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	Chapter 1 - The Rogue Beast
	“Spirits of the Faithful, I call you. Grant me the powers of flight.” Commanded Princess Lupato, with her wand held above her head. In an instant, a set of beautiful wings spouted from her back, lifting her into the night sky, out towards the sandy lands around the Kingdom of Karamune. The Kingdom itself was a marvellous place, a huge city, surrounded by a wall which kept out unfriendly creatures. The sandy lands were entirely different. They covered the entire planet, with the exception of places like Karamune, where there were rivers that had managed to survive. All that could be seen for miles around was sand. Nothing but boring old sand. There were one or two mountains in view in the distance, but other from the animals which had adapted to live out there, that was about it. The thing Lupato was flying towards was a creature in the sandy lands around the kingdom of Karamune. As she flew towards the creature, which seemed to resemble a small mountain with arms and legs, her hair followed wildly behind her, even though it was plaited. Her full concentration was on the beast now threatening her kingdoms safety, and her mind was already trying to work out where exactly it was attacking from, and more importantly, how to beat it. “What do you make of it Maro?” Maro. The princess’ Guardian. He had two forms he could take, each with different abilities. Firstly he had his ‘Fake form’, which was a small winged black kitten. This was the form he stayed in for most of his time. His other was a Black winged panther. This form was much more capable, but it came with one major downside. Staying in this form for longer than ten minutes would drain any magical energy he had at an alarming rate. He was flying alongside her now in his kitten form; he would only use his powerful form if he really had to. “That looks like a Rock Beast from Malathene, and they’re apart of the Colamine Alliance at the moment, which is dangerous for us.” Suggested Maro. “Yes, But that’s impossible! Malathene is in the south, and this beast is coming in from the East.” Opposed the Princess. “Then it must be an outcast. We have to stop it before it reaches Karamune, if that’s a Colamine, outcast or not, it isn’t friendly.” Her wand was held in both hands, and she held it in front of her, preparing to cast another spell. “No, you can’t” Maro cut in, seeing her ready the wand. “It’s too dangerous, especially at this height. If you lose your energy, the wings will go with it.” “I have to try Maro, if it is from Malathene then an elemental spell is all that can take it out, and I have no time to wait.” Casting a spell whilst already using another took a huge amount of energy. If she broke her concentration for one moment, it was very likely that she would collapse, and at this height, that wasn’t going to be good. The problem was that her mind was made up. Maro would just have to hope that Princess Lupato didn’t lose any concentration. “Spirits of the faithful, I call you. Grant me the passage of the element Water.” She recited. Her wand started to shake, and a jet of water burst out of the end of her wand towards the rock creature. The princess was still conscious. That meant she hadn’t wasted any energy in the spell. There was no time for celebrating yet, the water was still on its way to the creature, and there was still plenty room for error. The princess jabbed her wand forwards and the water started to speed up. That was a bad idea. It was easier for her to leave it going how it was, because it needed less concentration, but amazingly, the Princess was still flying. When it finally reached the monster, it struck what the Princess assumed to be its chest. The monster was knocked back a few feet, but considering its size, this was no real accomplishment. “Maro it didn’t w-” She started to speak to her guardian, but her eyes were closing, slowly. What an idiot, thought Maro. She’d forgotten to end the spell. “Princess! Pull yourself together!” said Maro, her guardian. “You’re here to fight that thing, so you can’t go wasting your energy like that!” It was no good, her wings were shrinking. Maro had hoped he didn’t have to do this today. