The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga (23 page)

The first thing that Avery noticed was the smell. The
scent of dust and old books, mixed in with an almost musky cinnamon
smell, floated up her nose. The floor creaked beneath Avery’s feet
as she walked farther into the room. There were rows and rows of
bookshelves, most of them stretching over ten feet high, hitting
the top of the ceiling. On the outside of the bookshelves were
handwritten signs, labeling the different categories of books.
Avery walked down between the two shelves labeled, ‘Ancient Demons,
2000 yrs. +, M-Z’, and ‘Poisons, A-S’. The shelves were packed so
tightly with books of every different size that some books sat on
top of each other at odd angles, just daring a reader to try and
grab one without causing the entire stack to topple over. Some of
the books appeared fairly new, but others looked so old and
tattered, Avery was sure if she tried to take them off of their
shelf, they would fall apart in her hands. Avery blew on one of the
rows of books on poisons beginning with the letter E and small
cloud of dust blew up in her face. She coughed and cleared the air
in front of her face with her hand. Rubbing at her nose, which the
dust was beginning to make tickle, Avery turned her attention to
the row of bookshelves. The books on Demons weren’t as dusty and in
much more disarray, an indication they received a lot more use than
the books on poison. A black leather-bound book on the bottom row
caught her attention. It was sticking out about an inch over the
bottom shelf, like someone had been recently reading it and put it
away hastily. Avery reached down and picked up the book. In faded
red letters and a stylized cursive that Avery could barely make
out, the title read, ‘The Nexus Demon by Leoflin the Wizard’, Avery
heard someone else coming up the stairs and bent down to quickly
put the book away. She didn’t bother to kneel down or squat, which
meant the book, looked just as it had before, sticking over the
edge.

The end of the two stacks led out to a narrow middle
walkway lined with overstuffed and battered old plushy looking
chairs. Brass pillar candleholders with sturdy white candles sat
next to the chairs and helped to light up the room. As Avery got
closer to the candles, she realized they were releasing the soft
cinnamon scent gently filling the air. Avery stepped into the
hallway and looked it up and down and back and forth. There were
more rows of bookshelves lining the other side of the hallway. At
least twenty rows of shelves, from what Avery could tell, and that
was just on this side of the room. The lack of windows, burgundy
walls, dark wood, candlelight, and cramped quarters lulled Avery
into a relaxed state, reminding her just how tired she really was.
She glanced over at a lumpy blue velvet chair and wondered if she
curled up in it and fell asleep it would bother the others.

Avery was about to sit down in the chair, just to
rest her aching body for a second, when Gumptin called from
downstairs, “Ladies, can I see you all down here for a moment?”

Avery stopped herself half-sit, and ignoring her
screaming thighs, made her way down the stairs. She was followed
down the stairs by Bunny, who had a book in her hand. Avery had
figured that if one of them was going to walk out of there with a
book in hand, it would be Bunny.

When Avery arrived downstairs she saw Jade, Skylar,
and Sasha entering from the weapons storage room and that Gumptin
had laid out a few weapons on the large round table. Among other
things, there were five broadswords tied together with a leather
buckle strap.

“These are yours.” Gumptin said, handing out the
swords to each of the girls.

Each sword was different, and the one Avery was
handed had a thick steel cross-guard with an intricate scroll work
etched into it. The grip was white pearlescent and the pommel at
the top of the hilt was a silver crescent moon with a crystal jewel
inlay. The sword was safely tucked away in a black leather scabbard
that silver horses emblazoned on it.

Avery unsheathed the sword and held tightly onto the
smooth handle. She swung it back and forth a little, making sure
she didn’t hit any of her fellow Protectors in the process. The
sword was heavy, but not so much that it gave Avery trouble to
wield it with just one hand. Avery couldn’t understand or describe
how holding the sword was making her feel. She had practiced with a
wooden sword in the clearing earlier today, but something about
holding this particular sword, at this moment, was causing some
sort of feeling to stir up inside of her. Avery would have thought
it was a feeling of comfort, if she hadn’t believed it utterly
ridiculous to be comforted by a metal object used for killing
things.

