Chapter 53
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
I was totally exhausted by dinner, and I was glad that Daniel had gotten KFC, because I was sick of eating stuff that had its guts strewn around the fifth bush over. I laid down on the green grass near the fire and spread my wings out, drumstick in hand. Most of the others had left, but Daniel was still here, and so was Sophie. I didn’t listen to their conversation until Sophie said in a less quiet voice, “Well, you seem to know what you’re doing. So far, we haven’t been killed… so you have a good track record. Just remember,” she said as Daniel stood up, “that power is something not very many people can handle. And I hope you can.”
Daniel turned around. “We all hope.” Sophie stood up as well, and called everyone over.
“Look,” Daniel said as they all gathered. “We got our weapons, and training was a good idea, but I think we need to get realistic. We’re not Narnians… and we don’t need to act like them any more than horses need to fly to the moon. We have magic, and it can’t be undone by anyone more powerful than us because there isn’t anyone more powerful than us. So ditch the plate armor and limit it. Save it for the medieval fair or whatever.”
“Medieval fair?” Sophie whispered in Daniel’s ear.
“I don’t know, it was in some book,” he whispered back. “All we need is a good protection spell that will, I don’t know, deflect blows of any kind,” he said louder.”
“Okay,” Molly said, “we’ll be fine, but what about Ryder, Cat, or Hannah? We don’t know what they’re like in the ranks. Their magic might be susceptible to being undone.”
“I’ll do it myself. I was saying… we need to be practical. Everyone needs to have a weapon. Some simple armor like shields and helmets sounds fine, but this odd layering… just because the weapon store is stuck in the Dark Ages doesn’t mean we are. By “weapon” I don’t mean magic. I mean melee. So, Hannah, can you teach Angel to shoot a bow?”
I shot straight up from where I was laying. Now, that was interesting. I nodded enthusiastically.
Hannah shrugged. “Sure.” I smiled. I liked Hannah. She’s cool.
“Good,” Daniel said, sounding satisfied. “A bow in flight should be pretty effective.” He turned back to Hannah. “Is there a spell for making trees grow fast? As in, full size in a few seconds?”
“Sure,” Hannah said. “That’s easy.”
“Cat needs somewhere to hide. Cat, you got the shortsword?”
She held it up. I thought this whole meeting was awesome. Battle strategies! There’s nothing like this in the forest. I never saw anything killed that was bigger than a spider before this mission thing. It’s exciting! I’m going to save people!
Okay, little kid flash over.
“Ryder, you and Keith have plans to fight on the horses… does anyone else have a plan?”
“I wanna just hack through everything!” Alex said, grinning.
“Okay,” Daniel said. “Messenger told me that if you shred a Gateguard’s cloak in three places, they die. So, three slashes… can you handle that?”
Alex shrugged. Cat grinned, fangs showing, and whipped out some major claws. I think several people scooted back.
“Hannah, if you can try and practice your aim from, say, up a tree…”
She nodded.
“Um…” Daniel said, looking around. “Khorabelle. What are you doing?”
“Filing my nails.”
“No,” Daniel said patiently. “In our fight.”
“Magic, of course.”
“And what kind of magic do you do?”
Khorabelle’s eyes narrowed through a cascade of perfectly preened strawberry-blonde ringlets. At least, that’s how she’d describe her hair. “I’m a harpy girl.”
Daniel looked like he was looking up something in the mental encyclopedia. “You mean a harpy?”
“Half harpy,” Khorabelle said. “Cat and I come from a big civilization where everybody is half something.”
“Except all those people who aren’t half something,” Cat said. Khorabelle huffed and went back to her nails, but I could see that she was happy underneath her mass of dyed curls.
Daniel ignored them. “Sophie and I will just help anyone who needs it. We’re going to need strong people free to help other people. That’s why Molly’s going to come fight that way as well. And with basic armor!”
Molly scowled. I was just glad someone took the voice of reason here.
“But take this precaution for what it is. It’s a precaution. Most likely, we’ll only need magic, but we also need this because by now it ought to have clicked with our enemies what our strengths are.” It made sense.
“Just go,” Daniel said, “and just know that this is just so we’re not entirely dependent on magic. It’s okay.” Daniel stopped talking and got up, and everyone left. I gave a brief nod before leaving, and Daniel smiled. Sophie looked at him. I think she likes him back now.
I left and went to bed.
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