Finally, it was just Avery, her father, and Jade left standing on Earth. Jade had stayed back when her parents went through, wanting to wait for Avery.
“You go ahead dad. We’ll be right behind you.” Avery told her father, knowing he had intended to be the last person through, just to make sure everyone went in safely, but Avery wanted a moment alone to say goodbye to Redemption, “It’ll be fine.”
“Alright, but you two hurry up.” He told Avery and Jade before jumping into the gateway himself.
Avery grabbed a hold of Jade’s hand and smiled up at her. She was so glad it was the two of them standing alone together on Earth for the last time, in Avery had no idea how long. There were so many things she wanted to say to Jade. She wanted to thank her for always being there for her and looking out for her. She wanted to tell her that knowing Jade was going to Orcatia with her made everything less painful, but all she could manage to say, was, “You go on now, too. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Fine,” Jade sighed, sensing Avery wanted to be alone before she hopped in, “but don’t bum around, because I’m not going to wait for you.”
Avery laughed at the ridiculousness of Jade saying something like that to her, “Yes, you will.” She said.
Jade sighed harder, “You’re right, so don’t dawdle. You know how much I hate waiting.”
Just before Jade stepped her foot into the liquid, she stopped and turned around, “Avery,” she said, becoming serious all of a sudden, “for what it’s worth…this world was only ever temporary. Maybe if you think of it like that, it won’t hurt so much.”
Avery pursed her lips and looked away, again fighting back the tears that had been so dangerously close to escaping. She put on her best fake smile and motioned for Jade to hurry up and get going. Avery watched Jade go into the watery gateway. She knew she couldn’t take too long, everyone was waiting for her back on Orcatia.
To the west the sun was setting, causing the sky to dance in flames of oranges and cool purples, casting a husky glow on everything around her. Avery tried to take a mental picture of the place she considered home. She gazed across the park to Main Street, to the subdivision of houses beyond that, and then to her beloved desert which seemed to stretch out forever beyond the borders of the town. Her eyes took in everything, the fiery sky, the vast mountains, and the lush park. Avery shut her eyes and reveled in the fact that she could still see the images burned inside her mind.
As Avery said her silent goodbye’s to Earth, all the emotions that had been racing around inside of her throughout the day, everything that she had kept pushing down, and the feelings she had pushed away, came rushing to the surface. For the first time that day, after everything she had been through, she began to cry. Avery wiped at the salty tears streaming down her cheeks; she would be damned if she landed on Orcatia with a blotchy face and bloodshot eyes and everyone staring at her. Once she was sure her face was sufficiently dry and semi blotch free, Avery turned to step into the gateway.
When she approached closer to the gateway, Avery saw something that seemed to be floating inside the liquid, but she couldn’t quite make out what it was. All she could see was a small red glow. Avery moved closer to the gateway until her nose was almost touching the swirling substance. She stared intently as the red glow started to take shape, becoming clearer and darker, until the red had turned into an almost black color. Finally, she saw what it was, clear and unmistakable, two black snake-like eyes looking directly at her.
Avery gasped and leapt backwards as the two penetrating eyes glared at her from inside the gateway. Avery stood rigid, breathing heavily, staring back at those eyes that held her. They were the coldest eyes Avery had ever seen, reptilian with no emotion or humanity to be found inside of them, completely black except for a small sliver of red running down the center. Avery wanted to look away, but she couldn’t; she was paralyzed with horror, and her whole body went cold.
“Aghhh!” Avery cried in pain and fell to the ground clutching her chest.
A searing pain like nothing she had ever experienced before raged inside her chest. Avery tore her gaze away from those horrid eyes, and within seconds the pain began to alleviate. She calmed her breathing down and wiped at the sweat that had begun to form on her brow. After a moment, she risked glancing back up at the gateway, but the eyes were gone. Avery stood up shakily, still holding her hand to her chest, she began to massage it slowly, the memory of the pain still fresh in her mind and her nerves.
