All Eight Guardians

Karri's POV

After meeting with Sykes, King Ode dismissed me and I walked to the Guardian Prophecy wing. When I entered the wing I found Moose sitting in a chair in the hallway. When he noticed me he stood up and walked up to me.

"What did King Ode want?" he asked.

"He introduced me to his royal inventor." I said.

Moose raised an eyebrow, "The King has a royal inventor?"

I nodded, "Apparently so."

"...So what did the royal inventor want?" Moose questioned.

I grabbed the yellow shrunken head which was clipped to my hip and held it out for Moose to see.

"What is that?" he asked skeptically.

"The inventor, Sykes, calls them headphones, but they kind of work like universal walkie-talkies." I explained.

"Headphones?" Moose asked, "That's a freakin' neon colored shrunken head."

I couldn't help but quietly giggle. He was looking at the headphone like he was afraid of it or disgusted by it or something like that. "Yeah, I know, but it's totally cool. You talk into the ear to say something and the lips move when the person on the other end replies back."

"Who has the other headphone?"

"King Ode, of course." I replied.

Moose rolled his eyes and repeated, "Of course."

I clipped the headphone back to my hip and asked, "So where is everyone else?"

"They passed out as soon as they got back." he answered.

"Oh...and you're not tired?" I asked again.

"I stayed up to make sure you were alright." he said quietly.

I blushed, "You didn't have to do that."

Moose shrugged his shoulders, "I don't mind."

Things got a little awkward between us as we ran out of things to say. As we stood there, our eyes roamed all over, refusing to make contact with each other.

I began to think about how nice it was for Moose to wait up for me. Actually, he's been really nice to me ever since we dropped into the alternate universe... It was strange.

"You okay?" Moose asked as he interrupted my thoughts.

"Why have you been so nice to me lately?" I suddenly asked.

"What are you talking about?" he asked back.

"Ever since we've gotten here you've been acting different." I said.

Moose smirked at me, "I haven't been acting different. You just haven't noticed because we've always been in school with hundreds of other people."

With that said, he shook his head at me and slipped past me. He walked into his room and closed the door, leaving me alone in the hallway.

I sank down in the chair and heaved a heavy sigh.

Was that really true?

Had he been treating me the same all this time and I just hadn't noticed?

But how is that possible?

I'm sure I would have-

No...

I do remember him at times saying some things very sexual that can sound rude or like a compliment.

It really depended on how I viewed it, I suppose, and I would always see it as rude.

But then, someone would always pile on, twisting the comment around and made Moose's good comment seem like an insult and everyone would laugh.

So he really was being more or less nice to me this whole time?

Oh God, all this thinking about the past is making my brain hurt.

Another door slammed open which nearly made me jump a foot in the air. I saw Base as he walked out of a guest room on the other side of the hall with a huge grin on his face.

That's when I noticed aside from the three rooms on the same side of the hall that my friends and I are staying in, there were also four doors on the other side of the hall with probably two or three beds per room... A bed for all the other Guardians plus a few extra.

Base walked up to me and his smile faltered for a second as he asked, "Hey, are you okay?"

I stood up and forced a smile as I said, "Yeah, I'm fine."

I decided to change the subject and asked, "So what's got you so happy?"

Base's smile returned, "Come and see." he said before he took my wrist and pulled me into his room.

Base's room had a green and brown theme to it, much like the Kingdom of Clover and the room had three canopy beds just as I thought it would. In the center of the room was a dark brown table with two chairs. Piled up high on the table was packs on top of packs of cigarettes.

"When did they bring those in?" I questioned.

"They were already here when I walked in." Base replied.

I nodded, "That's cool."

Base half smiled, "You don't like smoking, do you?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I'm not exactly a fan of the cancer stick."

Base was quiet for a moment before he asked, "What's cancer?"

I shook my head, "Nevermind."

I heard paws padding quietly on the marble floor and turned around just in time to see Nick walk into the room.

'There you are.' Nick said as he sighed.

I smiled, "Here I am. Were you looking for me?"

Nick shook his head, 'Not really.'

I couldn't help but let out a light and airy laugh. That was typical Nicky.

Nick slowly cocked his head to the side and I asked, "What?"

'The Guardian is looking at me weird.' Nick replied.

I turned to face Base, "He said you're looking at him weird." I relayed.

Base smiled for a minute before he said, "I just can't get over the way you guys communicate."

I slowly shook my head and quietly said, "I don't understand. Everyone here seems to easily know about the connection thing."

"Well sure, everyone has heard of a connection at one point or another, but no one's actually seen one before." Base said.

My jaw nearly dropped, "No one? Like ever?" I asked.

Base shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know about ever. But definitely not in this generation or the two before that either."

"Oh." I said quietly.

Base nodded, "It's alright to use your connection, but just be aware of who is around when you do use it."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because there are people out there who might try to force you to use it for their own gain." Base replied.

"They will?" I asked as my eyes slightly widened.

"But don't worry." Base added, "If anyone tries anything, I'll protect you."

I smiled a little bit and whispered, "Thank you."

'Karri, you should rest. We go find the next Guardian tomorrow. Everyone is going to have to be on their toes and expect the unexpected.' Nick said.

'Expect the unexpected?' I questioned, 'You sound like that tv show Big Brother.'

Nick rolled his eyes at me, 'Harty har har. Just rest now so you won't get crabby later.' he said, getting slightly annoyed with me.

I readied a witty reply to answer him with, but I dismissed it and instead answered, 'Fine, fine.' I turned to Base and smiled as I said, "I'll see you later."

Base smiled back at me and said, "Yeah, sure."

Nick turned and left the room and I followed after him. We crossed the hall and entered our black and white themed room.

Instead of finding Roman in the bed near the door we found Sky relaxing there instead.

I paused at the door and questioned, "Sky? What are you doing here?"

Sky looked up at me, "I need a break from Annabelle. She flirts all. the. time. So I talked to Roman and he said we could switch off."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "You can't handle her?"

"She gets worse when it's just the two of us!" Sky whispered loudly.

'She does seem like the kind of person.' Nick said.

"Well no worries, whenever you need a safe haven from Annabelle you're welcome here." I said.

"Thanks." Sky said as he smiled and added, "Now don't mind me. I think I'm just going to sleep for the next twelve hours." Then he yawned and finished by saying, "Goodnight everyone."

I quietly giggled and echoed, "Goodnight Sky."

Nick walked over to the bed next to the window and jumped up onto it before circling around and settled down. He looked up at me and said, 'You know the real reason why he wants to be in this room, don't you?'

I sat down next to Nick and said, 'He said he needed to get away from Annabelle for a while.'

'Sure, that was his excuse.' Nick replied.

'Then what's the real reason?' I asked.

'He likes you.' Nick deadpanned.

'What?' I asked as I shook my head, 'No, he couldn't.'

'I'm pretty sure he does.' Nick said as he nodded.

'Great.' I thought to myself, 'First Roman, then Knight, followed by Moose, and now Sky?!'

Nick snapped his head up and asked, 'Wait, what?'

'Awh crap. I thought that on our channel didn't I?' I questioned.

'Yeah, ya did.'

I smiled a little guiltily and said, 'Whoops.'

'By the way, I think John might like you too.' Nick slipped in.

I whined and flopped down on the bed and thought, 'What next?!'