Stay (14 page)

“Mr. Biggins, I was hoping that you could
help Callie. I have been helping her learn to fight. She’s come a
long way and I think that she might be ready to try her hand at a
good weapon.”

“A weapon?” I was obviously shocked. Tuck and
Mr. Biggins turned to look at me briefly, but then carried on as if
I had not said anything at all.

“A weapon suitable for princess?” Mr. Biggins
thought out loud. “I think that I have just what she needs.” He
walked over to a large wooden crate and began to root through it,
tossing things here and there. “Ah, here it is.”

He lifted a long wooden box that was carved
with flowers and vines in intricate detail. He sat the box on the
table and loosened a little golden clasp on the front of it. He
raised the lid to reveal a beautiful silver sword. It was at least
three feet long, and very slender. It shined like a mirror, and the
handle was made of gold and was carved with the same intricate
floral detail as the box. Next to it laid a long stiff leather
sheath.

“Wow, this is for me?” I asked as I gazed at
the beautiful blade.

“This was your mother’s. She left it with me
for safekeeping. Now it belongs to you.” He carefully lifted it
from the box with two hands and held it out to me.

I took it from him, holding it carefully by
its handle. I clasped it with both hands and stepped into a
warrior’s pose. “How do I look?”

Tuck laughed. “Fierce. Definitely
fierce.”

I carefully laid the sword back on its
velvety bed and closed up the box.

“How could I ever repay you?” I asked the old
man.

“Just help us get our home back.”

Chapter 14

Tuck and I made our way back out of the
passage toward the waterfall. Tuck carried my sword in its box on
his back. He had wrapped it with some heavy cord and tied it across
himself.

“So you can teach me to use it?” I was
getting excited. I imagined myself swinging the long sword around
like a ninja.

“Yes, but we need to find somewhere else for
you to do it. I don’t want to lose my head.” He smiled.

We made it about halfway to the falls when we
decided to stop for the night. Tuck wrapped the box in one of the
blankets and used it as a pillow. Just in case, someone came along
and tried to steal it.

The thought of that made me shiver. But I
felt pretty safe here with Tuck.

We settled onto our beds and I laid there in
the dark for a long time. Sleep never found me. I found myself wide
awake worrying about what kind of queen I would possibly make. My
parents never explained any of this to me. They raised me as a
normal human girl not a princess. How was I supposed to rule a
whole kingdom? The thought of it made me want to laugh. It was like
I was transported into the pages of book. No a fairy tale. That
definitely made me smile.

The first thing that I would do, I thought,
would be to let the outcasts back into the city. Maybe I could make
Drake a part of my kingdom too, and maybe even our cavern if anyone
wanted to live there.

Where would I want to live? The thought of
going back to that dreadful palace made me cringe. I definitely did
not want to live there. Then again, my parents had built it. Maybe
I could do something to it to make it more livable and less like
Lilith. I could open it up so that my new friends like Tuck could
live there too. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

I don’t think that I had slept very long when
I felt Tuck nudging me awake. “We better get going.”

We gathered our things and a short time
later, we entered the cavern.

Kailen still had not returned. I tossed my
pack down and began unpacking things and setting them back up for
later. Tuck built a fire and we ate a few vegetables that we had
left over from my stop in Drake.

“Are you ready to try this baby out?” Tuck
asked with a gleam in his eye as he held up the box containing my
sword.

“Absolutely.” I took the sword out, it felt
amazing in my hands. I immediately leapt into a warrior pose and
grinned.

Tuck laughed and put me through several
exercises. My arms ached from swinging it over and over again, but
he would never let me give up. He just kept pushing me.

“There are no time outs in battle, Callie.
You have to build up your strength.”

He was right. I stretched out my muscles and
began again. I soon started to feel like the Karate Kid. Wax on,
wax off, as I took swing after swing. I kept it up until I thought
that I would collapse. Then, I called it a day.

The next day Tuck said that, he had to go out
for a while, and that I should stay behind and practice. I tried to
protest, but he promised that he would not be gone long.

