The Life of the Teen Prodigy:  The GOlden Guard, a Scrawny Teen Boy

By Oliver D.


I’m a witch. Well not even that, I'm a powerless witch, a lot of my ancestors were. I have to use a staff that my uncle gave me to do magic, to seem like a normal witch.  How pathetic is that..? At least I have learned how to use it for combat quite well. I looked out at the sky, it was 30 minutes before I had to be up for training. Great, I had time to wallow like a child. Really, I didn't have time, I had to get up and put my uniform on. But I somehow convinced myself, my pathetic self that I somehow deserved to be upset. Something had happened the other day, something that was my fault, I knew it was my fault. I spoke out of turn. I spoke out of turn with the Emperor, Emperor Belos. My uncle. He has this curse, from wild magic, he wont tell me how or why it happened or how he got it. I wish I could help him, I only wanted to help. But I spoke out of turn, like the fool I am, I kept pushing to help, to learn about wild magic to cure him, to cure him of the dangerous magic that the Titan didn’t like. The magic that killed my entire family before I even got to meet them. Or that's what Emperor Belos tells me. I looked at the bloody scab that had formed on my arm. It hurt, it burned and my entire arm could feel it, I think that was called throbbing. I was glad it didn't ruin my Coven Sigil, it just missed it. The Emperor's Coven, a lot of work but the best Coven, the highest ranking Coven. It was a full time job, for adults. I got in early due to living here and training since before I can remember. I trained enough to get the position of Golden Guard, Which was above the coven scouts and for what I know, above the coven heads. It’s being the emperor's right hand man. No one thought I deserved the position, they thought I just got it because I was the Emperor's nephew. As much as I should believe that I didn't deserve it, I felt like I did. I had trained from 6:00 am to 8:00 pm everyday since I was very young and changed it to 6:00 am - 12:00 am for myself when I got older,  or that's what I was told, again I don't remember when I started training. The coven scouts work 6:00 am - 2:00 pm or 9:00 am to 5:00 pm if they prefer to sleep in. You’d think the “Teen Prodigy” would know some healing spells for the wound on my arm, or for any of the wounds I've had in the past. I never learned any, my staff couldn’t even necessarily do that for all I knew. It didn't matter. I pulled myself away from my bed, the mattress was still so stiff it almost hurt, even though I've had it since I was very little. My room was cold, freezing almost. It was late fall so this was expected of course. I forgot to put socks on so when my feet touched the cold ground I could feel it rising up my legs. I quickly paced over to my desk and grabbed a pair of plain white socks, they had a small whole in them but they worked. I dug around through the rest of the desk to find my training uniform. 

“One day”, I promised myself,  “I’ll sort my stuff.” 

But I knew it was a lie I told myself, I didn’t even own that many clothes so it didn’t really matter. I had my Golden Guard uniform, training clothes and sleeping clothes and I wore the same shoes for the two. I grabbed out the blue undershirt and my pale yellow over shirt and slipped it over the plain white t-shirt that I slept in. It was too cold to only wear two layers, especially when only one had long sleeves. I changed into the correct pants and walked over to my door where I kept my boots. They were brown and worn out, I was told I would be getting new ones soon because we didn't want to send that kind of message out to potential scouts. I tied the laces of the boots up slowly and carefully so I wouldn't trip over them and make a fool of myself. I wasn’t allowed to talk to the Coven heads or the Scouts that often anyway, unless I had been asked to, it was strictly off limits, orders from the emperor himself. So I knew it was for my best. But I always had to walk past them, even when I trained alone, which was everytime. They were allowed to roam the castle when off duty, I was only allowed to do that when I was very very little, and still only a small section of the castle. I started searching around my room to find my staff, I had stupidly and carelessly thrown it to the groud the night before. After looking at the  floor I found it, I didn't have that many things in my room so it wasn’t easy to lose things. I picked it up and walked back over to the door, I turned the brasey gold handle and walked out. I could feel a temperature change from my room to the rest of the castle. I had this small room that couldn't be heated up, but the rest of the castle had to or everyone would freeze. 

