Cured (21 page)

After what seemed like hours of being nudged
and sniffed by the creature, Theo appeared and threw his arms
around the deer’s neck. The animals turned from where they were
encircling Felix and watched Theo. Suddenly they began to stampede
towards him.

“
Plan?”
y
elled Ellina, the bird finally leaving
her to help the rest of the animals fight Theo.

“Nope.” I replied.

“Well clearly fighting them doesn’t work.
It’s a shame we don’t have a carrot.”

Seeing that Theo had mounted the deer, the
animals came to a halt, eyeing him up suspiciously. They were
trained to kill humans, but they were trained to protect the deer.
So they stood, waiting. Preparing to charge Theo the moment he
dismounted.

“A carrot?” I asked.

“
Yeah you
know the saying.
” Ellina whispered, as
she tiptoed behind the creatures, not wanting to alert them to her
presence, “About the mule either needing a stick or a
carrot.”

We looked at her bewildered.

She sighed.
“The stick represents a threat. And if the threat doesn’t work,
which clearly it hasn’t, then the only way to get the mule to move
is to dangle a carrot in front of it as an incentive.”

Then it hit me. I finally had a plan. I ran
to Ellina, threw my arms around her neck and squeezed.

“Not the time for cuddles Ave! And girl, you
are strong for a Norm!” She pushed me away from her and readied
herself for battle against the animals that encircled Theo and the
doe. I reached into my pocket.

“Why didn’t I think of it before?!” I
exclaimed.

“You mean a carrot?” Felix asked,
confused.

“Yeah!” I said. “Well no, not exactly a
carrot, but an incentive. I wondered why the deer kept nudging my
side. It was because I have a sweet in my pocket!”

“
Riiiight.”
Said Felix, as he watched the animals surround Theo, who sat
mounted atop the deer, warily eyeing up the other creatures, “And
why is that of any importance at this moment?”

“When I was young I used to feed the doe my
after dinner sweets!” I said as I unwrapped the cough lozenge that
I had spat back into its wrapper and held it in the palm of my
hand. The deer sniffed again and turned to face me. Theo frowned,
his arms still gripped around the animal’s neck. The stampede
parted as the deer moved towards me. It stopped a few meters from
me, and I closed the distance, slowly, arm outstretched, lolly on
palm. Theo’s eyes were squeezed shut as he held on for his
life.

Hesitantly,
the deer bowed its head, sniffing at the sweet, before gently
plucking the lolly from my hand. As it sucked on the lolly, I began
to scratch its ears again. Theo opened his eyes as shot me an
‘are-you-insane’ look. I motioned for him to dismount. I was sure
the deer remembered me now, so I would be the most logical rider.
Theo slid off the doe, eyebrows raised. I threw my arms over its
neck and dragged myself onto the animal’s back, still petting its
head. The other animals stood still, watching the encounter. I
squeezed my heels into the deer’s side as my Aunt had taught me,
and the doe began to walk smoothly, back through the pathway that
the other animals had created. It continued walking until we
reached the back of my Aunt’s house, where a barn stood. The deer
strode into the barn and stopped in front of a harness that hung on
the wooden wall. I twisted on the animal’s back, thighs clenched
around its torso to keep my balance, and pulled the harness from
its hook. I pried open the doe’s mouth and placed the bit inside,
wrapping some leather straps around its ears and holding the reigns
tight. I slid off the deer’s back and landed on my feet, still
holding the reigns, and tightening a strap around the animal’s
belly.

Satisfied that the harness was on correctly,
I led the creature from the barn and back towards my friends, who
stood bunched together, eyes locked on the angry animals. As I
approached, the rest of the creatures turned and watched me walk
the deer, leading it by its reigns. This seemed to trigger
something in them, because they all began to disperse, no longer
interested in protecting the doe. Theo started a slow clap as I
reached the group, and I smiled, dropping into a low bow. I stood
again, and the smile was wiped from my face when I saw Felix. His
arms were covered in bruises, and his eye was swollen shut. Blood
trickled from his nose and his lip. I cursed.

