Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling (27 page)

‘And you’re just as bad, look at you, sat there like lord almighty, but you could have done something. You could have saved her, but you didn’t, did you. You let her die. How can you live with yourself huh? Knowing you let her die like that.’

Amanda’s tears were running freely as she ranted and raved at her friend, her emotions running high and unchecked, but Gentle Water didn’t react, he let her scream and shout.

‘You got nothing to fecking say have you, you just sit there like a freak and say nothing. I hate you sometimes, you know that? I HATE YOU!’

Amanda stormed off out of the clearing, her sobs intensifying for a moment but they were quickly smothered by the forest as she ran from the clearing while Gentle Water looked on.

Amanda had been a few months past her seventeenth birthday when Georgina returned from a doctor’s appointment that would change things forever.

Amanda had opened the door to her apartment to see Georgina stood there, her hand over her mouth, her arms folded close to her body and her head lowered.

Amanda frowned in confusion, ‘are you OK?’ she asked.

Georgina’s tear filled eyes glanced up at Amanda, before she just crumpled into Amanda’s arms and broke down into almost hysterical tears. It took a long time and half a box of tissues before Georgina was calm enough to explain.

‘The results of the blood tests came in today,’ she said, ‘there was some rather unexpected news. The doctor, he said I had left it too long. It’s been ages since I had a checkup, I’ve had hundreds over the years, and nothings ever come up. I must have gotten careless, thought I was invincible or something. I’ve been feeling a little off it for a good long while now, so I thought I would get checked out.’ She was rambling, her words falling out of her, as if they had to escape.

‘You never said you were feeling ill!’ Amanda said.

‘I know, I…, I don’t know. Maybe I knew, deep down. I didn’t want to worry you, just wanted to keep on going. Ignore it and it might go away, you know? But it didn’t. So, my conscience got the better of me and I got an appointment. I got some of the results today but they want me to go back in. They need to do more tests to be sure.’

‘Sure of what? What are you talking about?’

‘They think I might be HIV positive,’ Georgina’s voice started to break as she said it, ‘AIDS Mandy,’ she sobbed, ‘they think I’ve got AIDS.’

Amanda was stunned. She wanted to say something, anything to her friend to say it’s going to be OK, but she was too shocked, she couldn’t speak, her mouth wouldn’t move. Georgina, her head in her hands, cried quietly to herself where she sat. Amanda felt the wind go from her lungs, it seemed like an age until she caught her breath and could start to think. What do you say to someone who tells you that? Nothing seemed good enough, there were no words she could say to her closest friend that wouldn’t seem like false hope.

‘FUCK!’ Shouted Georgina, slamming her fist into the plasterboard wall so hard it went right through, her knuckles started to bleed.

Her mind slowly rose from the depths of deep sleep, becoming aware of the feeling of the pillow, the covers on her body and the cosy warmth of her bed. Her mind felt contented and relaxed and she snuggled down into the softness of her mattress.

Then Amanda’s eyes snapped open as, like a very unpleasant bolt from the blue, she remembered her outburst to Gentle Water in the clearing and the terrible things she said to the only person she could really call a friend.

The pleasant feeling of her morning bed was suddenly gone and replaced by a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, as if her bed had just gone over a hump back bridge and she’d left her tummy behind.

The sinking feeling was fear, fear that she might have said something that might have really offended Gentle Water and made him pack up and leave. He seemed a sensitive soul, he had probably never been spoken to like that before, he might have decided that there was a better apprentice out there for him for all she knew.

It was a terrifying thought and as Amanda lay there in her bed she tried to remember exactly what she had said to him, but the details were sketchy, she knew she had sworn at him though, that much she felt certain about, but it didn’t make her feel any better to remember the details, it just made things worse.

She hoped he would forgive her, she hoped he would realise that things had just kind of got on top of her, which was all it had been. It was her friend’s birthday, her best friend’s birthday and although she might have passed away getting on for a year ago, those memories could still be very raw and sensitive, more sensitive then she thought they would be.

It was the realisation about the Magic she could do which did it though, which looking back was a little rash. Things happen in certain ways and at certain times, and if Gentle Water had come to her earlier, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t have given him the time of day, even when Georgina was ill in Ireland, she knew she would have seen him as just a distraction and sent him packing right away. In fact, Gentle Water had arrived at just the right time, just when she was most open and most needed what he could offer.

She had known all these things deep down yesterday as well, but yesterday had been Georgina’s birthday, and that had changed things. She hadn’t been thinking straight at all, she had been a mess.

But that didn’t excuse the way she had behaved, it didn’t mean she could get away with shouting and swearing at someone who had been nothing but nice to her over these past few months.

Amanda thought back and remembered the way that Gentle Water had been nothing but the perfect gentleman to her each and every day. He was always there for her and looked out for her at all times, he was a friend and confidant, just as good a friend as Georgina had been, and now despite all this she might have pushed things too far and pushed him away for good. He might have left in the night for all she knew, and as she listened she couldn’t hear any other movement in the small cottage.

That sinking feeling of being too late to stop it all was back and she knew she had to rectify things as soon as possible, so she jumped out of bed, pulled on a dressing gown and ran from her room almost before the covers had time to settle on the bed behind her.

She darted from her room to Gentle Waters, but he wasn’t there, his bed was made and the room was as immaculate as ever, nothing out of the ordinary there then.

So she darted from the hallway into the living room, pausing at the bathroom on her way, which was also empty, as was the living room.