Chapter 6
“I’m going back.” Jade told the others, getting ready to jump back into the gateway and journey back to Earth.
“Would you stop acting like her mother!” Sasha snapped at Jade, “She’ll get here when she gets here. Cut the cord already!”
Jade put her hands in her pockets to stop herself from smacking Sasha, “You know, Sasha, that mouth of yours…” Jade was stopped from finishing her threat as Avery came tumbling out of the gateway.
Her encounter with the eyes back on Earth had made Avery shaky. Her legs were virtually useless when she landed on the ground, but instead of wobbly stumbling forward flat on her face Jade was able to catch her under her arms in time and keep her upright.
“What the hell took you so long?” Jade asked at the same time Avery heard her mother ask, “Are you alright?”
Avery had no intention of telling anyone what had happened to her back on Earth, no matter how much it had shaken her. She knew they would only worry and fuss over her and that Jade would go on about it for weeks wanting to know every little detail. Avery decided to mention it to Gumptin sometime later, but for right now, she was keeping her mouth shut.
“I’m gone for like three minutes and you guys freak out.” Avery said, trying to add a hint of levity to her voice, “Geez, I’m not a baby, you know. I’m fine.”
Jade looked Avery over suspiciously, but allowed her to pull away and didn’t ask any more questions about it.
With everyone lugging their bags and possessions with them, the walk back to Havyn took a lot longer than it had the first two times Avery had come back. This wasn’t good for Avery, considering she spent the whole walk back thinking about the eyes she had seen in the gateway. They had been so menacing and terrible, but they looked at her as if they knew her. Avery wondered whose eyes they were and why she even saw them in the first place. Not to mention, what that pain she had felt in her chest was. It had hurt so badly that she thought her heart had exploded.
Eventually, they all reached the village and Avery gratefully was able to switch her focus over to the village and villagers.
Their parents, who actually remembered everyone, heartily hugged their friends they hadn’t seen in sixteen years. They shared smiles and short stories on how Earth had treated them and what they had been doing all this time. The Protectors patiently let their parents reunite. They could see how much their parents had missed everyone and how happy they were to return to the place they considered home. Avery and the rest of the Protectors hung-back.
While letting their parents catch up, they glanced around Havyn, their new home. They wondered which enormous tree house were theirs, or if they lived in one of the smaller normal houses farther in the background. Avery didn’t care where she ended up living; she just wanted a bed and a bath before she lay right down on the ground in front of everyone and fell asleep.
Just as she was contemplating physically pulling her parents away, her father said, “Let’s go, Avery, time to be getting on home.”
“About time.” Avery mumbled, shifting her heavy duffel bag farther up her shoulder. She said goodbye to the girls and followed her parents to her unknown house.
While the Protectors were still in earshot, Gumptin shouted to them, “I shall see the five of you tomorrow at dawn to start your training. We will meet by the well in the center of the village. Do not be late!”
He then turned around and walked into the lush forest before any on them had a chance to protest, which was a wise thi
ng for him to do since Avery was getting ready to pitch a fit. Avery looked mournfully over at Jade who looked angrily back at Avery. The last thing they had been planning for tomorrow was to be up before dawn. Avery shook her head and continued to follow her parents. She would worry about it tomorrow. Right now, all she wanted was sleep.
Her parents walked diagonally across the center of the village towards the enormous tree at the furthest left side of the semi-circle of tree houses. The sun had almost completely set, so Avery had to get pretty close to the tree she was about to consider home to make out the details of it. The tree itself was a dark deep mahogany color, with leafy heart shaped vines and rich green moss crawling all over it. Avery could see four large circular windows on the front of the tree, all with wooden flower beds underneath them filled with petite yellow flowers. There were two balconies protruding from the tree’s trunk, one on the right side and one on the left. Both balconies had dark wooden railings surrounded in purple flower-covered vines. There were different sized pipes sticking out of the tree in various areas. Avery assumed these were for stoves and ventilation. Two round stone steps led up to the blue circular front door. On either side of the front door was a small wooden bench. There were dozens of pots and beds filled with Sunflowers, Carnations, Lilac, and Roses. Avery could see that her mother’s love for flowers came about long before she left to Earth.
