Warrior's Rise

by Brieanna Robertson

  “Where did you get these?” she cried. She came to stand in front of him, her green eyes blazing like they had done in her office the day before.

  He frowned. “They were lying in that storage shed thing, collecting dust. Thought the kids might like to give them a whirl.”

  She snorted. “Give them a whirl? These are not for camp use! Or didn’t the lock on the door clue you in?”

  His frown deepened and he folded his arms. “The lock was busted, for your information, and besides, they weren’t doing any good just sitting in there.”

  “They were sitting in there because I put them in there!” she shouted. “And they are not meant to be used!”

  Okay, Willow was hot. He would give her that much, but he was really getting sick of her yelling at him. He scowled. “Then why did you decide to stash them at a kids’ camp?” he roared. He took a small amount of satisfaction in the fact that she seemed taken aback by his ferocious response. It was only a momentary satisfaction because she recovered quickly.

  “These weapons are dangerous!” she yelled. “They’re not toys!” She shook her head and gave him a deadly glower. “I don’t care what the judge says. I want you out of my camp within the hour.” She started to stride away.

  Logan stared in shock for a second, as did the kids.

  “Wait! You can’t do that, Miss Willow!” Aki shouted. “You said you couldn’t!”

  “Watch me!” she spat.

  “But nothing happened!” Colt protested. “No one got hurt! It was actually a really cool lesson! Darien smoked us all! Look at all the bull’s eyes he hit!”

  She spun on her heel. “I don’t care how many of anything any of you hit! Someone could have gotten hurt!” She turned her furious eyes back to Logan. “What kind of an idiot thinks that it’s okay to just let children play with deadly weapons?”

  Darien shook his head. “Whoa, wait a second,” he said. “First of all, last time I checked, we weren’t three and knew not to run with scissors. Second, he actually put together a really decent lesson. You can’t just sack him for no reason.”

  “What? You’re defending him now? Just yesterday you were demanding that I get rid of him!”

  Logan was having a difficult time wrapping his mind around why Willow was so enraged. He could understand being concerned. He could even understand being upset, but in his opinion, she was overreacting on an amazing level.

  “He apologized to us!” Aki joined in.

  Willow snorted. “Well, great. I’m happy for you. I don’t care.” She looked back up at Logan. “I have had enough of your shenanigans and enough of your careless attitude. All your presence is causing here is chaos and mayhem and I will not have it!” Her emerald eyes turned to a dark, smoldering jade. “I want you gone.”

  He frowned. “I just can’t win with you, can I?” he exclaimed. “First, I’m a jerk because I don’t want to be here and I’m making the kids do activities they don’t want to do. Then I’m a jerk for actually trying? What do you want from me?”

  “Simple,” she all but growled. “I want you out of here.”

  Logan watched her walk away. Her back was stiff and her fingers were bunched into fists. He frowned. Something was seriously up. He rolled his eyes. “Fine, whatever. The less time I have to be around you, the better off everyone is gonna be,” he snapped.

  “Dang it, I didn’t even get to try the bow and arrow,” Lucy’s disappointed voice came.

  “Here, just take one shot while her back is turned,” Colt said. “What’s she gonna do? Fire you too?”

  Logan ran over in his mind the way the weapons had been stored in that structure. They’d all been hanging, like they’d each had their own proper place. It had been more like an armory than anything else. Why would any normal human store a bunch of medieval weapons like that? It was weird. And if she had no intention of letting the kids use them, or even see them, why were they there?

  Right as he was about to start after her and continue the confrontation, a searing pain split through his shoulder and he swore it had caught fire. He smothered a roar of pain and looked down.

  “Oh my gosh!” Lucy shrieked.

  Logan’s eyes widened and he felt all of the color drain out of his face as he stared at the arrow protruding from his arm.

  “You shot him!” Doug shouted. “Lucy! You shot him!”