“These are all of your everyday weapons. They were
summoned back to the village with you after you died.” Gumptin told
the girls, as he handed out the rest of the weapons he had placed
on the table.

“I just love how you talk about us dying, with about
as much emotion as you would have ordering a drink.” Jade said
sarcastically, grabbing onto a ragged silver handled knife Gumptin
was handing over to her.

Gumptin scrunched up his nose, “I never drink,” he
said, shaking his head emphatically, “it has devastatingly awful
affects on my Wizarding abilities.”

Avery smiled, imaging the incident that led Gumptin
to that realization.

Gumptin handed Avery three different daggers, a
medium sized one with a white handle and jewel on top, that Gumptin
told her went into her belt, another medium sized dagger with a
thin brass handle that went into her boot, and a third long steel
dagger in a black leather sheath with two straps that went around
her wrist and arm. The second Avery took the dagger out of the
sheath, a flash of an image went off inside of her head, she saw
herself unsheathe the dagger, and then saw a flood of red cover her
hands. The image lasted less than a second, and then it was gone.
Avery grabbed on to the table to stop herself from teetering
over.

“Are you alright?” Jade asked, concerned, about ready
to put down the dangerous looking curved dagger she was stroking
admiringly and rush to Avery’s side.

“I’m fine,” Avery said, stopping Jade by holding up
her hand, “it’s just hitting me how tired I am.”

“You and me both.” Skylar quipped, “Not even dance
practice prepared me for this.”

Avery smiled at Skylar and avoided eye contact with
Jade. She figured it was probably just some weird déjà vu she was
having from her life before Earth. Nothing to worry herself over,
she told herself, and certainly nothing to worry Jade over.

Gumptin handed Avery a wide black leather belt with a
silver buckle and what looked like another smaller black leather
belt with straps attached to it. Avery just stared at it, not
taking it from Gumptin’s hand. The belt, itself, she understood,
but she had no idea how she was suppose to wear the smaller belt
with the straps.

“Get down here.” Gumptin grumbled, frustrated he was
having to actually show her how to put it on.

Avery kneeled down. Gumptin strapped the belt around
Avery’s ribcage, just below her chest. Gumptin pulled it tight and
attempted to fasten the buckle into the well-worn second belt
hole.

“Ouch!” Avery cried out as Gumptin braced his
shoulder against Avery’s body and pulled with all his strength on
the belt, finally fastening it.

“There, how is that?” He said, panting, looking
proudly at the fastened belt.

“Tight,” Avery grimaced, trying to move her ribcage
around under the constrictive belt, “it hurts.”

Gumptin stared at Avery and the belt scrutinizingly,
“Hmmm, I think you have gained a few pounds since you have last
worn that.”

Avery stopped squirming under the belt and glared at
Gumptin with a look that could kill. Standing above Avery, Sasha
guffawed, and even Jade couldn’t stop herself from snickering a
little.

“Now, that’s a real ouch.” Skylar joked,
laughing.

Completely oblivious to the laughs of the other
girls, Gumptin suggested, “Perhaps we should try to loosen it one
belt loop.”

Sasha burst into laughter.

“It’ll be fine!” Avery snapped, abruptly ending the
weight part of the conversation, “Just show me what to do with the
other straps.

Gumptin took the straps, which were attached to the
back of the belt, and crisscrossed them over Avery’s shoulders and
across her chest, where they attached into two little holes on the
front of the belt. Now that Avery was all strapped in properly to
the contraption, she still had no idea what purpose it served.

Gumptin reached up to the table and picked up what
looked like an oversized sword sheath with two small circular
straps on the underside. It was made out of black leather, just
like Avery’s belt and had the same silver horse design emblazoned
on it as her sword sheath did. There were fifteen long arrows with
white feather tips sticking out from inside of it.

“This is a quiver,” Gumptin said, “it is used to hold
your arrows in.”

He strapped the quiver onto one of the straps
crisscrossing Avery’s back. Then, took the sheath for Avery’s
sword, and with two small leather straps, tied the sheath on to the
second strap crisscrossing Avery’s back.

