It's not easy being a Guardian, extremely so when you are the Guardian of at least ten to twelve different people. You have to learn to be unnoticeable, invisible, while always keeping a close eye on those that the Lord has placed His trust in you to take care of, constantly, eternally. Humans nowadays live such long lives, not like the weak saplings from several centuries earlier, who only lived up to fifty springs. Now they keep growing lines in their tired faces until one day, their glowing essence dies, and whomever is their Guardian must live with the pain for at least a month, depending on how close their bond was.

Gratefully, the Lord gave me the responsibility of people who all lived in the same area, all went to the same school, though there are eighteen, more than usual. It's my job to keep tabs on them, acting as if I were another student right beside them, making sure that the luminous orbs inside their souls don't fade. The job itself isn't very fascinating, merely watching mortals interact with one another in the most peculiar ways, so different from how polite they used to be, but it is my job, and if any other Guardian asked, I wouldn't want anything else.

And so my day begins.

0800 hours

That infuriating and deafening bell rings to signal the beginning of classes, and I watch idly from my alcove in the scaffolding of the ceiling the coming-and-going of hundreds of students frantically trying to get to their classes. My eyes scan the crowd until--

There. The girl is looking over some complicated sequence of numbers the humans call "Calculus," though for the life of me, I can't comprehend why there would be so many letters. Her fairy hovers close to her, unseen by everyone else except the girl, Clara. I give a little wave from my spot up in the ceiling, and the fairy waves back with an airy chime, and Clara takes no notice whatsoever. Clara's life essence is still glowing brightly, a mellow blue like the personality I've come to intimately know for the last seventeen springs of her life.

It flares as she almost trips over her own feet, and my own dead beating heart skips a beat in panic before she rights herself and continues on. She'll be fine.

0845 hours

Through the window of another classroom, silently, invisible, I watch as two of my other humans bicker quietly in the back about the merits of whether moving pictures were better than the written language in a book. The girl--Susan--rolls her eyes while she gesticulates as much as she can without garnering attention from the teacher lecturing in the front, while the boy--Jason--only scoffs quietly and turns back in his seat, ignoring her.

Susan humphs, irritated, as she twists around into the comforting hand of her Earth Elemental, the soothing pressure of its mossy hand drawing the tension out of Susan's body. Meanwhile, Jason's Demon advises him with a mischievous smile of a joke that they could play on Susan after this class was over. Both of their Daemons--not "demons", as that is something completely different--don't take any notice of me floating right outside the window, which is a mild disappointment, I must admit. I don't interact with many on a daily basis, and the Daemons are my only source of outside information about the world that I must catch up on someday.

Both of them--Susan and Jason--hardly notice how their essences seem to reach for each other, both a blushing red that signifies that they harbor feelings for the other, but human minds are not as quick in detecting emotion. I sigh softly to myself and wonder carelessly if, when I was alive, I had such ridiculous yet magical feelings for someone. It's been so long now that most of those memories are already gone.

0910 hours

Mr. Remington's classroom reminds me of a crypt, so full of alive yet dead bodies, all nearly asleep during what must be a tedious and boring lecture. The man himself, however, only continues to speak, as if over half his class hasn't already stopped listening, and I pause for a moment to hear what he is talking about.

"....and here, we can conclude that the love between Helen of Troy and Paris was only a metaphor for the follies and mistakes that love nowadays can bring, and..."

I tune him out after that sentence and reminisce humorously on what I imagine Helen and Paris were like, as I wasn't alive just yet at that time. The Shadow Elemental that clings to the corner like the shadow in which it was named for hovers uncertainly near the window I am situated behind, and I give a tentative wave, not knowing exactly how to communicate with it. Mr. Remington's Daemon has always been one I never quite got used to, even in my more generous moments.

Nevertheless, his life essence still pulses a deep green, in the way that suggests a very long life ahead of him. I nod to myself, satisfied, and move on.

1030 hours

There is a break at this time during the school day that lasts 15 minutes, during which I can check up on several more of my humans, more than I can while they are in session. I linger around the corner of the wall I am hidden behind, carefully watching two more of my humans as they embrace and share a chaste and sweet kiss, and I smile in a resigned way, watching them when they are not meant for each other.

