Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (6 page)

“I don’t know how I knew.” He looked
sharply at the bird. “You know that doesn’t happen!” The bird
seemed to shrug.

Jasper looked uncomfortable and stood
abruptly. “Well, you know what you have to do.”

With that, the little blue birds
scattered and flew away.

I must have had quite a look on my
face. Jasper’s eyes softened and he took my hand to help me
up.

“You have more questions.” It wasn’t a
question. He let go of my hand long enough to take Dodge’s bridle
off and hook it on the saddle horn. “Ask away.”

And with my hand in his, we started
walking towards one of the most beautiful mountains I had ever
seen.

“You talk to the birds,
too.”

“Yes. But just blue birds.”

“Why does it seem like I was
expected?”

Dodge blew loudly out of his
nose.

“Well I can tell her a little bit about
it. This isn’t exactly going as planned, now is it?”

Dodge shook out his mane.

“Fine.” Jasper looked extremely annoyed
with my horse. He glanced down at me. “There are things that I am
not at liberty to tell you.”

I didn’t like not knowing what was
going on. “But...”

Jasper placed his hand over my mouth,
cutting off my protest. “Please. Even though you have no reason to,
I am asking you to trust me. Can you do that?” His eyes pleaded
with mine. I nodded. Dodge seemed to think he was
trustworthy.

“Ask another question.”

I thought for a bit. “What exactly was
the plan?”

“Oh. Well, I suppose there wasn’t
really a thought out one. I was hoping just to keep meeting with
you until you trusted me enough to follow me.”

“I see.”

“I would think that the best plan would
have been to tie you up and get you to Melana as quickly as
possible.” He laughed at the look on my face. “I’m
kidding.”

“Oh.”

“What were you and the bird arguing
about? You said something along the lines of ‘you know that doesn’t
happen’.” I looked up at him when he didn’t answer. I was surprised
to see he looked embarrassed.

He looked at Dodge. “Well, you see,
everyone knew you were coming back. But you’ve been gone for
twenty-three years. You were just a baby. So no one knew what you
would look like.” He paused, unsure if he should go on. When he
did, it was like he was talking to himself. His voice was so soft I
could barely hear it. “But I knew. It doesn’t make sense.” He
stopped again.

“The bird?” I pushed.

“She said we must have been
fated.”

I was lost. I was looking at him so
hard I tripped over a stump. Before I could fall he managed to pull
me up. I stumbled again and fell into him. When I looked up,
embarrassed, I was shocked by the look on his face. It was almost
like he was in pain. He had both my hands in his, his voice barely
a whisper.

“It’s never happened. Not that I’ve
heard of. Everyone is fated to their own kind. And yet I saw you.
Have been seeing you for years...” His voice trailed
off.

I couldn’t look away from his eyes. The
confusion was still there, but the pain had dimmed a bit. He seemed
to make up his mind about something.

“There is one way to be sure,” he
whispered. He tilted my chin up with his fingers, his thumb lightly
running along my bottom lip. I felt like an electric current was
coursing through my body. He lowered his head down, his lips
pausing less than an inch from mine.

I hadn’t realized I had closed my eyes
until I felt his forehead touch mine.

He exhaled slowly.

“You’re right. That would be selfish.”
He kept his head against mine.

It was my turn to be annoyed with my
horse. I wanted to say, “who cares what the horse thinks!” Instead,
I asked, “why?” It was barely a whisper.

He didn’t move, his head on mine, my
face still in his hands. “If two people are fated, they know of
each other through dreams. Every night,” he pulled away and looked
at me with eyes that burned, “I dream of you.”

I felt like jello in his arms. He put
his forehead back on mine. “Once you find the one you are fated
with, a kiss seals the bond. From that day on, you live for each
other. At first it is very hard to do anything other than be with
that person. But as time goes by, you get back to life, but never
alone again.”

That didn’t sound so bad. Spending
every minute like this with him. To feel what I saw

in Tara and Shaynna’s eyes. I sighed. I
was pretty sure I could handle that. But I was also a bit
disappointed, though it was a stupid feeling to have. I had just
met the man. I was glad we were still connected at the forehead so
he couldn’t see my face. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer,
but I asked anyway.

“And you don’t want to kiss me in case
that happens?”

I must have done a terrible job of
keeping how I felt out of my voice. He pulled away, his eyes wide
with shock.

“More than anything! Do you know how
hard it was for me not to run down that hill the first time I saw
you? Or again in the meadow? Or now?” His voice was husky as he
continued. “This is supposed to be the best moment of a being’s
life and yet I must deny it for the well-being of everyone else. I
have finally found you and I can’t do a bloody thing about
it!”

It was getting harder and harder not to
wrap my arms around his neck and pull him down to me.

His voice was just a whisper. “You are
meant for greater things. You are the one we’ve all been waiting
for. If we are fated and I were to kiss you, your life would
gravitate towards me and everything else would be lost.”

He paused, his eyes narrowing. “But you
are one annoying beast!” he snapped. He walked over to Dodge and
took my saddle off his back. “Go then. We are making camp here
tonight.” He glared at my horse.

‘If looks could kill’ popped into my
head.

“Of course I won’t do anything
stupid!”

Dodge came to nuzzle my face, seemed to
hesitate, then trotted off.

“There is a herd of horses a couple of
miles from here. He will go spend the night with them and come back
in the morning.”

That’s when I noticed that daylight was
fading. I walked over to my saddlebags and untied the two blankets
I had brought for our picnic. That seemed like ages ago. I lay one
of them on the ground and sat on it. Was I really going along with
this? Did I really believe everything Jasper was telling me? It
seemed I was, and I did. Or maybe I was just waiting until I woke
up to laugh at myself.

