abcnovels
Chapter 29: Legends (981 AD)
Chapter 29: Legends (981 AD)
Chapter 29: Legends (981 AD)
I would like to thank my beta, AvidReader2425, for his help in this chapter.
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981 AD, Village in Wales
The village was burning. The day started like any other, I woke up in my cottage, cooked myself breakfast and went to the forest to harvest some potions ingredients. I planned to make a few fever reducing potions and some Pepper up potions, it seems to be flu season in the village.
My plans were of course shattered when, on my way back, noticed smoke on top of the trees. One apparition later and I'm at the edge of my home to find a burning village.
I turn into a raven to check out what was happening since I couldn't see anything through the smoke. I could see a large majority of the villagers grouped where the marketplace used to be. Men, women and crying children were clustered together. They looked scared but determined, armed with whatever they could find, a few axes, and knives mostly, they were not warriors, but they would protect their families.
Against them were large men, armed to the teeth and from their attire, I could easily deduce what they are, Vikings. I sigh, I really shouldn't intervene. I promised myself that this lifetime would be a vacation. I even changed my looks and my name. I was a woman in her twenties, a little plump with brown and blue eyes. I was unremarkable, no one would look twice if they saw me. Just like I wanted, after all this was my vacation.
It's a rule I made up after Greece. Every five lifetimes, I take one as a vacation. It's so that I can unwind and not burn myself out. I choose a village or city, a bit of telepathy later and I'm a resident there. I make sure that I make myself age until I'm old enough that I should have died of old age and then I disappear. I tend to learn some common skills, I learned carpeting in Rome, farming in China and so on. After Camlann, I left Britain for a while. I just needed to get away from the memories, so this was my first time back.
Right now, I was a Healer. I wasn't a very social person but the children loved me. I cooked them cookies and cake every week. If anyone asked them, Healer Helga was their favorite. And now, those children were crying. After all these years, I still can't bear the sound of crying children. I couldn't let them down.
Before I could shift back into a human, I noticed a man holding a wand and a sword. He was casting at the attackers, and he was winning. It was an impressive arsenal of spells for this age. Battle magic was rarely seen ever since the book purges Myrddin did. The man was slowly pushing the attackers back, five of whom are wizards and a few dozen muggles.
However, the man was gravely injured, his leg was broken, there was a burn on the right side of his chest and he was bleeding all over and he was still fighting. He must be one of the most reckless fighters I've seen in centuries. He went on to fight the attackers head on, does he have no sense of self-preservation?
The Vikings were able to hit him with a spell and he didn't get up. He wasn't dead, I could sense if he had died, but he would be if he doesn't get any medical care soon. We were now far enough from the villagers for me to cut loose a little without anyone asking too many questions. After all, while the man was a student, I was the master.
I transform back into a human and with a flick of my fingers, every attacker was suddenly split into two pieces. I walk over to the wounded man in front of me and stabilize him. I'll need to operate on him properly in my cottage that was still intact. It seems they weren't able to break my wards. They weren't even strong wards just some intent based and basic defense wards. A quick telepathic scan confirmed that all the Vikings were dead. With a wave of my hand, the fire starts to dissipate. I use a cloaking spell to hide myself and the stranger and teleport myself into my cottage, knowing that I would be busy for the next couple of days.
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A few days later, it seems that the village was somewhat saved by the mysterious stranger. There weren't too many causalities, mostly old men or women that had to fight before the stranger intervened. There were some with lung damage from the smoke, especially the children, that I had to heal but other than that everything turned out okay, all things considered.
The strange man, however, was a hassle to heal. He had a lot of internal bleeding, a Shattered collarbone, four broken bones, three cracked ribs, a pierced lung and was hit by a dark cutting curse that wouldn't have closed if I wasn't the healer. I had to keep him in statis to make sure he would survive but he was stable for now and should wake up sometime soon.
I was alone now in the cottage. The villagers having left. No one was too gravely injured so after a few words of thanks, they left. They were curious about their anonymous savior, that was still unconscious on a bed in the healing side of the cottage.
As I was cooking in the kitchen, the wards on the infirmary alerted me of my patient moving. It seems he's waking up now. Took him long enough. I decide to walk over there to check in on my patient. As I enter the room, I see him sitting up and trying to stand up.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." He was so startled that he almost fell over.
"Who are you? Where am I?"
"Hello, my name is Helga, I'm the healer in the village. I patched you up after your fight with the Vikings. Don't you remember?"
"Oh yeah! That was fun. Did I win?"
"You're still alive, aren't you?" He grinned at me. "But that was completely irresponsible and reckless. Why did you fight them head on?"
