Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (8 page)

“I can see it!” I was scared to speak
loudly. “There are all sorts of colors!” I reached out and touched
a green wave. My fingers tingled. “What does green mean?” I
whispered to Jasper.

“I’m not sure. I don’t think you should
play with it until you’ve talked to Marilynn. She’s the head
sorceress at the castle.”

I pulled my hand away, but the green
followed. “It won’t leave me alone.”

Jasper and Dodge stood as still as
stone.

“Well, what should I do?” My voice rose
a bit.

“Ok. Well, maybe if you touched
something. Wait.” Jasper looked around the campsite. He glanced at
Dodge. “Good idea. Here. Come touch this stump. I don’t think you
could do much of anything to a stump.”

I walked to the stump, the colors
swirling around me. I kept looking at my fingers silently hoping
the green would leave. It didn’t.

Once at the stump, I took a deep
breath, closed my eyes, and put my hands on it.

Dodge swished his tail and I heard
Jasper’s mouth fall open.

I was scared to open my eyes. “What
happened?”

Jasper recovered and laughed. “Well
that worked out well!”

I slowly opened one eye. “Oh!” The dead
stump was still there, but coming out of it were new, live shoots.
It was growing!

I suddenly felt very tired. I sat on
the ground. Jasper knelt in front of me, worried.

“Are you alright?”

I nodded. “Just really tired. Why do
you think that is?”

He brushed some loose hairs back behind
my ears. “I don’t know. The only magic I use is to shift back and
forth.”

“So green is healing,” I
said.

“Is it gone?” he asked. When I nodded,
he took my hands in his. “I want you to promise me you won’t play
with this until we’ve seen Marilynn.”

I nodded.

Dodge snorted. I looked at Jasper for
the translation.

“He is wondering how we are able to
function at the moment. When a couple who is fated finally bond,
there is a period of time where...well...” He blushed. “We should
be holed up in a cave...”

I realized what he was saying and
turned scarlet. “Do you want to?” I asked.

His eyes widened. “Well, yes. I can’t
deny it’s on my mind. However, there is more at stake here than my
personal wants and needs.” He looked at me closely. “And
you?”

I wouldn’t have thought it possible,
but there was a deeper shade of red than the one I already was. I
nodded. I had to admit that for a girl who wouldn’t have looked
twice at a man three days ago, the thoughts I was having about this
one were shocking. “But like you said. Things to do.”

We stared at each other to the point
where I thought any self-control we had was going to fly out the
window. He exhaled slowly. “Alright, then. We better get going,
Shlova.”

Dodge shook his head in
amazement.

“Well, I don’t know!” Jasper sounded
annoyed. “We aren’t your typical fated, now, are we? This has never
happened before. How am I supposed to know why it did?” He almost
seemed angry as he looked at my horse.

“Are you upset this happened?” I
asked.

He wouldn’t look at me. “No. I’m not
upset it happened. That’s not it at all.”

I wasn’t reassured. I swung onto Dodge
and gave him a kick. He flattened his ears back at me.

“Sorry,” I muttered to him.

We took off at a trot along the base of
the mountain. Jasper’s tiger stride matched the horse’s.

We stopped for a quick break around
lunch time and then started up again. It seemed to me like the
further along we went, the moodier Jasper got.

“Ok. That’s it. Dodge, stop!” I swung
off as he halted. Jasper shifted and walked up behind me. I spun
around to face him.

“What’s going on? Last night, what
happened, was unbelievable. At least it was for me. And I thought
for you too. But now you don’t seem happy at all.”

He was looking at the ground, quiet,
his eyes narrowed.

I looked at Dodge. “Can you give us a
minute, please?”

Dodge looked irritated and walked
away.

I took Jasper’s hands and pulled him to
the ground so that we knelt facing each other. “I need you to
explain to me what is wrong,” I pleaded softly. “This, us, is
right. I’m not going to pretend to know or understand how things
are around here, but I am willing to leave everything and everybody
I know and love to follow you on this quest, or mission, or
whatever you want to call it. I don’t even understand how I could
feel this strongly for you after knowing you for only three days,
but I do.”

He was still looking down. My voice was
just a whisper as I continued. “But if this isn’t what you want, or
expected...” I tried to keep the quiver out of my voice, but he
looked at me then, just as a tear slid down my cheek.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “That’s not
it at all.” He cupped my face in his hands and wiped the tear with
his thumb. “I have been waiting for six years for you to come back
so I could find you. Finding you is a hundred times better than I
could have imagined. I don’t care if that’s not how it is supposed
to be. But since last night I keep thinking about something. You
see, I wasn’t lying to you when you asked what I did. I am part of
the Queen’s guard. And when we get you to Queen Melana, once we get
to Pinsaber, I will be ordered to return to my scouting
duties.”

I was speechless. He was going to leave
me!

“I can’t ignore an order from the
queen. Namaels are guards. It’s genetics. We are born to obey.” His
voice cracked.

I felt like I was choking. “No!” I
tried to breath. “Don’t you dare leave me! You can’t!”

He looked absolutely miserable. “It’s
not my choice.”

Dodge picked that moment to come back.
He shook out his mane.

It took a fraction of a second to make
up my mind. “Let’s go,” I told both of them. We continued walking.
As we got further along, I started to get nervous. I thought my
plan had been a good one. But as I had more time to think about it,
I realized it could backfire horribly.

“Are you alright?” Jasper took my hand
and gave it a squeeze.

I looked straight ahead and
nodded.

After about an hour of walking, the
path we were on forked. Dodge turned and started walking onto the
path that led up the mountain.

