Tree Guardians and the Endless Bog: The Tree Guardians, #1

By Shea Gibson and Tabitha Gibson

Considered misfits of the school, a mystical tree knew better...

 

Harley Logan, Valentine High School's leading speed boarder stepped up to the school bully then stepped right into detention. Once there, he'll discover four other kids he had nothing in common with that, along with himself, were just what the detention matron ordered. Her decree? Join her class or join her in detention for the entire school year. Was she joking? Nope.

 

The class and its textbook would become a training manual. Like it or not, they were to become Valentine's new Guardians of the Tree of Reverence or face a world without magic. Perhaps, something even worse. Wait, what?

 

With the path selected and evil on the horizon, they'll bond together against an unknown force of darkness while battling bullies, sneaky gnomes and a terrifying bog monster in order to save their magical world.

 

When racing to retrieve the talisman nearly claims one of their own, Harley starts to doubt himself. Was he really leader material? Would they survive the endless bog and return the first talisman back to the tree in time? Or would they come back too late and find everything and everyone they love gone?

 

This, is Harley's story…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tabitha Gibson
• Release date: Jun 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227352033

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Every fifty years, a dark mist works its way toward the village of Valentine to cause chaos and disruption in an attempt to end the magic by uprooting the source in the form of a mythical tree known as The Tree Of Reverence. In its path of destruction are the citizens who dwell there. 

Their only line of defense? Five guardians who would be chosen for their strength, cunning, determination, empathy, and heart. What they got were five of the most unique individuals who were all that, in the guise of misfits.

Merlin help them all.

CHAPTER 1

DETENTION

Let him out right now, Hudson Monroe, or you’ll wish you were bunking with your troll relatives on the outskirts of the village, Harley Logan said, crossing his arms.

Despite how big Hudson was, Harley was stronger. Only twelve years old, he was tall, lean and through his magic, one of the strongest kids in school.

Hudson snapped his fingers and two boys who Harley knew were friends of his stepped up, glaring at Harley.

Who’s going to make me? Hudson asked, a sneer in his voice while his black eyes glittered with menace.

He can’t really be this dumb, could he?

It wasn’t the first time that Harley had stopped Hudson from bullying kids before. He was sure it wouldn’t be the last.

I will, Harley announced. The buzz of voices in the hallway suddenly dimmed.

You and who else? A nasally voice of a girl with short, blonde hair while the laughter of a very pretty, but very nasty dark-haired girl rang out with the laughter. Harley recognized both girls as members of Hudson’s gang.

Harley turned his head to the two laughing girls and wrinkled his nose. Who let you two gargoyles off the roof top?

Their smiles faded. Before they could gasp their outrage, loud laughter filled the area.

Harley looked to his right. Stepping up was a tall, lanky African American boy with light brown eyes, short crazy braids and a bright never-ending smile. He gave Harley a thumbs up. Elijah Aberdeen was the school’s class clown. He also seemed to be a permanent resident of detention. Harley didn’t go a week without hearing a good Elijah Aberdeen story that made him grin.

Elijah might have a knack for finding and staying in trouble, but he was a favorite of everyone in the school. Well, almost everyone.

How dare you, the blonde growled between clenched teeth, taking a step forward.

A louder growl startled them all.

When Harley shifted his gaze again, he saw the school loner standing quietly off to the side. She was accompanied, as always, by her strange, hairless cat. Harley watched as it peeked out from her bag before disappearing back inside again.

More laughter erupted from Elijah as one of the girls took a step backward and slipped, stumbling into the other. They both held on to each other struggling to stand while their feet kept slipping out from under them. It was then that Harley noticed a sheet of ice underneath their feet. Where had that come from?

Suddenly, he was shoved to one side as the two boys who tried to menace Harley at Hudson’s side, now attempted to aid the helpless girls stand without success.

Banging drew Harley’s attention back to the bully before him and the original problem at hand. Time’s up, Hudson. Let him out.

Let who out? Hudson asked, his voice oozed with a smirk of false confusion.

Within seconds, the smirk changed to a grimace and a cry of pain came out of his mouth. Harley grabbed Hudson’s arm, twisting it behind his back. Feeling more anger than he thought possible, Harley struggled to keep it in check and not break Hudson’s arm.

But that’s exactly what happened.

As Harley heard more pounding from the inside of the locker door, his anger grew and to his surprise, so did his strength. The sound of cracks along with a scream of agony filled the hallway.

Two sets of hands grabbed at Harley’s arms then were instantly removed. Releasing Hudson, he turned and was astonished by what he saw.

Elijah’s arms were raised high, waving in circles while the two boys that stepped up with Hudson, were now cartwheeling in mid-air!

