The Goddess's Chosen

Gabriel

     I woke before the others and left them a note telling them that I was going to the local Wal-Mart to grab some supplies, and not to worry. Hunters wouldn’t attack in a mundane neighborhood, let alone in broad daylight. I get in the car and drive the five minutes it takes to get to the store. I walk around the clothing section, having remembered the girls’ sizes from yesterday, I grab us all some pajamas, so that we can sleep in something more comfortable than our jeans. I bought groceries, some cheesy movies, a couple bags of soil, various candles, and some plant pots. I also bought us all new phones with plans that actually work in Canada, as our phones were not working so well outside of our carrier zone. Thankfully, mom had a black card due to her status in our community. It made it easier to get our village anything we needed. After my paying for my purchases, I began walking to my car when I noticed a young man following me. I walked a little faster to the car and quickly loaded everything in and turned around to look where I had seen him last. He was still there, watching me. He looked so familiar, so I began to approach him, unafraid, if it were a hunter, he wouldn’t do anything in the daylight surrounded by so many people. “HEY!” I shouted at him. When he realized that I saw him, he took off running in the other direction. It was so strange. He reminded me of someone, but I couldn’t put my finger on who. Shaking it off and thinking it was just my imagination getting the better of me, I walked back to the car. I get in and back out of my spot and begin driving back to the sanctuary, when I notice the same man in a car following me. Now I am really freaked out. I can feel my blood pressure building and my hands begin to sweat. How could they find us? I thought to myself. The sanctuary is supposed to be untraceable. Luckily, I am good with directions, and finding my way back when I am lost, because I took so many back streets and twists and turns so that I lost him and eventually found my way back to the sanctuary. I carried all my purchases up to our apartment, and the girls near trampled me when I got inside. “WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?” Clara screamed at me at the top of her lungs. “WHY WOULD YOU LEAVE WITHOUT US?!?” Ava added in. Rachelle just stood behind the two with her arms crossed, anticipating my answer. “We needed supplies and I went to go get them. I left a note.” I said innocently. Clara huffed up again, ready to lay into me, when Rachelle beat her to it. “A note would be of no use if you’re dead by the time we read it!” she exclaimed. Fair, I thought, but still. I was fine. “I was fine, nothing happened.” I said, deciding not to tell them about the man that was following me, not wanting to anger them further. To change topic, I showed them everything I had purchased and told them that I want to begin training myself. I handed one of the bags of soil to Clara and asked her to grow some herbs for potions. She nodded. Ava Had already began redesigning the apartment, changing fabrics and colors of the furniture, curtains, and bedding. Rachelle went with Clara to start growing necessary herbs. I took out my candles and my bag of soil, got a large pot of water and laid it all out on the kitchen floor. I sat cross-legged and closed my eyes, urging myself to focus. With deep breaths, I began meditation. I Looked into myself to find my powers. My mother had told me once that this helped her when she was training after her ascension, and I figured that it could help me. I had no teacher. My coven was dead, and I had only myself to rely on to learn how to master my many gifts Hecate bestowed upon me. I decided to start with fire. I thought of the warmth, and the way the flame dances. I held out my hand, palm up, and imagined the fire dancing in my hand, imagining it warming my hand as it formed. I imagined the purple color flame from my ceremony, which felt like so many years ago, now. I inhaled and exhaled once more before opening my eyes and I saw a tiny little flame shaped like a person dancing in the palm of my hand. I was mesmerized. I could barely hear the ooh’s and aah’s of my companions as they came in to watch what I was doing. I have never heard of this type of elemental manipulation before. Witches could conjure the elements, sure, but not make them do this. I was like I was its master, and it was obeying me and only me. Once I became more aware, I lost focus and my tiny flame dancer disappeared. “What was that?!?” Clara said rushing by my said, clearly excited about what she had just witnessed. I shook my head nervously. “I have absolutely no idea.” I mumbled, Ava and Rachelle were present and clapping excitedly for me as well. It was an amazing feeling to have created something so beautiful, but deep down it scared me. I tried for hours to recreate my purple flame dancer, but to no avail. I did manage to light my candles, but I wanted my dancer again. Reluctantly, I cleaned all my stuff up and got up to make supper.  

