Spearwood Book One

by A. S. Oren

  Darkness seeps in from the corners of my eyes before my whole world turns black.

  Four years two months later: December 19th 2008 …

  Edgar paces in front of us. “With the first blizzard of the year coming today, it’s time for you four to start to learn resistance to the cold and how to survive if stranded. It is a necessary skill to have at Spearwood, especially during their survival challenges. You must prove to them you’re worthy of carrying on the Dragon shifter bloodlines. Avalon, this is the most important for you, being—”

  I roll my eyes and fold my arms over my chest. “The one true female, I know.”

  Edgar pauses in his pacing to face me and the boys. “That isn’t something to take lightly.”

  I sigh. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You’ve drilled that into my head a thousand times over the years. I’m eleven, not five anymore.”

  He folds his arms over his chest, too. “I don’t appreciate the attitude you’ve been giving me lately, Avalon.”

  I bite the inside of my cheek. I hold back the impulse to tell him he isn’t my Dad. Since the start of my first period a few days ago, I’ve had a really hard time controlling my temper. It just comes out, exactly how I remember my Dad being with his anger.

  Maverick runs a hand through his long, black hair with the white streak. “So what do we have to do for this training session?”

  Edgar frowns at me longer, before turning his attention to Maverick. “You four will be spendin’ a few hours in the single cabin by the lake. It has no heat. You will go out there without your winter clothes. You’ll be lucky if Spearwood allows you to have pyjamas durin’ some of their survival challenges. You have Avalon to create a fire, yes, but you’ll have to find kindlin’, and tryin’ to find that in the mountains where Spearwood is, is near impossible, unless they give it to you for one reason or another. So don’t depend on that.”

  He begins to pace again. “I’ll come get you after a few hours. You will do this every snowstorm, until you spend the night and then a day or longer. You must figure out how to survive.

  “The huntin’ skills I’ve been teachin’ you will come into play now. That’s one of the few graces they give you at Spearwood, wildlife to hunt, but you must know how to kill it, and cook it, yourself, or you’re dead. I saw a lot of young men fall victim to the hunger and the cold my first few years there.”

  Jericho frowns and raises his hand. “What are we supposed to do to entertain ourselves out there?”

  Edgar shrugs. “You’ll find ways to past the time. Tryin’ to keep yourselves alive should be enough. This isn’t meant to be fun.”

  I glance out the kitchen window. Thick snowflakes drift down to the ground. A fine layer already covers the grass out front.

  Paden steps forward, in front of us. “What about food or water? Can we take some with us?”

  Edgar tugs on his ponytail. “You know how to find food and water here. You won’t be locked in the cabin, you just have to brave the cold.”

  “Let’s just get this stupid training over with.” I go for the door, not even bothering to put on my shoes.

  “Avalon, I wasn’t done briefin’ you!” Edgar follows me out the door as I step onto the frozen ground.

  “You’ll come get us in a few hours. We have to stay at the wrecked cabin by the lake. It isn’t rocket science.” I walk off toward the trail that leads to the lake.

  After a few minutes, the boys catch up with me. Jericho places a hand on my shoulder; he flinches. He always says he feels a shock when he touches me. I’ve never felt it with him, but I do with Maverick and Paden. “What’s been up with you lately, Ava?”

  Maverick jogs ahead of me a little bit and runs backwards. “Yeah, you bite off Edgar’s head every chance you get.”

  I sigh and twist the ring Amr gave me years ago, it now rests on my pinkie finger, the only finger it’ll fit anymore. “I don’t know. I don’t do it on purpose, it just comes out. He’s been annoying me.”

  Paden walks at the same pace as me. “Is it because you started your period?”

  I shove him and my cheeks heat up. “Shut up!” They all know about it because I freaked out when I saw blood in my underwear. Edgar thought he had a few more years before he had to sit down and talk to us about sex and puberty.

  Paden rubs his arm. “Well, is that why?”

  “I don’t know. You bleed from your privates for days and see how you feel!” I pick up the pace, surpassing Maverick and jogging ahead of them. They just don’t get it. None of them do.