Harley almost smiled as they hollered to be let down with each turn of their bodies. It occurred to Harley that Elijah had intervened, protecting Harley’s back. Weird, but thank you, Merlin and Elijah!

The ice patch under the two mean girls melted instantly causing them to fall on their butts. They were soaked, water dripping from their hair into their angry eyes. The two boys whom Elijah had twirled in the air, were deposited right next to them, flopping around, soon just as soaked as the girls.

Laughter rang out from the crowd that had stopped to see what was going on, something they wouldn’t dare do if the bullies were on their feet. Good for them. Finally, the bullies had been bullied. Harley swore he even heard the hairless cat snicker.

What in Merlin’s magical world is going on here?

Several teachers had hurried into the hallway, while several students raced out. Harley was sure the detention room would be full to the rafters after school today.

Stepping over an overly dramatic Hudson, Harley yanked several locker doors open before he found the one with someone inside. He was so angry, he accidentally yanked it right off its hinges.

A very small, very scared boy with tears streaming down his cheeks came out of the locker and looked up at Harley.

Thank you, he whispered. When Harley blinked, the boy was gone.

Harley threw the locker door on the ground next to Hudson then turned to walk away.

One moment, Mr. Logan.

Harley stopped in mid-step, cringing at the voice of the detention matron, Mrs. Allison Crabtree.

Harley turned back to a somewhat calmer scene. The two boys who had tried to gang up on him with Hudson earlier were now fuming, waiting for their turn with the invisible dryer. Currently that dryer was working its magic on the two girls.

The school nurse, Fern Flannery, brushed past Harley to kneel next to Hudson. She frowned as she examined his broken arm.

Care to explain? Ms. Crabtree’s brows raised in question.

So, he did. For about five seconds before he was interrupted by the two nearly dry and very hysterical girls.

Five minutes after that, he was given detention. To no one’s surprise, so was Elijah. Everyone else involved either by watching or participating managed to slip away without a single minute in detention.

But Hudson shut that little kid in the locker and wouldn’t let him out, Harley argued.

Two magical wrongs do not make a magical right, Mr. Logan, Ms. Crabtree said, then motioned for other students, who had just shown up to see what was going on, to move on to their next class.

Harley glared at Hudson who smirked back at him, then yelped as the school nurse prodded his arm. Frowning, she helped him to rise, then directed him to her office.

Harley was incredibly angry at the unfairness of what just happened. He couldn’t wait to get on his board after detention to work off some of his irritation when another thought slammed into his gut; the semi-finals of speedboarding were right after school.

Before detention ended.

He’d never make it on time, which meant he wouldn’t be there to run in the qualifying race. That also meant he wouldn’t make it to the championship race.

Could this day get any worse? Harley grabbed his school bag and with a heavy heart, walked to his next class.

You can’t put the star speedboard racer of Valentine High in detention!

Coach Harold Corbin’s screeching voice sounded like nails raking down a chalkboard. Harley Logan clapped his hands over his ears. Normally it was fun to count the number of colors Coach’s face was turning, but today what was more interesting was the speed at which this was occurring.

Coach Corbin, though a human, had the rare magic of a chameleon, meaning he had the ability to blend into any area he was in and had never been seen. He also let his mood show by the color shading his complexion. His current mood was anger, and a very deep shade of red. Harley just hoped it wasn’t directed toward him causing him to lose his place on the team.

I can and I have, replied Allison Crabtree, whose face turned red, but stopped short of continuing the rainbow array of colors his coach’s had.

Harley was the shining star member of the boys’ speedboarding team. The boards themselves were called surfboards in the world of N.O.M.E., Not Of Magical Elements. They also absorbed magic when they were brought across to their magical world. Instead of having to ride them on water, they could fly through the air.

Anyone in their magical world could ride a speedboard, but it took a special skill to ride them through an obstacle course, cut sharp turns and know how to increase the speed with the right stance. Yeah, there was nothing like jumping on a speedboard and flying through the air to get the blood flowing. Unfortunately, it was starting to look like his star was fading fast.

They were nearing the end of the season, which meant the beginning of the semi-finals. They were all depending on him to lead them to victory and bring the treasured championship cup back to Valentine High. He didn’t want to let them down.

Ms. Crabtree didn’t understand the fascination with speedboarding. She muttered all the time about how things had been, back in the day, when they didn’t blend their world with the other realm.

The other realm was the non-magical one they shared planet Earth with. A single portal had been created for people in their world to journey to the world of N.O.M.E. to study people, places, animals, everything that might flow well into their magical world, then report their findings back to G.A.M.E., the Governmental Authority of Magical Elements. That had been more than three hundred years ago.

