Avery just kept telling herself over and over that Gumptin had said Protectors healed quickly, healing about ten times faster than the average human being. Giving herself one last look in the mirror, Avery hoped he was right, because if he wasn’t, the only thing she would be doing for the next week would be laying in bed, nursing the pain.
The shower felt like heaven to Avery. The warm water rushed over her body, soothing her tired muscles. Avery leaned her head against the blue tiled shower wall and looked down. The water running off of her and pooling around her feet had been turned a murky brown color from all the crud being washed off of her body. Avery stood in the shower, head leaning against the shower wall, eyes closed, until the water began to turn cold.
Finally clean and wrapped in a towel, Avery stood in front of the large silver dresser in her room. She had shut and locked the door, insuring her privacy. The wound on her arm was still continuing to bleed, and she knew it was too deep to be able to close and heal on its own. Gumptin had prepared them for injuries like this. He had devoted an entire day of library studies to the treatment and care of battle wounds. He taught them basic stitching, bandaging, and bracing of bones.
Avery sat down in her dresser chair and tied her hair back, so it wouldn’t get in the way. She reached down and opened the one dresser drawer she had hoped she would never have to use. The bandages, needles, thread, and scissors looked just as they had on the first day Avery arrived on Orcatia and was exploring her room. She remembered thinking how unpleasantly crazy her life must have been to of had the need for a drawer like that.
The thread Avery chose was sturdy and black. She tied it around a thin medium length needle and brought the tip of the needle up to her wound. Avery hesitated and took a deep breath. She told herself that this would all be over soon, that after doing this one last thing, she could go to bed and forget about this entire day.
In one quick move, Avery pushed the needle through one side of her torn flesh. Avery slammed her fist onto her dresser. She wanted to scream out from the sharp pain, but clenched her jaw tightly, making sure she kept silent. It took Avery a moment before she could will herself to go on. She kept the stitches close and tight, to make sure there would be less scarring. The blood began to flow more heavily as Avery continued to close the wound, so Avery tied one of her white shirts around her elbow to catch the blood from falling onto the floor. It took Avery a good twenty minutes to effectively stitch up the wound, mostly because she kept stopping and starting when the pain got too intense.
When she had finished with the stitching, she wiped the remaining blood off of her arm with the white shirt she had tied around her elbow. Then, Avery took out a small vile of yellow liquid. She had had Mr. Bott come over to her house a few days before and explain to her exactly what every one of the salves and concoctions she had in her drawers were used for. So, she knew the yellow liquid, which smelled like a mixture of alcohol and Everlily flowers, was used to disinfect wounds. Avery rubbed some of the liquid over her stitches. There was a slight sting, but it went away quickly. Next, Avery bandaged up the wound, tying it tight
After Avery had finished with everything, she got into her nightshirt and delicately slipped into her bed. As she laid there, all the thoughts she had been trying to hold back the entire day started playing out in her mind. Images of the dead villagers and burning village were seared into her brain. Avery tried to fight back the tears as she thought about all the pain she had experienced. She began to remember the terror she had felt in the moment where she thought the troll was going to kill her. Avery had never come that close to dying before, at least, not that she could remember. She couldn’t even begin to imagine never being able to see Jade, or her family and friends again. The harder she tried not to think about it, the more the idea of dying and losing everything was the only thought she could focus on. Avery felt one single hot tear roll out of her eye, and then another one, followed by another. She allowed herself to cry herself to sleep, making sure to keep her face buried in her pillow, so her family wouldn’t be able to hear her sobs.
In the morning, Avery was awakened by knocking on her bedroom door. She heard the knocking, but didn’t respond to it, hoping whoever it was would get tired and give up, leaving her to sleep.
“Avery.” She heard her father call out.
“No!” Avery shouted from under the covers, refusing to get out of bed, “If Gumptin wants me for anything, he can go screw himself!”
There was no way Avery was going to be forced into any sort of training exercises after what her body had gone through yesterday.
