Halt Carrick woke with the dawn. As he looked around, he became confused and suspicious. This was not where he had gone to bed last night. He and his seventeen-year-old apprentice were supposed to be in a clump of bushes near the road to Seacliff, to visit some friends. Speaking of his apprentice...
Will appeared about three meters in front of him. Spotting his mentor, he ran up to Halt. "Halt! Do you have any idea what's going on?" he asked, confusion in his voice.
"I would guess that we had been kidnapped, but that wouldn't explain why we are alone in a forest."
"That was Gilan's idea, too, and the only other person we've seen is Horace."
"Gilan and Horace are here, too? What about Abelard and Tug?"
"We haven't found them."
"Let's get back to the others, and we'll work out a course of action." Will nodded, and turned back the way he'd come. Halt followed silently, his mind full of questions and empty of answers.
xxx
The two-legger stirred, and the dog raised its head. The two-legger had been asleep since before noon, surely she would wake up now! Instead, she muttered and went back to her rythmic breathing. The dog sighed. Two-leggers were hopeless.
The two-legger had appeared from thin air, unconcious. One second there was nothing there, and the next, she was! The dog felt that she was supposed to protect her, so she had laid down next to her and waited for her to wake up. The dog had not tried to wake the two-legger. Like all black cat-ears, she was a Healer's dog. Her two-legged partner was Ellethwen, a young healer who had found her a year ago and named her Maer.
Maer stood up and streched. She decided the two-legger had been asleep too long to be good. Maer licked her face. She whined. She barked. She pawed the two-legger. Nothing worked. Maer growled with irritation. Time to try something else.
At the two-legger's side was a Healer's bag. Maer nosed the bag open and looked inside. After a few seconds, Maer found a bottle that smelled like wake up potions.
Some instinct made Maer hesitate before putting the bottle down. There was a low growl behind her. Maer leaped around, the bottle still in her teeth, and saw the biggest wolf in her known life. The wolf seemed familiar for a split second. The wolf growled again, and this time, Maer growled back. They both charged at ecach other, and as they collided the wolf twisted, throwing Maer against a tree. The vial still in her mouth cracked but did not break. She charged again, this time hitting the wolf in his side, but he only staggered a few steps before snapping at her. She ducked and tried to headbutt the wolf in the throat, but he was too quick, and she hit shoulder bone instead. At this point, the bottle shattered, and they were both covered in the liquid. The two fought a few more moments before something like a club hit them, and they lay, stunned.
Ratreis had woken during the fight. She had recognized Diego and had yelled for him to stop. Apparently he hadn't heard her, and out of frusteration she had cast a clubbing force upon the two animals. As she watched, both creatures were getting smaller, until they were pup sized. She crawled over to them and nearly cut her hand on a piece of glass. Cursing, Ratreis picked it up. On it was a part of a label that Ratreis recognized as Coralin's. "ging po" was what it read, and she cursed again. A strong deaging potion had been in the bottle, which Cori had brought home last Christmas and forgot to bring back to school.
Now thoroughly irritated, Ratreis noticed that she was not in an aspen and pine forest anymore. Instead, it was mainly oaks and maple trees, along with some that she hadn't seen, since…
Well, since Europe was still considered Middle Earth, which is where I guess I am now. Ratreis pinched the bridge of her nose. Bloody ironic, if you ask me. A yap brought her out of her musings. Her brother-turned-puppy and the black German Shepherd had recovered from the stunning. She sighed and silently cast a magic circle around her and the pups. She did not want them running off. Ratreis then set off southward. Unbeknownst to her, a silent pair of feet followed her tracks, thirty feet in the air.
This stranger is like nothing I've ever seen! If he only wore his simple browns, he would not look out of the ordinary, but with the strange cloak, he almost seems to melt into the woods. Without a word or movement, he had managed to stun both the wolf and my dog, and turned them into puppies! He must be watched, if only to keep him from causing more danger, and to keep Maer safe.
xxx
"Here, try these on." Estel threw a bundle of clothes at Alyss. "You are supposed to be my apprentice, so it would be good if you looked like one."
Alyss put the green tunic and breeches on, and couldn't help noticing that they fit exactly to her. Estel looked at her, gave a nod, and stuffed a few more pairs into a saddlebag. She also added a few books and some white socks, a pair of which she threw to Alyss along with moccasins. Estel buttoned the saddlebag and took her own apprentice Healer insignia, a bronze athelas leaf on a silver chain.
Estel examined Alyss with a critical eye. "Something's not right…" She thought a moment, and quick as lighning was behind Alyss, while blonde hair fell to the floor. "Healers have short hair." Estel said.
Alyss only gave an expression of surprise and felt her shoulder length hair. "Is that all, then?"
"No. Now you have to take an oath. Raise your right hand and repeat after me."
"All right. I'm ready."
"I, say your name, do solemly swear, to abide by Healer code."
"I, Alyss Mainwaring, do solemly swear, to abide by Healer code."
"I will work only to help and never cause bodily suffering."
"I will work only to help and never cause bodily suffering."
"And the only time I shall wield a weapon against another is in self defense of the most dire need."
"And the only time I shall wield a weapon against another is in self defense of the most dire need."
"All right then, you are now a Healer's apprentice." And with that, Estel slipped the athelas leaf over Alyss's head.