A tsking brought Harley back to the present and the current problem he faced. Ms. Crabtree was standing with her arms folded and a very final look of denial set in her features.

Coach Corbin was still shifting colors as he pleaded his case hopelessly to the stern matron of detention. She wouldn’t budge.

Our whole season is going to fall into the abyss if you don’t let Harley out of this ridiculous punishment! The green of his skin at feeling sick to not have Harley on the team, now faded to blue to reflect his mood.

Mr. Logan is not above the rules, Coach Corbin, and neither are you. Please try not to be so dramatic. After he serves his time, he could catch a direct portal to the race and make it for the second half, she said, turning to wander down the hallway.

Coach Corbin stuck out his forked tongue, waggling it several times before turning to go back to his own office and ran straight into, Allison Crabtree.

I saw that. She sniffed her displeasure then with a heavy breeze, she vanished.

Coach Corbin frowned, muttering, I really hate projectors.

Harley sighed deeply, turned, and headed for detention.

A few minutes later, Ms. Crabtree breezed into the small classroom that served as the detention room, robes of dark green swirled around her sturdy form. Very few of the teachers had continued with what she referred to as the rich traditions of their world by wearing robes and being referenced as professor. Despite her fondness for those traditions, she accepted being addressed as Ms. Crabtree instead of Professor Crabtree. She refused, however, to give up her robes.

Harley suspected she’d been upset that not a single student had signed up for her class, Rich Traditions and True History of Magic. Not that he could blame his follow classmates. That wasn’t exactly the kind of class you want to be stuck in for an entire school term. Harley had every intention of avoiding it as well. Right now, it was all about getting through detention.

Harley looked around the place that served as the detention room. Other than single desks connected to chairs, metal shelving that held dusty, old textbooks and the school flag hanging by the door, it was strangely empty.

Normally it was filled to the rafters, literally, with unruly magical children. Some of the school rules broken recently saw kids scaling the walls to hang upside down from the ceiling, using their magic against each other for fun or against those who weren’t really expecting it and of course, the favorite pastime of all, starting food fights using levitation. Harley suspected the latter is why Elijah was a regular guest in detention.

Today, there were just five of them including himself. Harley took a seat in the front row, an obvious ploy to impress a teacher. He even gave his long hair an extra smoothing down to make him appear well groomed.

Some days, he wished he had the gift of speed so he could make it to the places he needed to on time, but then he’d be disqualified from being a member of the speedboarders team as that would be an unfair advantage.

Harley’s magical gift was strength. Even at his current age of twelve, he was extremely strong. Harley could bend metal bars, pull small trees from the ground and push around the large, refrigerated units in the school’s dining hall with ease.

What he didn’t know was his strength could break bones. He’d felt bad for Hudson. That is, until the tear-streaked face of the young boy appeared from the locker with a grateful smile.

Harley watched as Hudson and his gang of magical bullies strutted around their school, inflicting their own brand of mayhem on unsuspecting fellow students constantly. Mostly, Hudson targeted the younger kids. That’s the kind of person he was. When he’d shoved an elementary boy into his own locker, Harley had seen enough.

Glancing at Ms. Crabtree, he sent her a pleading look, hoping beyond hope that she’d let him out. She dismissed it with one shake of her head. He knew better than to use his gift against other students. No, he’d have to serve out his full detention.

Sighing, Harley looked around the room, his gaze stopping on Elijah Aberdeen, who was snickering behind the N.O.M.E. comic book he was reading.

Elijah could levitate himself as well as other people and items, which was not exactly great if you were the object of his joke. More than once, he’d floated delicious looking desserts from the cafeteria, down the hallway and into the school’s office. Moments later, they’d land with a hearty splat on the balding head of the principal, Martin Ulric Donahue.

Principal Mud, as he was not so affectionately referred to by much of the student population as well as a few long-term faculty members, turned bright red whenever he had to deal with Elijah.

Shifting his gaze, Harley looked at the Summerdale twins. Their glow made him wince, but only for a moment. It always took him some time to let his eyes adjust to looking at Rayna and Tristan Summerdale. They were albino brother and sister and glowed in even the brightest of places. Hair so blonde it was almost white while their eyes were so light blue, they were almost clear. For the most part, they kept to themselves.

Despite Harley’s strength, Tristan might be the most powerful student at Valentine High. He could manipulate the elements: earth, fire, water and wind, and was the smartest student in school. He also was known to occasionally flood a bathroom that a person who’d harassed him or his sister, was making use of.

Rayna was a mystery. She kept to herself and was quiet unless incited. Several times she had near blinded a fellow student who had teased her by glowing even brighter than normal, sometimes nearly ten times