2.3 This next one should seem familiar to some of you faithful readers. I wrote this snippet back in November about the tiny hummingbird guardian. Now back by popular demand (meaning Grandma King and mother, love you guys!), I have extended this snippet.
Sneak Peek: You meet the next guardian. :) Artist: Unknown.
The Island of Animalia
[NEW]
Everick moved through the forest like an angry badger. Muttering and shoving bushes and tree branches out of his way, he left a trail of destruction behind him. They don’t understand the pressure I am under! Everyone is depending on me to save the Kingdom, and I am running out of time. Everick looked down at the four keys, fastened to a chain, klinking as they bounced off each other. All of them were different sizes and shapes, yet they somehow looked as if they belonged together. His favorites were the wolf key and the shark key, and coincidentally they had been the easiest to collect.
But now...everything was so much harder. He had spent a good hour or two just trying to find the other guardians. He had yet to see one, and if he couldn’t find them how was he supposed to win their key? And that tiny bird had expected him to apologize when he had done nothing wrong. It was all so frustrating! Everick picked up a rock and threw it. He heard it bounce off something hollow that made him pause. Hollow meant it wasn’t a rock or a tree. Curious, Everick shoved his way through the undergrowth until he found his rock lying next to an empty turtle shell which was positioned next to a berry bush. He scowled at it, disappointed it wasn’t something important. Grunting, he turned to continue his tirade through the forest when he heard a deep female voice echo as if in a cave. “That wasn’t...very nice...young man.”
Startled, Everick turned back to see the turtle shell quivering. Slowly, two back legs appeared, then the two front, and finally, a wrinkly head with a wicked beak and a stubby tail. One beady black eye fixed him with a stern gaze.
Everick looked at the tiny turtle closely. Surely a slow, weak, little turtle wasn’t a guardian. But, unfortunately for him, he didn’t have any other leads to investigate. “Forgive me, Mei Turtle, I have been under a great deal of stress and threw the rock without thinking.”
“Hmm. That is both...true and not...true, princeling. Just because...you weren’t thinking...and you are...stressed doesn’t mean...you are excused...from your behavior.” The turtle paused frequently to breath deeply, although to Everick, they sounded more like gasps. It took a great deal of time for the creature to speak and if Everick had known the creature wasn’t a guardian, he would have walked off mid-speech. But since he wasn’t sure, he had to stand there, twitching and tapping his foot, while the old turtle berated him.
“It isn’t an excuse, it is an explanation, Mei Turtle.”
The turtle stretched her new forward to its full length and gave the Prince another stern gaze.“So you are...deluded...as well as...impatient...and hot-headed. Not a good sign.”
Everick felt his face grow warm. “Now hold on a moment, Mei Turtle, I am not…” Everick gasped. Around the long neck of the reptile was a key. The Prince drew closer to look at the reptilian body and realized that a bunch of replica keys adorned the outside of the shell. “You are a guardian, Mei Turtle. You protect a key to the great Sherra Door.”
The guardian turtle drew her neck back into her shell and her expression softened. “So I am...so I am.” She then turned away from him and proceeded to stare up at a large purple berry that hung a foot above her head and said nothing more.
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