Chapter 9

I have been doing this for three hours. THREE HOURS! Do you know how long that is? I think it took me about an hour to find what was wrong with her and then it took me two hours to heal her. I'm so tired, it feels like I could sleep for a month. When I'm finally done I slump down onto the floor, my arms numb. Rosslyn slowly sits up and then tells the other healers to go find her brother. Once they're gone she climbs down onto the floor with me, marveling how her body moves.

"I can not believe you healed me. I can't thank you enough! Did you happen to feel my little girl? I haven't felt her kick in over a week," she hugs me but looks at the floor with a frown.

"I felt her. She's a healthy little girl. You most likely didn't feel her kick because she wasn't strong enough, but she's fine now." I try getting up, but fail and fall back down.

"Oh dear, let me help you up. You might want to rest for a little while!" I finally managed to get to my feet with Rosslyn's help.

I wave goodbye to her to tired to speak and walk slowly down the stairs. As soon as I reach the bottom, the healers and coven leader race past me and up the stairs. The coven leader just realized he ran past me and races back down.

"Thank you, thank you! I will come find you after I've seen her and give you a book on how your visions work. I will forever be in your dept," he hugs me fiercely and runs back upstairs.

I stand there, a little stunned at the sudden contact from him but I'm to tired to analyze anything right now. I head back to the room I share with David and collapse as soon as I reach my bed.

" Wow, how much of your energy did you use to heal her?" He puts down his book and starts pouring me a cup of tea as well as making me a sandwich.

"All of it?" I bury my head in the pillow. I was starting to dose of when David noisily plops the tray of sandwiches on the bedside table.

"That's not very healthy. I don't think we should travel tomorrow." He sits on the edge of my bed and watch me take a bite out of the bread.

I close my eyes in delight. I don't think I've eaten anything since this morning. "Mhm, thank you! I'll be fine tomorrow, I just need a few hours of sleep."

"Go ahead. I'll prepare and pack everything up for you." He smiles gently at me.

I'm to tired to respond properly and mumble something incoherently.

~~~°°°~~~

Someone is crying and I want them to stop, immediately! My eyes feel like lead and I just want to go back to sleep. I rub my face after a few minutes of struggling to stay awake.

"Hey, you're up! Good. I've got everything ready, all you have to do is fetch the book from the coven leader and then we can go." He says way to energetically for my taste.

"Who is crying? My head is going to explode, do we have coffee?" I groan.

"I don't know, I'll go look."

He walks out leaving me to my own thoughts. I quickly dress and walk towards the kitchen. After a few wrong turns I finally found it. A wonderful smell comes from the other side of the door, but I hesitate to go in because the crying is coming from in there. My stomach, luckily, decides for me and I push open the door.

"Valery! How wonderful that you have finally woken up. We made you some pancakes with syrup," Rosslyn pushes a plate towards me, piled with at least six pancakes.

"Thank you. Who is crying like that?" I ask starting to get annoyed.

"Oh yea, my daughter Lisa!" Rosslyn jumps up and goes to the crib and picks her up. Finally, she stops crying!

My fork falls out of my hand, hitting the plate and I look at her with my mouth hanging open. "When, exactly, did this happen?!"

"Last night. David said you passed out and you already did so much for me, I didn't want to wake you up. The healers helped me though, so don't worry."

"That's fantastic! She's so pretty." Rosslyn brings her towards me. A little chubby red face looks up at me. She has tear streaks on her cheeks but she smiles when I tickle her.

I took a few more bites when the door bangs open, splintering the took a bit. "Look who finally decided to wake up! I found the book I told you about." He walks toward the table and grabs a pancake, dropping the book in front of me.

"Valery, we have to go! I'm sorry Rosslyn, coven leader, but our time is limited." David rushes in, grabs an apple and races out again.

I gather up my new book and all of us go to the back yard where David is rushing about, tying things together. I walk towards a new horse standing beside the elk. "Why is this horse saddled up?" I ask, stroking his long, black, beautiful mane.

"We thought it would be more comfortable to have a horse of your own so that you don't have to ride double. It's much more comfortable!" Rosslyn explains.

I give Rosslyn a hug and thank the coven leader for their hospitality. David gives a proper, formal goodbye and of we go.

It's been a few hours and no one has said a word,but David decides to break the comfortable silence." The castle where Finn is suppose to be is on the other side of the magical forest which is about two days away and it'll take us three days to get through."

We haven't ridden in a while and everything hurts after sitting and hopping for so long. I desperately need a break sometime soon." What's in the magical forest? " I ask shifting uncomfortably.

"Are you kidding me? You have never heard of the magical forest, have you been living under a rock or something?!" David laughs as my cheeks redden with embarrassment.

"Wel considering... before Dacian came along, I didn't know a place like this existed. I've been meaning to ask, where are we exactly?"

"In the fairy realm. How didn't you know?" He narrows his eyes suspiciously at me.

I keep shifting uncomfortably on my horse, but this time because of a strange presence I feel, not because I'm uncomfortable.

"I wasn't exactly introduced into this world, more like shoved into it. Some people from the guild kidnapped me and Dacian. They also drugged me so I have no idea how I got here."

The presence starts getting stronger the closer we get to a path lined with thick trees.

" I don't have a good feeling about this path, maybe we should go around. "

David has fallen a few feat behind me at some point, but when I look back... he's gone! I hear a rustling in the trees and the next moment the biggest troll I've ever seen jumps out. His green-ish, yellow skin looks about ready to crack and the grease from his hair has started dripping onto his forehead. He has long, brown teeth sticking out bellow his upper lip.

"Oh look, a snack!"