New Dawn

“What Guardians? I don’t… I don’t even understand what’s going on, who are you guys exactly? Is this some kind of practical joke?” Mira asked stoically, determined not to let her fear show.
“We are your trainers, and this is no ‘joke.’ We will guide and help you whenever possible, but there are some things that you can only learn, and do, on your own,” the tree lady said solemnly, almost like she was starting to feel pain.
“You are a guardian, the first one from Earth at that. You’re new job is manifold, there will be many worlds, species, and individuals that are going to start looking to you for help, and it is your job to help as much as possible; however, there is one thing…” the young man started before he was interrupted by the more portly guy. She later learned that his name was Vinor.
“Ahem! Grayson!” The portly four-legged guy gave Grayson a meaningful look, and he automatically clamped his mouth shut and wouldn’t say another word, no matter how much Mira asked.
“Enough now! She must be tired, and we have already kept her long enough. Come Mira, I will show you to where you’ll be staying while you’re here.” Mira followed the tree lady through the forest of towering trees for about a mile until they came to the base of one of the giants. The trees were all very thick, it would take at least ten of her 6 foot wingspan to surround the tree. It wasn’t until she focused on the base of the tree and the tree-woman was opening the door that she realized that there was a door seamlessly made into the tree. There was a spiral staircase through the middle of the tree that went at least 400 feet into the air, with a lot of tree left still going up. The stairwell eventually opened up into a gorgeous open room with at least six columns of tree throughout. The place was huge and almost everything was wood and made from the tree, with a few animal articles thrown in for comfort; there was barely anything that was metal or artificial except for the glass windows and some kitchen appliances. There were designs carved intricately into the floors and walls that one could stare into for hours and still never completely follow the pattern. The spiral staircase continued up to an upper floor that was more like a living room than downstairs was. Downstairs was more kitchen and bedroom; however, upstairs was roomier, and there was a giant balcony on that went all the way around the tree except the three long places that were still wood to keep the tree stable. The balcony was connected to at least ten bridges that gave people in other trees access to this one. They were very simple bridges, yet they were stiff, and sturdy, because they were completely made out of wood, no rope whatsoever.
“This is… Amazing!” Mira said to the tree woman.
“These are some of my people’s greatest achievements, we take great pride in our homes.”
“So this your planet? Not the other two guys?”
“No, they are just my fellow trainers, Grayson is one of the best fighters in the galaxy, and Vinor is one of the most knowledgeable beings, he can tell you pretty much anything that you ever wanted to, and didn’t want to, know.” She said with a small smile.
“What’s your name?”
“My name is Anriel.”
“It is very nice to officially meet you Anriel, I just wish I knew, really knew, why I was meeting you all.” Mira said slowly, she was still in a sort of shock over her surroundings and situation.
“You’ll understand in due time, but I will leave you now so that you may adjust and relax, someone will come by with food for you in a little bit; until then please feel free to explore, the people here are generally very nice, just take care to be polite and not offend them, we do not easily forget things.”
“Thank you for the advice, I think I might just stay here though.” Anriel just slightly bowed and descended the staircase. The staircases were mainly open with only a thin partition of wood around the back half of the staircase.
Mira went up the spiral staircase and into the living space and paced around the room a bit. Through the glass windows that led to the balconies she saw, in the distance, the sunlight filtering through the tops of the trees. The trees trunks were all bare except for at the very top where there were plenty of leaves and branches. Occasionally she would hear strange animal noises coming from both above and below. They were like nothing she had ever really heard before; the bird calls, if they were birds, sounded as if two birds were chirping at once; however, after listening for some time she realized that it was actually the birds singing in dual tones, and when multiple birds were singing at once they managed to create the most beautiful songs. Listening to the songs Mira was quickly finding herself becoming more relaxed with every passing minute. She was definitely losing whatever belief she still had of being dead and started wondering whether or not this was actually some distant planet, and she was destined to be some “guardian” for the universe. The more she thought about it the more real it seemed, and it wasn’t long before she was laughing uncontrollably, because she had wanted out, and now she was out just not the way she had originally planned. She could see being on another planet, she had always suspected that there were other species out there, after all it just seemed like a huge waste of space if there wasn’t.
“Ahem.” Sounded a voice from behind her. Mira quickly stood up and spun towards the voice.
