The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga (7 page)

Avery grumbled under her breath and followed him,
knowing that there was most likely nothing she could say to make
him tell her.

Avery stayed a few feet behind Gumptin. She kept
noticing him glance around the forest, more alert than he had been
back on Earth. Whatever he was keeping an eye out for, Avery didn’t
want to know. Just being here was scary enough for her; she didn’t
want to have something else to worry about. So, Avery decided, that
for just this one time, she’d let Gumptin have a secret.

As they walked, Avery could feel the forest pulsing
with life around her. The call of multiple birds floated in on a
soft breeze that lightly swayed her hair around her face. She heard
the tiny rustling of small creatures scurrying around inside the
thick forest, and she thanked her lucky stars that she could tell
they were small. The leaves of the trees danced in the wind, giving
off a low whistle which sounded almost like a lullaby. Everything
around Avery smelled fresh and clean, like nothing she had ever
experienced back on Earth, and as they continued walking she found
herself being lulled into, what she knew, was a false sense of
peace.

After walking for about twenty minutes, Avery began
to hear something besides the wind, birds, and animals of the
forest. At first, Avery couldn’t make it out, but as they got
closer and she strained to listen, she realized she was hearing the
voices of people. She could hear men and women talking, the
laughter of a child, the high whinny of a horse, some clanging and
thumps, and the sound of people working.

“Gumptin!” Avery screeched in an elevated
whisper.

“What?” Gumptin asked, turning around, not bothering
to whisper.

“I hear people.” Avery said, walking over to him and
leaning down to be close to his ear so that she could keep her
voice low, “Where are we going?”

“We are going to Havyn.” Gumptin told her.

Havyn…that word hit Avery hard in the chest, like a
brick falling on it. It was another word she knew she was familiar
with, a word that brought her comfort. Avery felt a flood of
memories wanting to pound into her brain, but stopping short before
she could actually remember anything.

Avery straightened up and looked into the distance.
She could almost see what lay at the end of the road, a small
village filled with people.

“Havyn’s where we lived.” Avery told Gumptin.

“Do you remember?” Gumptin asked her, and Avery could
see a small glimmer of hope flicker across his face.

Avery laughed dismissively, “No…no way,” she told
him, “I just had a feeling.”

“That is good!” Gumptin shook his head up and down,
“Feelings are good, sometimes even better than memories.”

Avery wasn’t sure if Gumptin was just trying to cheer
her up or not. What she decided not to tell Gumptin, was that if he
was right and she had actually been killed by some evil Emperor,
then she was more than happy not to have any memories of this
place.

After Avery nudged Gumptin onward with her knee, he
flashed her a look of contempt that brought Avery a surge of
mischievous joy. He might not have liked being pushed around, but
he did as Avery’s knee instructed and walked forward.

Just a few steps later, Avery could begin to see
small glimpses of the village through the trees. She could see a
woman in a green tattered cotton dress throwing something on the
ground for the chickens surrounding her to munch on, a wheelbarrow
leaning up against an old stump, and the tops of a few other
people’s heads. She knew the villagers weren’t yet able to spot her
and Gumptin, not behind the large trees and thick shrubs of the
forest.

Where the road ended and the village began, there
were two wide bushes with tiny purple flowers decorating them
located on opposite sides of the road.

Avery ambled up and stood behind one of the overgrown
bushes. Out of sight, she was able to view the village in full for
the first time.

As she took in the village, she saw that there were
no conventional homes, the kind made out of mortar or brick, or
wood. Instead, all of the homes were actually built into enormous
trees; the size of ten large Sequoias fused together. Avery lifted
her head up to try and see the tops of the trees, but they seemed
to go on forever and all she could manage to see was the greenish
hue color of the distant leaves and some rays of light. It was easy
to tell these trees were being used as homes, since every one of
them had a doorway and multiple windows built into the trunks.
Avery couldn’t tell how far down the tree homes went, but she
guessed there were at least fifty or sixty of them rooted in a
crescent moon shape, outlining the center of the town. Some of the
trees had signs attached near and above their doors. Avery could
make out one sign that said, ‘Blacksmith & Ferrier’ and another
one that read, ‘Bott’s Apothecary & Sweets’. Avery thought that
an odd combination, but considering she was on another planet
didn’t figure she had much to compare it with.