To the left of the Kimball’s home were the stables. The long building was built right on the very edge of the forest and formed an almost barrier between the side of the forest and the village. There were a row of hitching posts on the outside of the stable and a wide door-less entryway which led into the interior where the horses were kept. The outside of the building was a red stained wood. There were four small square windows on each side of the entryway. Avery craned her neck a little to see if she could see any of the horses that were whinnying and snorting on the inside, but all she could see was a back wall filled with hanging tack and a warm orange flame from the lights. Avery sniffed the air slightly to see if living next to a stable would prove unpleasant for her nostrils. Luckily, as she took in a deep breath of the air around her, all she could smell was a slight musky scent of hay and leather, and a delicate saccharine perfume from a patch of delicate blue flowers growing wildly around the circumference of their giant tree house.
Avery’s father turned the oversized brass doorknob on their blue front door and opened up the house. Avery stepped over the threshold onto a crocheted welcome mat. The dogs had been let off their leashes and were now bounding around the dark house with eyes able to see in the darkness what humans could not. As the dogs ran around their new surroundings, Avery and the rest of her family waited on the welcome mat for her father to turn on the lights. Eventually, one light went on, and then another, and another, until the whole house was bathed in warm glow.
Cinder threw her pink duffel bag down on the floor, let Romeo out of his cat cage, and began to run and romp around the house with the three dogs. Avery took things more slowly. She walked farther into the living room, letting her eyes absorb everything there was to see. The walls were painted a dusty rose and lined with multiple paintings of flowers, landscapes, castles, and people who Avery didn’t recognize. The wooden floors were covered with dozens of plush rugs, everyone a different color. There were so many that Avery could barely see the actual wood floor beneath them. A huge overstuffed blue velvet couch sat in the middle of the room, with two comfy looking blue velvet chairs to match on either side of it. A heavy dark oak coffee table lay in front of the couch, covered with books and a glass chess set. There was a large stone fireplace on the far right side of the room with a good sized mantle hanging over it. Above the mantle was a sizeable painting that immediately caught Avery’s eye. She walked up to the fireplace and gazed up at the painting. It was a portrait of Avery and her family. Avery knew the painting couldn’t have been done too long ago since, in it, she looked relatively the same age as she did now. In the painting Avery was wearing a white empire waist dress with her hair pulled back. She couldn’t stop staring at the picture of herself. Appearance wise everything about herself and the girl in the painting were identical, but there was something behind those green eyes that seemed foreign to Avery. There seemed to be a sadness inside of them and a stoniness Avery didn’t recognize. They were eyes Avery had never remembered seeing looking back at her in the mirror every day for the past sixteen years of her life.
Avery forced herself to stop analyzing herself. There was a door off to the right of the fireplace, so she opened it and looked inside. It was a study with dark green walls and leather furniture. Avery knew it had to be her dad’s and that there was nothing in there that would interest her, so she shut the door.
Avery could see her mother walking around the kitchen with its red brick stove through a doorway behind the living room.
There was a small hallway off to the right of the kitchen, with a wooden staircase leading up to a second floor at the beginning of it. Avery secured her bags on her back, grabbed hold of the banister, and made her way up the stairs. The stairs led up to a second floor landing which entered into a narrow dimly lit hallway. The walls were wallpapered with a dark green floral pattern and covered with small circular paintings of different farm animals, a rooster perched atop a fence, a horse standing in a field, cows grazing on yellow grass. To Avery’s left, at the end of the hallway, was an extremely slim stairway leading up to a third floor. There were three doors down the cozy hallway. One was located at the very end of the hallway to the right, facing outwards. For some reason Avery couldn’t quite explain, she knew that was her room. She walked towards the round door and turned the tarnished sliver doorknob.
