The Protectors: Book 1 in the Protectors Saga (21 page)

Jade and Bunny ran towards each other. Before they
met in the middle, Bunny vaulted over Jade. This surprised Jade as
much as it did the other girls. None of them figured Bunny would
have the foresight to do a move like that. Jade was shocked, and
the half a second it took her to recover from her shocked state
cost her. Bunny landed facing Jade and managed to backhand her
along the side of her skull before Jade could defend herself. Jade
tripped sideways shaking her head. Bunny advanced on Jade. She
lifted her sword to swipe at Jade’s side, but this time Jade was
ready for Bunny’s attack. Jade lifted her elbow up to deflect the
blow; then gave Bunny a hard side kick to her midsection. The kick
caused Bunny to flail backwards, giving Jade a chance to go on the
attack. As Bunny righted herself, Jade whacked the sword away from
Bunny’s hand with her own sword. Once Bunny’s sword was on the
ground, Jade laid a hard roundhouse kick on Bunny, causing her to
fall face first onto the ground. Jade reached down and grabbed
Bunny by the back of her shirt, preparing to flip her over, but
before Jade could do anything, Bunny spun herself over and hit Jade
hard on the side of her head with her fist. Jade backed away
clutching her head, a trail of blood was beginning to run down her
face.

The girls gasped at the sight of the blood. It hadn’t
seemed like Bunny’s punch could have caused such a bloody wound,
but when Avery looked over to Bunny, she saw Bunny clutching a good
sized rock in the fist she had struck Jade with. A flash of the
Alex Marquez incident from their youth popped into Avery’s
mind.

As Jade was still clutching at her head, Bunny rolled
forward on the ground; knocking Jade over. Bunny picked up her
sword from where Jade had knocked it away from her, walked over to
Jade, stood over her, and placed the tip of her wooden sword on
Jade’s neck.

“Too bad for you, but you’re dead.” Bunny said,
smirking, looking down at Jade.

The girls stood silent, holding their breath, shocked
at what they had just seen. Little Bunny had actually defeated Jade
in a one on one fight. Of course, she had pummeled Jade in the head
with a rock to win. Avery wasn’t sure if she was more shocked
because Bunny had actually won, or because Bunny had done something
bordering on dangerously vicious to win.

Jade snatched the sword away from Bunny and stood up
in one fluid movement.

“Bunny!” Jade growled savagely, advancing on Bunny,
clutching the sword like she was about to strike her with it, “What
the hell was that?!”

“I’m sorry.” Bunny said meekly, backing away from
Jade. She had transformed back to her usual submissive self. All
signs of the formidable warrior Jade had faced were gone, “I really
didn’t mean to hit you with the rock. When I landed on the ground I
just…”

“You just what?” Jade angrily interrupted her, “You
just unwittingly grabbed onto a rock and accidentally knocked me on
the side of the head with it?!”

Jade lifted up the wooden sword a little more, and
Avery was sure she was going to hit Bunny with it.

“Alright, alright,” Gumptin said, stepping in between
them as tears began to form in Bunny’s eyes, “Jade, just calm down.
I never said you could not use foreign objects to fight with. In a
real battle, if you are weaponless, a rock is a perfectly
acceptable means to defend yourself. However,” he looked towards
Bunny, “I would discourage from using such tactics against your
fellow Protectors.” He gave Bunny an anxiously unsure look.

Bunny nodded in agreeance and assured Gumptin and
Jade it would never happen again.

Jade threw the sword down, “Unbelievable.” She said
in disgust, walking back over to Avery.

“I guess Bunny was out for blood…literally.” Skylar
told Jade, staring at the red stain on her face.

Avery took out a crumpled unused tissue she had stuck
in her pocket before she left her house and handed it to Jade to
help clean herself up. There was a lot of blooding running down her
face, but the wound itself didn’t look too bad.

“Well, since Bunny won,” Gumptin scrunched up his
face, “however controversial, that means Avery and Bunny will fight
each other.”

Avery stepped into the circle and glanced around the
ground, searching for any visible rocks. The last thing she was
going to do was let Bunny near any of them. Across from her, Bunny
seemed to have gotten over inadvertently slicing Jade’s head open.
She looked ready and determined.

