A Choice

Chapter Sixteen

The tiny feet stopped running and I looked back. All the elves stopped behind Fredrick. We finally reached the city limits. The end was similar to the last one and the sign read "Come Back Soon!" I laughed at the thought of anyone wanting to come back to this place or that anyone that did travel to this prison actually lived to see the sign. I laughed for the while. It was the first time in a while where I could. I laughed until my stomach hurt and I heard a moan. I looked down into my arms and remembered that Nia was badly hurt. I sat her down on a patch of grass a while away from the town. She was still bleeding in the spots where they scratched her. Looking closer at the wounds, I saw that some of them were deeper than I expected.
"Evan," Fiona said, calling me the nickname she gave to me as a little kid, "Your bag you have the medicines."
"But I lost it in the elves place," I said sadly.
"No, I thought you were going to lose it, so I made it follow us," Fiona said pointing in the distance. I looked over and saw the bag floating towards us.
"Oh Fiona you're the best," I said, smiling at the thought that Nia could survive. When the bag came to us I looked inside to see the contents. Inside there were small bottles of medicines of different shapes and colors.
"The blue one, put it on my wounds and it should heal them over time," she said finally in a weak voice. I looked through the bag and found what she meant by the blue one. There were a couple, but each one had a label. The one she talked about had a blood droplet on it. I took it out of the bag and opened the top of the container. I then took a rag that Mama also put in the bag and poured a little on the rag. The liquid was thick and came out slowly. When some was out I put the bottle away and dabbed the rag on all of Nia's wounds.
"We should find a pond, I'm sure with this much green there is one nearby," said Wallace looking over me as if making sure what I did was correct.
"To wash off her wounds to get a better look at them to make sure they are healing," he explained. We packed up and I took Nia in my arms. Not a while later we did come across a little pond. I rolled my pants up and walked into the water. It was cold and felt good against my legs and all of my scratched from the mermaids and the elves. I held Nia in the water and softly washed her. I could hear a little purr escape her as I was scrubbing her. As I washed away the blood, I could get a better look at the wounds. The worst one was on her right side and where most of the blood escaped from. I made a mental note to put more medicine on it and make sure she doesn't sleep on that side. She had a scratch over her left eye and it looked like it would be swollen for a while and maybe not be able to work again. When I was done washing her I laid her next to Jasper, who was sleeping in the shade of a tree.
I went to a part of the pond that was more private and washed myself. First I washed my clothes and then, lying them out in the sun, washed my body. I couldn't see my back, but I knew there was a cut that was still bleeding. Thankfully there was nothing worse than that. It felt amazing in the water. I hadn't been clean in a while and with all the dirt off of me I felt like a new person. I washed off my hair extra good, getting all of the dried blood, finally when I was done my hair lay straight down. I realized then that my long hair was getting in my way. When I got out and put on my clothes again, that were ripped all over, I took out my knife and cut off my hair. I must have looked like a man with the short hair, but it would be better for whatever came next. When Fiona saw my clothes she frowned at the ripped material. She quickly put her magic to use and made them as good as new. She then inspected my new hairdo and, with a motherly look, trimmed off my ends to make it even. Wallace looked with amazement at the magic and asked if he could have some new clothes. Fiona gladly agreed and gave him fresh clothes. He then asked me to use my knife and went off.
When he came back he looked like a different person. He had cut his beard shorter and his hair. He looked like someone that I knew, although I don't know who. I dismissed the thought and took a sack out of my bag.
"No," Fiona said, stopping me, "We don't have time to eat again, tonight is the day your supposed to have the sword."
"How do you know, we could have only been dancing for an hour," I said.
"The fairies have a very good sense of time, when I was poisoned it was gone, but now that's it back, we danced all night and most of the day," she said. I quickly packed back up and woke up Nia and Jasper. I put both of them in my bag and told Jasper to make sure Nia is comfortable.
"I'm not a babysitter, kid," he said rolling his eyes at me.
"Jasper, this is what partners do," I said, giving him a stare. He agreed with another roll of his eyes and we were off. I grabbed the map and looked.
"We're almost there!" I squealed, glad that this was over. Fiona looked at the map over my shoulders.
"We're here," she said flying over to the map and pointing to a green patch near the X. We only had a while to go and then this whole adventure will be over and at last I'll be free.
We walked for a while longer and saw a tree blocking the way. Looking closer I saw that it was no ordinary tree. There was a green square in the middle of the tree.
"What do we do?" I asked, confused. I looked at the map again and saw that the X was over a tree. This was it, but there was no sword.
"I need a sign," said a deep voice.
"What was that?" asked Jasper from the bag.
"I am the tree and I need a symbol."