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Nothing happened. He couldn’t transform. Why couldn’t he transform? “Nori? Nori?” “Yes, we can see her. She’ll begin to fall any second, her wings are almost gone now.” “Nori, I can’t transform. You two will have to save her.” “You can’t transform?” “No, I’ll have to try to slow her down in this form.” Maro flew over to where the princess was floating in midair. She’d stay like that while the wings were still present, but they had almost disappeared by then. Maro found a spot on her battle costume that looked like it would support her the most and sank his teeth into it. He was just in time. Literally seconds after he got a good grip, the princess’ weight pulled him down. He flapped his wings all he could, trying his best to pull her upwards, but it was no good. All that was happening was Maro being pulled downwards by the Princess. He just wasn’t strong enough in this form. No matter how weak he was, he wouldn’t let go. The Princess would easily do the same for him. All he had to do was hold her up until the Prince got here to catch her, or if he couldn’t do that, he could at least slow her down. Maro just kept trying to fly upwards. He knew he couldn’t pull her up by now, but it was all he could do to slow her down. It was working though. By some miracle, the princess was slowing down. It changed quickly. A heart turning tear reached Maro’s ears. No, he wouldn’t let her fall. It was no use hoping anymore, and as the fabric tore right through, the princess fell from Maro’s grip and plummeted towards the Earth. As Maro sped after her with all he possibly could, one thing ran through his mind. Was he glad that she was so high up? It gave her a few more precious seconds with her life, and a few more precious seconds for the Prince to try and catch her, but at the same time it almost guaranteed that hitting the ground would kill her. * * * * * Prince Yokatu stood where Princess Lupato had left him, with his staff in his right arm. His thoughts were directed to the monster attacking his father’s kingdom. “Stay close Nori, this one’s strong.” He said to his Guardian. He held his staff behind him, with his right hand holding the staff, and his left hand on top of his right. “I draw the spirits of the Hopeful. Lend me your strength, and give me speed” His legs filled with energy, and he shot forwards at an unrivalled pace. Nori couldn’t have kept up, even if he were in his lion form, so he was clinging to a ribbon which had been attached to Yokatu’s battle suit for exactly that reason. As he ran, he glanced up to look for his lover, but she was behind him now. He stopped for a moment to look back. What a fool! She was trying to take the beast down with her water element spell! “She can’t do that! Nori, she’s using two spells at once.” “There’s no way to stop her now Prince, you know what will happen if her concentration breaks. You’ll just have to focus on taking that thing down from here.” “Right!” Prince Yokatu stopped the speed spell and repositioned his staff to use his wind element spell. “I draw the spirits of the Hopeful. Grant me the passage of the element Wind.” On the word ‘Wind’ he could feel the air around him as it started to move faster. He pointed his staff forwards, and the air began to move so fast that it was actually visible. It moved rapidly towards the rock beast, but upon hitting it, it did nothing. The beast seemed to have the powers to reflect the elements. “Don’t worry Prince. It’s an earth elemental.” “An ELEMANTAL! What do you mean don’t worry?!? That will completely annihilate the cities walls!” screamed the Prince. He took a quick glance back at the city walls. “Where is Haruko when you need him? Earth is his element.” he whispered. “Forget Haruko, he’s asleep, and he earned it after that demon attack this morning.” “The only way you will-” Began Nori, but he was cut short as a jet of water hit the elemental from above him. The creature was forced back a fair distance, but it didn’t seem that any damage had actually been done. “Maro is contacting me” said the guardian. Normally humans had the means to telepathically speak with anyone in their direct family, but guardians had no families, so they could all speak to the other guardians. “The princess, her wings are shrinking Yokatu. Maro can’t transform, so he’s going to do his best to hold her up in his weak form, but you have to get there as quick as possible. “Speed!” shouted Yokatu, having already recited the spell once; there was no need to do it again so soon. “What are you going to do?” shouted Nori from behind him, gripping his ribbons. “I’ll use wind to catch her, but I need to get in range first, it won’t do anything from here” “You won’t have time to stop, and I won’t let you cast 2 spells at once, it’s too dangerous, Prince” “That’s why you’ll carry speed for me.” Explained Yokatu. It was dangerous. Especially with a spell like speed, and only having half of his powers in this form, but it didn’t take nearly as much concentration for two to cast two spells than it did for just one. “Okay.” “Powers of speed, give control to the guardian by my side.” Yokatu felt the weight of the spell leave him, but he still kept running at the same pace. He chanced a look upwards, the princess was falling incredibly fast. Maro must have failed to hold her up there. That wasn’t good, he had to put everything he had into concentrating on the wind spell. This was an elemental spell, so it had to be properly cast each