“No. Not that way.” I turned and
stalked off along the base of the mountain.

Dodge and Jasper stood staring at me as
I walked away.

“I don’t know what she’s doing,” I
heard Jasper say to Dodge. “Hayden! Wait!”

I ignored him.

The two of them trotted up behind me.
“Hayden, you don’t even know where you’re going!”

“So tell me, then. What’s in this
direction.”

Jasper hesitated. “The
Wedelves.”

Dodge snorted.

“Well, I’m not going to lie to
her!”

“Good. I have a few questions for
them.” I kept walking.

“Hayden, please.”

“What?”

“My orders were to find you and bring
you to Queen Melana.”

I stopped and glared at him. “So are
you going to tie me up and drag me there?”

His eyes widened at the thought. “Of
course not!”

I looked at Dodge, the same question
meant for him. He shook his head.

“Well then, I guess you guys have a
decision to make. I’m going to see the Wedelves. You can come with
me, or you can do your own thing.” I started walking
again.

There was no hesitation as they fell in
beside me.

I glanced sideways at them, a little
shocked. “That was easy.”

Dodge snorted. I looked to Jasper for
the explanation.

“He was born your guardian. He won’t be
leaving you any time soon.”

“And you?”

“It seems the bond between us goes
deeper than genetics.” He put his arm around my
shoulders.

I looked up at him and smiled. “Well,
that’s something, isn’t it?”

“I’ll say. I wonder if the Wedelves
will have some insight in all of this.”

“Let’s go find out.”

Dodge stopped so I could swing up.
Jasper looked up at me. “I was right.” He grinned.
“Stubborn.”

I grinned back at him and
shrugged.

And with that, we trotted off in search
of Wedelves.

*****

The sun started slipping behind the
trees and we found a little clearing to make camp. Dodge couldn’t
smell any horses nearby and stayed with us.

I lay in Jasper’s arms, enjoying the
feel of his lips on my hair.

“So how far to the
Wedelves?”

“Shouldn’t be more than another day to
their land. Then it’s about four days to Sageden. That’s the
closest of the Wedelven towns.”

I nodded. I had a good feeling about
this.

“What’s Shlova?”

He started behind me. “When did I say
that?”

“This morning, when we started off.
Before you got mad at Dodge. You said ‘we better get going,
Shlova’.”

“Oh. Well, it means love.” His voice
was quiet.

“What language is that?”

“None.” I felt him smile against the
back of my neck. “My siblings and I made it up. We had enough words
that we could have a whole conversation without anyone being able
to understand. I haven’t spoken that since I was
fourteen.”

“Hello camp!”

Jasper was up in a flash, a growl
rising into his throat. I froze.

“Geez, Jasper. Relax.”

Jasper looked at the man walking into
the firelight and smiled. “Zane! What brings you to these
parts?”

“Do you know, I’m not sure. I woke up
three days ago and started to wander.” He looked back into the
bushes. “It’s alright, guys. It’s just Jasper.”

Two more people walked into the
clearing. No. Not people. Animals. And yet, not really.

Zane was human. At least he looked it.
He was tall. At least 6'3”. He had shaggy black hair and black
eyes.

Next was a centaur. Or so I thought at
first glance. He stood about six feet tall. From the waist up he
looked like a twelve year old boy with blond hair and yellow eyes.
From the waist down he was a horse. His body was the same color as
his hair. Only his body wasn’t covered with hair like a horse’s. He
was covered in scales. He jogged up to Jasper and gave him a
hug.

“Jasper!”

“Hello, Phlann!”

The third person in the party stepped
into the firelight and my eyes widened. This scaly centaur stood
about nine feet tall. His chest and arms were immense. He had light
blond hair and chocolate brown eyes. His body matched his hair, but
a few shades darker.

“Jasper. Dodge.” The centaur nodded to
both of them.

Jasper nodded back.
“Shanus.”

Dodge swished his tail and Shanus
looked at him. “Well as far as we can figure out, three days ago we
all woke up and wandered into each other.” Shanus looked at me. “It
seems you have a way of drawing people to you, young
lady.”

Zane sat down by the fire. He stared
intently at Dodge for a few minutes.

“Well, that’s annoying,” I
muttered.

Jasper came and sat beside me. “What
is, Shlova?”

“Everyone can hear Dodge but
me!”

“I can’t hear him.” Phlann walked over
and stood on my other side.

“Oh. Why is that?”

Phlann shrugged. “Dad is blocking me.
He still likes to think I’m too young for all of this even though I
became of age two seasons ago.” He made a gesture toward
Shanus.

Jasper put his arm around my shoulder
and gave me a squeeze. “Shanus is a bit of a sorcerer
himself.”

Dodge had walked up to Zane and Shanus
by the fire. Both of their mouths fell open.

“You’re right,” mumbled Phlann. “That
is annoying!” He glared at Shanus.

Jasper sighed. “We are fated,” he
explained.

Phlann’s eyes widened but he managed to
keep his mouth shut.

I felt myself blush and my temper rose.
I hated being put on the spot.

Shanus was the first to get some sort
of control of his mouth. “But how?”

“Oh, for crying out loud!” I stood up.
“Are we going to have to do this with everyone we meet? We don’t
know how. He thought we might be. I didn’t know. I kissed him. I
guess it happened just like it happens to everybody else! Why does
everybody have to act like it’s the end of the world because it
happened to us?”

Red waves overtook me before I had a
chance to calm down. “Oh, shit!” I tried not to focus on
anything.