A Gift of Magic

Chapter 6

            Logan woke up in the middle of their rest to hear Leigh shivering and her teeth chattering. He didn’t even think about the fact that she wasn’t dressed for evenings in the north. The regular evening would have been cold enough, but they were in a cavern in the mountain where it was even colder than usual in the area. The were ran hot because of their shifter nature and so he not only didn’t feel the chill but didn’t even think about it. He wordlessly and soundlessly got up from his spot on the wall and laid down next to Leigh on the floor of the cavern and spooned her bringing her small body close to his. Almost instantly she stopped shivering and sighed contentedly moving into him. He stayed very still in hopes that he didn’t wake her unintentionally. Her breathing evened out letting him know that she had fallen back into deep sleep. With that he curled around her bringing his chin over her head and breathed in her scent before he fell asleep himself.

            Hours later Logan woke with Leigh still sleeping in his arms. He knew he should move. He barely knew her, not that it mattered to him. The wolf in him was quiet and content for the first time since he was a pup. He knew it would matter to her since she thought in human terms and in her mind their courtship hadn’t even started yet. He knew the instant that Leigh woke up. Her breathing changed and she went to stretch but before she moved much though her whole body instantly tensed.

            Leigh woke up feeling warm and relaxed. Her mind was sluggishly trying to remember where she was. When she inhaled deeply, she could smell a scent she had never caught before. The scent was intoxicating and very masculine consisting of sandalwood and the undertone of puppy feet. She went to stretch so she could get the blood moving in her body when she realized that she was in the arms of a strange man. Her whole body tensed, and she started thinking of ways to escape. The safest bet, and one she bet he wouldn’t think of, was to roll away from him and jump up. She may be chunky, but she could move quicker than most gave her credit for. Before moving she quickly scanned for the raccoon and when she couldn’t see her, she went for it. Her roll was swift, and she jumped to her feet glaring down at her traveling companion. “What the hell Logan?”

            Logan gracefully rolled up into a sitting position and shrugged, “You were cold Leigh. I woke up to you shivering and her teeth chattering. I have excessive body heat being a were and figured that I would share it with you.”

            At this moment Leigh realized that Logan was missing his shirt and that same shirt was in her hands. “Why are you missing a shirt and I seem to have gained said shirt?”

            Logan shrugged again, “I originally gave you my shirt as a pillow before you began to shiver. What I did was no hardship on me, holding a beautiful woman could never be a hardship.”

            Leigh’s eyes narrowed on Logan shadows filling them she spoke sternly, “Listen buddy I know what the were community as a whole thinks of me and beautiful is not close to it. Next time keep your hands and body to yourself.” Before Leigh could turn Logan stood and reached out to grab her upper arm at the same time somehow making the movement seem graceful.

            “First of all I am not the were community, I am a single male. Second of all, I will beat every male that put those shadows in your eyes. When I look at you, I see a beautiful and gifted woman,” Logan said softly letting his words ring with truth.

            For a moment Leigh was lost in his amber eyes, then she shrugged out of his hold. She knew he let her go, the were were strong and he could have kept her there is he chose to push the issue. “Let’s just finish what we came here for so I can continue on.”

            Leigh walked to the wall with the writing on it and stared at it for a long while.

            Logan put his shirt on while Leigh was staring at the wall. It smelled like her which calmed and centered both him and his wolf. He had to figure out a way to get through her walls. He turned to the sound of her voice softly chanting in a foreign language. She repeated the phrase three times then the grinding of stone on stone could be heard as an arched opening appeared with steps leading down into darkness. He watched as she turned towards the opening and walked right through. He trailed behind her; this was her quest after all.

            She stepped into a small room with an alter and a stone chalice in the center of the room. On the alter was one word in the same ancient Druid language sacrifice. Leigh stood looking at the alter trying to figure out what she could give of value.

            “What does it say?” Logan asked in a soft voice.

