I could think of a hundred more pleasant ways to be woken up, but unfortunately, I got the Sayer wake up which consisted of him shouting his lungs out at me and shaking me hard. When this didn't work, I found myself soaked in ice-cold water. Gasping awake, I shook my head trying to shake the droplets of water blinding my sight away.
"Hello there, Morgana, nice of you to show up last night," said Sayer sarcastically, "Oh, and there's my jacket I thought I had lost. Thanks for asking to borrow it as well." Sayer reached down and grabbed his jacket, leaving my arms bare making me shiver. Dwynwen sighed, extending her hand to me to help me up. I took it and she pulled me to my feet.
"Sayer, calm down," said Dwynwen, looking down at the map.
Sayer stared incredulously at her, "Calm down? Did you just tell me to calm down? She could have been killed! The Valithors are out here! What if Thorn had found her? Or worse, Andor? What if Cerdic Valithor had found her?"
"Cerdic isn't here," Dwynwen cut in smoothly, not seeming flustered by the fact I had disappeared, "Morgana can do what she likes, she’s not your pet, Sayer." Sayer seemed to have no retort to this; he just stuck his hands in his pockets and sulked to himself, though I could tell he was abundantly angry with me.
Sighing, I followed behind Dwynwen as she led us through the forest. I knew I should have been focused, watching out incase someone tried to attack me, but I couldn't help but let my mind wonder back to last night. Who was that boy? Why had he saved me? Why had those people called him master? Was he some evil dude with slaves? No, he couldn't be, otherwise why would he have saved me? So many questions clouded my mind, yet I knew if I spoke one aloud Sayer would have a go at me, and if he found out what happened last night he would flip, big time.
It wasn’t such a big deal, was it? Yes, he had saved my life, but it wasn’t as if we were going to meet again, it wasn’t as if he wanted me to help him in return. Like I could help him, I could barely take care of myself in this world. Then there was his rock, his powers, they were different from mine. He wasn’t a pixie, fairy, sprite vampire, werewolf or a wizard. But that only left three things, a Falkar, a Dusarla or a Thariel. Seeing that Falkars and Dusarlas were the same thing, just with separate goals, it seemed he had to be a Thariel, and the thought made me sick. A Thariel had saved me.
“Hey, Dwynwen,” I said hesitantly, staring at the floor.
“Hmm, that’s me,” Dwynwen glanced back at me questioningly then back to the map.
“How did the Thariels begin?” I asked, remembering the boy from the night before. His matted black hair, pale oval face, intense gold eyes. I wouldn’t forget a face like his.
Dwynwen chocked, “You want to know how it started – They started?” I nodded then laughed at her disbelieving expression. She shrugged, “It was expected…” she muttered to herself.
Sayer grumbled something about nosy humans and Ariadne kicked him from behind, making him yelp. He turned and sent Ariadne a death glare which she shrugged off, she seemed to gain her confidence a lot quicker than Evelyn. But then again, everyone here was braver than my friends on Earth, but that was expected when you grew up in a place like this.
Dwynwen sighed, hinting that this was going to be a long explanation, “Well, it’s mostly to do with your mother because-“
“-my mother?” I interjected.
“Lady Hunter, she-“
I cut in again, “Doesn’t she have a first name?”
Dwynwen seemed shocked that I would mention that, “A first name? I have only referred to her as Khadi’s mother or Lady Hunter, never her first name. I could be killed for that.”
“Well, you’re with me, so you won’t be killed. Call her by her first name around me please, I can’t stand her being called my mother, cause my mother is on Earth and Lady Hunter is too formal for me,” I said bluntly. Dwynwen seemed frozen in shock while Sayer had dropped his knife he had been fiddling with, “What now?” I asked with a groan.
“You want us to call her… call her…” Sayer gulped, “Elisha?” This was pretty hilarious for me, as I had never seen Sayer so afraid of speaking. It was as if he had committed some crime for calling her Elisha.
Elisha Hunter. That was my real mothers name. It didn’t mean anything to me; my mother would always be called Fiona Halter. Always. After all Fiona had done for me, Elisha couldn’t just come in and replace her.
“The Hunters and Valithors have a past, they go long back, I mean long. Right back to your great, great grandparents, when the last Warrior family got… killed…” Dwynwen shivered and took a deep breath to continue, “So yeah, the Queen of Ezalfar needed a new Warrior family, and both the Valithors and Hunters were perfect. So she put them to the test and, of course, the Hunters won, becoming the new Warrior family. The families still continued to be friends though, it was almost as if they were the same family, so that’s where Elisha came in.”
