After Grace dropped Rachael at her house, she returned to hers and changed her clothes and had a snack. Since she didn't want to seem suspicious, she used her skateboard to go to school. 

When she reached the school, she found Daniel standing in front of the building, tapping the ground with his feet and looking at his watch.

I totally forgot about Daniel!

Should I tell him?

God, will he even believe me?

Grace gathered up her courage and snatched her skateboard from the sidewalk. She walked up to him. 

"Hey, Danny." She tried to sound like she hadn't gotten only two hours of sleep, but she inevitably failed. She could only hope that Daniel doesn't ask her. 

"Hey," He greeted slowly, "Where is Rae?" 

"Sick." Grace gave a short reply. She wasn't good at lying. 

"Oh, is it the flu?" Grace shrugged. 

"Dunno'. You know Rae, she won't tell me much. I think it is not a big deal, you know her parents can make her skip school when she sneezes once. You know what I mean." Grace entered the halls with him. She prayed he wouldn't notice her slumped shoulders and her tired eyes. 

I really have to text Rae my lie so I don't get in trouble.

"Okay.." Daniel swung his arms awkwardly. "So, did you get any sleep last night?" 

"No. I got caught up with studying." Daniel nodded. 

"Try to get some sleep, alright? You look dead." Grace chuckled nervously. 

"Yeah, I probably do." 

"So, do you wanna' hang out? After school?" Grace sighed. 

"Sorry, I have to get some sleep. We have a test tomorrow, too, remember?" Daniel nodded. 

"Yeah, I do. You're right, I have to study, too. We can schedule this another time. Maybe tomorrow?" Daniel asked, getting out his history book. 

"I can't give any promises, but I will try my hardest, Dan. I can promise you that." Grace could feel Daniel getting more and more suspicious. 

What am I doing? He is too smart to fall for my lies. 

"Alright then." Daniel looked disappointed. The school bell saved Grace from the tense encounter. She felt guilty, but she couldn't put him in danger, too. Rachael was almost killed because of the pendant. 

***

Grace listened to the history teacher explain the lesson, but her mind was somewhere else. In another dimension. 

I have so many questions.

How does she know I am the one destined to be the Guardian?

Is it because the pendant clings to me like I am its Mama?

What kind of evil am I going to face?

Grace felt her backpack heat up on her lap. She opened it and found the crystal Queen Elena gave her glowing, which meant there was an emergency. She paled. 

"Everything okay, Miss Anderson?" Grace looked at Miss Jackson, her history teacher. 

"I have to go to the bathroom."

***

I did not just get out of school behind my teacher's back. 

Oh, wait.

I did.

Dad is going to kill me. That is, if the principal didn't first. 

Grace flew out of the backdoor and into the forest. She dodged the trees until she reached the main portal. She wondered how she hadn't seen it before, considering she had explored every single inch of the forest. 

She jumped inside the portal and she found chaos on the other side. A mob of fairies gathered in the palace and chanted things Grace didn't understand, because of how their voices overlapped. She was about to tap on the shoulder of a stranger and ask when a hand covered her mouth and pulled her back. 

Grace panicked until she saw it was Alex and another girl knight. Alex let go when Grace was out of sight. 

"Wear this," Alex gave Grace a dark cloak, "We need to get you to Queen Elena.. safe." Alex said. Grace arched up her eyebrow.

"Her majesty will explain everything." The girl said, "I am Audrey, by the way." Grace nodded. 

"Grace." Audrey nodded.

"We all know." She smiled. 

"Creepy much?" Alex scolded Audrey as she helped Grace put on the cloak. Audrey's face reddened in embarrassment. 

"Sorry." She muttered. 

"I mean, it's alright. I—" Grace yelped as Alex forced her into the crowd. 

"Less talking, more walking!" She said, Alex's anxiety was contagious to Grace. 

What could possibly be so bad that I have to go to Queen Elena, unseen?

