I gasped as I saw a crimson maned lion standing at the top of the stairs. My memories immediately flashed back to that night, where I heard that very same roar, from that very same lion who saved me. Could this possibly be.....him?

"Everyone quiet down!" He ordered. The others instantly obeyed him. I could tell from the look in their eyes, they highly respected him. He slowly made his way down the stairs. He moved so majestically, like a noble king in his castle. I could feel the confidence radiating off of him. I was almost overwhelmed by his mighty presense.

"Now, would somebody please tell me why everyone is gathered here?" He asked as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Raiden, it appears Hikki has brought somebody back to the shrine." Souta replied to him.

'Raiden? Was that his name? It's like thunder!' I thought to myself. The lion looked to Hikki. "Is this true Hikki?" He inquired.

"Yes Raiden. I have." Hikki answered as he motioned for me to come closer. I stepped forward and Hikki put his hand around my shoulder.

"Meet Sakura!" He grinned. As soon as the lion faced me, his eyes widened. 

"It's you." He stated quite calmly. 'He remembers me!?'

The others looked back and forth between us, with confused expressions.

"Hold on, have you two already met?" Kira questioned as she looked to me for an answer.

"Well, last night.....a monster attacked my town and I saw him save me." I explained.

"It's true." The Lion stated. 

The others then began to gossip amongst themselves. The lion started to approach me for a closer inspection. 

"Yes, I remember you vividly." he said, before he immediately transformed into a young man with red hair. There was no doubt about it. This was the same guy that saved me the other night. Even without the outfit and mask, I knew it was him. He was even more handsome up close, he was tall and his body seemed nicely built. He truly had the Aura of a real hero.

"Hello Sakura. My name is Raiden and I am the leader of the Celestial Guardians." He introduced himself formally.  "I presume you already know about them?"

"Yes I do." I blushed. "I mean kind of. My mother would tell me stories about these mysterious people with special powers, who would protect other people from monsters for many years. Loads of people thought they were just a myth, but I always believed in my heart that they were real."

"Yes. You are correct. The Celestial Guardians are real and they have existed since the very beginning." He confirmed.

"Raiden are you sure you should be telling her all this?" Enyo asked cautiously.

"It's alright. I know we can trust this one." Raiden affirmed. He then went on to explain to Celestial Guardian origin to me.

"Many centuries ago, the moon spirit summoned many creatures to become one with the stars to light up the night sky. But when the darkness started to rise up again, twelve of the animal constellations entrusted special powers onto certain humans; in order to become warriors of the night. These warriors were known as the Celestial Guardians." I continued to listen. I was so enthralled to be hearing the actual origin, from the Celestial Guardian Leo himself. 

"Their powers were passed down from one generation to the next. Different people were specially chosen to harness the abilities of those twelve animal constellations. "Those constellations were Pisces, Taurus, Aries, Lynx, Lepus, Lupus, Ursa, Hydra, Corvus, Aquila, Cygnus and Leo the lion. Which is me." He motioned to his arm. Which indeed bared the constellation mark of Leo the Lion. I gazed at it in wonder.

"Wow that's amazing! But why were only twelve selected to become Celestial Guardians?" I asked out of curiosity and interest.

"Nobody knows. But it was those twelve that gave people a miracle, in order to fight the evil within the darkness and to make the world a better, safer place. And we, are the current generation of Celestial Guardians." He lifted his arms to motion to all the others.

'Wow! So all these people are Celestial Guardians!' I thought excitedly.

"We all received our powers at young age and then we were summoned here, in order to train to become guardians." He stated. He then looked me in the eyes. "You didn't find this place by chance, you came looking for it didn't you?"

"What? How did you know that?" I inquired.

"Because you had a dream about it. Am I right?" He asked to certify.

"Yes I did!" I confirmed. "But how do you....."

"Because I had one as-well and I believe everyone else had one too." He looked to all of the others. They stared in thought for a few seconds, before their eyes lit up in realisation.

