Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (9 page)

Jasper spun me around and faced me away
from the group, towards the forest.

Everyone hit the ground as not one, but
two trees exploded into flames.

Dodge snorted and Jasper nodded. “It
does appear to be getting stronger. We have to find someone to
teach her how to control it.”

“I’m sorry.” I sat heavily on the
ground and buried my head in my arms. “Please tell me that trees
aren’t beings here.”

Jasper pulled me against him. “There
are tree folk, but don’t worry. Those were just trees.”

“Wow!” Phlann looked at me with wide
eyes. “That was great!”

“Glad you think so,” I mumbled. I
leaned into Jasper who grabbed the second blanket and wrapped us
up.

“Shanus, do you know anything about
color waves?” asked Jasper.

He shook his head. “No. Mine is more of
a mind magic. Illusions and things like that. I can’t see the
colors.”

“Illusions. Neat.” I wondered if I
could do that too. I fell asleep listening to them catching up on
the last few days. There had been signs of dog patrols but no
actual sightings as of yet.

Everyone was asleep when I opened my
eyes. The fire was almost gone. I snuggled closer to Jasper. He
mumbled something in his sleep and tightened his arms around
me.

I was looking at the fire when
something caught my eye in the woods behind it. Fireflies. I
smiled. Then I noticed that they weren’t moving and that they were
all in a straight line. I tensed. They were eyes reflecting the
last of the firelight. I was scared to breathe.

“Jasper,” I whispered. “Wake
up!”

He mumbled something. I elbowed
him

“Are you alright?” he asked, his voice
thick with sleep.

“Something is looking at us across the
fire,” I tried to keep my voice as quiet as possible.

He shifted slightly, pretending to
still be asleep.

“Dogs!” He growled as he sprang to his
feet. That was all the others needed to wake up on full alert.
Jasper flew over the fire, shifting into a tiger in
midair.

Phlann was in front of me, bow and
arrow ready. Shanus already had two huge swords pulled from the
scabbards on his back.

The wolves had broken into the
clearing. Jasper collided with the leader and managed to get it by
the throat. Another wolf jumped on Jasper’s back, biting the back
of his neck.

I started to scream and stopped. A
black flash swooped down on top of the second wolf, pulling him off
of Jasper. The panther rolled and hissed at the wolf as they
circled, eyeing each other. Zane!

That’s when I heard the sounds behind
me. I spun around and felt Phlann move with me, his arrow already
flying through the air. There was a loud thud as the wolf fell to
the ground. Phlann shot another arrow. This second wolf was bigger
than the others. It was the size of Dodge. Its midnight blue eyes
stared at me.

Phlann fired two more arrows into the
wolf. It seemed to laugh at us and kept on coming.

It lunged quickly, aiming for me.
Phlann pushed me back, his eyes wide as the wolf closed its jaws
around his arm, crushing bone and tearing skin.

“Phlann!” I screamed, unable to
move.

“Shush, Hayden. It’s ok.” Jasper’s arms
were tight around me.

“How is it ok?” I closed my eyes and
buried my face into his chest.

That’s when I noticed we were still
laying down on our blanket. The rest of the group was looking at
me, half asleep. Except for Phlann. He was out like a
light.

I glanced at the fire. It was still
bigger than the one in my dream.

“We have to go now!” I had never been
more certain of anything in my whole life.

“Shlova, it was just a
dream.”

“No. It wasn’t. Phlann was supposed to
take first watch, right?”

Jasper nodded.

“But he’s sleeping. In the dream, the
fire is a little lower than this. They are coming. You get the
first one. Zane rips one off your back. He’s a panther,
right?”

They all looked at me.

“No one told me he was like you! Now
tell me I’m wrong and that he doesn’t shift into a
panther!”

Zane ran to my saddle and threw it on
Dodge. “Phlann! Wake up! You good for nothing toddler!”

“Hey? What’s going on?” He saw the
looks on everyone’s faces. “I fell asleep! What
happened?”

“Nothing yet,” growled Jasper. “Let’s
go!”

I swung onto Dodge and watched as
Jasper and Zane shifted into cats. We raced into the night, getting
as far away from the clearing as possible.

It was starting to get light when the
group slowed down. Jasper called some bluebirds down from the trees
and asked them to do some scouting. We finally stopped at a
river.

I fell out of the saddle, exhausted.
Every muscle I had burned with fatigue.

Jasper caught me and sat with me
cradled in his lap.

“Can you tell us what else you saw?” He
asked, stroking my hair.

“There were six or eight wolves. Normal
ones. But there was one big one the size of Dodge!”

“What color was the big wolf?” asked
Zane, back in human form.

“Black. Why?”

Jasper explained. “The Majs’ armies are
shifters, like us. The difference is that we turn into cats and
they turn into dogs.” He spat out the word. “There are three big
wolves that are the size of Dodge; one brown, one grey, and one
black.

The brown one is Damian. You won’t see
him, he always stays in his keep and sends everyone else out to do
his dirty work.

The grey one is his second in command,
Rainen. She is a very powerful sorceress.

The black one is her son, Ream. He is
still young and his powers as a sorcerer are
undeveloped.”

“So what does it mean, then, that he
was here?”

Zane and Jasper looked at each other.
“If they sent Ream to supervise this little mission, it means that
they really wanted what they were after.” Jasper’s voice was
quiet.

I shivered even though the day was
starting to warm up.

Zane asked the next question. “You
yelled Phlann’s name when you woke up. Why?”

“The black wolf was coming at me and
Phlann pushed me out of the way. He was getting ripped to
shreds...” I whispered.

