Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (17 page)

Jasper came to stand by us as the
meeting broke up and everyone headed where they needed to be. One
by one, small fires were being started so that suppers could be
made.

We knew that they would get here early
in the morning, just as the sun was starting to rise. They were
hoping to surprise us while we still slept.

Boy, were they in for a shock! They
were expecting this to be just Jasper and I. But I knew that it
wasn’t going to be easy. We were outnumbered, for one. And even
losing one friend in this battle was going to be too much to
lose.

I wondered what would come first. The
dream where I was surrounded by wolves, or the one where the Bailau
dragged me away. I shivered at the thought.

Jasper put his arms around me. “Are you
cold?” He went to grab a blanket from my saddle bags and came back
to sit behind me, wrapping the both of us up.

“Are you nervous?” I asked
him.

He kissed the top of my head. “Very
much so.”

“Is that normal?”

“No.” He hugged me tighter to him,
nestling his head on my shoulder, his cheek against mine. “Usually
I am very calm before a fight. But this time, I actually have
something to lose.”

I turned my head and kissed him lightly
on the cheek. “You’re not going to lose anything.”

“Promise me.”

“What exactly is it that you want me to
promise?”

He looked at me, his eyes full of love,
full of worry. “Promise me that tomorrow night you’ll still be
mine. That you’ll still be alive.”

I gazed back at him, a lump forming in
my throat. “I promise,” I whispered.

He took a deep breath.

“Feel better?” I asked.

“No, not really.”

“Me neither.” I snuggled as close to
him as I could and closed my eyes, wishing tonight would go on
forever and that tomorrow’s perils would never come.

*****

I didn’t realize I had fallen asleep
until a soft voice tried to wake me up. Jasper was brushing my hair
back from my face. “Hayden. Wake up.”

I opened my eyes. His face was inches
from mine. I leaned in closer and kissed him. I closed my eyes when
he brought his hand up and held it against my cheek without
breaking the kiss.

He pulled away reluctantly. “It’s time
to get ready.”

I peeked over the blankets at everyone
else. Tara and Ben already had their bows and arrows on their
backs, daggers at their sides. Prense and Shanus were sharpening
their long swords. They were chatting easily as if this was any
other day. Zane was talking with Brice, Fillian and Brinnan simply
sat, looking at each other quietly.

I looked around at the other faces.
Faces I had never seen before and that after today, I may never see
again. My gaze fell on Phlann and I started laughing.

“What?”

“Phlann looks like he’s had about ten
cups of coffee!”

He was trotting around so fast he
looked like he was about to jump time zones.

I took a deep breath. “Ok. Let’s do
this.” I pulled my short swords onto my back and strapped my dagger
onto my belt. “Crap.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing major. I lost my elastic.”
It sounded stupid. “I didn’t want my hair in my face.”

Jasper looked around. “Here, will this
do?” He pulled the leather lacing out of the front of his tunic,
pulled my hair back gently and tied it up. I shivered at the feel
of his lips on the back of my neck.

“Thank you,” I whispered. I turned
towards him, trying to keep the tears from flooding my eyes. “You
won’t do anything stupid. Promise me.”

He hugged me close. “I promise.” He
gave me a bit of a grin. “Feel better?”

“No, not really.” I tried to grin back.
I had to wonder, with all these beings promising to not do anything
stupid during a battle, who was going to keep theirs.

We packed everything up and went to
take our place in the formation.

Jasper caught my arm just as I was
about to swing onto Dodge.

“Hayden,” he crushed my lips with his,
his kiss urgent, wanting. I had to catch my breath when he pulled
away, his eyes burning.

He held my face in his hands and leaned
his forehead against mine. “Jer yun hanter ain troin lafe en tre
ona yan justa cham de, trant est combin bion a shlova
yan.”

I couldn’t help but smile at him.
“Really?” The only word I knew was shlova.

“More than anything in this world or
the one you just came from,” he whispered. “That’s how much I love
you.”

The lump in my throat was making it
almost impossible to talk. “How do you say ‘I love you
more’.”

He smiled. “A shlova yan jer. But I
doubt it.”

The little blue bird picked that moment
to land on my shoulder. She looked at Jasper.

His eyes narrowed. “They are
coming.”

I swung up onto Dodge and got my swords
ready. I hadn’t been able to get very consistent using the colors
and everyone had agreed it might be safer for everyone on our side
if I simply didn’t use them.

Jasper shifted and stood beside us,
teeth bared in anticipation.

The next five minutes were the longest
in any world’s history and then all hell broke loose.

The first of the Majs broke through the
cover of the bush and into the little clearing under the
ridge.

I heard arrows fly through the air. I
saw wolves fall to the ground. But not just wolves. I noticed the
coyotes, wolverines, foxes and a few bears.

I glanced around me at the big cats.
Tigers, lions, panthers, leopards, cougars, and jaguars.

I looked back at the dogs, tears
springing to my eyes. Those weren’t just animals. They were people
too. Just like the cats. I heard yelps and whines as arrows
connected. I wanted to run into the middle of the clearing and yell
for this to stop. I wasn’t worth it. This wasn’t necessary. I
wasn’t going to take anybody’s side.

I grunted in surprise as my decision
clicked into place. I really wasn’t going to pick a side. I
wouldn’t be used to hurt or destroy anybody.

As the archers started to run out of
arrows more and more of the dogs ran closer to the ridge. Behind
them, the Bailaus followed. They started the climb up the hill and
a growl rumbled deep in Jasper’s throat.

I looked down at him. All of his fur
stood on end, his tail twitching. If I didn’t pick sides then no
one would try to use me against anyone else. Which meant I would
never put Jasper in this situation again. I would never see his
eyes filled with worry and fear.