“AH- TITAN- you scared me Steve!” I could hear one of the scouts in the distance shouted. 

I went on my way, slowly to not use up energy. I'd be training that would teach me how to climb up walls and pull myself up and around them if I had to, I knew it was going to be tiresome. And that I would be doing that for the next 16-17 hours with a 30 minutes break for food and another 30 minute break to do what I wished as long as it was approved, I normally just studied. But today I wasn't taking part in that. I was just going to be training. 

After a few minutes of walking I reached my training room. I only had a personal one so that the scouts didn't talk to me. It was a medium size room for training, a lot of hanging blue bars, flying training, walls that are able to be climbed on, and mats to land on. Very average from what I had studied. 

I slowly took my gloves off, I didn't care to stare at the scars on my hand, why look at them anyway, I knew what they looked like. I walked over and grabbed a hold of the scroll with what I would be doing today written on it. 

                                            Training session 

                                          Warm Up

     Use what you can to climb onto and over the Main yellow wall, take breaks as needed. Continue this after lunch, Hunter. 

I knew this wasn’t written from Emperor Belos. He never Wrote any of the training sessions. He was too busy to do that for me every day, it was one of the Coven heads doing it for Belos. By the handwriting it looked like Darius might have written it, Small, neat, and cursive letters, he was also the only one to add a warm up,or my name. After not doing a warm up and being in pure agony the next day I decided to always do Daruis’s warm up. I sat the paper down and walked over the Yellow and white Emperor's Coven mat. 

 I did everything it said, and I did it perfectly, without hesitation. Emperor Belos would have been proud. or I hoped he would. I could feel sweat dripping down my face and arms and I was breathing fast, Which normally happens when I do this. I made sure to quickly put my brown gloves on. I knew I was pushing myself too far but I couldn't help it. I didn't want to be a disappointment. 

         This was the only way I could prove I was worth something in this world. 

I hadn’t even bothered with lunch or breaks today, I really had to work the entire 18 hours. What I did the other day was unacceptable and a childish mistake. I had to show that I could do better.  I shaked my head to make the sweat go away. It didn't. I made my way back as I could feel my body ache. A strand of my blonde hair swerved across my face. 

“You’ll be asleep soon Hunter, pull yourself together!” A sharp pain against my check. I hadn’t even expected myself to do that. I could feel tears forming in my eyes but I wiped them away faster than I thought possible. I pushed it deep deep down and started to sprint to my room. I pushed my door open and saw someone there.

“Hello little prince.”

“D..Daruis?” My voice was shaky and I knew it, I tried to act like it wasn’t. 

“You didn’t come to lunch, again.” His tone was scornful and disappointed.  

“Yes, I know sir.” I muttered back.

“Don't call me that '' His tone, calm but commanding, is a lot like Emperor Belos’s voice, well at least most of the time..

“Of course Mr. Deamonne” I heard him sigh and I knew that meat he gave up on making me call him Daruis. There wasn’t a rule but if I wasn’t supposed to talk with him, I  wouldn't call him by his First name, that was just disrespectful since he was much older then me and it would make it seem like we were friends. 

“You need to eat, you don't even have any other meals, and you’re scrawny as it is.” 

“I am not-”

“Yes you are and you know it.” He stepped closer to me, standing right over me. I don't even know how he found my room, it was hidden away in the castle. Well…that's what I told myself. The whole point was that it was hard to find so that scouts or coven heads didn’t talk to me. I thought. 

“...Get out of my room” I muttered, some part of a whistle came out from my tooth gap, I tried to ignore it.  I know I should have spoken louder but I couldn't bring myself to. 

“Not until you promise to eat lunch tomorrow” I stared at him, his hair looked like abomination goo was tied up neatly into a bun on his head, it was purple with black like bits. His outfit was white black and purple, fitting for the abomination Coven head. I never liked that kind of magic, it was making a somewhat living thing that would follow your every command, and they were messy. I hated messy magic. 

