Apprentice

Chapter 18: Focus

Liam's POV

It took three days for Tia to finally recover. She drifted in and out of consciousness everyday. I had to feed her mushed up bread because she could barely open her mouth. Her body seemed to have gone into shock, and it was a little like how Jerome was. It was a little scary, actually. I thought she might have actually got the same thing Jerome had. But on the third day, she sat up suddenly and groaned, holding her head. "You OK?" I ask, and she shakes her head. "I bloody hope not because if this is OK then life isn't worth living." She groans again, massaging her forehead with her hand in a desperate attempt to quell the headache. 

Chuckling lightly, I offer her a pork chop, the last one we had. "This is a lot better than that mush you've been feeding me for the past few days. It has been only a few days, hasn't it? I haven't been in some sort of weird conscious coma? 'Course I haven't, I would know if I was." She talks to herself, but my ears prick up at "conscious coma". "What do you mean, conscious coma?" I ask. She shrugs. "It's when someone is in a messed up state but certain things can provoke them to get them out of it. Since I'm a quart god I can make myself get out of it. But I didn't want to because it hurt too much..." she trails off and looks at me just as I open my mouth. "I know what you want to ask, can I heal Jerome, right? The answer is I don't know. Now you need to complete these challenges so let's get going." She keeps ordering me around and I was getting tired of it. Then again, this was coming from the ex apprentice of a demigod, so it was to be expected, I guess. Disobeying her would just provoke her-she'd told me that ever since she became a quart god she had had really bad mood swings and anger issues. 

Then again, she was a girl.

Snickering to myself, she looks up. "What?" she demands. I just smile mysteriously and shrug. She looks at me weirdly before sighing and heading towards the temple, then pauses. I follow her curiously. "It's your test, so I won't help you. You go on ahead" she says, gesturing ahead of her. Nodding, I storm into the temple and she suddenly grabs my arm. "Idiot, look for traps." she hisses, not wanting to disturb anything that was possibly inside the temple. "Hey, I'm not an idiot!" I protest loudly, a grin on my face as she curses. Suddenly a swarm of bats swoop down and Tia clicks her fingers and they all freeze. "I thought you said you weren't going to help me?" I snap, dodging past the frozen bats. Her face is red and she is panting with the effort of keeping them frozen. "Just go down the stairs" she gasps, following me down before clicking her fingers again. We listen quietly to the confused shrieking of bats, before they settle down again. 

"Be quiet next time" she snaps, storming ahead. "Might as well do this all for you!" I grab her arm roughly and stride in front of her, tripping over a tripwire. Arrows shoot over my head and I duck. I look up sheepishly to see Tia shaking her head at me and sighing as she floats above the tripwire. "Stupid flying people" I mutter angrily and she laughs quietly. Stumbling to my feet, I reach across and grab the floating girl, clinging to her as she flies above the tripwires. 

"Baby" she sneers and I curse at her. Her foot suddenly catches the last tripwire and lava suddenly pours from the roof. She pushes me onto clear ground before lava envelops her. I eye it warily, not sure if she could resist lave or not. She floats out a few seconds later, brushing flecks of lava off her clothes. "Looks like I'm fire proof" she grins, floating behind me. 

___________After a few more challenges__________

"Well that was easy!" I laugh as we enter a small library, an enchantment table in the middle. Letters are flying from the books, being enveloped by the glowing obsidian and diamond table. The book flips in the middle, flicking the pages by itself. Behind it is a single bench with a scroll on it. The blood red ribbon is sealed with an ender eye. 

"Too easy" she mutters, eyeing the library uncertainly. She grabs my hand when I reach for the scroll. "What?" I ask, watching the scroll intently. "Look around you." she says, gesturing around us at the room. A diamond sword, covered in dust, is hung on the walls, a small metal shield hung to the side of it. It is encrusted with emeralds, and shines dully even though there is hardly any light. "What about it?" I ask uncertainly. "Someone or something wants us to prepare for something. Something you will need to fight. I'd suggest you prepare yourself. By enchanting or taking the stuff off the walls." She glances round the room then eyes the scroll. "It will start when you touch the scroll." "How do you know all this?" I snap, looking at her suspciously. Had she been here before? "It's called being observant. It's one of the many skills I learned to master when I was with Ridge." she says, her voice trailing off quietly as she utters his name out loud.