  Lucy screamed. Logan forced his breakfast to stay put as his head spun in a nauseating way from sheer shock. He felt like he had fire licking up and down his entire arm.

  “Logan, are you all right?” Darien was at his side in a matter of seconds, as were all of the other kids. Lucy’s scream had even brought Willow charging back.

  At least she wasn’t yelling at him anymore.

  “Get back, everyone. Give him some space.” She shooed everyone out of the way and studied his shoulder. “Well, at least it’s only your arm,” she remarked. “It could be a lot worse.”

  He managed to give a derisive snort. “Yeah, it could have been my head. Must not be your lucky day.”

  She looked up at him. “Oh, come on—”

  “Look, are you going to get me to some sort of medical facility, or am I going to have to yank this out myself and cauterize it like a friggin’ cowboy?”

  She shook her head. “Of course, let’s get you to the clinic.” She looked over her shoulder. “Darien, can you put all of these away before someone else gets hurt?”

  Darien nodded and handed the sobbing Lucy over to Colt, who hugged her close and tried to console her. Logan staggered after Willow as she hurried him toward the clinic. He wondered, not for the first time since he’d gotten there, what kind of bizarre world he had managed to fall victim to. Trail mix maces, arrows in the arm, hot women who hated him… There had to be a hidden camera somewhere. This all had to be some elaborate practical joke. It was the only thing that made any sort of sense…

  * * * *

  His arm friggin’ hurt. Period. Okay, sure, he was a tough guy. He’d had plenty of broken bones, scrapes and scratches, but an arrow in the arm? That was definitely a first. He sighed as he stared out into the trees, much like he had done the day before. They’d had to actually drive him to the hospital, much to his humiliation, because the doctor at the camp had been so bewildered she’d said it would be best if they got a second opinion. She had no way of seeing if the arrow point had scraped the bone, or done any tissue damage. So Logan had sat in the emergency room for upwards of three hours, with an arrow sticking out of his stinkin’ shoulder, just waiting for one of the doctors to actually give a crap and check him out. It had been the longest three hours of his life. Sitting in silence next to Willow, bleeding…

  The doctor told him he’d been lucky, that there’d been no real damage done, had removed the arrow, given him a few stitches, stuck a bandage on him and socked him with some pain killer. Then Logan had endured the equally as silent ride back to camp, wondering what in the world the redhead’s problem was. He refused to speak to her. At this point, she was lucky to get cordial. He was sick of getting nothing but snide, rude and biting remarks. Okay, so maybe he hadn’t been the most pleasant person, or the easiest to be around, but she didn’t know him at all. He had taken harsh words and cruelty from his father. He sure as heck wasn’t going to take it from some woman on a power trip.

  With another heavy sigh, he contemplated leaving the hill where he sat and heading back to his cabin, as it was starting to get cloudy.

  “Hey.”

  He looked up to see Lucy standing next to him with an armful of wild flowers. He gave her a meager smile. “Hey, Lucy.”

  “I picked these for you.” She handed the flowers out and eased down to sit next to him.

  His smile broadened as he took the offering. “An I’m-Sorry-I-Shot-You gift?” he teased.

  “Absolutely,” she grumbled. She looked up at him. “I really am sorry. I was horrified.”

  He shrugged his good shoulder. “It’s all right. It was an accident. L
ook on the bright side, at least Willow retracted firing me. Guess I should be thanking you for that. Jail isn’t really my scene, if you know what I mean.”

  She giggled. “It was a really cool lesson…” She hunched her shoulders in a self conscious gesture. “Before I shot you and Miss Willow flipped out.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Yelling at me seems to be a special hobby of hers,” he muttered.

  She frowned. “I’ve never seen her get mad like that before…” She shrugged. “Anyway, I just wanted to give you those.” She stood, then grinned down at him and pointed to the bouquet. “The Irish say if you look over the flowers a certain way, it can make the invisible visible and fairies can be seen.”

  He smirked and glanced up at her. “Oh yeah?”

