A warrior's redemption part 2

A warrior's redemption part 2

Axl had been right. By the time the sun was halfway on its journey though the sky they were standing outside the fighters' guild HQ. At first Heather had been worried about travelling at night. Then Axl had offered to carry her until morning. When she had asked Axl what would happen when he got tired. He simply smiled and said

"I don't sleep"

And he had been right again. Heather woke up early the next morning and Axl was still walking at exactly the same speed as before.

Axl opened the door to the HQ.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to the guild master"

Heather stepped in and had a look around. Right in front of her was a stair case leading up to the second floor, in the large room to her left was the dining room with a large table, at least ten chairs and a series of display cases containing everything from rare jewels to magic swords and spell books. To her right were a couple of doors, one leading out into the back yard and archery targets, and the other door leading down into the basement which doubled as the armoury and practise room. Axl led her up the stairs, around the balcony and past the sleeping area, which were nothing more then a group of beds placed around another staircase and with a chest at the end of each bed. Axl led her up this stair case as well. This time they came out into a large room. At the end was a desk with a chair behind it and two more chairs in front of it and a bed behind it. One wall had a set of large windows giving a good view of the town square. Around the last wall were more display cases with more artefacts, but these looked far grander than the ones downstairs. Heather assumed it was the guild masters office. Axl motioned her to sit in one of the chairs in front of the desk, which she did. Axl went around the desk and sat down in the grand chair behind it. Then Heather guessed what that meant.

"Are you the guild master as well?"

"Good guess. You could have a future as an imperial detective. So what do we do now? Any ideas on what you want to happen?"

Heather thought about it for a moment

"I want to join the fighters' guild" that caught Axl by surprise

"Really, how come?"

"Well, all I've ever wanted to do is really make a difference. And what better way to do it then to help people"

"Okay, first things first. Can you use a sword?"

"No"

"Can you use a bow"

"No"

"Can you do magic"

"No" by now Heather thought that her chances were slim.

"Well then, I guess I'll have to get some of the others to give you a few basic lessons" Axl said, smiling. Heather couldn't believe her ears

"You mean it?" she asked.

"I wouldn't have said it if I didn't" Axl replied.

Heather was about to lean over the table to kiss him, but he looked at the ornamental time piece on the desk and held up his hand.

"Before we get that close, can you so something for me?" Axl asked

"Sure thing, what?"

"Move your chair over a bit, and move the other one to, just so she doesn't do herself an injury this time"

Heather was confused but she did as he asked. A few seconds later there was a loud bang as the front door of the HQ banged open and then slammed shut again. They heard someone running up the stairs towards the office floor. Then the "someone" ran up the last set of stairs, ran over to the desk and dropped what looked like a massive book on it. Heather could see it was a girl but couldn't see her very well because she was panting heavily. In between breaths she managed to speak to Axl in a slightly high-pitched and pretty excited voice.

"What…what…what is it?" she asked.

"I don't know, give me a chance to look" Axl said, picking up the book "I'll let you two introduce yourselves, while I have a look at this"

The girl turned to Heather and shook her hand vigorously, and Heather managed to get a good look at the new arrival. She was also about Heathers age with messy, long blonde hair and a pair of bright orange eyes. She had a sleeveless, animal skin pattern top that stopped above her stomach and pair of tight shorts with the same pattern on. She also had a pair of leather boots with still the same pattern on. By now she had managed to catch her breath again.

"Hi, I'm Medalia, most people just call me Medi for short"

"Err, hi. I'm Heather, I'm new to the guild"

"Yah, finally another girl, I've been the only one here for ages"

Heather realized that Medi's excitement was pretty catching and soon she was smiling to. Medi turned to Axl, who was still looking at the book.

"So, what is it?"

"it appears to be a spell book"
"what kind of spell book?" Medi asked

"I don't know, stand back" axl said as he pushed the chair back. He stood up and read some of the words from the book.

"Belloris, Sandreath, Freegor"

As he finished the final word a purple spiral of dim light looped around Axl. When the light reached his head, he was gone. All they could see was a sort of haze against the back ground. They saw the haze of Axl raise a hand and look at it.

"Now that's interesting"

"AWESOME" Medi shouted "what do I do with it?"

Axl faded back into view and handed the book back to her.

"Whatever you want. You could leave it here or sell it or throw it at someone. I don't mind, so long as it's not me you throw it at"

Medi held it in her hands, staring at it, for a whole minute. Then she suddenly turned around and thrust into Heather arms.

"Here, consider it a welcoming gift"

"Really, thanks" Heather said, genuinely touched

"At least we don't need to worry about finding you a sword. Still, a bit pf practise won't hurt. Medi, if you could take her down the armoury and see about getting her some decent clothes and armour, I've got a town patrol to do"

"Isn't that the guards' job" Heather asked

"Strictly speaking. Yes. But I'll be perfectly honest, I trust those guys as far as I can throw them. I doubt most of them have even had experience of real combat"

Axl got up and walked around the desk. As he reached the stairs he turned around.

"Heather"

"Yes?"

"Stay out of trouble, and keep Medi out of it as well" he said. He winked at her then turned back and headed down the stairs. Both of the girls looked after him.

"he likes you" Medi said