     We decided that we wanted to talk over dinner, to make this all seem a little more normal. I made a quick spaghetti; it was always my mom's favorite meal of mine, and it brought me some comfort, and made me feel like she was here with me while we discussed what we should do next. I also decided that I would tell them about my friend earlier today. Ava thought that we should try to contact the high council of witches, which is a good idea, only we had no idea how to do that. Rachelle said that we should lay a trap for the guy, which wasn’t too bad of an idea either. Clara did not want us to pursue the guy that followed me, saying that while we would be laying a trap for him, he could be laying one for us, and that was also a possibility. Basically, we came up with nothing more than we already had and we were all frustrated. I wanted to talk to the guy that followed me, I needed to. I felt like I knew him somehow and it was eating away at me. I had to find him, and I had to figure out who he was. That much I knew. “I need to find him, Clare” I said as we were cleaning up the dishes from supper. Clara sighed. She knew how stubborn I could be if I wanted, though I did listen to reason, if I was that hellbent on something, I was going to do it. “Cas, what if he hurts you, makes you sick like my mom....” she choked back tears. I had thought about that too. We are sure that the hunters were behind her mother's death, but we weren’t sure how they managed it. He could just as easily blow something in my face and inflict the same sickness on me for all we knew. For some reason, I thought back to Selene and what her husband did to her. “Make a sleeping potion, one that we could throw at him and knock him out, then we bring him back here and question him here.” It was a reasonably sound idea in my opinion, but Clara wasn’t convinced. “You want to bring a hunter back to our sanctuary?” She said, quizzically. I nod. “If he is unconscious, he won’t know how to get here, or where he even is. Besides, we can strip him and check for any traps or potions of his own.” I offer. Clara thinks about it for a minute. “We will need to talk with Ava and Rachelle about this.” She said, again I nod. When we finished cleaning up, we went and talked to Ava and Rachelle about my plan, and they agreed. We need to know why he was following me. Rachelle, who excels with spells, offered to write one that could help if he was just a horny mundane that was infatuated with me, as she so delicately put it. One that would wipe his memory of the last few hours and we could drop him off where we found him, or somewhere close by. After more conversations, we had a rough plan. It wasn’t a great one, but it was a start. 

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     The next morning, we geared up and headed out to find my stalker. Clara had made the sleeping potion, and Rachelle and Ava worked their asses off writing the memory spell. Once again, I felt useless. I was never any good at spells and potions, not that I didn’t try, but it was never my strong suit. After our preparations, we sat in the living room and went over the plan once more until we decided to call it a night and go to bed. I couldn’t sleep, there was too much anticipation in seeing that man again, the desire to know who he was kept eating at me all night. Even knowing that I would get my answers today, I was still restless. Finally, I had fallen asleep, only to dream about Selene and her family. I wondered what happened to her husband and child, and why she could never find them again. When I woke up, most of the dream had faded, but her face still haunted my waking thoughts. I was the first one awake, again, so I made coffee and breakfast and waited for the others to wake up as well. I tried meditation again, to see what I could do with the water. I imagined the cool feeling of the water washing over my hand, and I imagined it snaking around in loops around my fingers. When I opened my eyes, I saw a water dragon circling my hand, weaving in and out of my open fingers and curling up in my palm. “Something smells delicious” I heard Rachelle's voice ring out from the living room, and the dragon splashed away in my palm, leaving a mess of water all over me. “Whatcha cookin, good lookin” Clara joked, coming out of our room. “Umm, eggs, and bacon.” I muttered, “and toast and coffee...” I added, drying the water that had spilled on me. “And a mess, I’d say” Ava teased. I laughed. “Actually, I did the meditation thing again, with water this time, and there was a water dragon....” I said, shrugging and taking a bite of toast. “Hold up, fire dancers, water dragons...” Clara began and ran to a bookshelf in the living room and shouted AHA, when she found a book with a dark green cover. She came over and plopped the book down on the table with a thud, and began skimming the pages, as if she knew what she was looking for. “Here!” She said excitedly, pointing at a page in the book. She turned the book so that Ava, Rachelle, and I could all see it. It was about elemental spirits. It was talking about how a master of the elements could invoke the elemental spirits and control them and call the spirits to them whenever they need. I laughed. “I doubt I am an elemental master, or whatever...” I started to say. Clara threw her hand up, cutting me off. “Try it.” she said pointedly. “Wha...” I tried talking and she cut me off again. “Try summoning an elemental spirit, you did it with the fire dancer, did you not? You created fire without a course. And here, it even said that the fire spirit is purple, and so are your flames.” she pointed at the book and then put her hands on her hips as if to say, ‘try to argue that’. I sighed. It was no use arguing with her. As stubborn as I am, she can be more so. “Fine!” I exclaim and through my hands up. My three companions all bounced excitedly and clapped their hands. Dance monkey, dance. I thought bitterly. I closed my eyes and imagined a wood sprite dancing on the table. I imagined the smell of the forest and soil. I imagined the cool shade of a tree on a hot day. I imagined the sprite with green skin and a pink flower in her hair, and bright yellow eyes. While my eyes were closed, I heard a collective gasp, and I opened my eyes. I saw the tiny little sprite I had imagined in my head dancing on the table, and where her feet touched, tiny flowers bloomed. She looked at me, with bright yellow eyes, curtsied and then she too, disappeared. “I knew it!” Clara exclaimed, “I fu...” “Oookay, calm down.” I cut her off. So, what if I am a master of the elements, we had other things to worry about right now, like my mystery stalker. “We should really finish eating and go get my stalker, yeah?” I asked, stuffing my mouth with bacon.  

