*The Chronicles of F.R.E.E. Atania's Knight - Raquel Festow* Part 1

Chapter 6 - Dean and Hewitt

Chelsea came into my room shortly after Perkins had left, saying she had a surprise for me.
"I think you're going to love it!" She beamed as she slighty stepped out of the way and a chair on wheels came in through the door. Glinting grey eyes and beautiful blonde hair came into view.
"CLARA!" I squealed, leaping off the bed and running to her side.
She grinned widely and wrapped her bruised arms around me slowly, grunting in pain a little.
"Are you ok?" I asked her, looking at her face that was just as bruised and beaten as mine, but her Aura was gleaming.
She nodded. "I'm ok. They don't have a Health potion, Raquel. How are we going to get back if we can't heal?"
I looked at Chelsea and Audrey, who had pushed the chair on wheels into the room, before looking back at Clara. "I have it under control." I winked at her mischeviously.
Audrey and Chelsea left Clara in my room for me to catch up with her.
"It's all very straight here. I feel they don't live by the circle, nor by the lands it seems." Clara said, looking around her.
"I know, but it's a lovely place, here! I had a man called Perkins visit me. He taught me the magic of the black box Clemency Moreno was using when I threw the bowl at her. It's called a phone and you can use it to speak to people who are far far away." I told her dramatically.
Clara's eyes widened. "How does that work?"
"Like I said, it's magic!" I winked. "There will be two ladies who will be bringing potions to us, by the way. Their names are Dean and Hewitt. But I don't feel like we should tell Chelsea and Audrey about them. They, along with Perkins, survived being in Astrovia."
Clara gasped. "No..." She breathed in amazement.
I nodded energetically. "Yeah, and..." I leaned forwards from the edge of my bed to whisper into Clara's ear. "Those knights we saw, with the glowing red swords, they are the FREE!"
Clara screamed and leapt to her feet, her hands gripping my shoulders as she started jumping up and down with me in delight.
"I knew it! I knew they were real!" She squealed, pulling me into a tight hug. "Oh, Raquel. They saved our Realm! I really hope they killed that woman who told the men to beat us."
"The ladies that are coming have met Clemency Moreno too. They know all about the Realms, so I hope they'll be able to tell us more information on how Atania is doing." I gave her the biggest smile my face had ever created.
"I hope they're all ok." Clara whispered, looking down with worry.
"If the knights of FREE were there, they will be!" I assured her, confidently.
"What about your parents? Can you still feel them?" Clara said, nervously.
I nodded. "They're alive, and with the FREE wanting to help us, I'm sure they'll find them and soon!"
We sat and chatted excitedly about the differences between the Realms, about what had happened, about the stories of FREE that we had been told, and I told her more about the people I had spoken to through Perkins phone. There was a knocking on the door.
"Relxa?" We called out together. The door opened and Dean and Hewitt emerged, both smiling widely as they saw me with Clara. I was overjoyed to finally meet them and see their Aura's were blindingly bright gold too.
I stood up straight as they walked in. "Relxa, Dean and Hewitt," I said as I bowed to them slightly. "This is my fazeeb, Clara. There is also Xavier, but he is really in need of those potions, I think. Men don't like pain."
Dean and Hewitt bowed back to me, awkwardly. I could see they were trying to be polite and it made me feel proud of them for trying to be part of our community, even though we were invading on theirs.
"Shall we get these potions sorted then?" Dean chuckled, and walked to the bottom of the bed and pulled out a round bottle that was full of green Health potion.
Clara snatched it out of her hands.
"You could heal your whole village with this! Why haven't you shared it?" She asked Dean in wonder, looking closely at the potion.
"Because our village has a lot of people in it. Too many to count really. That wouldn't be enough to heal this one floor." Dean said sadly. "Then we would need some more, but we don't have the ingredients on Earth."
Clara looked at me, her face long and sad. "How awful."
I nodded at her, sorrowfully. "It's very sad that they haven't got those here. They really need them judging that they need a 'hosp ee tall'." I said.
"What are those things on your nose?" Clara asked Dean.
"Oh... These are called glasses." Dean told her.
"Why? Are your eyes thirsty?" Clara said curiously.
Dean and Hewitt laughed. Clara and I looked at each other, confused.
"No, these are so I can see." Dean spluttered out between her laughs.
"Why don't you just use the Visual Remedy potion?" I asked with a straight face.
Dean and Hewitt looked at each other. Dean looked back at me, sheepishly.
"I didn't actually think to use it for that. I am just so used to them."
"It would save money on contacts for our dates?" Hewitt said to Dean, smirking.
Dean gave her a nudge. "Anyway, let's get you two fixed up, huh?"
She pulled out a spoon and gently took the Health potion out of Clara's hands. She tipped some of the thick liquid onto the spoon and turned back to Clara.
"Here comes the Airplane."
