Whoo, what was I thinking when I wrote this? Well, to be perfectly frank with you the reader, I've been stuck in a dark sorta funk lately. Maybe too much Batman Beyond and not enough Ducks. I'm not entirely sure what's tugging at my muses, but it's put stuff like this into my head, instead of my normal fanfic. Try it and see if you like. If ya do, maybe I'll do more of it in the future, and zany hijinks shall ensue. Enjoy!

 

A Guardian's Place

Written by Zelda

 

 

                I'm exhausted, but happy. It's been quite a while since I started at this, only now am I tired. Five years ago, I would have collapsed by now. Northstar wouldn't have been too happy about that one, that's for sure.

 

                The sun's actually gone down quite a bit. Almost an hour... could I have been out here alone for that long? As I'm gasping for breath, fighting the cold air that's constricting my throat and making me foam at the mouth, I'm almost surprised at my strength now. If I were in a real fight...

               

                No time for that now, I suppose. Heaving in another breath, I leap, I pivot, I twirl sideways and slap the air with my tail. Dropping back down into the dead leaves on the forest floor, I whip my tail out again. If there were an opponent there, I'd have them on the ground by now. If there were an opponent there. Wow... I am tired. But to me, there is an opponent standing in front of me. A hunter drone, perhaps? Naw, one of those would have been destroyed a long time ago. A henchman? Well... the henchmen are gone. Finally relenting to my searing lungs, I sit back and spend a little time gasping. Yeah... all the henchmen are gone. That's my problem. There's nothing for me to imagine. There are no enemies to conjure up. Still, I am out here alone, in the maple groves of the southwestern Territory, shadowboxing until I feel like I can hardly stand. Why? Why am I here pretending to fight?

 

                The air's really getting cold... it actually hurts my throat now. I should know better. If I come down with pneumonia again, Diamond will have my hide. Still, if I lived through it once... Well, I know better now. I'll fold my wings in and call it a day. No use in fighting against nothing, anyway. This is no way to train. Maybe I'll get one of the guards to spar with me, Saguaro or Keelhaul. I can't keep my old shape up, fighting like this. Something within me really wants to boardrun again. Still, those days are over.

 

                I resign to heading back. It's late, and I'm tired. Maybe I'll find something tastier than raw acorns for dinner tonight, if I can work up the effort. It's the walk back that's half the fun, just me alone in the woods, and it's beautiful in the fall. I can remember nights, standing on some rooftop somewhere, looking back, wishing I were here and doing this...

               

                So why am I so restless now? My immediate fatigue is starting to fade away... the air gets a little more dank in these little riffles here, where it stays marshy all year round. Why am I wishing I were back there, all of a sudden, on some desolate rooftop in the unbearable humidity, staring over some endless cityscape under a blanket of smog? Do I want to be away from home? No, that's crazy. I belong here. I've got more than enough on my plate leading my kind. That's what I'm here for. I am their guardian.

 

                Guardian... that word... I've used it a lot. But I've never really understood what it meant. That is what they called me, trumpeted me as when I was finally able to throw my head up above the bloody mess of bodies that was the Tournaments, after Emerald had died and someone needed to take his place. They called me Guardian, sky-elemental, leader. I've understood the leader part, and I've understood my kinship to the sky.... but guardian? Well... that one's open to interpretation. Even the elders don't know what it means, really.

 

                I do... somewhere deep inside. I know what it means to take up the mantle of my ancestors. I know what it means to be a guardian. I can feel it, it flashes up inside of me, like the way my eyes seem to glow sometimes in blue when I get angry. I know what it means when I've felt an ally in pain, when I'd beat myself bloody against the bars of a cell even though I knew I couldn't escape. When I'd dove in front of laser blasts, leapt into collapsing buildings... yeesh... sometimes I'd rather not remember what I've put this body through. But that's when I've known. I stopped listening to everything else, and I only heard what my heart told me. Those tearing impulses nearly cost me my life on several occasions. No wonder Silver called me crazy, and wondered if I was really a fire-elemental instead of a sky.

 

                Better me than them, that's what I would always say. And I've been right.

 

                I've gotta stop pushing myself like this, I need to just be home. There is so much to do here, especially with winter approaching. I know that I should appreciate this rest. One of these days, another impulse will tear my heart away from this land again. Away from my home. Away from my kind.

 

                I used to get some flack from my challengers, that I should stay. They were never strong enough to defeat me in battle, or in my head. Maybe I should have stayed. But I'd have been lying to myself if I had. And maybe, just maybe, I played a vital role to the victories of those that I'd helped. Maybe I actually did make a difference, for all of the blood that's been let down from these scales. Maybe.

 

                But like I said, one of these days I'll be called away again, and I'll need to be strong, to help whoever it is that I'll need to help. That's my job.... by the stars... it's my life! I don't think I could do otherwise. It's just tough... living under such pressure, away from home... and one failure means the end of things. Being here is such a wonderful diversion from those memories. As I'm coming up over the hill, I can almost smell the cave, the leader's Den, my home. There's music playing somewhere off in the distance. And I'm happy. I can remember times where coming home would be a living nightmare. I couldn't sleep... I can remember knowing my friends needed me, and yet being here... My friends, I hope you're safe tonight. But now, I'm happy.

 

                One day soon, I'll be called on again, and the guardianship of this land will rest with the good graces of my ancestors. Until then, it rests with me. One day soon, it will be this land, and much more.

 

The End

 

Mighty Ducks-The Animated Series, including all logos and characters (except me) are copyright and property of Disney. You may copy, print, or whatever with this document, so long as it is not altered and I (Zelda) am credited. Thanks!