Jasper was hunting for fire wood. I
watched him move around the campsite. He was beautiful. The way he
moved, flawless. I smiled. He moved like a cat.

He had the fire going and looked up
then. Our eyes met. Jasper took a deep breath and let it out
slowly. I tried to remember to breath. I had one question I wanted
to ask before I went to sleep. I laughed a bit to myself. As if I
was actually going to be able to get some sleep. Was it even
possible to sleep in your dreams?

Jasper was still unmoving by the fire.
Flames danced in his eyes.

“What did you mean by ‘their own
kind’?”

He stayed where he was. “Namaels with
Namaels, Wedelves with Wedelves, and so on.”

“And you’re a Namael.”

He nodded.

“So what am I?”

He hesitated.

My temper flared. “Look. I’m going to
find out anyway. And this is about me! I think I have a right to
know. I’m more than just a little freaked out about all of this and
I think I might feel better about it if I heard it from
you.”

“I’m actually not sure...”

“That’s it. If anyone around here
figures I should stay to save the world, or whatever it is I’m
supposed to be doing, someone had better explain things to me
now!”

“But...”

One of the things I hated about myself
was the fact that if I got mad, I started to cry. I looked away
from Jasper and into the trees as I felt the tears start to
come,

“I want to go back! This is ridiculous!
Tigers and Wedelves and wolves and talking horses! That just
doesn’t exist! Why the hell can’t I just wake up?”

My tirade was accented as a tree burst
into flames. My eyes widened in surprise but I couldn’t move. Was
someone attacking? Where were they coming from?

Jasper was on the ground, hands
covering his head. I ran to him.

“Jasper! Are you ok? What happened?” My
jaw dropped. “What are you laughing at?” I started to get mad
again. “I don’t find any of this very amusing!”

He looked at me. “No... I’m
sorry...don’t get mad. I’m not laughing, just relieved.” He took a
few deep breaths and led me back to the blanket as he got himself
under control. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t think it could happen. I’m
just glad you weren’t looking at me!”

I continued to glare at him. “What are
you talking about?”

“You did that. You set the tree on
fire. It’s impossible, really. You’ve had no training. There’s no
way you should be able to manifest any kind of magic at all. But
you did.” He looked at my face. “Are you ok?”

“No.” I put my head on my knees and
wrapped my arms around them. The tears were about to start
again.

“I almost set you on fire!” A sob
overtook my control. Then another. Once they started, it was
impossible to stop.

“Shush, now.” Jasper slid closer to me
and pulled me to his chest. He chuckled a bit. “I wasn’t lying, you
know. I don’t know. The stories never said what you are.” His
strong arms held me until I was done crying. He gently stroked my
hair. “Better?”

I didn’t answer. The events of the day
had finally caught up to me and exhaustion had won. I fell asleep
feeling safe in his arms.

Chapter 2

“No,” a beautiful voice whispered.
There was a pause. “Yes, I was going to tell her.” Another pause.
“I already explained to you. I didn’t get the chance.”

I lay with my eyes closed, listening to
my dream.

“It was amazing. She was so mad. Her
eyes flashed this brilliant green and the next thing I knew, the
tree was on fire!” The voice laughed quietly. “She can be stubborn,
I think. Was she over there?” He chuckled at the answer.

“Yes, I realize that might have been
me.” The arms around me shifted a little. “Well you’re the one who
insisted on keeping her in the dark.”

I was so comfortable I didn’t want to
move. My face was pressed against his chest and I thought there was
only one man alive who could smell this good after sweating and
bleeding. Very....manly, I thought to myself. My head wasn’t the
only part of me to think so.

“Give her a break. She had a rough day
yesterday. Let her sleep. We have another ten or so days to go yet.
She needs her rest.”

A soft growl made its way up his
throat. “What do you think I am! She woke up in the night shivering
and crying. I’m assuming she had a nightmare. She asked me to hold
her so she could go back to sleep.”

I heard a snort.

“Well no. I’m not saying I’m not
enjoying this immensely. She feels heavenly in my arms. Fits
perfectly. And if we are fated, the least you can let me do is hold
her.”

I couldn’t help myself. He sounded so
happy at having me in his arms. I giggled.

“Good morning. I thought you were still
sleeping.”

I glanced up at his face and smiled. He
was so red. I snuggled my face back into his chest.

“Good morning,” I murmured.

He wrapped his arms around me tightly
and put his lips on my hair.

I didn’t want this moment to end.
That’s when I had a thought that made me laugh. “Man, Shaynna is
going to say ‘I told you so’!”

“What about?”

I sighed. “You.” I heard a foot
stomp.

“No. I told you. It didn’t happen. I
didn’t kiss her. It is taking every ounce of strength I have not to
do just that right now. But I won’t jeopardize everything.” He
sounded so sad. He did let himself kiss my forehead and then
proceeded to untangle himself from me and the blankets. I looked up
at him as he stood.

Was it really possible to look that
good after sleeping outside all night? He could have been modeling
camping gear as he made sure the fire was out, his dark curls
disheveled, yet perfect.

That’s when I wondered... what did I
look like right now? Not like a model, that was for sure! I ran my
fingers through my hair. Thank goodness for elastics. I pulled my
spare one off my wrist and tied my hair into a ponytail.

I got up and gave Dodge a hug.
“Morning, buddy.” I jumped back quickly. “Oh! Sorry. I forgot
you’re not a horse. Well, you are. But you’re not.”

Jasper laughed. “Don’t be sorry. He
doesn’t mind that at all.”