The room would have been completely dark if it weren’t for the two arched glass doors, leading out to a small balcony, letting the moon glow flood into the room. The bright glow allowed Avery to see the lamps attached to the bedroom walls. The orange hues replaced the cool blue ones as she turned on the lamps and looked about her new bedroom, which was, in actuality, her old one.
The floors were covered with thick shaggy rugs in shades of deep blue and purple. They looked soft and Avery couldn’t wait to take her shoes off and run her bare feet over them. The walls were painted a periwinkle blue and completely bare, except for about a dozen maps nailed up around the room. Avery walked up to one of the maps and glanced over it. It was a map of Havyn and the surrounding forests and villages. There was writing scribbled all over parts of it, and as Avery took a closer look she recognized the writing as her own. She had drawn an arrow pointing towards a dense looking spot in the woods with the words, ‘Demon attack – February 11th – Bacci Demon – defeated with right sword strike to head’ written above it. Another arrow pointed at a spot on a small road, which diverged off of the main road, with ‘Ambush site – twice in one month – 4 trolls’ written next to it. There was one scribbling that pointed towards a village named Fallin, located about ten miles away from Havyn and half its size, that said, ‘Battle – January 3rd – Emperor’s army – 50+ strong – Sasha (broken arm) – Jade (2 broken ribs) – Myself (stabbed through left shoulder)’.
Avery pulled her shirt down and looked at her shoulder. There was nothing there except smooth pale skin, no mark at all. Whatever her body had been through on Orcatia, she had been spared the physical ramifications of it after being reborn on Earth. In fact, the only scar Avery had on her entire body was a small crescent shaped one under her right top rib, where she had tripped over her dog while playing chase with her sister and fallen onto her opened dresser drawer. Looking at the map with all its markings about battles, ambushes, dangers, and scrimmages, Avery realized her one small little scar would probably soon have company. Avery decided to stop looking at the maps for now, so as not to have nightmares of terrible beasts, and broken bones, and stab wounds.
There was a large king sized bed in the middle of the room, covered with a heavy dark purple bedspread and multiple fluffy dark purple pillo
ws. There were two blue end tables on both sides of the bed. One had nothing on it and the other had a lamp and book. Avery picked up the book and read the title, ‘Demon Species of the Western Wintara Mountain Range’. Riveting, Avery thought sarcastically, tossing the book back down on the table.
Avery walked over to the large silver painted wood wardrobe against the far wall. She swung open its two light weight doors to reveal the clothes inside. Tunics, bodices, vests, and tight shirts with lace up closures hung from the wooden hangers next to multiple pairs of pants. Avery touched the pants; they were mostly leather and other tough materials. Avery couldn’t help but be disappointed in her previous taste. There wasn’t one stitch of color to be seen, everything was either brown, black, or white. Wide belts hung from hooks on the inside of the door, and on the inside of the other door hung a full-length mirror. Avery didn’t much see the point of that, considering with so little variety of outfits she probably looked the same every day. At the very end of the wardrobe were two long dresses, one in light blue and another in burgundy. Avery moved them to the middle, so she’d at least have a little color to look at. The bottom of the wardrobe was lined with a variety of boots, all different lengths. Scanning over the inside of the wardrobe, Avery was sure she hadn’t brought enough of her clothes from Earth. Dishearteningly, she shut the doors.
There was a massive chest of drawers against the wall opposite her bed. It was painted the same silver color as the wardrobe, and there was a ridiculously large silver framed mirror resting on it. Even though the chest of drawers took up most of the wall space, there was hardly anything on it. There was a thick bristled hairbrush, two glistening sliver daggers with gold hilts, that looked like they had more been haphazardly discarded than strategically placed, and a small silver jewelry box with an etching of a horse on the top of it. Avery opened the jewelry box and a sad haunting tune filled her room. There was nothing much in the jewelry box, itself, except a silver bracelet and a few strips of ribbon. Avery left the box open so that the melody could continue to play.
The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga Page 12