Tale 1: War of the Protector

Chapter 23

The storm had cleared by morning. Or should I say the Violet had calmed by morning.

My jacket had also dried by morning, so I changed out of my damp t-shirt while Cody turned his back.

It was April 1st. One month more and it would be May. On May 9th my powers would mature and I would be a full Protector.

We left the boat shed as it had been before (minus the broken lock), and headed out. Cody said that the storm had been big, and had covered everything in the mix of auras of Protectors who caused it. It was a disguise, and we were blind to any Protector around us. But, they were also blind to us.

First thing, Cody had us flee from the river with nothing but the clothes on our backs. We had lost our other possessions to the river, including our backpacks and his sword. That sucked, but Cody also said that the Aquamarine was probably aware of where we had gotten out of the river, so there was no time to stop and see if it washed on shore.

At that, I was confused. “Why didn’t they come to get us in our sleep?” I asked him. “If they knew where we were, wouldn’t they come find us?”

Cody was silent for a moment, but I could tell from the line between his brows that he was thinking.

“Well,” he said thoughtfully, “I think it’s for the same reason that the Aquamarine even let me out of that river.”

“Which is what?”

He glanced at me and bobbed a finger in air as he talked. “I don’t know, but I think… I think the Aquamarine is on our side now.”

“Why? She was trying to drown me, but then had a change of heart and let both of us live?”

“That or drowning me could possibly destroy the world. You know, because my power would be trapped between staying and leaving since drowning is… well… considerably slow.”

“But wouldn’t she just have tried to separate us in the water?”

“She tried, but it didn’t happen. And then she brought us to the surface, and dumped us onto the shore.”

I lifted my head a little. “Then she changed her mind.”

Cody shrugged. “Not sure. But maybe one day you’ll have the chance of asking her.”

We trekked down the road, with farmland on either side of us. After a little while, Cody grew antsy and decided it was safer to weave through the corn to our right. He had no idea where any of the other Protectors were for the first time in over half a year.

And so I ended up following his tall, broad shoulders through the stalks, listening to the crunch of old fallen ones under our feet.

“Cody?”

“Yeah?”

“Yesterday when Nathan and the others caught up to me, they said you were dead. What happened?”

“They said that?” Cody glanced back at me. “Nothing happened, really. They didn’t come after me, but sent the Sweet Pea, Birth-Flower of April, after me.”

“The Protector of animals?”

“Yeah. It’s how I got this.” He turned for a second and pointed to the blood-crusted cut on his cheek.

I grimaced. “What did the Sweet Pea send after you?”

“A wolf.”

My eyebrows raised and I grabbed his arm to make him stop. “A wolf did that? Just that?”