The Raven & The Wolf

Chapter Forty-One

“Nat, are you in there?” Someone calls, waking me up as they pound on the door. I sit up while I give a hard blink. I hadn’t realized I fell asleep. I feel rested for the first time in a long while. I still really don’t want to open that door and face my next challenge. Then again, it’ll likely find me if I don’t.

“Natasha come on. This is the only place that I can’t sense a life signature, and the door is locked.”

Anger rises in me as I stare at the door. “Then take the hint, Gedric.”

“Nat, please open the door.”

“I’m meditating Gedric,” I say rather annoyed by this.

“It’s well into noon. How long have you been in here?”

Noon? I must have been tired. “That’s not important.”

“Can we talk about last night?”

“You made yourself perfectly clear last night, so that will not be necessary.” Those words sound wrong in my mouth, but I’m far too embarrassed to even think about discussing last night. I’d prefer to bury that night for eternity and set it on fire.

“Natasha, open the door this instant.” Stanya yells from the other side.

“Stanya, I’ve had a very trying day yesterday. If I want to reflect in meditation, I can.”

“You were sleeping, and you know it. How do you think we found you? We just followed the sound of snoring.”

“I don’t snore!” I argue back.

“Then explain how I found you. Now open up, or I’m going to get mean.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” I say.

“Then open this door, or I’ll send in racoons.”

“That’s just mean,” I pout standing up. I open the door and glower at her. “You know I hate racoons.”

She smirks. She’s in a frilly pink dress today that is opened back, proudly displaying her rank. She’s also wearing baby doll heels, making me roll my eyes. “I’m not above being mean.” She looks me over. “Why are you all sweaty?”

“Sweathouse,” I tell her, pointing at it. “Are those practical for today?”

“No, but they’re different than those disgusting traveling clothes we’ve been in.” She twirls around and flashes me a grin. “You know I love dresses.”

“I hope you have some pants under that, because you’re going to be sitting in the dirt a lot today.” I tell her.

“As anticipated, I’m wearing shorts underneath.” She takes my hand and pulls me past Gedric. “Next time, keep a better eye on her,” she tells him, looking over her shoulder. She pulls me closer to her and puts her head next to mine. “What happened last night?”

“I turned into a blubbering mess, and I really prefer not to talk about it, and pretend it didn’t happen.” I whisper under my breath, aware he’s following us. “Can I spend the night with you tonight?”

“Was it that bad?” She asks, her eyebrow raised.

I sigh and play the scene in her head with a small touch of her magic. “I’m warning you now, it’s disastrous.”

She stops in mid step and looks at Gedric, letting me go. “You fucked up.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Gedric snaps while I stride towards the end of the town. I step out into the surrounding forest and find a clearing.

When I reach the center of the field I turn around and put my hand on my hip. Gedric is wearing a white t-shirt and black pants. I smirk. My goal is to make that shirt a different color by the end of the day. Halthin is running his fingers through his hair. He’s wearing a burgundy t-shirt and white shorts. Those are not going to be white for long. Stanya is giving me a weary look, seeing the calculating look on my face.

I look at Halthin. “Halthin, practice forming a ball please.”

He rolls his eyes and holds out his hand, one appearing in his hand instantly. “Next.”

“Now throw it to me.”

He tosses it, but it falls flat after a half of a foot. Frustrated he tries again and gets even less far. “I see your point.” He mutters.

I look to Stanya. “Stanya, start pulling the water from the air around you.”

“Like that is possible.” She whines.

I turn to Gedric. He kicks off his boots to ground himself and touches the air. Soon, little water droplets start to form on his hand. He shows it off to Stanya with a smirk on his face.

She sticks her tongue out at him. “Teacher’s pet.” She sits on the ground, unwilling to remove her shoes, and gets to work collecting water.

“And what do you have planned for me?” Gedric asks me, giving me an appraising eye.

“You are going to learn to shield yourself from the elements.” I say, pushing towards the earth with my magic, my magic already seeking the safety of the earth’s filter.

“And how, do you plan to do that, when it’s not raining?” He asks, raising his eyebrow at me.

I flash him a devious grin. “Let me worry about that.” I flick my hand, throwing mud into the air. “You better block it!” I tell him, throwing the mud at him.

I hear Stanya scream while Gedric swears. I drop the mud back to the ground to reveal Gedric is soaked in mud. Mission accomplished. He’s glaring at me. “I told you to block it.”

“There isn’t even mud here,” he yells at me. “How did you do that?”

“Instead of seperating the elements, I combined them.” I answer simply, tossing my hair. “Would you prefer a shower?” I ask, turning my hand in the air, forming hundreds of thick water droplets above his head.