Dwynwen seemed to trail to an end, unable to continue so Sayer continued, “The Hunters and Valithors decided to unite the two families by having their two children, Elisha and Cerdic marry. I’m not sure if it was the same in Earth, but in Valcriea when you marry you take the higher-class surname, so Cerdic would become a Hunter, not Elisha becoming an Valithor. Cerdic was fine with this marriage, some even say he was in love with Elisha, and the two were never seen apart. All was going to plan, until Stephen came into the equation.”
“Elisha drifted away from Cerdic, she started ignoring him and spending more time with Stephen and soon it was known throughout Elzalfar, she didn’t love Cerdic, she loved Stephen. Cerdic was just a friend to her, nothing more. Elisha ignored her parents protests for her to marry Cerdic, instead she married Stephen, your father. Outraged, ten years later Cerdic went to Fairy Queen, demanding she hypnotize Elisha to make her fall in love with him. The Queen agreed and using Cerdic’s knowledge of Ezalfar, broke into the city with her army and declared war on the Dusarlas. Many died in that war…” Sayer cringed and turned away.
“Sayer-“ Dwynwen started, reaching out to him but he pulled away, leaning against a tree, his back facing us.
“Sayer, you need to let go,” I started but he soon interrupted.
“Let go? What the hell would you know about letting go? You don’t even know what happened, you-“ Sayer frowned then turned to Dwynwen, his confused expression changing to anger, “You told her.”
Dwynwen looked to the floor, her face flushing bright red. I could see her panicked expression and worry clouding her eyes. Ariadne seemed to be ignoring us, humming to herself, not noticing the tension. Seeing her like this reminded me of Evelyn so much, how she would always ignore Ward, Claire and I. But this was different, this was a new world, and I knew Sayer dealt with things a lot differently to Ward.
“You said you wouldn’t,” Sayer said, his voice steady and calm, as if there was nothing wrong, his expression said otherwise.
“Morgana asked me… and I didn’t know what to say,” Dwynwen’s voice was wavering.
“Well it’s done now,” Sayer said simply, still not turning to talk to us.
“Would you rather I told her about Jasmine?” said Dwynwen, looking up from the floor.
Sayer tensed, “Don’t you dare, if you-“
“I wasn’t going to, but Sayer, you can’t keep hiding. You can’t push everyone away,” Dwynwen pleaded. Sayer turned and they locked gazes. I couldn’t help but feel slightly embarrassed to be watching, it seemed such a private moment for me to be spying on.
“I’m not pushing everyone away,” Sayer retorted, this time his tone was slow, almost hesitant.
“Just keep telling yourself that,” Dwynwen shook her head and turned to me, “So there was the big war and once Cerdic knew he had been betrayed, he vowed to kill every last Dusarla and supernatural to ‘clense’ Valcriea of betrayal and evil. Quite funny seeing he is the evil one, he should slay himself… So Cerdic fled to Pendula and as Ariadne told you, took over the city and made it Tharielon.”
I nodded to show I understood and we carried on in silence. Sayer had snatched the map off Dwynwen and was now in front. Ariadne seemed to be carving things into every tree we passed while Dwynwen watched her curiously.
After a while, Sayer had another tantrum over the map and Ariadne snickered at him. Dwynwen stood on her foot, making her shut up and walked over to help Sayer. They discussed things while Ariadne picked up a branch and started scraping Sayer’s knife against it. Hearing the noise, Sayer glanced at Ariadne and stormed over.
“Give me that!” He snatched the knife off her, “You are more annoying than Andor and Thorn! Sheesh.” Ariadne eyes widened in shock, a pained expression etched onto her face.
“He didn’t mean that,” Dwynwen added quickly, “This is what I mean about pushing people away Sayer! You pushed Ianthe, Melissa and Zane away!"
“Yeah, so why are you still here?” He asked, turning to glare at her accusingly. Dwynwen sighed and looked away from him, back down at the map.
“Thorn and Andor are amazing warriors,” she changed the topic.
“Not as good as me,” Sayer said stubbornly. Dwynwen shrugged.
“What exactly do they look like?” I asked and Ariadne, Dwynwen and Sayer glanced at me.
“Look like?” Sayer frowned.
“Well, you know, incase I see them…” I trailed off, wishing I hadn’t said anything.
“Well, black hair…” Dwynwen said. Images of the boy from last night flashed back into my mind. His black hair. “Very pale skin…” His skin was pale too. “Andor is very muscular, Thorn quite slim.” The boy last night was muscular. “And their eyes, never seen any eyes quite like them. Gold, an intense gold.” Gold eyes. It was him. It was Andor Valithor.
Refusing to accept it, I asked, “And they are in this area?”
Sayer snorted, “Well, duh! Why else do you think we’re here, holiday?”
That summed it up. Andor Valithor was the boy I met last night. Andor Valithor saved my life, and yet I still had to kill him.