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Lost Artifacts
Chapter 1: Guardian Angel

Chapter 1: Guardian Angel

A girl is frantically running through the woods; there is a walkingplant chasing her. She trips and falls then puts up her arm to guard herself, and the plant whips her with its vines, causing her to scream in pain. The plant comes at her again, but she quickly scrambles out of the way, crying. The girl is up and stumbling again, she crashes through a bush and falls to the ground, stunned she remains laying there. Forced to stay still, she listens for the walkingplant. She hears it crash past her.

As the crashing gets more distant, she sighs in relief; attempting to stand up she tries propping herself up with both arms but her left buckles and she cries out in pain. She had forgotten the gouges in her arm and is now left with her face in the dirt, sobbing. After a few moments she hears the sound of crashing again and quickly jerks her face to the side, eyes wide. Fighting through the pain she rolls over and uses her good arm to help herself stand. As she's standing she is also scrambling away from the noises of the plant. Stumbling past some trees, she happens upon a broken down house at the edge of the forest near a town. Immediately she makes her way toward the entrance filled with relief at what could possibly be safety.

Someone's arms then wrap around her abdomen, helping support her. She tenses up as she is set down on a surface, the world around her is blurry. A voice can be heard but she can't tell what it's saying. Suddenly it becomes clear.

"Can you hear me? My name is Vivian. Are you alright?" without waiting for a response it continues, "What happened to you?"

"I was being chased by a walkingplant! It scratched me, it's still out there please help!" Her face is scrunched up and she is crying again.

"Of course! Just one moment." Vivian leaves, and the girl reaches out for her. But just like that, Vivian is back and there is a cold sensation on her arm. This causes her to shout in pain.

Her arm is shown, a salve is on it, there are four long gouges on her arm, all four are extremely swollen and poison can be seen spreading along her arm. Her arm begins to glow green where the salve is, and it rapidly spreads throughout her whole body. She begins floating, and is now completely glowing green, her eyes flash white and then she floats back down and is out cold.

Vivian begins walking around cleaning up stuff, this reveals a cauldron in the middle of the room and all of the potions around the area. After she is done she sits back down at the girl's side.

Flashback

Vivian is in a clouded area talking to a person in the Celestial Library. She is standing next to a large bookshelf, taking out random books and reading them. There is a book for every living being.

"Didn't think I would see you back here for a long time." says Ottoline.

Vivian sighs and turns around to see Ottoline standing there smiling at her. She runs toward Ottoline and hugs her.

Ottoline then asks "What brings you back? Missed me that much?"

Vivian laughs. "No. Well, yeah I missed you, but I-"

"Have decided it's time to move on." Ottoline interrupts.

"Yeah..." Vivian sighs again. They stand in silence for a moment. "I think I may have found the one." Vivian says showing the book to Ottoline.

Ottoline looks at her. "Not a child?" they ask.

"No. I feel as though I can really help her and I don't think it will hurt me as much if I start helping her at an older age." says Vivian.

"It's always going to hurt." Ottoline replies. At this moment Ottoline wraps her hands around Vivian's free hand and the book is in Vivian's other hand.

End flashback

The girl wakes up and she shifts but winces in pain because of her arm. She opens her eyes to see Vivian in front of her. She appears almost transparent but then the next second she looks normal.

The girl groans "Who are you?" She looks warily at Vivian not remembering their first interaction.

"My name is Vivian, you were attacked by a walkingplant. Do you remember that?"

"Uhh..." She pauses for a moment trying to remember "I- I do remember." She averts her eyes then looks back at Vivian "You helped me?"

"Yes, you were in danger. Why wouldn't I?" Vivian responds

"Thank you!" The girl looks around "Is this your house?"

"Sometimes." Vivian says mysteriously. "Wait here," She gets up and walks over to a cabinet and grabs some bandages, she returns to the girl's bedside "Let me see your arm."

The girl gives her her arm, Vivian begins wrapping it.

