Atomic Redwood Revamped

 

Chapter 18: “Safeguards”

 

That night, Julian stayed true to his word and Tempest didn’t do a thing. The next night was a completely different thing…

 

When she woke up, she was by herself. She frowned when she found a note on top of some closes. ‘Put these on and meet me in the basement, Julian’

 

She did as the note said, finding all of this out of character… When she walked into the basement, Julian was smiling. “What’s going on?”

 

“Its my turn to teach you. Jac never thought anyone this but I have, to him and his sibling.” Julian explained.

 

“Where is Jacques?” She asked.

 

“He is sleeping, the vampire sleep. He needs to get his strength back for the coming battle.” He answered.

 

“Wait, his sleeping with me, not ‘sleeping the vampire sleep’, made him weak?” She asked.

 

“Yes, though I believe he will be mad at me for telling you . I made him go.” He answered.

 

“Why would he be mad?” She asked.

 

“He doesn’t want you to think you are responsible. It was his choice to sleep the way he was.” He explained.

 

“Well that’s just plain stupid of him. Now that I know, he’ll be sleeping like he should more often.” She said, being very serious.

 

Julian smiled. “I believe you are just what he needs in his life. There are other ways to fight than physical, which Gabriel is highly trained in.”

 

“Gabriel?” She asked.

 

“That’s your grandfather’s true name, there’s not many who knows his name. A lot of us only know him by master or boss. Darius and Desari told me his real name along time ago.” Julian explained.

 

“Why would someone so evil have a beautiful name?” She asked.

 

“No one is born evil, they are born innocent. It’s the choice’s and how you are raised that makes you good or evil. He wasn’t always evil, something happened to him, I don’t know what. It started a little over a hundred years ago, the first sight of thing going wrong was him draining humans dry. Most of us believed that the blood itself was doing it so we stopped taking human blood. He said to never take the life of a human when feeding, it was his own law and he broke it. It was around that time that he started treating lycons like slaves.” Julian explained.

 

“No one knows what started it?” Tempest asked. 

 

“No. Enough on the past, the first thing I’m teaching you is safeguards. Safeguards protect you or your chosen persons in battle or while you sleep. They are symbols that you can draw in the air or picture in you head. You must play attention to all the symbols and there meanings. I’ll show you the first one I always  teach then you need to study and memorize a book on all safeguards.” Julian spoke, becoming very serious. Julian spent an hour showing her the first safeguard, symbol by symbol and then testing out her guard.

 

“That’s very good. Here’s the book, study and try them out tonight. Tomorrow I will test out what you learned. I’ll come get you when supper is done.” Julian said, materializing a book.

 

“Is that in the book?” Tempest asked.

 

“No, that will be in another.” Julian answered walking up the stairs and leaving her along.

 

Tempest spent the time she had, really studying and practicing. When Julian came back, she had already learned how to safeguard before going to sleep and safeguarding to warn you. She just finished the first safeguard in her mind and it worked, cause Julian his an invisible wall.

 

“I don’t believe it, a student that studied on the first day. Did you do this in you mind?” Julian spoke, touching and testing her safeguard.

 

Tempest smiled. “Yep! Just finished it when you came down.”

 

“It’s time for supper, so bring down your wall.” Julian responded.

 

“Is Jacques up?” She asked, following him upstairs.

 

“No, he’s still asleep. I’m sorry Tempest but he won’t be up until tomorrow night.” Julian answered.

 

“It’s okay, I was just wondering. Does he have to be underground when he sleeps like you?” Tempest asked.

 

“No and yes. Normally you don’t have to be in the dirt but this time yes because of him not sleeping like he should for so long, he had no choice. Sleeping underground heals the body much more faster than being above. Now if he sleeps like this enough, he won’t have to be underground unless he gets injured.” Julian explained.

 

“Wow, fried chicken! Thank you Julian!” Tempest said, hugging a now laughing Julian, before going to the table to eat…

 

After their supper, Tempest frowned. “Are you okay?” Julian asked.

 

“Yes, well maybe. It’s just weird not seeing Jacques…” Tempest answered.

 

“It’s natural to feel this way Tempest. He’ll be up by tomorrow and this feeling will go away. The only thing you need to remember is that he’s not dead.” Julian responded.

 

Tempest smile. “I know he isn’t, but thank you. It’s just that I didn’t realized how much I depended on him until he’s not here. I’ve never depended on anyone that much. I’m going to the basement and studying some more.”

 

Julian smiled as she left the kitchen. “She’s so much like her father, it makes me want to cry.”

 

_________________In the basement_________________

 

Tempest practiced the safeguards, she already learned until she had them memorized, before moving on to the next.

 

The next was a box. The box was more complicated because of it being a barrier all around her and above and below. That seemed to take longer for her to memorize, which she found that if you forget just one symbol, one side would be defenseless or weak. It wasn’t until 2 hours later sis finally have it memorized.

 

After that was the protection safeguard. The protection safeguard was for when you slept and would keep people and animals away. It would also wake and warn you if there was a threat.

 

Tempest found out that there is a lot of different levels for this safeguard. The first level would only warn you but not keep anyone out, but the last level would catch an enemy on fire, which had a way to tell friend from foe. Those took her about three hours to memorize.

 

By the time Julian came down to tell her it would be sunrise soon, she had finished and memorized the book completely.

 

“So how are we getting along?” Julian asked.

 

“Just finished the book.” Tempest answered, closing said book.

 

“We’ll see… Tomorrow I’ll test you on them, but tonight is over. Sunrise is approaching and you need your sleep.” Julian spoke with a smile.