~ Episode Eight ~

Enter Shiara!:

Shinji, and the Guardian Beast of Water

There were no gory details. There were no probing questions or awkward silences. Best of all, there were no skyscraper-high “Happy First Menstruation” cakes waiting on the table like a proud centerpiece to be sliced up and divvied among Eri’s family.

There was only tuna casserole with a side of mushy peas. There was only the clinking of utensils and murmured small talk. There was only Nana Ferguson’s dentures hanging in a glass of Alka-Seltzer.

“That’s a pretty necklace,” Helen Seruma noticed from where she sat across from her daughter. “Is it new?”

Eri swallowed hard. The heat off the flame-shaped pendant seared against her throat. “Um, I’m not sure.”

“Really? I don’t remember you wearing it before.”

“Where’s your crucifix?” asked Eri’s father, Ken—less a question and more a trial. He readjusted a pair of glasses that always seemed to be slipping off the bridge of his thin, tanned, nose. “You should be wearing that.”

All eyes were on Eri now. Nana Ferguson leaned in beside her to have a closer look behind thick bottle-cap lenses at the magical necklace.

“Ohh—it’s very pretty, my dear,” she said. “A present from a boy?”

Eri’s big brother studied her with a narrowed stare. Noah was nineteen years old—tall and golden-skinned with broad shoulders despite an otherwise narrow frame. He was a perfect blend between his parents’ Irish and Northern Italian genes, completely unlike his younger sister.

“What boy?” he asked, pointedly.

Eri took a deep gulp from her glass of water to keep from answering the question. It didn’t do much to hide the scarlet in her cheeks. Both father and son eyed her, now very interested in the necklace.

“Ohh—so romantic,” cooed Nana dreamily, going back to the mush of peas and tuna strewn around her plate. “A secret admirer…”

“Who, Eriya?” Ken firmly asked.

“N—nobody. I mean, um, a friend. B—but it’s not like that!”

“Not like what, young lady?”

“Ken, it’s just a pendant.” Helen laid a hand over his knuckles, squeezed gently. “Probably another hand-me-down from Mackenzie.”

“Better be a hand-me-down,” Ken muttered, stuffing a forkful of casserole down his gullet. He flashed a soul-stealing look at his daughter. “Gentle reminder, Eriya, that you’re still not old enough to date, understand?”

“Y—yes,” she murmured, now stirring around the contents of her plate.

“Yes, what?”

Eri squirmed with discomfort in her seat. “Yes—sir.”

“Good. This doesn’t mean you’re suddenly a grown woman, just because you had your first—”

“Ken. Drop it,” stated Helen.

Eri mashed her palm into one eye, scrubbing furiously at the socket in a fit of embarrassment. “Um, can I please be excused?”

“Finish your plate,” Ken said. “You’ve barely touched your dinner. I took a lot of care into making it. Just for it all to go into the garbage? Not in my house.”

Helen flashed a shy look to her mother, who was sure to be too deaf to comprehend most of anything going on around the dinner table that night. “Sure, honey. Just take your plate with you to the kitchen, okay?”

Ken balked at her. “Helen—”

“Ken, it’s fine. We’ll wrap it up for later.”

“First what?” Noah asked Eri as she pushed away from the table with her untouched meal in tow. She avoided him with cheeks still rosy and headed into the kitchen on hasty steps.

“Nothing,” Helen spoke for her. “Eat your dinner.”

“What’s the big deal? I’m just asking—”

“Noah, listen to your mother.” Ken exhaled a stern sigh that avoided any eye contact.

~

Eri awoke to Shirley Manson singing Fix Me Now over the sound of someone banging on her window. She pushed up onto her arms, nudging away her headphones, to find Shinji squatted in darkness outside the pane. The agitated expression on his face melted into instant relief.

“Oh my gosh, seriously?” Eri threw back her new blanket (and the hot water bottle for cramps that her mother had wordlessly passed through the door, earlier) and crossed the room to let him in. “I have a phone, you know.”

“No time to call, had to come get you right away,” he said between deep puffs of air. His face glistened with perspiration desperately wiped away with the back of a sleeve.

“Come get me?” Eri wrinkled her nose.

“There’s another Monster at Grover’s Mill,” Shinji explained. “Evan and Thompson are already there waiting for us. Come on.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Eri shivered at the thought of fighting another Monster. She picked up her Regina Lepue doll off the floor and tossed it back onto the bed where it belonged. “I—I can’t. My nana’s here, and—” When she turned back around, Shinji was right in her face.

Eri inhaled sharply.

Their noses nearly touched. She could almost feel his ragged breath on her cheek, the warmth radiating off his flushed skin. Their eyes locked. A firm coldness lingered behind Shinji’s emerald irises, where deep pain and hard-set wisdom resided. His gaze pleaded Eri, begged the depths of her, as he panted for air.

Nervous discomfort fluttered within Eri. She tried to swallow, her cheeks on fire. “I…”

“Please, Seruma—we need you.”

“Shinji, I…” Eri forced herself to step away from him, massaging her beet-red face. “…You said Macks is out there?”

“Yeah, with Evan.” He seemed oblivious to Eri’s flustered state. “We were on patrol tonight, thought it’d be a good chance to show her the ropes. Then the Dowser went nuts.”

“Okay. Uh—Gimme a sec to change and—”

“There’s no time. We have to leave—now.”

Eri regarded the two piece button-down Hello Kitty pajama set she wore. “I’ll freeze to death!”

“I guarantee you won’t,” Shinji said as he started back out the window.