Finally Amanda rushed through to the kitchen and skidded into the room on bare feet, but that too was empty, so Amanda stood there for a second in a daze until she looked out the window, and although Gentle Water wasn’t in sight, the dark green forest on the horizon seemed to beckon her towards it. As she stared out at the forest, its dark brown and green shape undulating in the wind, she hoped against hope that her instincts were right.

She turned from the window and ran back through the cottage and came to a halt outside Gentle Waters room, and with a swift second glance inside, she confirmed that all his things were still there, which meant he was most likely still around, and that she still had time.

She ran to her room and flung open the wardrobe doors, pulling out a pair of old and ripped jeans that had holes on the legs, then she grabbed a camisole top, a long sleeved top and a thicker jumper from the piles of clothes that were in there and finished off by grabbing some mis-matched underwear.

As she pulled off her bed clothes she hoped that she wasn’t going to be too late, she hoped that Gentle Water wouldn’t hold her outburst against her and turn her away.

He had every right to be angry at her for what she had said, and she fully expected that he would make her feel very uncomfortable at the very least if he stayed here with her.

Although she was at a loss to think why he might want to stay and teach someone who was prone to such outbursts from time to time.

Which wasn’t really the case at all as she really wasn’t one to have such moments of rage, she was a calm person normally, very little ruffled her feathers or made her upset in the usual scheme of things. She had a very long fuse, or so she always had thought, and it took a lot to make her angry.

But everyone has their weaknesses, and she supposed that Georgina’s death was one of hers.

She quickly pulled on her clothes and ran from the bedroom towards the front door, pulled on her sneakers and left the cottage behind, heading out towards the forest and the clearing that lay within.

The morning was very cold today, the sky was grey and overcast, which was pretty much the same as every day at the moment. The wind streamed over the hills, but although it wasn’t that strong, it still bit deep into your exposed skin, giving Amanda’s hands and face the feel of ice as she half jogged and half walked up the grassy incline.

Minutes later she sped up a little as she entered the forest and hurried through the branches and bracken.

She had made good time though, and it was now only perhaps five or ten minutes since she had first woken up and realised with horror the things she had said to her friend yesterday. As she approached the edge of the clearing, she could see the familiar figure of Gentle Water in the tall grasses practicing his Martial Arts.

Amanda slowed upon seeing him, her fears simultaneously allayed by his presence, by the fact that he hadn’t left her, but also intensified by it was well, as she knew she would have to talk to him, and although he might be here, he might be quite understandably upset with her.

He was engrossed in his training for the moment, so Amanda moved over to the tree stump and sat herself down on it while she waited for her friend and teacher to finish his routine.

Or at least she hoped he was still her friend and teacher after yesterday. She still wasn’t all that sure about things, she had only known the guy for a short while and this was the first real clash they had had in all this time. She had no idea how he might react to her, so she felt herself tense up as she watched and waited for him to come to the end of this routine.

Sheltered from the wind here in the clearing by the surrounding trees, it wasn’t quite as cold as out on the hillside so that her hands and cheeks, which were flushed red, slowly began to feel a bit better.

Gentle Water came to the end of his current sequence of moves and after holding the finishing stance for a while, he relaxed and took a few slow breaths.

Amanda stood up from her tree stump and walked over to where Gentle Water was standing. As she approached him he looked up at her with a totally blank face, waiting for her to speak first.

Amanda looked into that face, scrutinised it, looking for traces of emotion to try and gauge what Gentle Water was thinking and feeling, but he was clearly an expert in hiding his feelings and Amanda could gain nothing from his expression at all. Which meant she had to stumble on blindly in the dark, hoping that he was going to be okay with her? Amanda decided to open with an apology and get that out of the way first.

‘Um, hi there GW. I just want to say to you how sorry I am for what I said yesterday. It was wrong of…’ Amanda came to a stop mid-way through her sentence as she saw Gentle Water raise his hand and the beginnings of a smile creep into the corners of his mouth.

‘You have no need to be sorry Amanda. I understand you were feeling a little fragile yesterday with it being Georgina’s Birthday. I understand completely, you have no need to apologise.’

‘But I must. I said some horrible things to you.’

‘You were upset, I understand.’

‘Upset or not, it doesn’t excuse my behaviour, I was in the wrong.’

‘Okay Amanda, if you feel the need to make apology, then I accept it so that we might move on.’

Amanda stood there blankly for a moment, not really believing it had been this easy. His acceptance of the way she had been with him yesterday was dumbfounding to her. She had said some truly horrible things to him.

‘Are you sure?’

‘I’m sure.’

‘But, I said I hated you…’

‘Yes you did, but you did not mean it did you?’

‘No, no I didn’t.’

‘Then all is well and there is nothing further to discuss.’

She had been steeling herself for a much worse reaction then this, and now, as the feeling of tenseness flowed from her, and she began to relax, she realised just what a great friend Gentle Water was to her.

‘So, you’re not going to stop teaching me?’

‘I will continue to teach you the ways of Magic and the Art of the Phoenix.’

‘No punishments or anything?’

‘No, I would never punish you for any reason, and certainly not for being emotional. That would be wrong.’

She let out a sigh of relief. ‘I was so worried when I woke up this morning and remembered what I’d said to you.’

Gentle Water nodded, and Amanda could feel her emotions rising.

‘I thought you might have gone, when I couldn’t find you in the house. I panicked and thought you might have left me to fend for myself.’

‘Never.’

Amanda couldn’t hold it back any more, her emotion got the better of her and she felt the tears fall from her eyes and her sobs fighting to break free.