Davie the Mage (Generations of Eredwynn Book 2) (2 page)

              After eating, I found a place without people and went
invisible
again. I took to the air, looking for a place to sell my coins. I flew down a major road and soon saw a sign that advertised that they bought gold and something called electronics. I didn’t have any of those but I did have gold. Double checking that my shield was active, I landed between buildings and dropped invis. I walked out and cautiously walked to the merchants. The man behind the counter eyed me suspiciously when I walked in.

              “What can I do for ya today?” The man asked.

              “Good afternoon, sir. I noticed from your sign out front that you purchase gold. I have a few gold coins that I’d like to sell, if you’re interested.”

              “Well, let’s see ‘um.”

              I pulled the four coins from my pocket and laid them on the counter. The man picked them up and examined them. He rubbed them on something he had on his counter top and then got really interested in them.

              “You didn’t steal these, did ya?” He questioned.

              “Actually, they came from my father and he gave them to me. I’m a bit offended by the suggestion that I may be a thief.”

              “No offence intended, son, just doin’ my job. I have to ask because the law says I do. If you want to sell these, and the scale says they are a tad over two ounces, I’ll give ya fifteen hundred bucks.”

              I could tell by the glint in his eye and the change in his manner that the man was paying way under the value of the coins. I did some quick math and decided that seventy-five thousand would be enough if I didn’t get full value the rest of the time that I was here. “That will be fine, sir. I just didn’t like walking around with empty pockets.”

              I watched interestedly as the man wrote on a piece of parchment. He was using a pen but didn’t have ink anywhere. The pen seemed to make its own ink. He said, “Sign on this line and I’ll get your cash.”

              I picked up the pen and wrote my name on the line and watched him count out fifteen one hundred dollar bills. He collected the parchment and pen and slid me the money. I thanked him and he told me that if I came across anymore of the coins that he’d be quite happy to buy them from me. His new attitude confirmed that he’d made a good profit on our deal. I didn’t begrudge a merchant making money but I was a bit irritated that he did it through attempted deception.  My first interaction with a person in this realm and he proved my father right. The people here were quite dishonest.

              I walked until I found a huge area with cars parked all over it. At the front was another store and since I now had money, I decided to purchase something for dinner. I walked in and found tons of stuff that I couldn’t identify. There were boxes with pictures of people and bottles with pictures of plants. I walked all over and finally found the food. I grabbed a few things that I thought would make a nice dinner and went to the front. I waited in line, watching, and learned that I had to put my items on a black belt to take them to the lady behind the counter. She took my items and ran them over a red light and then placed them in an odd crinkly bag. She told me the total and I pulled out my money and handed it to her. She looked at me like I’d lost my mind, took one bill and then counted back a handful of smaller bills, with some coins. I realized that the money that I had was much more than I’d thought! I shoved my money in my pocket and grabbed the bag. I left quickly before she gave me that look anymore!

              Walking back across the car parking area, I heard a blood-curdling scream! I looked in the direction that it came from and saw a man in his late teens or early twenties attempting to yank a backpack from a girl about my age! I looked around at the people nearby and realized that everyone had seen it happening and they were doing their best to pretend that they hadn’t. I started in the direction of the altercation when the man hit the girl in the face! Where I come from, men don’t hit women like that. I was stunned that I’d witnessed that and took off running to assist the girl. The man saw me coming and met me with what would have been a painful shot to the ribs. Unfortunately for him, my
shield
was active and I heard the bones in his hand crunch. I grabbed him with my free hand; hit him with a low power
stun
and
levitation
. I flipped him in the air and let him land solidly on the ground.

              The girl jumped up and said, “Do you have a car?” I shook my head and she said, “Run!”

              I didn’t know what we were running from because I wasn’t worried about the man on the ground. He’d be unconscious for a good five minutes and we could walk and be far from him. She led me a mile down a long sidewalk that abruptly ended. There were woods off to our left and she led me under the cover of the trees. We were both winded and sat with our backs against a tree, breathing.

              After we caught our breath the girl said, “Thank you so much. Everything I own in the world is in this bag and that ass was trying to take it. Does my face look okay? He hit really hard! I’m Amber, by the way.”

              I bowed slightly, while sitting. “It’s nice to meet you, Amber, and I wish it could have been under better circumstances. Your face is beautiful… I mean, I think your face will be fine. If it hurts, I know a trick that might help.”

              She blushed, almost as much as I knew I had, at my slip. “Thank you. A girl likes to hear that a cute young man thinks she’s beautiful. My face does hurt, and if you think you can do something that doesn’t involve getting naked to make if feel better, I’d be happy.”

              I blushed. “I’d do anything to make you happy. Give me your hand.” She put her hand in mine and I rubbed her palm gently to distract. I sent
healing
coursing through her, repairing the damage to her face and it would take care of any other problems she might have. I hoped she didn’t have any pet scars because
psi healing
removed those, too.

              She inhaled sharply at the surprise of the pain leaving her so quickly. She smiled at me and my heart did flips. I’d been around girls all my life, since my mother was the head instructor at the wizard’s school, and they all dressed in very tight clothes as per my father’s selection two decades ago. None of them had ever had that effect on me. I’d been flirted with often and felt nothing, but now this girl smiling at me gave me butterflies!

              “That feels so much better! How did you do that? Are you using pressure points or something like that? And did you tell me your name?”