I ran through my exercises, but my heart
wasn’t in it. It was not nearly as much fun when I had to do it by
myself. Before long, I gave up and plopped down onto the cold
floor.

My stomach started growling and I tried to
think of something to cook besides fish. The only problem was that
there is nothing down here except bugs and rats. What I wouldn’t
give for a nice juicy cheeseburger or a greasy slice of pizza.

I opted for a piece of jerky. No cooking
required, and since it was just me, there was no point in going
through the trouble.

When Tuck finally returned he was pulling a
large wooden cart. It had large spoked wheels and a thick rope that
he used as the handle. In the back of the cart, there was a table
with four legs and several wooden ladder backed chairs.

Sitting toward the front of the cart was a
girl. She appeared to be close to my age, she had long wavy dark
hair and deep brown eyes. She had a small heart shaped face, and
when she smiled, she reminded me of what I always imagined fairies
to look like when I was a little girl. Her long slender wings were
shades of pink with a touch of pale green.

“I thought that you could use some company.”
Tuck grinned as he started to unload the cart. “This is Jenna
Salvia. She has been living out here on her own for a while
too.”

I introduced myself to Jenna with a shy
little wave.

“Tuck is usually pretty good about checking
in on me. I was beginning to wonder what happened to him.” She
smiled at Tuck, and he smiled back. I thought maybe I saw a spark
of something pass between them. It would be good for Tuck to have
somebody like Jenna.

Seeing the two of them together just made me
think of my own lonely fate. I was beginning to think that I was
destined to spend the rest of my life alone. I was somehow
strangely bonded to Brokk. My heart still skipped a beat whenever I
thought of him. I was supposed to marry him someday but I really
wasn’t sure about that. He turned out to be a real jerk. Then I
started to have feelings for Kailen, and now he didn’t want
anything to do with me. I was beginning to think that maybe I had
been cursed.

I helped Tuck and Jenna unload the wagon. We
set up the table and chairs close to the fire pit. Tuck brought
over a tall shelf and stood it against one wall. Here he stacked
several cooking utensils along with a bunch of clay dishes. He
carried two large buckets out to the river and filled them with
water.

I stood back and looked around. This place
was really starting to come together. “Where did you find all of
this stuff?” I asked turning to Tuck.

“It belongs to Jenna. When I told her about
this place she got really excited and so we loaded up her wagon
with some of her things and here we are.” He draped an arm over
Jenna’s shoulder.

“I hope that you don’t mind.” Jenna smiled.
“I just thought it would be nice to be around real live people
again. It gets awfully lonely out there in the tunnels.”

“I don’t mind at all.” I smiled back. “I am
ecstatic to have a girl here. It’s not easy living with just the
guys to talk to.” We both giggled at that.

“I’m going back to Jenna’s old place to get
the rest of her things. You two can stay here and get to know each
other.” Tuck said as he pulled the cart back out of the cavern.

Jenna and I sat and talked for hours. We even
came up with a name for the cavern. We decided to call it Maricela,
which in Spanish translates to something along the lines of rebel
heaven. It was perfect.

Jenna told me the story about how she ended
up in the tunnels. It was very similar to Tuck’s. She lost her
family to the guards and found herself on her own at a very young
age. She met Tuck a while back and they somehow managed to keep
tabs on each other.

“You know, the best thing about being a
girl,” Jenna asked as she got to her feet. “We can do all sorts of
things that the guy fairies can’t do.”

I was taken back. “What do you mean?”

“We are more in touch with the elements. We
can call on their sprits when we need to and they respond to
us.”

“What are you talking about? What are the
elements?” I was really starting to get confused. Was she saying
that I could talk to spirits?

“Callie, there are four elements in nature.
They are what really rule the earth.”

I was still puzzled. When I didn’t say
anything, she continued.

“There is fire, earth, air, and water. Each
of these elements is magical in its own unique way. Each has a
spirit that rules over it. You can summon that magic using the
spirit whenever you need to.”