  Maverick keeps up with me. “It’s just a bodily function that girls have. Edgar said it was no big deal.”

  “For you guys, maybe. Not for me!” My whole face, down to the tops of my shoulders, burn with heat. Why do they have to keep talking about this?

  Jericho stops me by taking my hand. “Hey, we didn’t mean to make you mad.”

  I huff a long frosted breath. The snow falls faster, covering the path in front of us in white. “I know. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Just last week I was rational. Nothing could cause me to be angry without reason. Now, I don’t have any control. It’s so frustrating.” Hot tears threaten to fall. Now I’m crying in front of the guys? I hate this stupid period. I wipe away the tears before they can fall and tug my hand out of Jericho’s grasp. “Let’s just get to the cabin.”

  My bare feet fluff up the snow as I walk. I don’t think this test will even faze me. I spend most nights outside now that my dragon form is too big to be in the house.

  The lake comes into view; the snow landing on it creates ripples. It should have a thin coat of ice by tonight and be frozen over in a few days. Then, maybe we can go ice-skating for Christmas.

  Bending down, I start to pick up some medium sized pieces of wood. “We’re going to need a fire, if you guys are going to stay warm.”

  Paden reaches up and snaps a twig off a tree. “She’s right. Start finding wood.”

  Soon, all four of us have enough wood to feed a little fire for a while. We circle the lake and go to the small, lone cabin. I don’t know why Edgar never uses this place during season. Holes mar the side and roof. I guess we won’t have to worry about the fire’s smoke taking over the room. It’ll have enough room to breathe and burn.

  I open the door. Something’s eyes glint in the dark corner of the cabin. It growls before darting for a hole in the side of the wall. I lean over to the side to see what it was. A red fox rushes into the woods. My eyes widen. In all my time here, I’ve never seen any of the foxes Edgar talks about. If I had known it was in here, I would’ve never bothered it.

  I inch inside the dark cabin. I guess we’ll need the fire for light as well.

  Maverick pushes past me, into the room, and sets down his firewood. “What was that thing?”

  I toss my wood to the side of his pile. We don’t want to burn all the wood at once. “A fox, I think. I’ve never seen one outside of books and documentaries.”

  I crouch down to start sorting the wood in a way that will burn better.

  Jericho sighs. “Awe, I wish I would’ve seen it.”

  He puts his twigs on the second pile.

  I glance up at Paden, who’s the last one in the door. “Leave the door open. I need the light for just a bit longer.”

  He holds it with his back, while Maverick goes to help take the twigs and nearly dry pine needles from his arms.

  Jericho crouches across from me. “Can you please draw the water from the pine needles and wood?” I ask.

  He nods and holds out his cupped hands. A small stream of water trickles from the piles of wood and pine needles, up into his hands. He dumps it in one of the corners.

  I touch the pine needles. They’re as dry as they would be if we had found them in the middle of spring. “Thank you.”

  He glances over his shoulder and smiles at me. “Anything for you.”

  A tingle runs up my spine and I frown. That was odd. He’s never said anything like that before, why did I reac
t to it like that? That’s something that would happen with Maverick or Paden, not Jericho, right?

  I shake my head. “Mav, can you pull up some rocks, and Jer, can you help with the water again? We don’t want the rocks exploding like that one time.”

  Maverick puts his right hand out in front of him, points it at the ground and turns his palm over, forming a fist. Several large rocks rise from the ground to form a ring. He sighs. “I want to be able to do that without the hand motions one day, like Teacher Rook does.”

  Paden brushes off the snow that has piled on his head whilst holding the door and waiting for us to build the fire. “There’s nothing wrong with hand motions, they help us focus our magic in the right way.”

  Jericho grins. The water from the rocks is more than what he can hold in his hands so he stands and motions for the water to turn and trickle outside. “You’re just saying that because you have a crush on Miss Nezbit. She says that all the time during class.”

  Miss Nezbit is one of the trainers at the camp. She teaches general techniques. In the off-season, she home-schools us in the morning before Edgar trains us in the afternoons. She’s the only person in the world Edgar will let on and off the grounds with a special amulet he made.

