Senshi (Guardians)

When the final school bell rang, Thael was leaning against the wall waiting for his Princess. He was grinning like a Cheshire cat. He waited a moment, but no one was leaving the room. He peered around the doorway to see what was going on. He could see Leura standing in front of the class reading a story from one of her Larrian books. She was speaking in English:

“He put the specially prepared gjib in the oven. The guards watching over him didn’t see anything unusual about his preparations, so they just watched. Thael, the Prince of Princes, set the oven on full heat. Being a wood burning stove, the temperature inside reached a scorching heat in a short time.”

She turned the page.

“Unknown to the guards, he had added homemade accelerants to the wood inside. He had also stuffed the gjib with a homemade bomb made from cleaning supplies. Packed around the bomb were small packets of highly flammable materials.

“He told the guards he needed to use the restroom and asked one of them to stay to watch over the stove. Just moments after leaving the kitchen, it exploded, shooting the oven door into the guard sitting in front of it. He died when the door slammed him into the wall opposite the stove. The small incendiaries inside the bird flew all over the kitchen setting the walls and furniture on fire. The flames spread quickly to the roof.

“The reason the fire spread so fast was that, for the week previous, as he was cleaning the kitchen, he was coating the walls and furniture with flammable liquids. He had also replaced the fire bucket water with accelerants. When all was ready, he put something in the cook’s food that made him extremely sick.

“One of his duties in the castle was to fill the lamps, making it easy to replace the water in the buckets. So, when the guards threw the fire bucket contents on the fires they exploded into even bigger flames. The castle went up so fast that the evil rulers were trapped on the upper floor. They died from the smoke and their bodies burned up in the flames.

“Then, my children, Thael, the Prince of Princes, went to the area where the Larrian captives were held prisoner in cages. The guards were watching the castle burning. They were happy they were outside and far enough away that they would be safe. Their happiness was short-lived though, because Thael Paru, the Prince of Princes, flew into the compound and attacked the guards. At one point there were eight guards against him, but his golden sword cut them down. His golden shield glittered in the fading sunlight. He flashed the reflected light from his shield into the guard’s eyes to distract them long enough to interfere with their concentration. He slew the eight and ran for the next few guards. He single-handedly eliminated all twenty-five of them.

“Then he set the prisoners free. Over nine-hundred Larrians were freed that day. Ah, but that wasn’t all, my children. The Prince of Princes then led the captives safely through the forest; home to the Larrian capitol city, Farrengale.

“…And that, my children, is the story of how the bravest Guardian in the universe, Thael Paru, the Prince of Princes, and Crown Prince to the throne of all Taelon, saved our people and our homes from total destruction.”

She closed the book.

“Sugoi! Is that really true, Leura?” One of the girls asked.

“Yes. You see, I was one of the captives he freed that day. I saw what he did and he got me home safely.”

One of the girls saw Thael standing in the doorway. “He’s here! It’s Thael sama!”

He bowed, “Konichiwa, ladies. Genki desu ka?”

They started clapping. He waved his hands to stop them. “You shouldn’t believe everything you hear or read in a book. What is that book you were reading from Leura chan?”

“Heroic tales and Legendary Heroes of Larr”

“They put me in that? Bad Cooks and Dumb luck perhaps, but that?”

Leura responded in perfect English with: “Since Guardians can’t lie, especially the Prince of Taelon, why don’t you tell us what part of the story was untrue.”

He ignored her and bowed to the teacher, “Gomenasai, Takeda sensei, It seems I am always disrupting your class.”

“Class was over fifteen minutes ago, Your Highness. We were too interested in Leura’s tale to want to leave.” She was still speaking English.

“Tail? Should you be looking at her tail? Isn’t that kind of rude…?”

The class started laughing.

Kyoko interrupted him, “Baka! Gomenasai, Takeda sensei, Thael…” She stopped and laughed. “Now that’s another Thael worth hearing, ne?”

She laughed again. By now everyone was laughing, including Thael and the Imperial Guardians.

After they all had calmed down: “Thank you for sharing some of your Larrian tales with us, Leura chan,” Miss Takeda said in Japanese. “Your English is very good. As you know they have been studying Shakespeare in English, so I don’t think anyone had trouble understanding you. Ne, Minna?”

They all responded positively.

Leura bowed, “Thank you Takeda sensei for inviting me to share with you and your class. It was interesting translating Larrian into English. I hope I was able to do it correctly.”

“It was excellent, Leura chan. If you were a student in my class, I would have to give you an A plus today. Ne, Minna?”

“Hai!” They all said at once. Then they clapped for her.

She bowed, thanked them and went back to Kyoko’s desk. Miss Takeda walked up to the front of the class.

She returned to speaking Japanese and continued, “Tomorrow, you have your Literature and Japanese history finals. When you are done you may stay here after the final is over. To make it more interesting, let’s have Kyoko sama give us an idea of what other kinds of people we’ll be meeting Saturday.”

“I would be happy to, sensei, but Thael can tell you much more than I can. I haven’t met most of them. Saturday will be the first time for me too. He knows many of the various peoples of the thirty-nine United Galaxies.”

Miss Takeda turned to Thael. “It would be an honor for us to have you tell us about some of the other people we’ll encounter. It might help to make us less nervous.”

“I think that is an excellent idea, sensei. I have 3d Vid of them that I can show you, so you can hear their voices and see what they look like. It’s much better than trying to describe them to you all.” “Wonderful… tomorrow at three then…?”

“Certainly, sensei, I’m looking forward to it.” He bowed.

After Thael found a seat, Miss Takeda continued, “Today was very enlightening listening to folk tales from another planet. As we learned, they aren’t too much different from our own literature. I was particularly interested in the diary of the Larrian expedition to Earth so long ago.

“We are fortunate to be able to hear both sides of the fox legend we have all heard about as children. Written like an Aesop fable, the moral of our version was to emphasize the importance of obeying our elders.”

“The Larrian story is more historical, written to warn their people about the dangers of prejudice and fear. They came in peace, but when they tried to communicate with the people of that time, they were hunted down as demons. Forced to hide in the forest, where they couldn’t be easily seen.

“A rescue ship finally picked the survivors up and they made it home safely. Earth was then made off limits, so that no Larrian would have to experience the terror of being treated as only an animal to hunt.

“Think about what good things we might have learned if the people of that time hadn’t misjudged the Larrian’s intentions. With them being recognized as friends and citizens, today we would be able to have Leura as a registered student here along with others of her kind. It was a real loss for us that things turned out the way they did.

“I am especially looking forward to tomorrow, Thael sama. We will get to see some of the different peoples of the universe, and, hopefully, lose our prejudices and fears, so that we may make friends with them. They will learn from us and we shall learn from them. You all have the unique opportunity to make history by being the first people to represent our Earth to some of the various peoples out there. Not to mention actually standing on another world and seeing how they live.

“Tomorrow will be another education for us all. I want to thank Leura chan for sharing the Larrian folk tales and those last two historical anecdotes.”

The class erupted in enthusiastic clapping. Miss Takeda walked over to her and shook her paw-like hand.

Leura bowed, “It was my pleasure, sensei. Thank you for letting me attend your classes.”

“Do itashimashitte, Leura chan,” Takeda sensei turned back to face the class: “Also, minna, before we go,” she bowed to her students and said, “Thank you all for being such good students. I have never had a class that was so eager to stay after the bell. I am honored to have a class like you. Until tomorrow… Ja, na?”

As she turned to leave they all stood up, bowed, thanked their teacher, and applauded.