Avery peeked her head out above her covers, keeping her eyes closed to the sunlight flooding in. She told her father, “There’s no way I’m getting out of bed before ten. Gumptin’s going to have to walk his old butt up here and drag me out of bed!”
“Avery.” Her father said again.
“No!” Avery yelled and buried herself back under the covers.
Her father knocked twice more, then said, “Sweetie, it’s already like nine forty-five, and Gumptin’s waiting for you downstairs.”
Crap, Avery thought. She wanted to kick herself for saying ten instead of noon.
“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!” Avery shouted, kicking the covers off of her and hopping out of bed.
The first thing Avery realized when she stood up, besides the fact that her tears from crying the night before had glued her eyelashes shut, making it even harder for her to open her eyes, was that her body didn’t feel nearly as sore as it had before she went to sleep. Avery stretched her arms high up into the air, a move that would have caused her to keel over last night, now just caused a slight ache.
Avery walked over to her dresser mirror and lifted her oversized Batman nightshirt up over her ribcage. The bruises covering her torso were already starting to dissipate. Now, instead of the dark purple they were last night, the bruises had turned into a yellowish brown color. Avery was tempted to undo her bandage and check to see how the slice on her arm was healing, but decided it was best to let it wait a few days.
After slipping on a pair of socks, Avery walked downstairs to see what Gumptin wanted with her. Halfway down the staircase, she heard her father and Gumptin talking. From the sound of it, she had come into the middle of a conversation.
“They are doing extremely well.” Avery heard Gumptin say, “They still retain some of their cruder Earth habits, and they are lazier than a mountain ogre, but they are doing far better than I would have expected.”
Avery’s father’s voice followed, “We just worry about them and not just about their safety. Of course, that’s our first concern, but these past years, the girls have been happier than we’ve ever seen them. We just don’t want them to lose their spirit.”
“Well,” Gumptin said, “it has been my experience training with them over this last week, that for better or worse, their spirit is not going anywhere. It makes training them severely agitating, but I must admit, I think I may miss their new zeal for life if they lost it. Although, I would ask you not to let Avery know that I feel that way.”
“Gumptin,” Avery said loudly, causing Gumptin to jump, “what are you doing here?”
Gumptin coughed and straightened his belt, hanging lopsided on his waist. He seemed befuddled and lost for words. So, instead of saying anything, he lifted his arm and pointed towards the study, motioning for Avery to go in.
The dark green walls and brown leather furniture were doing nothing to help Avery feel more awake. Gumptin shut the door behind them and Avery curled herself up into an overstuffed leather chair, covered with a hand sewn patchwork quilt.
“How are you feeling this morning?” Gumptin asked her.
Avery just shrugged. She didn’t think Gumptin’s question required an answer. Besides the fact that she thought it was a pointless question, Avery wasn’t quite sure how she was feeling. A good cry and a long night's sleep had wiped away some of the more nightmarish elements of yesterday’s events, for Avery. L
ooking back, she found her perception changing. She was beginning to focus on the people they had saved and their grateful ‘thank you’s’. Plus, she had to admit, that being able to kick major ass, felt really good. Of course, her new, more optimistic outlook was helped by the fact that she was in far less pain than she was yesterday. Even though, Avery was beginning to feel more positive about the endeavors involved with being a Protector, she wasn’t about to let Gumptin know this. She could see a bright side, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be sent out to do battle with more trolls anytime soon, at least, not until she was completely healed.
“So, why are you here?” Avery asked Gumptin, intrigued by the fact he had come to her house to talk to her in private. It was out of the usual for Gumptin, which meant it was probably for something big.
Gumptin sat down in a chair across from her, his little legs sticking out in front of him. If it weren’t for his long gray beard and hair, Avery was sure he could have been mistaken for a child.
“Before you died,” he told Avery, “you had a tentative plan on how to defeat the Emperor.”
