“Well there was never any doubt you’d be employed as either a protector or a healer considering your talents”

“I did make something explode in your face, you know.”

“Small mistake,” Una replied, chuckling at the memory. “It was funny and smelt nice anyway. Come on, let’s go meet the others!”

She dashed off again towards the meeting point, the pavilion in the middle of the employment center’s garden. I sighed and chased after her, I forgot how much energy Una had.

As the pavilion came into view, so did four other strangers. One of them appeared to have wings although not pure white. It was more of an ash grey tone. He was clearly a half-angel. Una had already reached and was waiting for her to catch up. Using a final burst of speed, I reached there within seconds.

“Ah. Welcome Althea, Una. I see you’ve both received my letter. Good. These three others will be your new team members. Enfys, Nuriel and Keior. Keior will be your leader,” The older man who was clearly the one in charge gestured to the three others standing around. “You five will be guarding the new school that has been built. A house has been provided near the school for all of you to live in. You will receive a monthly payment of five thousand gold a month. I will leave you all to get acquainted now. Here is the address.” With that, the man dressed in a black suit turned and left, pressing a small piece of paper into Keior’s hands.

Una, with her usual friendliness, started the introductions. “I’m Una and this is Althea. She’s a healer and an alchemist. I’m a telepath but not the usual kind.” I mumbled something about not being that good an alchemist.

“I’m Nuriel and as you all can see, I’m a half-angel but everyone says my angel half is only in my appearance.” Nuriel gave a slight bow in a joking manner.

“That’s cause you’re constantly playing pranks on people.” Toshie retorted.

“Poor Toshie, no sense of humor at all.” Nuriel smiled at her sweetly.

“If I find any more of those bubble mines you created, I’ll give you an illusion so terrible you won’t be able to sleep for weeks.” Toshie hissed. “Now let Keior introduce himself.”

“I’m Keior and all of you are expected to move in by tomorrow. We start in two days.” Keior sounded sour and gave no hint of his abilities at all.

“And what might your abilities be?” I inquired politely, curiosity getting better if me. Annoyance shot through me when he ignored my question and walked off.

 “I hope his leadership skills are better than his hearing,” Toshie muttered to no one in particular.

“Looks like Toshie may have some sense of humor after all!” Nuriel exclaimed with feigned surprise. Toshie attempted to throw a punch at Nuriel but he took to the skies and hovered there. They continued to exchange insults for the next half hour. Una and I couldn’t resist laughing. The two of them definitely knew each other from before. Unnoticed by everyone else, Nuriel kept throwing uneasy glances in Keior’s direction.

It didn’t take us long to find the new house. It did, however, take us a long time to decide on which rooms we wanted. The house had two floors and a basement. The second floor had five bedrooms each with a connecting bathroom, which meant one bedroom per person. Two of them overlooked the forest in front of the house while the other three faced the backyard. The backyard consisted of a huge garden and a swimming pool. Keior took a room facing the forest. None of us felt like arguing with him; it felt like icy waves were perpetually rolling off him. He barely spoke to us and when he did, it was only to tell us we had an hour to settle in before a group meeting downstairs regarding our job. All of us, save Una, wanted the room remaining room facing the forest. In the end, it was decided that Nuriel will take the room. It seemed more practical as he pointed out that if he spotted any intruders he could easily use angelic magick to warn us.

I took the room nearest to the stairs. The room was sparsely decorated. It had a single bed, a desk and a drawer. There were clean sheets and towels in the drawer. The bathroom had a rain shower although there was no bathtub to my slight disappointment. Soaking in a bathtub would be appealing during winter. I spent the free time exploring the house. The first floor had a living room, a dining room and a kitchen. The basement was empty and bare it could hardly be called dark, bright lights were installed in the basement to prevent it from giving a typical basement storage impression. I found Una in the garden examining the soil.

“Will you be planting anything?” Una loved plants and in my opinion, had a green thumb.

“Of course! I can already imagine the garden full of flowers! Would you like me to help you plant anything?”

“Just a few basic herbs. I doubt I’ll be creating any fancy potions. I haven’t had any success with personal recipes anyway.” I winced at the memory of my past experiments.

“Sure. But don’t give up, you’ll succeed one day.” Una replied sympathetically.

I gave a shrug and watched her for a while longer. “C’mon meeting is starting soon. Don’t wanna be late the first time round.” She gave a slight nod and followed me to the dining hall. Our dear leader was already seated at the head of the table waiting for everyone to gather. Toshie was seated to his right, Una and I took our seats opposite her on Keior’s left.

“Just like that dratted bird to be late,” Toshie muttered under her breath.

“Try knocking on his door,” I suggested.

“It’s ok. We’ll wait for him,” Keior said quietly.

I took the chance to observe Enfys and Keior. Toshie had silky hazelnut brown hair that reached her shoulders. Her eyes were almost like that of a cat’s and were green with flecks of gold. She was slightly taller than me and carried an air of confidence.

Keior could hardly be called muscular but he gave an impression that if he wanted, he could be stronger than even those bulkier than him. His eyes were smoky-grey and cold. Even now when we were gathered for a meeting, it was clear he wanted to be left alone.

“Hey everyone,” Nuriel entered the room, bright as usual. He looked like how some people used to imagine Angels to be. Being a half-Angel, he did not have as much “Shine” as they did. His hair was bright, golden blond and he had baby blue eyes. Angels with Shine are most of the time too bright to see, no one has yet to determine an Angel’s actual appearance. “I was taking a test flight around the house, the school is a short walk down one of the forest paths. Other than that, it’s a full five Talsi surrounding the house.”

“Well it says in the contract that all five acres is ours,” Keior stated. “We are to attend this school and protect its students from all harm. The strategy is up to us.”

“The area we’re in is known to have a lot of attacks isn’t it?” I asked, not altogether familiar with this part of the country.

“Yes. But we are not to reveal ourselves to the students. They must not know who their Protectors are.”

“We’re not protecting ordinary students are we? We’re protecting the monster spawn from our own species.” Disbelief was clear in Una’s tone. Kieor gave a slight nod. Gasps were heard all round the table. Hatred shone in her eyes, “Protect them? I’d rather massacre all of them. Better to rid the world of a few more demons. Why should we protect their children when they are always hunting ours? Have you forgotten how they breed? They steal our children and inject their essence into them. A few days of suffering and suddenly they too change into a monster. All their human memories are wiped clean and they grow up as monsters.”

“You want to kill them all? Well here’s a bit of news. Human laboratories have been working on a way to let monsters breed without using actual human children. And they succeeded with the help of a few monsters who were willing to assist them. These monster children unfortunately, aren’t being accepted into either the monster or human societies. As such, our boss, Mr.Itmach, offered to set up a place for them to live in peace. Are you sure you still want to kill them?" Keior asked her.

This took me awhile to do. Blame blogger for any weird, huge, random spaces (which were actually black text blending in with the background). Anyway, I'm trying to do a complete a story for once, but I might end up stopping halfway for various reasons. Oh well, just have to see where this leads to. Comments please! It would be especially helpful if comments are more specific than just "nice" and please tell me when the plot line gets cliche. Thanks! :D - Wolf