Safehaven

Chapter 15

That night, I had the weirdest dream ever.  In it, I had materialized into a dense forest.  The tree canopy was so thick, not a ray of any kind of light could seep through.  The tree bark was a sick grey and the floor was covered with dead leaves and dirt.  The over all perspective of the place was pretty depressing.  But standing in the middle of the woods, two men sat chatting.  One was tall and lean, the other more round and about a head shorter.  “…They really did find them!”  I overheard the stouter one say to his companion.  “The creatures and everything!  It just happened.  There was lightning, mist, it was so cool!”  Through all of this, the taller of the men just stood there, saying not a word.  Though I couldn’t see either of the faces, I knew that the lither of the men really didn’t care about what the other had to say.  “I even heard that the heir of Galloren came.  She called a dragon.  It was silver, just like y…”  The other man cut him off.  “The heir is here?  And even more, it’s a She?”  The man uttered in disbelief.  He shook his friend by the shoulders.  “Listen very carefully.”  He hissed.  “That child does not leave our sight.  We don’t want her following the wrong path.  Did you get all of that, you big oaf?!”  The rounder man shook his head vigorously, clearly taken aback.  “Well?”  The taller man practically shouted.  “Get going!”  With that, the little man took off in one direction and I woke up.  Just to be sure I was awake, I pinched my wrist.  Pain shot up my arm.  Yep, I was definitely awake.  Sitting up, I rubbed my bleary eyes.  My new accommodations blinked into focus.  Yes, I was still in the castle.  But where did that funky dream come from?  A little snort sounded at my side.  Gwindol was still fast asleep, smoke rings puffing out of his nostrils.  I shook him, and he jerked up, almost falling over the brim of the bed.  What on earth was that for?!  He whined.  I shrugged.  “You were snoring and plus, we need to get a head start on the day.  I climbed out of bed and dressed into a new pair of robes, dark blue this time.  Glancing out the giant window, I could the sun just barely peering over the horizon.  As I stood there, Gwindol padded over to my side.  The conversation I had with Holly the night before and the terrible dream still swirled in my brain.  “So…”  I said, breading the silence.  “What gift do I get from you?  Holly has already got her weird mist thing from Rinal.”  My dragon cocked his head.  I could swear he was smiling.  Time will tell, won’t it?  Just stay tuned.  Sometimes, that scaly beast could be a really large pain.  I huffed, but let that settle.  I couldn’t press answers from him.  It would be like trying to squeeze blood from a stone.  Silently, I opened door, after I relented the password, and stepping out onto the landing, I heard voices coming from downstairs.  I couldn't identify the voices right away, but I somehow knew that they were friendly.  However, the voices were hushed and quieted.  I only caught every couple of sentences.  "I don't know what to do!"  One voice whimpered.  "I'm done for if anyone else finds out." Another voice replied " It will be okay. We will figure it out." Shutting the door behind Gwindol, I slowly crept down the stairs and strutted into the common room, yawning and rubbing my eyes for show, just in case.  If there was one thing I could do, acting and faking it were probably it.  Maybe that came from living in a house of girls, all the drama!  Anyway, before the fire, Sage and Antigone sat.  They both looked startled, but I played the cool card.  “Mornin’.”  I yawned, stretching, though some guilt hung in my chest.  “What are you all doing up this early?  It’s a Saturday!”  My two friends seemed to relax a little.  They had no idea of the little snippet I had heard.  “We just wanted to watch the sunrise.”  Sage countered, gesturing to the window where marvelous streaks of color painted the sky.  “Well, look who’s up.”  The three of us spun around to see the other three members of our party standing by the stairs, Jada at their lead.  “Since we’re all down here, how ‘bout a nice game of cards?  They were in my room.”  Jada pulled a beaten deck out of her pocket.  It was a little out of place, but it sounded like a good idea.  This was the first time all of us had the chance to actually talk to one another.  The 6 of us plus the animals, sat beside the raging fire.  Jada dealt them out like a professional.  Soon, we were all playing kemps.  My partner was Antigone.  She still eyed me suspiciously, as if she knew I had overheard their conversation.  “So, what’s up?”  Quinton ventured, trading one of his queens for an ace of spades.  Holly spoke up.  “Well, aside from the fact that some demented dude is trying to kill us, not much.”  She pulled a sour face.  We all laughed.  