Sonja's tango with Gilton

I hear a muffled gasp in my sleep. I blink trying to wake up to see what's going on. Then the bed I'm on moves a little on the violent side. I bolt awake to see Elbereth's long silvery white hair flowing behind her as she's scrambling away to Amaya who was sitting in the reading chair by the fireplace. We are in Sonja's house. Mitus is in the kitchen mixing, chopping and brewing something over the iron stove. Arata is no where to seen so he must be out gathering something for Mitus.

"I'm so sorry El! I told the boys not to put Kem next to you in the bed but I physically couldn't move him out." Amaya says comforting Elbereth.

"I-it's fine... i-it really is." El says trying to hide her blushing face in Amaya's shoulder.

Amaya glares at me. And I mouth back to her, "like I had a choice in the matter" while gesturing to the bed.

Amaya turns her attention back to Elbereth. "Let's take a look at your injures."

Elbereth nods shyly.

"You all get out!" Amaya barks at Mitus and me.

"But Mitus is the healer of our group. Shouldn't he look at my injures?" Elbereth says quietly. 

"I'm going to the outhouse. I will be back later." I say getting up and making my way to the door.

Amaya sighs with an attitude. "Fine Mitus can look at your injures but you," Amaya jabs her finger toward me. "Kem, you better knock before coming back in!"

"I'm not some perv you make me out to be!" I defend myself before walking out. Geez! 

"Am, you don't have to be so mean. That one time was an accident." I could hear Elbereth through the door.

"Like I believe that!" Amaya snaps.

◇□◇□◇

I find myself sitting on a cut up log outside the front door. Listening to the muffled voices of Elbereth, Amaya and Mitus. From the sounds of things the salve Mitus used, made it so scarring is minimal on Elbereth's leg and her arm is healed up nicely. 

"Was it my sister or Amaya that kicked you out here?" Arata says walking up to me from the forest.

"Amaya. From the sounds of things Elbereth is healing well. Scars will be minimal." I inform him. A little bit of guilt sets in on what would have happened if I was there too. Would Elbereth have been that injured? Would Sonja still be here?

"That's good to hear." He says then I can feel his eyes burning holes into me.

"Yea?" I look back up at him.

"You're thinking. But not in the good strategic way." Arata sighs pulling up a log to sit beside me.

"How can you tell?" I ask. We have been friends for years so it doesn't really surprise me.

"You chew on the inside of your cheek when you're upset about an outcome. I picked that up when you loose a game to a teacher or the few times I won a fight. You sit secluded while chewing on yourself and try to figure out where it went wrong." Arata informs me.

Now I just feel called out.

"I wonder if things would have been different if I was here. What could I have done to keep Sonja here and poor Elbereth." I trail off.

"I think we did everything we could. Sonja found us all starting with Mitus, Amaya, Elbereth then me." Arata looks up to the sky. His silvery white hair looks almost clear in the sunlight. His dark eyes look back at me. "When we got back to the house, we were ambushed. Gilton came out of no where from the sky. He claimed Sonja will be his new wife."

"Wife?!" I shout cutting him off. He holds up his hand to indicate to let him finish.

"Gilton started claiming Sonja is to marry him. He had a paper in hand from the counsel, supposedly, but none of us read it. Sonja charged him, man you should have seen how angry she was, she summoned magic squares in an instant and was firing rounds of earth magic at him. She was screaming up and down on how she wasn't marrying some ghoul like him. Sonja called out to Maddie also but she never came. She did do some damage to Tundra though. You're sister is scary." Arata chuckles a little.

"She is terrifying when she is angry." I agree with him. I can imagine the snarl on her lips and determination on her eyes when she was firing off thorn covered vines and rocks at the creep. But for Maddie to not show up? That's not right.

"Gilton then got furious. It was in an instant and we couldn't run, Tundra took a breath, Sonja must have seen it before to be able to react the way she did. She turned back to us puting up a rock barrier around the four of us. Then El shoved herself to the front of the group and placed a shield. We watched the rock shelter disintegrate around us from the icy wind. El's shield slowly started to crack. Once it gave, it must have been near the end of the attack because none of us suffered frost bite. But since El was up front. She took the blunt of the damange from the shield shattering. I blacked out soon after so I'm unsure what else happened, out side of your sister was gone when I woke up."

We sat in silence for a second.

"I'm sorry your sister was injured in my family's matter. Thank you for telling me what happened. I'm going to go get my sister back." I say getting up.

"Without us?" Amaya says from the door way.

I fall over. "When did you get there!?" I shout looking up at Elbereth and Mitus standing beside her. Arata stands up to help me up.

"You aren't going alone." Elbereth demands.

"But-" I try saying.

"But nothing. We're a friends. And friends stick together right?" Amaya states. "Besides, your sister was fighting like a true warrior til Gilton snatched her and flew off. That's what I saw. Now strategist. What would Giltons next move be?"

I hold my chin and think.

"Think out loud for the rest of us." Whispers Arata.

"Oh sorry." I tell them. "Gilton has somewhat of an appearance to uphold in the kingdom. With Tundra injured he wouldn't do anything to upset the council since dad and the others could potentially over throw him. If the counsel really did agree to marry my sister off then there will still be a time period of planning a big wedding since thats how the other two marriages he had went. So he probably has her imprisoned somewhere secluded trying to break her mentally since there is no way she would wear a dress and walk down an isle willingly."

"I can see her shredding her dress and screaming profanity while having to be dragged down the isle." I continue. "Now for how he will make her comply. I'm not sure. Yes, there are spells that can be casted but I'm sure Sonja has layers of protection spells. He won't be able to physically hurt her since that will leave marks and other would find out. She was the queen of psychological war far in the house. He would need to have someone she really loves and hurt them infront of her."

I look up at everyone staring at me.

"What?" I ask.

"For a strategist you can be stupid." Amaya says matter-of-factly.

"What are you talking about?" I ask.

"You walking right to Gilton for him to use you against your sister." Arata informs me.

"She cares for you all more than me anyways. My sister finds me repulsive, she woul-" I'm cut off by Elbereth.

"She's your sister! She isn't supposed to find you attractive! But she loves you more than anything in the world!" Elbereth's face is beet red. 

We all look at her in shock for being loud.

"So you're not going there alone. What ever plan WE decide on ends with none of us being used against Sonja." Elbereth stomps her foot.

"I agree with my sister." Arata states.

"Me too." Says Amaya giving Elbereth a hug.

Mitus nods in agreement.

Not alone.

"Ragon!" I shout.

"Oh ****! I forgot about that guy!" Amaya gasps.

"I met the prophet Guy while out in the woods."

"Why is this the first we're hearing of this?!" They all shout back at me.

"Sh, sh, sh, he said Ragon will be back in a fortnight with allies."

"Allies?" Arata looks at me funny.

"I'm not sure what he ment but Ragon is coming back. With help, from the sounds of it. And my purpose... he must have known Sonja was going to get taken. That (angry noises). Wait. Destruction. Sonja was working on training books for us."

I bolt into the house to find my sister's note books filled with spells, potions and enchantments. All tailored to fit our fighting styles. She was far more prepared than all of us.