A Guardians Duty

Unable to capture his swirling senses at first, Ezekiel didn’t fight the feelings coming over him. Instead, he let them crash and battle with his own wild rage. He welcomed it now like a security blanket, whereas before, he despised it.

He let the Reaver broil up everything in his mind except for his own desire to remain unaffected. In control. Powerful. He brushed aside her painful hold on his beast.

But still, Ezekiel felt his chest tighten, squirming as he felt his air choking off.

Pressure upon pressure built, he started to snarl and pant, but he didn’t fall entirely beneath her dominance ...and he wasn’t the only one to withstand the storm. With snarls and glowing eyes, all Guardians and Healers glared at the High Elder as she exerted her unimaginable supernatural strength against them.

Erin and Drin, the youngest and untrained among them, visibly wilted. Erin whimpered and turned into her mate as she felt the power of the Elder lash against her mind and body. Ezekiel pressed his talons into the table and shuddered. A harsh crack filled the air, and he seemed to snap and shatter the wood in his fists.

Lander and Walter shook their heads and hissed, as if their minds were scrambled by the sensations surrounding them and the pain and emotions seething in the air. The only ones completely unaffected by the sensation of the Elders' pure domination were Glen, Mantilo, and Nate.

Both Clan Heads were unmoved by the display, but they did let their fangs and eyes fully shift as they felt the Elder trying to force them to submit. Their Leopards bristled at the rude action against them in their own home. Nate also let his eyes shift, while his face remained stoic and unmoved.

When Bonsa spoke to them once more, she growled, and her eyes turned a dangerous cobalt blue as she spat and angrily threw out her arm.

“I command you to be honey, do not lie to me! Why would the Lion Kings body just be gone if you are not trying to hide something that you did to him? Why would anyone take him if he was already dead to the world? Your words make no sense, Guardians. My patience is not unlimited. I'm High Elder, and I will sunder the life from each and every one of you if I deem you guilty of this act against the peace of our lands. So no more lies! If you want me to trust your words, then you must explain what hand you hand in the disappearance of the Lion Jaco ...tell me all that transpired so that I can make the choice of your judgment for myself!”

Fighting to think past the suffocation and his own burning anger, Ezekiel closed his eyes.

Fuck...this is not good! But we can’t tell her the truth about Jacob or who killed him...We still have no idea if the Elders and Dragons can be trusted! And the proof...is there proof that we can even use...perhaps in the forest...?

Ezekiel’s mind raced and his guts twisted as once again it came down to revealing Brandon and telling the Elders about his powers and the fact that he killed Jacob...or protecting his family and his home. One of them had to be sacrificed to save the other...one of them had to take the brunt of the charges...one of them had to answer for the Treason and murder committed.

It was apparently obvious by now that none of the other guardians or Mantilo or even Glen were willing to betray his Mate. No one had even said Brandons name this whole time.

The unveiling of Brandon’s involvent in the murder had to be Ezekiel...and even if he didn’t spill the truth and betray Brandon to the Elders Ezekiel was at once warmed and sickened to realize that his family would support him either way.

Ezekiel gnashed his fangs in helpless agony, he couldn’t bring himself to speak, to choose...and everyone in that room, even Bonsa seemed to be waiting on someone to do or say something.

For a few moments there was silence, and then suddenly there was the intrusion of the one voice in the room that hadn’t said a word the entire time.

“High Elder if I may speak...do you hear and understand just how fucking insane you sound right now? You are being unreasonable and highhanded. You are not being fair....” came the rumbled growl of Nate; his eyes were glittering like pearly moon gems as he and his wolf smiled viciously and coldly.

“You want answers...you want us to just be open? So what you’re really saying is that you expect us to incriminate ourselves to you? If you were sent here by the Dragons, oh great and powerful Elder Lioness, then you must already have some idea of what has transpired here! You Elders are supposed to be pure power of the Gods condensed into weak flesh packages to do their bidding. So, Isn’t our great Dragon King some omnipotent god who knows all and sees all? Or at least that's what the legends say off Dragon kind..., but wait? If you truly are sent by an omnipotent being, why are you acting like we have to tell you shit!?”

