"Niky! I'm soo sorry, I never should have touched that stupid thing! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Elliott takes the gun off Bushy, takes the remaining bullets out and stashes them in the bag. They both come over to the rest of our group gathered around me. "What the fuck Bushy!" The pain is bad but I'm slightly more used to pain after the other night. That's not to say I'm not dreading the healing that should come any second now. James rips my sleeve off which is now covered in blood. "Ahhh James!" I'm still on my knees huddling to the ground. "Sorry, I wanna see if the bullet comes out." He says enthusiastically. I scowl at him but then put my hand to the the ground to stop myself collapsing on it as a wave of dizziness hits me. "Hey Niky, you alright?" Kris asks concerned. I wait for the dizziness to subside before answering. "Yeah... but how long did it take for me to heal last time?" All I know is that it felt like forever. "Only a couple of minutes, lets give it a bit longer."
After a few more minutes have past Elliott picks up one of the swords and brings it to his arm suddenly nicking it with the tip until blood comes trickling down it. "Elliott what are you doing?" Aidan asks him. We are all wondering this too but before he can answer he lets out a soft grunt as we all watch his cut close up and disappear. Wow, that's pretty cool. "Well that was fast but unnecessary Elliott, but what if it's taking longer because it's a bigger wound? And Don't go hurting yourself anymore!" I yell at him half in anger half because of the pain. "OK OK, sorry but we should stop your arm from bleeding for now." Kris rips the sleeves off his own shirt and starts to roll one up for a pad. I flinch as he covers my wound with it and wraps his other sleeve around it tightly. "Hey, will the bullet be able to get out like that?" James asks. We all stare at him in silence. "God we really need someone to teach as about all this stuff." Kris sighs. I look at him knowing exactly what he means. Well there is someone...
We all start getting concerned as we watch the time go by and my bandage turn bloody. "OK, It's been over fifteen minutes now, we need to get you help!" My brother says as he gathers up our weapons bag and bends to help me up. Elliott takes the other side of me and together we make our way back to town. But after we take a few steps I grab and squeeze my friends shoulders as the familiar pain of healing starts building. They stop and hold me upright as I cry out and wait for it to stop. Once it stops I nearly fall to the ground again as exhaustion takes over the pain that has left me. "Come on Niky, we'll get you home." I hear Kris reassuring me as I drift in and out of consciousness.
I open my eyes and find my mum sitting next to me in and old chair looking worried and stressed. "Mum?" I say softly as I wake up more. I'm in a bed at there new home, and I see I've been cleaned up and my arm is flawless. My mum's head snaps to me and she almost starts crying as she smothers me with a hug. "Oh Niky! Are you alright? You've been asleep for hours and you didn't seem to be able to wake up. There was so much blood! Oh Niky... " I struggle to breath as my mum continues to sob and hug me. "Mum, I'm OK, I heal when I get hurt but it just seems to make me tired after is all, I'm fine really." She sits back and looks at me. "The boys told me what you want to do here. I don't want you getting hurt but... I know I can't stop you from helping these people, I know you too well. But please just promise me you'll be careful and don't get too ahead of yourself." I'm in disbelief that she is so accepting of this. I sit up and pull her in for a hug. "I promise I'll be careful mum. Thank you... "
My mum makes me stay there for awhile but I tell her I want to get back to the manor before dark so I won't be joining them for dinner. She makes me eat some bread and stu and squeezes me some fresh orange juice. Ah, nothing can beat being taken care of by mum. My clothes are pretty clean having most of the blood on my torn off sleeve so I thank my friends and head to the stables. I tell my new friend that I've decided to name her Shire. She nays happily as I rub her neck.
It's just getting dark as I get back to Reaver's and I'm happy to let the man in the stables put her away for the night. I'm still tired and my body is aching again. God, will this get any easier? I don't wan't to ask Reaver about this hero stuff encase he gets suspicous. But what if one of us gets killed because we simply don't know something about it. Or we get killed when Reaver finds out we have zero experience with this.
A maid gives me a weird look as I enter the manor, she quickly recovers and asks me if I need anything. Shit, maybe the few drops of blood on my shirt are more noticeable than I thought. "Ah yeah, could I get some hot water in my room please?" She hurries away to fetch my water. "Hold on just a minute there my dear, perhaps a hot bath would be more relaxing after such a long day... " I spin around and find Reaver walking towards me from the sitting room. I knew there would be a bath here somewhere. But it's probably in his bathroom. The maid stops and waits for my decision. "That does sound nice, but would this bath be by myself and would I have total privacy?" He continues smiling down at me and starts to answer but I cut him off before he has the chance. "Because I don't want one if that's not the case so don't even bother." I glare up at him but he doesn't seem fazed in the slightest. "My my, you must have had a hard day. Are the creatures of Albion not playing nice?" I start to stalk off towards my room but he chuckles and grabs my arm which I snatch back from him. "I'm sorry if I've offended you Nicola, but I honestly have a large amount of work to do so you will be both alone and undisturbed during your bath," he starts strolling off casually"if you choose to have it. Which really doesn't bother me either way." I watch him walk away and turn to the maid who's still standing there awkwardly. "Ah the bathroom door has a lock if that would help Ma'am." I smile at her. Yes, yes that would help.
After my heavenly and surprisingly undisturbed bath I sit in my room trying to get my head around everything. As I feared my brother and friends that are hero's have told me they will fight to the end for this land alongside me. But we still have no idea what we're doing. We could get badly hurt, maybe even die. If hero's can even die... God dammit! We need help with this. Maybe Walter can give us advice being around the Queen before she died. That's if I can even find him... If only Reaver wasn't so evil. I have to admit he's not as bad as I thought he would be but it still doesn't change who he is. A murderer. But... so far, towards me at least he hasn't done anything but be rude. And he has helped us a lot.
Later at dinner Reaver is rambling on to me about the scandalous going's on of the Millsview residents as I sit quietly nodding. I don't really hear what he's saying but am glad I'm not being questioned about my old world anymore. But my worries are still eating away at me inside. "Nicola is there something wrong this evening? I told you yesterday that you have only to ask if there is anything you need." He's not smirking for the first time and looks kinda serious, but I don't know if that's because he cares or because he's annoyed I wasn't listening to him. I sigh heavily and look up at him. Who am I kidding. I can't do this alone.
"Reaver I haven't been fully honest with you." He looks intrigued as his right eyebrow quirks up and he asks me "Oh... is that so my dear, about what exactly?" "About not having much experience fighting, I actually don't have any experience fighting." He looks slightly confused as he waits for me to continue. "When I said there are no mythical creatures like there are here in my land I left out that there is... nothing magical at all in my old land, not even... hero's." I start to panic as he sits there staring at me thoughtfully giving nothing away. "So when we got to this land my people and I were amazed to find that we had these powers. But we don't know anything about them." Better let him know that there are more of us so we don't seem so vulnerable. That changes his expression. "What! How many of you are hero's?" He asks still a bit shocked. Wow, I didn't think I could shock Reaver. "Four of us." I answer quietly still terrified. Did I make a huge mistake... Reaver thinks a moment longer before turning back to me "OK Nicola," he says calmly. "may I ask why you didn't tell me this earlier, and why you are revealing this little secret of your's now?" I cringe into myself and say tiredly "Because I didn't know if I could trust you before and well, we really need advice if we want to help these people." He continues to stare at me thoughtfully before concluding. "So are you saying that you trust me Nicola?" I wasn't expecting that to be the most interesting thing about this conversation. "Ah yes, I guess I do." I tell him. I think I've done the right thing as he gives me a rare unique smile.