Heather's Adventures: The Search for Maxamus

Chapter 64. Sheria

"And this is as far as the rest of you can go." The two men told us. Heather was pouting, arms crossed, lip bitten to the point of almost bleeding, and most certainly held sarcasm in her eyes. We had entered the portal room outside the city. "The city is on the other side of the bridge which is sealed off. Now don't you dare Miss—"

"Mellissa. Miss Heather Mellissa." Heather corrected the tall skinny man.

"Mellissa dare think about dissolving the barrier seal."

Heather smirked, "Hmph. That means you know I'm capable of penetrating it."

The fatter man of the two, the one which reminded me of the bully Burt was brutal back to her, "It means that it's a warning since you seem like the type to try. No one has been able to crack that seal."

Heather rolled up her sleeves, "Oh you just watch me--!"

"Heather no!" Rheannah restrained Heather, "Just let them go, not everything is a competition!"

Heather just grumbled. She was definitely agitated more than ever. I guess she didn't like losing friends. I mean, we have lost a lot of people recently, however it seemed to get to her head more than the rest of us. We knew she wasn't level headed but this was taking it a bit too far. She was snappish at best. Yeah we lost our family, and she lost Zena, but I guess she really just couldn't handle it.

"I'll be back soon, alright?" Max gave us a hopeful smile as the men led him out of the portal room. The rest of us just sat down with the exception of Heather.

"How can he expect us to sit still?! He could be gone just like the rest of them!" Heather was nonetheless panicking with her pacing back and forth. It was raising the tension in the rest of us.

Josh shook his head, "Heather calm down. Everything will be alright."

"How can you say that after what happened last time? I left Issola and look what happened there! What if that happens to him? What if that happens to us?"

Dawnlight was the one to sigh, "you can't protect everyone."

"He's bonded to me and he's the co-leader of my team. I have to protect him. He's part of my team!"

"Team?" I questioned, "what team?"

Heather shook her head, "you honestly expected me to just call you all my friends? We're a team. I made Max co-leader because he was with me. Also I trust him to lead if I get separated from the group. We're bonded and I see his intentions are true. Also I don't consider The Weird-o a friend. Just a creep."

"That's deep." Josh told her, "so why am I not the co-leader? You barely know him. You've only known him for barely a week."

Dawnlight poked him with her frying pan, "aww it looks like someone is jealous."

"I would never have a Weird-o lead my team. You don't know the humanity behind the battles. If both Max and I can't lead, I'll have Rheannah step up next. I know she knows her battle strategies."

Rheannah nodded, "I just have one question. The thing I don't get is why are you leading and not Dawnlight? You two have had the exact same training, no? Isn't she more far advanced in classes?"

Dawnlight laughed, "Actually no. I may be older, but Heather is by far the most advanced. I still have three years of training ahead of me before I was to transfer out to a new position. Heather had about a year or less knowing her. I haven't completed battle training yet, I only know basics."

"Unlike me, I have completed even the most advanced battle training. I just haven't completed fundamentals on healing and battle recovery. I only just had begun learning." Heather told the rest of us.

"You also don't have scripture training." Josh told her, "I don't care if you can already fluently read the scriptures; you still don't know all the history."

Heather scoffed at him, "that's where we're different. I'm not going to read the 'edited' edition of the scriptures. I'm going to go out and find the original ones. I know somewhere in the ones that the academy had there was something wrong. I know how to dissolve the seals but my ways are a bit different from the academy."

"She uses a dialect that is rather unheard of." Josh sighed, "Because Thalia is watching over you I'm guessing it's the purest form. Same as Max. His dialect isn't the common Merrywell dialect."

Rheannah nodded, "so she's the most experienced in combat. Well then I'll be an assist. You may know your mage tricks, but you're probably not that experienced with the art of a sword."

Heather nodded, "I only know basic combat with a sword. I had to pass a class where I had to learn basic advanced combat with everything you could think of."

"Yeah she won style points for winning a battle with just a vase of flowers." I boasted.

"What did you do? Throw it at him?" Rheannah asked.

Heather shrugged, "something like that. I kinda smashed it first then had some fun."

"Are you sure she's just not a crazy person?" Rheannah asked me.

"It's her team." I told her, "Heather's just Heather. This is what battle training does to a person sadly."

"Her team." Rheannah grumbled, "So we belong to Heather now?"

Heather shook her head, finding a way to get Rheannah not to snap at her. I think she knew about whatever was going on with Rheannah. It looked like ownage issues. Rheannah didn't like to be owned. Must've been something with her father—I mean that man. "No, this is our team. Every member in it has to work together; I'm only leading because that's what Nellie told me to do. Also I perhaps have the most training at this time. After we fulfill this mission, you all are free to go your own way. You could leave at any point that you want in all honesty." Heather just shrugged, "anyways what's taking so long? He should be out by now."

"It's been twenty minutes Heather. Chill." Josh told her.

"You know what happened last time I 'chilled'? I wasn't able to do this." Heather drew her bow and aligned a passionate burning arrow to it. The entire bow wrapped itself in flames, "You need me to be able to do this if you want to make it out of here."

"Heather put that thing out! You don't want them sensing you out here!" Dawnlight shouted at me, "You're a blowtorch in a city of water users. It's not that easy to hide you."

Heather grumbled, "Who said I wanted to be hidden? I just want to get out of here and find somewhere to stay for a while. We need time to analyze the scriptures better and do a bit of training while we track down Jen. Every day we let that darkness fester inside of her is one more day the darkness grows stronger. It's sickening to think that's what it does to people. Corrupts them." She was bitter and rather cold as she put out all her flames, "I won't let my eternal flames become cold and corrupted like the darkness, and I'm sure Max wouldn't want anything to melt or shatter his heart of ice." She put her bow away and finally sat down, "I just can't sit here when I know the corruption is going on. Jen's my sister."

"I know. I don't like sitting around here either. Not when the solution is just being able to slap some people around in battle just to get some straight answers." Rheannah commented, "I'm good at battle so I'm gonna do it. I can get answers. Easy right?"

"Fine by me." Heather shrugged, "Now what's taking him so long? I'm a very impatient person."