Awoken (Ilea, Book I) (COMPLETED)

Chapter 33

“What have you done to her?!”

“I have put her into a deep sleep, she will wake in exactly an hour.” The son tried to lift her but she was completely lifeless and too heavy for him. “Let me.” I said and picked her up, she weighed nothing in my arms and I gently laid her own on the bed I had slept in. The son watched me do it and then motioned at me to follow him out of the house. I followed him quietly.

We stepped out into the sunshine and then he turned on me lifting me up and pushing me roughly up against the wall as he had done before, “If you have hurt in any way then I will kill you.” He spat into my face.

“Put me down.” I said coldly.

“Or what.” He said.

“I do no want to hurt you on your mother’s behalf, but if you do not put me down then I might.” He still held me up against the wall and did not move a muscle. I had had enough and slowly pushed him away from me with my mind, staying exactly where I was in the air. When I had moved him about a meter away from me I gently dropped onto the floor and walked up to him, keeping him locked where he was. “You should learn to pick your battles more carefully, appearances can be deceiving…. Now where can I go and wash?” He answered me with stony silence, so I dipped into his mind. It was a power I had not used much to my advantage in the past, but considering my current situation, I realised how useful it could become. For instance in his mind I saw a small creek that not many people knew about, “Thank you Nathaniel.” I said on instinct.

“What for?” I bit my lip and wished that I had not said anything.

“It does not matter. I will be back just before your mother wakes up to speak to her and then I will leave. Look after her and cook a watery broth to give her when she does wake up.” He nodded and then I left for the creek, letting him go when I had walked through the trees. I found the water and washed in it leisurely, wiping off the grim from my journey across the Plains.

My journey across the Plains had started off satisfactorily, it had been hard, but no harder than when I had run to Senkrad after the ball; I could not feel the blistering heat or the freezing winds at night, I could draw up water from deep under the ground with magic and I was used to fasting for weeks due to part of my training. Therefore I knew that as long as I did not rush, that I would have enough energy to last me. I was hopeful that I could make it.

It was the start of the second week and I was starting to be able to see a bump in the horizon and was therefor happy with my progress, I was beginning to get hungry but it was only a small ebbing and I knew that I could cope with it for another week. But that is when they came. The sand cats came to hunt the only prey that had come their way in years.

They were huge cats that would have come up to my shoulder if I had let them near me and they could run as fast as the wind that blew them over the Plains. The only warning I had of them were their loud echoing roars as they ran towards me, hunting me, their paws making no sound on the sand they ran over. I did not have enough energy to use my powers to hold them off because I had not eaten, so I was forced to run with no food, no water and no rest for four days.

Eventually I passed out of their domain as I neared the houses, but I knew that if I stopped now then it was likely that I would never be able to get up again so I forced myself to keep going. Getting closer and closer to the houses until I could go no further, I collapsed near the woman’s house. I shivered as I remembered the hunger gnawing inside me and the lack of water drying out my throat until I was unable to talk and could barely breathe.

I dipped my hand under the cool water around me now and felt it swirl through my fingers. Cupping my hands I poured the water over my head, letting it trickle down my face, simply appreciating it’s freshness against my skin. I gently washed my whole body and then brought my clothes into the water, scrubbing away weeks worth of pressed-in sand and grime from the Plains, the water ran out of them in a golden cloud as it furled along with the current, as harmless as the rain on a warm day. When I had finished washing them I put them on the bank to dry and then lay back on the blue water, staring up into the clouds and clearing my mind from the thoughts that were buzzing around inside.