"My lady?" Spin sat at my feet.
"Oh, sorry Spin, I didn't see you there."
He smiled at me. He seemed to be happier and brighter here too.
"Shall we continue?" Sid asked as Spin, and I stood smiling at each other. We probably looked stupid, but who cares.
"Yes, we're very close."
I led the boys on through the forest, taking care to let its energy in, but not pull me under. I had never felt such a strong pull from the trees. Maybe I was just rawer now that I was, well, rawer.
We reached the gate, its woven branches covered with a soft layer of moss and lichen. Through the gate, I could see my home: the big stone structure and the large greenhouse, the giant wooden door that I could almost fly through, and, settled on the front stoop, my two trusty gargoyles basking in the morning sunlight.
My gargoyles.
Crap, I'd forgotten all about them. They would want to talk to me; they deserved an explanation as to why I looked so jacked up. But if I brought Spin and Sid in with me they wouldn't be able to come to life. They'd be stuck as stone and staring at my gross appearance with no explanation. They were loyal friends and helped me out of some serious jams. Heck, it wasn't too long since they'd dragged me through this very gate as I screamed. They'd taken turns heating themselves up in the fire and snuggling up with me to stop me from getting hypothermia. I owed them an explanation.
"Guys," I turned to the minions, "I need you to wait out here for a little while."
They just stared at me. Spin with a smile and Sid with an unreadable expression.
"There are a few things I need to take care of in there before I can let you in. You know, because once you're in, it's kind of forever."
"We understand," Sid said, although his expression didn't really scream understanding.
"We'll wait right here!" Spin said, and he plopped down on the ground right in front of the gate. Perfectly positioned to watch the gargoyles come to life.
"Maybe you guys should go sit in that shady spot over there?" I pointed to a little grassy area just off the path. "The grass will be way more comfortable."
"Oh! It looks nice!" Spin was already moving through the trees.
"Spin," Sid's voice carried in the air, "please give the lady her package."
Spin stopped dead in his tracks and looked down at the bundle he was carrying. He lopped back to me and stretched out his arms. I took the tightly wrapped sword from him.
"Thanks, guys. I appreciate it."
"We shall await your return." Sid led Spin out into the forest.
I waited until they were both sitting in the grass, Sid with his back pointedly towards me, and then I crossed through the gate.
A little while back I'd run into a bit of trouble with this gate. I had just taken a long soak, long soak being a euphemism for 'nearly drowned,' in the pitch black rivers of the Void and I was wet to the skin with Void water.
When I had tried to go through the gate, it hadn't recognised me and had sought to keep me out. Which basically meant trying to burn the skin from my bones. Since I had just experienced the literal burning of my skin from my bones, I wasn't too worried about the gate. Maybe it would recognise me, maybe it wouldn't, but I knew how to handle it now.
I took a few quick steps and then launched myself through the opening. It stung momentarily, and then I was met with a beautiful warm hug of energy. Evidently, the gate recognised me. Phew.
I needed to wake the gargoyles up and explain to them what had happened before they got a look at me. I made sure my hood was secure and that my face was in shadow.
They were going to freak out.
They were as I'd left them. Sitting sentinel either side of my entryway. I walked up the steps and then sat down on one of the stone knee walls that framed the doorway.
"Guys?" I whispered. "I'm back."
The gargoyles started to twitch. It was very subtle, and if I hadn't been watching them so closely, I probably would have missed it. A little shimmer went up their backs, and Grog's ears started to twitch.
"You can show yourselves. I'm alone."
More shimmering and a little bit of shaking from Brog. It was cute watching their little stone butts wiggle; from behind, they looked a bit like Bulldogs.
"Come along, gentlemen, it's time to get up. I need to talk to you."
Grog's body gave an almighty shake, and suddenly he was fully alive and scuttling towards me. He stopped short when he got a few feet away and peered at me. Soon his slightly slower brother, Brog, who had a large chunk of stone missing from the side of his head, was also awake. Brog got down from his ledge and crawled across the entryway and up the other side to sit next to his brother. The two sat side by side as much as the ledge would allow and stared at me.
