Agartha

Chapter six

My grandma received me with a big hug and talking amused about my progress at the center. Two light bubbles came towards us saying with the king’s voice “Galia, come to the library”, “Asaf, come to the library”.

We rushed to meet everyone. There was a meeting.

“I summoned you because the realm of queen Aryie is facing a big threat. Beasts have been seen around attacking the villages and wizards of the dark realm have tried to kill the royal family. We have to go there and wipe them off”

I learned at geography class, queen Aryie is a matriarch. Her family wears golden and yellow because her land is always sunny.

“We are leaving tomorrow morning with some elves to help. Bad timing for this situation, almost the whole elf legion is away at an expedition in the mountains, they left two days ago”

“Who is going?” I asked

The king answered “Den, Antinoo, Marilin, Hari, Tera and me”

Hari and Tera are my older cousins, they are twins.

“Is it that bad?” Asked the queen.

“Not sure, but perhaps”

“Everyone else stays at the palace until we return. Galia, go once a day to the center to check everything is fine” Grandpa tried to object but the king interrupted. “Is time for you to start taking official duties, I know you can handle it”

“I will not disappoint you, your highness” The truth is I was panicking but tried to hide it.

“Erik, you are in charge of the palace, don´t leave it until we return. Take care of the family”

“Yes, grandfather”. After the meeting, my grandparents gathered with me to instruct me on my duties.

Before the sun showed, they all left. I was very busy with all the paperwork grandpa gave me. Grandma helped so it wasn´t so bad. I wanted to go to the center after lunch, but Erik said I should go tomorrow. Naturally, I didn´t listen and as soon as he got distracted with his duties, I left the palace. The pathway to my gazebo was tempting but that would have to wait until everybody returned.

Everything looked fine at the center. I passed a couple of pending directions grandpa instructed me.

Curiosity hit and went to the class for little elves. It was easy to recognize the elf king´s children, they were the youngest and they had a break, playing at a little garden a bit apart from the rest, surrounded by nannies. That’s what the teacher told me they were when she saw me. I excused and introduced myself explaining I would be in charge until the director returned. She was very nice and beautiful, like all elves. The prince was very tiny and smiling. The little princess looked like a porcelain doll, she was the prettiest girl I´d ever seen. She took a dead flower, kissed it and it went back to life in bright green sparkles.

A voice came from behind me taking me out of my perplexity and whispering at my ear “That is the elves magic, we are directly connected to nature”

“Rag… General! Good afternoon” He scared me.

“You look scared, don´t worry, he won´t bite you” said the amuse teacher

“Apologies. He surprised me, that´s all”

“I am the one who should apologize, my face is so ugly I scared the lady”

Is he kidding me? He´s the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen! I've always liked the Rockstar kind of man and he fits the description. Those eyebrows framing his face made him look playful and mysterious at the same time. And those lips…

“Come. I´ll introduce you. Kids! Please, come” The princess grabbed his little brother´s hand and approached.

“This is the head of the center for a few days. She´s a distant relative of the king”

“Hello, your highnesses” I made the bow used for royal elves (flexing your upper body softly to the front and lowering your head with your hands on your chest) and they bowed as is used for royal witches (putting your left leg behind, flexing your knees and lowering your head).

“It is a pleasure to meet you” said the princess. The prince only smiled.

The teacher called them. We all bowed, and they left smiling.

“What a coincidence to find you here”

“Not really. I felt a different presence approaching the tower and came to check on the kids. But, what a wonderful surprise, it was you”

“How did you know I am replacing my grandpa for a few days?”

“I know everything that happens at this center and around”

Ok… “The children are adorable. How old are they”

“The princess is eight and the prince is four”

“Well, I was scared you would say they are my age or something”

He laughed loud “It doesn´t make any sense, they are tiny”

“You are older than my grandpa but look to be just a few years older than me!”

He laughed even louder “Humans have strange perceptions”

“I am not a human”

“You behave like one”

“True, I was raised as a human” I said proudly

“It´s not a compliment”

“It is for me” He rolled his eyes.

“Isn´t the prince too young to be here? The princess is barely old enough”

“Yes. The princess turned eight and was time for training, earlier than others since she will be the queen. The prince is not supposed to be here yet but he wouldn´t stop crying after his sister left and we couldn´t explain to him why she was away and that she was fine. So, we had to bring him too”

“It wasn´t so hard to explain. He is young but I bet…” He interrupted me with a somber expression.

“He was born during a terrible disease the queen suffered. She almost died but both survived. The prince was born deaf; therefore, he can´t communicate any more than just pointing at things” He looked defeated.