              “I’m sorry, My Lady. I’m Davie and I am using something like pressure points.”

              She giggled, “‘My Lady?’ You aren’t from around here, are you?”

              “No, I’m not from around here, and I knew that my manners and speech might give me away if I talked to anyone for very long. I’d rather talk about you, anyway. Where do you live and may I walk you home?”

              She looked sad and a bit embarrassed. “I don’t have a home. I was in foster care because my parents were killed in a car wreck and we didn’t have any other family. My foster father thought that if he just kept trying to climb into my bed, I’d get tired of telling him ‘no’. Finally, I got tired of him and ran away. My home is in this pack in the form of a tent now. I’m heading out of town through the woods. From the maps I looked at, I can make it all the way to Missouri without leaving the forest.”

              “How will you eat and take care of yourself?”

              “I guess I’ll just have to cross that bridge when I come to it. There’s rabbits and stuff. Maybe I could talk you into sharing the contents of that bag and that would make one meal before I left.”

              I grinned. “I have some items in my pack, also, and would be happy to share with you. If you’d have me along I’d travel with you, because I enjoy your company. If I’m being too forward, please forgive me.”

              She laughed, “Davie, you’ve got to be a dream. You saved me from a robber and now saved me from starvation. You’re a good-looking guy and are willing to travel to who knows where through the woods with me. You’re not going to get me out in the woods and try to take advantage of me, are you?”

              I was shocked. “I would never lay an uninvited hand on you, Amber. You have my word. I know you don’t know me, and the people around here seem to be quite dishonest, but I am not like them, I promise.”

              “Okay! I believe you, too. I just wish that I had somewhere to go. I don’t know why I want to go to Missouri because I don’t know anyone up there. It just seemed like a direction. Do you have family who will worry about you? Maybe you could take me to visit them and we wouldn’t have to be in the forest forever.”

              I smiled. “I do have family, but they aren’t really that close to here. They will worry, and they do, but taking a girl home to my mom would only mean one thing in her book. You seem sweet and you are lovely. I don’t know if you want to marry me yet or not.”

              She cocked her head. “I could think of worse things but we aren’t eighteen yet, so couldn’t get hitched if we wanted to.”

              “What do you mean eighteen? I’m sixteen and that’s the age that men get married where I’m from.”

              She laughed, “And what age do girls get married? Ten?”

              “No, a girl has to have had her twelfth birthday to be wed or become a consort.”

              She giggled, “Sounds like North Carolina or something. We better walk and talk so we can get out of range of the road and I can set up my tent.”

              We walked and talked for hours, traversing the lightly wooded landscape. We found a clearing near dusk and Amber got out her small two-man tent. I helped her set it up and gathered firewood. I’d given her all the things that I’d purchased at the store but was set with rations. I shared with her because my heart had decided that it wanted to share everything with her. I didn’t want to admit it, because I was doing exactly what James had done, but I was head over heels in love with this girl. I could tell that she was developing feelings for me, and if I were James, I could read exactly what they were. I was his much younger brother and hadn’t picked up that skill.

              We talked well into the night and finally she yawned and announced that she was heading for bed. She stood and looked at me expectantly and I told her to sleep well and I’d see her bright and early. She acted as though that wasn’t what she’d expected from me, but crawled into the tent and closed the flaps. I put a
dome shield
over the campsite that would prevent unwanted visitors and alert me if we had any. I laid out my bed, curled up next to the fire and went to sleep.

Chapter Two

            
 
T
he next morning I woke and laid out food for both of us. I waited until she crawled out of the tent and gave it to her. I ate quickly while she woke and ate. I emptied her tent and rolled her bedding for her. I took down the tent, marveling at the simple ingenuity of the contraption. She didn’t seem like much of a morning person and the sun had been up over an hour before we started walking.

              She shyly took my hand as we started off and my heart leapt with joy. Perhaps she was feeling the same about me as I was her. We kept a due north direction of travel, according to a small circular device she carried. We slipped across small roads and carefully crossed large highways that seemed to crisscross the countryside. We made camp as night fell and Amber surprised me with a light kiss before retreating to her tent.

              Around noon on our fourth day, we stumbled across a small town. Our supplies were running low and Amber asked if I had any money. I pulled out all that I had and handed it to her. The shocked look on her face convinced me that I still had a lot.

              She said, “You’re just going to hand this much money to me and not worry about it?”

              “What would you do? Take it and leave? I’d be more upset about losing you than I would the money. If you want it, it’s yours. I thought that since I wasn’t from around here, you could handle the purchases, because I’m not that familiar with the price of things.”

              She blushed. “Ok, I’ll do some shopping at the grocery store and see if there might be anything else that we find we need. I still think that I’m dreaming sometimes, Davie. I won’t wake up and find that I have been, and you’ll be gone, will I?”

              “That could never happen, My Lady. I’ll be with you as long as you’ll allow. I’m sure that you’ve picked up on my feelings for you by now.”

              We were walking into the store as she whispered her response, “I do think that you really like me a lot and it has confused me. I like you, too, but wonder why you haven’t tried climbing into bed with me.”

              “Amber, I would never come to your bed uninvited! I was raised a gentleman and to respect women. I couldn’t just climb into bed with you. Besides, I’ve never been with a woman and I’m quite nervous about it.”