008: Manifestation
1040 Words
[Rosalynd]
I close my eyes, thinking about all the things I wish I could do with my life.
I wish I could be strong and successful on my own. That I can follow where my heart leads me.
I need a place to feel safe, loved, and wanted. I need to feel that for myself more than anything.
I desire something real, something solid. A family.
I send this thought out into the universe. I can feel the warmth of these thoughts wrap around me like a blanket, both comforting and gentle. I take a deep breath, and I feel the heat of a greater force, an energy beyond myself, fill me to the brim with energy and light. At that moment, I know that the universe hears me.
I open my eyes.
The crystals around me are glimmering with red, green, blue, and golden light, but none are glowing as brightly as the one in my hands, the large piece of uncut rose quartz, which is now warm to the touch, pink glowing from its center, magnified by the facets of the crystal. The warmth of these glowing stones fills me and I feel a great weight lifting from my soul.
I have never felt this light in spirit, so powerful and free, so full of joy.
Looking down, my arms begin to glow as well. The stones along the perimeter begin to levitate, floating at least 6 inches above the ground.
"Granted." the universe replies, a whisper that only I can hear, in a voice more familiar than my own mother's.
Slone stands in the corner, her mouth wide open with shock.
"That has never happened before." She begins packing up her crystals. "I don't know what the heck just happened, but I think we might need to get some help from my friends to figure it out."
"Friends?"
"Yes," Slone insists. "Because whatever just happened to you is some kind of high magic and I don't have nearly enough skill or understanding for this." She admits. "I don't even have enough magic to join a proper coven but you..." she looks over at her crystals, as if afraid to touch them. "What I just saw here was real." She laughs, trying and failing to sound nonchalant, "That or we drank way too much wine."
I laugh with her, and some of the tension leaves us. "Come on," she begins climbing up the side of the walls. When she makes it to the top she reaches an arm down to help me. "Let's get back into the sunshine."
We continue walking in the woods. It is so beautiful. And now, after being in that cathedral of trees, I feel the darkness has somehow transformed. The world seems so much brighter, vibrant. I can smell the loamy soil, the water flowing below my feet. I can hear the birds chirping, the sound of the wind through the trees, and in the distance, the sound of cars just beyond the woods. I can also hear the insects, and taste the flavors in the air, like ripe fruit.
And it is while lost in these new sensations that I veer off of our chosen path to the right, as if I am being drawn somewhere I need to be. It takes a moment for Slone to notice I have deviated from our path, and I'm already several feet down the new trail that she has to run to catch up. She is panting as she makes it to me.
"Where are we..."
"I don't know," I admit. "You know these trails better than I do. But something tells me..." I pause, not sure how to explain this compulsion. "...that we need to go this way."
To her credit, Slone doesn't question the logic of this statement--its one of the many advantages of her free spirit.
"Alrighty then, " she stands a little straighter. "Lead the way!"
Following the path, it twists and winds us up the hill and then back down before taking us up once more. I'm not sure where we are going exactly until I see a clearing up ahead.
Stepping off our path, which looking at it obviously wasn't much of a path at all, we find ourselves in someone's well-cultivated garden. Bees buzz around oversized sunflowers as we wind ourselves through a maze of fennel. It takes us a few minutes to find the gate. "I hope the owner doesn't mind us stumbling through his garden." I muse aloud as we exit the garden, closing the gate behind us.
Slone shrugs, "I don't see anyone around, maybe they didn't notice."
Now that we are finally able to see where we are going, I have a moment to appreciate the beauty of this place. This clearing is somehow situated in the middle of the forest, a piece of private property bordering public land. The custom-built house taking up most of the clearing is a stunning example of local architecture. Two stories high with a peaked roof on the second floor, it is made entirely of redwood and windows. The light streaming through the trees into this clearing makes the house seem enchanted.
"Do you see what I see?" Slone tugs on the end of my shirt.
"I'm not sure," I try to look in the direction she is pointing, but my glasses are smudged from the journey through the flowers. "This house reminds me of something out of a fairy tale..."
"Not that!" she exclaims, pulling me along. "Look," she points at sign buried deep in the grass of the front yard, facing a very narrow mountain road. "For Rent," it reads. "Call Evander at..."
Evander? Interesting.
"The owner of this house is looking for renters." She begins jumping up and down as she points again at the "For Rent" sign. "Let's call the number! Maybe we'll get lucky and..."
"No need," I jump, turning to face a tall young man with tan skin, taunt, well-defined muscles highlighted in sweat, and red dreadlocked hair pulled back in a neat ponytail.
"I'm the owner. Evander Green," he puts out a hand for me to shake. "And I'm not looking for renters," he licks his lips. "I'm looking for roommates."
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