It was 4 AM when we finally made it to Carl's house. The big dent in his corn field was still there from last time.

"Oops."

"Quiet now bud, we don't wanna wake them."
I patted Silver gently as he set down by the barn to make as little noise as possible, so we didn't wake up the family.

"NOT TODAY YE LITTLE CRETINS!"  Carl came out of the barn with his old shotgun, and his casual tank top.

"WOAH CARL CHILL OUT!" I put my hands up while Silver and Clare moved back a little. Carl looked shocked, and I knew why. I took off my helmet, and his expression changed as he put the shotgun down.

"Well my prayers have been answered, Miles, am I glad to see you!" I was sure he had a million questions. And I had only one.

"What are you doing up so late in your barn?" I scratched my ear.

"It's my cow, ever since those... THINGS.. These black creatures, kept trying to kill my milk cow!" He motioned me inside, and froze when he saw Silver and Clare. "I'll be damned..." He walked up to Silver and examined him. Silver wagged his tail rapidly.
"Now THAT, is one helluva Bird." He looked at me.

Carl motioned us inside and made sure we were alone as he shut the door behind us.

"What made ya come back?" Carl locked the doors and set his shotgun down. I sat in the same spot on the same green tractor.

"You're the only person I could think of when it comes to keeping a low profile from the world. And plus, I think someone's onto me."

Silver lied down next to Carl's cow. Clare was floating around, examining the barn animals.

"Think it's Sonic who's onto ye'?" Carl pulled out a cigar and a lighter.

"Maybe, maybe not. He usually leaves shoe prints, but I didn't see anything."

He lit his cigar and inhaled slowly, took it out, and blew the smoke out of his nose. Moments later it smelt like a small fire.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, no one knows who 'the guardian' really is besides that you're a Fox. Hell they even made a news channel JUST for you called 'Fox news'."

"They did? That's cool. You're not surprised that I'm the guardian at all? Not even a little bit?"

Carl shook his head as he took another hit of his cigar.

"You said you were in here because of 'black creatures', how did you kill them?" Clare flew in front of Carl as he choked on some smoke and coughed.

"I killed them with my shotgun, of course!

It made sense to me. Close ranged, and what looked like an illegally sawed off barrel. I didn't care much though.

"Where's the rest of your family?" I got off the tractor and sat next to silver, rubbing his ear.

"In the house. They're safe of course." Carl yawned and wiped his eyes in exhaustion. He looked like he hadn't gotten sleep in days.

"I got it from here, Carl. You look like you need sleep." I stood up and motioned him out.

"Yeah, you're probably right." He grabbed his gun and unlocked the door.

He pushed the door open slightly and peeped his head out.

"All clear, I think..." Carl pushed the barn door all the way open and walked out. I turned towards Clare and Silver.

"Stay here, I'm just escorting Carl to his house and I'll be back." Silver nodded in response while Clare was just floating there doing cartwheels.

I headed outside and caught up with Carl. All the lights in his house were off. Then I thought to myself.

Why him? What's so important about him that Shadow Demons are trying to kill him?

I walked up to his porch as he opened his front door and walked in, waving to me before shutting it. I waved back as I kept thinking to myself.

"Looks like you told Carl your secret." It was the Universe.

"Yeah, I did. And he's the only one who knows who I really am." I began walking to the barn.

"Besides me, Arthas, and that one organization." She walked with me.

"What organization?" I asked. She didn't reply.

"Anyways I'm here to talk to you about something important. And it's a big responsibility, besides being guardian of the universe and all reality." She crosses her arms as I opened the barn door.

"What is it? What could be more important than being guardian?" The Universe pointed at Silver.

"Him. The last Griffin in all of existence."

Silver looked shocked to see the universe. I was even more shocked to know he was the only one in the world.

"Really? What happened?" I sat down next to Silver and pet him.

"That's a story for another time, I'm afraid. But I do hope you'll be treating him right? He's a beautiful species and I'd hate to see him go to waste, again."

"Alright, I'll be extra careful with him." He looked at me as I squished his cheeks.

"Also, I saw what you did to those Dranos's, beautiful work! Especially at the end with the Mountain Guard."

"Yeah, thank you. But I have a question? I had a big cut on my hip, and now it's like nothing happened... How did it heal that fast? Was it you?"

"No, but that's a good question. And with that," she swiped her finger and gave my arm a big cut. It immediately started bleeding, "Comes a good answer!" It began to throb with pain.

"AGH WHAT THE HELL?!" As fast as the pain began, it went away.

"Woah look!" Clare looked at my cut closely as small bolts of lightning healed the cut in an instant.

"What the heck?" I looked at the universe for an explanation.

"Cool right? You're not invincible but your body sends nutrients to your injury like crazy because of your super speed, therefore it regenerates pretty quickly!" She laughed at how cool it was to her.

"Even broken bones?" I watched as the cut completely disappeared.

"Even broken bones." She raised her finger as if she were going to do it again.

"Just kidding. But yeah broken bones, cuts, bruises, cramps, jams and pretty much anything else. But it can't bring you back to life!" She crossed her arms and leaned on the door.

"Any more questions before I return to my watch spot?"

"Actually yeah, where is he? Where's Arthas?" I was scared about what the answer would be.

"No clue. Ever since he became corrupt about 30 million years ago, I lost connection to him." She shrugged and sighed.

"Woah woah. 30 million? He's THAT old? Shouldn't he be dead?"

"Actually no. The expected life span of my guardians range to about 500 million." She opened the barn doors and got ready to leave.

"Anything else?" She turned and looked at me.

"Are we even able to kill him? 30 million years of pure power, skill, domination... Hell maybe even more. And I'm just a rookie universal guardian with a rookie sword, no offense Clare." Clare's crystal turned red.

"None taken!" She flew next to me and glared at the universe.

The universe looked down, and opened her mouth like she was about to say something, and looked down.

"Clare's not a rookie sword, trust me. She's one of a kind. She's DEFINITELY not like the other galaxy swords." She smiled. "And something tells me you're more than ready. You just need to work on your speed skills." She faded into nothing.

"More than ready huh? I guess we bring the fight to him?" Clare looked at me for a response, so did Silver. I walked over to shut the doors. Then I stopped and gazed at the stars in thought.

"No. We bring him to US." I slammed the doors and locked them behind me.

END OF CHAPTER FOURTEEN, THE GUARDIAN