Grace entered the castle, taking off her cloak, and found Queen Elena standing still in front of the throne room. She was staring at the mob of angry fairies, pursing her lips.

"Grace! There you are!" Queen Elena said, though her tone wasn't as excited as Grace had imagined it to be. "How much do you know about fighting?" 

"A few years of training with my mom and dad before mom.. why?" Grace asked. Queen Elena exhaled through her nose slowly. 

"The news about a young human girl becoming the Guardian has spread quicker than wildfires. Aneroma is outraged, and since I have made my own statement to stand with you, they request proof that you are worthy of becoming a Guardian." Queen Elena explained. 

"Wait, how do I prove to them that I am good enough to become a guardian?" 

"It was.. a tradition that every Guardian in the past had to slay a griffin to be respected by the Aneromians and treated as a savior." Grace stared at her. 

Isn't that the half-eagle half-lion creature thing from the comics Rachael read?

"You have to be joking, right?" The queen glared at her. "I can't kill a griffin!" 

"Well, that is too unfortunate, isn't it? It's either you kill a griffin, or you get yourself and your friend killed. Alex will get you to the arena." Grace stared in disbelief at the queen. Only her gaze was broken when Alex grabbed her arm and slowly got her out of Queen Elena's sight. 

"I know this seems scary. If I were in your place, I would be shaking like a leaf." Alex said. 

"Oh, not helping." Grace said sarcastically. 

"But," Alex ignored Grace's comment, "I believe in you. You can do it. Also, they will give you a nice shield and armor. Just take this piece of advice from me: aim for the core. The center of its chest. That's its heart. You stab it and you have succeeded." 

"Is there.. is there a possibility that.. I might never go home?" 

"Oh, totally." Alex nodded. Grace grimaced, which made Alex taken back, "I mean, I am sure that won't be the case." They both reached a white door with rainbow accents, similar to other doors, but this door stood out because of its unusual size. 

Grace waited for Alex to open the doors, but Alex gestured for her. Grace exhaled deeply and turned the door knobs, opening the doors. They led to a narrow staircase that led to the bottom, which was pitch black. 

"Do your thing." Alex said. Grace stared at her, dumbfounded. "Make your pendant glow." 

"Oh." Grace touched it with her finger and it lit up. They both went down, guided by the light. "Why don't you use your wings to go down?" 

"Us, fairies, don't use our wings unless necessary. We don't like overworking them. They're fragile." Grace nodded. She finally found another door in front of her. She opened it and found a small room, like a cage. 

Leather armor was folded neatly on the ground and a metal shield with gold accents was thrown beside it. Alex helped Grace with the armor and discussed fighting strategies with her. She left when she found the tune the minions of the queen made to announce her arrival to the battle arena. 

Outside the bars in the small room was the battle arena, which looked like a roman-style stadium. The arena's ground was covered in dirt. Grace could see a part of the audience, which took all thirty rows of seats. The huge amount of people anticipating the show gave Grace anxiety. 

"Behold! Grace Anderson, the new guardian, will battle the almighty griffin!" The bars retracted and Grace stepped forward until she was seen by every fairy. She got some enthusiastic applause from the audience. 

She found the Queen sitting on her right, with many guards surrounding her. In the audience, she recognized Sam, Alex, Audrey and the anonymous man in the gold armour. 

She heard a monstrous growl in front of her, behind the bars. She gulped and tightened her hand on her shield. She made her hand into a fist and her sword generated in her hands. Finally, her wings appeared behind her back, which brought some excitement to the audience. 

The bars in front of her retracted. 

The creature leaped out of the cage and gave out a roar. It immediately locked its red eyes at Grace. She could only raise her shield to her chest. 

God, I am going to die..

..eaten by a monster in front of millions of people I don't know.

The griffin advanced at Grace and scratched the shield with its claws, Grace fell on her back from the impact and realized that its metal claws had broken through the shield.

Good, off to a great start.