“Felix!” I dropped the reigns and wrapped my
arms around him lightly, not wanting to hurt him further.

“
Next time…
you’re the distraction.” Felix said, before coughing and spitting
out a wad of blood.

“You were stupid Felix.” Ellina said.

“
Jeez,” said
Felix with a hint of sarcasm, “No thank you's, or
‘you’re-my-hero’s’? there’s just not pleasing this
girl.”

“
Brave,
” said Ellina with a little
smile. “You were brave, but stupid.”

“HA!” laughed Felix. “You were worried! You
thought I was going to die and you were scared for me! I knew she
cared!” He threw his hands up in celebration, but quickly brought
them back down, wincing in pain as he coughed and spit up more
blood.

We started to laugh, when I noticed the deer
walking away. I dashed after it and picked up its reigns. It kept
tugging.

“Maybe it wants us to follow it?” Ellina
suggested. I nodded and we walked after the animal, back down the
mountain. It started to get dark but he deer showed no sign of
stopping.

“We don’t have much daylight left.” Theo
said. “But I thinks its best we don’t stop until we get to wherever
we are going.”

“You think we should run?” Felix asked

“
You two jump
on its back,” h
e said. “Ellina and I can
run alongside.”

Felix mounted
the deer, and held out his hand to drag me up after him. I dug my
heels into the animal’s sides and we took off. The deer was fast.
Everything moved by in a blur of colours, and I squeezed my arms
around Felix’s waist to stay on. No more than fifteen minutes later
we came to a stop, Ellina and Theo skidded to a halt beside us. We
were in front of a tall hedge. I looked up. It was less of a hedge
and more of an enormous wall of dense foliage, stretching high into
the sky.

Theo touched it hesitantly, “What is
this?”

Felix and I dismounted the animal and it
nudged my shoulder lightly, before turning and dashing away.

“
I was
getting attached to that little guy,” said Felix “Where is he
going?”

Theo shrugged. “I’d imagine he has to get
back to his paddock to let Axil and Cecilia try to catch him.

“
Guys look!”
y
elled Ellina, who had wandered away in
her inspection of the hedge. We followed her, and looked to where
she was pointing. There was a gap in the foliage, and a walkway
made out of more hedging.

“
A
labyrinth,
” said Theo “The next task that
Hercules faced was the boar. I am guessing the monster is somewhere
in this maze.”

“Maybe we should set up camp for the night,
and tackle the maze tomorrow?” said Ellina.

We all agreed, the exhaustion from the day
hitting me and causing me to yawn loudly.

“
Ill go find
something to cook,” said Theo, as Ellina began preparing to light a
fire.

“
Good man,”
s
aid Felix. “I’ll sit here and do
nothing.”

“
Big surprise
there.” Ellina grumbled.

“
Hey!” said
Felix, a hand over
his heart in mock
heartache, “I am an injured soldier! Have some empathy
woman!”

I groaned,
unable to put up with their constant bickering. “Wait for me Theo,
I’m coming with you!”

I ran to
catch up to him. We walked for about ten minutes, following the
hedging when he stopped me, clapping a hand over my mouth. He
pointed to the top of the hedge where a group of pigeons sat cooing
quietl
y. He dropped to his knees, and
foraged on the ground, before standing up with a handful of stones.
Holding his finger to his lips again to remind me to keep quiet, he
tossed one of the pebbles. The throw looked as though it had cost
him no effort, but he hit his target, a good twenty meters above
him, and the pigeon wavered and toppled over, falling off the hedge
and landing at my feet. Before the other birds even knew what was
happening, Theo had thrown two more stones. I gathered the three
feathered bodies that lay on the ground, trying not to show my
amazement so I wouldn’t build his ego further.

We walked in silence for a while. I slid a
side-glance at Theo, who was wearing a self-satisfied smirk.

“What’s with the smugness?” I asked

“Come on.” Theo elbowed my side. “You’ve
gotta admit that was pretty cool.”

I laughed, “Meh. I could’ve done it.”