  Paden folds his arms over his chest.“I do not! She’s just very smart and right.”

  I start piling the sticks in a tepee shape with some of the pine needles at the base. “I saw you writing her name in your notebook.”

  Paden huffs. “Shut up!”

  Jericho scratches his head. “I still don’t get it. If Avalon’s the one true female of the Dragon shifters, then how are there other female Dragon shifters who aren’t cursed, too?”

  I snap my fingers and light the tip of my index with a small flame. Putting it to the pine needles, they start to burn and the fire grows. Paden walks into the cabin and lets the door close behind him.

  “Those females weren’t born female, they became female through magic. Like our moms,” he motions to himself and then Maverick. “The curse doesn’t affect them because Miss Nezbit used to be a guy, too.”

  Jericho takes a seat next to me and places his hands over the growing fire. “That doesn’t seem fair. They became female, they should be cursed too.”

  Maverick sits on my other side and shrugs. “Well, tell that to the Shaman woman who cursed Avalon.”

  “She didn’t just curse me. I’m just the first female in seventeen-thousand years to have to deal with it.” I stare into the flames. Why do I have to be the only one left? Why didn’t I die like all the others?

  Jericho places a hand on my shoulder. He always seems to know when my mind goes to a darker place. “Is she still alive?”

  I shrug. “Only if she’s immortal. I read a book once that speculated she took the heart of a man while he was in dragon form and replaced her heart with it. Dragon hearts give immortality, but only if they are taken while the man is in full form.”

  Jericho nods. “I know. That’s why Slayers used to hunt us back in the day, so they could take our hearts and give them to kings.”

  Maverick smiles. “Good thing the Slayers died off over a century ago, isn’t it?”

  I sigh and stand. “We should go hunt a rabbit or something. Prove to Edgar we can take care of ourselves.”

  Paden motions to the fire. “Someone needs to stay here with the fire.”

  I nod. “You stay. Maverick, Jericho, and I are the stronger hunters.”

  He nods. Paden has always had a hard time with killing things. Which is surprising, because I’m the vegetarian. I’ll eat meat though in order to survive. I just hate every single, disgusting bite of it.

  Maverick opens the door. “We’ll be back in a jiff.”

  Jericho follows behind me. “What in the hell is a jiff?”

  Maverick shrugs. “I don’t know. They said it on that show the other night.”

  I roll my eyes. “It means a moment. Honestly, you two need to pick up a book more often than just for school work.”

  “But there’s no fun in that,” they both say at once. They look to each other.

  “Jinx! You owe me a Dr. Pepper!” They say in unison again.

  I step ahead of them. “You two are dorks. C’mon lets go find something to hunt.”

  After a while, we finally spot a small rabbit going down into a burrow. I nod to the other two. Jericho circles around the back of the burrow and I go to the side of it.

  Maverick stays at the front of the hole. He places his hands on the ground. I shift my arm into its dragon form—my skin cracks and falls away—my eyes water slightly from the pain. I’ve only just started trying this. I nod to Maverick again when my eyesight clears.

  The ground around the burrow shakes, before concaving and forming a pit. The rabbit moves to jump and I throw one of my pointed scales at it, hitting it in the head. It falls into the pit. I wince and shake my head. Its life won’t go to waste. Edgar has taught us to use every single thing the animal can give us.

  Jericho claps. “Good shot, Ava!”

  I motion to the pit and Maverick. “Raise the ground back up so we can get the rabbit out.”

  A tinge of red spreads across his cheeks. “I haven’t learned how to raise ground yet, just lower it.”

  I sigh, a long stream of frosted breath. I stare down into the pit. “Why did you have to make it so deep?” Jericho’s teeth chatter and Maverick’s nose is redder than Rudolph’s. I need to get them back to the warmth of the fire. Shifting my arm back never hurts. I sit on the edge of the pit and hop down.

  Grabbing the rabbit, I toss it up to Jericho, before trying to jump back out. Damn my short legs, I can’t even get close to the top of the hole.

