The Castle on the Hill

Chapter #5 The Journey Begins

                   Three knocks. Two knocks. Then a four second pause. One more knock.

                  Zavier's hand shot through the door grabbed his shirt and pulled him in the door. The building was pitch black. He could hear the sound of a woman crying and was immediately very confused.

                 "Zavier, please let me go with you!" Claudia. She was crying. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he realized that it wasn't Zavier who had pulled him in but it was Celyn. She was rolling her eyes at her brother and Claudia who stood in the middle of the building holding onto each other.

                "Claudia, I love you too much to allow you to be drug around the world living in abandoned buildings and never having a place to call home. Think about Justice. I cant allow myself to drag a four year old through the same things that Celyn and myself had to go through as children." He gently wiped the tears out of her eyes. "I promise I will come back for you as soon as I have a safe place that you can call a home."

              "I can't lose you too..." She was sobbing into his shirt as he held her tighter and gently brushed her hair with his hand.

               It appeared that Celyn had enough of this little scene because she walked over to the two "Enough of this! Claudia, listen to me well. I know what I is like to be thrown on these streets after living a rather comfortable life at 4 years old. You won't like what your son has to go through or who he will become. Keep him here where he is safe. We will send you updates as often as possible and I promise my brother will make it back to you." She straightened her shoulders. 

               "Now Zavier and Thomas, lets go so we can actually cover some distance before the sun rises and people realize that a Thomas is missing." She slung he bag over her back, took her sword from me, and slid her daggers into their spots on her legs.

             I caught Zavier kissing Claudia goodbye as Celyn led the way out of the shed immediately heading towards the woods. She moved nimbly as if she was a deer running from a hunter. When they got to the safety of the trees Celyn immediately turned and centered in on her brother.  

              "I can't believe that after all the talks you told me about not getting attached you went and got attached to a mom!" She was fuming. "Honestly would you be able to live with yourself if her and that little boy had to go through half of the things we have had to?"

               "Do you honestly think I want them to be hurt? You can't choose who or when you fall in love, Celyn!" He retaliated with his voice raising to the same level as hers.

              "You should have listened to me and we should have moved the night after she first saw us! But no you just had to stay there because she was trustworthy and gave you food and clothes!" She shoved him in the chest as tears began to run down her face. "Do you even care the danger you put us in? The danger you put them in? You met her son! You kissed her! And we both know if they find out they will kill her!"

             Thomas stared in awe as he watched her brother not retaliate but instead reach his arms around her and hugged her. "I know, Celyn. I am sorry. I know it hurt you to leave after I made us stay and we got attached." He whispered to her as tears started to form in both of their eyes.

            "But I swear, just as soon as I have a place I will come back and get them. This goodbye isn't forever." He smiled at her while she pulled away.

            "Lets go find that safe place for them." With that he started moving down the trail.

            They moved quickly and quietly through the woods and for the first time ever Thomas actually thought he was loud as a person walking through the woods. The journey was pretty much without a hitch but Thomas was beyond drained. Unlike Zavier and Celyn he had been working all day and had recently suffered a beating. His steps became slower and more labored. Suddenly his foot slipped and he landed on his knee.

           "Thomas? You alright." Zavier doubled back in half the time.

            "Yeah, I'm fine." He tried to stand back up but his knees were weak beneath him.

            "Damn it." Celyn came to look at him. She walked around him and looked at his back. "How long has your back been bleeding?"

            "It isn't." Thomas grunted as she touched his back.

           "We have to stop. This needs to be taken care of and he needs rest." She sighed as she pressed on his back. "Our pace is going to be must slower than it would normally be for a while."

             "Dang. Why couldn't Claudia have had some horses to spare." Zavier began to look for  a place to settle down for what was rest of the night.

             It wasn't long before he returned leading them to a small cave he had found. They moved far enough back that if someone stumbled upon the cave before they left in the morning they wouldn't be seen and soon Zavier had a small fire going and had handed each of them a little bit of meat and bread.

            "Please take your shirt off." Celyn knelt behind Thomas who was momentarily shocked until the reason why actually registered in his brain.

            "Okay......"

             "This will sting. A Lot." She cleaned the wounds which wasn't really that bad and he thought she was just a little crazy until she began to smear the salve over his back. He squirmed in pain and bit down on his tongue to keep from making a sound.

             "I am going to let this sit for just a moment while I get as much blood out of these bandages as I can."

             "Be careful. She isn't near as forgiving of a nurse as Celyn." Zavier laughed at Thomas's confused face, "If you upset her she will make sure that it hurts 1,000 times worse than it should. So I wouldn't get hurt often."

              "I don't plan to." Thomas smiled briefly.

               "Alright. Lets get this wrapped. He noticed that she was putting new bandages on his back and managed to look around and see the old ones laying on the ground nearby. When she finished she walked over to the other side of her brother and crawled into the blanket roll she had paced over there.

              "Get some sleep, guys, tomorrow is a lot of walking."

             For a while Thomas just laid on his side thinking about everything that had happened in the last few days. It took him a while before he was able to drift into a peaceful sleep.