Eri hesitated, watching him vanish into the night. It was then when she felt a warmth seep into her bedroom. With it, the pitter-patter of water off the eaves drain. The snow had given way to an unnatural balminess in the air.

Shinji guided her down the side of the house, careful to navigate the steep-angled shingles, and descended her mother’s wobbly vine trellis. Once they touched grass he began to rummage around inside his backpack. “Here, stand back—I’m calling our ride.”

Eri expected him to pull free a cell phone. To her surprise, it was an orange Mon-Orb that Shinji withdrew instead. He set it down on the ground and stepped away, gesturing Eri to get a safe distance farther back.

She bumped into something. The ancient sword Shinji had used back at the library was stuck amidst her mother’s petunia garden. He pulled the weapon free, shook loose damp soil and dead petals from its blade and leveled its tip with the Mon-Orb.

“Shiara, Beast of the Water Seal! Reveal yourself to me! Unleash the power of the elementals and show me your true form!—R E L E A S E ! !”

The Monster Orb started to glow and transfigure. Beams of radiance shot out into the night sky. Something took form in the light, swallowing up the glassy orb—an animalistic shape that extended high above the kids’ heads.

The light dimmed. A four-legged creature about the size of a fire truck sat before them on hind legs. It looked kind of like an arctic fox with shimmering blue-silver fur. It regarded Shinji and Eri with ruby eyes. Icy breath passed its jagged teeth with every exhale.

“Oh wow…” The sight of it sent a ripple of wonder through Eri. The creature bowed its head when she approached, as though asking to be petted—or exhibiting reverence.

“Shiara,” Shinji introduced her. “One of the four Elemental Guardian Beasts.”

Eri blinked at him. “Elemental wha-a-a-a—?”

Shinji ascended the Monster’s fur like a pro rock climber. He then leaned over to offer Eri a hand. “It’s said the Guardian Beasts are pure-hearted, sworn to protect the Child of Destiny. I believe it—Shiara’s really just a big dog that can fly and breathe winter on everything.”

“That’s—kinda cool, I guess!”

“Part of the training you missed. We went over some of it with Thompson yesterday at my place. I was hoping to catch you up this afternoon, but I guess you weren’t feeling well.”

Eri went beet-red and nodded. She ran the flat of her palm over Shiara’s fur, shivering to its cool touch. She blinked, straightened— “W-wait. Did you say fly?”

—Then screamed when the Guardian Beast suddenly launched into the air.

Shinji gazed into the cloudless night past Shiara’s canine ears. His voice raised over the rush of the passing air around them, “In the long run, the Monsters really want the same thing we do: to find and protect the Child of Destiny! It’s just that King Sufocus has warped their perception a bunch!”

Eri opened one eye and gazed down at the distant lights of Shorebrooke that helped lead the way to Grover’s Mill. She buried her face against Shinji’s back and clung tight around his middle to keep from falling.

“Most of the Monsters we’re up against are brainwashed by powerful magic,” Shinji told her. “Sealing them into Monster Orbs helps return them to normal—they want to help us!”

“F—for real?”

“Yeah! My Opa would freak if he knew I summoned Shiara like this! She’s the only Kenah’dai who’ll release for me, and it’s only ever been temporary—I’ve never been able to get her to remain in her pure form longer than an hour.”

“W-why’s that?”

“Huh? Oh—well, the spell is meant only for the Child of Destiny to invoke! That’s because her magic’s strong enough to cause a permanent effect—and release multiple Kenah’dai at once, and from both the Void and their Monster Orb states!”

He paused for effect.

“Anyway, my understanding is that’s why she’s so important. Why we need to find and protect her from the Black King. You see, defeating the Black King relinquishes his brainwashing magic over the Kenah’dai!”

Eri swallowed hard. “G-good to know…”

~

“Yo! What took so long?!” Evan snapped. “We have a Monster to Seal!”

“Sorry. Thanks for waiting, guys,” muttered Shinji when they’d landed in the main area of Grover’s Mill. He hopped off of Shiara’s back and turned with arms outstretched to catch Eri. “Where’s it at?”

“Over by the theater,” said Mackenzie. She studied Shiara curiously from where she sat slowly swinging on a nearby swing set. “Is that a giant kitsune? Can I—can I pet it?”

“Yeah, of course! Her name’s Shiara.”

“What kind of Monster are we up against?” Eri asked.

“Cloria—the Monster of Radiance.” Shinji leaned against a tree, eyes closed as Mackenzie fawned over a very tolerant Guardian Beast of Water. “Explains the snow all melting…”

Eri blinked. “Monster of Radiance? You think that why it’s so warm out now?”

“Mmhm. Cloria joined Sufocus’ ranks when her brother Zorfus, the Monster of Darkness, was brainwashed. Even though Cloria hated the Black King, she couldn’t live without Zorfus. So, she sacrificed her free will to remain at his side.”

His eyes opened to find Evan and Mackenzie staring at him like a crazy person.

“What?” Shinji raised an eyebrow. “The Kenah’dai were once worshiped as deities by humans. Quite aware of the world they inhabited before Sufocus messed everything up.”

“Uhh, okay,” Mackenzie said, stroking Shiara’s snout. “So, info-dump aside, what’s the plan, you guys?”

“…Wait, you mean you stood around while I got Seruma, and neither of you came up with a plan?”

Evan shrugged. “I mean—you’re the leader, right?”

Shinji groaned, caressing his face in one hand. “Evan…”

“Eddi-chan, do you have any ideas?” Mackenzie glanced to where her friend was last standing. “Eddi-chan?”

But Eri was nowhere in sight.