  Maverick peers down at me. “Hang on!” He does a motion with his hand. I back up as the root of a tree snakes its way in from the side of the pit. “Grab onto it.”

  I grab a hold, not sure of what it will do. In one fluid motion, it sends me flying out of the pit. I scream as I land on top of Maverick. “Ow!”

  Maverick groans. “You’re heavy.”

  I sit up a bit and look down at him. “You’re the one that threw me!” Whilst staring into his ocean blue eyes, something inside me has an overwhelming urge to kiss him. Leaning back down, I chastely kiss him on the lips before I can chicken out. A shock sparks between us.

  “Woah,” we both say.

  He sits up on his elbows. “Let’s do that again.” His lips meet mine and he holds them there. A shock moves like a wave, stronger than any of the jolts I get when Paden and Maverick hug or touch me. All pain leaves my muscles. His lips move against mine, just like how we’ve seen people kiss on our shows.

  I haven’t felt this good since before the curse awoke in me.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  I pull back from the kiss. “What just happened?” I get the feeling everything just shifted.

  Maverick shakes his head. “I don’t know, but I liked it.”

  I smile. “So did I.”

  “Dude, you know the rule.” Jericho pops our bubble.

  I stand and help Maverick up.

  Maverick brushes off his jeans. “She kissed me first. I didn’t break the rule.”

  I take the rabbit from Jericho. “What rule?”

  Maverick shakes his head. “It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it, Lon.”

  I frown. “Whatever, we should get back.”

  Paden stands to greet us as I walk through the door of the cabin with the rabbit. He frowns when he sees Maverick and Jericho. “What’s wrong with you two?”

  Jericho takes a seat in front of the fire. “Maverick kissed Avalon.”

  Maverick kicks at the dirt with his shoe and keeps his eyes on the ground. “She kissed me first. I didn’t break the rule.”

  Jericho tosses a twig onto the fire. “You kissed her after she kissed you.”

  Paden looks to me. “Lon, did you really kiss him?”

  I put the rabbit away from the fire. It’ll be easier to dress it at hom
e. Edgar hasn’t taught us how to do it in the field yet. “Yes. Why is this such a big deal?”

  Paden folds his arms over his chest. “Edgar made us swear never to kiss you or anything else.”

  I frown. “When did he do that?”

  Maverick sighs. “When we first came to live here.”

  I twirl a strand of hair. “Well he didn’t have that talk with me. So stop worrying.”

  Jericho sighs. It’s as if I beat him in combat training or something. “But why did you kiss him?” His emerald eyes look into mine. I force my gaze to the ground. Why do I feel guilty?

  I clench my hands into fists and rub at my eyes. “I don’t know. It just happened. I wasn’t thinking about it. If I’d known it would get everyone upset, I wouldn’t have done it. Okay?” Pulling my hands away, I stare at each of them. Only Maverick meets my gaze.

  I huff. The wind howls outside. The holes in the roof are now covered by a dense snow. I hope it holds. “What do you want me to say? Sorry? I’ll say it, but it would be a lie.”

  Jericho sniffs and ruffles his red hair. “You shouldn’t say sorry for something you’re not sorry for.”

  The door to the cabin opens and Edgar steps in. “It’s been four hours. Time to go back. It will be dark in a few hours.”

  I pick up the rabbit and point a hand at the fire, drawing it into me and extinguishing it completely. Edgar’s already back out the door and going for the trail back home. I glance at each of them. “We’ll finish this talk during tomorrow’s training. It’s supposed to snow until Thursday. Don’t bring it up in front of Ed.”

  I jog to catch up with Edgar and show him the rabbit. “We caught it just a little while ago. It’s still warm. I figured it would be easier to dress it at home, since you haven’t taught us how to field dress it yet.”

  Edgar takes the rabbit and looks at it. “Good head shot. This will make a good stew for tomorrow.”

  Everyone sits around the dinner table playing with their meatloaf. I nudge around my mash potatoes and salad. “What is with you four? You’re actin’ like I took your TV time away.”