Chapter 17

Instructions

Content Warning!!! Just a little mention of some red liquid leaking out of the hand. Just a little arson, and you know...death. Just the usual The next few days were absolute torture. We trained and trained until we dropped, literally. Calvin taught us how to fight hand to hand and with swords. “When are we ever going to use swords in a fight?” Asked Elly. “Even if I am freaking good at it, it’s twenty twenty four, no one uses these anymore, unless they have things on the tip.” “Well, for one,” He said, fighting with me. “Harold is old fashioned. If he fights you, he will use swords, and if he sends Abigail, he will send her with a sword.” “Nice.” I said. I was getting pretty good at this, but to be fair, I had taken fencing lessons when I was younger, and was top of the class. Me and Calvin fenced for a while but finally I beat him. “Good reflexes.” He told me. “Thanks.” He walked off and came back with Mason. “Why don’t you fight him.” “Sure.” I said. “Get ready to eat my sword.” He said. I rolled my eyes. “Really?” “Yeah.” He said, his ears turning red. “It was the best thing I could think of.” “Well,” I said, grabbing my sword. “Let’s hope your sword fighting is better than your trash talk, or else this is going to be a fast match.” He laughed. “Let’s do this.” We prepared ourselves, and went to our starting positions. “Ready? And start.” Mason took the first attack, so the obvious choice was to use that against him. I dodged and put the tip of my sword on his back. “Now, you’re not going to make this too easy I hope.” I said. He stood up. “Oh, okay. Now it’s on.” This time I took the first attack. Mason tried to use the strategy I had used on him, but I dodged before he could, ran behind him, and took the second point, and he fell over. “Jewel wins.” Calvin said, shrugging. “Good game.” Mason said. I helped him up. “Good game.” The next day, I woke up to the sound of grunting, and crashing in the other room. I looked over at the other beds, (There was only one room to sleep in.) Everyone I could see was there. What was that racket? Then it hit me. What if Harold found us? I sat up in my bed, and stared at my door. I felt like a mouse running from a cat. The house wasn’t very big, so even if I did hide, it would only be a matter of time before they found me. And besides, I wasn’t just going to let everyone else be captured while I was hiding. I wasn’t going down without a fight. I looked around for something. Anything that I could use to defend myself. Just when I was about to grab a bat I found in the closet, I saw the new sword Calvin had given me. It was silver with blue and gold gems on the handle, just smooth enough so that they didn’t hurt my hands. I wasn’t completely sure what kind of metal it was, but it did its job, that’s all that mattered to me. I grabbed the sword, my hands were shaking like a rattle on a rattlesnake and as quietly as I could, headed down to find the noise. I checked the kitchen, and saw that no one was there. I took a cookie and kept looking. Next, I looked in the lounge and saw that the scroll was open, but no one was there. Why would someone get the scroll out, and not take it? This was getting weirder and weirder. After a long, boring search, I finally found where all the noise was coming from. The training room? There wasn’t anything in there anybody would want. I tried to climb down the stairs as quietly as I could, but it backfired. Next thing I knew, I was rolling down the stairs like a turtle who couldn’t get out of its shell. “Are you okay?” I jumped. The person who was wanting to kidnap me was right in front of me, but wait, why would he ask me if I was okay? I rolled onto my back and looked up. “Mason?” “Last time I checked. Here, let me-” He grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. “Thanks.” I said, hoping my face wasn’t red. I was so embarrassed. “No problem.” He looked at his hand, and then at mine. “Hey, are you okay?” I looked down. My hand was red. I saw a huge cut that was gushing blood. “Oh,” I said, trying not to show pain. Now that I noticed the cut, I noticed the pain that came with it. “Yeah, I’m fine.” “Come here.” He said. He grabbed my hand and looked it over. “Not as deep as it could have been, but still should be taken care of.” “When did you become a doctor?” I asked, slightly surprised. “At home I…I got into a lot of fights.” I looked down at his arm. There was a scratch there, I thought it was from the beating he received when we were captured, but now that I had a closer look, it was healed over, and faded, but you could still see it. “Hey, can I ask you something?” “Sure.” He said, looking in the bathroom for some bandages. “Why is your signature a glowing locket?” He hesitated, I could tell this was a sensitive subject. “Well Jewel, I think the only ones out of the group who can say I had a normal life are you, Willow, and maybe James.” “What do you mean?”