time. “I draw the spirits of the Hopeful. Grant me the passage of the element wind.” The air came from his staff, and propelled forwards even faster. Spells were always conditional to the position of the caster, so if the caster moved to the side, so did the spell. The same applied here. Yokatu was moving forward, and so was the spell, but Yokatu could still send the spell further forward away from his current position. “It’s working!” Came Nori’s voice from behind him. He was right, the spell had positioned itself underneath the Princess. “Cut the spell Nori” said Yokatu, who stopped moving forwards instantly. Yokatu concentrated on bringing the wind spell down slowly, which was acting as a cushion for Lupato. She finally touched the ground, lightly as a feather, and Yokatu ran to her side. “Lupato? Are you all right?” asked the concerned Prince. She was still unconscious. The prince put his hand on her forehead “Spirits of Hope, I draw you. Lend me you powers, and heal my companion” The princess’ eyes slowly started to open. “Prince?” Breathed Lupato, still recovering from her state of unconsciousness. She lifted herself to her feet and threw herself into Yokatu’s arms. “Thank you, my prince” Maro looked over to Nori while the Prince and princess embraced. “We try to change again; they’ll need all our magic against this enemy.” “We can’t” said Nori calmly. “That thing is an elemental.” “Wait, an elemental.” Interrupted Princess Lupato. “We thought it was an outcast rock beast from Malathia” “No, it’s an elemental alright; nothing else would withstand both of our own elemental attacks that well.” The prince added. “Wait, if it’s an elemental, and it’s approaching from the East, then than means there is a Demalecan Loathe sorcerer capable of producing an elemental now.” “There can’t be! I went there just last month, and there wasn’t a single presence near those powers yet, and besides, Demaleca are un-allied, why would they place an attack on us?” argued the prince. “Hey, in case you didn’t notice, there’s a huge rock monster heading right for us!” interrupted Maro. The Prince and Princess exchanged glances. “If it’s elemental, then the only way to beat it is with the arrow.” Concluded Yokatu. “Lets go then.” Said Lupato. They stood together, as close as they could without touching, and each of them drew a semicircle in the sand, which connected to form one full circle around them. “Spirits of the Faithful and the Hopeful” they chanted together, “Trust us, as your intermediaries, with your most cherished power. Lend us your arrow.” Once they had finished, the two of them held their front hands out together in front of them and their back hands in midair between the two of them. The landscape seemed to get slightly darker, and between the pair’s front hands, a bow formed, conducted from pure light. A line of light formed in Lupato’s back hand, and she placed it in the bow. As soon as the two light formations touched, the arrow instantly flew towards the rock beast, which was surprisingly close considering how slow it was approaching. It knew its target and tore through the neck of the creature, causing its head to fall to the earth. “We did it Yokatu!” Exclaimed Lupato, but Yokatu’s eyes were still on the elemental. It seemed to be glowing. Yokatu realised what was happening just in time, and pushed Lupato aside just as the elemental exploded. Lupato hit the sand which cushioned her slightly, and a chunk of the creature came past and narrowly missed her. Yokatu wasn’t so lucky. He caught the piece of the elemental full on, and was torn away from Princess Lupato, the shard of the elemental carrying him for quite a distance. The princess stood up after about a minute, once she was sure that the monster had been scattered, and that she was in no danger. She looked to her side and saw Maro there, but there was no sign of Nori anywhere. A tear formed in the corner of her eye. Her Prince, gone. * * * * * “Prince?” whispered Nori, upon finding the body of the dying Yokatu. “Nori” came the voice into Nori’s head. “I’ve told you to call me Yokatu” “Prince Yokatu, I can lift this rock from off the top of you” “To no avail Nori. I am already dead.” “Then give me your final orders Prince Yokatu.” “Nori, I want you to take any magical energy that is left in my body, and use it to repair my staff.” “But Prince, I can-” “No buts Nori. I don’t want you wasting your magic when mine is not going to be used again anyway” “Is that your final wish Prince?” “No. Nori, my final wish is for you to address the candidate for my replacement how he wishes to be addressed.” That was the last Nori, or indeed anyone, ever heard of Prince Yokatu, and Nori collected the shattered fragments of Yokatu’s staff, along with the magical energy which was left inside the body of Prince Yokatu.
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