Nate said to her, putting a clawed hand on the table as he talked. His entire demeanor was one of vicious belligerence, signaling to all of his brothers that the Wolf was more in control than Nate. This hadn’t happened for months, and before Brandon had arrived, Nowell hadn’t made himself so outspoken. In fact, no one in the family took pains to acknowledge the wolf as a sentient separate being outside of Nate at all.

Primarily because in the Leopard clans, the beasts they carried were just a part of them, a tool , a lower form, a ball of pure instincts and power they could control, and so Nate's wolf had been regulated down to the same. Even though Nate had a name for the beast and treated his Wolf more as a companion then a tool, the wolf was mostly ignored by the larger Clan society...but it seemed in this case the forgotten Wolf, Nates other side, Nowell wanted out. 

He bled fast and hot into the world speaking with Nates body in a way none of them ever allowed thier Leopards too.

Nate's voice oozed with tension and arrogance all, while his appearance was one of a Shifter in Mid-Shift. All six of the fangs in his mouth flared as he sneered at Bonsa, and his long claws scratched the wood of the table while his glimmering eyes burned with wolfish aggression and even though he and his family were moments from treason and possible execution, Ezekiel couldn’t help but be momentarily struck speechless by the animosity his brother was displaying. Compared to his affectionate reaction to Balder, it seemed that Nate and his wolf both found the Elder unsavory. “We owe you nothing!”

Ezekiel smirked before he looked around, and he openly shuddered in hatred as he looked at Erin and saw her face crumble in agony.

Ezekiel graveled out in a beastly monstrous snarl directed at Bonsa. “Also, my cousin is pregnant, and she is but a cub, and you...your actions are hurting her and her Mate...you need to stop before you send her into a panic.” Ezekiel let his fangs bleed over his lips. “Elder, stop before you harm the child...and we make you regret it!” he shouted, starting to get beyond frustrated.

“You’ll MAKE ME regret it will you?” The High Elder laughed, she seemed genuinely tickled as she smirked meanly and leaned forwards looking Ezekiel right in the eyes. “I fear no beast, least of all you child.”

“Regardless, the child is innocent in this. Now stop it! Stop hurting them!” Walter suddenly thundered like a vicious monster. His face contorted in so much rage and aggression that it even gave Ezekiel pause. Their elder brother slammed his fist into the table, and all six of his fangs lengthened in his sneering maw. His beast's roar actually made everyone in the room flinch slightly. Wide, shocked eyes danced over Walter's livid expression.

“Hmph...impressive that even you are able to push past the power in some small way, Clan Heir...” Bonsa sneered back at her Elder brother, but after she held his eyes for a moment, something seemed to click for her. Then suddenly, she glanced at Erin, the young healer bundled into a terrified ball, held close to her Mate, shivering and whimpering.

It was obvious the Erin was trying to fight to stay strong like the rest to them. Ezekiel could sense her struggling to choke back her cries. Drin was trying to calm her, his hand on her shoulder and on her growing belly as she sobbed into Drin’s chest but it was clear Drin could barely think or even breathe himself.

Drin tried to kiss Erin. He gripped her cheeks, dashing aside her tears with his thumbs tenderly before he pressed close and pressed their lips together gently as he whispered,” It's okay, baby. It's okay. Don’t be scared...” He looked so young and helpless as his mate pressed her forehead closer to him, and tears danced heavy across her cheeks.

The Elder grunted, and suddenly, the horrifying pressure over them all lessened, but only by a few subtle degrees.

Erin’s body stopped shivering, but suddenly, her composure cracked even more, and she started to sob as relief replaced the feeling of being forced to submit so cruelly. 

"The baby..he was kicking so hard...The baby..." The young Healer gasped as she tried to wipe the tears away and regain control. Drin wiped the moisture with tender fingers over her chin.

Then Drin pulled her into his lap and embraced her and their son. He rumbled into her hair, and he kissed her gently, rubbing her back to soothe her into silence. Her cries tore Ezekiel’s soul to shreds. Her pain made the Reaver in his soul seethe with hatred, and in that moment, the Leopard was sure that he would never trust such a cruel woman.

Bonsa sighed and said. “She will survive. But I will not ask kindly again. All of you need to stop fighting me!”

