It was early, only seven o’clock in the morning, and the sun was slowly drifting off the ocean into the sky. The pinks and purples of sunrise were slowly fading away, and gradually the world was beginning to warm. Colossal waves were crashing into the wall of the cliff far below, and a chilly wind was blowing about, lifting the Guardian’s hair. The maiden wore a dress with a teal bodice turned to a train down her back and flowing white fabric swirling about her legs. She wore no armor, she carried no weapons, she was not out looking for a fight, but rather a place to think.

Merenwen walked slowly along the edge of the cliff, completely lost in her own thoughts. It was her 22nd birthday, but rather then the joy one would normally feel on their birthday, she felt nothing. Every year, she had spent her birthday with her parents. Sure, she had gotten together with friends for part of the day, but most of it was spent with those she loved most, her mother and father. They would wake up early and her mother would make her favorite foods. They would sit together over breakfast, talk about the events of the past year and how proud they were of her. They always made her feel so special, as if she were the brightest start in the night sky, the most beautiful flower in all the gardens of the earth, the most precious thing in existence. She knew she had never been perfect, had been far from it in fact, but on her birthday none of that had mattered, all that had mattered was that her parents loved her and she was with them.

This was her first birthday without her parents and never again would she wake to see their smiling faces. She wouldn’t sit with them and laugh over the goofy stunts she had pulled over the past year. She wouldn’t discuss with them her plans for the year to come. That was one thing they had always done, they had always advised her to do, was to set goals each birthday to achieve before the next was to come around. Now, she would have to set those goals on her own and have no one to share them with. It may have been selfish, but she felt more alone then ever before and tears streamed down her face at the loss of such simple times together.

She could have gone back to Yomenïampa, gone back to see all her childhood friends, but her heart was not ready. There were too many reminders in that beautiful city of her parents, and she was not ready to bring all those memories to the forefront. It was easier to be alone, though being alone was not easy at all. Nothing was as it had once been, and though she had known that from the moment they were gone, it hit her harder in that moment. She could never go back to who she was, never again be that completely carefree elven girl who pulled pranks and swung through the trees. Sure, she could still pull pranks, she could still swing through the trees, but she would never be as carefree as she had once been and her heart would always ache with the loss. She would never forget them, no matter what else happened in her life, her memories of them would remain. She knew it was likely that she would one day reach a point where days might go by without a thought of them, but that was still further in the future and she was not ready to let go.

As soft tears continued to flow down her cheeks, Merenwen stopped and let her eyes fall to the ocean below her. She did not want to be alone, but had not known who to go to and so had instead run to the ocean. The ocean would always be there, it could always bring her at least some small bit of peace, though she knew it would not sustain her forever. So she stood, her eyes on the sea and her mind trying to find peace.

For the first time Phoenix found himself upon the eastern coast. Standing upon a cliff over looking the ocean he was quite surprised at how clean the waters were one this side of Ea compared to the waters elsewhere. And though he carried his weapons as usual he wasn't looking for a fight. He kept them with him just in case of the unexpected, which in his case seemed to happen on a regular basis.

His reasoning for coming out this far, with no major cities anywhere near was simple. At the moment he wasn't to escape from all that. He had been through meeting after meeting, mission after mission and after all the work he found himself drained. Not all of these missions were even official. In an effort to prove that he was worthy to bear the title of Keeper he had taken on more missions then any other. But he soon found he couldn't do everything. He was being pulled in so many directions that he was beginning to slip. As soon as he could he finished all the tasks that he had set before him, without accepting any others. With them all done and squared away he took the opportunity to take a break.

Which brought him here, standing upon a cliff over looking the eastern coast. Though not really work the journey to get here helped in learning more about the land between. Being a Horizon walker it helped to see more of Ea. And since he had never before seen the eastern coast this was as good as time as any to learn more. Looking to the skies a cold breeze flew by. At that moment he was beginning to wish he had brought some sort of cloak or anything to keep warmer. It wasn't as if it was all that bad but just a little something to take the bite off would have been nice.

In the sky above him quite a number of seagulls looking for their next meal, whatever it may be. As his gaze turned downward he noticed another figure standing upon the cliffs like him. A woman, with long blonde hair she carried no weapons, or at least none that he could see from this distance. He was sure that he himself hadn't been noticed as of yet.

As he moved closer it seemed as though something was wrong. Tears were streaming from her golden brown eyes. He wasn't sure why but he felt some sort of connection with her, which was odd as he knew he had never before seen this woman.

