Read an Excerpt from Guardians by T.J. Baer © 2023:Chapter One
My brother Jake lay
unconscious on the cave floor, his favorite denim jacket torn in three places
and his cell phone a cracked mess of plastic on the ground. If we actually
survived this, he was going to be pissed.
“All right, look,” I said,
giving the giant snarling insect monster my serious face. “I know I don’t look
like much, but you should know I am fully capable of kicking your big buggy
butt straight back to where it came from, not only for hurting my brother, but
for whatever unholy reign of terror you’ve got planned here.”
The monster was nine feet
tall, jet-black, and scaly, with hundreds of spindly legs, like a centipede on
steroids. Savage mandibles gleamed in the light from the cave mouth, and I
tightened my grip on my sword hilt. And because times of stress often led me to
incredible feats of word vomit, I kept talking.
“I mean, let’s face it: guys
like you don’t generally show up in our world without some kind of nasty plan
for world domination, so I think it’s pretty safe to say you’re up to no good.
So are you gonna go peacefully, or do I have to start shoving my boot up random
orifices until we find the one that hurts the most?”
The centipede monster reared
back, its legs fanning out, its mandibles opening—
And then it tilted its scaly
head to the side as if regarding me in puzzlement. “You speak great volumes but
say very little,” it said in a thin, whistling voice.
Which, okay, was fair. I’d
always had a tendency to babble, particularly when I was in imminent danger of
being devoured by the Godzilla of centipedes. Generally, the centipede didn’t
take the time to inform me of it though.
“I do not wish any harm upon
you,” it continued, deviating even further from the Evil Monster Intent on
Taking Over the Earth speech. “Nor any human. I came here only wishing to be
left alone, but your companion—” It swung its head toward Jake. “—attempted to
steal one of my children, at which point I was forced to defend them. I have
not seriously harmed him, only caused him to lose consciousness to neutralize
him as a threat.”
“He tried to steal one of
your kids?” That didn’t sound like Jake.
The centipede-thing tilted
its head toward the other end of the cave, where I could just make out the
glittering of a number of round, pearly, head-sized spheres. Eggs? They looked
like the kind of pretty, decorative objects people would pay a lot of money
for, bringing them much more firmly into the realm of things Jake would totally
try to steal.
I sighed and slid my sword
into its sheath. The magic triggered the instant I did, and sword and sheath
shrank to being a decorative golden clasp on my belt. “I apologize for my
companion’s rash actions,” I said, bowing my head slightly like we were
supposed to do in these situations. “If you’d allow me to remove him from here,
I swear to you that he’ll never come near you or your children again.”
The centipede bowed its head
too, its pincers snapping and clicking together in a way that I tried not to be
too creeped out by. “That would be acceptable. I thank you, Guardian.”
I blinked. “How’d you know I’m a Guardian?”
“Well, for one thing, the
sword.”
“Ah.”
“But even had you come
unarmed, I would have known. You wear your status like a cloak. It seeps from
every ounce of your being, every word and action. Though you look a frail
female thing, there is power in you.”
“Frail female thing,” I said
in a flat voice and decided not to be offended. If the worst thing a giant
centipede monster had to throw at me was sexism, I could probably count myself
lucky.
“Yeah, well, guess I’d better
get Jake—err, my companion—out of your hair before he wakes up and starts trying
to make off with your kids again.”
I started forward, hoping the centipede monster would move out of the way, but
it stayed where it was, its black eyes glittering in the dimness.
“You have shown me respect
and kindness, and so I shall do something for you in return. My species have a
unique ability that appears only between laying our eggs and the birth of our
children.”
“Oh, yeah? What kind of
ability?”
“The ability to glimpse the
future. It allows us to provide extra protection to our young when they are
unable to protect themselves, for instance if a young human is attempting to
steal one of them.”
“For instance,” I said dryly.
“Something lurks on the
horizon, Guardian. An age of darkness and danger is coming to you and those
like you.”
I frowned. “To the Guardians,
you mean?”
“To all beings of your
world.”
“What kind of danger?”
Its legs rippled, and it
dropped down onto them and made its undulating way over to the row of eggs. Its
last word hissed through the cave, seeming to echo louder and louder in my
ears:
“Extinction.”
I suddenly felt very, very tired. “Again?”
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