So far, Avery wasn’t exactly thrilled with what Gumptin had to say. She figured if she had a plan, the fact that she died meant it probably sucked.
“You see,” Gumptin said, “the problem with killing the Emperor, is actually getting to him. His fortress is surrounded by mountains, a large wall, and his armies, so even if you are able to reach him, his minions would surround you in a matter of minutes. I believe that is how you died in the first place.”
“But you don’t actually know how we died, right?” Avery interrupted Gumptin, “For all you know, the Emperor could have killed us himself.”
Gumptin gave a cynical snort, “That is very unlikely.” He leaned forward, continuing on with what he was saying before Avery interrupted him, “At first, your plan was to gather large armies and attack the wall surrounding the fortress from all sides. The Emperor’s armies would be kept busy. Then, once you broke through the gates, you and the other Protectors could hopefully take on the Emperor without having to deal with his followers.”
“Well, that obviously didn’t happen.” Avery said, sarcastically.
Gumptin shook his head, “No, no it did not. There were a few problems that ended up discouraging you. You felt that you were running out of time, so you abandoned that plan and tried to find another way. Weighing all of our options, I feel that your first plan is still our best course of action. So, firstly…”
“Wait, wait,” Avery said, cutting Gumptin off again, “before you tell me what you want me to do, you better tell me why I ended up so discouraged.”
Gumptin began wringing his hands. He stared at the ground for a few moments, trying to think about how to word his next sentences, “Well,” he began, “the obvious and most powerful army, not to mention, the only army that could spare their resources and were in close enough proximity, would be King Draven’s. However, you were more than hesitant to ask for his help.”
Avery waited for Gumptin to explain, but if like Gumptin said, she had been more than hesitant to ask for King Draven’s help then Gumptin was more than hesitant to explain why.
“Why?!” Avery exclaimed, demanding he continue.
Eventually, Gumptin reluctantly said, “Your opinion of him was not very high.”
Avery just stared at Gumptin for a moment. She couldn’t believe she wouldn’t have asked for help, just because her opinion of him wasn’t great. Avery knew there was something Gumptin was reluctant to share. She chose not to push him any further, thinking he might have been trying to be polite and spare her feelings by not calling her a judgmental bitch. After all, that’s what Avery was thinking of her old self. For all she knew, maybe Gumptin was too.
“Whatever.” Avery said, not forcing Gumptin to elaborate on his crappy little explanation.
Gumptin looked relieved to be off of that subject, “Plus, there was an incident with the Fairies, and they refused to aid the Protectors in any way, but you will not need to worry about that till later in the week when you go meet with them.”
Avery couldn’t stop herself from laughing. She wondered how her life had gotten to the point when the mention of meeting actual fairies was considered a normal topic of conversation.
“Are you quite alright?” Gumptin asked, as Avery placed her face in her hands and shook her head, continuing to laugh.
“I’m fine,” Avery said, keeping her face in her hands, “keep going.”
“Anyway,” Gumptin went on, sounding slightly annoyed, “with the loss of those two armies and time running out, you decided the plan was not worth it.”
Avery got that Gumptin wanted to go back to the original plan, she just wasn’t sure what exactly he wanted her to do today, “So, you want me to…” Avery said, trying to prompt Gumptin.
“Today, I want you and the other Protectors to travel to Knighton Castle, to meet with King Draven. I have sent word to him that you will be coming.” Gumptin stood up from his chair, “I will go and tell the other girls. You will meet them at the stables in an hour.”
Traveling to Knighton Castle meant no training for the day and no bloody battles. To Avery, it was like Gumptin giving them a vacation.
Avery stood up out of the chair and stretched, “I’ll go get ready.” She told Gumptin, feeling giddy at the thought of getting to travel to an actual castle.
“Avery,” Gumptin said, stopping Avery before she got to the study door, “just remember we need the use of Draven’s army. So, however he may act towards you, just be the charming girl that I know you have buried somewhere deep, deep, very deep down inside of you.”