     Once we had all finished eating and cleaning up, we piled into the car and drove around. I decided that maybe we should go back to Walmart, since that is where I had last seen him. They all agreed, as Ava wanted to get some fabrics that she could manipulate and make her own clothes, and Rachelle wanted to get some creams she could use to make her own hygiene products. We got there and split up into two. Ava and Rachelle went to go get what they wanted, and Clara and I walked around, trying to spot our mystery man. I could have sworn I felt someone staring at me, but whenever I turned, no one was there. We walked around for a couple of hours, getting the attention of the managers, I guess we seemed like thieves, until I showed them my mom's credit card. We finally gave up around noon and decided to head back to the sanctuary, until I got that feeling again. I told the girls to walk ahead and acted like I was lacing up my boots. I could hear footsteps behind me, getting closer and closer. I wrapped my hand around the vial of sleeping potion in my pocket and stood up cautiously, listening to the closeness of the steps. When he was roughly 10 feet behind me, I stood up and turned around and saw him. My mystery man. He went to turn and run, but not before I could throw the potion at him, hitting him square in the chest. Clara had made it so it acted more like a vapor than a liquid, so that when he breathed it in, it would knock him out, and it did just that. It worked like a charm. I ran forward to catch him under the arm as he began falling, and Rachelle rushed over to help me stuff him in the car that Clara had just pulled up. Once we got him in, she took off towards the sanctuary. Once we got there, we carefully removed him from the car and the four of us helped carry him into the building. As soon as we closed the door, we stripped him down to his underwear, and made sure that he had no tools or anything. I noticed that he smelled like how it does after it rains, and of the forest. It was pleasant. Once we got his undressed, we took him into the apartment next to ours and secured him to the bed. “Kinda kinky...” Rachelle muttered. And I glared at her, not meaning to, it just happened. After that she kind of stayed behind me and wouldn’t meet my gaze. Weird.  

     We waited for a couple of hours before he started muttering and waking up. He realized he was tied to the bed and began fighting. “What the hell did you do to me?!?” He screamed at me, while continuously fighting against the restraints, which was futile, because Rachelle had put a spell on them to increase their strength, the more he fought, the tighter they got. “Calm down, we didn’t do anything bad...yet” I said, getting up from my chair and moving closer to the bed. “Why were you following me?” I asked. He said nothing, only fought more. “Stop doing that, the more you fight the tighter they get.” I sighed, sitting next to him on the bed. “Why were you following me?” I asked again. “Go to hell.” he exclaimed, turning his head from me. “Why do you look so familiar?” I ask, “who are you, what’s your name?” He glares at me. “You are Cassandra Thea Green, daughter of high priestess Endora Grace Green.” he sneered at me. I sigh, losing my patience. “I know who I am, and who my mother was, but who the hell are you?” I stand and look down at him from beside the bed. “My name is Gabriel Whitlock, and I’m a witch hunter.”