“Why would I need to summon them?” I was
still perplexed.

“Here I’ll show you.” She said as she stood
up and faced the fire pit. She closed her eyes and after a moment,
she began. “I call you Brenton, spirit of fire, to light this wood
so that I may warm this room and prepare our meal.”

I looked to the fire pit and a large burst of
flames rose up. I could feel the warmth of it on my face. I could
hardly believe it. I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or run in
fear.

“Thank you Brenton.” Jenna said opening her
eyes. She turned and smiled at me. “You see? Easy.”

I didn’t know what to say. “Wow, Jenna. That
was amazing.” I finally managed.

“You just have to concentrate, and ask the
spirit for what you need. Just remember to thank them when you
finish.”

“So you really think that I can do that?”

“I know that you can. I bet that you are
probably more in touch with them than I am. You could probably
summon them without even thinking once you got the hang of it.”

Jenna agreed to help me learn to use the
elements myself. With her guidance, I was able to call on the water
spirit, Naida. She and I actually made it rain inside the cave. I
used Erion the air spirit to summon a breeze to stir Jenna’s hair
around her face. I think she was just as amused as I was. Demi, the
earth spirit, caused the ground to rumble and a cylindrical stone
rose up from the floor. Jenna sat down onto it. She held out her
arms and smiled.

“See? Easy.”

“That was pretty amazing. I almost wet my
pants when I saw Naida appear and stir up that little cloud.” I
laughed but Jenna just cocked her head and looked at me as if she
were confused.

“Do you mean that you actually saw the
spirit? Like the actual person or whatever?”

“Well, yeah. Wasn’t I supposed to?” I was
getting a little nervous by the look on Jenna’s face. I hoped that
I hadn’t done something wrong.

“That’s really strange, Callie. I have never
met anyone that has actually witnessed the spirit before. What did
they look like?”

I thought back to all that took place as I
called to the spirits. I was so nervous at the time that I really
did not look very closely at them. If I had known that no one else
ever got to see them, I would have paid more attention.

“Well, I watched Brenton appear and light the
fire when you called him. He is a pretty big guy, very muscular.
He’s kind of a ginger. He has red hair, his eyes are a glowing
golden color. He has fair skin. He was probably a few years older
than us, I’d say mid twenties. He was bare-chested and he had a
sword strapped to his back. He had a large tattoo of flames that
started at his waist and stretched up his back and neck. Basically,
he was pretty hot. No pun intended.” We laughed, Jenna more in
astonishment than at my lame jokes.

“What about the others?” I could tell she was
getting excited.

“Demi was very dark complected, almost Latino
maybe? She had long dark hair, and dark eyes. She was wearing a
long flowing green dress. The back was open and revealed a tattoo
of a tree with a think trunk and branches that reached up to her
shoulders.”

“So basically they are all tatted up?” She
giggled.

“Yeah, pretty much. Erion was tall and
slender but with lots of chiseled muscles. He had short spiky
blonde hair and pale blue eyes. He didn’t bother with a shirt
either. Which was nice. No tattoos for him. Naida was tall and
thin. She has long straight coal black hair and deep blue eyes. She
wore a long colorful sarong around her waist and a top that just
came up over one shoulder. ”

“Wow, that’s amazing. I have never met anyone
that has been able to see them before. I wonder what it means?”
Jenna was making me a bit nervous, but I brushed her off. I wanted
to play some more.

We practiced a while longer and each time
that I called one of the elements, it seemed to get easier and
easier. After a while, it felt as if I had become one with them.
Like they were now a part of me and I was a part of them. They just
knew what I wanted and were already there when I tried to call
them.

I smiled at Demi when she appeared to help me
grow an apple tree under one of the holes in the roof. When she saw
me look directly at her, she cocked her head as if she were
confused. She slowly started to approach and when she saw that I
was still watching her she smiled. She even did a little dance of
excitement before she disappeared.

“What are you girls up to?” Tuck asked from
the doorway.