"Okay, so I look really bad," I said.
They were silent. I continued.
"Annnnd, it's going to look a lot worse when I pull back this hood. So I want you to prepare yourselves."
"What happened to you, my lady?" Grog's voice was barely a whisper.
"Well, I didn't know this was possible, but apparently my species can, under extreme stress, burst into flames and basically regenerate. That's where I've been the last few weeks, regenerating with another of my kind. I was attacked and almost killed, and as a defence mechanism, my body went into burn up mode. It looks terrible, I know, but I'm going to be okay. I'm actually looking a lot better now, and in a few weeks I'll probably have skin again..."
"You don't have any skin?" Brog cut in.
"No," I sighed, "I don't. I am currently just muscle over bone, which is actually a step forward. Yesterday I was just sinew over bone, so, progress and stuff."
"Please show us." If it was possible for stone to look pale, Grog was doing it.
"Okay."
I pulled back the hood just as the sun peeked out from behind a cloud and stabbed at my eyes. My newly minted lids couldn't really handle it, and I recoiled into the shadows on the stoop. Which really did nothing to reassure the two gargoyles before me, who started to scream as I scrambled back.
"Guys! Guys! It's okay! Sorry, I got the sun in my eyes. I'm really okay." I sat in the shade and beckoned them forward. "Come closer, it's okay. Take a good look, and maybe it'll be less scary."
Brog was still breathing really hard, but Grog had calmed down enough to take Brog's hand and pull him along the ledge towards me. Grog gently placed a stone claw on my wrapped hand and peered into my face.
"Your eyes are the same." He turned to Brog. "Look, Brog, she is the same inside."
Grog wrapped his arm of stone around his brother and held him tight while the little gargoyle looked deep into my eyes. I tried not to smile too much because, well without skin it just doesn't work, and let my deep affection for this rocky house gargoyle shine through my eyes. Brog stepped forward, out of his brother's embrace and drew himself to his full height which placed us directly eye to eye. He was inches from my face, I could feel his breath, cool like a spring wind, against my raw cheek. He reached out a single claw-tipped finger and touched the tip of my nose.
"Boop," I whispered. Brog started to giggle, it sounded like rocks jangling around in a mason jar.
"You're still you." He smiled. "She's still her, Grog!"
"I know, Brog." A single pebble dropped from Grog's eye as he climbed down to the stoop. "Welcome home, Lady." With a little skip and a jump he had his hands on front door latch and was swinging it open.
"Thank you, Grog." I walked through Brog tight on my heels. "Grog, could you please take this sword through to the greenhouse?" I held out the bundle and Brog ferried it over to his brother as Grog swung around the door, his momentum pulling it closed.
"Oh course, my lady. Would you like it placed in the circle?"
"Always a step ahead of me, Grog. Yes, please. I'm hoping I can get making some skin over these muscles."
"You have healed your wounds there before, this is no different."
"That's the plan. But fir
st I need to get out of these sheets. Brog, can you come give me a hand?"
"Of course, my lady!"
He was halfway up the stairs before I'd even put a foot on the first step.
12
Brog was so excited to have me back he chatted all the way up the stairs.
"And then there was this squirrel! He came around all the time, and he tried to hide some nuts under Grog, and I said we should scare the squirrel away, but Grog said no, and then the squirrel put one too many nuts under Grog, and he got real mad and growled at the squirrel and it ran away! I laughed so hard I fell off the stoop and Grog had to pick nuts out of his butt!"
"That's funny, Brog." I laughed. "I can just see Grog picking nuts out of his butt."
"I know! It was hilarious!" Brog did a summersault along the hallway. "What did you do while you were gone, lady?"
I'd tried several times to get them to call me Phoenix, they weren't into it, so I let it go.
"I told you, Brog," I said quietly, "I had an accident, and I was healing."
He stopped rolling down the hall and looked at me.
