The Stone Dragon

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

Cat loved the smell of the air. It was still warm and sunny, but she could smell the leaves and the dirt and knew that the season was turning from summer to fall by scent alone. The appearance of the leaves starting to turn brilliant yellows and oranges before they danced their way to the ground was simply confirmation. She was stretched out on the grass, enjoying the sun on her back and feeling comfortably spent after the short team run by the lake. Evelyn appeared to be similarly relaxed and Cat was pleased to see that her aura also looked bright for a change. The run had done them both good, even though neither had been the winner this time. That honour had gone to one of the younger girls on the team, someone they'd just met that simply screamed "Olympian" to both of them. She seemed very nice, but they could tell nonetheless. Some people just looked like they had their future planned and set by the time they entered grade school and this girl was one of those.

Cat had always felt adrift in terms of her future until the previous year. Now that she knew she had a future, just not necessarily one that revolved around a specific career path, she felt more centred. Unfortunately, her new skill set meant that her future would at the very least involve a lot of running and probably some hiding, with a chance of an early demise. Assuming she could actually die, that is.

She'd had time over the summer to get used to her new life and thought maybe she'd try her hand at a career in medicine, if her marks held up. While Vanessa had a heaping helping of charisma to go along with her new mastery of the air element and Evelyn was starting to develop her abilities as a seer, Cat was, quite uniquely, a phoenix. It wasn't something she'd been able to research fully prior to her first meeting with Robin Goodfellow on that warm spring day, only a few months earlier.

She shook her head. It had only been a few months, not even a year since the car accident had spun everything she knew around and sideways. A year earlier, she'd had no clue that anything out of the ordinary was real. Her only super power had been the ability to turn a deep bright red from her neck to the top of her head in twenty seconds flat if questioned during class. But since then, she'd learned to read auras and heal those who were physically, emotionally, or spiritually ill. She could heal a soul in someone who was still alive and even bring people back from the brink of death, although not actually from beyond that stage as far as she knew. It took her own soul's energy to do it, but as a phoenix she was able to regenerate herself, possibly indefinitely. So a career in medicine could be pretty useful, both for helping others and for hiding in plain sight. And it probably paid better than being a fugitive. The only question was whether or not she'd be able to safely stay in one place for long enough to actually finish the schooling necessary for such a career. Cat shook herself out of her usual post-run reveries and turned to Evelyn.

"So, are you still up for a picnic? Vanessa's totally bored right now and I think she needs to get out."

Cat and Vanessa had already decided to play that Evelyn would be doing them a favour, in order to keep her pride intact. Evelyn was a force to be reckoned with if she thought anyone was taking pity on her, even if that wasn't their intention. Cat stretched out her legs as long as she could while waiting for a reply.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it, but I still want to shower first. Can I meet you back at your house? I'll walk over when I'm ready."

Evelyn had travelled with Cat to the meet in her car, but since her house was only a few blocks away from Cat's, she usually just walked over when she came to visit.

"Sounds good. Are you ready to go?"

Cat stood up and gathered her items, then packed them back in her backpack as she spoke. Evelyn nodded, grabbed her own items and stood up.

"Lead on, Macduff."

Cat groaned. The amount of Shakespearian comments in normal speech patterns at Valleyfield school was extreme, in her opinion. Darn Mr. Grayson and his crazy influence. Evelyn laughed at her groan and they walked to the car, chatting casually about the day's events.

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