The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga

by Paige Dooling

  Avery read the notes she had written in her previous life on Orcatia and couldn’t stop the cold knot forming in the pit of her stomach. Everything was written as simply as if it were a grocery list. Avery was surprised at the ease and detachment her previous self could have written about death and fighting. Just reading the notes made Avery feel like curling up in a little ball and crying. She wanted to curl the paper up into a little ball and throw it in the trash, but resisted since she was sure it contained information they might need sometime in the future. So instead, she let the laundry list of despair fall back onto the table. There was a momentary thought she had to try and study the notes more to get a better idea of what she should expect as a Protector, but Avery knew full well that her mind wasn’t yet ready to accept the fact, that at some point in the near future, she too would have to live through the events she had written about.

  Next to the notes with her writing on it, Avery spotted a piece of paper with what she recognized as Jade’s hand writing. It read, “November 11th - Patrol with Skylar on the Selvin Road, encountered small group of trolls, one ugly bastard escaped (Skylar wouldn’t let me follow it into Darksin - Per Avery’s orders to keep out of that area), witnessed Emperor’s army advancing on Blackmore - (Note: inform Avery)’. Avery smiled, it comforted her that Jade seemed at least slightly similar to her previous self. For her own part, the more and more she found out about her Orcatian life, the more tightly she wanted to hold on to the life she had on Earth.

  The other girls walked up to the table to look at the maps and read the notes.

  “Wow,” Skylar said, after picking up Avery’s notes and reading over them, “this is crazy heavy stuff. I can‘t believe you wrote this, Av.”

  Jade grabbed the paper out of Skylar’s hand and glanced over it. Once she had gotten the general idea of what Avery had written, she looked up at Avery, concern written all over her face. It was obvious she hadn’t liked what she read.

  “Skylar’s right, this is pretty heavy stuff.” She told Avery, setting the piece of paper back on the table and staring back up at her, “You ok with this?”

  Avery shrugged, not quite sure if she was or not, but not wanting to concern the others with any anxiety the notes had given her, “Don’t worry about me.” She told Jade and the rest of the girls, “I remember as much as you guys do, which is nothing. I don’t remember living through those things, let alone writing about them.”

  “Sure,” Jade said, not wanting to push her any further, “if you’re fine, than I’m fine. You just don’t really sound like the Avery I know in these notes.”

  Tell me about it, thought Avery. She turned her attention to the rest of the room to take her mind off of her past Protector activities. The dark green walls were covered with maps, just like her room. They were maps of different kingdoms, the mountainous kingdom of Blackmore, and the kingdom of Espria, which seemed to consist of mainly grasslands. There was the kingdom of Greycian, surrounded on three sides by large bodies of water. The kingdom of Eternel had dark forests and rocky mountains. Then there was a map of their own kingdom of Nightfell, with their village, Havyn, located on the map, surrounded by the Wildwood forest. King Draven’s castle rested in the center of the kingdom, acting as the focal point of the map. There were a dozen other maps mounted on the walls, all of different kingdoms, with different mountain ranges, forests, villages, and oceans. Avery sincerely hoped Gumptin wasn’t expecting them to learn all of the different locations and landmarks.

  There was an open doorway off to the left side of the room. It led into a narrow hallway that led off to two separate smaller rooms. The first of the two rooms was a cramped weapons storage room. The walls were lined with different weapons, there were rows of crossbows, swords, axes, knives, whips, bows, and staffs. The second room was just as cramped, except this room was filled with three flimsy looking straw beds, each with one pillow and one blanket. Avery assumed they must have slept over here when they were busy and needed a quick nap. Although she couldn’t imagine getting any sort of restful sleep in those awkward beds. There was one small wooden nightstand in between the first two beds with a dim lit lamp and a short stack of books. Avery didn’t bother to look at what the books might be, figuring they were most likely in the same vein as the book on her bedroom night stand, involving spells, and creatures, and how to defeat them.

  After a quick examination of both rooms, Avery walked back out to the main room. There was a large spiral staircase off to the right side that led up to the second floor. Avery grabbed onto the thick wooden banister and proceeded up to the next floor. The staircase was wide enough for Avery to lie down straight across the stairs head to toe, and dark burgundy carpeting covered each wooden step. It spiraled around twice before leading Avery out onto the second story landing.

