“Gruff, do you know what a Guardian is?” Ma asked.

The small child looked up at the woman with sparkling eyes. “What is it?”

“A Guardian is a person who protects other people. They use magic to keep monsters away from villages.”

“Cool!”

“Would you like to become a Guardian?” Gruff shook his head frantically. “It won’t be easy. Do you still want to do it?”

Gruff woke to a violent shaking. He slowly opened his eyes and Jonah’s blurry face looked back at him.

“Hey dude,” Jonah said. “It’s your turn to keep watch. I need my beauty sleep.”

“You can’t get any uglier. So, just let me sleep for five more minutes.” Gruff’s blanket was ripped from his arms. “Give it back. It’s cold.”

“It’ll only get colder if you don’t get up. So, quit your whining.” Jonah lay on the ground, wrapping himself in Gruff’s blanket.

“Jerk.”

Jonah chuckled.

“Is there any dried fruit? I need something to keep me awake.”

“You can’t have any. We are restocking the safe house with it. Now shut up so I can sleep.”

Gruff stifled a laugh. The safehouse reminded him of one of Jonah’s pranks…

“It was his idea.” Gruff pointed at Jonah. Ma crossed her arms.

“It was initially my idea, but Gruff was the one who decided to use magic.”

“But you were the one who set off a chain reaction of lightning through the safehouse.”

“I didn’t-“

Whack! The two boys rubbed the backs of their heads. “It was both of you who almost destroyed the safe house. You’re just lucky that there wasn’t any serious damage.”

Marcia cleaned the broken bottles of preservatives from the safe house as the two boys were being scolded.

“Now, stop making Marcia clean up after you!”

They knelt, picking up broken glass as Ma led Marcia out of the safe house.

Gruff watched the fire with a smile. Time passed, and the light faded when the kindling went down. He rose, and a cold chill blew through the mountains, snuffing out the remaining kindling.

Through the darkness, two blazing red eyes stared at Gruff.

He froze as he watched the man emerge from behind a tree. His red eyes glowed briefly, sending a shiver up Gruff’s spine. Ma rose from her sleeping bag, and Gruff looked over at her. She turned and lay back down.

When he looked back at the forest, the man was nowhere in sight.

Time drifted, and it was now Marcia’s turn to keep watch. Gruff woke her, and she rubbed her eyes and told him to sleep. Rolling onto his side, he rocked himself back and forth. The red-eyed man flashed through his consciousness, and he forced himself not to think. Sleep came slowly.