Surprisingly enough the next day went pretty smoothly, avoided Jake and the evenings escape went off without a hitch. I had all of us head out in different direction so that no one left at the cabin would know which way we actually went and then I used my air power to pick everyone up and take the entire group to a meadow that was at least two hours from the cabin. Hopefully I got everyone far enough away. "From here on out we are trekking. But I believe I got us far enough away that by the time they track where we are at if they can at all we will already be gone."
"Thank you for getting us out Kenna, Dane and I both really appreciate it." Corrie said with gratitude.
"Your welcome Corrie, all I ask is that you don't do something that could ultimately get the rest of us killed. I know you want revenge for what happened to your family, but there are other to consider now too." I told her pointedly.
"I understand, I won't get the rest of you killed." Corrie winked at me and we all started hiking.
I don't know where we are. It isn't like we have a map and who knows how long it will take us to get out of these mountains.
It did take us longer than I had anticipated, but we finally stumbled upon a small mountain village a little over a week and a half after leaving the cabin. I had kept myself blocked off from Aidan so he couldn't track me, but at some point I will have to let him know I am ok. I just don't want to be caged like an animal with no say as to what is happening in my life and that is exactly what Jake wants. "We finally made it somewhere guys." I said with exhaustion as I looked at the group, "You don't think Jake has already been here do you?"
We all looked at each other and decided that we would continue to camp out in the woods and only one of us would go into town this evening. If this is one of the only close towns, then Jake no doubt has been here too. We also decided that me going into town was a bad idea, so I gave Corrie what cash I had and a diamond ring that Granny gave me for my 16th birthday, but I didn't really have a choice. Using any type of credit card is completely out of the question, and Granny would approve my choice.
Waiting in the woods to find out what happened with Corrie was like pulling teeth. We all started biting at each other and finally just decided we would call it a night. If things went well Corrie was gonna stay in town for the night anyway and hopefully have a vehicle and idea where we are when she come back in the morning.
It took a while, but I finally drifted off to sleep. I am surrounded by pure elemental power, but I have never felt or seen my powers like this. If I could control the powers like this I could destroy the Restorers as easy as pie. What is going on?
"You can control these powers child?"
"Aedus? Why you?"
"You really do ask for trouble don't you?"
"I am dreaming aren't I?" I asked and ignored his question.
"You are, but this kind of power is within you. Our powers are even greater than this and you are the only living being with power even close to ours. This much is within you."
"It is too much, I can't control something this massive." I said in fear and awe as I watch the powers around me.
"Not if you don't believe you can. You are human after all, failure is part of your nature."
"And that is why I prefer to talk to Nereus over you. He is not rude to me just because I am human! You do realize that Halaina was also a human right?" How this cocky jackass ever loved a human is beyond me.
"She was an exception."
"She was still human, and as far as failure goes she failed her dad pretty bad, and because of that we now have the Restorers who I have to figure out how to defeat."
"She was a truly exceptional human, you have a lot of her in you." Aedus said with what sounded like a wistful quality.
"Maybe that is why I am supposed to be the one to finally finish the war between people like me and the Restorers. I am the most like Halaina."
Aedus nodded and said, "You have her fire and her fight, that is why this task has come down to you."
"Yeah, I get to be the most like her. I will finish this though even if it kills me and in that it will be done anyway."
"You will not fail, you will persevere." Aedus said with conviction.
"Oh my gosh that almost sounded like a compliment, thank you so much Aedus. Oh, I feel so special now." I tried to say with as little sarcasm as possible.
"She did not have your sarcasm however," he said with distain, "I am not very fond of your sarcasm."
"It is all part of the package. So, is there a reason you are interrupting my dreams?"
"You are about to take yourself out of hiding, we want to make sure you are truly prepared for this."
"I can't stay hidden anymore Aedus, I will go crazy. I will handle everything that comes, I don't have a choice."
"That you do not, pleasant dreams child. They will be some of your last."
"Nice Aedus, thank you so much."
We are all pretty quiet this morning, we don't know when Corrie will be back, but we are all getting worried. It is already almost nine and no sign of her. "Should one of us go check things out?" I asked.
"We don't know when she is supposed to be back this morning and we don't want to tip anyone off about us if Jake has been here." Dane said.
"You're right I just don't want anything bad to happen to her. We are putting ourselves back into the fray and who knows when our first problem will appear." Was my response.
Rick said, "She will be fine Kenna, Corrie is a very resilient person. She isn't going to miss out on getting back at the Restorers for what they did to her family. But if she isn't here by ten one of us will sneak closer to town and see if there is something going on."