"Actually, I did!" Kira realised.

"I had one too!" Chiyu responded.

"So did I!" Misa replied.

"Yeah I definitely had one!" Souta declared.

"I'm starting to remember it now." Aimi recalled.

"I had one where we were all standing together and a fox was approaching us." Kuro explained.

"Now that you mention it I had a dream similar to that." Enyo acknowledged.

"Yeah so did I." Matsuo added.

"Me too!" Asahi marvelled. 

Yuto just nodded. 

"I am certain that we all had the same dream last night. I think it was trying to tell us that somebody would come to us." Raiden analysed.

"Raiden why didn't you say anything about this earlier?" Kira questioned him.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to jump to conclusions. I had to see if it would really happen. If my suspicions are correct, those dreams were trying to tell us that we were going to have a new guardian joining us." He asserted. 

"WHAT?!" We all shouted out in shock.

"Please show me your arm." He asked kindly. I did as I was told and he glanced at it. "I knew it, you have been given the mark of Vulpecula." The others gasped in surprise.

"Vulpecula?" I repeated.

"Yes, Vulpecula: the little fox. I have studied every constellation in the sky, even the ones that weren't guardians and I remember seeing this one amongst all of the animal constellations." He clarified. 

"If you have a mark like this, it means you have been gifted with special powers like the us. Such as transforming into that specific animal. I suppose you are already aware of this?" He presumed.

"Yeah, I can turn into a fox." I replied. I then transformed to show him. Once the smoke around me cleared, I suddenly heard nearly everyone coo at me in admiration.

"Aww how sweet!" Kira beamed.

"So adorable!" Misa rejoiced.

"What a cute little fox she is." Souta chuckled.

"Such a sweet little vixen! I don't think my heart can take it!" Asahi chorused.

"Okay I admit it. She does look cute like that." Matsuo complimented.

"KAWAII!" Chiyu squealed in delight.

I blushed deeply and hid my face with my paw. I was seriously not expecting this reaction to my fox form. I was both happy and embarrassed at the same time.

"Yeah! I've already seen it, isn't it cool?" Hikki chirped. He poofed into his hare form and started hopping around me happily. 'Hikki sure is easily impressed' I thought to myself. 

"Come on guys! She's shown us hers! Let's show her ours!" He encouraged. 

The others looked at each other. After a second or two, they all shrugged and poofed into different colours of smoke. (Yuto gave a sigh, but he transformed too.) When the smoke cleared, I gaped in wonder.

Instead of seeing people, I saw many different animals. I already knew Raiden was Leo the Lion and Hikki was Lepus the hare, but now I could see who all the others were.

"I'm Aquilla." Souta flew in mid air as an eagle.

"I am Cygnus the swan." Aimi said as spread out her Snow White wings.

"And I'm Corvus the crow." Kuro confirmed while lifting just one of his jet black wings.

"Us three are birds of a feather." Souta added as He, Aimi and Kuro all flocked together.

"Lupus." Yuto just said as a wolf in a monotone voice. His scar was visible in his wolf form too.

"I'm Aries" Misa bubbled. She was a sheep with thick curly wool and little round horns on her head.

"Lynx!" Kira announced positively, as she got into a pouncing stance. She was clearly demonstrating that was a fearless, feline female.

"Ursa the bear!" Ursa roared, as she stood up on her two legs and gave a bear growl.

"Taurus the bull" Matsuo announced confidently. He treaded his front hoof on the ground and snorted like an actual bull.

"I am Hydra the Serpant!" Asahi sang as he slithered around, while showing off his shiny green scales.

"I'm Pisces." He made a floating ball of water around himself, which was amusing. "Since I'm a fish, I have to constantly keep myself within water. Luckily we're able to use our powers in animal form too." He noted.

I couldn't help but giggle in delight. I never imagined I would be surrounded by so many other animal people! I was amazed by them all. Judging by their appearances and personalities, I could see that their animals really fit perfectly.

"Well whaddya think?" Matsuo asked.