  She nodded and giggled again.

  He chuckled in spite of himself. “Well, I’ll let you know if I see any.”

  She grinned, waved, and took off towards the camp.

  Logan sighed and picked up the flowers she had given him. He studied them with a smile, thinking it was an awfully nice gesture, even if it had been out of guilt. He glanced towards the forest, just over the tops of the flowers, and frowned. What the? He set the flowers down and his frown deepened as his gaze focused on Willow, sitting in the grass not even twenty feet away from him. When the crap had she shown up? She certainly hadn’t been there before. He shook his head and studied her for a second. She was just sitting there, eyes downcast, absently playing with the soft grass. She looked…sad. “Hey!” The word was ripped out of his mouth before he could think. “Willow!”

  Her head shot up at the sound of her name, and she stared at him in shock. He cleared his throat and forced a smile. Well, now that he’d shouted at her he may as well be civil. “I didn’t see you sitting there!” he called.

  She looked around her and frowned as if bewildered, then slowly stood and made her way over to him.

  He watched her approach. Well, she wasn’t yelling… Yet. That was a plus. He gave a dry chuckle. “Are you a fairy?”

  She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him. She swallowed and gave a breathy laugh. “Why would you even say something like that?”

  He frowned, thinking that reaction was very out of character. He held up the flowers. “Lucy. She told me that if I looked over these the right way I could see fairies. I’m thinking you have to be a fairy because I definitely can’t figure out how else I missed you sitting there right in front of me when I’ve been here for the past hour.”

  She gave another breathy laugh. “Oh…Well, I guess I just snuck up on you.” She cleared her throat and took a seat next to him. “How’s your arm?”

  He shrugged. “Eh, I’ve had worse.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Always a tough guy.” Her tone was sarcastic, but not really mean.

  He snorted. “Would I get more sympathy from you if I rolled around and wailed, ‘oh the pain, the pain’?”

  She gave a dry laugh. “Not at all.”

  “See. So why waste my energy?”

  She smirked, then looked down and sighed. “Look, I’m sorry I blew my top at you earlier… I kind of overreacted.”

  He stole a sidelong glance at her. “You think?”

  “It’s just…” She huffed. “You see, I’m a collector and those are all my own personal weapons. I have them custom made by someone who makes sure they are authentic, as they would have been in the middle ages. They’re not like the dull bladed props you get in the catalogues. They’re very dangerous.”

  He frowned. “So why do you have them here?”

  “Where else would I have them? I live here.”

  He blinked. “You live at the camp?”

  She glanced over at him and nodded. “It’s not just a camp. It’s my home. I don’t have anywhere else to put them. That was why the door was locked.” A worried frown creased her brow and she looked down. “The lock was really broken? You didn’t break it yourself?”

  He let out an exasperated sigh. “No, I didn’t. It was busted when I got there. Breaking and entering is not a criminal pursuit I’ve managed yet.”

  She looked up at him and smirked. “Well, you’re still young.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Right.”

  Her smile grew and she stood. “Well, I have to go. Dinner’s soon. Be sure you come and eat something, Logan, okay?”

  His eyes widened and he looked up at her in surprise. A slow smile spread across his lips.

  She arched an eyebrow and put a hand on her hip. “What?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just…” He grinned. “That’s the first time you’ve ever called me by my name.” He shrugged. “It’s nice.”

  A touch of pink colored her cheeks and it must have appalled her because she stepped away from him and seemed to get flustered. “Yeah, well, don’t get used to it,” she grumbled. “I just can’t yell at you every hour of the day. It’s exhausting.”

  He chuckled. “Well, thanks. The reprieve is nice for my ego and my ears.”

  She rolled her eyes and tried to look irritated, but he could see the small glimmer of amusement in her eyes. “Dinner,” she stated, then turned and swaggered away.