Grace deflected its claws using her sword. She rolled away and stood up on her feet. She swung her sword at the griffin. Her blade made a small tear in its skin, which angered it.

Grace made the fatal mistake of celebrating her success in hurting the griffin too soon, as she was immediately shoved in the dirt and scratched in her arm. The audience immediately gasped, or "ooh"ed in sympathy. 

Grace slammed the side of the sword at the griffin's head so hard it toppled to the ground. She took this as an advantage to fly upwards to escape its wrath. 

The griffin inevitably followed and more fighting emerged. It pinned Grace to the energy dome of the arena and clawed at her neck. She gasped in pain and dodged with her head, which directed the beast's claws to the chain dome. It made a cut in it, which made the audience uneasy. 

Okay, time to plan.

Step one, take down the griffin from the air. Make some damage to the wings.

But how do I break through the wings, or damage them?

The sight of the walls of the arena sparked an idea in her mind. She flew full speed to the wall and planted her feet on it. She crouched as much as she could and launched herself at the griffin. 

The only way to counter a powerful attack is to weaken your opponent.

With her glowing sword at hand, she soared in the air before she stabbed through its wing. She immediately let go of her sword and backflipped in the air so she could land on her feet. 

You could say she messed up that last part. 

She landed painfully on her knee. A groan came out of her lips as she looked at her knee that was scraped by the gravel-filled mud. 

She didn't get a chance to get up as she was held by its talons and thrown across the arena like a rag doll. 

She slammed against the concrete wall and landed face-first on the ground. She moaned as she tried to lift herself up. She coughed and wiped the mud off her cheek. When she looked at her sleeve, the mud she wiped off was soaked in red. 

She didn't have a moment to breathe, as the griffin came to attack. Grace took the sword from beside her and counter-attacked its long claws. Grace held on tight with the sword using her two hands. She was exhausted from using too much of her power. Her fingers unwillingly started to loosen. 

The griffin's claws slid against the cold metal of the sword until it reached the tip. It dropped Grace's sword away from her grasp and stabbed her shoulder with one of its long claws. Grace let out a cry of pain, followed by laboured breathing.

"Grace!" She could hear many people say. She also heard Queen Elena's demanding voice yell at the knights who were willing to intervene: "The fight must go on, stay put!" 

The griffin removed its claw and Grace gasped in pain, leaning her head into the wall as she closed her eyes shut. She opened them again and grasped her sword and landed a slice on its chest, which brightened up the audience's cheer, and gave the griffin a brief taste of its own medicine. 

Grace stood up, the world swaying upon her feet and stabbed it in its stomach. The griffin roared in agony. 

The griffin dropped to the ground, bleeding heavily, while Grace stood in front of it in triumph. She heard the audience chant: "Kill it! Kill it!" 

Grace raised her sword and aimed her blade at its core, as Alex advised. She aimed her eyes at its own and she found defeat twinkling in its sad eyes. Grace's gaze softened. 

She planted the sword in the mud and fell on her knees, clutching the hilt like her life depended on it. She grabbed her shoulder and tried to stop the blood trickling down her shirt. 

Queen Elena stood up and clapped. The audience was so stunned it did the same without much thought. Grace heard Alex say: "Go, Grace!" 

"All hail to the new Guardian, Grace Anderson!" Chanting ensued. She wanted to celebrate, but she found her knees failing to support her weight. She fell on the ground. 

Grace didn't remember what had happened, but she found herself leaning against someone and being dragged up the stairs, which she took to go down the arena with Alex. 

"Are you alright?" Sam asked as he helped her walk. Grace nodded. 

"I am fine." She said. 

"We are going to get you to the royal medical wing of the castle, on the third floor. Do you think you can—" Grace fell on her knees again, whimpering as she had leaned on her fresh wounds on her knees. She suspected her wave of dizziness wasn't from her injured shoulder's doing, as it was not hurting her anymore. 

"Hold on, I will help you."