"Do we look fabulous or what?!" Asahi expressed proudly.

"I don't know what to say. This is just amazing!" I approved.

I couldn't believe it. These people were all exactly like me! I had a warm feeling rise up inside of me. Like someone had just lit a small gentle flame inside of  my body. I wasn't sure what it was, but it felt wonderful.

"I know why you are here Sakura." Raiden approached me.

"You do?" I looked up at him.

"The stars have specifically chosen 'YOU', to become a new Celestial guardian." He 

"WHAT?" I exclaimed as I transformed back into a human. The others were shocked too, they transformed back aswell.

"There is no other explanation to why you bear those abilities and had that dream. I do not know the reason myself,  but I know the stars would never bestow special powers onto someone without a reason." He commented.

"Raiden, are you saying she is to become a guardian just like us!? But there have only ever been twelve Celestial guardians, how could there possibly be another one now?!" Enyo demanded.

"It must, be I know it must. I can feel it from her. This girl has potential." Raiden stared at me. "Lately the monsters have started to show up more frequently and they've starting appearing in many different places. We've all started to notice it." He disclosed.

"You do have a point. It's already hard to fight the monsters in the first place. More of them have started to appear as well." Enyo emphasised.

"It's unsettling to know that their numbers could increase and who knows where and when they will strike next." Misa fretted.

"I fear what could happen if the danger continued to grow. But this must also be a sign that 'we' as the guardians, should grow even stronger. If she really does have powers like the rest of us, then she must've been summoned to become a new guardian to help fight the darkness!" Raiden announced.

"Hold on a minute! Ar....Are you saying I am to become like you and fight those monsters!" I stuttered.

"Precisely." he answered with confidence.

"Wait....wait this is a lot for me to take in!" I stammered.

"Those powers chose you for a reason, otherwise they wouldn't of done so." He spoke softly.

"Raiden, do you think it's wise to have her here? We risk ourselves enough as it is." Yuto hinted.

"We must. That dream we all had was a prophecy and it brought Sakura to us. Therefore she has to become a guardian."

"But I don't know anything about being a guardian!" I countered. "I don't think I would be able to do anything like you guys."

"Raiden then got down on one knee so that he could look me directly in the face. "You are a special person Sakara. I can see it in yours eyes, you are the kind of person who wishes to help people. Right?"

I looked down. "It's true. I have always wanted to help people." I admitted quietly.

"You have been gifted with something incredible, if you follow your heart you can accomplish great things. We may not know everything about the power of Vulpecula the fox. But as fellow power weilders of the animal constellations, we can guide you and help you to become a Celestial Guardians ." I stared at him for a moment, before looking back down in thought.

"We are all like you, we wish to help and protect others. We were all chosen for a reason. We've had our problems and doubts. But we all came together and learnt to overcome them, in order to become great guardians." The others all confirmed and nodded in agreement.

 "We are not forcing you to do anything Sakara. But you can help make a difference and put your abilities to good use. We will teach you everything we know." Hearing his words felt so inspiring.

"Am I allowed a little time to think about this?" I asked gently. "I mean this is a huge decision for me. Besides, I have to get home to my mother. It's getting late and she'll be wondering where I am. She doesn't even know I'm here."

"I understand." I nodded. "Take your time to think about this, when you are ready, you may return to us. Here..." he handed me a little star shaped pin. "Use this to contact us and we'll come to get you." I took it in my hands and stared at it. It was sparkly and pretty. 

"Thank you." I replied gratefully.

Raiden then turned to Hikki. "In the meantime, Hikki you can take her home."

"Alright!" Hikki saluted.

My eyes widened at the thought and I suddenly spoke up. "Woah hold on! No offence, but is there another way we can get home? Sorry, I'm just not used to that kind of speed." Just the memory Hikki's insane speed made my head spin.

"It's alright Sakura, Hikki was actually going to use the other method." Raiden told me before looking back to Hikki.

"Weren't you Hikki?" He stated with a stern look on his face.