            Leigh snapped her head to him, “it says sacrifice. I just need to figure out what is the most valuable sacrifice.” She thought about what she had on her and what she could give. What could she give that was either irreplaceable or put her at a disadvantage? She removed her pentagram necklace and placed it into the chalice, nothing happened. She sighed in defeat. Placing the necklace back onto her neck she then called forth her vines. They were her best and most effective weapon, giving them up for a day would be a great sacrifice indeed. She called forward all eleven vines and they slithered around her hands and arms. She placed each vine one by one into the chalice until she placed in the last one. A stone door opened to the left, and she walked towards it with the raccoon and Logan close to her. As soon as the three passed the door it closed quickly.

            They found themselves again in a cavern as torches flamed to life around them. In the center of the room was a large lump that looked to be made of clay. Suddenly the clay creature looked up at them and watched them intently.

            “What the hell is that thing?” Logan asked as he sized up the creature.

            “It is a clay golem,” Leigh replied quietly, “Don’t do anything, let’s see how he responds first.”

            The three stood in the cavern’s entrance waiting to see what the golem would do, but he just stood there looking at them. About five feet in front of them there was another inscription in the ancient Druid language. Leigh slowly moved to the writing to read it.

            “Do you see something?” Logan asked. He hadn’t moved from his original spot and hadn’t taken his eyes off of the golem.

            “It just says, three-fold,” Leigh replied. Recognition lit her face, “I think this room is testing the Druid motto of what you put into the world comes back to you three-fold. Look around the room for an exit.”

            Leigh, Logan, and the raccoon slowly searched around the walls but found nothing. The raccoon hesitantly raced towards the golem and then raced back to Leigh. The raccoon said, “tunnel,” and gestured towards the golem.

            “Great,” Leigh groaned, “Logan apparently there is a tunnel close to the golem, so we are going to have to get close to him to get out of this room.”

            Logan nodded his head slowly. “I’ll follow you.”

            They stalked slowly to the tunnel opening which was actually a hole in the floor with a spiral staircase going down. When they reached the bottom of the stairs more torches came to life, but their fire was subdued compared to the other caverns giving off a much softer glow. Giggling filled the room and the group stopped.

            Logan went to take a step forward and tripped. Looking down on a growl he noticed that his shoelaces were tied together. He could have sworn he heard small giggling around him. Before he could do anything more Leigh placed a small gentle hand on his shoulder which was right next to her since he had fallen. “They are just shoelaces, no need to be upset.” She giggled a little, “the only thing hurt is your pride.”

            He relaxed a little she had a cute giggle and when she smiled her whole face lit up. He vowed right then that she would giggle more often, he would make sure of it. He found his anger evaporated and he almost smiled with her. “Fine,” he said scowling. He moved into a seated position and untangling and retying his laces. He stayed seated and quietly waited next to Leigh.

            She could feel something moving her pack around. Ignoring it Leigh stood and walked to the center of the room. She then sat cross legged on the floor with her palms cupped emptily in front of her. She closed her eyes and chanted, “Oh blessed goddess Danu, hear your humble servant, grant to me the good berries to quench our hunger.” Leigh’s hands glowed a bright green to match the glowing highlights in her hair and ten juicy blackberries appeared in her hands.

            She gently placed the berries on the floor removing three for her party and backed up to their group to wait. Obviously, the goddess knew how many berries to provide.

            As soon as Leigh sat down a cat sized creature appeared next to the berries. Its muscular body was scaled in a beautiful violet hue. The scales were incandescent changing to shades of violet and lavender as its body moved. She continued to look it over and then noticed the spiny back where the scales gently moved to a beautiful shade of rose. The wings on its back were opaque the same colors as the body with rose accents. At the end of the long tail was a sharp tooth looking spike. The dragon smelled the berries and looked sharply at Leigh. In a soft whisper it said, “What is this Earth child?” Intelligent rose-colored eyes appraised Leigh waiting on a response.

            “Some good berries for you old one as a gift,” she bowed her head as a sign of respect.

