The Raven & The Wolf

Chapter Forty-Two

I walk through the forest silently, listening for any sound Gedric might make. I could use the earth’s magic to track him, but I think I’ll give him some time to calm down. It’ll also give him time to realize that he is astonishingly more powerful than even I had anticipated. It’ll give me time to process it as well. On another eventful note, he did manage to stop the water from dropping on his head. He seems to draw great strength out of anger, now I just need to teach him to channel that technique into another emotion, or I might have to do this again.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, I manage to find a crater with a bunch of down trees inside of it. “I warned you to calm down.” I tell him, stepping into the crater.

“Why did you do this?” He asks from underneath a tree.

“Because if you had bothered to look where you were stepping, you would have noticed that you were starting to create a massive sinkhole. Your anger was heating the earth, turning it into lava, which in turn was starting to make the earth sink. You would have destroyed the town.” I tell him, slowly walking down the steep new hill to get to him at the center of the crater.

“Then you just had to attack me with a strong gust of wind, and since I can’t let magic touch me, I directed your attack back to you. You did part of this to yourself. I only got you into the air.” I finally reach the trees covering him at the bottom of the crater, and use some of the earth’s magic to move it.

I lean over one of the logs to look at him. He’s staring at me with such a wide eyed expression that I can’t help but laugh. “Pretty powerful, huh?”

“I did this?” He asks, motioning around him.

“You also stopped the water from dropping on your head.” I point out, looking at some of his cuts. They’re nothing serious, but not something that should be ignored either.

“I did?” He asks, lifting his head up.

I nod. “Yes, you did.”

“Finally!” He yells, letting his head drop and raises his hands in the air; celebrating his small victory.

I giggle. “And just so you know, I didn’t say those things to you out of guilt last night. I truly did want you to understand why I didn’t tell you my memory had returned. I could have delivered that news a little better, but it was a very emotional day yesterday. ”

He lifts his head up giving me an even look. “I swear Natasha, if you’re lying to me right now, I…won’t really do anything, but I’ll be mad.”

I give a small laugh. “I’m not. I was sorry that I had to lie to you and hurt you the way I had. The Fates would have done to you what they did to Stanya if they had. I wasn’t expecting them to do that whole soul napping thing, like they had, or I would have told you earlier and saved myself a lot of heartache.”

He sits up. “Heartache?”

“Yes you dummy. I sort of like you too, when you’re not being an overprotective jerk.”

“Overprotective jerk?” He demands, leaning closer to me.

“You have to admit that you’ve been pretty bad.” I tell him, letting my hair fall over my shoulder.

“Only because death seems to like you more than a fresh carcass.”

“To be fair, I am a guardian of a symbol that partially means death.” I point out.

“Fair enough, but with how much you’ve seen death, it looks like it’s courting you.”

“I prefer to think of it as it’s just checking up on me.” I look him over. “Now are you alright, or do I need to get your father?”

He grimaces. “Maybe. It hurts to move my leg. Will you please look at it?”

I lean over to see his legs. They look fine to me. Then again, he’s wearing black trousers so it’s hard to see if there is blood. “I don’t see anything sticking out.”

“Let’s have you take a closer look.” He tells me as he grabs my waist and pulls me over the log. An involuntary squeal escapes me while he cradles me into his chest.

I lift my head off his chest. “Do you want me to look at your leg that badly?”

“Maybe after a little kiss,” he tells me, pulling me up his chest to meet his lips. I push into him when a sweet heat touches my tongue. I let my hand rest on his chest to give me more leverage to lean into him. He puts his hands on my waist, making my entire body tremble under his touch.

His hands drop to the small of my back, making me shiver. “So do you think I’m going to be okay?”

“I think it’ll take a lot more than a hard fall to hurt you,” I agree.

“How’s the arm?” He asks, looking me over.

“I’m not the one that fell out of the sky here.” I tell him as I wiggle up on his chest. “How are you? Anything impaled?”

He chuckles. “No, nothing like that. I’m just sore. Maybe a bit bruised.”

“I’ll still have Stanya check you over.” I switch to a more serious topic. “You do realize that you nearly caused your entire town to sink right?”

He gives me a disbelieved look. “I did?”

“Yes, because you lost your temper. That’s why I had to launch you into the air. I broke your root and concentration. I corrected the damage you did before coming to find you. With your strength, and connection, you are going to have to learn to keep your anger in check. If you had been training with someone other than me, today could have gone a lot more differently.”

“How differently?”

“Goodbye Frostula differently.” I tell him, touching his chest gently when his breath speeds up. “You’re a bit more powerful than I had anticipated, so I’m going to have to teach you to use something other than anger to gear your strength towards your goal.”

He blushes deeply and covers his face with his hand before letting it drop back onto the ground. “That’s terrifying. I only started learning this skill just to spend time with you.”

I chuckle, “I figured. Turns out you’re gifted with it. Who knew?”

He shudders. “So if I lose my temper, I could wipe out a city?”

“Welcome to my world,” I tell him, giving him a smirk. “So now I get to teach you how to channel your anger into something more productive.”

“I’ve never lost my temper like that before.” He says, closing his eyes. “I don’t know what happened.”

“When you have magic coursing through you, and you’re angry, it amplifies your emotions. That’s why it’s best not to practice your magic while you’re in that kind of a state.” I raise my eyebrow at him. “So I make you insane huh?”

