Shaking the fuzziness out of my eyes, I wake up an hour later to Damian shaking out a bottle of water and trying to figure out where he should pour it. Before he dumps the entire bottle onto my head, I slowly get up and take the water and drink it in two gulps. Shaken, I take a look at the same door to see that the markings are gone. The door was still open from when I had touched it earlier and the stupid thing had the nerve to look like an ordinary door. However, it was too late. Whatever was behind it was either out and roaming around the house, or I just got cursed by some weird voodoo.
“Hey, you okay there Ripples? You fell pretty bad…” Damian started with growing concern for me as I glared at the door. ” Anyways…Let’s get you to your room. Like now.” Helping me stand up, we slowly make our way to my room when we cross paths with a concerned Cole. He reaches over and grabs one of my other arms from Damian and assists us down the corridor. We make the trip in silence, but that was enough to convey the amount of concern and tension between the two older males. Upon reaching my room, I was carefully lain across my bed while two nurses quickly assessed and treated any injuries that I may have gotten.
“Ripples, are you sure you don’t feel bad anywhere? Don’t feel scared to let us know if there are any aches or pains anywhere.” Damian pressed, the concern not leaving his face the entire duration of my checkup. His eyes kept darting between me and the door where Cole had left.Something told me that I should be worried, but I couldn’t understand what. He glances over me one more time before his band flashes and beeps. Sighing, he glances one more time at my bed and fixes my pillows telling me to stay put. “I’m going to be back but I have to go take care of something really quick, so I need you to stay here. Cole is already worried enough.” Under his breath, he mumbles something else but it’s too low for me to fully hear. Laying in the empty room, I decide to try and piece together what had just happened but am left puzzled since it all happened too fast. As I’m thinking I try to calm my nerves from the vision of that I had seen before fully losing consciousness. I can’t remember the full image, but the feeling lingers with a mix of familiarity and chilling discomfort-as if I had come across something similar in the past… Before I can ponder it any further, Cole steps in and grins at my glare (he looked to pleased to see me, if I can be honest). Sitting on the edge of my bed, he releases a large sigh and stares at me for a long and hard minute. Before I can tell him how uncomfortable the situation was getting, he reaches over. Flinching, I expect him to slap me and try to raise up a wall of water to slow his hands. Instead of feeling the impact from an angered slap, I feel a warm embrace as Cole pulls me into a long and comforting embrace. Confused by his actions and the fact that he wasn’t upset that I had ventured into a dangerous situation so quickly, I slowly returned the hug. Seconds passed and he pulled back and booped my forehead with two of his fingers.
“Ya gave me a heart attack ye’ idjit! What were you doing venturing in the very hallway I said to not go down?!” At this, I was confused. It was apparently written across my face since he took another exasperated sigh and swiped his hand across his face. “I mentioned earlier, how I don’t want you goin’ down certain halls due to seals placed on marked doors. They release a little spell to ward off intruders.” With that clarification, I flush violet. He surely did mention earlier that there were hallways that I couldn’t go down… I just wasn’t listening at the time. “Luckily,” he started with a pat on my shoulder,” ye’ weren’t hurt badly. It wasn’t anything dangerous behind the door. Got any questions? Or anything you may need repeated?” With that he squinted his eyes knowingly.
Rubbing the back of my head, I replied,”Not that I can think of at the moment,”thinking back to my thoughts before my blackout I remembered,”Actually there is something.”
“What is it?”
“The accent. It’s been bugging me but why faking an accent? You are very clearly not an Aussie, so why try to sound like one?”
“You’re not from the country but act like a hillbilly.”
“Touche. But seri-”
“I used to travel a lot and always thought an Australian accent sounded cool. I’m originally from abroad and never had a “normal” accent. It just stuck. Now,” turning serious for a moment he looked me in the eyes. “Why walk around and handicap yourself?”
With that I struggle to hold in a gasp.
“I sensed it from when we first met that there was more to your abilities, but when I read Damian and Tony’s report I grew suspicious. Why hide what you are capable of? Does it have to do-”
“Uncle Matt has nothing to do with this,” I started. That was always a touchy subject. I don’t try to seal myself off, it’s just easier to manage what I am comfortable with. Besides, I don’t want to hurt anyone….”Uncle Matt was a d**** but, I grew to ignore him. It was easier since my dad was there but I don’t do it on purpose.” He obviously didn’t believe me, but decided to drop the subject. His eyes, however, said that he would ask at another time.
“There’s nothing else you would like to know or share?” He was starting to grate my nerves with the game of 21 Questions. We literally just met and he’s continually pressing to get information I’m not ready to give.
As calmly as I am able to to I say,”I would like to go to sleep now, if you don’t mind? It’s been a long day. Y’know dealing with bad accents, getting my arse kicked, draining the last of purple Kool-Aid out of my system (Still pissed about that by the way)”With that he got the message and began to walk out of the room with a small good-night.
“Also,Spyro,”he continued with a small and sad tone,”just know that we all DO care about you. If anything, come to us when you feel you need help. You resume training in the morning but we will be working more on combat and getting the hang of your abilities in different situations. Okay? I’ll drop the fake accent if it makes you more comfortable…” With this, I grow a little guilty but wish to stay firm.
“I-I would appreciate that…thanks Cole. And, sorry for wandering where I wasn’t supposed to. Everything has been a little…out of the ordinary to say the least. I do like it here. I…I really appreciate everything. Good night.” With a chuckle he walks by the bed and ruffles my hair and tells me that I still have to run an extra lap around the training room for wandering. With that news, I laugh and groan at the same time and proceed to sprinkle him with some water. He walks out the door with a chuckle, leaving me to sleep and prepare for the morning.
~~~~~~
Outside of Sypro’s door, Cole pauses and looks back at the knob in thought. That door held a high level creature that had incapacitated more than 30% of his best men and left them in the hospital, yet it only knocked the boy unconscious. The medics reported no anomaly with Spyro’s systematic and bio-metric functions, yet something struck him odd. That same creature just stayed within the confines of the door, as if afraid of the young tyke. Something was going on with Spyro that he and his father are failing-and have failed- to relay. He never met his friend’s wife and barely knew of him having a son…Something was off and while he could go to the uncle and get answers, that would lose any of the little trust the boy has for him. He didn’t want to chance that and decides to wait for the boy to come out of his armor and share what is on his mind. He would, however, address the creature for knocking his new charge unconscious. That he would very well address immediately. With glowing eyes he makes his way down the dark corridor, making sure his employees move out of the way and get the memo to not disturb him. He had a lot to inquire the apparition about and it was about to spill everything.
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