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GREY WAR

Chapter 1 - Aria Grand - It was about five o'clock on a cool crisp morning in New Haven city on west river street. A little chilly for a fall evening, so all the children outside would be wearing coats forced upon them by their overprotective mothers as they made their way to the first day of school. From anyone who didn't know on the neighborhood , one would think it was a simple and quite. Low to no crime rates, in one of the larger cities of the country's main kingdom, and the fact that a bake sale was usually held once a month down at the street at the community center. All except for one key point of interest in the town, on west river street. Address 2001, lived a Guardian in training. Warriors of immense power and skills, trained to become the protectors of the kingdoms against those who would seek them harm, abilities that could stop an advancing horde of bandits to stop in their tracks and run crying home to mama. The most lethal warriors in all of recorded history! Aria snored like a lumberjack with a chainsaw. Her round coyote bottom pointed up to the ceiling and her long caramel brown tail drooped down over her face, shielding her from the dim early morning light. It was a mystery on its own on how she was even sleeping in such a position. She slept peacefully for all of another two minutes when the alarm went off. A loud and repeating beeping, like an angry road rage driver too bent up on getting to work early. "Five more minutes..." Aria mumbled into her pillow. Slamming her fist onto the snooze button of the fiendish clock. A sigh of relief knowing that she had at least a few more moments of contempt before the day had to begin. One the second go around of the angry car horn alarm, Aria finally rolled out of the comfort of her bed. She stretches out her arms and moans a morning moan... "Alright Aria, time to get back on the schedule." She meandered over to the closet and opened it up. To a point, it looked like a normal girls closet. Dresses, shirts, pants, and skirts. Then it gets a little more interesting, a red leather jacket with a set of bronze colored armored plates covering parts of it, and a large broad sword behind it. " Back to school we go. " Aria walked down the stairs, a small caramel bullet went whizzing past her screaming " I DON'T WANA GO TO SCHOOL!" Her younger brother James, not even half her height with a mop of black hair went running down the stairs in just his little space boxers. "But I don't wana go to school!" He wailed to their mother, who was somewhere upstairs in the other room. Aria replied back to her bullet of a brother. "You need to go to school, so they can fill that empty head of yours with all the knowledge you'll ever need." James turned to her, his eyes wide. " ARIA! I DON'T WANA YOU TO GO TA SCHOOL!" He ran forward and wrapped his little arms around her hips, they didn't reach all the way around. " Hey... Second grade is great" Aria said looking down to her little brother smiling. "You'll find out about so many cool things... Like the history of the Guardians, or the foundation of our kingdom, heck, this year you might even learn about Central!" "But what about you?!?" He asked with an innocent look in his eyes... Aria smiled and patted her brother on his mop of black hair. She began to say something when her mother came down stairs. "James! You need to get clothes on before you go to-" She stopped short and looked at her daughter, Aria. She came downstairs with her long silver hair tied in a ponytail gently bouncing as she came and embraced her daughter. "Aria... Oh... My little baby Aria... If your father was here, he would be soooooo Proud! " She looked up to her daughter, who stood about two inches above her, tears in her fall auburn leaf colored eyes. "He'll be back soon" Aria said. They both turned to a framed picture near the front door. A picture of an tall coyote with onyx colored hair and a rich caramel coat of fur, he wore a long black cloak with red highlights, on his side he wielded a silver kukri. His Guardian weapon. None of them had seen their father for around two years... They got an occasional letter from him, but they haven't seen him in a long while. But that was typical of Guardians. Leaving for months on end, even years. But his last letter said he would be back from the southern hemisphere and it's kingdoms in time to see them for the winter holiday. But still, that was a little ways away. And he was quite a distance away. "I still can't believe my little baby Aria is going away for another year." She said, bringing Aria back to the present. "Are you all ready for your trip? Bag packed? Clothes stored away? Your sword?" She was being a typical mother, worrying about every little thing that she could have forgotten. "Yes mom, I'm all set to go." She felt like she had been over this a hundred times. "Ok then" she said, "how about some breakfast"? Breakfast was never a simple feet at the Grand's household. James always wanted something new and painstaking to prepare, then wouldn't want to eat it. "I don't like the frozen waffles. I want the one's mom makes on weekends!" Sure enough, waffles were made, the he would switch to wanting pancakes with the little berries mixed in with the batter. Aria really like those ones too. James continued to change his mind on his breakfast. It was like one of those "wheel of fortune" spinners you would see on the TV except his was on breakfast, and it never stopped. . But Aria's morning dish was quite simple, a cup of tea and a banana to hold her over. There would be food at the station, and on the train. "Do you remember when you got your Guardian acceptance letter?" her mom said. Changing the topic of James's complaining of breakfast. "How could I not?" Aria said back. "It was one of the greatest moments of my life." Guardian acceptance letters were a rare thing to receive, no matter how you look at them. First, you had to pass basic years of school, until the high school level. During those years, you would have to take courses on fighting and training. Keep those courses up for four years, and you might just get glanced at for consideration. And the final step, was to pass a test, to battle against a drone sent in by Central, the Guardian school... If you did that. You have a one in forty chance that you'll get accepted into Central as a Guardian. Aria remembered when she got her letter, her father was crying with joy, and her mother, just about to pass out from it. The letter was framed in her room on the wall above her bed rest. "I'm going to become a Guardian!" Those words echoed in her head with a meaning... Not to want, but going to become one. "Aria, do you want me to drive you up to the station?" Her mother asked. "No, I plan on walking, it's not that far away." "Oh..." Her mother looked a little put out, they wouldn't get to see each other till the winter break. And that was a little ways away. "Hey, It's OK. I'll be back for the holidays, and hopefully dad will be back before then." Aria went and embraced her mother in a loving hug. They held for a moment, until young James came and decided to add to the moment. "Mom. I'm thirsty!" He shrieked.