Guilded

Guilded - Chaper 2

Wednesday morning came a lot more quickly than I expected, even with nothing to do. I barely remember what Gilgal looked like and I've been itching to go back. Looking at my watch, it's only noon, an hour till my first meeting. I take a deep breath to calm myself before continuing to practice on the equipment I set up in the backyard. I practice my backflips, jumps, ledge grabbing, and landings.
It doesn't take long before I can't wait any longer and I go to pack some stuff into my backpack, expecting to jog my way there.

I'm wearing the same thing I wore a week ago. The bright colors clash enough to make any sane person believe I'm insane, but my dad told me they looked happy on me. With him gone, I just look insane, yet I literally have no other fitness-like clothing to wear.

Just as I sling my backpack on and pull as much of my short brown hair I can get into a ponytail, Noel walks in.

"You're really going to do this, huh?" She asks.

"Yup."

She sighs and pulls something out of her back pocket and hands it to me. I look at what it is. It's a pair of black fingerless gloves. They're made of a material I can tell will bend easily but wont rip, this way I won't get rope burn when I decide to slide down a pole or slip from sweaty palms.

"Oh? What's this for?" I ask.

"It's my gift of approval. Ava, I want you to believe in yourself and choose your own path, even if your friends, family, or sister tell you otherwise. I was testing you, and you passed. I just want you to have fun, alright?" She tells me.

This is really strange, my sister never acts this way, but I let it slide and put on the gloves to see how they fit. After I find them to be just right, I embrace Noel.

"Thank you." I tell her.

"Okay, I understand that you're happy, but could you please not touch me? You know how I hate that. It's gross." She teases me.

I let go of her.

"Oh yeah, sorry," I apologize as I head to the front door.

"Call me if you need anything," Noel says as I slip out the front door.

I take a deep breath and can't help but start jogging towards my destination. My legs and chest tingle with excitement as if a sixth sense is telling me that I will meet with destiny today.

I take illegal shortcuts by jumping a couple fences here and there, eventually getting barked at by a dog. I decide running along the top of the fences is safer after a close call with a giant German shepherd.

As I make my way through yards, I try to think of what it will be like when I get there. It's not yet time, there's about twenty minutes till one o'clock rolls around. I guess I'll just have more time to look around. I bet that I will be the only girl there. I probably won't laugh much, everyone will probably be straight faced and serious. I wonder how heavy the swords will be. Maybe they'll have a whole range of weighted swords so I can find one that works for me.

I eventually find myself in front of a black gate between two old, crumbling houses. On the right side of the gate is a sign with the words "Gilgal" written on it. I check my watch and find that my shortcut seems successful since I arrived at the Garden before thirty minutes had passed. As a bonus, I probably avoided a couple of hobos. Talk about killing two birds with one stone!

I walk down a concrete path lined with dark brown wood chips. There are hedges that line the path to my left and to my right is about a three yard distance to a fence. Trees are randomly planted and there are concrete benches between them. I note the many birds, chirping loudly. Eventually they are all I can hear now that I was farther away from the road.