He grimaces. “Those were a poor choice of words. I was just so jealous how easy this is for you, and so frustrated I couldn’t talk to you. I wanted to talk to you this morning, but when I woke up you were gone. No one saw you leave. I spent all day trying to find you, and then Stanya is the one to get you to open that door. I know you two grew up together, but I hate that you will talk to her but not me.”

“You do realize we’re still trying to get to know each other, right?” I ask, looking him over. “So you’re going to need to ease up on your expectations.”

He groans. “I know. Sorry, this is new to me. I’ve never dated anyone outside of Frostula before. We know everything about everyone, so it seems like we should already be on that stage, at least in our friendship.”

I try my hardest not to laugh. “I get what you’re saying, but that’s not how it typically works in the Sheika Clans.”

“I’m starting to learn that.” He looks me over and grimaces. “Sorry for being insane.”

“I think we can both own that.” I flash him a smile. “How about you learn to give me space, and I’ll learn to be a bit more open with you?”

There is a light that lights up his eyes as he flashes me a grin. “I’ll agree to that. So what do you want to do now?”

“Well we can keep practicing, kiss, or get you out of the ground while we wait for Stanya to find us. I’m game for either option.”

“Or Stanya could find you two right now,” Stanya yells from up top. “Do you two want to be left alone,” she puts her hands on her hips, “or do you want to tell me what happened?”

“Gedric lost control of his temper, so I had to launch him,” I tell her, rolling off of him.

“As one does,” she says, giving me an amused expression. “Seriously, what happened?”

“He lost control of his temper and was making a sink hole. I’m not kidding. He was about to sink Frostula.” I look at Gedric. “His power is too influenced by his temper. We’ll have to work on that.”

He grimaces. “Now I’m just scared to use my magic.”

“Just don’t use it without me and you’ll be okay. Since you’re already able to connect to it, it is something you’re always going to have to be aware of. When you feel your temper getting the better of you, either shut off your emotions, or find a way to calm down.”

Gedric looks me over with an appraising eye. “Was that what was happening last night? With your panic attack.”

I nod. “Yes. When I get angry though, I have to shut off my emotions.”

“Which also explains last night.” He says, clicking that final piece together.

“Precisely.” I look up to Stanya. “Where is Halthin?”

She flips her hair. “Throwing a temper tantrum because he still can’t throw a blasted ball.”

“He did just go through a pretty severe black magic poisoning. It’s impressive that he can do a ball right now.”

“That’s what I said!” She rolls her eyes. “But no, it’s not good enough because he’s struggling and Gedric is doing so well, he’s suddenly the weaker one.”

“They both have their own strengths, and Gedric is his own exception.” I stand up, sensing a long discussion. “Halthin is aware that Gedric is the Champion, right?”

“Oh he’s aware,” Stanya says, leaning towards me as I start walking up the hill. When I get near the top, she grabs my good arm and helps me up the rest of the way. “Thanks for coming up here, there is no way I was going down there in heels.”

We look down to Gedric. “Are you coming up, or are you going to stay in there?”

He’s staring at me, his head going back and forth between Stanya and myself. “What just happened? I thought we were still talking about Halthin.”

“We are, keep up.” Stanya says, flipping her hair again in annoyance.

“But we’re walking?”

“Girls walk and talk.” She says, watching him get out of the crater, revealing a perfect imprint of his body. “If you want in on girl talk, you better keep up.”

I roll my eyes. “So if he’s aware that Gedric is an anomaly, and that his poisoning was so severe, why is he acting like a child?” I ask, hooking my good arm with Stanya’s.

“Because he’s jealous of the amount of time you’re spending with Gedric.” Stanya answers, pouting.

“I thought he liked you,” I demand, getting annoyed by this.

“He did, then you had to go and die, and it scared the living hell out of him to think he’s going to lose you permanently.”

“How does that make sense? You two are dating for crying out loud,” I tell her, getting insanely annoyed by this.

“Apparently he doesn’t know if we should be dating, since he still has feelings for both of us.”

“Tell him to commit and just get over it.”

She groans. “I want to, but what can I do?”

“Move on from him, since he’s being an asshole.”

“I want to, but he’s perfect on paper,” she sighs, leaning into me. “And the sex is amazing. He’s just so…”

“Unwilling to commit?” I volunteer for her.

“No.”

“Jealous?”

“No.”

“Asinine?”

“No.”

“Flakey?”

“No.”

“Indecisive?”

“There it is!” Stanya tells me. “I get that he’s on the fence, but I still don’t see why he wants to keep being so finicky. First he wants me, now he wants you.”

“Maybe he wants what he can’t have?”

“That, or he’s never really moved on and he’s trying to get his cake and eat it to.” Stanya muses. “He’s so infuriating.”

“Whose infuriating?” Halthin asks, coming up from behind us. “What are we talking about?”

“Your attributes.” I tell him, coming to a stop. I give Stanya his hand and smile at the two. “I’m so happy you two are together. My two best friends.” I smile while Stanya beams and Halthin grimaces a little.

I take a step back and grab Gedric’s hand. “Now you two talk and hang out. Gedric and I have a date with Drew.” I nod towards Gedric’s bleeding cuts. “We’ll be grabbing dinner together if you want to join for a double date.”

“Sounds perfect. We’ll pick you up.” Stanya tells me.

“See you then.” I kiss her cheek and drag Gedric away.