The Truth Within The Trees

Chapter Four - A Little Exploration

     Marion was surprised when she heard the steady, deep knocks on her front door. She hadn’t been expecting anyone so she peered out of the window to the left of the door. The orange light illuminated a familiar face outside. She quickly opened the door and met him with a surprised smile. 

    “Oliver,” she said, “what are you doing here?” 

    “Hey Mare,” he said. “You didn’t make it to the movies earlier so I wanted to check in and make sure everything was okay. I tried to call but your phone went straight to voicemail.” 

    “Oh, I must have lost service or something,” she said. 

    She had been standing in the doorway talking to Oliver when she heard a noise from behind her. She remembered Cam had come to stay with her and was trying to think of a way to explain everything when Cam walked through the doorway from the hallway. 

    “What’s for dinner?” Cam asked. 

    Oliver’s eyes darted from Marion to look at Cam. He didn’t take his eyes off of him as he spoke again. 

    “Who’s this?” he asked.

    Marion turned to look behind herself and looked from Cam to Oliver. Oh crap, she thought. This was going to be hard to explain. 

    “This is Cam,” she said. “I met him yesterday when his friend had a fall while hiking. We had some stuff to handle today thanks to the fall.” 

    Oliver walked inside, straight up to Cam and held his hand out to him. Cam reciprocated the handshake and the two guys seemed to be assessing one another. 

    “Oliver,” he said. 

    “Cam,” Cam replied in a confident tone.

    After their introductions Cam walked over to the sofa and sat down, seemingly checking his phone. Marion walked into the kitchen with Oliver following close behind her. She rummaged through her fridge and stayed focused on the contents inside while trying to avoid Oliver’s stare. She finally closed the door and stood to meet his gaze. 

    “I’m sorry about today,” she said. “Time got away from me while we were handling things.” 

    “That’s alright,” Oliver said, leaning against the counter. “I know things happen sometimes. Is his friend okay?” 

    “Yeah,” she said as she let out a breath. “His leg was pretty banged up, but he seems to be doing a lot better today.” 

    Or way better because apparently I’m a witch, she thought. She started cooking the hamburgers she had selected and started thinking about everything that had happened that day. She just wanted time to figure everything out and that was going to be impossible with Oliver here. The last thing she wanted to do was tell her dreamy friend that she was a witch. He would think she was crazy. 

    “Did you make him one of your plant potions?” he asked, nudging her with his elbow. 

    “Yeah, just a simple one,” she said with a forced laugh. Suddenly him calling them potions wasn’t as amusing as it always had been. 

    “Well, I don’t want to impose,” he said. “It looks like you already have a house guest.” 

    “I really am sorry about today,” she said. “We will catch up soon okay?” 

    Oliver left not long after that and she leaned her back against the door and let out a large sigh when she closed the door behind him. She cast her gaze onto Cam where he sat laughing on the sofa. 

    “Are you going to make it?” he asked teasingly. 

    “Very funny,” she said. “I was not expecting visitors.” 

    The two of them went into the kitchen and decided to eat before they delved any further into anything. Marion filled Onyx’s food and water bowl before heading to the table. He trotted into the kitchen and ate his food appreciatively. After everyone was done eating they made their way into the living room. She and Cam moved the furniture back out of the way and they sat cross legged across from each other in front of the fireplace. Cam reached into his bag and pulled out a small leather pouch. The dark brown leather was worn and appeared to be well worn in. He untied the leather cord and reached down into the bag. He began to place stones in between them one by one. The colors mixing in front of her were beautiful. She looked from one to another and felt a small excitement begin to build in her stomach. 

    “I want you to close your eyes,” he said. “Close your eyes and try to clear your mind.” 

    “What?” she asked, feeling a little silly at the idea. 

    “Trust me,” he said. 

    For some reason, she knew she could trust his words. She closed her eyes and let out a slow breath. She tried to clear her mind but thoughts from the day kept popping up every so often. She started to get frustrated and opened her eyes. 

    “This isn’t working,” she grumbled. 

    “You just started,” he said. “Don’t give up so soon. Let me try guiding you through it.” 

    She let out a breath again, relaxed her shoulders and closed her eyes again. Cam instructed her to clear her mind and think about nothing. Once she clears her head he tells her to reach out and grab the first three stones that she feels drawn to. She reached towards the stones with her palm flat and let her hand hover over where she assumed the stones to be. She slowly moved her hand back and forth over the floor in front of her and suddenly she felt something. It felt like a gentle, magnetic pull towards the floor. Her fingers brushed over a rough stone and she picked it up and set it to her right side. She repeated the process and after a few minutes she adds two more stones to the pile. She opened her eyes and gives him a wide smile. 

“I did it!” she exclaimed. “I felt something.” 