"What's an air-" Clara tried to ask before the spoon was shoved in her mouth. She pulled a face as she forced herself to swallow.
Dean took the spoon back and tipped out more potion onto it. I knew this was for me so I walked over and stood beside her, my mouth open obediently.
She didn't notice me there until she went to offer me the spoon. She jumped before bursting out laughing.
"Fuck sake, Watson! Don't do that!"
I frowned at her and shook my head. "I really need to meet this Watson." I mumbled, looking over my shoulder at Clara.
Clara shrugged back at me. "Don't look at me. You look like Raquel to me."
"I'm sorry." Dean said, lowering her arm with the spoon in it. "It's just been so long since we saw her and you look so much like her."
I realised her hand was starting to slack and the spoon and potion would end up on the floor, so I quickly grabbed the spoon from her and put it in my mouth. I pulled the spoon back out and clamped my hand over my mouth, forcing myself to swallow the sickly liquid. Once it was down, a familiar warmth spread from my stomach through my entire body and I closed my eyes, allowing myself to enjoy the feeling.
Once the comforting warmth had left my body, I sighed happily and opened my eyes. Dean and Hewitt were staring at me with raised eyebrows while Clara was checking herself over.
"Ahhhh, that's much better!" I breathed happily. "Rac iai, Dean and Hewitt."
They nodded back, amused smiles on their faces. I lifted my hand to my head to check it over and felt my hair all matted. I groaned.
"You wouldn't have a brush, would you?" I asked Dean and Hewitt.
Hewitt dug inside her bag and handed me a paddle hair brush.
"Rac iai. I'll be right back, may take a while." I said and walked over to the lavatory door. I opened it carefully in case it decided to lash out at me again, then sighed in relief when it opened.
"It attacked you too?!" Clara blurted out.
"I think you'll find, she attacked the door." Dean sniggered.
I ignored them and closed the door gingerly behind me. I looked in the mirror and grinned back at my reflection when I saw all the bruises and cuts had disappeared. I carefully spent time on straightening my hair with the brush, forcing the brush through the matted parts, before braiding it and allowing it to hang over my back. The ends of my hair tickled the back of my bare knees and it made me giggle a little bit. Finally feeling myself, I opened the door again and went back out to the others.
Dean and Hewitt gaped at me when I appeared.
"Oh my god... Your hair is so long!" Hewitt gasped.
"I know." I said, smugly. "Unbraided, it almost reaches my ankles. I have to braid it though. It gets in the way when I do my Emotional and Tension Releases."
Clara gasped, her hands covering her mouth. "Raquel, we are so very bad! We haven't done our Releases!"
Hewitt and Dean suddenly started objecting.
"Honestly, it's fine. You don't have to do them here!" Hewitt said, shaking her hands in front of her.
"We have to go and see Xavier, remember? He still needs to take the potion." Dean reminded us.
We nodded, Clara looking suspiciously at them. I put my hand on her upper arm and shook my head. I knew she couldn't see the Aura's like I could and needed reassurance that they were gold, not red or purple.
Hewitt left to ask where Xavier's room was while Dean put the bottles back in the bag.
"I did bring the red potion too, but I don't think you two need it." She chuckled as she hoisted the bag over her shoulder.
I shook my head. "Nah, we don't need it, but Xavier might."
Hewitt returned with Chelsea who screamed when she saw us.
"HOW?!" She cried out. She rushed forward to push me back on the bed and pulled a strap around my arm. She pressed something on the top of a machine box and the strap blew up like a lung getting tighter around my arm. She put a hand on her hip as she tapped her foot impatiently, looking alarmed that I had healed so quickly.
The box gave three long tweets and she looked at it closer, eyes huge.
"Normal..." She gasped in amazement. She then took the strap off my arm and pulled Clara to the bed and did the same to her.
"How?" She said in wonder, staring at us.
"Atanian potions." I said simply. "It's amazing what you can do when you know the full properties of herbs and plants. Even Astrovia has them thanks to Penelope Moreno. You really need to do some experimenting with your plants."
I raised an eyebrow at her, skeptically. She stared back, her red lips parted.
Hewitt cleared her throat. "Shall we go and see Xavier?"

Chelsea decided she had to see the potion working for herself to believe it, so led us to where Xavier's room was along a long white hall with chairs on either side.
"Haven't you people ever heard of a circle around here?" Clara said, disgusted with all the oblongs and squares we were seeing.
"Of course we have. It just all fits better as squares." Hewitt audibly rolled her eyes and making a fool of Clara.
I looked at her sharply. "You need to understand, the circle is an important part of our lifestyles on Atania. As are our Releases and rituals. I will not accept you making a mockery of our traditions." I warned her.
Hewitt looked taken aback by my reaction. "I didn't mean it like that." She said, apologetically.
I studied her Aura to see if she was being sincere. She was.
