Gargoyle Saga: In The Beginning

Chapter Forty-three

Hadriana had quite literally flipped her lid when we told her we'd been casting spells on the books to read them quicker the following night when she had awakened from her slumber. But after we'd told her the results of our findings, she then thought our idea was genius.

"A girl after my own heart," she laughed as I showed her the notes we'd taken during the course of the night. I had sadly missed lunch with the girls and dinner was fast approaching. Lauri and I complained that we were hungry and she finally let us goes, though unwillingly.

"What does she expect?" Lauri snarled. "We're starving and she's bloody asleep! We've got three days left here and we're spending it in the damned library. And didn't she say that she has information on watchers already? I haven't seen them."

Lauri had convinced me that pouring over the books in the library was necessary. Regardless, I still had a niggling headache that wouldn't go away. "We need to find out as much information as we can on watchers. It's not so much on what they've done, I'm more interested in the dates and the places around the globe. So far we can determine that they were around between 1866 and 1870 and before that 1742 to 1746 and the time before that 1663 to 1667."

"They are around four years," Lauri said. "What about recently? We've been looking at history books, but what about recent history, within the last decade. Where would we find books on that?"

I snorted. "You wouldn't. We'd need the elders for that. They must keep some sort of log on what big things happen in the gargoyle world, surely."

Lauri nodded, conceding. "So Hadriana is right, we do need to go to Malta and steal some stuff."

"Food first though," I smiled.

We headed to the cafeteria where I distinctly smelt the delicious scent of fish and chips. "Oh god food!"

"And what about us practising?" He eyed me. "We need to learn hand to hand combat, get stronger and wiser in battles."

I laughed. "Don't need to practice archery now that I can cheat my way to the target, though yes I still suck if I didn't use my power. But as for my sword, I'm pretty happy with my plans for it."

We grabbed trays and got into the queue. "How the hell are we going to fight anything without any traits?"

"Lauri chill out. We've got three months to practice. First, we get the info, second, we train and third... we prepare." Staring around the room, waiting for food, I saw Dean and Rowan at a table alone with Perri. They were deep in conversation and didn't even notice when I waved at them. Lauri got a nice crispy battered fish and a measly portion of skinny chips and some pink blancmange. Getting the same, we got a table together. "I really hate crispy fish. I like the soft batter."

"Beggars can't be choosers," he said wisely. But his face deceived him when he started eating his fish. "No, you're right, this is crap. There's hardly any fish in it!"

Throwing my knife and fork down, I heard my stomach rumble. "I kinda miss the castle. At least we were getting fed properly, Offo is a damn good cook" A few moments later and I was surprised to see Perri, Dean and Rowan leave their table without even looking at us. "They saw us right?" Lauri shrugged. "Where are your friends anyway? Oren and Finn?" He shrugged again. "Don't know, or don't care?"

"A bit of both. We've kind of noticed that we've drifted apart since I became a watcher. I don't mind. We each have our tasks to do, don't we?"

Staring after Perri, Dean and Rowan as they left the cafeteria, I began to understand what he was talking about. While I missed their company, there was nothing we really had in common. I had not been able to spend time with them since I got back and I think they started to resent that. They were being kind to me but I think it was only on the surface. Deep down, it must hurt them that I was leaving the academy at the end of the week and they would continue with their lives without us being all together. Though I was thankful I had Lauri for a friend, I did still feel quite alone. "Yeah," I sighed, hearing Perri laugh as she rounded the corner and vanished from sight. "We do."