Beyond the trees, scattered in the background amongst
wide farming fields, Avery could see a few normal homes that
appeared to be made out of wood and clay.

The center of town didn’t have much. There were no
roads running through it, just a generous sized area of cleared
land covered with grass and dried leaves. In the middle, there was
a large water well made out of dark colored stones and covered with
a wooden roof supported by four stone posts. Towards the outlying
right end of the village, Avery could barely make out what looked
like three large tables and six benches. They looked as if they
could easily fit at least fifty people each.

Avery was still absorbing some of the sights of the
village, like the extensive vegetable gardens that lay beyond the
tree houses, a few farm animals in small pastures, and the swords
lying against the trunk of the Blacksmith’s tree house, when she
realized something was tugging at the pocket of her jeans. She
glanced down and saw Gumptin trying to pull her towards the
entrance.

“Lay off!” Avery hissed at him, smacking his hand
away.

That was the second time in an hour Avery had to
smack Gumptin away from pushing her around, Avery hoped this was a
habit they weren’t going to keep.

“We do not have time for you to stand here and try to
build up some nerve.” Gumptin scolded her, “Going back to your
village is the easy part, Avery.”

He pushed her hard in the small of her back, towards
the village, causing Avery to jerk forward, run into something, and
tumble over it. As she spun around and was falling backwards, Avery
was able to see what Gumptin had pushed her into. It was a wooden
post, a foot taller than Avery, with a sign on the top of it that
read. ‘Welcome to Havyn, Pop. 236’.

Avery tried to make a grab for the sign, but only
managed to graze it with her finger tips, which spun her body back
around so that she landed on the ground flat on her face instead of
on her butt.

“Son of a bitch!” Avery yelled at the top of her
lungs, picking herself off the ground and rubbing her throbbing
elbow that had landed on a small rock. She spun around to face
Gumptin, her mind set on killing the little man, “What the Hell did
you do that for?!” Avery shouted at him.

She felt sure she just might throttle him. Avery
noticed that as she was yelling at Gumptin, he was looking past
her. That only pissed Avery off more. He could at least have the
decency to look at her after what he had just done; so she could
properly scold him.

“Avery?” The voice came from behind Avery, and she
froze as it began to dawn on her what Gumptin was most likely
staring at.

Avery turned around slowly, still holding her wounded
elbow. She saw that the voice had come from a boy, not much older
than her. He had shaggy brown hair, and tanned skin smudged with
dirt. The clothes he wore, brown cotton pants and a blue tunic with
a belt cinched around it looked well worn. Just by looking at him
Avery could tell he definitely worked hard for a living.

The boy wasn’t the only one staring at her; he was
surrounded by five other villagers, and Avery noticed a multitude
of other people stopping what they were doing, coming out of their
houses, and making their way over to where she stood.

Oh, my God, she thought, the whole freaking village
is on their way to come see me.

Gumptin had come up to stand beside Avery, “I told
you I would bring her home.” He addressed the villagers, “She is
just as she was.”

Gumptin looked Avery up and down, scrutinizing, and
Avery had a strong suspicion he didn’t believe what he had just
said.

The boy who had said her name ran up and gave her a
tight hug, “Thank God, you’re back.” He said into her ear.

Avery gasped, not knowing how to deal with this
reaction. She lightly hugged him back.

When she pulled back from the boy the rest of the
villagers were waiting to follow suit, some hugged her, some patted
her on the back, and a few even shook her hand. There were a small
amount of them crying, but the rest looked as happy as if they were
receiving presents on their birthday.

Avery heard people say things to her like, ‘We were
so scared the Protectors wouldn’t return to us’ and ‘I knew you
were too strong a warrior to stay dead’ or ‘Without you, the
Emperor would surely take over Orcatia’. Then, there was Avery’s
favorite, ‘How could you be so stupid to go and get yourself
killed’.

