Chapter 10

The next morning Shara and Tyler shook me awake. I groaned slightly and rolled over; falling out of the “bed” I was sleeping in. It was more like a bag filled with soft objects than what I considered a bed back home. “Owe,” I yelped as my body collided with the ground.

“Are you alright? I’m really sorry Sam,” Shara asked concerned, while Tyler stood rooted to the spot laughing his head off.

“Yea, I’m fine,” I said getting up and glaring at Tyler. “Just please don’t do that again.”

”I won’t, promise,” Shara said sighing with relief.

“I might however, that was hilarious,” Tyler said smiling.

I glared at him some more as I stood up, with Shara’s help, and dusted myself off. “Maybe this is one of the reasons I’m starting my lessons here instead of with you,” I said raising an eyebrow and smirking smiling almost unnoticeably.

“Yea, well you’ll get to ours eventually, and find out that it’s a lot better than this one,” he replied as the smile was slightly wiped from his face, leaving a weird half smile that made him look really strange.

I rolled my eyes. “Let’s just get going, I’m sick of this already.”

“Agreed,” Shara and Tyler chimed in one after the other.

“Lead the way than one of you, I’ve no clue where we’re going.”

Shara let out a short laugh and smiled at me, then turned his attention to Tyler. “I think we’ll have Tyler lead, it is his village after all.”

“Fine with me,” I said smiling at both of them.

“I guess I have no choice,” Tyler said sighing slightly. “We leave now,” he finished and started heading toward the door.

I smiled at Shara and then followed Tyler out the door, Shara close behind me. I looked around the village, taking everything in when we walked by. Everything seemed foreign to me, although that was to be expected. Tyler walked straight through the village and right into the forest we had come from when we had first arrived at this village. As soon as we entered I saw something fall out of a tree and land right in front of me. I stopped abruptly and yelped, placing my hand over my heart and started breathing heavily.

“What is it?” Tyler and Shara asked almost in unison, which caused them to glare at each other.

“I…I…I’m not sure,” I stuttered as I looked down on the ground. I immediately smiled when I looked down and saw a blaffler. “Midnight!” I said cheerfully as I bent over and picked her up. I started to pet her as Midnight curled up in my arms. I smiled and looked up at Tyler and Shara.

“A blaffler?” Shara asked questioningly, raising an eyebrow.

I looked at him oddly. “What’s wrong with that?”

Shara sighed. “Never mind it’s nothing, you’ll probably find out later.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, right now I just want to get to wherever we’re going.”

“Then come on you two,” Tyler said slightly annoyed. “I’m probably in enough trouble as it is.”

“As if we care whether you get into trouble or not Tyler,” Shara said annoyed.

“Oh, very funny Shara, really, I’m dieing of laughter, on the inside,” Tyler said rolling his eyes and turning around. He took off almost immediately and we quickly followed him.

I rolled my eyes and looked down at the blaffler I had named Midnight. I held my hand out for it to jump into my arms and then waited. Midnight jumped up and climbed up my arm and then onto my head, nestling on top of it. I smiled slightly, trying not to move my head too much, not wanting to disturb her, and then followed after Tyler. Shara, who had been watching my interactions with the blaffler, sighed deeply, but not loudly enough for me to hear. He turned toward us and followed, falling into complete silence.

None of us said anything for a while longer and it was starting to get on my nerves. It was dead silent, well minus the noises of nature, which were extremely odd compared to the sounds I was used to hearing. I was subconsciously reaching up occasionally and petting midnight. I followed along behind Tyler and Shara, now bringing up the rear. I was thinking about everything that had happened in the short amount of time I had been here, and what I had yet to face.

“We’re almost there,” Tyler said back to me.

I nodded, not sure whether he saw it or not, but didn’t verbalize my acknowledgement. I looked around where we were walking now and saw that the underbrush and trees were starting to thin out. I smiled slightly; ready to leave the forest-like place we were in. We emerged minutes later into Tyler’s village. Many of the villagers were out and about carrying on various chores, socializing, or just enjoying the outdoors. I looked around curiously and tried to note differences between Tyler’s village and Shara’s village. Tyler’s village seemed to have slightly larger building and more villagers, however at Shara’s village the villagers seemed to be friendlier in their facial expressions. Here they seemed to be full of hate and rage, but then I realized it might have to do with the fact that Shara was also here.

