Heroes and Wolves [book 1]

Chapter thirty-one

Layla

I breathe in and out, trying to concentrate. While that panzin has made my mind fresh and alert, the thoughts and memories of what happened with Trixala are spliced into muddled jigsaw pieces and it's hard to find the pattern.

     "We were fighting Mavlins. Maylock got hit by one" I slot a piece into place but pause to rack my brain for the next memory. "There was this sphere floating in the sky. It fell and smashed which blinded me for a bit and when my vision returned, Maylock was on the floor with Mavlins still around him."

     "That sphere was the first stage of the attack" Baymin indicates to the weird thing in the bowl. "Once this tentacle attaches to you then your world is controlled by Trixala" 

     "We found you with Mavlins surrounding you." Maylock speaks up. "We fought them and quickly took you here"

     "And then you went into the Folklore woods" I quip. 

Even though my memories are cloudy, what happened with Maylock has stuck with me. It's the only piece in the puzzle that's clear and set in stone. I can't forgive him. I can't believe he's here.

     "Layla, what are you talking about?" He frowns

     "What you saw was not real" Baymin firmly interjects "Trixala, as her name suggests, tricks you into thinking what you are seeing is real but things about the world are out of place or are just plain wrong. She manipulates the environment and the people around you. It's a simulation of reality" he explains and I hold my head. That's why there was a random tree in the ground. That's why Maylock was acting off with me but I can't just push this away. It might not have been real but it did affect me. 

He hurt me.

     "You must have seen more than one sphere though" Baymin continues, his wise eyes study me and I nod. "Any spheres that show after the first are obstacles Trixala puts in place to make it harder for us to pull you out"

     "So you were the mumbled voices I heard?"

     "Yes" Maylock and Baymin say at the same time.

     "And everything I saw wasn't real?" I try to comprehend this all.

     "Yes Layla, you were tricked but it's best to explain everything to allow your brain to recover and remove the memory of what you experienced" Baymin suggests. 

     "You want me to say everything I saw?" I look at Maylock as I ask and Baymin nods. 

Everything?

     "What happened after the Mavlins?" he offers and I take a deep breath to build a simple and quick path to say everything apart from the occurrence with Maylock. 

     "There was this random tree in the ground but when I got close to it I had a headache and then woods were around me but I was still in Lakeintown. I knew I was. I made my way to the Spire and everything seemed to go back to normal but then Maylock, Zack and Abbey all seemed to appear out of thin air" I then stop and stare at my hands as I don't want to recall what they said to me. "You were angry and you mocked me." I look at Maylock.

     "What was said? Bearing in mind that nothing you saw and heard was true" Baymin pushes but I am holding back. "Layla, keeping this built up won't help. There's no rush, but you need to say everything" I take another deep breath in and pause to carve another path, one that still avoids Maylock. 

     "You said that you knew I wasn't a Guardian, that I was too weak and..." I stop once more as I don't want to say it.

     "Well?" Maylock adds and I narrow my eyes at him, annoyed. 

     "Abbey said that I was just like my father." I state and both Maylock and Baymin look at each other and walk to the back of the room. "What? Does that mean something?" I ask as they begin to whisper to each other. 

They are deep in discussion with their backs facing me so I cannot lip read what they are saying. At least this interference halts me from telling them about Maylock but it all comes suddenly flooding back to me as I feel a hand touch the right side of my stomach. 

The side where I was bitten. 

The hairs on the back of my neck prickle and I turn sharply in reaction to Maylock behind me. 

     "Get off me!" I squabble out of his grasp and stand up. Bringing my hands out and wide to ward myself from him. 

     "There is more to this than meets the eye, isn't there Layla" Baymin deduces. "You haven't said everything have you?" 

     "Nor have you" I snap. "What was all that whispering about?" Silence meets my ask and I huff in disappointment. "You know what, I don't care, in fact I don't want to be here" I state and recall the last time I was here a wall slid open. What wall is it though?  "How do you get out of this room?"

Maylock and Baymin don't answer me but they obviously know where the exit is. I focus on their gaze and every move they make. People who want to protect something usually inadvertently give away the thing they are trying to keep safe. I learnt this from people watching in the city. It's a waiting game and I need to make the first move.

     "It's not this one is it?" I begin to investigate by pretending to consider one part of the wall to be linked to that opening when I'm really concentrating on Maylock's and Baymin's reactions. 

     "Layla. Stop" Baymin asks but I keep going. 

     "Is it this one?" my game hasn't even settled into the first round before Maylock makes a move to come behind me. "Back off" I glare at him and he steps away from me but not by much. 

I keep searching, pressing at random spots on the wooden panels of another wall. 

     "Is it this wall?" I move over to the next wall and continue to touch some of the panels as I look at Maylock and Baymin but there's no difference in their stance or gaze apart from it being fixed on me. Well, it's not this wall. 

I need to retrace my steps from the last time I was here. I quickly find the bed I woke up on before and stand facing the edge. Baymin and Maylock are spread out and gradually coming closer toward me, indicating that I am on the right path to discover the exit. I just need to work out the angle I saw the wall sliding open when I was on this bed. The second round of the game.

     "So, if it's not that wall" I point to the first wall. "and it's not this one" I point to the last wall I tried. "then it must be that one" I point to the wall behind Baymin and Maylock quickens his pace toward me, completely giving away that the wall is the exit. 

Bingo. 

I stalk towards it, ignoring Maylock by studying every wooden panel for imperfections. There is an engraved four lined scratch mark on the right and a slightly raised square to the left. It looks like a button but I'm not one hundred percent sure. I've hit an obstacle in the third round of the game. 

     "Please stop" Baymin asks. "If you leave this building, you won't have anything. Angels don't work in the Folklore woods. Stay with us" he tries to persuade me but I don't listen to him.  

     "No" I hover my hand over the scratch mark but there's no verbal reaction or change in both of their body languages so I quickly slam my elbow into the left square instead and watch it push in. 

It was a button. 

The wall in front of me slowly slides open and provides an opening I can leave from. 

     "This building is deep within the Folklore woods, you have nowhere to go" Baymin continues to try to keep me here. 

     "Layla, don't" Maylock pleads and I turn to find him running his hand through his hair. He's stressed for some reason and waiting for me to stop and just give up but I started this waiting game and I'm going to finish it by winning and going through the exit that is clear for me to take. 

And Maylock's voice is the last thing I hear when I bolt through the opening.