Avery and Bunny circled each other for a minute,
getting closer and closer. When they were only inches apart, Bunny
thrust her sword towards Avery’s stomach. Avery deflected it with a
swipe of her own sword. Then, Bunny went on the attack. She struck
left with her sword, swiped right, thrust, and swiped left. Avery
deflected the blows, but Bunny’s aggression was throwing her off.
After watching Bunny defeat Jade, she had known going into the
fight that Bunny was a much better fighter than she would have ever
given her credit for, but her tenacity was something Avery hadn’t
been prepared for.

Bunny brought her sword up and attempted to bring it
down on Avery’s shoulder. She struck left, right, left again, and
finally straight down on Avery’s head. Avery managed to stop each
blow. Getting tired of being on the defensive, she took a step
backwards and threw her sword from her right hand to her left.
Avery watched as Bunny’s eyes followed her sword from her right to
left hand, and in that fraction of a second that Bunny took her
eyes off of Avery’s right hand, Avery closed it into a fist and
clocked Bunny hard on the left side of her face. The few seconds it
took Bunny to collect herself allowed Avery to handspring away from
her and into an offensive position. Bunny shook her head, as if she
was trying to wipe Avery’s punch away. Bunny charged towards Avery,
and Avery let her get within just a few feet before her body made
the unconscious decision to fling her sword at Bunny. The sword
sailed through the air before striking Bunny directly in her chest,
knocking her to the ground.

“Oh, yes!” Jade cheered from the sidelines, “Too bad
for you, Bunny, but I think you’re dead!”

Avery walked over to where Bunny was laying on the
ground, on her back, and offered Bunny her hand, “You ok?” She
asked, hoping her blow hadn’t hurt Bunny.

Bunny smiled and grabbed onto Avery’s hand, pulling
herself up, “I’ll live.” She told Avery, “I lost to you, which is a
hundred times better than losing to Jade.”

“Very well done, both of you.” Gumptin said, smiling
broader than he had all day, “Now, you may put everything
away.”

The girls weren’t thrilled about having to put away
all the weapons and other equipment, but they knew that once they
did, they would be that much closer to being able to go home, and
that made them ecstatic.

The girls placed all of the weapons away back into
the large storage pit, then began trying to un-stake the target
dummies from the ground. As Avery was helping Jade loosen one of
the heavy metal stakes, her eyes glanced over to the black stone
altar in the center of the clearing. She had been practicing around
it all day, but now as she stared at it, she began to wonder why it
was even there and what purpose it served. With all the misery
Gumptin had put them through throughout the day; she hadn’t had a
moment of calm to think about it.

When they had un-staked the targets, Avery let the
other girls carry them back to the pit. She walked over to the
altar in order get a better look at it. The black stones that the
altar was made from were smooth, like river rocks. The altar,
itself, stood as tall as Avery’s waist, and the broad metal bowl
attached to the altar reached her chest.

Gumptin meandered over to Avery, watching Avery
examine the altar.

“What exactly is this, Gumptin?” Avery asked, walking
around the altar, letting her fingers delicately brush the green
moss growing on it.

“That is the Elysianth altar.” Gumptin answered her,
“I told you this clearing was powerful, well this is the epicenter
of the power. It is where someone with the skill and knowledge of
the old magic would perform a spell or ritual to harness or tap
into the power of Elysianth.”

Avery tilted her head and looked into the oversized
metal bowl connected to the top of it. She didn’t really expect to
find anything in it, except maybe a few leaves and some dust.
That’s why when she saw the ashy remnants of something having been
burnt she was surprised.

“Do people use this to light fires in?” Avery asked
Gumptin, wondering if maybe that’s what the Protector’s used the
altar for if they were ever out there at night.

“What?!” Gumptin said, a bit more loud and abrupt
than Avery thought necessary, “This altar has not been used for at
least a century.”

Avery snorted, “Well,” she said, running her index
finger through the burnt debris, “somebody used it as a fire pit
not too long ago.”

Gumptin rushed over and stood directly next to Avery.
Avery took a small step to her left, so that he wouldn’t be
plastered against her leg.”