"Oh, yes, I forgot. You're still the same."
"Thank you, Brog, but I don't really feel the same."
It was the first time I'd said that out loud, and up until that exact moment, I hadn't even considered it. No, I didn't feel the same. I felt exposed. I felt raw. I felt violated. I felt abandoned, even though I hadn't been. There were a lot of feelings I hadn't considered until this hushed moment with the very unassuming gargoyle.
"We're here!"
Brog ploughed on unaware of my introspection. Being around his energy was nice. Sure he was a little exasperating at times, but Brog's enthusiasm and love were genuine.
"Excellent."
And it truly was. My room was exactly how I'd left it: giant four poster bed, long wall of mullioned windows, wall to wall closets and deep shag carpet that you could really sink into. Man, I had missed my room. I walked over to the wall of closets, their mirrored doors reflecting my fabric wrapped frame back at me in stunning detail. Wow, I looked like crap. The fabric strips were already starting to fray, and there was dirt all over my backside from where I'd sat on the stoop. My bloody looking head poking out of the top of it all was not helping the whole ensemble. And my wings, my poor wings looked like some third grader's paper mache project. I need out of this crap and down to the garden.
"Time to get out of this stuff."
I tugged at a piece of cloth on my torso, trying to find an edge. I couldn't remember whether the strips were short pieces or one long sash that I'd have to spin out of. I pulled on the fabric, and a loop came free, I tugged some more and felt something squelch on the opposite side of my stomach. Abandoning the torso, I went up to the neck and tried to loosen something there. Even with the open edge, it was no help. I wished I'd paid more attention when Royal was wrapping me. He'd tied me up tighter than a pair of earbuds tangled at the bottom of your bag.
I pulled harder on my neck. Things loosened but didn't come free. I grabbed at my arms but they were wrapped close, and my cloth-covered fingers weren't able to dig through the layers. What had they done to me? As an act of desperation, I chewed on the cloth near my wrist and yanked the fabric from my fingers.
I was breathing hard now. Panic was everywhere. I looked up into the mirror and saw myself chewing on the cloth, my raw hand partly exposed; blood had welled up on my torso and around my neck. My eyes were bright and wide and spun around grotesquely in my muscle covered face.
I froze.
I stared at myself in the glass.
Then I fainted.
Not like the Travelling faints I used to get, just an old fashioned I'm hyperventilating, and my life is too much faint. I woke up crumpled on the floor. I'd only been out for a moment. Brog was stroking my shoulder. It took me a moment to work out what he was saying.
"Don't worry, lady." His voice was barely above a whisper. "I will help you."
His little stony hands made quick but delicate work of the strips of cloth. With one hand he held the fabric away from my frame as the other sliced it cleanly with his sharp claws. When he had a few ends cut he began to peel them away from my body. I shifted on the ground as he tugged and quick as a bunny, well gargoyle, he had a pillow under my head and me laid out on my back.
"Just lie still." He smiled. "I can handle this."
At that moment I got a glimpse into who Brog had been before he got that chip in his head. Calm and gentle. Like a softer version of Grog. I knew the gargoyles were bonded, but as Brog gently tugged and pulled at my wrappings, I realised just what a companion Brog was to Grog. Yes, now Grog was the primary caregiver, the big brother if you will, but there was a time when that responsibility was shared mutually between them. It made me sad to think of what Brog had lost, and the salty tears stung my eyes.
I didn't realise I was sobbing until Brog crawled over to my head and dabbed at my tears with a scrap of cloth.
"I'll be finished soon, lady." His cool fingers were a blessing on my raw face. "Try to breathe." He put a hand on my cloth covered sternum and closed his eyes. "Peace." As he whispered a small warm pulse flowed around my heart. It was calm and clear and reminded me I was loved.
"Brog, I didn’t know you could do that."
"I can do lots of things." He smiled, his voice taking on some of its natural buoyancy. I smiled. "Oh, good! You're happy again!" He sat back on his heels. "That means I can work much faster."