Turning back around towards the door, Avery tried to ignore Gumptin’s words, especially since she had the notion that he might not have been joking.
As she walked up the stairs to her room, Avery heard Gumptin shout from the study, “And for Wizarding sake, try and look like a Protector. This is a professional visit.”
Avery took Gumptin’s words to mean, add weapons to the outfit and loose the shirt with the giant yellow bat.
Chapter 9
The route to Knighton Castle was far easier to follow than the one to Lilydale. Gumptin had told them all they had to do to get there was to continue down the Main Road. He said it would eventually lead them to Knighton Castle, in the heart of the kingdom of Nightfell.
Since there wasn’t the sense of urgency to reach their destination quickly, like there had been for Lilydale, they kept their horses at a slow trot, enjoying the cool breeze and sounds of the forest.
“Did Gumptin happen to mention to you why exactly we didn’t try this whole multiple army plan before?” Jade asked, riding beside Avery.
It surprised Avery that Gumptin hadn’t said anything to Jade about her past incarnation’s disapproval of the King, and her subsequent discouragement in the plan. Then again, it was Gumptin talking to Jade, and he usually tried to say and spend as little time with her as possible. For a second, Avery considered telling Jade exactly what Gumptin had told her, but then she thought better of it. She didn’t want to have to deal with the questions that she knew would follow. Jade would want to know why Avery hadn’t approved of the King, and what exactly the incident with the Fairies was. Avery didn’t have the answers to those questions, and she knew Jade would just chastise her for not pushing Gumptin harder to give her the answers. Avery was enjoying the scenery and ride too much for that.
So, instead, she just said, “No, he didn’t mention anything to me.”
If Avery had hoped that answer would satisfy and quiet Jade, she was mistaken, “It just seems messed up, you know.” Jade continued, as Avery rolled her eyes. “If we had a somewhat good plan, and I’ll admit, this is a somewhat good plan, then why would we all ride off to this incredibly guarded fortress alone, on what seems to be a whim, and try to kill the Emperor.”
Avery knew that Jade was making sense. She would have loved to been able to have the answer to that question, but the
truth was she didn’t even have the slightest notion why they would do something so reckless. From what Gumptin had told her, she doubted even he knew why they had ridden out to the Emperor’s fortress that night.
“I really don’t know.” Avery told Jade.
“It sounds like a suicide mission. No wonder we died.” Jade sneered, “There’s no way I would have done something so stupid, unless there was a damn good reason.”
Avery was sure that was true. For Jade to have ridden out that night, she must have either been confident in the plan, or else have a spectacular reason.
Not wanting to dwell on the subject of their deaths, or what led up to them, Avery decided to switch the topic. She asked Jade about Mrs. Bott’s sweet shop and what her favorite treats were there. As Avery had already known, Jade leapt on the topic. One of the perks of being best friends and spending an obscene amount of time together is you know exactly what subjects they can’t help but talk about. For Jade, it was food, music, motorcycles, and although only Avery knew this, eighties movies, Jane Austen novels, and Star Trek memorabilia.
The rest of the ride to the castle was a pleasant one for the girls. They traveled down the Main Road for over an hour, with nothing but the forest and its haunting serenity surrounding them. They passed over a dozen small roads, all marked with small wooden signs.
On the road, the girls passed the occasional traveler, a young boy dragging a donkey, loaded down with misshapen sacks, a scruffy looking man on top of a brown work horse, galloping in the opposite direction. The Protectors had to ride around a family of six loaded into a wooden cart, being pulled by a giant slow moving draft horse. The mother and father sat up front, while the children were packed into the back, amongst several baskets of dark red apples. When the family recognized them as the Protectors, they gave each of the girls one of their delicious looking apples and thanked the Protectors for the work they did fighting the Emperor. Jade was the first to grab an apple, scarf it down, and then ask Avery if she was planning on eating hers.
The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga Page 24
