New Dawn

“Don’t just blindly swing Mira! You have to aim!” Grayson was standing a few feet away from Mira, watching her fight a straw dummy.
“I am aiming!” Mira retorted quickly, letting her frustration and anger show.
“Stop, just stop, this isn’t doing you any good.” Grayson said putting his hand on her shoulder to prevent her from swinging at the dummy anymore. She spun on him quickly, fists still raised, and her nostrils flaring slightly. He was almost scared of her, and he knew that if he could train her right, then she would be a formidable enemy to have. Grayson didn’t say anything to her, he just looked at her and waited until some of the anger and hate started to leave her eyes and she lowered her fists.
“Are you okay?” He asked quietly, trying not to get her fired up again. She shook her head slightly, as if to clear it, and responded, “Yeah, I guess I just got a little out of control there.” He smiled slightly, knowing that it was a more than just a little.
“Look, you have good power, you’re strong, but if you keep letting your anger take you over like this when you’re fighting then you’re never going to win a fight because it’s going to drain your energy faster than if you were calm, and that’s what you need to do, calm down. You fighting angrily is what’s making you sloppy in your hits, you may be aiming, but all of that rage is making you miscalculate and whole bunch of other things. So what I want you to do, is run around the meadow until you’re no longer angry okay?” Mira just nodded her head accepting his judgment. “Would you like me to run with you? Or would you rather run by yourself?”
“I think I’ll just run by myself, but thanks for the offer.” Mira responded, already heading towards the edge where there was a little path for running. It had been two weeks since her first day of Guardian training, and she had already made a lot of progress, just not as much progress as her instructors would have liked. Grayson watched her run for a few minutes, just sort of reflecting over the last two weeks. He was confused by her, she had told him that she considered him a friend but had been increasingly distant from him lately and he didn’t know why. He hadn’t asked her about it because he had decided that it was probably for the best, he knew what happened to a lot of Guardians and Anriel and Vinor had cautioned him against becoming friends with her because it would probably only end badly, and he knew they were right, yet he couldn’t help but want to be her friend. Grayson just shook his head and started on his own daily regimen that he normally did after Mira had left. He was only twenty minutes in when Mira sat down next to him. He stopped what he was doing and sat next to her.
“Feel better?”
“Yeah, I’m not angry anymore, for now at least.” She shrugged, over the last two weeks so had progressively become more and more at peace with herself, but sometimes the anger just came back in full force, and she couldn’t stop it.
“Good, I’m glad, but sadly our time is pretty much up. I know Anriel will be wanting to see you.”
“Yeah, I know.” Mira said reluctantly, not wanting her fighting time to end, and Grayson could see it, and he understood it.
“I know that fighting is more fun than meditating but you need the meditation too, it will help you control your thoughts and breathing which is paramount in good fighting, you see your progress right? How good you’ve been getting, half of that’s due to Anriels’ meditation, even I meditate twice a day.” She smiled at him warmly, glad for the encouragement and the compliment on her fighting skills. Mira had been avoiding him now for a while, mostly because she didn’t trust him because he was a guy that fought all of the time, she was slowly realizing, however, that Grayson was nothing like her father. Her father may have been a fighting man as well, but Grayson fought to protect the one’s he loved, not to hurt them, and she realized, that she trusted Grayson, and she wasn’t afraid of him.
“Look Grayson, I do have to go see Anriel, but how about you bring by food later and we can hang out?” Mira asked warmly, she wanted to sit down, and really get to know her friend.
“Why not. I’ll be there when you get back.” Mira just nodded and walked towards the edge of the meadow, and Grayson just stared after her, fighting to keep the smile from his face, he knew he shouldn’t really hang out with her, but who was he to say no to the Guardian?
******************
“Alright Mira, we’re going to do something a little different today.”
“So no meditating?” Anriel smiled and shook her head, “No meditating.”
They had just finished their daily afternoon meal, which was comprised of mostly leafy greens, she noticed that most of the native inhabitants were vegetarians, and since they all used to be trees, she could understand.
“So what are we doing then?” Mira asked curiously.
“Quite simply, magic.” Mira could feel the excitement welling up within her, she had always loved stories with magic in them when she was a kid, even know she could curl up with a good fantasy book and read for hours.
“Really?! I mean… that’s cool, magic, no big deal.” Anriel just smiled at her enthusiasm.
“Yes, magic, you have come far in your meditations and I feel like you can now take on simple magical tasks, but I do still want you to keep meditating, every night for at least an hour. Understood? Good.” She glided over towards one edge of the meadow, and gestured for Mira to follow her.
“Do you see this plant?” Anriel questioned, pointing towards a rather dead looking flower, it looked as if it could have been quite beautiful when it was alive.
“What about it? It looks dead to me.”
“Almost dead,” she corrected, “I want you to save this flower before it dies completely.” Mira just looked at Anriel dumbfounded.
“But how? I don’t know anything about magic, or gardening really.”
“Figure it out.” Anriel started walking towards the opposite edge of the meadow, towards the treehouses, and just as she reached the edge she turned around and said, “just concentrate completely on the flower, stay only until your lesson with Vinor is about to start and if you still haven’t saved it then we’ll try again tomorrow.” With that she disappeared into the shadows.
Mira had no idea what she was doing, but she did know that she at least had to try, she couldn’t just sit there and look at the flower for another hour, that would just be a waste of time. So Mira scooted closer to the flower and put her hands down on the soil surrounding the plant, like she had seen done in the movies and just sat. She tried to picture what the plant may have looked like alive and tried to keep that image in her head, but she would always start thinking about something else. After about twenty minutes she started to get frustrated, and she knew that was the opposite of what she needed to be in order to get this done. So after pacing back and forth for about ten minutes, she just stopped and closed her piercing green eyes. Her mother had always sung her a lullaby to calm her down after her father hit her mother and Mira saw, and even after she had died Mira sang it to herself every time her father hit her. She found the words bubbling up her throat, just wanting to be sung.
I know your fear my child,
I know that you are scared,
But never fear,
Mummys here,
And I will love you always,
Go to sleep,
My little one,
Dream for me,
And I will keep watch,
No harm will come to you,
As long as I am here,
Because, I love you,
Oh how I love you dear,
You are my light,
And my life,
And I will love you
Always.
Mira took a deep breath, feeling a tear escape her eye and run slowly down her cheek. She started a little bit when she felt a hand brush away the tear and she opened her eyes quickly to see Grayson standing in front of her.
“That was beautiful Mira, and look what it did.” He said gesturing out towards the rest of the meadow. She gasped, everything looked brand new, and she saw that the flower that she was supposed to save was now in full bloom, and had even grown a few inches.
“There is no way that song did that…” Mira said, still trying to absorb everything she was seeing, because everything seemed to glow from the inside, as if they had internalized her song, and were using it to grow and flourish.
“Not the song per say, it was the way you sang it, it was pure and from the heart, that’s what made the plants do this.” Anriel said softly, emerging from the shadows to approach Mira. She had a large smile on her face, showing just how proud, and even slightly shell shocked she was. No new Guardian had ever done this well on their first try, and most never got to this level at all.
Maybe Mira would have a chance after all.