  Logan smiled and picked his flowers up as he started back towards his cabin. As he passed the kids’ bunk, Aki came tearing out, calling his name. He turned and glanced at her over his shoulder.

  “Hey, Colt brought a portable DVD player with him!” she exclaimed. “We were all going to watch Lord of the Rings. You wanna watch with us?”

  He arched an eyebrow. “Which one?”

  She shrugged. “We’re just gonna start from the beginning and make a marathon of it.”

  “Yeah,” Colt said, appearing next to her. “With you out of commission and all doped up on pain pills, we can’t really do anything for the rest of the day so we’re just hanging out. Figured we’d have somebody go snatch us some dinner and bring it back.”

  Logan smiled, touched that they even cared. Especially when, only twenty-four hours prior, he’d been telling them all what a bunch of freaks they were. “No, that’s all right. Thanks, though.”

  Colt snorted. “Come on, man. What do you have better to do?”

  “Come on, Counselor Logan!” Lucy’s voice shouted. She came out to stand next to her friends moments later. “We’ll let you have one of the beds. You can just hang out.”

  He smiled in spite of himself. “Guys, I’m not really a Lord of the Rings type of dude.”

  Colt rolled his eyes. “Who cares? Come on. Just hang out with us, would you? All we’re asking you to do is sit on your butt and stare at a screen. I’m sure that’s something you can manage.”

  He gave a curious frown. “You’re just trying to make up for shooting me, aren’t you?”

  “Totally,” Colt replied without hesitation. “This was all Lucy’s idea.”

  Logan laughed.

  “That and the lesson was really cool!” Aki added. “We’re glad you’re not fired! Come on, please?”

  For some strange reason that he couldn’t quite place his finger on, he found that couldn’t say no. With a sigh of defeat, he trudged over to the kids’ cabin, barking at Darien to get off of the bed he was on and let him rest. He was wounded, after all.

  Chapter Eight

  Colt yawned and stretched his arms above his head. “Dang, how much more of this do we have to go? My eyes are crossing over here.”

  Doug pulled out the DVD. “We just finished Number Two. We still have at least four more hours. These are the extended versions, after all.”

  Colt groaned. “Whose bright idea was this anyway?”

  “My stomach is upset,” Aki grumbled.

  Darien chuckled and looked over at her. “That’s because you ate about five hundred chocolate–covered raisins on top of your lasagna dinner.” He slid his gaze over to Lucy, who was sitting beside Logan’s next to comatose form. To his credit, he’d made it through the first movie, but he’d fallen asleep near the beginning of the s
econd and had been drooling and snoring in a medicated state ever since. Darien frowned because his shirt had hiked up around his stomach and Lucy was doodling across his lower back. “You’re drawing on him?” he questioned in disbelief.

  Lucy looked up at him with an impish smile that turned his insides molten. “Nothing bad.”

  “Oooh! Let’s write ‘BALLS’ across his forehead!” Colt suggested in devious excitement. “Or put his hand in a bowl of warm water!”

  Darien made a face. “Colt! Come on, man, the guy got shot in the arm! And you want to play practical jokes on him?”

  Lucy looked up at Colt. “Yeah, no kidding. At least I’m drawing something cool.”

  Darien stood and went over to Logan’s prostrate form. He looked down at Lucy’s masterpiece and frowned. “What is that?”

  “It’s the symbol for the Alveda d’Kai. The myth says that, when the dragon warriors were alive, they didn’t reach their full potential and receive all of the gifts of their race until they reached maturity. On that day, the Alveda d’Kai mark would appear across the warrior’s lower back, showing he had come of age and was ready to be properly trained. After that, the mark faded and only resurfaced when an Alveda d’Kai was feeling some great and intense emotion.”

  Darien arched an eyebrow. “And…you’re drawing it on him, why?”

  She looked up at him and shrugged. “I dunno. I just think it’s cool.”

  Colt frowned. “What, you think he earned his rite of passage by taking an arrow in the arm, and reached his full maturity today?”