged the berry that was half her size. Penny watched the display with a smile, laughing as the fairy hungrily tore into the berry until it was completely devoured. The fairy looked up at Penny as it wiped its face and smiled at her.

"Sed pue midge!" The fairy happily exclaimed, making Penny smile even harder.

"No problem." Penny replied as she reached out and pet the fairy with her finger. The fairy flew towards Penny and sat on her shoulder while awkwardly trying to hug her neck.

"Made a new friend Penny?" Calypso, who had watched the entire interaction, asked happily as he continued to pet his own sleeping fairy. Penny nodded happily and looked over to the little fairy on her shoulder.

"My name is Penny! What's yours?" The fairy looked confused for a moment before replying in her strange fairy language. "You have no name? That's a not good." Calypso looked at her strangely and interjected.

"Uh, Penny? You know we can't understand fairy right?" He said this because ever since he was a pup he'd tried to talk to the fairies only to be left confused by their strange language. As he waited for an answer the blue fairy in his palm slowly yawned and rubbed its eyes as it finally woke up.

"This one speaks brother! Promise!" Calypso just rolled his eyes and chalked it up to her imagination as he continued to pet the sleepy fairy in his hand. The blue fairy finally opened her eyes and froze when she saw the large furry finger petting her. She looked down at the hand she was laying in, and finally she slowly looked up at Calypso meeting his eyes with her own. Calypso smiled and greeted her, which made the fairy blush furiously and hide her face.

"Tre don te de vement!" She said quickly, trying desperately to hide her embarrassment. Calypso's ears twitched and jaw dropped as he heard the fairy speak to him clearly. The fairy slowly looked back at him in confusion before slowly getting back to her feet. "Tri nami?" She asked curiously, but that only served to make Calypso freak out even harder.

"Told you brother." Penny said smugly as she held her fairy in front of her with her index finger. Calypso would have responded if he wasn't too preoccupied with staring at his fairy, who was starting to blush and look a little embarrassed.

"Tri no codon le tre?" The fairy asked silently, an action that finally seemed to snap Calypso.

"I can understand you!?" The fairy looked from side to side before shrugging her shoulders. Calypso looked over to Penny and her fairy who merely mimicked the blue fairy and shrugged their shoulders in uncertainty. "Okay, and you want me to let you go?" He asked the fairy in his palm who suddenly became very erratic.

"Non, non!" She cried while waving both of her hands dismissively. Calypso was taken aback by her insistence against doing what she had previously asked him, but otherwise remained ready to grant her wish, just as soon as she decided what that actually was. The blue fairy paused for a moment, as if realizing her own strange sense of urgency when responding and looked up at Calypso nervously. She turned away when she met his eyes and inadvertently looked to the other fairy who seemed to have a smug grin on her face. The yellow fairy then whispered something into Penny's ear that made the pup bring a paw to her mouth and giggle, this in turn made the blue fairy's face turn red once more and become as stiff and straight as a piece of wood

She quickly turned back to Calypso, her arms at her sides and her body still stiff, and bowed to him multiple times before jumping off of his paw and speeding off to the other fairy. She grabbed the giggling yellow fairy by the ear and dragged her away towards the green spire where all of the other fairies now gathered. They took their place in the spire, and while the blue fairy tried to hide behind something, the yellow fairy was waving gleefully with a dopey smile.

"Goodbye Shannon!" Penny yelled to the fairy while giving a wave of her own. The spire began to slowly fizzle out of existence, and with it all of the tired fairies slowly disappeared back into whichever plane they originated from. Once they had finished their goodbyes, Calypso looked down at his sister with a raised eyebrow.

"Shannon?" He asked curiously.

"What? I like the name." Penny said with a casual shrug. Calypso just smiled and laughed at his silly little sister while he ruffled up her hair. "Gah, brother!" She complained, secretly trying to hide how much she enjoyed it. Calypso let up his assault and grabbed his weapons while Penny picked up the now messy and empty silver plate. With a shared nod of understanding the two diamond dogs walked back towards the portal, happy to return to their home where they could finally have some rest.

(0)/

The soft wind blew calmly through the forest, but to her it felt like it was a rushing typhoon threatening to tear her apart. She didn't care though, she had to try everything she could to make it home before she was caught. If she was caught, then a terrible fate awaited her.

She flapped her tiny wings frantically as she soared upwards into a low hanging tree branch, using the thick green leaves to hide her dim, but still visible, pink light. She panted heavily as she tried to recover as much stamina as she could, but the rumbling in her stomach sent shivers through her entire body, telling her that she didn't have long. She was being chased furiously ever since she appeared, but If she didn't find some food soon then there'd be nothing left of her to catch. Seeing as how she couldn't find nor hear her assailants, she was about to hop off of the tree and look for a Bluk berry, but suddenly she stopped.

Just how long could she keep this up? If she managed to find a berry, would that really be enough energy to make it back home? What if the offering ceremony was finished and she couldn't return home fast enough? Why had she even ended up here in the first place? Maybe it was best...for her to just go to sleep?

As she contemplated these increasingly hopeless thoughts, she failed to notice a tiny specially made net being fired at her from below. The net quickly encapsulated her and sent her spiralling down from the trees branch, screaming helplessly as she did. Suddenly she was caught by a massive moving object that landed safely on the ground with a soft thud. Her attacker quickly opened up a jar and shook her out of the net into it, trapping the poor wounded fairy.

"Excellent work Vala!" Another figure said as he appeared out of the darkness, accompanied by two more similar looking shadows who were much larger. As they stepped closer she could see that they were four legged equines with black and white stripes wearing various bags and armor. The one holding her was much shorter than the others and slimmer as well.

"Thank you!" She replied in a high pitched and very young voice. The equine turned back towards the fairy, a strange skull shaped necklace hanging from her neck menacingly, and smiled at her. "Now little fairy, you're gonna show us your home." The fairy fell down and backed up against the jar in terror as the necklace began to glow pink, before turning blood red and opening its jaw. That was the last thing she saw before everything turned black.