“I can teach him how to communicate” I said matter-of-factly

He looked confused. “I used to teach languages, remember?”

“Yes, but he can´t listen to ANY language. He is lost”.

“There’s a particular one he can learn. I have to go. Book me half an hour every day at this same time with him and the nannies. Don´t worry, we are still on time to help him”

“All healers tried everything they could, no one could help him”

“Because he´s not sick” I rolled my eyes “He is perfect, he just needs a suitable language for him. He doesn´t have to be forced to adapt to the world, we´ll adapt to him” Ragnar looked more confused than ever but didn´t refuse my help. We bowed and I left.

***

At the castle I found my grandma and Kiryat with the most amused face and my cousin Erik sparkling out of anger, literally, there were red sparkles everywhere.

“WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?”

“At the center” I answer calmed and not very happy with his tone.

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO GO UNTIL TOMORROW”

“Let´s make things clear: I will stick to my duties and you stick to yours”

“You are my duty!”

“Not really. The center is a facility concerning to all lands, accordingly, it´s independent on its administration. As its administrator, I am autonomous on my decisions and REPORT, not SUBMIT, to all kings and queens”

“Is that true great aunt!?” He had the cutest, dumbest face.

She answered trying hard not to laugh “It makes sense, dear”

“Again, I will stick to my duties and you stick to yours” I rushed to my room before he could think about it and realize I was just making things up.

Three weeks have passed and my relatives haven´t returned. Grandpa and the king made an astral projection of themselves to visit us (that was way better than a phone call) and explained things would take time because hunting the beasts was difficult at the sunny land, had too many cliffs and caves. Although they had already trapped the evil wizards.

I've been teaching sign language to the prince, his sister, one nanny and… (Sight) Ragnar. It was an excellent excuse to see him. Classes took all afternoon long, my new hearing students were skeptical and slow at learning at the beginning, but the prince was thrilled so they just played along. After two weeks he was naming or asking the names of all things and making short sentences, he is brilliant! By now we all have signs, even people he remembers, and I've never seen. Yesterday, Ragnar asked me about a sign the prince kept saying and he didn´t understand.

“Let me see” He repeated the sign

“Who is he addressing when using that sign?”

“To me”

I laugh

“What does it mean!”

“Uncle”

“What?”

“He thinks you are his uncle” He was shocked, I swear his eyes watered. “Are you close to his father?”

“Yes. He sees me a lot in his company”

“I told him two days ago, uncles and aunts are very close to parents and their spouses are relatives in law with the same denomination (took a lot of effort and drawings to explain). Guess I didn´t explain myself very well”.

Class started. Today was about oral communication and reading lips. He hated it but gave him no other choice. Suddenly, he interrupted saying in signs “Aunt Galia, I want to go to play, this is boring” (Class about expressing feelings paid off…)

“Baby, I´m not your Au…”

“Aunt Galia will let you go to play” Ragnar interrupted me.

They all left to play, and Ragnar stayed

“I think he is confused about the use of the sign for “aunt and uncle”

“No, he is not. He thinks I’m his uncle and that you are my mate, that makes you his aunt”

“WHAT!? Did you clarify things?”

“I tried but my signs are clumsy…” He said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes.

“We need a class about magical creatures, to him there´s no difference between any of us… I must go. Fix the confusion about me, General”

“I can try but make no promises, princess” He laughed.

I was about to leave but out of the sudden Ragnar jumped, lifted me with an arm while holding a sword with the other. It all happened too fast. He ran towards the kids and placed me roughly beside them. He covered us with his body, a horn sounded at the distance and giant bears came running.

They were no bears. Those were three meters tall, dusty, bearlike beasts. Their roars were horrifying. I grabbed the kids hands instinctively and pushed them behind me.

“Run to the tower!” Ragnar shouted

I ran with the children and the nannies in front of us, but the beasts were coming from everywhere! We were surrounded! The two nannies cried “go back!” and took swords and bows from their back packs. I ran back with the kids to Ragnar, he kept trying to cover us with his back. The fierce nannies were confronting four beasts. The first group of elves arrived fast and attacked the bests they could. Five bears ran towards us and Ragnar flashed to fight them away. He cut one of them in half almost completely with one swing of his sword and stopped two but one dodged him and charged to reach us.

All elves panicked but were outnumbered, the princess held tight to my leg, but the prince bravely kept trying to let go to face the beast. No way I would let those beasts touch the children, I tried to vanish and take them elsewhere but felt too heavy, couldn´t do it. Panic rushed over me as the beast charged to us. I remembered the dagger Ragnar gave me, took it from my thigh (and almost dropped it) and ran to meet the beast away from the children.