The girl looks at Vivian. "My name's Clove by the way."

"It's nice to meet you, Clove." Vivian responds as she continues to wrap Clove's arm.

When she finishes Vivian asks "Are you hungry?" Clove nods then yawns. Vivian gets her food, they sit in companionable silence for a while.

"Why don't you sleep? I'll keep an eye out for the walkingplant." Vivian suggests.

Clove nods already falling asleep.

As Clove sleeps Vivian meditates off to the side. She then begins to use her foresight to search for someone who can help Clove through the hardship she is going through right now, someone that can be a friend to her. Vivian focuses on three different individuals in the nearby town; two humans and a vampire. She quickly looks at the two humans and images of their past are revealed, the vampire's past is shown and she takes note that this is someone who only finds their prey as people who are criminals. It also shows that the vampire had a similar childhood to Clove as the vampire was beaten badly by her mother and treated wrongly by the people meant to look out for her. After many hardships, turning into a vampire being one of them, she was able to find a group of friends she could call family that would help her overcome these hardships.

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"What are you doing?" Clove asks.

Vivian's vision then ends abruptly as she is sitting cross-legged in a chair with her eyes closed.

"Meditating." Vivian reacts as if she already knew that Clove was awake.

"Oh." Clove fiddles with her hair.

"Would you like to go somewhere?" Vivian asks suddenly.

"Uhm-" Clove looks uneasy "Where?"

"To a town in a better part of the woods. It would be good for you to get out of here."

Clove is shocked "We're still in the woods? It feels so safe here I didn't even notice... But yeah I kinda want to get out of here." Clove looks at Vivian and smiles awkwardly.

"Okay then. Let me change your bandages and get you a change of clothes then we can leave."

Clove and Vivian are walking down a sidewalk. They are having a nice conversation. Vivian is subtly steering the two toward a flower shop. Vivian points out the flower shop, suggesting they go inside.

"Oo! Flowers!" Clove yells in excitement.

The vampire from Vivian's vision is looking at a shelf of flowers next to the two. She's wearing a hoodie and a face mask that covers any sign of her looking like a vampire, she looks stumped. "What should I get?" She mumbles to herself.

"Would you like help?" Vivian asks

"Oh yes, I'd really appreciate that." she turns to face the other two.

"What are you getting flowers for?" Vivian asks.

"My partners; our anniversary is coming up and I'd like to get the two of them something nice." She smiles.

Vivian points out some tulips, carnations, and calla lilies and explains that they mean love and admiration.

"Thank you, I'm going to get an employee to make a bouquet for me." The vampire says before walking away.

"Do you know a lot about flowers?" Clove asks Vivian.

"Yes," Vivian grabs a white flower from the shelf. "This one is the most common flower seen on a walkingplant." She puts it in Clove's hair.

"How can something this pretty come from something that did this to me?" Clove gestures at her bad arm.

"Do what to you?" The vampire asks, now holding a bouquet of flowers in front of her.

"I got attacked by a walkingplant. That's why I have these bandages on my arm." Clove says, turning to face the vampire. "Vivian saved me!" She gestures toward Vivian and gives her a bright smile.

"Really, that's amazing! How long ago was this?" The vampire asks.

"Yesterday!" Clove appears very proud of this.

"What." She is shocked. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure, it happened to me after all." Clove says.

The vampire turns to Vivian "How did you heal her!? No one survives a direct hit from them without sacrificing some part of their body or being crippled for life."

"I'm very good with potions." Vivian says with pride.

"That's it?" She questions.

"Yup." Vivian smiles.

The vampire sighs "You don't have to tell me, we barely know each other anyway." She shifts on her feet "Well I should get going then, I need to get a few more things for my partners."

"Wait!" Clove says suddenly. "Can we go with you?"

"Why?" The vampire asks, confused.

Clove isn't sure what to say so Vivian comes to her rescue. "Maybe we could help you look for things. It's always good to have another opinion when it comes to gift giving."

