paused, his eyes narrowing. “But you
are one annoying beast!” he snapped. He walked over to Dodge and
took my saddle off his back. “Go then. We are making camp here
tonight.” He glared at my horse.
‘If looks could kill’ popped into my
head.
“Of course I won’t do anything
stupid!”
Dodge came to nuzzle my face, seemed to
hesitate, then trotted off.
“There is a herd of horses a couple of
miles from here. He will go spend the night with them and come back
in the morning.”
That’s when I noticed that daylight was
fading. I walked over to my saddlebags and untied the two blankets
I had brought for our picnic. That seemed like ages ago. I lay one
of them on the ground and sat on it. Was I really going along with
this? Did I really believe everything Jasper was telling me? It
seemed I was, and I did. Or maybe I was just waiting until I woke
up to laugh at myself.
Jasper was hunting for fire wood. I
watched him move around the campsite. He was beautiful. The way he
moved, flawless. I smiled. He moved like a cat.
He had the fire going and looked up
then. Our eyes met. Jasper took a deep breath and let it out
slowly. I tried to remember to breath. I had one question I wanted
to ask before I went to sleep. I laughed a bit to myself. As if I
was actually going to be able to get some sleep. Was it even
possible to sleep in your dreams?
Jasper was still unmoving by the fire.
Flames danced in his eyes.
“What did you mean by ‘their own
kind’?”
He stayed where he was. “Namaels with
Namaels, Wedelves with Wedelves, and so on.”
“And you’re a Namael.”
He nodded.
“So what am I?”
He hesitated.
My temper flared. “Look. I’m going to
find out anyway. And this is about me! I think I have a right to
know. I’m more than just a little freaked out about all of this and
I think I might feel better about it if I heard it from
you.”
“I’m actually not sure...”
“That’s it. If anyone around here
figures I should stay to save the world, or whatever it is I’m
supposed to be doing, someone had better explain things to me
now!”
“But...”
One of the things I hated about myself
was the fact that if I got mad, I started to cry. I looked away
from Jasper and into the trees as I felt the tears start to
come,
“I want to go back! This is ridiculous!
Tigers and Wedelves and wolves and talking horses! That just
doesn’t exist! Why the hell can’t I just wake up?”
My tirade was accented as a tree burst
into flames. My eyes widened in surprise but I couldn’t move. Was
someone attacking? Where were they coming from?
Jasper was on the ground, hands
covering his head. I ran to him.
“Jasper! Are you ok? What happened?” My
jaw dropped. “What are you laughing at?” I started to get mad
again. “I don’t find any of this very amusing!”
He looked at me. “No... I’m
sorry...don’t get mad. I’m not laughing, just relieved.” He took a
few deep breaths and led me back to the blanket as he got himself
under control. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t think it could happen. I’m
just glad you weren’t looking at me!”
I continued to glare at him. “What are
you talking about?”
“You did that. You set the tree on
fire. It’s impossible, really. You’ve had no training. There’s no
way you should be able to manifest any kind of magic at all. But
you did.” He looked at my face. “Are you ok?”
“No.” I put my head on my knees and
wrapped my arms around them. The tears were about to start
again.
“I almost set you on fire!” A sob
overtook my control. Then another. Once they started, it was
impossible to stop.
“Shush, now.” Jasper slid closer to me
and pulled me to his chest. He chuckled a bit. “I wasn’t lying, you
know. I don’t know. The stories never said what you are.” His
strong arms held me until I was done crying. He gently stroked my
hair. “Better?”
I didn’t answer. The events of the day
had finally caught up to me and exhaustion
Learning to Kill: Stories