  The first thing that Avery noticed was the smell. The scent of dust and old books, mixed in with an almost musky cinnamon smell, floated up her nose. The floor creaked beneath Avery’s feet as she walked farther into the room. There were rows and rows of bookshelves, most of them stretching over ten feet high, hitting the top of the ceiling. On the outside of the bookshelves were handwritten signs, labeling the different categories of books. Avery walked down between the two shelves labeled, ‘Ancient Demons, 2000 yrs. +, M-Z’, and ‘Poisons, A-S’. The shelves were packed so tightly with books of every different size that some books sat on top of each other at odd angles, just daring a reader to try and grab one without causing the entire stack to topple over. Some of the books appeared fairly new, but others looked so old and tattered, Avery was sure if she tried to take them off of their shelf, they would fall apart in her hands. Avery blew on one of the rows of books on poisons beginning with the letter E and small cloud of dust blew up in her face. She coughed and cleared the air in front of her face with her hand. Rubbing at her nose, which the dust was beginning to make tickle, Avery turned her attention to the row of bookshelves. The books on Demons weren’t as dusty and in much more disarray, an indication they received a lot more use than the books on poison. A black leather-bound book on the bottom row caught her attention. It was sticking out about an inch over the bottom shelf, like someone had been recently reading it and put it away hastily. Avery reached down and picked up the book. In faded red letters and a stylized cursive that Avery could barely make out, the title read, ‘The Nexus Demon by Leoflin the Wizard’, Avery heard someone else coming up the stairs and bent down to quickly put the book away. She didn’t bother to kneel down or squat, which meant the book, looked just as it had before, sticking over the edge.

  The end of the two stacks led out to a narrow middle walkway lined with overstuffed and battered old plushy looking chairs. Brass pillar candleholders with sturdy white candles sat next to the chairs and helped to light up the room. As Avery got closer to the candles, she realized they were releasing the soft cinnamon scent gently filling the air. Avery stepped into the hallway and looked it up and down and back and forth. There were more rows of bookshelves lining the other side of the hallway. At least twenty rows of shelves, from what Avery could tell, and that was just on this side of the room. The lack of windows, burgundy walls, dark wood, candlelight, and cramped quarters lulled Avery into a relaxed state, reminding her just how tired she really was. She glanced over at a lumpy blue velvet chair and wondered if she curled up in it and fell asleep it would bother the others.

  Avery was about to sit down in the chair, just to rest her aching body for a second, when Gumptin called from downstairs, “Ladies, can I see you all down here for a moment?”

  Avery stopped herself half-sit, and ignoring her screaming thighs, made her way down the stairs. She was followed down the stairs by Bunny, who had a book in her hand. Avery had figured that if one of them was going to walk out of there with a book in hand, it would be Bunny.

  When Avery arrived downstairs she saw Jade, Skylar, and Sasha entering from the weapons storage room and that Gumptin had laid out a few weapons on the large round table. A
mong other things, there were five broadswords tied together with a leather buckle strap.

  “These are yours.” Gumptin said, handing out the swords to each of the girls.

  Each sword was different, and the one Avery was handed had a thick steel cross-guard with an intricate scroll work etched into it. The grip was white pearlescent and the pommel at the top of the hilt was a silver crescent moon with a crystal jewel inlay. The sword was safely tucked away in a black leather scabbard that silver horses emblazoned on it.

  Avery unsheathed the sword and held tightly onto the smooth handle. She swung it back and forth a little, making sure she didn’t hit any of her fellow Protectors in the process. The sword was heavy, but not so much that it gave Avery trouble to wield it with just one hand. Avery couldn’t understand or describe how holding the sword was making her feel. She had practiced with a wooden sword in the clearing earlier today, but something about holding this particular sword, at this moment, was causing some sort of feeling to stir up inside of her. Avery would have thought it was a feeling of comfort, if she hadn’t believed it utterly ridiculous to be comforted by a metal object used for killing things.

  “These are all of your everyday weapons. They were summoned back to the village with you after you died.” Gumptin told the girls, as he handed out the rest of the weapons he had placed on the table.

  “I just love how you talk about us dying, with about as much emotion as you would have ordering a drink.” Jade said sarcastically, grabbing onto a ragged silver handled knife Gumptin was handing over to her.

  Gumptin scrunched up his nose, “I never drink,” he said, shaking his head emphatically, “it has devastatingly awful affects on my Wizarding abilities.”

  Avery smiled, imaging the incident that led Gumptin to that realization.

  Gumptin handed Avery three different daggers, a medium sized one with a white handle and jewel on top, that Gumptin told her went into her belt, another medium sized dagger with a thin brass handle that went into her boot, and a third long steel dagger in a black leather sheath with two straps that went around her wrist and arm. The second Avery took the dagger out of the sheath, a flash of an image went off inside of her head, she saw herself unsheathe the dagger, and then saw a flood of red cover her hands. The image lasted less than a second, and then it was gone. Avery grabbed on to the table to stop herself from teetering over.

  “Are you alright?” Jade asked, concerned, about ready to put down the dangerous looking curved dagger she was stroking admiringly and rush to Avery’s side.

