The Champion *ON HOLD*

Chapter 22- Waiting

A/N: Sorry this is so short, but I've been swamped with school work so this was all I could put out today. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter out tomorrow or sometime this weekend.  Please enjoy Chapter 22 of The Champion!

The next morning Leovar still had not returned. Avery stood on the first floor, with all of Cian's books and papers, and frowned. Had he left her? Was he ever coming back? When she voiced her concerns to Cian he simply told her not to worry. She didn't find his words very helpful at all.

"Is it alright if I go check on the horses?" She asked. Cian looked up at her from his papers and nodded.

"Aye, do as you wish. They are back behind the tower. They are hard to miss." Avery whistled to her dogs and grabbing her things, she walked outside. The sun was low in the sky, telling her that it was still rather early in the morning and the cold was biting. She rubbed her hands together, glad she had though to put on a long sleeved shirt and a coat and made her way around the massive tree, her boots crunching lightly in the snow. Galen was right about not missing them. They were literally right behind the tower. Or, she supposed it really was a tree. A magical tree. What a thought.

One of the lower branches of the tree jutted straight out. Then, as if it couldn't support its own weight, it curved downward so that the end of the branch was about twelve feet above the ground. Leaves clumped around the lower half of the branch and provided a relatively thick covering from the snow.

She could see that the ground under the leaves was free of snow and was covered in shavings. She could see both horses standing under the natural roof side-by-side, looking comfortable, despite not being covered in horse blankets. She noted the absence of the unicorn and decided not to worry about her. She would return when and if she wanted to. Avery looked around and found their tack resting up against the backside of the tree, draped across a large root that rose above the ground in a gnarled arch.

Turning back to the horses, she walked under the canopy and balked at the wall of heat. Stepping away, the heat disappeared, leaving her shivering. Avery stepped back under the cover and the heat enveloped her again. Seeing as there was no visible source of heat aside from the horses themselves, and that their shelter wasn't near small enough for their body heat to permeate the area, her best guess was the heat was powered by magic. As much as it unsettled her, she couldn't help but find it rather helpful and wished she had magic that would keep her warm in the cold.

Having followed Avery under the small canopy of leaves, Diesel and Koda noticed the change in temperature and plopped themselves down in the shavings, tails thumping with muffled thuds against the insulated ground.

She couldn't help but smile at them, despite knowing she would have to brush the shavings out of their fur later. Avery pulled out a brush and set out to currying the horses. Their coats were thick and somewhat shaggy and needed to be brushed regularly. She knew Cian took care of them last night, but Avery felt better knowing that she could actually see them being taken care of.

Plus the feel of routine helped calm her nerves. She was worried. She had expected Leovar to return later on that night or early this morning at the latest, but he still hadn't come back and she couldn't help the anxiety that coursed through her. Her dogs, always able to pick up on her moods, whined softly. They quieted after she cooed to them and she was left to think in relative silence.

Avery knew Leovar was broken up about the death of his mentor and father-figure, but she had a feeling that his absence was due to more than just the death of the man he loved. She didn't know why she knew, she just knew. However, she didn't know what would happen when he came back. If he came back.

As much as she hated to think about it, she had to think of what to do if Leovar decided she was worth too much effort to babysit. No doubt she would have to find a way to get back home. She just didn't know how. Maybe Cian would help her.

She still had reservations about Cian. Something about him made her think he saw her more as a science experiment than a person and it didn't quite sit right with her. She didn't think he would intentionally hurt her, but even scientists don't intend to cause pain for their lab rats. They just try to learn from them.

Her task done, Avery turned to her dogs and brushed them out thoroughly before putting it away. She found some buckets to put some grain in for the horses and filled them both up halfway before setting them down. The horses immediately scarfed down the food and she left them still munching away at their breakfast. Her dogs flanked her on either side and she felt comforted by their warmth.

They may have changed drastically, but they were still her dogs, and she still loved them. As strange as it may have sounded, Avery would have killed for her dogs and felt very protective of them, though with their sudden growth spurt and increase of power and overall intimidation, she figured they would be the ones doing the protecting from now on.

If she really wanted to, she could probably ride Diesel for a short period of time, that was how tall he was. Koda still seemed too fine boned to ride, not that she wanted to. The top of Diesel's head was now taller than her and Koda was not far behind. She wondered when they would stop growing– if they would stop growing. Diesel truly looked like a bear now, and Koda resembled a large, primordial wolf. Like back when animals were mostly megafauna during the ice age.

As Avery rounded the side of the tower, she couldn't help but look to the sky, hoping she would see the familiar flash of white in the clouds. After a moment of scanning the empty sky, she went back inside to wait.