Emerald (The Protector) - undergoing editing

Chapter 23

"C'mon Sarah, time to wake up."

"Five more minutes mum."

She heard a giggle "C'mon Sarah, Martha and Hank are here to see you."

Sarah yawned and opened her eyes, she was just about to stretch her arms when she realised she couldn't.

"Welcome back sleepyhead" Emerald smiled down at her.

Sarah blinked a few times, trying to wake herself up.

"How long did I sleep?"

"About an hour - that bath really relaxed you."

"Yeah, it must have." Sarah's brain felt really foggy; there was something she needed to remember, but for the life of her she couldn't remember what it was.

She looked over and saw Hank and Martha hovering behind Emerald and gave them a smile "Hello."

"Well hello to you too, how are you feeling?" Hank asked.

"Much better than I was thank you - it's so nice to see you both."

"And very pleased we are to see you" Martha smiled at her "you gave us such a scare."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry child. We're just glad you are on the mend."

"I don't suppose you brought any of your apple pie for me?"

Martha chuckled "Well, you must definitely be getting better if you are asking for food - that is a good sign."

Sarah grinned up at her.

"Just as well dinner is ready then isn't it" Julia said as she set a tray of food down beside her. "I hope you like pumpkin soup."

"Actually I do."

"Excellent" and she proceeded to spoon feed Sarah whilst chatting to Martha about how expensive food was getting and did she have any good soup recipes.

Sarah lay there contently listening to their conversation, occasionally asking questions when she didn't have a mouthful of soup. It was just so nice to be out with everyone.

Emerald brought the book she had returned with earlier over to show Sarah. It was quite a large book and Sarah could see that it had lots of text and what appeared to be maps and illustrations.

"Anything on my world?" Sarah asked quietly.

"Not sure; haven't really had a chance to look at it yet. I was waiting to go through it with you."

"Open it up then."

Emerald dragged a chair over to the couch so that she could show the pages to Sarah without the other girl having to move. A lot of it looked like complete nonsense, and the girls found it rather funny.

"Who wrote this?" Sarah asked

"Have no idea."

"Does Jason know?"

"I don't think so, but he thought we'd enjoy it, especially when I told him that Julian was searching for the portal to another world."

Sarah giggled.

"Did I hear my name?" Julian wandered over.

"It's a book on other worlds."

"Really?"

"Yeah, did you know that the author reckons we are only one of many worlds in the universe?"

"Wow - is it interesting?"