“Fine.” I finally replied. 

“Good night little prince” He gave me a kind of smile that I've never seen before, it looked caring. More so than whenever my uncle smiled at me. 

“I thought I  told you to not call me that..” He didn't look back at me, he just left and closed the door. I thanked him in my mind, but I was also angry at him. Why did he just think he could come into my life like that? I wasn't even allowed to talk to him, and he knew it!...But he was right about me being scrawny. It was always the first thing anyone told me when they first saw me. It’s why I never liked to take off my Golden Guard uniform. No one could see how pathetic I looked with it, they couldn't even see my face, ears, hands, or hair. It was just the Golden Guard. The thought of one one being able to see me and call me scrawny or thin made me confident. So much that I forget who I am and I'm just “The Golden Guard'' until I eventually have to take it off. That's when Hunter comes back, the teen boy who apparently didn't eat enough . 

After letting myself calm down, which I normally never did. All I did was stand there and wait for my breathing to slow, but it was the nicest I've ever been about it to myself. I went over and changed into my sleeping outfit. I most likely wasted an entire hour letting myself calm down so I had to get to sleep. I wasn’t supposed to be up past lights out. 

I fell into my bed. I pulled the thin red blanket over my shivering self and shut my eyes. I slowly felt my face become loose. 

I felt sunlight hit my notched ear. It twitched me awake for good. 

                  Repeat of the day before, but I went to lunch

      Repeat of the day before, I went to lunch. 

                                          Repeat of the day before, but I went to lunch and studied. 

                                          Repeat of the day before but, I skipped lunch and just studied. 

Today, finally Saturday it’s a day I get to leave the castle! I get to go on a mission. Finally, something new. I quickly jumped up and changed into my golden uniform and white cape. I grabbed my mask and put it on. Grabbed my brown boots and slid them on. I tighten the laces so they wouldn’t come loose. I pulled myself off of the ground and grabbed my brasey gold door knob once again. Except instead of going to train all day I have to report to Emperor Belos to figure out what my mission is. I never know until he tells me. It had been so long since I've talked to him. I hoped he didn't remember the incident from last Sunday. Or at least I hoped he knew I wouldn't always be so foolish. I was sprinting through the halls down to his throne room. I passed the walls with the Emperors coven sigil on them and many scouts. Whenever I saw a scout I slowed down to be respectable. Half of them ignored my presence. More than Half, all but one. It was Steve. He just said Hello. Besides me he was one of the youngest scouts. He was about 22 if I remember correctly. I was only 15. Definitely the youngest scout ever. But it was just a circumstance that helped me out. Belos could have just left me to die but he said he found me and took me in. I'm grateful for that beyond belief. I walked over to the huge door to his throne room. There were two Coven Scouts Guarding it. 

“Hello Scouts.” I said calmly through my mask. 

“Oh! Golden Guard, hello.” They both spoke one on top of each other but they said the same thing so it didn't matter.

“May I go in, I have to get my orders for the day.” I knew I was aloud but it was the procedure to ask. 

“Of course, sir.” They opened the door for me and I could see Emperor Belos standing there facing the opposite way. I never liked it when people called me sir as Hunter, but I loved it as the Golden Guard. I walked in and I heard the door close behind me. I was thankful that the door was somewhat soundproof. I got down and kneeled to him. 

“Hello, Emperor Belos.” I didn't move from my kneeling position. 

“Palismen..” I heard Belos mutter.

“P..palism-”

“GET ME A PALISMEN!'' He yelled and turned around to face me. I could see the curse had been taking over him. He has green sludge all over him and coming out from his uniform. He was turning into the monster that the curse supposedly made him. I jumped up and went over to the small pile of alive Palismen. I grabbed the one closest to my hand and spirited Belos, I held it out to him. He snatched it from my hand and instantly broke the little wooden animal. Yellow and greenish light went up and into the eye holes in his mask and the green went back deep inside of him somewhere. I felt bad for the small Palismen but the emperor couldn't be wrong. He threw the remains of the wood to the floor. I heard it clatter on the stone ground and then blow away as dust. The little wooden bird was gone.

