Drakonika (Book 1) (28 page)

Then a girl's voice preached somewhere near them, but Serena's mouth was shut.

“
If you didn't complain about everything, you could have found your staffs by now. The only problem is — you don't want to. And if you dont want to, no one can help you.”

On a small slope to their left, there stood a girl with long wavy hair, looking at them from above. She was clearly better at searching for staffs. She had a nice long stick in her hands, certainly good enough to make it a staff of high quality. The sight of Belinda was really impressive
— she looked as though she had been born a druid. But her words didn't teach them anything, it was more like pouring oil into the fire.

“
And I suppose that
you
could teach us?” Viktor scoffed. Before Belinda could answer, Darius snorted, a malevolent sneer on his face.

“
Just look at her — rotten druid stick, druid flea-bag cloak, lousy druid mane and finally, druid insolence. Aedan must be very proud of you,” he said scornfully. As his friends burst into mocking laughter, he looked around to see how much they liked the insult.

Belinda gaped at them for a moment, then frowned angrily.

“You know what? Maybe he would be proud of you too... if you weren't such a jerk,” she said fiercely, disappearing in seconds so the Black Squad couldn't see her wiping her eyes.

“
That was brilliant,” Viktor praised him. “You know, I was beginning to fear that you became soft.”

Rodrick was still laughing, almost rolling in the pine needles on the ground.

Hearing these words, Darius immediately made the harshest expression possible to eliminate all doubts from his comrades.

“
What are you talking about? That's for duffers. Duffers like the highly glorious druid Belinda, the little scrub Lars, nerd Elmar, jester Magnus, his groveller Maren and –” he said confidently, but then suddenly stopped as Fjalldís' name came onto his tongue. He just couldn't spit it out.

“
And...?” Henry said curiously, the others waiting impatiently for Darius to finish that cool sentence, as if they were getting inspiration from it.

Seeing the eagerness in their faces, Darius quickly added, “And the two irritating girls who live in Maren's house, have you noticed them? The two of them never stop gossiping.”

For a moment, his friends gazed at him wordlessly. That was definitely not the answer they expected.

Viktor rubbed his chin.

“Now that I think about it, I guess you're right. Those two must know about everything that's going on around. If anyone knows the biggest secrets of all the novices, it's them!” he said firmly. Then he threw Rodrick a significant look. “Maybe we should learn what it is that they know.”

Aedan was growing impatient, when a chirping bird told him that his novices were finally coming back. When they gathered around again, some of them looked more miserable than before they left, while the others seemed much brighter. Aedan decided not to investigate the details.

“I can see that everyone has found something. Some of you — excellent, others — less appropriate,” Aedan said, when his eyes slid across the feeble coniferous bough in Lars' hands. “But that's okay, it will have to do for now. Those of you who have found some quality staffs can keep them for your whole life. The longer you use it, the more you're connected with it and the more powerful it becomes. Never forget to carry it above the ground if you are outside, don't use it as a walking stick. Otherwise you could harm Mother Nature!”

While Aedan was talking about using a druid staff, asking for food and water from Mother Nature, orientation in the forest and rules of fire-making, Magnus was dropping off to sleep. It looked as though he had been watching the tips of his shoes for a good half an hour.

He would have been left behind if Maren didn't poke him to wake up, because Aedan was already moving forward.

“
Magnus! You are sleeping? Let's go!” she said, sounding slightly annoyed.

Their druid expedition led them through a seemingly infinite forest. They crossed many creeks, alleys of bushes and ferns, but also beautiful flower fields that looked like they were cut from a fairytale. When twilight filled the sky and the air grew colder, Aedan found a suitable cave for them to spend the night. But there was still work to do
— they needed wood for fire and water and food for cooking, so he split orders among the children. Then he left to a nearby creek in order to ask Mother Nature for some fresh fish.

Everyone complained about their exhaustion and legs hurting, but they had no choice but to do it. If they didn't, they would have nothing to eat and they would freeze from cold overnight. Among all novices, Magnus was afraid of the cold the most so he willingly took the quest to collect wood. Maren and Fjalldís helped him, even though they could barely walk.

Before the Black Squad got to work, they had to encourage themselves by giving away a few pointy insults.

“
Hey Lars, nice branch! You could sweep carpets with that,” Darius said mockingly and his friends immediately burst into laughter. That scared Lars enough to make him take a quick run to other children, just so he wouldn't have to stay with the horrifying Black Squad alone.

Giselbert was given the quest to collect some herbs for roasting, which he considered completely useless work. But according to the members of the Black Squad, any quest given by Aedan was useless.

“Asking for permission to take a few stinking leaves, yeah right. Just watch me,” he said in an irritated tone as he crouched to the ground. He pulled up some green leaves without hesitation, although he didn't even know if it was edible or not. Then, somewhere close to him, he heard a gentle voice.

“
May I have permission to take these herbs? Thank you,” Belinda said as she carefully took a few pieces of thyme. When she wrapped it in her druid cloak, her graceful face brightened with a contented smile. One single look at her was enough to tell she simply belonged to the nature.

Giselbert gaped at her for a while, as though he saw a fairy. It seemed he had completely forgotten how he and his friends laughed at her the very same day.

When Belinda noticed him, she froze. All this time she had thought she was there alone. Then she suddenly narrowed her eyes, looking at the boy's arm.

“
I think you're bleeding,” she said calmly.

Giselbert started checking himself frantically and then he finally came to his left arm where he saw a thin red stripe appear under the torn sleeve. Belinda was right!

