Nydewin

Chapter 9 (Cormac)

Chapter 9(Cormac) 

It felt like I had been siting for hours, waiting for her to wake up. During that time, I had decided that the best course of action was to tell her the truth and hope that she would forgive me.

While I sat curled up at the base of the portal below her feet, I heard beating wings. I looked up to find a hippogriff making its way towards us. I knew my presents would startle the creature and cause it to become suspicious of the sleeping princess. So, I got up and started to make my way into the forest. Before leaving Amelia, I looked down at her and pressed my nose to her cheek. ‘I won’t let anything happen.’ I told her.

I waited in the forest the boarded the small clearing, and waited what felt like another hour, as the hippogriff study, the sleeping form and cleaned her feathers. I noticed that she had received a recent injury to her left wing. But without a better look I wouldn’t be able to tell what sort of injury or how bad.

I laid on my stomach and rested. Knowing the hippogriff wouldn’t hurt Amelia, not while she slept so deeply. I had shifted back into my wolf form and was that much happier for it. It felt more comfortable then even my own original skin. There were some cases in which some shifters never shifted back, instead they embraced their new forms wholly, to the point that they forgot what it was like to be human.

Not long after shutting my eyes, I was startled out of my slumber. I sat straight up and watched as Amelia adjusted to her new surroundings, unable to go and comfort her. Her first reaction to the hippogriff was more than I had expected. Instead of screaming, running or hiding, Amelia sat still for a while, just looking at the hippogriff, through our connection I could feel her excitement, her fear, her wonder. It wasn’t her ability to accept of the hippogriff was real, that impressed me though.

The Hippogriff had let Amelia look at her injured wing, and without thought for her own safety, without knowing what exactly it was she was doing, she healed the hippogriff’s wings.

I watched as the hippogriff tried to leave more than once, but Amelia would always stop her. After the hippogriff gave Amelia one of her own feathers as a thank you, I stepped out from the woods, slowly, trying not to scare them. But the hippogriff needed to go, the others would be showing up shortly. And if she didn’t leave now, she would get aggressive, from being too crowded.

I watched as Amelia’s eyes grew wide and felt as her heart jumped in excitement at seeing me. My own anxiety lessened to know that she wasn’t mad at me. The feeling only lasted a moment though. All too soon I felt her fear. I felt my mouth dry when I realised that she didn’t know who I was. She didn’t realise I was the fox that had lured her here. ‘better this way,’ I thought to myself, before explaining my presents.

It was hard to believe that in less than twenty-four hours, Amelia had been teleported to a realm she knew nothing about, learnt to shift, defeated a herd of centaurs, and now she laid in a deep sleep. While I just sat here unable to do anything to save her.

“Cormac.” It was Sachi standing beside me “We need to get moving.”

I couldn’t answer her. Every muscle, every nerve in my body, screamed for her to wake up, to come back to me. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t break through the mind shield that she had manifested, in her sleep trance. It was one of the strongest shields that I had ever come across. It baffled me that someone so new to magic, could produce such a shield.

“Cormac!” Taril’s voice cut through my mind like daggers

“What?” I snapped

“We need to move her.” He put a hand om my shoulder, his voice back to normal “She needs your father.”

He was right. My father had told me stories of witches that had used to much of their powers all at once, nearly draining themselves completely. They would fall into a sleep so deep that no one living would be able to reach them. There were three out comes that might happen to a witch in this state. The two most common outcomes where that she would never wake and would just slowly die, or she would wake with none of her powers. Or, if she was strong enough, she would wake stronger than she ever was before.

“Okay.” I said getting to my feet

“How long?” Sachi asked

I shook my head “I don’t know.”

Silence fell heavily over the group as we made a cot to carry her limp body. We all froze when we heard her moan.

“Is that a good sing?” Sachi asked

Benita spoke before I could answer “We need to get moving.”

Nodding, Taril and I jogged off and on for as long as we could. We needed to get to my father as quickly as possible.

“We need horses.” Benita panted

“Nearest town is a day away, if we keep up this pace, we could make it there by midday tomorrow.” Sachi answered

We travelled in silence until the sun disappeared.

“We should rest.” Benita said as she caught her breath

“You and Sachi can rest, Taril and I can go on.” I said, determined to keep going.

It was only moments after this that we fell into a trap.

“How?” I asked, I could feel the anger building in my chest.

“You were the one that insisted on travelling in the dark. How do you expect me to see magical traps, in the dark?” Benita exclaimed

I could feel myself losing control. What was it about this witch that her life had me so on edge? Everything in me ached at the thought of losing her.

“Taril, can you break it?” I asked   

He turned to look at me, his eyes wide with fear.

“What is it?”

“This boundary spell, it’s.” Taril’s eyes were starting to dart dramatically all around us, looking for something.

“Taril!” I shook the fairy,

“Sphinx.”