Eliona's War 1: Hesitant Healer

Chapter 15

Seth woke up to the sound of knocking.

Actually, it would be more accurate to say that someone had found a battering ram and was using it to beat down his door. He could hear the thunderous noise all the way from his bedroom.

He staggered out of bed, too drowsy to feel much more than annoyed confusion. He rubbed his eyes and followed the noise to his door. He was awake enough to remember to peek through the peephole at least.

A head of wild gray hair greeted him. He blinked. It looked vaguely familiar.

"You alive in there, kiddo?"

Seth stumbled back. The crazy old woman was at his door? It was too early in the morning for his brain to deal with this. He wanted to go back to bed, crawl under the covers, and sleep until dinner time.

Sadly, his neighbor wasn't about to let that happen. She banged on the door with more strength than a rugged firefighter.

Seth grumbled under his breath. He unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Mrs Beakor filled the entire door frame like no other old woman could. She took a long look at him before her mouth split into a wide grin.

"Did you just get up?"

He tilted his head back, taking in her wrinkled face and twinkling eyes. Nothing about her presence at his door made sense. It felt like a bizarre dream, especially since the last clear thing he remembered was having Maun lunge at him with murderous intentions.

Seth shivered. That was something he'd rather not think about. Instead, he had an equally problematic situation to deal with and it was currently looming in his doorway like a grinning T-Rex.

"Why are you here?" he asked cautiously.

"I wanted to ask for your help."

He stared at her. His help? This was making even less sense than it had a minute ago. He had zero skills and even less knowledge on how to fix things. "I think you have the wrong place."

"Nope." She shook her head once, making the wiry silver curls bounce around her head. "This is the right place. Can I come in?"

"Why?" He meant to ask why she insisted this was the place to go for help, but his groggy brain failed to produce more than that single word.

She chuckled. "Why not?"

He couldn't come up with an argument. Wordlessly, Seth stepped back, allowing her entrance. He doubted he could have stopped her if she really wanted in, anyway.

He dragged both hands down his face, willing himself to wake up faster. "Isn't it early?"

Mrs Beakor snorted. "Early? Kiddo, it's eleven."

She swept past him, leaving him to close the door. He'd expected her to say something about how empty the place was, or how pathetic it was that he didn't even have a chair. But she did no such thing. She merely went to the living room and plopped down on the carpet by the coffee table.

"Nice place," she said.

He stared at her wordlessly. Was she joking? But she'd said it so seriously, without a hint of mockery or sarcasm.

"Now," she continued, "if I knew this was a pajama party, I would have come more prepared."

It was at that moment that Seth remembered he was wearing a ratty T-shirt and his favorite pair of shorts. They were the most comfortable ones he had, which was why he liked them so much. But the downside was that they were a gift from his uncle, and thus covered with little green penguins. Fenn's sense of humor really sucked sometimes.