He looks up and balks, “How are you doing all of this? Is this just because of your power?”

I shake my head. “I can’t really use my magic right now Gedric. What you’re currently seeing is a potential goal.

“This? I could learn to do this?”

“Yep,” I tell him. “Are you ready?”

He looks up at the water and nods, holding his hands out away from him.

“Picture your shield. Make it a part of you. Form the shield as air, allowing that to be the only element that touches it. It’ll keep you dry.”

Gedric closes his eyes and nods. “Ready.”

I drop the water on his head, making him yell in frustration and stomp his foot. This isn’t giving me as much satisfaction as I thought it would. “Again,” I yell at him, pulling more water from the air, “or next time it’ll be mud.”

“Is this how Brin taught you?” He yells at me.

“No, this is how Brin taught me,” Stanya tells him. “He was much harder on her.”

“Do I want to learn her way?”

“No one is strong enough for that,” Stanya says, looking at me. “Why do you think she’s teaching you this way?”

“Again!” I yell, dropping the water on him.

This repeats for several more hours. Stanya successfully managed to separate her elements about halfway through my lesson with Gedric. To give me more energy to focus on Gedric, she took over trying to teach Halthin.

“Again,” I tell Gedric, dropping water on him again.

I hear him yell in his frustration while Stanya stands. “We’re going to get something to eat.”

“No, stay,” Gedric yells glaring at me while I pull water above his head once again. “You can watch this masochistic lesson some more.”

“You’re welcome to quit anytime, and we can go back to sorting elements.” I tell him. “It’s clear you haven’t properly identified them before this.”

“Never,” he growls, chagrin making his cheeks pink.

“Then again!” I yell, dropping the water on his head once more.

“Stop saying again!” He screams, sputtering water from his mouth.

“We’re going to go,” Stanya tells me. “We’ll be back in an hour.” She takes Halthin’s hand and pulls him away while I pull more water over Gedric’s head.

Gedric glares at me. “Is this because of last night?”

“No,” I tell him. “You need to learn this. Again!”

“Stop!” Gedric yells right when I drop the water. It hangs in mere half an inch above his head. “I’m tired of this. I’m tired of being wet. And I’m tired of you being mad at me.”

I smirk. “I can see that.”

“No, you don’t. Your hostility is killing me. I can’t stand it Nat. Now shut up and let me explain myself.”

“Gedric,” I warn, already feeling ill tempered.

“No, you listen to me Natasha.” Gedric growls, taking a step towards me, making the ground break. I look down and see the crack has spread to my feet.

“Gedric,” I shout at him. His temper is getting the better of him, and the consequences are not going to be good for Frostula.

“No!” He shouts at me, taking another step towards me. “I didn’t want to talk to you, when you were like that last night, because you were not in your right mind. You were desperate for any feeling other than panic. You weren’t speaking your words, just what you wanted me to hear. You only told me that you remembered to lessen your guilt.”

“Gedric.” I tell him as he nears me, making the cracks deepen. “Stop and control yourself. Now.”

“No! I’m going to say what I want to say. You drive me insane Natasha. Nothing with you is easy. Nothing! I can’t even tell you my feelings without something dire happening. Do you know how devastated I was to find out you lost your memory? Then right as I’m getting the courage to tell you again, I get told by a Fate you died. I nearly lost my mind. I spent that entire time trying to not create a hole in the earth with my rage. Then you, once again, pop up like nothing ever happened.”

He takes another step. “You’re infuriating. You’re amazing. Everything you do is so easy to you that it’s driving me insane. Everything except when it comes to me. Why is it so difficult for you to speak to me? Why are you always shutting me out? I just want to help you. I want to be there for you. You’re all I ever think about. Even when you took my memory I could still see your eyes. I sensed who you were when we met after Ari’s attack. I thought it was a dream that led me to you. Another one of my senses or something. I can’t do anything other than want to be there for you. It kills me that I can’t protect you from Ari or those Fates.”

The ground is beginning to shake slightly. “Gedric!” I yell again, watching the cracks widen. I can feel the filter. It’s scared. For that to be happening, Gedric must be stronger than I anticipated.

“Listen to me,” he demands, each step he makes the earth sinks under him. He’s going to make this whole city cave in.

“I warned you!” I yell, stomping on the ground. The earth waves under my foot like a shockwave, making the earth move as if it was gelatin. He falls to the ground as I shoot the earth out from underneath him like a geyser. Gedric screams at me, sending wind to assault me. I swirl it around me and use it to strike him, sending him far off into the trees.

I settle the earth back down, and patch the damage he had made. After the earth is returned to normal, and Gedric hasn’t returned, I take a heavy breath and sigh. I guess I better go find him.