The girl--Pepper--and the boy--Dillon--had met the year before at a party, and since then they have been nearly inseparable, save for their classes and the infrequent parting with their friends. Though, the way their Daemons--Pepper's is a Succubus while Dillon's is a Dark Knight--each cringe at the other, as if they wanted to run away as quickly as possible, and the way their life essences show nothing but the normal colors instead of red, show me that humans have faults, even if they learn from their faults at a later time.

It doesn't hurt any less, or so I've been told by other Daemons. After another cursory glance at Pepper and Dillon's life essences, I slip away without a sound.

Another twenty seconds or so, and I come up across a supposedly empty classroom, but the muffled noises inside rather refute that observation. These two humans are rather finicky because they often partake in messy and passionate snogging sessions, yet the other half of the time they can't seem to stand each other. Yet another human folly I have no idea how to react to.

Looking at their life essences, however, I can see that they are healthy and strong, as are Tyler and Lindsey, judging by the way Tyler has pressed Lindsey up against a desk and has started to rut against her. I only stare indifferently for a moment more, then glide away quietly away--waving warily at their Daemons, Lindsey's Kitsune and Tyler's Elf--before leaving completely. Those two are ones that I'd rather not spend anymore time than I have to with.

Next is most probably my favorite human out of all of them, even though I really should not have any sort of a bias. It only takes me a moment or so to reach the music room, where I can hear the melodious tunes of a violin playing Paganini's 24 Caprices, which is a very difficult piece indeed. I spend some time just listening to the beautiful sounds that instrument is making while occasionally looking at the boy's--Peter--life essence, which shines the most perfect shade of yellow, for which his personality is known for.

Peter was always an enigma to me, even in all the years I'd known him. He preferred to spend more time practicing his instruments and reading than out with the other children playing sports, and even now, he still does the exact same things, just at an older age. I don't worry that he doesn't have any acquaintances, for he regularly engages in conversation with them at another times throughout the day, just not at this break, these 15 minutes out of his day that he has some time to himself, only for himself.

I smile at him through the window, but only his Mage sees that affectionate smile, and it returns it with a smile of its own, though more reserved. Waving faintly to the Mage--and to an extension, Peter--I set off.

1200 hours

The 30 minutes in which the humans call "lunch" comes, which, once again provides me with more time to watch my humans do...whatever it is they do everyday. It usually consists of eating some strange mortal food--to stay alive, I deducted from many years of observation--or just talking about the most inane topics. Still, I have a responsibility, so I appear in front of the art room, where I actually talk to one of my humans daily. I find her conversation rather enlightening and so reward myself with this guilty pleasure.

Taking a calming breath--and making sure I actually look as if I were sixteen years old--I open the door to the art room, where Alicia is sketching out a large drawing of a face with wide, bloodied eyes and scars all over its face.

"Hey," I say, making my voice deliberately casual and how I believe adolescents sound nowadays.

Alicia barely jumps up and stops moving her pencil, an open smile upon her lips as she pats the seat next to me. I oblige--for her, of course, and to glance over at her life essence more closely, which is still a dark navy blue--and look over her shoulder at the half-drawn sketch, making what I hope is a noise of awe.

"It's good."

Alicia only sticks her tongue out for a second before erasing an entire part of the face, and I don't say anything for this is how it usually happens until she's pleased with what she churns out. She doesn't talk much, not that I mind, since it gives me a chance to admire the way her hair has streaks of violet with no shame whatsoever. Our conversations are "enlightening" in the way that I somehow understand what she is saying silently, in her mind, and she can understand me as well, even when I do say something.

I place a hand on her shoulder to tell her that I have to leave--subtly waving to her Fallen Angel--and she bobs her head in acknowledgement, and I leave to my next humans.

I can't keep the faint curl of my lip when I reach another empty classroom, this one locked with the windows drawn. These two humans are most likely my least favorite, as they represent how not long before--if centuries could be called long--mortals used to intermarry to assume power in their own families or even arrange marriages between a young girl and a middle-aged man. Unfortunately, that is exactly the situation here.