“Help! Help! I'm bleeding! No, this can't be happening! I'm too young to die!” he shouted desperately, running in circles.

When Belinda saw his overreaction, she took pity on him and decided to help, although he didn't deserve it at all. She approached him slowly and stopped him from running.

“Just calm down. What are you screaming for? Give it here,” she said as she gently laid her staff on the ground and took his left hand to check it closely. But it was exactly what she expected. “It's nothing. Just a small scratch. Put some plantain on it.” And that was it.

Giselbert looked at her in disbelief. He got so terribly injured and she was acting as though nothing happened!

“Plan-what?” he repeated, as though he didn't hear her well. But it was clear that he didn't have the slightest idea how to tend an injury in the wilderness.

“
Fine, I'll show you how to do it. But we'll have to look around, because I don't see any here. That is, if you can move at all,” Belinda said tartly.

“
Well, I don't know. It really hurts,” Giselbert moaned.

“
That was supposed to be a joke,” Belinda scolded him. “Now move it, before you
bleed out
.”

While Belinda spent most of her time tending Giselbert's “deadly” injury, the rest of the novices were slowly completing their tasks. When they finally gathered back in the cave and met with Aedan, they were so exhausted they wouldn't be able to do anything else.

The fire and cooking was taken care of by Aedan. The novices were sitting in a group, trying to warm themselves by the fire. Mother Nature was gracious enough to provide soft moss on the ground of the entire cave.

Soon they were given roasted fish with herbs that all of them were waiting so impatiently for. Even picky Giselbert, who was now hungry like a wolf, accepted this meal gratefully and he even gave his thanks to Mother Nature. Fortunately, his friends didn't realise it as they were busy eating, but Belinda gave him one of her fair smiles as a reward.

Aedan was usually quite stern, but in nature he was like a changed man.

“
Oh, I love caves and undergrounds, I feel so close to Mother Nature. Can you hear her heartbeat?” he said delightedly.

“
Ehm... No...?” one of the novices said doubtfully and that made the druid scowl again.

“
Wrong answer. Who said that?” Aedan said as he looked around, but in the group of more than twenty of them squeezed together, there was no telling who exactly had said it. And no one had told on them either.

The time went by and as the novices finished their dinner, they were finally off to sleep. Now they were quite thankful for having the druid cloaks that they could use as blankets.

Aedan told the boys to sleep on the right and girls had to squeeze by the left wall. As soon as the druid fell asleep, Fjalldís left into a small room through a corridor nearby. She disliked being in large groups and she always slipped away at the first chance she got, although she would have probably decided to stay if she could sleep next to Magnus. But she didn't know that someone in addition to Maren had seen her leave.

Darius had wanted to apologise to her for quite some time, but certainly not in front of his friends. This was a good opportunity, because his comrades seemed to be sleeping. Darius got up and carefully crossed the room, leaving quietly to where Fjalldís had disappeared. It was quite small, but serene and private. He peeked inside, still alert and making sure that no one was following him.

She was there, wrapped in her robes, crouching in the corner with her eyes closed. It appeared she was sleeping already. Suddenly, everything looked peaceful. There was only quiet whispering coming from the bigger room and water drops falling on the green moss every now and then. He remained there for a while, just standing in the entrance, watching Fjalldís breathe. But everything has to come to an end, even this perfect moment.

“
What are you doing here?” said a suspicious voice behind him.

Darius twitched in shock as he looked around his shoulder to see who was standing there. It was Viktor.

“Oh, nothing. I just noticed there was another room here,” Darius stuttered. He attempted to stand in his friend's view, but despite the darkness, Viktor had already seen who was sleeping there.

“
Sure. And just by coincidence, the scrubby goblin is here as well. You want to be friends with her so much or what?” Viktor growled quietly.

Darius gaped at him wordlessly. He surely didn't want to lose his gang! Moreover, Fjalldís was sleeping
— she couldn't hear a word of what they were saying.

“
How do you get such stupid ideas? I was just curious where this room leads, I didn't know she was here. Me? Friends with
her
? No way! Let's get out of here,” Darius said scornfully. It seemed that it was convincing enough, because as they walked back into the main room, Viktor's lip curled into a contented sneer.

When the boys left, Fjalldís opened her eyes and heaved a deep sigh.

They didn't need to do any packing for the journey back, because they didn't bring anything. But as a thanks to Mother Nature, they had to clean everything in such a way that not even the best detective of the Magi Police could tell that someone had slept there.

Despite Magnus' usual trouble sleeping, this time he had slept tightly and he felt completely recharged in the morning. It was as though Mother Nature Herself put him to sleep, knowing how tired and worn out he was. But his back didn't stop itching.

Before their departure, Darius waited for a moment when Fjalldís would be alone and his friends were busy making fun of others. He quickly slipped away and once he reached the seclusion of a small slope, he stepped right into her way.

“Um... Hi,” Darius started bashfully, which was very unlike him. “I just wanted to say... well, I... actually... I wanted to...” he stuttered, his composure slipping.

Fjalldís cut him off harshly, “You came to tell me that you don't want to be friends with me?”

Darius looked mortified — she must have heard his conversation with Viktor! When he finally mouthed to say something, she interrupted him again.

“
I won't bother you any longer then, it could ruin your day,” Fjalldís said angrily, her nose wrinkled in fury. Darius had never seen her like this before.

“
You... you heard something last night...?” Darius said carefully and although it was clear the answer would be positive, he still tried to play a fool who didn't know anything.