“Intruder alert! A Time Drake is in the base!”
The siren echoed around the Kiniseon One, causing a lot of ruckus.
“A Time Drake is in the base?” Kayenus exclaimed through his long, sharp teeth as he reached for the nearest weapon rack. He unsheathed the large blades that made up his hands and grabbed what looked like a shotgun from the rack.
“Protect the Life Goddess!” the siren continued to screech.
“We need to protect the Life Goddess!” Kayenus repeated, a phrase the slow Guardian repeated often. He rushed off down a corridor, turned a couple of corners and reached the door he was looking for, where Vexer was desperately trying to unlock it.
“Hey! Can ya give me a little help here?”
Kayenus grunted and pushed Vexer to one side. “Alright, alright, stand back, mate… The code is 1…”
Before Kayenus could finish the code, a loud roar could be heard down the corridor behind them.
“INCOMING!”
All of a sudden, Atteh’Kus barrelled through the door, Vexer and Kayenus, causing the three of them to collapse on the floor in a heap.
Staring at the three Guardians were their boss, Kinisis, and… some sort of stranger? Someone they had seen before. There were also two other Guardians present.
“You know the door was open, right?” Kinisis tutted. “Which one of you fucktards is going to clear that mess up?”
“It’s okay!” the stranger beamed. “I can fix it for ya!”
Vexer though immediately picked himself up from the pile and stood up angrily, pointing at the stranger. “YOU’RE REPLACING ME?”
“What? No.”
“Then why is there another Vrekan being here!”
Kinisis glanced at her guardians, then at her new friend. “Elksia here is a Time Drake.”
“But we’re not su-”
With a snap of her fingers, Kinisis’s guardians all fell silent. “If you’ll let me explain… Yes, Elksia is a Time Drake. And yes, she is also a former Vrekan, the same way you are, Vexer. But Elksia here has been vetted by the local Life Goddesses AND Decay Lords and is a gift from my dearest son Kairos.”
Elksia clapped her hands with glee. “I’m gonna be exploring with you lot!”
“But… why?” Atteh’Kus grunted as the large Banikan picked both himself and Kayenus up. “You are a Time Drake. Not one of us. Why are you here?”
Elksia blinked, somewhat confused. “Uh, Kinisis just said that I’m a gift. Because you guys ain’t got a Time Drake.”
“Do Life Goddesses normally have Time Drakes?” Kayenus asked.
“Apparently, yeah!” Elksia stopped blinking and started smiling again.
“And you are… willing to serve Kinisis?” Kayenus added.
The Time Drake shrugged. “I’m not serving her, I’m just tagging along. I’m free to leave whenever!”
The Guardians all looked at each other, still confused.
“So… why are you staying?”
Immediately, Elksia pointed to Tahnahos, the quiet Guardian who had been sitting next to Kinisis the whole time.
“Because I get to spend a ton of time with my best buddy Tenuk!”
The other Guardians all turned to Tahnahos.
“And you’re fine with this?”
Tahnahos smiled slyly. “It was my idea…”