Avery picked up the sword Gumptin had given her and
slid it into the sheath. Once the sword was in its sheath, Avery
reached back with her right hand and pulled the sword out. She felt
the blade of the sword graze her hair, centimeters away from her
ear. Avery made a mental note to practice that move some more
before trying it again and at a much slower speed.

Next, Gumptin grabbed one of five bows that had been
leaning against the table. The one he handed Avery was made out of
a dark wood, so dark it almost looked black, with a silver vine
design encircling it. If Avery had been standing it would have
reached up to her waist. The ends were curved slightly and had
silver metal tips. Gumptin hooked the bow around the quiver on
Avery’s back.

“Stand up,” he told her, “stand up and turn around.
How does it feel?”

Avery did as Gumptin instructed. She stood up and
moved around, turning and bending.

Gumptin smiled, “Feels good, does it not?” He said,
“You use to wear that all the time before you went to Earth. It was
like a second skin to you.”

Honestly, to Avery, it didn’t feel good at all. It
felt constrictive and cumbersome, and Avery couldn’t wait till she
was able to take it off.

“Whatever,” Avery sighed under her breath, and then,
not wanting to upset Gumptin’s smiling and proud face too much, she
said loudly, “It feels great.”

“I knew it would.” Gumptin beamed and continued to
pass out the rest of the weapons to the girls.

By the time Gumptin had finished distributing all the
weapons, Avery not only had her sword, bow, arrows, and daggers,
but also a crossbow and whip that Gumptin told her attached to the
saddle she would be using on her horse.

“Are we done, already?” Sasha asked, trying to hold
on to all of the weapons Gumptin had just given her, but doing a
poor job as a tiny dagger the size of a toothpick slipped out of
her hands and onto the floor, “Can we go home and try to get some
sleep,” She said angrily, picking up her dagger off the ground, “or
is there some new torment you’d like to put us through?”

Gumptin shrugged nonchalantly and shook his head,
“No,” he answered, “you may leave now.”

The girls let out sighs of relief and began to try
and amble out of the library.

“Just remember,” Gumptin called out, before any of
them had a chance to make it through the door and out to freedom,
“dawn tomorrow, same place, and this time make sure you are all on
time! I would hate to have to make you work any harder than you
already fail at doing!”

All of the girls ignored him, except for Jade, who
for the second time that day, presented Gumptin with her middle
finger raised high up in the air.

Avery and Jade were the last two girls left in the
library, when Avery turned to Jade and said, “You go ahead. I’m
going to have a little talk with Gumptin about tomorrow’s training
session.”

“I’ll stay with you for that.” Jade told Avery, “I’d
like to have a little
talk
with Gumptin about our training
sessions, too.”

Avery chuckled, “No, that’s exactly why you should
go. If you end up
talking
to Gumptin, we’ll all end up
spending an extra two hours in training.”

Jade hesitated for a moment; then gave in, “Fine,”
she said, “just don’t waste too much time with him. I can tell that
little bastard isn’t gonna go easy on us, and you need to make sure
you get some rest.”

“I will.” Avery told her, “See you tomorrow.”

The real reason Avery had wanted to talk to Gumptin
alone had nothing to do with training. She wanted to speak with him
about the incident involving the eyes in the gateway at the park.
Avery had wanted to talk with Gumptin alone so as not to worry the
other girls, and with this new life of hers being so hectic, now
seemed like the only time she would be able to do it. Avery walked
over to where Gumptin was sitting at the table, writing something
down on a large yellow parchment of paper.

“Something is troubling you.” Gumptin said,
continuing to write, “You may have changed a great deal Avery, even
more than I would like to admit, but you would never come speak to
me alone unless something were bothering you,” Gumptin looked up at
her, “and that has not changed.”

Avery sat down in the seat next to Gumptin and
proceeded to tell him about the terrible black eyes she had seen
floating in the Ora Gateway before she had jumped in and how they
had produced the sharp pain she had felt in her chest.

Gumptin listened intently, taking in every detail of
Avery’s description. When she had finished, Gumptin sighed and hung
his head, a weary look clouding over his face. Avery could tell
Gumptin knew exactly what it was she had seen and that it might be
worse than she had thought.