Riku walked over to the great window of souls. Every day, every hour, every second, a soul
passes through the great window. As
souls pass through the window, they are judged to see if they are worthy enough
to move on to the heavens and be one with the stars, whether they need to go
back to the earth and finish unfinished works, or if they are worthy of
becoming one of the great Guardians of the world. The guardians have been watching over the
many cities of the world since the age of the New Gods began. They had been tasked with keeping the world
safe and collecting their prayers in hopes of opening the great gate to the
golden power left behind by the goddesses.
Riku was one of these souls to be given the role of a guardian. The system worked like this. When a soul is accepted to being a guardian,
they are given their wings and a halo, and are sent to an academy to teach them
the way of their new weapons, how to fly properly, and the history of the
Guardians. The next step for the souls
is that they become the squires of highly ranked Guardians. They are trained on how they are to protect
their charged city, from defending it from monsters, to simply taking out the
trash. They are also taught how to take
the prayers from the Guardian statues.
Each statue holds the many prayers offered to the Guardians every day. And when a Guardian approaches a statue, the
prayers become a part of his being, and then he brings the prayers to the great
Statue of the Goddesses. Legend says
that once enough prayers have been collected, then the great gate to the Golden
Power will open and the role of the Guardians will be complete. For the golden power allows whoever touches
it to have a single wish granted. All
the guardians wish for a world without strife and pain, and wish to join the
great dance in the sky, as well as give a perfect world to the family and friends
they left behind in the mortal world. But
the universe demands some form of equilibrium.
When a new Guardian is selected, a high ranking Guardian is given the
gift of joining the great sky-dance.
Riku only had been a Guardian for 3,000 years, and he had yet to be
promoted to a full-on Guardian. His
master, Aqua, was a good hearted woman, but with the strength of ten
armies. She had been the Guardian of the
Hylian capital for nearly 20,000 years, and was the one who taught Riku just
about everything he needed to know about being a Guardian. He was only a few days away from his rise in
the ranks to being the full-time guardian of Feather Falls, and was going to be
given the grand tour of the city by its current Guardian. Riku was just simply gazing at the great
window as he watched the souls go on to the next life. He was jealous. He longed to see his family again. He didn’t know if his son was dead yet, if his
descendants were still alive. He wished
with all his heart to be with his beloved in the skies. He was tired of all that he still had to
do. All he did was pick up peoples
garbage. There never was a time where he
would do battle with anything but small, weak, pathetic monsters that would
roam outside the town and possibly threaten a traveler. The Guardians were forbidden to fight in the
wars of the mortals. Because then if
they did, there would be factions amongst the Guardians over who would fight
for who, and end up as Guardian vs Guardian rather than Guardian vs mortals. Riku didn’t care about any of that. He didn’t understand why the Guardians had to
do this. Couldn’t the mortals fend for
themselves? Were they that incompetent that
it was impossible for them to get by without any form of guidance? He didn’t understand it at all. Everybody says it is all for the sake of
opening the path to the golden power, but after the path is revealed, what
then? Will it all be some elaborate
prank, or will it actually help the mortals?
Riku just wanted to do something other than pick up piles of manure
every single day. He longed for the thrill
of battle yet again. He wished to fight
for a country, and defeat evil. Not run
some child’s errands. As he contemplated
this, Aqua walked up to him and told him that it was time. Riku looked at the soul clock and saw that
three mortal days had already passed since he had first walked up to the soul
window. He got up, and walked with his
master. She told him to put on his ceremonial
armor and polish his sword and shield. He
knew what this meant. He went back to
his quarters and got dressed. He then
walked into the central chapel, where stood all the great Guardians, dressed in
their ceremonial armor forming a path to the central stage where stood the oldest
Guardian. Each Guardian had their swords
drawn and held vertically with the flat side facing forward. As Riku walked forward, he approached the
elder, and then got down on one knee.
The elder then stated,
“As the march of time continues, we celebrate that another soul has become a
step closer to the stars, and that one soul is finally joining the great
dance. Riku of Xelador, do you hold the
values and tasks of the Guardians to your heart?”
“I do.”
“Do you promise to never let your guard down, to always hold the peace of the
village under your protection and guide the dead to the great skylight?”
“I promise.”
“Do you swear to collect the prayers of the people and to bring them back here in
order for the path to the golden power to open?”
“I swear.”
“Then by the power invested in me, I now dub you the Guardian of Feather
Falls. May your light shine on the
people of your village, and may they be grateful to you. Now to all of you, my fellow Guardians, I
will see you in the sky.” With that, the
elder became a great light, and disappeared into thin air. His soul had finally moved on, and he had
joined the great dance. Riku envied him
more than anything right now. He rose up,
and walked out of the chapel. Everybody
was congratulating him on becoming a Guardian, but he didn’t care. He wanted to die. He wanted to leave this pathetic life and be
with the one he loved. He walked over to
the edge of the large observatory the Guardians called home, and flew down to
the town of Feather Falls. As he dove
down, he could see with his special powers a monster just roaming around near a
mortal ranch. He drew his sword and
planned on taking it down for fun with a sky-dive sword thrust. But before he could hit it, a sword drove
through the eyes of the monster. Riku
had to slow down his decent to make sure that he didn’t stab the mortal that
had stolen his kill. Riku was upset
about the fact that he was robbed of the chance for battle. He needed something to vent out on, and some
blond haired kid had ruined it for him.
“Link! What happened?” Riku turned towards the voice to see a woman
who seemed to be a half-elf but still have elfish blood in her running towards
the victorious mortal. He looked up at
the so-called hero, and was stunned by what he saw on his left ear. The earring heirloom that he had Eraqus give
to his son eons ago. Riku had told
Eraqus that the firstborn of each generation following must always bear the earring
on their left ear as a sign of his family.
Apparently Eraqus didn’t shirk his responsibilities. Riku became intrigued by this. He then wondered if it was fate that he was
given this post at Feather Falls.
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