Avery looked pleadingly at Gumptin. She had no idea
what to say to these people. They were all acting like they knew
her, like they needed her, and she had no idea who any of them
were.

“That is enough! That is enough!” Gumptin said,
pushing the villagers away from Avery. He had seen her distress and
decided it would be best not to freak her out any more than she
already was, “You must keep in mind, as I told you,” Gumptin told
the villagers, “Avery has no memory of who she was, of this place,
or of you.”

Avery saw the recollection dawn on all of their faces
and most of them looked as if they had just been hit by a falling
tree.

“I am sorry.” One of the village men said to Avery,
“It was awfully terrifying not having you here to protect the
village anymore. We saw you again, and I guess we just…forgot.”

Avery smirked slightly; she found it humorous that
the man was apologizing for them forgetting that she had forgot
everything.

“It’s really not a problem.” Avery told them.

Gumptin, who was still trying to push some of the
villagers away, spoke up, “I need to speak with Avery alone now.
You all go back to what you were doing.” At the villagers’
reluctance to leave, Gumptin told them, “I need to speak with her
before we can go back and get the others. Do not worry; she is here
to stay.”

Avery startled at Gumptin’s words. Everything had
happened so fast. Her mind was still struggling to keep up, but
even with everything she had already discovered, this was the first
time she realized Gumptin had meant for her to stay here on this
other world permanently. Avery threw that thought quickly out of
her brain before it caused her panic. She had enough to deal with
in the now to think about the future.

As much as Gumptin’s words had disturbed Avery, they
had calmed the villagers, and they had begun to disperse back to
their houses and work.

When they were alone, Gumptin led Avery over to a
small clearing on the outskirts of the village near the border of
the forest. There were two small wooden benches in the clearing and
Gumptin motioned for Avery to have a seat on one.

Avery sat and Gumptin began to talk, “I brought you
back here first, on your own, for a reason, Avery. I am going to
need your help in bringing the other Protectors back here.”

Avery snorted, “What are you going to need my help
with?” She couldn’t begin to imagine how she would be able to
convince someone to take a wild ride through a magical portal to
another world, “Can’t you just jump out from behind some tree and
scare them senseless until they agree to come with you?”

Gumptin continued, unfazed by her sarcasm, “You are
their leader Avery. You are
the
leader; the leader of the
Protectors. You have to re-establish your leadership, gather your
warriors, and get them back here to fight.”

This was becoming too much for Avery. She didn’t know
if she could handle the responsibility of being told that she was
not only some magical warrior, but also the leader of these magical
warriors.

Avery stood up off of her bench, “Look, Gumptin, this
is all just getting a little too crazy house for me.”

“Avery!” Gumptin yelled loudly, stopping Avery in her
tracks and capturing her full attention, “Look around you, young
lady. You can no longer deny that this is real. It is not your
imagination. It is not a dream, and you are not going insane. I
know you know everything I told you is true. I know that you feel
it as truth inside your very bones.”

Avery looked around her at the houses built into
giant trees, the villagers who were staring over at her as they
pretended to work, and the thick green forest surrounding
everything. Gumptin was right. Even though she’d never admit it to
him; a part of her belonged to this place and she knew it. It
played on her memories like a barely remembered dream.

Avery was still lost in wistful thought, gazing at
her surroundings, when Gumptin said, “Plus, there is also this you
cannot ignore.”

Then, Gumptin pulled the small dagger out from his
belt and lunged at Avery. Avery reacted instantaneously, she spun
to the right and grabbed Gumptin’s wrist with her left hand, while
at the same time clasping his arm to her body with her right hand.
Avery brought her knee up and slammed Gumptin’s wrist against it,
forcing him to drop the dagger. He let out a small grunt of pain
and she flipped him onto his back on the ground, all the while
still holding on to his wrist, so that she was able to pin it. A
second later, Avery had his other wrist pinned to the ground with
her knee. She picked up his dagger with her free hand and placed
the blade across his throat.