He giggled as he crawled down to my feet. Working faster was not an understatement. He moved up my legs with speed and precision. He was so quick with his little claws that the motion of pull, snip began to tickle and soon I was laughing out loud as the little guy freed me from my fabric cage.
"Oh, lady," he said when he was finished, "you don't look so good." He looked a bit scared. "But don't worry, you'll get better." I moved to sit up, but he stopped me. "Please don't get sad again. It looks worse than it is."
"I'm okay now, Brog." I took his tiny clawed hand in mine. "Thank you for your help."
I didn't think stone could blush, but there it was. Brog cheeks reddened as he shuffled back so I would have room to get up.
I rolled on my side in the pile of used bandages, which was about as gross as it sounds and slowly moved to standing. I looked at myself in the full mirror, every inch of my raw glory in front of me. My breath started to speed up again, and Brog placed a hand on my leg.
"Go to your garden, lady."
13
I met Grog at the door to the greenhouse. When he saw me, he gasped but quickly recovered. I wanted to say something, but I was emotionally exhausted from what I'd gone through upstairs, and the look on Grog's face told me that words weren't necessary.
Grog grasped the handle of the large door in both hands and swung it open. A wave of warm moist air drifted over my exposed flesh. Grog bowed deeply to me as I stepped inside the greenhouse.
It was darker inside than I expected. I looked up to the glass ceiling and discovered giant black clouds had rolled in while I was upstairs getting unwrapped. I thought briefly of Sid and Spin sitting in the forest, but decided they could fend for themselves. I needed to focus on me right now.
The dark clouds above shrouded the greenhouse in an eerie greyness that threatened to rob the foliage of its power. I walked along the path, the soft grass floor coming up to meet my feet with every step. I ran my hands along the plants as I walked and I felt the room begin to awaken. With every step, the green of the trees and plants deepened.
As I arrived at the mouth of the healing circle a crack of lightning filled the sky. The energy of it sang through my body and out into the plants. We both stood a little taller.
Grog has placed the sword at the mouth of the circle, it was still tightly wrapped, but there was no mistaking its form as it lay in the twilight of the greenhouse. I stepped over the blade and felt a shimmer of power deep in my body. I needed this. I needed to be here. To heal.
&nb
sp; And then I needed Archer.
I stepped into the circle.
The moment my exposed toes touched the soft soil of the circle, a giant crash of thunder filled my ears. The glass roof shook with the sheer weight of the sound.
I walked to the middle of the circle and slowly looked around. The trees were as lush and as vibrant as I remembered, but the last time I had been here, it had been about brightness and warmth. Now my flesh needed to be coated in a new skin.
This was not an act for sunlight.
Torrential rains made a sharp staccato on the roof, and more lightning shot across the sky. Thunder came soon after. I looked up and longed for the rain to wash down over me, to calm and repair me. As the thought formed in my mind, the sound of grinding gears filled my ears, and soon the great panels of the roof were being pulled back by some unseen machinery that knew the beat of my heart.
As the roof opened the rain began to pour in. It ran down my body and into the grass at my feet. I felt the trees and shrubs around me, the flowers, all reach a little higher towards the sky.
Suddenly a huge streak of lightning crackled across the sky and down into the greenhouse. It hit the ground a few feet away from me and bathed the circle in bright blue light. It formed a web of light around me, engulfing me as it created a perfect circle. I felt the energy of the greenhouse rush towards the lightning formed orb and infuse it with its power. The two sources melted into one and flowed around me in large washes of colour. Blue and green swirled before my eyes. I reached out my hands to the orb, my fingers brushing the surface, and the power locked on to me.
It filled me. I could feel the light move through my flesh. It coated every muscle, it strengthened every bone. The power pulled me off my feet, and I floated in the air. It caressed my wings, the fine muscles and tiny bones growing and stretching under its tutelage. I felt my wings grow.
And finally, I felt my power answer the call.
Mend the Flesh (The Phoenix Series Book 3) Page 7