Faint color waves started to appear and
I thought of Dodge, trying to calm down. I looked at Fillian and
saw her playing with her colors. She was directing them towards the
dogs. One of them yelped as a strong wind picked it up and threw it
off the ridge.

Everyone held their positions, waiting
for the enemy to get closer.

I looked past the clearing to the edge
of the woods and sighed a bit in relief. From the look of things
there weren’t any more of them coming out and the archers had done
a good job of thinning out the rest of them. I glanced around
searching for any of the big wolves. It appeared they had decided
to stay home this time.

When the dogs got about halfway up the
ridge Jasper roared. The big cats leaped forward at the
command.

Cats clashed with dogs. I saw one of
the tigers that had stopped to talk to Jasper go down under three
wolves. My chest hurt, my breathing speeding up so much that it was
almost like not breathing at all. This was wrong.

That’s when I heard the fighting behind
us. Dodge spun around.

There were more of them coming out of
the woods behind us. The Scannoves galloped to meet them, swords
drawn.

A wolf leapt past the barricade of
scaly bodies and ran toward us. I felt Dodge tense, getting ready
to move.

I pulled my swords up and I was
engulfed by a strange calmness.

The wolf jumped and Dodge jumped to the
side. I brought my swords around in an arc and felt a warm spray on
my face as they connected with the wolf. It fell to the
ground.

I didn’t have time to think before I
felt Dodge scoot in the opposite direction and I looked down in
time to see a coyote coming from the other side. I stabbed down, my
arm going numb from the impact of my blade against its scull. I
dropped my sword.

“Shit!” Dodge spun and plowed over
another coyote with his shoulder.

I saw the fox coming from the opposite
direction before Dodge did. I nudged him with my leg to make him
spin the other way.

The fox seemed to anticipate the move
and dodged out of the way, jumping with the movement of my horse.
His teeth closed on my calf.

I grabbed on to the saddle horn to keep
from being pulled off and screamed as the teeth sank deeper into my
leg. I jabbed down with my sword and stabbed the fox in the side of
the neck. It fell to the ground.

There was some crashing to our left in
the woods. I turned my head just in time to see a Bailau with his
head down, aiming for Dodge.

Dodge grunted with the impact of the
beast colliding with his shoulder. I found myself air born, landing
heavily on my back. My breath was gone. I gasped for air while
trying to get to my feet. I staggered and was knocked down again as
rough hands grabbed me. I looked around and saw Jasper a little way
down the ridge.

My eyes locked on his and my fear was
confirmed. I saw him get ready to spring towards us.

“No!” I screamed.

He hesitated for a fraction of a second
then flew through the air, running towards me. His hesitation was
enough. Two arrows plunged into the dirt ahead of him.

I reached down and grabbed my dagger.
With a grunt, I twisted and plunged the knife into the Bailau’s
arm. It didn’t seem to phase him.

As I looked up to see if I had done any
damage at all I saw Phlann running at the Bailau’s back. His
daggers dug down to the hilt on either side of the beast’s neck. It
bellowed and dropped me.

A flash of orange flew over me and
collided with the beast, knocking it backwards. Two pairs of strong
arms picked up Jasper and threw him off.

Prense came running over, sword in the
air, and everything looked in slow motion. As she galloped by she
took one fluid swing and the bull’s head rolled ever so slightly
away from its body.

I looked past the bloody scene before
me. The Scannoves were doing a good job of driving the enemy back.
Some of them were actually starting to run away.

Jasper was in human form as he picked
me up off the ground and crushed me to his chest. “Are you
ok?

I nodded weakly. I felt like I was
moving through a thick fog. He leaned down and gave me a soft kiss.
The fog vanished and my temper flared. “You promised!”

He pulled back, his eyes
wide.

“You promised you wouldn’t come after
me!”

“Hayden. If you had seen the look on
your face! And I could feel it! You were so scared!

I couldn’t just let him take
you!”

“I wasn’t scared for me! I was scared
you were going to break your promise and get yourself killed!” I
couldn’t help myself, I was yelling.

“Oh.” He took a deep breath. “Well, I
didn’t get killed. And you didn’t get taken,” he
mumbled.

A panther walked up to us, interrupting
any more yelling I might have felt like doing. Zane tilted his
head, wondering what he’d missed.

“I have to go see how everything is
going down below. I’m pretty sure this is done. Are you sure you’re
ok? None of that blood is yours?”

“I’m fine,” I snapped, though my leg
was starting to throb painfully.

Jasper frowned and watched my face. It
didn’t surprise me when his eyes widened and he bent down and
pulled my bloody and torn pant leg up. He looked up at me, his face
white.

My anger was starting to dwindle. “I’m
fine.”

He stood awkwardly in front of
me.

Much to relieved that he was alive to
stay angry, I walked back to him and hugged him, hiding my face in
his chest as the tears started to fall. He put his chin on my head,
rubbing my back. “It’s alright, now.”

I looked up at him and he used his
thumb to wipe the tears from my cheeks. He looked torn as he
watched Zane heading back towards the clearing and then looked back
at me.

“Go. I’m ok.” I pulled his head down
and kissed him softly. “I’ll be right here when you get
back.”

He hesitated again and looked at my
leg. “Will you go see Fillian?”

I nodded.

He took a deep breath, shifted, then
was gone. I looked around, trying to find everybody I cared about.
I sighed with relief as I spotted Dodge limping towards Fillian.
She put her hands on his shoulder and used a green to heal it. I
limped to where my swords had dropped and wiped them against my
pant leg before putting them back in the scabbards on my back. I
then walked over to the dead bailau and had to fight down a wave of
nausea while I pulled my dagger out of its arm.