Invasion

Chapter Three

2  Hours Before Dusk

We are almost halfway to the Enchanted Forest before we decided that it was time to make camp.Tala set up the tent while I gathered some firewood. I ventured out into the treeline where I found sticks and twigs. It took me about 20 minutes to gather the wood and when I returned to the campsite I had discovered that Tala had already finished setting up the tent and Nox was patiently waiting for me to return to get started on training.

“We have much to do, come follow me, we will need some space for what comes next.” I followed him into a nearby clearing. “The first thing that we will start on is to infuse our abilities.” We started out by looking at each other. Then I touched him to see if that would work. It did and it didn’t. It kind of felt as if there was something was blocking my powers in order to fuse with him as if there was some sort of barrier. We were both really new to this so it was hard to figure out what we were doing. Nox only had heard stories about this sort of thing. He never actually himself had only done this. We tried everything. Nothing seemed to work. Nothing else got even remotely close to how we touched. It seemed like for an hour we were doing ridiculous tasks in order to try to even get close to that feeling but we were out of luck. I took a short break and I started to think. 

“Maybe the reason why we can’t infuse is because we don’t truly know each other. We don’t even know much about each other at all. How are we supposed to be connected if we don’t have a connection ourselves? Maybe we just need some good old fashioned talking to connect.”

“I suppose we could try that, where would you like to start?” We started to walk back to the camp because there was clearly no more to be done in that meadow.As we got back to camp, I sat down on a stump near the fire pit. I looked around and I saw that Tala was gone so I just figured that she was out hunting for food in her werewolf form. I knew she wouldn’t be back for at least a couple more hours. Wolf form is the only time that she can truly be free. I picked up some of the twigs and branches and threw them into the fire pir. 

“May you do the honors? And from the beginning.” Nox let out soft and gentle flames that landed perfectly into the pit. I sat down and got cozy waiting for the connection to begin.

“Okay, what is your last name?”

“Easy, it’s Valor. Do you even have a last name?”’

“No, I do not. Do you know where you were born?”

“Well, my mother never told me where I was born but I have lived in Edgedale for as long as I can remember. However once she died I never came back until just a few months ago. As for the date I was born, it has got to be 1705. I could be wrong though, it was over 1000 years ago. I know that I was born in Fall though. What about you? When ard where were you born?”

“Well, I have been alive for probably over 5,000 years. I have seen and gone through so many things and experienced a lot of pain and heartbreak. I have seen empires fall and rise. I saw the dawn of the werewolves. I know the infinite possibilities of outcomes of what could happen to your species.”

“What do you mean? How can you the outcomes of the future?”

“As a dragon, I am wise because of that wisdom I was intrusted with the ability of sight. I can see glimpses of the future, some have the same outcome but most of the time it is a different ending. I however can never see the extact future that will be ours, that is why I don’t always pay attention to them too much because most of the time it’s not worth it to worry about.”

“How does that even help us them?” I asked as I picked up a nearby stick to sir up the dying fire. 

“To be honest, it doesn’t really, except for the majority of the times I saw the future, they all had one in common, a prophecy was mentioned. I don’t know what the prophecy entails but I do know that you and Tala are included in it along with another group of people, possibly your friends. They also all showed that there would be many, many challenges ahead.”

“Did you happen to find out what type of challenges? And how many people do we need to find? What will they have that we don’t to help us?”

“Those questions I do not know the answer to, when I got glimpses into the future , its just that: glimpses. They don’t tell me who or what they are, same with the challenges.”

“Okay, so wait a minute, if you could see glimpses into the future, then why don’t you know that I existed?”

“I’m not completely sure on that one, however I have a feeling it somehow it was blocked from my knowledge. I knew you existed, I just didn’t know while I was seeing the future.”

“That’s odd. Just let me know when you find out anything important about future events.”

“I will.” The sun was setting and it was a beautiful sight. I looked over to the treeline and I saw that Tala was on her way back. She was out of breath and panting. She was in her wolf form and she trotted to behind her tent to transform back into her human form. When she turned back she exhaled very loudly.

“Man, that was exhilarating. I have never felt so free in a long time. It is so beautiful over here. Can you believe that I was gone for 5 hours? I just couldn’t get enough of the scenery. I even saw a waterfall a few miles ahead, it was the most gorgeous thing that I have ever seen.” She said as she walked out from behind the tent fully clothed. She wore a loose long sleeve shirt and leggings. She also wore a tan cardigan. It was dark when she came out. While she was walking over to the campfire, she put her hair up into a messy bun. 