Coming up behind here he had the urge to place his hand upon her shoulder but resisted. He wasn't sure about her but he probably wouldn't have liked some random stranger walking up and touching him. So he settled with his voice, "Excuse me miss, but is everything all right? You seem troubled." He only hoped that the woman wasn't out here to be alone.

It was strange how Winter often found herself wandering in random directions, she never stayed at any one place long enough to be considered a civilian there, she had always been just a wanderer of the lands. Winter proffered to be alone though, she hated mixing with large crowds of people and becoming associated with them, she was a complete loner in her life and it didn't bother her one bit, anyone she did meet during her travels was merely coincidence and she soon forgot all about them, she didn't even consider Shari a friend. Even so, deep down even an emotionless ice angel would have to admit she felt lonely no matter how much she tried to hide it on the outside.

The sound of waves beating against the rock below woke her from her thoughts, she looked down over the edge of the cliff to see the raging waters below her. Winter felt no connections with the sea, despite being of a water element, perhaps because the sea never froze. She turned her gaze away and carried on walking as she was, keeping her head down and not trying to attract attention, which was hard considering she had bright blue hair and eyes. She paused in her little trek to catch her breath and allow the ocean breeze to blow past her, the cold air giving her bare arms a soothing feelings.

Unintentionally she let out a sigh and bowed her head, turning her head again to look out to sea, the sound of gulls sounding nearby. She didn't refer to them as seagulls for the pure fact that they bore no difference to ordinary gulls and therefore were just gulls that happened to live by the sea, a mere coincidence. Speaking of coincidences though, Winter was about to run into the one person she'd least expected to see, even next to the ocean.

Before moving on Winter looked up again and her gaze fell upon a tall, blond woman wearing sea colors and gazing out to the ocean like Winter had just been doing. Merenwen, the guardian of water and possibly the only person on the whole continent Winter actually had any respect for. Even this far away Winter could tell there were tears running down her face, something was upsetting the guardian.
She's crying? Winter thought Why would she do that.
Not being able to understand emotions as well as feel them, Winter felt it was unwise to try and engage the guardian in conversation for fear of upsetting her, Winter was merely a heartless traveler that didn't even bother to remember the last person she'd had lunch with, there wasn't much she could do to try and cheer up a guardian. She attempted to walk past without being noticed, she had not come here to socialize anyway.

Merenwen had become so lost in her own thoughts that she had not even heard anyone come up behind her, did not even know that she was no longer alone until she heard someone speak to her. It was dangerous to let herself be caught so unaware for though the person who came up behind her did not seem like he planned on attacking, she knew that she had enemies who would use her distraction to her advantage. If Wraith had come upon her in this time of pain, when her mind was not on the world around her, not beyond her love for the ocean, then he could easily have cast a spell upon her before she would have even known he was there. She was being foolish, but when pain courses through ones body, foolishness could often be a result.

Merenwen wiped her eyes and slowly turned to see who had come upon her. She felt ashamed to have been caught so broken for she was a Guardian, wasn’t she supposed to be strong. But then, Guardians may be immortal, but that doesn’t mean they have no emotions left. She didn’t know if some of the others may have lost much of their emotions when they changed, but hers had stayed on and continued to put her through a bumpy ride.

She looked upon the man and searched her brain for an image of him sometime past, but nothing came to her. She did not know this man, was almost sure that she had never met him, and so, though she did not believe that he meant her ill, she still found herself taking on a slightly defensive posture. Her face stayed calm, but her muscles tensed slightly as it was possible that he could have been sent by Wraith and was merely pretending to be kind. She did not believe that was the case, but she had already made on mistake by being caught unaware and she didn’t want to make another.

It took her a moment to get her voice together as the tears she had shed had caused some soreness of her throat. When she felt ready to speak she her voice floated out gently, with the slightest rasp. “It’s nothing, just too many memories of things that I shall never have again.” She paused, not wanting to sound rude but needing to know who the man was she queried, “I don’t believe we have met, I am Merenwen. May I be so fortunate as to know your own name?”

She believed he was human, but then knew from experience that once image could be deceiving. He had short blonde hair, closer to a white blonde then the golden blonde of her own, and blue eyes that made her think of the sea where it was most pure, where pollution had not turned its color to a less rich existence. He was taller then her, but then, most of the people she came across were, for though she was born of elves she had not been gifted with the height that most of them possessed. He also looked like he could be ready for a fight at a moments notice if it was so needed, and that just reminded her that she did not have any of her weapons at hand. Still, she had the sea crashing behind her, and if needed she could use it to keep herself safe.

