Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog :) This is part seven (final part) of a little story I'm writing. For anyone who is new here, I would recommend you start at part one and work your way through. Happy reading!
Andrew and I run out of the tent, tensed and ready for an attack. In our rush, we don't see Breg standing feet from us and I plough into him. The two of us fall to the ground in a heap.
"Sorry," I say quickly, getting up and offering him a hand. "What's going on? We just got here - surely they can't have found us again?"
Breg doesn't take my hand and I glance down at him. He is staring between Andrew and me as though he has seen a ghost.
"Go, see what's wrong," I mutter to Andrew as I crouch down beside Breg. Andrew hurries into the main area of the camp, which is in an uproar.
"Breg, what's wrong?" I say.
He just gapes at me.
"Use words, Breg," I say, a tad impatient. "If we're in danger, you had better start talking."
"You... you just appeared," he says faintly. "You just appeared out of thin air."
I glance behind me and see the flap of our tent standing wide open. Appear out of thin air? Evidently, I must have knocked Breg's head when I bashed into him. He's confused.
"That's right, Breg, just stay here, now," I say soothingly, putting a hand on his shoulder. I get up and make to follow Andrew, not comfortable having him out of my sight in a possibly dangerous situation. Of course, I well know that if we face another attack, Andrew, as a wizard, will be a lot less helpless than I am. Still, he would be dead if I hadn't gotten him to the hidden camp in the first place. We rely on each other.
Before I have to look far, Andrew comes jogging back, followed by a crowd of people, all of whom look a little like Breg - like they have just seen something impossible and shocking. I raise my eyebrows at Andrew. Well?
He rolls his eyes, leaning forward to whisper in my ear. "I think they're playing a practical joke on us, Megs. They're pretending that our tent disappeared with us inside it."
I laugh aloud. Of all the unbelievable stories, they could have chosen better.
Breg pushes himself to his feet and speaks in a shaky voice. "You can't do that, Andrew," he says. "No one has the power to hide places like that. Objects, maybe, but not anything as big as a tent and everything inside it, even for a second, never mind minutes!"
Something in his voice makes me think that maybe, maybe he isn't joking. "Breg, our tent is right there," I say, gesturing impatiently. He looks right through the tent and to the person standing behind it. Frowning, Andrew takes his arm and leads him forward.
Breg follows, but then suddenly stops, as though pushed back by an invisible wall. Andrew tries to pull him, but Breg seems to be pressed up against some kind of barrier we can't see. I don't think he is that good an actor.
I walk forward, trying to feel the same thing, but I am standing right next to Andrew in seconds.
"Megan?" Berg's voice is anxious. "Where did you go?"
I exchange a glance with Andrew. Everyone else is wearing expressions similar to Breg. They really can't see us behind whatever invisible line has been drawn around out tent. Together, Andrew and I step out, and the crowd exhales as one in relief.
"Ok, what's going on?" Breg demands.
"That's exactly what we'd like to know," Andrew says. "How is it that there is suddenly some kind of barrier around our tent?"
"Call Sophie," someone says, and there is some shuffling in the back. Sophie isn't a sorceress, exactly, in that she doesn't have the same powers as most sorceresses do, but she does have a strange ability to judge the abilities of others. Sophie is ushered forward to examine the barrier. She barely even looks at it, though. She is staring at me.
"You," she whispers.
"Me what?" I ask, nonplussed.
"You..." she appears lost for words for a moment. "You have magic," she says slowly. "Maybe you didn't intend it, but you put up this barrier. Your magic isn't like ours - that's why we didn't recognise it - but you have it. If you could learn to control your gift..."
She doesn't need to finish. If I could learn to control my gift, I could hide us from the king forever.
I meet her gaze with a steely one of my own. For a second, we are the only two people in the world.
"Teach me," I say.
Four months later
"So you like it'?" Andrew asks.
"It's amazing!" I squeal, turning in circles. It took Andrew weeks to build the house, with both physical labour and magic, but now that it is done, we both agree that it was well worth it. Everyone is building houses now - now that we can have more than just portable tents. Now that we have a permanent home.
It took me two months to learn to master my gift of hiding locations, but when I did, we were ready. We had already located the perfect campsite - the one that would be more than just a campsite. The one where we could live in peace for the rest of our lives, perfectly hidden from the king and his soldiers.
As I look through the window, there is no dome in the sky, as there was in my dream, but I know we are hidden - we've tested it thoroughly. No one will find us here, where we are truly hidden.
"You did it," Andrew whispers in my ear.
I nod, smiling incandescently at him as his words really sink in. No more fear, no more running. "Yes. And now we're safe. Forever."
"Forever," he agrees.
The End
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