Adrenaline was rushing to my head, my eyes and nails glowed blue and I was lifted from the ground by a haze on the best´s direction, holding the dagger with both hands above my head. He tried to slam me but missed, I think the haze around me confused him. With all my physical strength and my magical power sunk the dagger in his chest in an explosion of green light (wait, green?). We both fell to the ground, the beast upon me, smothering me because of his weight.

Immediately, the children´s voices were close screaming, trying to move the best but they were too small. The weight was lifted from me in one fast move, opened my eyes catching my breath again and saw Ragnar. Amazingly, he lifted the beast with one hand and threw it a few feet away. The rest of the elves, my cousin Erik and some wizards were arriving and taking care of the situation. I felt relieved.

Erik looked at me from the distance with wondering eyes, but Ragnar nodded indicating I was fine, so he went back to work.

“My dagger…” I stared at the beast. Ragnar looked so mortified, kneeling beside me, like trying to put a sentence together.

“Is it dead?”

He ignored my question and started to tear my dress apart and undress me in a hurry, I tried to stop him, but he said firmly “Quiet! Their blood burns, I have to take it off you”

The beast´s dark green, smelly and thick blood was all over my dress. He said the truth, his hands were burning, like touching acid when he handled my dress. He took the fabric to the sides checking with doctor’s eyes for any burning sign and covered me with his cloak.

He wiped his hurt hands with the clean parts of my dress´ remaining, stood up and went for my dagger, still in the beast’s chest. “FINISH THIS NOW!” Even I got scared with his scream and hugged the children tightly. He started shouting instructions to everyone about guarding the perimeter of the center and the palace, taking care of the injured (one of the nannies looked pretty bad), disappearing the corpses, sending for the troops away, sending extra troops to the villages… And kept doing it, while walking in circles around us. I tried to stand up, but he pushed me back down by my shoulder with a very angry face. After he was done, summoned Holger and a commander (she was gorgeous).

“Hello, Holger” He bowed very respectfully to me (that’s new).

“Quiet, Galia!” Did he just shush me??? “Carry the children to the tower and place twenty soldiers around”

“Yes, General”

“I´ll take lady Galia to the healing tent”

“Not necessary, I´m fi…”

“QUIET!” He did shush me!

“Don´t you dear to yell at me!”

He simply lifted me bridal style and started walking. He is much larger than me, no matter how much I yelled and kicked he kept walking towards the elves camp and into a beautiful, huge tent. He placed me gently over a carpet on the floor that felt surprisingly comfortable, like a bed, and sat next to me. Two elves came running, bowed and began caressing my head with green light coming from their hands. They tried to do the same to Ragnar, but he pushed their hands away.

“Well?”

“She´s perfect, only exhausted”

“Are you kidding me!” The elves looked scared “A three meters beast fell upon her! SHE IS NOT FINE!” His eyes were threatening. I had never seen this side of him, the ruthless General.

I cupped his cheek with my hand, and he closed his eyes “I promise, everything is fine, General”

“LEAVE!”, he cried. I jumped and pushed my hand back; the elves bowed and almost ran away. He opened his eyes, fierce eyes. “Today I almost lost everything in an instant”. His voice was raspy.

“Don´t worry, a friend gave me something to protect myself and taught me how to use it, remind me to thank him later” He pressed me against his chest tightly and I felt safe and happy.

“Thank you”, he whispered.

“For what? You gave me the dagger”

“For being so brave. For saving the children. For not dying. For saving my life…”

“I didn´t save your life”

“The three of you are my life” My heart melted. Couldn´t say a word, just stare up at him wanting to have him forever.

“Someone will come to help you clean up and change your clothes. I’ll wait outside”

“Not necessary. I’ll do that back in the palace”

“No. It is an elf rule you clean up and get properly dressed after a battle as soon as you can stand and everything is safe”

“I’m not an elf”

“But today you are a heroine for us”

“General, I belie..” He turned and waked away before I could complain, taking some oil from a table on his way out and pouring it on his wounded hands. After cleaning up and changing to an elf´s outfit given to me (they even did my hair, elf style with braids), I went outside to meet him. He was puzzled, his jaw dropped. Witches use beautiful dresses, but elves wear tight pants and tops that accentuate your figure. After a few seconds he recovered his usual seriousness.

“Let me take you to the palace. Your family must be worried”

“Please don´t tell them what happened”

“They know about the attack”

“I know, don´t tell them about my participation, they will freak out”

“They probably know. Your cousin Erik and other wizards were there too”

“Great…”

“Princess”, he said in a formal tone and clearing his throat. “Galia…” he whispered, “You look beautiful… Let’s go”

I will change this outfit before anyone sees me…