Waking up in a strange place

We cannot abandon the woman or the child, you know who they are don't you?" A man with a commanding voice spoke with a mix of anger and conviction.

"Yes Nikolas, we know who they are but."

"We must think logically about."

"What will be the safest choice for our people." Three gravelly voices answered the one question, one after another.

"Our people? We are not a separate country from the Kingdom, we need to do what we can to help them and to help the royal family." The man named Nikolas was growing frustrated at the lack of compassion these other men seemed to have.

"We have always kept to ourselves.

"The capitol has always honored that."

"We cannot ris-." The voices were answering in succession again until the door banged shut loudly and a deep voice interrupted them.

"You need to see reason, gentlemen." The voice rumbled.

"Micah!" Nikolas gasped as the voice spoke.

"Nikolas, you are right about our course of action, we must protect the woman and the child. The child has an especially important future."

"Micah, does that mean."

"That you have had."

"A vision?" The voices asked.

Gia had awoken at the man named Nikolas' outburst and did her best to follow the conversation. She was weak and tired, and she felt sore all over. What are these men talking about? She asked herself. What exactly is going on, and where am I? She wondered, confused, and not remembering what she had been doing before she had fallen asleep. She was struggling to open her eyes when the memories of what happened rushed back to her making her feel dizzy and lightheaded and glad that she was already laying down.

Oh my God! She screamed inside her head. She remembered exactly what had happened. Passing through Willows Edge and feeling unsafe. Approaching the bridge and seeing the men following them. Running the horses too fast and too hard. The wagon rolling and her jumping off holding the baby. Her running for the trees and feeling tremendous pain in her leg. Then all went black. As she remembered exactly what had happened, she gasped then let out a strangled cry. Where is the baby?

"I think we should move this conversation to somewhere else, gentlemen, I believe our visitor is awake. Nikolas, would you mind seeing that she is cared for, gentlemen please follow me to the deliberation room." The man named Micah rumbled. At that Gia finally managed to force her eyes open.

Gia saw that she was lying on a soft feather bed covered in white linens, a soft, thick pillow lay beneath her head. She could tell that her wounds had been tended to and that someone had cleaned her and changed her into a soft white sleeping gown.

"How are you feeling?" The man named Nikolas asked as he approached Gia. She saw that he was tall and very handsome, handsome enough to make her nervous if she hadn't been so scared at the moment. He had light brown hair with blond streaks, and his eyes were a clear, bright blue. His face was boyish but still masculine, soft but still somehow fierce and commanding.

"Where am I?" Gia asked immediately.

"You are at the Lyceum, in the infirmary. When we found you, you were weak and had lost a lot of blood, but we have had some of our best healers taking care of you. You will be all better very soon." His voice no longer held the notes of anger and commands that it once did, it was now soft and concerned.

"Where is my baby?" She demanded. She would not lose sight of what was important, Braelyn needed her, and she was going to make sure she was there for her.

"The baby is being cared for by a couple of local grannies, their families have moved away from the village and they had some extra love to spare for her." His words made her think of Ruthie and Agustus, alone and missing their family.

"How long have we been here?" This was important as well, for it would tell her if the threat of the castle, if it were indeed following them, was any closer.

"You have only been asleep for around three hours, there is no need to worry." Nikolas smiled, trying to ease her worry.

"I have plenty of need to worry." Gia snapped.

"Yes, I guess you do, but that is one less thing for you to worry about at least. It has only been a short amount of time since you were attacked. The bandits that were chasing you could not cross into the trees so once you rolled forward into the boundaries of our wards they left to return to their hovels. We found you almost immediately upon your attack. I do apologize that we were not there sooner. We hurried as quickly as we could, once we knew you were coming today." Nikolas gazed at the floor, an apologetic look upon his face.

"What do you mean you knew we were coming today?" Gia was confused, she had sent no notice of her coming to Whispering Willows.

"We have several seers in the village, but the visions are never truly clear. This is due to the fact that people change the course of their fates every time they change their mind, so a vision may show someone coming but we won't know if that person will hurry and be here in a day or go leisurely and be here in a week. We may see a vision of someone committing a crime that they never actually commit. This is because they thought about it, planned it, and set themselves to doing it, but in the end saw the voice of reason on their own and did not lead themselves down the wrong path. People and their fates are ever changing and shifting, it's much like water, it conforms to what it is in at the moment, but that does not make it permanent." Gia's head was spinning with the knowledge that someone saw her and the baby coming to the village, they saw the future.

"If you have people that see the future then why did you not see that the King and Queen would be attacked, that the capitol would be attacked? Why did you not send someone to help them?" Gia was growing angry as she spoke.

"I know you are upset, Miss, but please let me explain. Yes, we have seers here in the village, but their powers are not all encompassing, they cannot see what happens anywhere in the world at any time, they usually only see what will affect them or those close to them."

"But I do not know anyone in the village. My uncle is here but I have not seen him in twenty years, so I do not know him. So, who would have a vision of me and my baby?" She was starting to feel anxious at the idea that someone she did not know would have a vision because it would affect them and not her.

"The truth is, I am the one who had the vision, and I cannot tell you why I saw your arrival." This surprised Gia, she knew that she had nothing to do with this man, she had never seen him before in her life, and besides thinking he was handsome she had no other opinion of him yet.

"When exactly did you know that I was coming, and what exactly did you see?" For some reason, her question made Nikolas blush slightly, his pale skin tinged just the slightest shade of pink.

"Well, uh," He stammered and cleared his throat, "I had the vision about five minutes before I found you and I knew that I had to hurry. I had been walking through the woods to clear my head and as soon as I saw what was going to happen, I ran as fast as I could."

"Okay, but that doesn't tell me exactly what you saw." Gia said matter-of-factly.

"I saw you falling from the wagon with a baby in your arms, rolling back to your feet and running towards the trees as fast as you could, and I saw you being shot through your right leg with an arrow, and I saw-" He stopped, his mouth open but no words coming out.

"You saw?" Gia asked.

"I'll save what else I saw for another time." He said, clearly avoiding the conversation. "I should go get the baby, so you can assure yourself of her wellbeing."

"Yes, please." Gia said, nearly shouting her answer at that, she was still very anxious about everything and she was desperate to see Braelyn.