Shanus grumbled. “Serves him right for
falling asleep.”

My eyes widened and I glanced at
Phlann. He looked miserable.

Just then, one of the blue birds came
back. Both Zane and Jasper listened intently. They looked at each
other.

Dodge stomped his foot,
annoyed.

“Now you know how I feel,” I told
him.

Jasper crushed me to his chest and
kissed the bridge of my nose. “You are amazing, my love,” he
whispered in my ear.

“I’m glad you think so,” I grinned up
at him. “Now maybe you wouldn’t mind letting the rest of us know
why.”

“Our campsite was destroyed. There are
dog prints everywhere. And from what the animals have been telling
the birds, Ream is with the pack.” He leaned down and kissed me
softly. “Were it not for you, they would have gotten the better of
us.”

“If it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t be
in this situation in the first place.”

“Shush, now. You didn’t ask for
this.”

“It doesn’t matter. I can’t have you
guys getting killed just because of me. Maybe it’s best if we head
to see Queen Melana.” I looked around at all of them, hoping for a
little help deciding.

Phlann turned to me. “What do you think
we should do?”

I thought hard for a minute, but only
managed to give myself a head ache. They were all looking at
me.

“Could you guys give me a minute? All
this staring is making it hard to think.”

“May as well go find some breakfast.”
Zane shifted and bounded into the trees.

“Should I go as well?” inquired
Jasper.

“Of course not. You help me
think.”

“What would you like me to
do?”

I smiled up at him. “Just what you are
doing now.” I leaned my head against his chest. He pulled me closer
and set his chin on my head. I tried closing my eyes to focus, but
thinking about it didn’t help. I had no facts to base my decision
on, so I went with my gut feeling.

I looked up at him.

“So?”

“I still think we need to go to the
Wedelves.”

“How would you feel about the Wedelves
coming to you?”

I jumped at the voice coming from
behind me.

“Hey, Hayden,” sang a musical
voice.

Jasper stood, pulling me up with him. I
whirled around. “Tara!” My eyes widened and my mouth dropped. “Is
that you?”

She laughed. “Yes. It’s me.” She turned
in a little circle so I could get a look at her.

I slowly walked up to her and stared.
The eyes were the same caramel color they had always been. Her hair
was no different. But her skin...

“Holy shit! Your skin is green!” I
fought back the urge to poke her.

She laughed and waited for me to snap
out of my trance.

I looked her up and down, taking in all
the details. She was wearing light colored buckskin pants that
tucked into her calf high dark brown leather boots. Her shirt was a
cream colored tunic that fit snugly and stood out against the khaki
green color of her skin. She had on a belt that held a dagger and a
quiver full of arrows hanging next to a bow on her back.

“Wow. I don’t know what to say.” I
wasn’t lying. I was speechless.

She stepped forward and gave me a hug.
“Are you ok?” She took a step back and looked up at me.

I looked at her again and smiled. “Yes.
Yes, I am.” I laughed. “It’s a very good color for you. Makes your
eyes stand out!” I gave her another hug. “What are you doing
here?”

“Well, after you left I wasn’t sure if
you had just taken a road trip or actually come here, so I waited
for the blue birds to come and get me. I wasn’t doing very much
good guarding you over there, so I came as quickly as I
could.”

“First Dodge, now you! Who else comes
from here?”

Her caramel eyes laughed. “Just Ben.
Though he was never put on guardian duty. When I came home to
report some months ago, we ran into each other and found we were
fated. So he tags along when I’m there to watch over you. There
have been other Wedelven guards sent to watch you, but I’ve never
met them.” She grinned as Ben stepped out of the woods carrying a
bag.

“Hey there, Hayden.”

“Wow. This just keeps getting better.”
I smiled at them. Though Ben was just as transformed as Tara, I
wasn’t as shocked with the difference in a appearance this time
around.

Ben was wearing similar pants and boots
as Tara, though his were a bit darker. The only difference in his
attire was the fact that he wasn’t wearing a shirt which seemed to
magnify the fact that his skin was a golden brown with dark khaki
green stripping that blended into it.

As we ate bread and cheese for
breakfast I looked at them and noticed some differences in the way
they acted. The way they looked at each other was so much more
intense, more passionate then when they were at the arena. It was
almost as if one was always aware of where the other
was.

A breeze blew through the trees. I
stopped chewing.

“What?” asked Tara.

“Your ears are pointy!”

All three almost choked on their food.
Tara’s laugh was like bells. “Out of everything you just saw,
that’s the most shocking?” She was doubled over with
laughter.

I grinned and shook my head. “I guess
so.” My eyes narrowed with a thought. “Why do you look so different
here? How do you change how you look there?”

“Well we couldn’t be walking around
over there with pointy ears, now could we?” She snorted. “Though
people would probably notice the skin color a bit more. When we
cross over, an illusion takes over our looks so that we can blend
in. Ben looks a little taller than he really is, but I stay the
same height.”

It made sense. My eyes widened. “Do I
look different?”

She shook her head. “No. No pointy ears
for you.” She grinned.

“Hmm. So can everyone from here go
there?”

Jasper shook his head. “Only those with
a cross gem can go and only a few are chosen by the queen to have
one. I imagine the Majs have some.”

Tara pulled the chain from around her
neck and pulled out the stone that was hung on it from out of her
shirt.

“Your grandma’s necklace.” I remembered
the story she told me. The stone was about the size of my thumb
nail and a beautiful deep blue. In it were two lighter blue lines
that made the shape of a cross.