“These outbursts are becoming increasingly painful every day…” He said, his tone had changed, it seemed a little mournful. Well, at least for Belos. 

“I’m sorry sir” was all I could think of saying to him. He scoffed. 

“You need your orders for the day don't you, Hunter” He turned away from me once again. 

“Y..yes sir.” I said. 

“Just help one of the Coven Heads, I don't have time to think of little petty things for you to do today.” 

“...Yes sir.”I felt a sting of disappointment. I wanted to do something great today, on my own so that I could prove myself. I took my leave and went to where the Coven heads meet in the morning. I opened the door to the room and looked in. They were all doing their own thing. No one even noticed my existence. I stood there for a bit while waiting for someone to say Hello. 

“Hello Coven Heads.”  I said loudly through the mask.

“Golden brat?? What are you doing here??” Kikimora turned to me. I couldn't see her mouth with her uniform, in fact it was hard to see her face because of her..hair? Hand? Hand hair? but I knew she didn't want me here, if it wasn’t obvious by her response. 

“The emperor told me I would be helping a coven head with their task, If you really must know.” She couldn’t see my face, I was glad she couldn't see how childish I was when I stuck my tongue out at her. 

“Where’s Darius?” I said, I hoped I did not sound needy or that I favored him over the other coven heads.

“Oh well he’s still in his room, say why don't you come along with me?” Terra Snapdragon turned to me and walked over, she stood over me.

“I’m not good with plants ma’am.” I lied. I could deal with plant magic just fine. 

“You wouldn’t have to use plant magic, sprout.” I stared into her eyes,whatever she wanted me to do I wasn't doing it. 

“I’ll be helping Darius today, thank you for the offer ma’am.” I could feel myself start to shake, I knew that this person was easy to anger, and I didn’t feel like dealing with that today. 

“Why not me, hm?” Her tone was one that made it easier to tell it was a fake happy or caring tone, her fake smile slipped a bit, I could see I already made her angry. 

“With all due respect , I do believe it is my choice ma’am.” With that, her fake smile completely melted off of her face and she stared at me an inch away from my face with a snarl. I saw her move her hand and a sharp green flash came at me, met with a sharp , stinging pain and I fell to the floor. 

She had used her plant magic on me. My cape was ruined and I had a gash in my lower left leg. I could see the red seeping into my white cape. I had tears in my eyes, but they were hidden with the mask-

“Oh poor Mijo,” Ms. Noceda interrupted. I snapped out of the vision of the memories I had. I looked around at my newly made friends and they were all in shock. I had to remind myself that that wasn’t my life anymore, that I lived with Mrs. Noceda, Luz and her friends. Ever since we got stuck in the human realm. I wasn’t expecting that, I thought they would see that as normal, wasn’t it normal?

“Hunter…” Luz mumbled. I stared at her, I could tell they knew I was confused.  

“Isn’t that a normal life-?” I asked but the words barely came out, I could feel a lump in my throat stopping me from speaking. I knew this feeling too well, I hated this feeling. 

“No, Not even in the human realm, Right Ms. Camilla?” Gus said as he walked closer to me. 

“No it's not..” Ms. Noceda said. Luz and Amity were holding each other, they kept looking at me. Willow was also looking at me, she seemed worried. Vee and Gus… All of them were staring at me. 

“Hunter, do you know what  child abuse is..?” I saw everyone's face agree with her at once, Luz, Amity, Willow, Vee and Gus. I didn't know what that was. I tried to think of what it could be, but an idea didn't come to me. 

“No…” I muttered, I didn't like to not know things and I didn’t like admitting the things I didn't know.  Camilla- Ms. Noceda sighed. I knew I was in for a long talk. But it would be a safe one. 

                                             I would be safe here.