            “No one has been here in over three hundred years. What brings you to this place Earth child?” Its gaze upon her was heavy and she fidgeted slightly under its stare.

            “The goddess Danu sent me here to retrieve the previous druid’s spell book. I respectfully ask for passage to the next area so I may retrieve the book.” She spoke in low soothing tones.

            He looked to be having a conversation in quiet tones, then he nodded and suddenly disappeared. He reappeared about three feet behind where he had just been next to the berries. Rising into flight he fluttered gracefully to the berries and inhaled again. He removed a berry with his small hands. He placed the berry in his mouth and almost purred with delight. After his contented sounds suddenly six beautiful pixies appeared each right above a berry and removed a berry a piece slowly eating the berries, they made musical signs as they ate. Each of the pixies were no taller than ten inches, had skin a shade of light green, crowns made of beautiful small blossoms ringed their heads on both the males and females, clothes made of flower petals, and sheer wings the shape of butterfly wings. That is where the similarities ended. Each of them had colors that matched different types of flowers. One had bright yellow hair that cascaded down her back to her hips, her clothes were made of the petals of either black-eye Susan flowers or sunflowers, and her wings were a beautiful gold with bright yellow accents. Another female had a smokey lavender hair that cascaded down to her hips with occasional curls, her clothes were made of lavender rose petals, and her wings were a dusky lavender with violet accents. The last female had air that was pure white and stopped in the middle of her back in wild curls, her clothes were made from daisy petals, and her wings were ivory with bright white accents. One of the males had dark auburn hair that stopped at his shoulders, his clothes were made from poppy petals, and his wings were bright red with auburn accents. The next male had a dark orange hair that fell straight to his shoulders, his clothes were made from marigold petals, and his wings were a bright orange with dark orange accents. The last male had light pink wavy hair down to his shoulders, his clothes were made of impatient petals, and his wings were a light pink with pastel pink accents.

            Logan whispered to Leigh, “I’ve never seen anything so exceptional in my entire life.”

            Leigh shrugged, “I’ve been hearing giggles since I got here, and tiny mysterious pranks have been happening to my gear. I knew something was here that was secretive, but I would have never guessed pixies. I know that in most cultures a gift of food is expected to I figured it didn’t hurt to try.”

            All of the fairies finished their berries and whispered intently between themselves and the fairy dragon. The lavender fairy came fluttering over and stopped about six feet from Leigh and Logan. She looked at Leigh. “The berries were delicious; it has been a long time since we were in the presence of a strong Earth Druid.” She fidgeted with a piece of her beautiful petal skirt, “The Druid died over 300 years ago leaving us here to fend for ourselves. We have remained unmolested because we hide from the local werewolf pack,” she bowed her head towards Logan. “There is something very wrong with that pack, they do not care for the wild places as is their birthright.”

            Logan inclined his head to the fairy, “I have been investigating this pack and the council is ready to take action against the alpha and beta. Your group will be safe from them soon.”

            “I am sorry you were left by yourself for so long,” Leigh said meaning it. “My family has given sanctuary for generations to super-naturals in need of safety. You are all more than welcome to come back with me when I go home. I know of an isolated part of the sanctuary by our circle where you can be safe and cared for.”

            Each pixie and the fairy dragon all bowed their heads. “Our thanks they said in unison.”

            In the far corner of the room a hole glimmered into existence. The shimmering caught the attention of both Leigh and Logan. They stood up and Logan followed closely behind Leigh to check out the hole. It went down into darkness; the hole was too deep to jump down into.

            Leigh looked to the fairies, “is this room safe to rest in? I believe we are in the evening of Lammas, and I need to do my ritual before the end of the evening. Once I finish the ritual, I will need rest though.”

            The fairy dragon spoke again, “This room is safe Druid. Do your ritual and rest, you are welcome and protected here.”

            Leigh inclined her head to the fairy dragon and pulled off her pack to take out her stones and other supplies to celebrate Lammas in a strange new place.