I felt Midnight perk up and stand up on my head. I smiled and reached a hand up, which the blaffler jumped down onto and came to stand on my shoulder like a parrot. I looked up and Tyler and saw him giving the villagers reassuring signs, and knew instantly that the looks of hatred and rage were directed towards Shara and not me. I wondered for a short time where we were headed until we stopped in front of a building. I came up to stand next to Shara as Tyler turned around to have a few last minute words with us.

“Shara, everyone’s just going to loath you, it’s our nature,” Tyler said seriously to Shara and then turned toward me. “They’ll probably resent you for a while since you want unite us all and learn about Shara’s people first, but they should get over it fairly quickly, I hope.”

I nodded and glanced over at Shara to see how he handled being “loathed”. He had a completely neutral face and I couldn’t understand how he could possible keep it after being told everyone was going to hate him here, especially since we were not sure how long we’d would stay.

“Ok, I get it, now can we just get this over with, I’m starting to really dread it?” I asked shifting my weight from one foot to the other and deciding that

Tyler smiled slightly and took a deep breath. “Ready?”

I nodded. “Absolutely…well, hopefully,” I said nervously.

I looked over at Shara as he replied yes and he gave me a reassuring smile. “You can do this, I know you can. It’s just a matter of believing in yourself.”

“Yeah, easy for you to say,” I said under my breath, some of my nerves disappearing.

He heard my comment but didn’t say anything about it. I looked back at Tyler. “Ok, I’m good, as long as you two can be in there with me. You don’t have to say anything, I just want your support.”

Tyler nodded slightly. “They might not like Shara being there, but I’m sure they’ll allow it.” He started to turn toward the door when I was suddenly struck with something, I had no idea who they where.

“Wait!” I said quickly, reaching out to stop Tyler from going in the building.

He spun around and looked at me curiously, raising an eyebrow. “What is it? Having second thoughts?”

“No,” I said defensively. I just want to know who the hell “they” are.”

“Ah, yeah, that would definitely be a good thing to know. “They” are a male and a female, our leaders if you will, and they are fair, for the most part,” he said confidently, and then stopping as if I didn’t need to know anything else.

“Ok, well that’s nice to know,” I said sarcastically, “I’m sure I could have figured that much out on my own when we walked in there. It would be nice to know what I should call them, if there will be anyone else in the room, or how I should act around them. Any of those would be nice to know.”

Tyler sighed heavily. “Fine, be difficult. Just add a sir or ma’am to the end of your sentences and you should be good. Um…there will probably not be anyone else in the room right now, although if there is it is probably their secondhand man, or woman, or one of their servants. And finally for how to act around them, just be yourself, they don’t care, honestly.

I sighed. “Fine, let’s just go before I change my mind.”

“’Bout time,” Tyler said turning around, missing the glare I shot his way.

“Good luck Samantha, I know you can do it,” Shara said, taking the hand that was not holding midnight in his and giving it a reassuring squeeze. He smiled brightly at me and I smiled back.

“Thanks,” I said quietly as I turned around, took a deep breath, and followed Tyler into the building. As soon as I had entered I nearly ran back because of my nerves. We walked straight up to the two people in the room, who were seated in thrones, and stood there waiting for permission to speak. I was so nervous that I could barely keep my mind on what I wanted to say.

“Tyler, why have you come to us, with two strangers?” the man asked revealing no emotions.

“The girl, whose name is Samantha, has something she would like to discuss with you,” Tyler answered equally revealing his emotions.

The man and woman turned their heads toward me and I gulped. “Is this true?” he asked me and I nodded. “Very well than, what have you come here to tell me?”

I stood still for a minute, not saying anything, fright starting to take over some of my nerves. I felt midnight move slightly in my arms and with some difficulty I finally managed to tell them.

“I am Vanessa Avery and I would like to take my place as heir.”