    Cam smiled back at her and scraped the remaining stones into a pile beside him. Marion stared down at the stones she had blindly chosen. The stones were a vibrant purple, a brown and orange mixture and the last was a dark black. She picked them up one by one as Cam told her their names. Amethyst was the first name he told her. It was a smooth deep purple stone. The second stone she picked up was also a smooth stone with orange and deep brown stripes. He said it was a tiger's eye. The last and most intriguing stone to her was the last. It was rough and more square. The deep black color made it hard for her to look away. Hematite, he called it. 

    “What do they mean?” she asked as her eyes glinted with excitement. 

    “It’s not surprising,” he said, “that all of these stones are associated with healing in some way or another.” 

    She looked down at the stones and smiled to herself. This is so cool. This can’t be real, she thought. She looked up at Cam to find him smiling at her with a soft look in his azure and emerald eyes. She suddenly felt a little self conscious for being so excited about all of this. She figured this was all normal, boring stuff to him. 

    “I bet you’ve known yours since you were little, haven’t you?” she asked. 

    “Mostly, but they can change sometimes throughout our lives based on what we need,” he said. “My unchanging stone is Carnelian.” 

    He lifted the smooth burnt orange stone up and held it while she examined it. He explained how each stone has different properties and promised that he would teach her more about them in the future. He leaned back against the sofa and motioned for her to come sit next to him. She scooted over beside him and looked over at him expectantly. 

    “What now?” she asked eagerly. 

    “I have a hunch but I want to see what element you’re closest to,” he said. 

    He reached into his bag again and pulled out two bowls, a candle, and a stick of incense. He set them side by side in front of them starting with the candle closest to him and the incense in front of her. 

    “Each of these represent the four main elements,” he began. “The candle represents fire, the bowls of water and soil obviously represent water and earth and the smoke from the incense represents air.” 

    She stared at the four items and nodded.

    “I want you to focus on each item and tell me which one you feel drawn to,” he said. 

    Her eyes scanned each item taking in their respective qualities. The lit candle gave off a soft glow as the flame danced upon the wick. The water sat still and serene inside the dark wooden bowl. An earthy scent wafted up from where the soil sat in another small wooden bowl. The light gray smoke rose off of the tip of the incense and floated its way up to the ceiling. After a few moments she settled on the bowl of soil. She pulled it in front of her and looks at him waiting for more direction. 

    “Now,” he said, “I want you to focus on the soil and see what you can draw from it.” 

    “What does that mean?” she asked. 

    “It’s hard to explain,” he said, running his fingers through his light brown hair. “Just see what you can get it to do.” 

    She rubbed her forehead in confusion but decided to give it a try. She focused on the bowl and tried to think about everything she knew about soil. When she thought about it she decided that soil came from the ground, and basically was the ground in most cases. She liked to garden so she was most familiar with growing things in the ground. She felt a small ball of energy starting to bubble within her. She reached towards the bowl and cupped the sides of it in her hands. She felt the smooth sides of the wooden bowl and felt it begun to warm under her hand. She kept her gaze on the bowl and started to imagine a plant growing up from the soil. She thought about it growing towards the sunlight and in that instant a small sprout started to grow from the bowl of soil she was holding. 

She immediately dropped the bowl and the soil spilled across the wooden floor. She looked over at Cam apologetically and started to scrape the soil back into the bowl. She froze when she came across the small sprout laying among the dirt. She slowly picked it up and examined it. 

    “How did I do that?” she asked. 

    “Magic,” he said with a smile. “I had a feeling you were connected to the earth.”

    “How does something just come from nothing?” she asked.

    “It doesn’t,” he said. “There was a seed placed into the bottom of the soil. You just helped it grow.” 

    “Whoa,” she said. “I can’t believe it.” 

    She leaned back against the sofa and stared at the floor in front of her. She gave up on trying to make sense of it all and looked over at him. He looked over and smiled at her, patting her leg. 

    “Have you had about enough for today?” he asked. 

    “I am a little tired,” she admitted. “This is all so fascinating though.”

    “I can imagine it’s a lot to take in,” he said. “I think it’s a lot and I’ve been learning about it my whole life. There is always something new to learn.” 

    “Awesome,” she said sarcastically, leaning her head back against the sofa. 

    “I’m here if you have any questions,” he said. 

    Marion took this as an invitation and started firing off questions. Cam tried his best to keep up and explain things the best that he could. They spoke into the late hours and eventually fell asleep while talking. When Marion woke up, she blinked the sleep away and realized she was still in the living room. She realized she was laying on something sturdy and jumped when she realized she had fallen asleep on Cam. Onyx stirred beside her when she jumped and she reached down to pet his head. She scooted a few inches away from Cam and looked over at him. His chest was slowly rising and falling with each breath and she realized how broad it was. He looked so peaceful when he slept and she let her eyes examine his face more closely. He had full lips, and a short beard that was a mixture of reddish and dark brown. What am I doing? she thought. She flushed at the realization of what she did and the idea that she had slept on him last night. She got up and decided to go grab a shower and get ready for the day. 

    Cam was awake when she emerged from her room again. 

    “Morning,” he said. 

    “Morning,” she responded, blushing a little at the thought of how she woke up.

    “Did I make a good pillow?” he asked. 