"Thanks Rick." How on earth am I supposed to just sit around and wait? What if something has happened to her? "I have to go relieve myself I'll be right back."
"Wait Kenna," Rick said as he stood up, "before you sneak off, someone is coming." Rick sometimes seems to know me better than I thought. The three of us of all melted into the background of the trees and rocks. Someone would know that there were people camping there recently, but that is better than being caught at camp. I quietly watch in the area I can hear the rustling from, I just hope it is Corrie. Yet whomever or whatever it is also something else that seems to be taking forever.
Finally she walks into camp with her hands up, "Its safe guys you can come back out."
And the breath I didn't realize I was holding came out in a big whoosh. "Oh my gosh where have you been?" I said as I stepped back into camp.
"Thanks for the concern Kenna, but a few of the locals invited me to breakfast this morning, I couldn't very well just run off and make it seem like I had someone waiting for me in the woods."
"Ok that makes since." She still had me so worried, but I understand her reasoning.
Dane stepped forward, "What happened in town Corrie?"
Corrie filled us all in, "Jake has been here, I guess he comes back every three days or something since we left. So, if that stays the same he will be by here tomorrow. They know he is looking for two gals and two guys, but they don't know why. I didn't ask them straight out, that actually brought it up in conversation this morning, yet another good reason I stayed for breakfast."
Shoot, Jake will be here tomorrow. What if he come back here early? "We need to get outta here as soon as possible. How did everything else in town go?"
"It went well," Corrie said with reassurance, "I got us a car and some spending money. That was a pretty nice ring you gave up. I can't believe you did that."
"It had to be done Corrie. Maybe someday I will get to come back here and I will find it again."
"I parked the car in a clearing just outside of town where they have a lookout point, made it look like I was checking out the area. Let's get things packed up and get on the road."
"Thank you for doing all that for us Corrie. Things are kinda looking up guys." I said with a slight bit of hope.
We got everything packed and Corrie showed us the way to the car. She is also so nice that she had three breakfast burritos for us. It was some of the best food ever. Of course that may have to do with the fact we have been running pretty low on food since the one week mark and the last few days we had been foraging. The car isn't too bad either, it is older of course but very well taken care of and it is an inconspicuous sedan. No one will be looking for this car. "Hey Corrie, do you know where we are?"
"Oh yeah, we are in Stanley, Idaho. It is in the Sawtooth Forest or something like that."
"Idaho? Really? If we are in Idaho we can't be more than 10-15 hours away from my home." I said after a thought.
"Yeah but won't they be looking for you at your place Kenna?" Dane has a pretty good point, but at this point we don't even have a plan of attack.
"It is possible, but on the other hand they probably think we aren't crazy enough to go back there. I know Jake will be praying I am not that crazy, so we can head there and stay a few days and plan from there. My Granny also has a safe in the house that has money and valuable we could use. We may not like it but we have to have some money to move forward.
Rick piped in at this point, "She is right we really don't have any other choice. Corrie do we have a map?" Corrie nodded yes and we all piled into the car. Don't know how it worked out but Rick ended up as the driver too. "Alright guys according to this map looks like we have a 10-12 hour drive, so if we make good time we will be at Kenna's tonight."
I get to go home! It may only be for a very short time but it is still my home.
We of course all took turns napping except Rick, he didn't want to give up driving. But that doesn't bother me for some reason on long trips I also get really tired so me as a driver isn't the greatest of ideas. I can do it, just someone has to stay awake with me to talk. It did take us about 11 hours to get to Rainer and approaching the house straight on didn't seem like a very good idea so I finally made Rick let me drive and took us the back way in through the woods.
"We are gonna have to walk a bit but at least it should be safer. My house," gosh that seems weird just last year it was my Granny's house, "has acreage behind it that is just woods and I can park the car about a mile back from the house." I told everyone. I grew up in these woods, so I wasn't worried about finding the house in the dark.
Even in the dark it was a very welcome sight to see the house I grew up in. The house isn't anything extra special, but to me it is. It's just a small farm house that has been well loved and well taken care of by my Granny and myself. It is white with accenting blue trim and small little touches Granny added over the years. One of my favorite things is the front porch that has a wonderful porch swing I have spent countless hours sitting on. I could tell there was some TLC the place could use, but it was just little thing, like weeds needing pulled and some new flowers planted. Other than that it look just like it always did to me, it looked like home.
Just to be safe I took us into the house through the basement. There are some big shrubs that practically cover the door to it and it would be hard for anyone to see us entering the house. "Ok guys over in the corner over there is my camping gear, there are only three sleeping bags so I am going to go upstairs and get some bedding. I think we should camp out down here tonight."