As Merenwen awaited the man’s answer, she caught sight of another out of the corner of her eyes. This woman she thought she recognized, even with the short distance between them. It was one of her guild members, and for some irrational reason seeing her made Merenwen wonder if she may be needed at the guild in some way, if the woman had been sent to find her. She knew that it could very easily also be that this woman merely happened upon the same spot at the same time, but still, coincidence may have existed, but purpose was a lot stronger in the world of Arda.

Her attention was pulled away from the man as she was still awaiting his answer, and she called out to Winter. “Winter, it has been a while since we have crossed paths, even though we work together. Do you have news of some sort, is everything ok within the guild?” She may have been second in command, and may have only been out of touch for a number of days, but she knew as well as anyone that even one day could cause vast changes. Her voice was still raspy, maybe even a little more then it had been before because she had that small amount of worry that something horrible may have happened.

Winter paused when walking by the guardian but didn't look up, she had intended to walk past the pair without the two of them noticing lest she disturb them, however it seemed Merenwen was more eager for Winter's company than Winter was to be in solitude and she couldn't really deny the guardian, not only being inferior to her in rank in terms of the B.A.D.I guild but also being one of her water allied followers, so Winter decided that she would have to make an exception in the guardian's case.

She looked up again and turned to face the guardian, but giving no other signs of acknowledgment. She stared the guardian straight in the face, noting her tear blotched smile and the slight rasp at which she spoke. Something was upsetting the guardian, Winter understood that much, but she had no mind to try and pry into another person's business just like that.
"No, I'm not here for anything guild related," the arctic angel replied "I'm hardly around enough to have any knowledge of any news in the first place, so I'm afraid even if there are events I have no knowledge of them."

It was true, Winter barely ever visited the guild hall, even to give lessons, probably the only reason Merenwen actually knew her was that they had participated in at least one mission together, and it was hard to forget people after that. Putting the past behind her Winter turned her cold eyes to the second individual, one who she had no memory of. He looked human, or something close to human, his fair hair and blue eyes stood out against each other, but nonetheless he appeared trustworthy.

As far as Winter could tell he had been trying to comfort the guardian, and at the moment it appeared as though that course of action was at least soothing her mood, there were no longer tears on her face and she did look like she was trying to smile at least, unfortunately Winter could return no such expression.

It didn't take long to get a response from the woman as she turned around slowly to face him. Now looking her in the eyes he could see the pain in her eyes. She had tried to wipe her eyes of this but it simple wasn't something that could be done. As she stood there she seemed to be thinking, perhaps of many things. Why he had come to her, or better yet who he was in the first place as he himself had never before laid eyes upon her. It only took a moment after that to get a response. Though her face remained calm and her muscles tensed slightly her voice was another matter. "It’s nothing, just too many memories of things that I shall never have again." she stated with a slight rasp in her voice that he could just barely pick up. She then paused as if thinking again. The way she spoke it did sound a bit defensive thought that was to be a bit expected after all they didn't know each other. Either could have attack at any moment and due to being so close neither would have much time to react to that attack. As he thought about this he began to with he hadn't had his weapons on him, as she carried no weapons.

He had been thinking so much he almost didn't hear her as she spoke again. "I don’t believe we have met, I am Merenwen. May I be so fortunate as to know your own name?” The question was simple and he should have expected it. Or better yet he should have stated his name before she said hers. But there was nothing to be done about the past now, he could only reply to her answer and hope that she was offended. "Oh I'm sorry" he started then paused a bit as a different emotion flooded him. As his face reddened he tried to stop it from happening but he might as well tried to stop the sun from setting cause neither would happen. He figured the best thing to do was ignore it, and perhaps she would as well, "the names Phoenix."

As he finished his statement however and once more looked into her eyes he could see that she seemed to be looking at something else, something over his shoulder. Before he even had the chance to look at what was behind him Merenwen had began to speak to another. Looking back he saw another woman. This one much different then the one before him, he hair was close to the color of the sea with eyes to match.

As he listened to two began to talk about some sort of guild. This was rather odd as he only knew of two guilds, the Keepers he was apart of and BADI. He hadn't yet met everyone with the Keeper's so it could be plausible that they be from it. Or they could be from the other. Wanting to learn more about his he presented his question, "Are you two from BADI?"

Merenwen was a little surprised to hear that Winter wasn’t at the guild very often. She had been gone quite a bit since joining, dealing with her own pain and fighting in tournaments, so admittedly she was not as in touch with the happenings as she should have been. She hoped that everything was ok, that the other guild members were better involved. She would be someday, she would truly spend more time there and get to know the others better, but she needed a little more time first. As it was, her parents were still on her mind, all the memories of past birthdays with them, but the two in front of her had given her a welcome distraction. She didn’t want to bring up what she had been thinking about, nor the fact that it was her birthday. There were very few who would know, outside of Yomeniampa at least, and she decided to keep it that way, at least for the time being.