  “I’m fine,” Avery said, stopping Jade by holding up her hand, “it’s just hitting me how tired I am.”

  “You and me both.” Skylar quipped, “Not even dance practice prepared me for this.”

  Avery smiled at Skylar and avoided eye contact with Jade. She figured it was probably just some weird déjà vu she was having from her life before Earth. Nothing to worry herself over, she told herself, and certainly nothing to worry Jade over.

  Gumptin handed Avery a wide black leather belt with a silver buckle and what looked like another smaller black leather belt with straps attached to it. Avery just stared at it, not taking it from Gumptin’s hand. The belt, itself, she understood, but she had no idea how she was suppose to wear the smaller belt with the straps.

  “Get down here.” Gumptin grumbled, frustrated he was having to actually show her how to put it on.

  Avery kneeled down. Gumptin strapped the belt around Avery’s ribcage, just below her chest. Gumptin pulled it tight and attempted to fasten the buckle into the well-worn second belt hole.

  “Ouch!” Avery cried out as Gumptin braced his shoulder against Avery’s body and pulled with all his strength on the belt, finally fastening it.

  “There, how is that?” He said, panting, looking proudly at the fastened belt.

  “Tight,” Avery grimaced, trying to move her ribcage around under the constrictive belt, “it hurts.”

  Gumptin stared at Avery and the belt scrutinizingly, “Hmmm, I think you have gained a few pounds since you have last worn that.”

  Avery stopped squirming under the belt and glared at Gumptin with a look that could kill. Standing above Avery, Sasha guffawed, and even Jade couldn’t stop herself from snickering a little.

  “Now, that’s a real ouch.” Skylar joked, laughing.

  Completely oblivious to the laughs of the other girls, Gumptin suggested, “Perhaps we should try to loosen it one belt loop.”

  Sasha burst into laughter.

  “It’ll be fine!” Avery snapped, abruptly ending the weight part of the conversation, “Just show me what to do with the other straps.

  Gumptin took the straps, which were attached to the back of the belt, and crisscrossed them over Avery’s shoulders and across her chest, where they attached into two little holes on the front of the belt. Now that Avery was all strapped in properly to the contraption, she still had no idea what purpose it served.

  Gumptin reached up to the table and picked up what looked like an oversized sword sheath with two small circular straps on the underside. It was made out of black leather, just like Avery’s belt and had the same silver horse design emblazoned on it as her sword sheath did. There were fifteen long arrows with white feather tips sticking out from inside of it.

  “This is a quiver,” Gumptin said, “it is used to hold your arrows in.”

  He strapped the quiver onto one of the straps crisscrossing Avery’s back. Then, took the sheath for Avery’s sword, and with two small leather straps, tied the sheath on to the second strap crisscrossing Avery’s back.

  Avery picked up the sword Gumptin had given her and slid it into the sheath. Once the sword was in its sheath, Avery reached back with her right hand and pulled the sword out. She felt the blade of the sword graze her hair, centimeters away from her ear. Avery made a mental note to practice that move some more before trying it again and at a much slower speed.

  Next, Gumptin grabbed one of five bows that had been leaning against the table. The one he handed Avery was made out of a dark wood, so dark it almost looked black, with a silver vine design encircling it. If Avery had been standing it would have reached up to her waist. The ends were curved slightly and had silver metal tips. Gumptin hooked the bow around the quiver on Avery’s back.

  “Stand up,” he told her, “stand up and turn around. How does it feel?”

  Avery did as Gumptin instructed. She stood up and moved around, turning and bending.

  Gumptin smiled, “Feels good, does it not?” He said, “You use to wear that all the time before you went to Earth. It was like a second skin to you.”

  Honestly, to Avery, it didn’t feel good at all. It felt constrictive and cumbersome, and Avery couldn’t wait till she was able to take it off.

  “Whatever,” Avery sighed under her breath, and then, not wanting to upset Gumptin’s smiling and proud face too much, she said loudly, “It feels great.”

  “I knew it would.” Gumptin beamed and continued to pass out the rest of the weapons to the girls.

  By the time Gumptin had finished distributing all the weapons, Avery not only had her sword, bow, arrows, and daggers, but also a crossbow and whip that Gumptin told her attached to the saddle she would be using on her horse.

  “Are we done, already?” Sasha asked, trying to hold on to all of the weapons Gumptin had just given her, but doing a poor job as a tiny dagger the size of a toothpick slipped out of her hands and onto the floor, “Can we go home and try to get some sleep,” She said angrily, picking up her dagger off the ground, “or is there some new torment you’d like to put us through?”

  Gumptin shrugged nonchalantly and shook his head, “No,” he answered, “you may leave now.”