The vampire thinks about it for a moment "Okay then. There's no harm in having another opinion."

"Heck yeah!" Clove pumps her fist in the air and bumps shoulders with Vivian but winces immediately after. "Owie!" She says as she rubs her injured arm.

"Are you okay?" Vivian looks slightly worried.

"Oh, yeah! I just moved it wrong, don't worry." Clove looks at the other two "Well come on! Let's go!"

The three of them make their way out of the flower shop.

"So what are your names?" The vampire asks.

"I'm Clove and this is my uh... my friend Vivian." Clove says as she hesitates on calling her her friend since she's never really had one before.

"Oh, my name's Samudra." Samudra says.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Samudra!" Clove says with a smile.

The three of them walk through town, shopping.

Samudra holds all of the bags because she is strong and doesn't exhaust easily. Clove goofs a lot by hurting her arm often, so the other two fret over her. They find really cool and funky looking things. The last stop they make is to get ice cream, Samudra doesn't get any because she is a vampire and can't eat anything aside from blood. It ends with Clove and Vivian saying bye to Samudra.

"Bye-bye!" Clove waves at Samudra and Samudra waves back.

"I hope to see you two again and thank you so much for the help." Samudra says.

"Definitely! If you're ever back around this area, come visit! We should be here!" Clove says.

"Bye." Vivian waves.

Samudra continues to wave for a second longer then turns around and begins on the path out of town.

A large colorful bat flies through the sky over an open ocean, carrying a bunch of bags. The bat continues over the ocean until land can be seen on the horizon. It lands on a beach and then in a puff of smoke turns into Samudra, she is still holding a bunch of bags. She sets off up the beach to where a single home sits close to the water. Samudra reaches the house and walks around the side to the front. She takes a pair of keys out of her pocket and unlocks the front door then enters the house.

"Hey, I'm back!" Samudra calls out while kicking off her shoes. After that she continues into the house, there is a living room and two people are sitting on the couch. One is curled up sleeping on the other while the other has their arm wrapped around the sleeping one with a book in the other hand.

The one who is sitting up turns his head to look up at Samudra and smiles at her. She leans down to kiss his forehead then walks around the couch to sit on the large carpet in front. Samudra begins digging through the bags. "Jaladri, could you wake Anthia? I have something I want to show the two of you."

Jaladri puts his book down then gently shakes Anthia awake. Anthia groans and curls up further into Jaladri's side. He shakes her again and she slowly sits up, extending her arms in a stretch. Once she does that, she opens her eyes and gives Jaladri a dirty look. "Why'd you wake me up?" Jaladri chuckles and points at Samudra. Anthia's expression immediately brightens. "Oh! Hello my Star. Did you just get back?"

"Hello Thia, yes I just got here also I have presents." She pats the bags she had just been digging through.

"You spoil us." Anthia giggles and sits cross-legged on the couch.

Jaladri copies her pose and using sign language, says "Extremely spoiled." Anthia giggles and elbows him in the side.

Samudra gives the two a look. "I'm not spoiling you two, this is for our anniversary."

Anthia gasps "Even better!"

Samudra reaches into the bags and reveals the bouquet she had gotten earlier. "I met a friend that helped me pick out the flowers for this. She and her friend were very kind."

"Oo!" Anthia says at the sight of the flowers and Jaladri takes the flowers from Samudra to admire them more closely. "These are absolutely beautiful, Star!" Anthia exclaims.

"They also helped me pick out some other presents I got for the two of you." She takes out a few more things and presents them to the other two; a necklace made of shells, t-shirts with funny logos, matching mugs, and a blanket with cool patterns.

"I love these, your new friends are great at picking out gifts." Jaladri signs.

"I'd love to introduce you two to them one day." Samudra replies.

"Oh, that'd be lovely!" Anthia clasps her hands together in front of her chest.

Jaladri smiles.

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