Stone Warrior

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Corrin grabbed her arm and pulled her back to him. He shook his head. “It does not work like that. That would not be saving you. That would be preventing you from something you wish to do.”

“But I don’t want to kill myself.” Sydney frowned. “Hang on. Preventing me from something I wish to do? You mean you’d let a friend kill themselves?”

“Better to die by your own sword than be captured by the enemy and tortured.”

“You’d kill yourself?” Sydney shook her head and held up her hand. “Forget it. I don’t want to know. Well I do, but we don’t have time. What’s the quickest way to deal with this?”

“There is no quick way.”

Realizing Corrin still held her arm, Sydney drew away from him. “This is impossible. I can’t take you with me to my boyfriend’s place. And I certainly can’t take you home. My parents would kill me.”

“I would not let them.”

Sydney frowned until she realised Corrin had taken her words literally. “Not kill me as in dead. But, well ground me or something. I’d be in a lot of trouble.”

“Once you explain they will understand.”

Sydney laughed, no humour evident. “Yeah, and then they’d cart me off to the psych ward. Just what I need.” She eyed his sword and shield. “Do you have to carry those around? Can’t you get rid of them?” She gestured towards the sword and shield.

Corrin looked shocked. “A warrior goes nowhere without his weapons.”

“Not in this century. Warriors are obsolete.”

“Obsolete?”

“No longer in existence. Extinct. Gone. I don’t know. Get yourself a dictionary or something and read it.”

“I cannot read.”

“Really?” Sydney stared at him for a moment. He didn’t seem bothered by that fact. “I guess things were different in the Dark Ages.” She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Forget all that for now. You keep getting me sidetracked.” She held up her hand when a look of confusion crossed his face again and he started to speak. “Forget it. All I want to talk about is how to deal with this mess. And stop giving me that ‘I wouldn’t have a clue’ look. It’s starting to annoy me.”

“If more of your words made sense I would understand what you were saying.”

Sydney glared at him. It wasn’t her fault he came from some dead century. “How far apart can we be? Was that simple enough for you?”

Corrin slid his hand inside his cloak and rested it high on his left arm and muttered, “Epona give me patience.”

“Who is Epona?”

“My goddess. She is the protector of horses.” He slid the edge of his cloak back, drawing up the short sleeve of his tunic to reveal a tattoo on his upper arm. The swirling geometric design included a stylised horse.

Sydney started to ask him another question then stopped and glared at him. “You’re doing it again. Stop sidetracking me. Now how far apart can we be?”

“I do not know.”

“If it’s not far you better get used to nosebleeds because I’m not sharing a bathroom with you.”

“What-”

“Quiet.” Sydney pulled out her phone that was vibrating. She glanced at the screen before she answered it. “Chelz! Please tell me no one has noticed I’m missing.”

“No. Oh Sydney, you can’t imagine what’s going on here. There are police everywhere.”

Sydney swore. “I should have thought about that. He’s going to have to ditch his shield. It’s like asking people to look at us. No one carries a shield around these days, do they? And it’s over a metre long.”

“Ah, Sydney, are you okay?”

“No. I’m not. I planned this out perfectly. No one in their right mind would think of factoring in a Celtic warrior.”

“You know? How did you find out the statue was stolen? The backup generator didn’t work. It was dark for ages and no one could use their phones. Everything failed. No electricity, no phone coverage, not even security cameras. Only torches. Then all of a sudden it was all working again.”

“Chelz can we forget about all that for a minute? I still need to get to Shawn’s.”

“Are you still here? Where abouts are you? I’m in the bathroom. Should we meet up? Why aren’t you on your way to Shawn’s place?”

Sydney groaned and leaned back against the concrete wall. She closed her eyes so she didn’t have to look at Corrin who was busy checking out one of the compacted cardboard boxes. She swore again. “You are not going to believe a word I say, but seriously, it wasn’t my fault. Well, maybe it was kinda. But magic doesn’t exist. Does it Chelz?”

“Ahh… no?”

“See. Even you know.”

“I do?”

“Yep. So why does it?”

“It does?”

“Of course it does. So how do I get rid of him?”

“You know, Sydney, it’d help if you started from the beginning. I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Never mind. I’ll figure it out.”

“Just don’t get grounded. I want to go to the beach tomorrow. Remember?”

Sydney eyed Corrin, trying to imagine him in board shorts. She quickly emptied her mind and reminded herself of Shawn. “I’ve got to go. I’ll call you later, Chelz.”

“Okay. But don’t go doing anything stupid.”

As Sydney slid her phone into her pocket she thought it was probably too late for that advice. The image of Corrin in board shorts just wouldn’t leave her mind. That was it. She needed real clothes for him. That was why she kept thinking of board shorts. She pushed away from the wall. “We’ve got to buy you some clothes. And ditch the glitter and weapons.”

Corrin frowned at her. “I am not leaving my things in a ditch. They would be stolen.”

“Not a ditch. Just somewhere. You know. Drop it off. Put it somewhere.” It was Sydney’s turn to frown. “Oh never mind. Wait there.” She strode to the end of the alley and looked around. She spotted a discount store across the road. It would have to do. She turned back to Corrin who had followed her. “Wait here. How much more simple can I say that? Don’t move from here. Okay?”

Corrin nodded and crossed his arms over his chest as he looked down at her. “You will be back?”

“As if I have a choice,” Sydney muttered as she hurried out of the alley before glancing up and down the road. The light at the corner was red so she ran through the stopped traffic, barely making the opposite footpath in time. Her skin tightened and she looked back to where she’d come from. All she could see in the alleyway was shadows. But he had to still be there. She didn’t have a nosebleed yet.

It was an effort to concentrate on what she needed to buy. She gathered a black backpack and an extra large t-shirt since she didn’t know his size. After grabbing two large striped plastic bags, and a travel pack of tissues that she opened when she reached the other end of the store, she headed for the checkout. Tucking the bloody tissue into a pocket of her jeans as she fished out her coin purse, her foot tapped as she waited for her turn at the checkout. She grunted in answer when the checkout operator asked if she was having a good day. She was tempted to answer absolutely awful, but kept her mouth shut and used her keycard when the items were tallied up. It was a relief to run back across the road and into the alley.

“Here.” She handed the green t-shirt to Corrin and pulled out a tissue for him. “For the blood,” she said when he stared at the white square. “And put all your jewellery in this.” She held up the backpack.

He eyed the item she still held. “All of it?”

Sydney’s gaze roamed his body. “Most of it at least. Give me your shield and sword so I can put them in the rainbow bags.”

“You will not leave them in a ditch?”

Sydney shook her head and took the items Corrin reluctantly handed her. “And your cloak too.”

He watched as she packed his sword, shield and cloak into the red, blue and white striped bag. She slid another one over the top since his gear protruded from the bag. “What are you going to do with it?”

“Can you hurry up? Take your shirt off and put that one on. I haven’t got all day.” Sydney pulled her phone out and looked at the time. She swore. “I’m not going to make it. Do you know how much effort it took to plan this day? And you ruined it in a matter of seconds.” One hand went to her hip as she glared at him. “Come on. You do know how to dress yourself, don’t you?”

Corrin grinned. “If I said no, would you do it for me?”

Sydney rolled her eyes. Guys were all the same. “How old are you?” He had to be at least several years older than her.

Corrin shrugged as he pulled his tunic over his head and put it inside the backpack.