“Oh that’s great, then we can go to the waterfall in the morning and get clean before we go to the Enchanted Forest. 

“That sounds like a fantastic idea and maybe while we are there, Than can practice on his ability to manipulate the water. I know we won’t get that far but we will have something to go off of later. Water is the easiest to manipulate, so once we have a basic hold on water we can move on to the next element, that being air. We won’t have to practice for long, probably only for a half hour because we have a short schedule and we will need to get on the road as soon as possible.”

“That sounds fine to me.” I replied. We all spent about a good hour talking to each other around the fire. I got up and looked over at Tala, “ I think I am gonna get some shut eye, tomorrow is a big day and after today, we all need to rest. I will get to know you later.” I said as I headed for my tent. Just before I got to my tent Tala shot up and shouted, “Goodnight!”

I got into my tent took off my clothes and put on some comfier clothes and laid into my bed and grabbed my book and I read some of it but I must of have dozed off because I swear not ten minutes later I woke up to my tent opening.

“Hey Than, can I talk to you for a minute?” Tala asked even though she was already in my tent.

“Yeah Tal, come on in.” I said groggily. She didn’t seem like herself. She normally would never come to me in the middle of the night. I sat up and patted the spot next to me.

“I’m worried.” She sat down and let out a huge sigh. “Nox says there is a prophecy, but he doesn’t know what it means, he doesn’t even know the outcome of the prophecy. I have been thinking, ‘what if it’s not a good outcome for us?’” 

“Tala…” I grabbed her hand, it seemed like she wanted to pull back but she didn’t. I could tell that she was scared. “… I would never let that happen. We will train and won’t stop until we get it right. According to the prophecy, we will come in contact with more people, hopefully they will help us on our journey. We will beat this evil and even if we don’t, I will make sure that you are safe. I will never let you get hurt, you mean too much to me.” She blushed as I said that last sentence. It was if she thought I was crushing on her, which I do flirt with her on occasion but most of the time it was out of fun, but lately it has been coming much easier to do. It is like I have been noticing things about her that make me think sometimes that we could be more.

“That’s easy for you to say though, you are immortal. I could be killed at any time.” I knew she was worried and what really hurts me the most is that it was all true. I knew that if something did go wrong and I didn’t get her in time, she would die and I would have to continue with my life, filled with guilt.

“Tala, I understand if you want to back out now before it gets too insane, I won’t hold it against you. I just want you to be happy. I don’t ever want to see you get hurt. It is up to you if you choose to stay or go.” I gave her a choice because otherwise I wouldn’t know if I could live with myself if I didn’t .

She scooted herself closer to me and looked me into my eyes, staring at me attentively.

“I’m not going to leave your side Than. I would never leave you, especially when you need the help. I have been by your side since the beginning, we are a team, a companionship, a well oiled machine. I don’t care how many dangers we face, I will never leave you. I am just worried about the outcomes and who these people are that we are supposed to meet. How will thy even help us? Can we trust them?”

I was admiring how determined she was and how much she cared out our friendship. She is one of the bravest people that I have met in my life. That is why she has been my best friend for so long. I trust her with my life. If anything were to happen to me, she would pull rank and be the next in command for being in charge of the pack.

“I’m not sure that we can trust them until we meet them and get to know them. From what Nox said it seems like they are going to be nice people. Some of them might have difficulty trusting us but that is just our job to try to influence them to be on our side.” I said to her inching a little bit closer to her. At this point we were thigh to thigh, no space between us, looking into each others eyes. Her eyes were the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. They glistened from the reflection of the lit candle that I had lit earlier from before I fell asleep. 

“ I sure hope things work out.” She responded.

We talked for a couple hours just the two of us about how crazy the day had been and we reminisced about the days when life was a little simpler. We talked about everything and anything and it felt nice. It also felt a little weird because this was probably the first time that we have done this. It felt right that we were talking like this. We ended up talking so much that she fell asleep by my side. I stayed up probably only ten minutes at the most admiring how she slept; her beauty, she slept so peaceful and then she rolled over and placed her head on my chest and wrapped her arm around me. I was shocked at first that she felt that comfortable to do that but it also felt so right. I blew out the candle and fell asleep next to her, leaving her comfortably sleeping on me.