“Oh! Hello Grayson, I didn’t realize you were there… How long have you been there exactly?” she thought about it for a second, she hadn’t seen any door handles on the windows to get them open, and he had most definitely come from the balcony, “a better question would be how did you get in?” He was still slightly grinning at her embarrassment, but said “come here, I’ll show you.” Mira was so confused, he was walking straight towards the glass, and Mira was glad she didn’t blink because he went straight through it. Mira opened her mouth to say something but then quickly shut it again. Then he turned around and walked straight back through.
“This is a special kind of material, it’s strong enough to support the tree but it can also be set to let certain people in. As of right now, you, the other two mentors and I are the only ones who can get in. You can set it to let other people in by this panel over here.” Grayson explained as he walked over to a part of the outer wall that was still tree and pressed a small button that I hadn’t noticed before. There was a click and a hiss as the panel popped open to reveal a small control panel.
“This panel controls who comes in and out through the windows, otherwise you have to invite them in every time, it also controls the temperature and a bunch of other stuff that you really don’t need now.” Mira went over by Grayson and looked at the panel, it was full of a bunch of symbols that she didn’t know how to read and already felt over her head.
“Right, sure. What have you got there?” She had noticed he had brought a container of some sort, she assumed it was the food Anriel had promised earlier, and right now she was grateful for any distraction from her embarrassment and ignorance.
“Food,” he said simply and passed her the container, “it’s a salad with some… uh deer… that I found in the forest.”
“You have deer here?” Mira asked curiously as she opened the container, it all looked delicious; the salad was full of colorful berries and things that she was pretty sure were tomatoes, plus some other things that she couldn’t really identify. The meat also smelled delicious, it didn’t look a whole lot like venison but at this point she would eat anything.
“Kind of… they’re not exactly the same as your deer, these are bigger and slightly more vicious, but they pretty much taste the same, from what I hear at least. Anyway, I’m going to let you eat in peace, I’m in that tree house right there.” Grayson said pointing to the tree house directly to the east.
“Wait! Would you mind staying and eating with me, I would really appreciate the company.” He just smiled a gorgeous smile, nodded slightly and started back towards her as he magically produced another box of food for himself and Mira gave him a surprised look. He just shrugged with the explanation “I thought I would bring an extra, just in case.” They headed downstairs towards the kitchen so she could try to find utensils and sit at a table, then she suddenly thought of something.
“You said ‘your’ planet, so are you not from Earth? You look human.” I rummaged quickly through the drawers and found two forks and knives, although they looked slightly different here, they were both wood first off, but they were strong, and the fork only had two very thick tines.
“Technically speaking my family is from Earth, but I’ve never been there.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, a really long time ago probably about a five hundred or so years ago, two of my ancestors were taken from Earth, almost like how you were transported, but less showy. Anyway, they have no idea why or how it happened but they found themselves in a much more advanced society of humans, and other life forms, on a much larger planet than Earth. Talk about a culture shock. They were taken in by an old librarian woman who showed them the ways of my planet and they assimilated very well apparently and then, well the family continued and here I am today.”
“So was that other civilization started from Earth, or was Earth started from them? Or are they just completely different?” Mira asked, curious, she had always wondered if there were other humans out there. She could just feel so many questions bubbling up in the back of her mind, it was taking a lot of practiced self-control to not ask them all at once.
“The last one I think, but I do think that the human population of my planet are all people taken from Earth. I’m not really sure though, it’s not like my family was in on the big-wig secrets, we’re just part of the common folk.” Mira was slowly chewing her food trying to comprehend everything from the day and Grayson was just picking at his salad, like this was a normal, everyday occurrence, which for him, she guessed it was.
“That’s amazing though, I had always really kind of hoped there were more civilizations out there, I’ve always loved the stars; I could never get enough of them as a kid.” Mira paused for a second, then “Grayson… Why am I here? Why am I the first one from Earth?” She looked at him questioningly, she still couldn’t quite believe what they had told her earlier. Grayson avoided her eyes.
“I was told I couldn’t talk about it yet, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow when we can all explain it to you. As for you being from Earth, I really have no idea. I do have to go though, I’ll be back to get you tomorrow morning.” With that he was already heading up the stairs towards the balconies and Mira was left alone with her thoughts.