Nate kicked the leg under the table, making the large mahogany table shake hard. There was an arrogant and protective air about him as he spoke next. “Look, there is no way we're going to tell you anything! You aren’t trying to protect us. So WE are going to protect this Clan on our own....” Nate rolled his burning white eyes to Ezekiel and with a growling inflection, his voice split and deepened as if two beings were speaking through him at once. “We are going to protect our pack. All of our Pack even the ones who aren’t here now.”

Ezekiel heard the words and knew that Nate was offering him his support, his unwavering loyalty, but at his words Ezekiel just felt his heart break because he was starting to fear that this couldn’t go on.

“Well said Wolf pup...and I can understand why you would choose not to speak but you think the Dragon King is Omnipotent as well as the Elders?” With a soft shake of her head Bonsa drew back, her eyes still glowing like Nates, but her voice was softer and the flames on her body had fled so she looked less like a blue burning beast come to devour them all.

The High Elder took a step to the left and paced a small circle behind her chair at the table, and then she said.

“You are dearly mistaken wolf cub. We do not work that way!” Bonsa called to Nate in denial, shuffling her clothing about her neck and then pointing to the embossed gold gleaming from the flesh of her forehead. “Neither man or beast has power to see what is beyond them, that is not how we work at all. And even us Elders and Dragons are beings of the flesh.”

“Oh really! I guess the stories were a myth! So tell me great Elder....How exactly do you work?” Nate smirked; the wolf analyzed the Elder with dispassion and absolutely no fear.

Bonsa seemed both aggrieved to answer...and more than willing to explain. Almost as if she wasn’t used to people inquiring anything personally of her or the Dragons she served. Her blue eyes flashed and died out, returning to cold brown pupils as she tapped her foot and explained. The overwhelming sense of power being pressed on his chest and mind fled entirely.

“Well...” She began on a soft note looking Nate, then the other Shifters in the eyes.

“I guess what many believe about the Dragons and Elders are myths simply born of fear or out of respect.”

Bonsa gestured out towards the sky, then down at herself, saying, “Myth number one is that Dragons are Gods, and we Elders are, in some ways, their seraphim or "angels" if you will. But to be clear we are Shifters, long lived but mortal...There are no gods among us.” Bonsa sniffed and waved a nimble hand in the air.

“The Clans have elevated the Dragons to a status of being on par with Gods, but they are simply the oldest, wisest of our kind, and the most powerful. They are not gods, but they are formidable beings that have protected the balance of power in our world from the beginning of time.” Bonsa continued looking about the room.

“We as Elders can sense things through the Dragons....They are the earth’s child and yet separate from her as well. So they know things that we can’t. Elders feel through the Dragons. We know that there are disturbances in the energies, a skew in the Balance of the world, negative changes in the flows of life and we are sent out to investigate these changes.” Bonsa continued to explain. “We do not know for sure what happened, and I simply prefer not to speculate unless clear proof of crime or wrongdoing has been supplemented to me, mostly given to me by the King himself.”

“So you have proof?” Mantilo asked as she stopped.

Bonsa sharply shook her head. “No the King had very little to tell me when it came to this current situation.”

“Then why are you charging us with treason off the words of others!?” The Clan head bashed the table in frustration.

“....As I said, you are only being convened and charged of treason....you have not been judged at this time.” Bonsa corrected him sternly. “All I know is that two very strong and powerful energies have been here, and because the Lion King Jacob Elicist is missing, I must make sure that no Sacred Laws have been defiled. ” The Elder growled, the lion in her becoming frustrated with explanations.

“Now I have waited and been patient and answered many of your questions, but all you have given me these last few days are half answers and veiled secrets. By order of the Elders Covenant, you will reveal to me what has happened here, or I will pass judgment on your entire Clan—as is my right! NOW speak, or you will all be put to death by your lack of cooperation!” A sharp, brimming blue light flashed around her irises.

A dormant beast was flashing its anger and authority.

“You can't; you would be killing innocents!” Erin made a small sound of fear as she bent over her son.

“Stop it! No more...!“Ezekiel shouted and stood fully from his seat to capture the Elders' gaze as he sensed the power of the High Elder caressing all of their inner beasts again, clawing into their minds and souls. Erin started to cry again. He couldn’t take it. He couldn’t let his family suffer like this.