"We accept your apology. Please bear this in mind for the future." I nodded my head before walking to the door that Chelsea was waiting at.
"You sounded so much like Elder Quincy then." Clara giggled.
I giggled too. Elder Quincy had made sure that the people of Alzicante and Wacchica took our traditions of Rituals, Releases and dances seriously, making them a daily part of our routines. Although he passed away when we were younger, we always remembered the way he spoke about it and how passionate he was.
I opened the door and felt my heart drop seeing Xavier laying very still on his bed, his eyes were closed and he had a strange triangular orb over his face. The machine boxes were tweeting at a steady pace and his breathing looked even and rythmic. His face was pale underneath his bruises and there was a large scar on his forehead.
I ran to his side, holding my arm back wanting Dean to pass me the bottle and spoon. She did so and I looked at Clara to wake him up while I poured out the potion onto the spoon.
"Xavier? Fazeeb? It's us..." She said tenderly, patting his shoulder softly. He didn't move.
"Let me do it." I said, disdainfully, handing her the spoon carefully.
She took it and stepped back to join Dean, Hewitt and Chelsea as they watched.
I studied him for a moment, looking for a sign he was already awake and checked that his Aura hadn't dulled in anyway before pulling back and slapping him on the arm.
"Wake up, you lazy fucker!" I shouted and he jumped awake.
Dean, Hewitt, Clara and Chelsea all cried out as if they were going to try and stop me when I looked at them.
"He was already awake. Just being lazy." I told them before smirking at Xavier who smirked back.
"I was almost asleep you know." He said, taking the see through triangle off his face.
I scoffed. "Yeah, ok. I can see right through your jokes, Xavier. Your Aura doesn't lie to me, you cheeky wotsit." I chuckled.
He laughed, childishly then started coughing and raised his hand to his mouth. When he pulled it away there was blood.
I stared in horror. "They really hurt you that bad?" I whispered taking his hand to look at the blood.
He grunted and nodded. I looked at Clara and reached out to take the spoon from her. I held the spoon and Xavier obediently took the spoonful of green potion. While he forced himself to swallow, I took the red potion out of the bag and put it onto the spoon.
"Open." I instructed him and he obliged.
As soon as the potions kicked in, Xavier leapt out of bed and picked me up, spinning me around on the spot.
"I feel AMAZING!" He celebrated and I giggled delightfully.
He put me down and started doing a happy jig that Clara joined in with, laughing happily. I made to go join them myself, but Dean pulled me to them.
"Is he your boyfriend?" She whispered.
"Who? Xavier?" I asked shocked. She nodded.
I looked at Xavier who had a huge grin across his face as he danced with Clara, chortling happily.
I shook my head. "He's a friend, and he's a boy, but he's not my boyfriend. We get told who our soulmates are by the Elders when we turn sixteen."
"What?!" Hewitt gasped. "You get told who to love?"
"Like an arranged marriage?!" Dean blanched.
"Noooo." I sniggered. "It's not arranged. It's fate."
"How would they know your fate?" Chelsea scoffed.
I glared at her. "It is written in your Aura's. For example, you two were meant to meet and fall in love." I looked at Dean and Hewitt. "When you find each other, your Aura's branch out and connect to one another effectively meaning you're soulmates. We call it a latch." I smiled at them as they looked at each other.
"What does my Aura say?" Chelsea asked me.
I took a step closer and studied her Aura. It's hazy gold colour branched out for me and reached upwards into the ceiling. I closed my eyes and let my Aura follow it. It went upwards until it stopped at a man in a bed four rooms above us. The man looked very sickly, and he had no hair on his head.
I opened my eyes. "Your soulmate is four rooms above us but he's very sick." I explained, sadly. "I could lend you some potion to help him if you wish?"
Chelsea's eyes were huge again and her mouth gaped open like a fish. She stayed like that for such a long time, Xavier and Clara had finished their dance. I felt disappointed that I couldn't join them.
"Chelsea? Are you ok?" Clara said, waving her hand in front of her face.
Chelsea seemed to come back to her senses and gulped as she looked around at us all. She nodded at me and I grinned.
"I need a small bottle to give you some and you can take some to him." I explained and Chelsea nodded again before looking in a cabinet in Xaviers room and producing another small cup.
I took the cup, giving her a toothy smile of excitement, and poured some potion into it.
"Actually, it might be worth having an Energy one too. He looked quite tired and fragile."
She got another cup out and I filled that with the red potion too before handing them to her.
"These don't taste very nice, but that's because they're made naturally. Can't add sweetness as it will ruin the effect. He must swallow and hold it down. If he doesn't, he will need to take it again." I informed her.
She nodded again and dashed out of the room without saying a word. I watched her go with my hands on my hips before turning to Xavier and Clara.
"Did I miss out on the dance?" I asked them sadly. They laughed and started again for me, with Dean and Hewitt watching with wary looks on their faces.