Tale 1: War of the Protector

Chapter 17

I was uncomfortable. That much I knew.

I opened my eyes but quickly shut them. I felt blinded, the sun was so bright. I groaned at the light, and the sound, and the motion. There were too many people talking, the sun was too bright, and why were we moving?

I slowly opened my eyes, taking in everything and remembering as I went.

The curtains were lifted, and there were less people on the train than last night. I had twoblankets. Both were tucked purposefully in around my shoulders.

“Cody,” I groaned. I turned to look at him, but all I found was an empty seat.

That threw me off. There was no Cody in my orbit. Where was he? Did he just up and leave? Was he in trouble? Why did he let me sleep in?

Calm yourself, Lily, I thought to myself. Cody’s fine. He probably just… went to the bathroom. Yeah. You’re fine.

The longer I sat there, the less fine I felt. Cody plus Lily, minus Cody just meant Lily. What if there was an attack right then? I was dead meat. I might as well gut and roast myself on a spit over a fire to save them time. Blood-thirsty Protectors did that, right?

And what about Cody? Was he okay? Where was he? Was he in trouble?

I tried standing, and managed to pull myself up on my good leg, using the chair in front of me. My other leg started throbbing as I started moving, and I could feel a fresh wave of blood wet my bandage.

“Hey, you’re up,” Cody said, coming down the aisle.

I sighed in relief and fell back into my seat.

“Just went to the breakfast car,” he continued as he plopped down next to me, bearing a plate full of pancakes, bacon, sausage, toast, French toast, hashbrowns, and eggs – scrambled, poached, and sunnyside-up. A drizzling of syrup covered it all. And in his other hand he held a big bowl of mixed fruits with a spoon standing up in the middle. Knowing him, I guessed that there was yogurt at the bottom, and maybe some granola in there too.

Cody handed me a fork. “Dig in,” he said. “I’m going to get something to drink. What do you want?”

“The usual. Please and thanks.”

Cody nodded and headed back to the breakfast car.

It was weird that we were actually using speech during breakfast. In the period between when we stopped talking and my fake birthday, we never really talked at meals. Cody usually got us one big plate, and he’d let me eat my fill before he devoured it all. I ate a lot, but his mouth was a black hole.

And that was always done in silence. Yet… I felt like I knew all about him. Maybe his eating habits especially.

I savored the flavors of the French toast. Cody always covered it completely in powdered sugar, so the top was barely recognized as bread. I hadn’t liked it at first, but I guess my taste just slowly started evolving to Cody’s over time. I absolutely loved it now.

Cody returned with two chocolate milks in hand.

I gave him a look as he handed me mine.

“What?” he asked innocently.

“Nothing.” I took a sip of my milk with my raised eyebrow trained right on him.

“It doesn’t mean anything that I don’t feel like coffee this morning,” he said defensively.

“I know,” I said, my voice slightly higher in pitch than normal, showing my disbelief.

Cody rolled his eyes at me and I laughed.