Clan Green Bear: Wizards of White Haven

by Frances Howitt

  Jared slowly and warily clambered to his feet, glad the vast lion seemed to have lost interest in him and be ignoring his presence. He stayed still to avoid drawing the beast’s attention while he tried to wrap his mind around what had happened. A whole team of experienced wizards were down in confrontation with this one man. The fact that Jim had held back from killing anyone, proved that he’d still retained some self-control within his lion persona. Jim hadn’t even needed to merge with his warrior wizard wife to obliterate them. Jared himself only lived because Amelie had intervened. She had a power no one else had over this leach. He had heard tales of the repercussions of going up against an angry leach, but had thought a wizard still in his early twenties would not yet be insurmountable. What would Jim be capable of in a few years time when he matured into his full strength? The thought terrified him. He had failed to capture the warrior wizard woman for their war effort and had not only failed to bring her man to heel, but had doubtless ruined any chance of his tolerating another approach. Today’s disaster had drained his most loyal experienced wizards into complete defencelessness. He would have to answer for putting them in such danger and had probably lost any trust they might have had in his judgement. Drained to the point of unconsciousness took weeks to fully recover from. He noticed the many faces still watching from the top of the wall. His defeat had clearly had quite an audience. He would not be able to keep it secret. How was he going to explain this?

  He watched the lions collect their happily gurgling baby and turn their backs on him as though he was no threat. Without so much as a single glance at him, they left, walking over the bridge and disappearing inside. The gates closed behind them with a resonant clang and he was left standing beaten and alone.

  ‘What have I done?’

  The End.

  Epilogue

  Uncontained sparks crackling around his supersized lion body were making Jim edgy and restless. Much as he wished to sleep, that would relax his guard and it was taking all his concentration to keep the bubbling power within him under control. He wistfully watched Amelie and Daisy as they slept. Amelie was exhausted from the night’s attack and he knew Daisy would be waking her for a feeding in another hour. She needed all the rest she could get; it would be selfish to disturb her when there was nothing she could do to help him.

  Jim needed to unwind from the battle, but it was critical he soon offloaded the ridiculous amount of strength energising his body. If he wasn’t careful he could easily cause an accident. This power was more than he could contain or handle and he knew he risked slipping out of control. Not sure what to do, he left the house and his risky proximity to his family and the sleeping students. He headed out into the grounds behind the school to put space between him and other people.

  A safer distance achieved, he aimlessly wandered, lost in thought. He replayed the evening’s events, aware of just how deadly that battle could have become if he’d lost complete control. He pondered, trying to make sense of Jared’s fanaticism. Had he had permission to capture Amelie or was he working on his own? Had Lord Aubrey known what Jared planned? Would he ever find out the whys?

  Noticing a small tug on his augmented senses where there should be nothing magical, he curiously turned to investigate the source. He tracked the faint magical signature, which quickly grew stronger and clear enough to encourage him to carry on, even through a thick tangled stand of trees. Entering a tiny clearing, he unexpectedly found a heap of jumbled stone marking the ruins of a small building. On closer examination, he realises that whatever used to be on this spot had, at one time, large flows of power running through it. What was retaining some power here now, he couldn’t tell however. Scanning the stone carefully, he discovered that whilst it appeared to have been deliberately smashed, all the pieces to rebuild it remained here. Curious and at the same time aware that building was the one thing safely guaranteed to soak up his excess power, he tentatively cast the spell to reinstate whatever structure used to be on this spot, not knowing what it might be.

  What materialises out of the settling dust is shocking and astounding. He has to sit down as its ramifications, and the possibilities it presents, course through his mind.

  ***