“Please, you couldn’t even throw a ball
through a hoop a few years ago! Let alone knock out a pigeon with a
pebble twenty meters away.”

I shrugged, remembering how he used to laugh
at my inability to score any goals against him on my backyard
basketball court. “Well I have been practicing! And I happen to be
a very talented basket baller now.”

“I call liar.”

I laughed. “Okay fine. I am terrible at
aiming. But who tamed the deer today?”

Theo nodded, “Yeah okay, I will give you that
one.”

We neared the campsite and I stopped in my
tracks. I knew the time wasn’t right, but Theo’s weird behaviour
about our past had been bugging me since I talked to him at
training. “Theo.” I said.

He turned to look at me, his eyebrow raised,
“Yeah, princess?”

I scowled at the nickname and regrouped my
thoughts, “Why do you not want me telling anyone about when we were
friends on Olympia?”

Theo looked at the ground and shuffled his
feet, but didn’t answer my question.

“Theo?” I asked again. He remained
silent.

“Hey.” I touched his shoulder lightly. “I get
it if you don’t want to talk about it. It must’ve been a really
hard time.”

Theo met my
gaze again and shrugged. “Can we talk about it another time?” he
asked. His voice was so soft compared to his usual tone, and my
heart hurt for him. Guilt consumed me all over again. It was my
fault that his family was broken. I gave him a light hug and we
kept walking. Finally we reached the other two, who were sitting at
Ellina’s impressive fire, warming their hands and
laughing.

Theo prepared
the birds for cooking while Felix retold an exaggerated version of
the story of how he had managed to distract the animals during the
challenge earlier that day. It might have been the exhaustion or
the fact that we hadn’t eaten in a while, but we all agreed that
the pigeon dinner was of restaurant quality, and polished off all
of the meat easily. After we had eaten, Ellina put out the fire and
we fell asleep almost immediately.

Chapter 24

I awoke to Theo shaking my shoulders, his
face very close to mine.

“
I am
starting to really resent letting you come with us, Theodore,” I
moaned. “The bloody sun isn’t even up.”

“
We have to
get moving!” Ellina said brightly. “We don’t want to get stuck in
darkness in that maze.”

Realiz
ing she was right, I rolled
over and clambered to my feet.

“
Fine.” I
said, combing my fingers through my matted hair, well aware of
Theo’s eyes on me.
For a moment I wished
I had a mirror so that I could sort my appearance, then I mentality
slapped myself for being so pathetically shallow. Get a grip Avery.
Felix was already standing, but his squinted eyes suggested that he
was about as enthusiastic about getting up at dawn as I was. I shot
him a grimace, and he returned the expression, before Theo took my
hand and dragged me through the labyrinth entrance.

We walked for
about ten minutes, following the hedge’s path without having to
make any decisions, before we hit a fork intersection.

“Left or right?” Theo asked me.

“Why do I have to decide?”

“Well one of us does, we’re not splitting up,
or we’ll never find each other.”

“Left.” I said.

“Maybe we should leave some sort of marker.
So that we know if we end up going in a circle?” Ellina said.

“
Good idea,”
s
aid Theo, looking around for some token
to leave. We all emptied our backpacks, but found nothing that
could be left behind. Then Theo pulled his shirt over his head, and
easily began to tear strips off the bottom of it. He made it appear
as though he were shredding paper instead of the thick polar fleece
our pullovers were made from.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

Theo tied one
of the strips to the hedge, on the left side of the intersection,
to signal that we had chosen to turn left at the fork. He turned to
me and smiled cheekily. I felt my jaw drop, and I swear he flexed
his muscles.

“Do you have a problem with this method
Avery?”

I choked. “Absolutely not.”

“Didn’t think so.” He winked as I struggled
to regain my breath. Stupid boy.

We continued to weave our way through the
maze, turning left at every intersection, when we hit a dead
end.

“
This is
gonna take forever,
” Felix
groaned.

“And I’ve run out of shirt. I don’t want to
tear up my spare one.”

“I guess Felix will just have to use his…”
Ellina said in a bad attempt at innocence.