The next few days followed a similar pattern. Train without blinders against Gus, and then try to train at night with them on. Progress was going slow, but that was expected, what concerned me more was that Glenda still hadn’t given Katherine permission to train yet. She wasn’t even out of her wheelchair. We were supposed to be leaving in two days, and it was clear by the cracks on her armrests that this was bothering Katherine immensely. As the days went on, she began to quip less and less. In her frustration, she’d become silent except for the gritting of her teeth and her clenching and scratching of her chair.
After practice I went to check on her, “Hey, Katherine, how are you feeling?” I asked. “Never better! But Glenda refuses to understand that, won’t even let me get out of this dumb chair. I am going on this mission, mark my words.” She proclaimed. I knew that trying to get her to accept the possibility of not going would be a lost cause, partially because I couldn’t accept it either. I haven’t left Katherine since we first met, going on a mission where we encounter a dangerous criminal, especially one as infamous as Claudius Crowfiend, without her. It was unthinkable, no, I had to believe that she would recover in time.
That night, I went out to do my blindness training again. Once more, it was a dark and quiet night. Slowly slipping through my portal I placed the blinders on my head and immediately heard a BANG instinctively I ran to the woods where I banged my head into an oak. Shouts ensued, “You call that an attack? You’re getting old Glenda!” a familiar voice said. “Me! You’re a whole 50 years older than me ya dang elf!” she replied to Krimsun. “Keep your head in the game, or you won’t survive when my former students attack.” A chill went down my spine as I heard Guildmaster Vincent speak. “Hoo hoo, indeed, those students of yours were quite formidable, but don’t underestimate us either!” Wisebeak chortled. Just my luck, I had stumbled into a captain-level training session with the Guildmaster.
Elemental blasts, razor-sharp feathers, shockwaves from the swings of mighty weapons. All were flung in different directions around the courtyard with nearly as much intensity as the trash talk. I tried to rip my blinders off of my face but… of course… they got stuck when I hit my head. I was going to have to get back to my portal. Without being seen. Without being killed. Without my sense of sight. Brilliant.
I took a deep breath and centered myself. I tried to get an image of the chaos around me. The flapping of Wisebeak’s wings, the whizzing of Krimsun’s attacks, Glenda, and three no, five other captains… and the Guildmaster… I needed to put that aside for now. Picturing my possible routes, I opted to stick to the woods until I got to a set of decorative stones and wait for an explosive attack to obscure the area, then I could go for the portal. I couldn’t afford to hesitate, I needed to move, now!
Things went wrong pretty much immediately. I ran forward only to have the trees in front of me set ablaze. Jumping backward, I almost fell into a pit that opened up as an earthshaking strike from Glenda’s hammer. I steadied myself with my tail and jumped behind a boulder. But I didn’t have time to rest. I heard a whizzing sound headed in my direction and got out of the way just in time as I heard the rock split in two after being hit by Wisebeak’s feathers. “Are they trying to hit me!?” I thought to myself. The ground was being reshaped around me by this battle between titans, I couldn’t rely on my memory to get back to my portal. I needed to find a sound or smell to lead me back. Something consistent something fixed, and then I heard the trickling of water. “The fountain!” I almost shouted.
My mental image cleared as I focused on its sound. The ground had been ruptured, trees had fallen, but I could account for it. It wasn’t just listening to the now but remembering what has changed. The world wasn’t going to stand still when I shut my eyes. Moving forward, I jumped and weaved around the debris. I was only a few meters away when I felt a rumbling beneath my feet. My feet left the ground just in time to avoid falling into a newly created sinkhole. I landed right in my portal and emerged in my bed, my momentum carrying me up a bit before landing with a CREAK. Reggie rolled over and glared at me, I assumed, before going back to sleep.
I had survived, somehow, and without getting caught. I still needed to remove my blinders, but that could wait until the morning, all that running from danger had left me exhausted.
ns 15.158.61.41da2
