The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga (32 page)

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.
Looking 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.