As for the man, she thought his name was interesting. Phoenix, she knew there was a bird by that same name, knew that it was supposed to be a beautiful creature, though she had never seen one. She had noticed him blush some, but considering he had come upon her crying she didn’t feel the need to comment on that. Better just to let such things go, especially if she didn’t want to be drawn back into her tears which were still on the brink of falling once again.

When Winter had finished talking she heard the man ask about the guild. Her eyes slid back to him, a part of her still unsure. Was he really just generally interested or was there some ulterior motive? Could he have been sent out by some evil alliance to hurt members of B.A.D.I? She just didn’t know and while she wanted to trust him she was having a hard time doing so. It was probably because of all the darkness clouding her thoughts, the images of Xoco that had gotten mixed with those of her parents. She decided to try and trust him, though she would only give some information, not all of it. She did not feel comfortable telling him that she was in fact the second command, and if he did not know that she was the Guardian of Water, she was not going to mention that either.

She took a deep breath, swallowed to try and wet her throat that was slightly sore from her crying jag, and looked into the man’s eyes. “We are in fact a part of B.A.D.I. How much do you know about the guild?” She wondered how he had heard about them and what his interest was. It wasn’t like they were a secret or anything, but it was always best to have all the information possible. She knew there was one other good aligned guild in Arda, one that they had a bit of an alliance with. She was in fact friends with the leader, had fought in a tournament with him. She didn’t know much beyond that, had not met many of the member, but she guessed it was also possible he was involved in the guild and that was his interest. The other possibility was that he was good aligned and interested in possibly joining B.A.D.I.

The first option, his being evil, was a scary one, but she was ready to deal with it if he was. She could still feel the water drifting up from the ocean below and knew that in that water was all she needed. As for the other two, either would be welcome and would give her a great increase in trusting him. Then again, there was one last choice, He could have just heard of the guild and been the inquisitive type. She didn’t mind people being inquisitive, but would still rather his being interested in joining or being a part of the other guild because then she would know the he wasn’t evil. She stood, looking at him with a calm face, and her eyes still held the pain that she could not fully push away, but inside she was waiting intently to hear what he had to say, to hear more about this man who had come up behind her.

A few moments had passed in silence. She seemed to be thinking again. Perhaps she had not yet decided weather or not he was trustworthy. He could see if she was in fact apart of a guild she might be a little hesitant to give out information about that fact. For where ever there was a guild there was always a person or group that wanted it's destruction. And as a matter of fact he seemed to remember that the guild had fallen on bad times before. His questions much have brought that up, as it was hard to tell who was a friend or foe sometimes.

In time however she answered his question, though perhaps not fully as he suspected she was holding quite a bit of information back. "We are in fact a part of B.A.D.I. How much do you know about the guild?"

He thought about her question for moment. This conversation seemed to consist of questions and answers going back and forth like some sort of game show. What did he know about BADI. He knew that it was in sorts a mercenary guild working for a common good. He knew a tad about it's past and it's troubles it had with the loss of some of it's members. He didn't know any of it's members, expect these two of course. He didn't even know who the guild leader was nor where the guild was based from. Thinking all of this over again he realized he didn't know that much about the guild at all.

"Not much now that I think about it, only the little I've heard from Sraxen and Zenith" He paused for a moment then realized he hadn't said who they were. He knew of the forming alliance between the two guilds but even through that he wasn't sure how much he could say. There wasn't any ranking system but if there was he wouldn't be that high on it. "I'm from the Keepers. Thats how I know them and a bit about BADI." Thinking further he remembered he had been selected to be one of the guilds emissaries. This was the best opportunity to get himself known as that. With both of them apart of the guild they could pass word up along the ranks to perhaps the second in command or even the guild leader. But they wouldn't know unless he said something.

He was about to say that fact when he stopped. She had been upset and he doubted she wanted to talk business. He choose to wait till later perhaps if they cheered her up a bit then he could ask about it but till then he didn't want to add any pressure then was must have already been on her. But how were they spoused to do that? He had never been good at these kind of things. Talking with a person was one thing but trying to act happy while trying to get the same effect in the other. Even when he was younger he tended to be on a more serious side, he knew how to relax but as he grew older he had lost the child within him. He couldn't even remember the last time he had any real fun. He only hoped the rest of his life wouldn't be like this.