Rick grabbed my arm as I turned to head upstairs. "Kenna let me go, you have no idea what is up there."
I gently pulled my arm away. "Neither do you Rick and I know my way around this house in the dark. Turning lights on isn't an option and even using a flashlight can be noticed from outside. I will be careful, if I am not back down here in ten minutes then you can send a search party." I smiled at all three of them and headed up the stairs again. Unless the restorers are up there and know we came into the house I have a pretty good chance of protecting myself, but just to be safe I did put a wall of air around my body. That way no matter what is upstairs it can't touch me.
There wasn't anything or anyone upstairs just a lot of memories. Makes me miss Granny and my old life so much. I grabbed some bedding and pillows for all of us and took snacks out of the cupboard, I did leave the house intending to come back so there is was food around. I figured opening the fridge would be a bad idea though because of the light. I bet it is nasty anyway after all this time! Once I had everything I headed back down to the basement. "Here's the stuff guys, I figure we have two days we can recoup and plan then we need to be outta here."
Dane gave me a worried look and asked, "Did you find something upstairs?"
"No but I would rather be safe than sorry. I don't know that the Restorers know where I actually live, but Jake sure as hell does."
"Good point, ok two days and we are gone." Dane said and we all settled down for the night. I just hope I can get some decent sleep.
Shockingly, I did actually sleep last night, but I kept having dreams about Granny. I just really miss her so much. We all spent the day packing up what food, clothing (the guys are kinds screwed on this one cause no guys lived in my house), and necessities we could and hiking it out to the car. The only thing I hadn't done today was get into the safe. I knew we needed the money, but it is just more family things I am going to have to part with. But we pretty much have everything else done and I need to get this over with.
I took all the savings bonds out of the safe, those don't really have any sentimental value anyway. Then I grabbed one of the two jewelry boxes in the safe. The stuff in this box is actually older and probably worth more, but the stuff in the other box belong to my mom, Granny and Granny's family. They have more value to me than their money value.
"Here guys, this is what I have outta the safe for us." All three of them came over and started hovering around like vultures, actually I think that is just me feeling defensive.
Corrie picked up a beautiful gold ring, "Oh my gosh Kenna this is beautiful, are you sure you want to get rid of this?"
It has intricate knots on it with what I believe is a fire opal and it looks to be really old. If that is a fire opal I know where this ring came from.
Smart girl Kenna, it was me who gave that ring to Halaina. What do you think you are doing with that? Aedus said with warning.
Halaina is long gone Aedus, and I have to get money somehow. I know this ring probably meant a lot to my great great great I don't know a million great's grandmother, but it really holds no meaning for me.
If you are just going to get rid of it then give it to me!
That completely defeats the purpose of what I am doing. I need the money Aedus, unless you have a magic tree somewhere that grows money that I can borrow.
Don't be rude child.
Sorry, it's just, well this is actually hard for me. I want to rip the box away from them and tell them to never touch it again. We will use the bonds first then I will sell a piece of jewelry at a time as needed I guess. Hopefully we don't have to get rid of it all.
There is more bothering you child, isn't there? I have never heard you so, well down before and kind of nice to me.
Aedus please don't start being nice to me back, I can't handle that right now too. Just go away and let me deal with this. And just like that he is gone. I really don't like the reminder that they are there. They could be eavesdropping at any time in my life, so not a comforting thought. "I don't really want to get rid of any of this jewelry Corrie, but we really don't have a lot of choices right now."
Unexpectedly Corrie came up and gave me a hug, "we will use the savings bonds first, and hopefully we won't have to sell any of the jewelry."
I looked over at Rick and his eyes are as big as saucers, "Um Rick what's wrong?"
"Kenna do you realize how much money there is in these bonds?"
"Granny bought them a long time ago, almost thirty years now I think. She spent $25,000 I think, so now they should be close to $50,000. I would think" I really don't know, never had to look into it.
"When she bought them they were set to mature at $50,000. They have at least doubled by now! There is probably over $100,000 here." Rick exclaimed in surprise.
"Really!" I might not have to sell the jewelry after all I thought happily!
"This should cover about everything we will need to find my sister." Rick said with more excitement than I had ever heard out of him.
Oh yeah, that is the first thing on our agenda. "Well hopefully we don't spend all of it to find your sister, but if we have to we will." I told him.
"Let's get a bite to eat and settle down for the night. I think we have everything we need in the car and we can carry this stuff out tomorrow and just hit the road." Rick said, think he can feel we are getting closer to his sister than ever.