Peering through the cracks in the blinds and using my enhanced vision, I watch as Mr. Fredericks and another girl--Nina--share intimate and heated words with one another, frequently sharing a small kiss or two. Sometimes I feel almost disgust towards those two, but it is mostly lost in the weight of perfect indifference and professionalism that I have to keep up. Their life essences are, surprisingly, not red, but a purple for Nina and an aquamarine for Mr. Fredericks. So their illicit affair is temporary, after all, just as it has been for the past month or so.

Nina's Daemon--a Ghost--flutters around the classroom, never departing too long a distance from her but still able to look around the classroom, marveling at all the human inventions and objects around the room, and Mr. Frederick's Daemon--a Wolf--only sits on its haunches next to him. I shake my head mutely and back away from the window, leaving them to their own devices.

In the place with all the metal green containers full of human objects, I find one of my humans looming intimidatingly over another one of my humans. A bully, I believe they are called. It's a shame that this must happen, but they are mortals, and how they choose to evolve and live is none of my concern.

Derek--the 'bully'--calls my other human--Brandon--an insult, but Brandon only cowers in Derek's shadow, making himself seem even smaller than he already is. The smallest hint of pity worms its way into my dead beating heart, so with a bored flick of my wrist, I...'change' Derek's view of Brandon, just a bit, not enough to severely alter anything. Brandon's essence, which had turned a frantic orange, mellows out to a softer shade, and Derek's stills stays the same shade of burgundy.

I can't see their Daemons right at this second, but they must be somewhere in the room because I can feel their presences, so I just turn around and leave. Just three more, and this day will be over for today.

1350 hours

The last three of my humans that I have to check up on are plain and normal, not like the other ones that I had visited earlier in the day. They have normal lives and normal personalities and normal friends, nothing that really sets them apart from the other fifteen.

Hannah doodles in her notebook instead of reviewing the dates and events of the next history exam. Her life essence is just there, an indigo color that doesn't change very much, and her Daemon sits quietly next to her, a Pegasus with wings that have started to dull in luminosity.

Ben snaps his gum and leans back in his chair in his math class, idly thinking about the music he was going to download when he finally got home. His essence is a stunning salmon color, abnormal for somebody like him, but one look at the Fire Elemental glaring at everyone says otherwise.

Karen is asleep in her class--which I have found to be Psychology and actually rather interesting--and her teal life essence dims to symbolize her exhaustion and weariness. Her Daemon is nowhere to be found, which I mentally take a note of to discuss when I report back to the Lord.

When the final bell rings for the end of the school day, I float around the city aimlessly, just taking in sights that I have seen for the past twenty years. The Lord never provided me with any sort of shelter down here in the human world, as I've seen so many have, but it doesn't bother me at all. I have no need for it.

An insistent tug makes its presence known somewhere in my dead beating heart, and I instantly close in on myself and answer His calling, my mind's eye opening up to the vision of Heaven Above, where He is waiting.

"Yes?" I ask politely, my hands clasped behind my back.

"I have a new assignment for you, though this one will be slightly different. He will be the only one of yours for you to watch over." His face is utterly expressionless as he says this, though his eyes are warm.

"Oh? What shall become of my others, then?"

"Other Guardians will be assigned to them. This one is much too important for any sort of distractions."

"I am honored to take on such a task, Sir." I bow to him humbly, and he nods, satisfied.

"His name is Caspar, and he is eighteen years old." The Lord waves, and a hologram of the boy appears. I suddenly can't help the surprised stutter of my heart when I see his picture.

Familiar...why does he look as if he were someone I knew before? So long ago, I--

And all of a sudden, a blurry face makes its way into my mind, one that looks eerily similar to that of Caspar's. Could it be he is the descendant of someone I once knew when I was alive? The almost painful thoughts that have begun to scatter around in my mind make me pause. No, he was somehow much more important in my life once. I just have no idea how.

"Yes, Sir. I will not fail you."

There is no doubt in my mind when I smile at the Lord that I will have to take some risks in order to figure this out.