"How else was I supposed to fight them?" He looked puzzled.
"You know? Use the smoke to hide and kill them from the back."
"But that's dishonorable. You must face your enemies from the front, not stab them in the back like a coward."
"Honor has no use for the dead."
He turned silent to my statement and for the first time I take a look at his face. He looked familiar but I'm sure I never met him before. I never forget a face. He looked out of the window and said, "So, how long was I out?"
"The battle was four days ago."
"Four days, oh god, my sister is going to kill me."
"And where is your sister?"
"She's in the next town over. She must be very worried about me."
He tried to stand up again and almost fell again but I caught him this time.
"I told you not to stand up, the potions are still running through your system, and you could reopen your wounds if you move."
"But I need to get to my sister."
"Not tonight you aren't."
"Please, what if you went with me to make sure I was okay? As a thank you for saving the village, you know."
He did save the village, I guess a little trip wouldn't hurt.
"Fine." He started to grin at me like an idiot.
"Oh right, if we're going to travel together, I'm going to need your name."
"Oh yeah, that was rude of me. My name is Godric, Godric Le Fay."
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We've been traveling together for a few hours now and I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that Mordred had a kid. I know now why Godric looked so familiar, he had a few facial features from Mordred. I can tell, it's subtle, but they have the same nose and cheekbones. At least my daughter didn't die a virgin. I'm too afraid to scry about it because I have no desire to see any aspect of my daughter's sex life. It's still nice nonetheless that my daughter still has a legacy in the world.
"So, what brought you to our village?"
"Nothing really, I'm traveling with my sister and we stayed in the next town over. We heard rumors of a powerful healer that could heal any ailment and she asked me to check out if the story was real. I guess it was."
"I'm not a miracle worker, just a simple healer. People around here are easily impressed and I'm the only healer around. But why are you traveling in the first place? You're nobility, are you not? Why spend your days camping and walking when you could just stay in a castle and do nothing all day?"
"It's not me that wanted to travel, it's my sister. Our father was a strict man, he wanted us to always act as he thought was appropriate. He forbade us to do anything that didn't stick with his ideal for a perfect son and daughter, and Rowena especially resented him for that. She always wanted to learn to her heart's content but all she was allowed was to learn was dancing and needlework. She used to sneak up to the library at night and read all night. She was so tired all day, my father actually thought she was ill. By the time he died, she had finished the entire library. She even found an old wand and used it to learn magic. I guess even with our father dead, we wanted to get away. My sister wanted to learn everything and so everywhere we go she pesters some poor man or woman into teaching her a new spell or something and I'm her trusty bodyguard, protecting her from those that would harm her."
"You're a good brother, Godric."
Suddenly, I noticed something he said. A small detail that slipped my mind, his sister's name.
"What was your sister's name again."
"Her name is Rowena, Rowena Le Fey."
Well, he's Godric, he has a sister named Rowena, I'm Helga and it's around 1000 AD. Seems like this lifetime won't be a vacation after all. I guess Fate gave me a role in History again.
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After around a week of traveling, we finally arrive to the town. I still didn't understand why we didn't apparate but apparently, according to Godric, it was a skill only reserved for the Order of Merlin. A group of pretentious assholes that like to give themselves awards or something.
The organization had access to what they thought was Myrddin's book collection but the brat had taken his most precious books to the cave, so what was left were some useless spells that don't cause too much damage. Now apparition became a symbol of prestige or something. Absolutely ridiculous.
Anyway, we entered an inn, and sat down to eat our first properly cooked meal in days where we were joined by Rowena, who after berating and yelling at her brother decided to join us for dinner where she presumed to ask me all the questions under the sun about healing.
She's a nice girl, too curious for her own good, but nice nonetheless. She's beautiful girl, around my physical age, tall with long wavy black hair and dark eyes. She was wearing a blue dress that fit her perfectly. I guess she liked the color before she founded Hogwarts.
Then, it came, with the subtlety of a hammer, Godric asked, "Would you want to travel with us?"
And that was exactly what I have been waiting for. I knew something would push us together. And I can feel the will of the universe urging me to accept. To make Hogwarts a reality, but first I asked, "But why would you want to travel with me?"
It was Rowena that answered me, "We get along great and there's so much I could learn from you. Plus, you're entirely too brilliant to be stuck in a village forever. You could achieve so much more." She mumbled the last part, "And I've never had a friend before."
I guess it wouldn't be the future without Hogwarts.
"I accept, I will travel with you."
I guess we only need Salazar to complete the gang.