It felt good to be in the company of friends once more.  “Anybody find anything out about the beasts?  Dash and I were thinking about it and we both drew a blank.”  Sage gestured to her Pegasus, you had taken up residence in the back of the room with Jada’s unicorn, both too large to fit by the fire.  Antigone shrugged.  “Same things here with Kai and I.  We don’t have a clue.”  The girl’s griffin squawked in agreement.  I glanced over at Holly.  She had her head hidden behind her cards, trying to avoid conversation.  Quinton chuckled.  “Felix is smart and all, but even he couldn’t think of anything.”  The nemian lion just lay on the grounds, nonresponsive.  I swapped one of my cards with one in the middle.  “Kemps!”  I called.  Everybody groaned and threw their cards down.  Jada and Antigone both had three of a kind.  Close!  Jada reshuffled the cards and presumed to deal them once more.  “If anyone did find out anything…”  She started, but Holly leaped up, as if prodded with a hot coal.  “Alright, alright, I found something last night.  Please don’t kill me for not saying anything.”  She screamed.  Everyone just stared up at her with surprise.  Rinal’s many tails flashed like living flames.  I could tell that she was saying something to her master.  Holly looked downtrodden as she sat down again.  She carefully explained everything that she had to me last night.  The cards lay forgotton on the floor.  Antigone’s griffin had begun to eat the queen of hearts.  Her shredded head stuck out between his razor sharp teeth.  I could hear it now.  Off with your head!  Holly finished her lecture and there was dead silence.  The only sound was Kai chewing.  Quinton cleared his throat.  “Lovely, so now we have more magical powers.  I hope I get pixy dust!”  He hollered with glee, leaping to his feet.  “Come on, everybody!  It’s a Saturday, time to have fun.  I think that we should go explore the grounds.  Maybe we’ll find a troll.”  With that, Quinton and Felix ran to the wooden door and waited for the rest of us.  “Yeah.  I guess we won’t be paying cards.”  I laughed.  Antingone’s face turned red.  “Sorry about that.”  Now, only a dozen cards were left, and Jada rescued them and shoved them into her pocket before Kai could finish them off.  The other 5 of us joined Quinton at the door.  He pushed it open and skipped down the hall, singing songs about fruit.  Really, he could be a nut sometimes.  We followed his at a distance, attracting many odd glances.  At the front door of the castle, a guard permitted us access to the grounds, but warned us not to stray into the forest or onto the cliffs.  Out little group said we would and walked onto the grass.  Other little groups milled around at the early hour.  “Let’s check out the lake.”  Holly exclaimed.  A small speckle of blue shone in the distance.  Everybody agreed, and we started forward.  Before I knew it, I was at the back of the pack, again.  I had never been the fastest of walkers, seeing as I took more time to look at things than others did.  Then, Sage fell in beside me.  She, too, wasn't one to trudge the fastest.  "Pretty morning."  She commented, keeping her eyes focused ahead of her.  I swallowed.  For some strange reason, the fact that I had overheard something that shouldn't have been heared was weighing down on my chest.  Now blame me for having a heart, but it was slowly getting heavier.  That's the thing.  I can lie pretty well when I need to, but then it haunts me and I feel SO guilty.  "Yep."  That was all I could say.  Sage and I ambled on for a few more minutes.  With each passing second, I felt my chest constrict.  After only a couple of minutes, I couldn't take it anymore.  "What were you and Antigone talking about earlier?"  There.  I asked it.  Sage stopped dead in her tracks and looked at me.  "You heard that?"  The girl frowed, and I felt even more guilt piling on.  "I kinda heard it coming down the stairs."  I repented.  Sage's eyesbrow furrowed even more, and I thought I was a gonner.  But then she smiled.  "Oh!  I was just asking Antigone if I could borrow some certain clothes."  The girl whispered the last part as if she were embarrassed.  "I kinda ruined some when that darned pegasus showed up. It scared the heaven daylights out of me."  Sage smiled shyly.  "Please don't tell anyone."  She added quickly.  Then, it was  my turn to smile, as that lump of shame melted from inside my chest.  "I promise I won't."  With that, my friend beamed and skipped ahead to join my other friends, who were now dozens of feet in front.  As I watched my little group make its way along the green lawn, I smiled.  This was what friendship, embarrassing moments, fun, and all.  I turned to Gwindol.  “Come on, old chap.  Let’s go say hi to the fish.”  With that, I ran to catch up with my friends.  This would be quite an interesting day.