    She froze and hoped he didn’t see the slight panic that crossed her face. Of course he knows, she thought. He laughed at her obvious nerves and put his hands up in a mock surrender. 

    “I was a perfect gentleman,” he said. “We were both tired and neither of us wanted to move apparently.” 

    She cleared her throat and went into the kitchen to make some tea. She rummaged through her cabinet and settled on a nice lemongrass one. She put the kettle on and pulled two cups from the cabinet instinctively. 

    “You like tea, right?” she called from the kitchen. 

    “Yeah,” he said. 

    She leaned against the counter and thought about everything she had learned the night before. Amethyst, hematite and tiger’s eye. The three stones she has been drawn to all had to deal with healing. She had also helped a plant grow! The thoughts raced in her mind and she finally just had to make herself stop for a minute. She poured the tea and brought a cup out to Cam, who had moved to sit on the sofa. 

    “How are you feeling?” he asked.

    “I’m….alright,” she said after a small hesitation. “It’s a lot to take in, in a day.”

    “I believe it,” he said. 

    Marion sat her cup on the table in front of them and turned to face him on the sofa. She curled her legs up under her and began to fidget with her fingers. 

    “So, what now?” she asked. “I mean, how do I learn more about all of this?”

    “From me of course,” he joked. “And others. There are a lot of books out there that can teach you a lot of the basics. What all you can do depends on how much raw power you have and what affinities you have.” 

    “Raw power,” she repeated, looking down at her hands. 

    This is crazy, she thought. She had never thought of herself as powerful before. She remembered how she had made the small sprout grow from a seed hidden in the soil. She started to wonder if this is why she had always been told she had a green thumb. Her gardens always seemed to do well and she had started wanting to grow plants when she was very young. 

    “What else can I do?” she asked. 

    “That’s something you have to figure out,” he laughed. “You’ll be discovering it for the rest of your life if you keep trying.” 

    “Wow,” she said. 

    “If you have time today I can take you to a bookstore I know of in a nearby town,” he said. 

    “I have a class around noon, but after that I can go,” she said. “You can ride into town with me if you’d like.” 

    The two sat in a tired silence for most of the ride into town, alt-rock playing from the speakers of the Jeep. 

    “What are you going to do while I’m in class?” she asked. “I would feel bad if you just sat there bored for an hour and a half.” 

    “I have some things I need to look into,” he said. 

    The brief conversation ended as she pulled into her parking spot. She gathered her stuff and made her way to class taking the same route she always did. It felt different today though because there were people who stood out to her that she had never noticed before. They almost had a glow about them. They seemed to take notice of her as well. She felt a little self conscious wondering if she was now giving off some sort of witchy aura that other people could notice. A few of the people who she managed to make eye contact with gave her a small smile, as if they were happy for her. There is no way they don’t know, she thought. There was no other reason for all of these strangers to be giving her such proud smiles. She found herself amazed at the fact that these people had been among her all this time and she had never noticed before. Had they known and just been waiting until she figured it out herself? She came to her class as these thoughts ran through her head and decided she needed to focus on the next hour and a half. Her parents weren’t making her work while she was in school so she should at least try to do her best. 

    The next hour and a half went by at an excruciatingly slow pace. All Marion could seem to focus on was what the bookstore would be like, and what she might find inside. She wondered if witch bookstores were different from regular book stores. With these thoughts going through her head she found it hard to focus on environmental law. She was thankful when the professor finally told the class to have a good afternoon and make sure to read the next chapter before class met again. She collected her things and headed towards her car. 

    She was the first to get back and thought it might be smart to ask Cam for his number so they can keep in touch better. Someone yelling her name grabbed her attention away from her thoughts. 

    “Hey Oliver,” she said. “Sorry about yesterday.” 

    “It’s all good,” he said, giving her one of his famous smiles. “I was wondering when we could reschedule.” 

    “This week is pretty busy with classes,” she said, “what’s your work schedule like?”

    “You know I can get off whenever I want,” he joked. “I know people.” 

    “We can try for Saturday this time,” she said. 

    “Sounds good,” he said.

    His eyes suddenly focused on something behind her and she turned to see Cam walking towards them. The two men eyed each other as Cam made his way to the Jeep beside Marion. 

    “Hello again,” Cam said.

    “Hey,” Oliver replied flatly. 

    “Ready to go?” Cam said, turning to her.

    “Yeah, let’s go,” she said. “I’ll text you later okay Ol?”

    “Yeah,” he said with a soft smile. 

    Oliver walked away from the pair and they made their way to get into the car. 

    “Mind if I drive?” Cam asked. 

    Marion hesitated and looked at the keys in her hands. She cradled them back and forth in her hands while she thought about it. 

    “I’m a good driver, promise,” he assured her, placing his hand over his heart. 

    “How do I know you won’t kidnap me?” she asked, half joking.

    “If I wanted to do that don’t you think a secluded cave in the middle of the forest would have been a prime location?” he laughed. 

    “Fair enough,” she responded, handing him the keys.