“What is in there?” Gumptin sounded anxious, “What do
you see?” He stood on his tip-toes trying to see into the bowl, but
barely made it eye level to the top of the altar, let alone, the
bowl.

Avery glanced at Gumptin, curious as to why he was
acting so paranoid, “Nothing, really,” Avery told him, “just burnt
stuff. I have no idea what it was, maybe paper or leaves.”

Avery continued to swish her fingers through the ash
in the bowl. All of a sudden, her finger hit something solid.

“Hold on a second,” Avery said, reaching both her
thumb and index finger in and pulling out the object, “I think I
found something.”

Next to her, Gumptin moved around nervously,
impatiently waiting to see what she had found.

Avery pulled it out and dusted it off, still not
quite sure of what it was. She continued brushing the gray ash off
and turning the thin finger-length object around in her hand. Then,
in a flash, she realized what it was. It was a blackened and
burned, thin, finger-length bone.

“Ewwww!” Avery exclaimed, dropping the bone on the
ground and quickly wiping her hand off on her pants.

Gumptin immediately bent down and snatched up the
bone off of the ground. He looked the bone up and down carefully.
When he brought it up to his nose and sniffed it, Avery thought she
might throw up. Gumptin tucked the bone away securely in one of the
tiny fabric pouches he had hanging on his belt.

“Was there anything else in there?” He asked, “Any
bits of flesh?”

“Flesh?!” Avery hollered, “Gross….I don’t know,
everything’s burnt away except that icky little bone.”

“This is very unusual.” Gumptin said, more to himself
than to Avery, “A spell cast here involving a bird bone cannot be a
good thing.”

Avery continued wiping the ash off on her pants,
“Spells, and bird bones,” Avery griped, “you magical people are
just freaky. What do you think happened here?”

Gumptin shook his head, “I am not sure. I will have
to consult the Elementals; only they would know.”

Avery didn’t have near enough energy to listen to
Gumptin talk about Elementals and spells performed in sacred
places. She could tell that Gumptin was concerned about whatever
had happened here, but she also knew that Gumptin was one of the
most diligent and dogged beings she had ever met. Whatever had
happened, she knew Gumptin would figure it out.

“Fine, you’ll talk to the Elementals. Can we please,
please just leave now?” Avery walked over to join the other girls
finishing up putting everything away.

Avery threw one last wooden sword into the pit, then
covered the hole up with the large canvas and helped spread debris
on top of it, making sure it was camouflaged, something Gumptin
said was very important. By the time they had finished with
everything, the sun was beginning to set in the sky, giving a deep
purple glow to the now empty clearing.

“Very good,” Gumptin told them when they had
finished, “now, follow me.”

It was only because Gumptin started walking in the
direction of the village that the girls did as he asked.

The walk back to the village seemed to go on forever.
Avery’s body fought her the whole way. After twelve hours of the
most grueling work Avery had ever done, her body demanded she lay
down and stop using it. She tried to keep her mind on her soft
comfy bed and a warm shower, just to give her enough motivation to
follow Gumptin back to the village.

When they did finally make it back to the village,
the girls began to disperse in their separate ways, not one of them
saying or waving goodbye.

Gumptin was still walking ahead of them, and without
even turning around to see that they were each on their own paths
to go home, he said, “Before you return to your homes, I need the
five of you to follow me.” Before any of the girls had a chance to
protest, Gumptin added, “You can come with me tonight, or you can
come with me tomorrow after you have trained for an extra hour
added on for not coming with me tonight.”

Avery groaned. From where she stood she was able to
see her house. There was smoke coming out of the side metal chimney
and warm yellow lights shining out from the bottom floor windows.
She could even see her balcony, protruding out from the large tree
trunk in the growing darkness. Avery knew just beyond that balcony
was her room, and in that room was a bed that she longed for more
than she had ever remembered longing for anything in her life. It
was hard for Avery to turn away from the inviting sight in front of
her, but there was no way in the world she was going to train for
an extra hour tomorrow.

The rest of the girls shared Avery’s mind set, even
Jade. Avery could see Jade’s jaw clenched tight, a clear sign she
was biting her tongue, fighting the urge to actually say what she
was thinking.