The Awakening

by Rochelle Southwick

  I continued my way up the canyon into the woods, sipping on my coffee as I went; not wanting it to spill. Mom had always warned me about this, now I had thoughts of coffee burns every time I drank it.

  The trees thickened as I got further and further into the woods. Mitch wouldn’t be happy if stray hikers caught us practicing our magic in the woods. By the time I finished my coffee, I decided I had gone far enough by vehicle. I pulled over, getting out of the truck I placed a protective spell over it and then began hiking by foot up through the trees.

  The morning passed quickly as I practiced different techniques, and even tried a few fresh ones.

  I had been working hard on my shape-shifting lately, shifting into insignificant things. I had started with small bugs and beetles. Then progressed bigger and bigger. A mouse, a ground squirrel, and today I successfully shifted into a grey cat.

  I shifted back, slightly out of breath from the amount of energy it took, I tried to keep my mind clear, fighting the inevitable headache. I sat on a fallen log and pulled a granola bar out of my pocket. It was slightly warm and gooier than it should be. I muttered a cooling spell under my breath before taking another bite.

  As I sat on the log recouping after my shift, with my eyes closed I took deep breaths. I heard something behind me, my eyes were open instantly. Leaping off the log, I looked toward the sounds. I could hear something, or someone, breathing. I quickly muttered a few more protective incantations over myself and then ambled towards the sound.

  What I found completely took my breath away, I didn’t know what to think or say. There behind some brush was a purple and black dragon. We hadn’t seen dragons in our world in over a hundred years. Trying to think back on all the things I had read and been taught about dragons. Nothing. I couldn’t remember anything about them when they were young. Dropping behind the bush, I took some deep quiet breaths. How was this even possible? Okay, I could do this, I peeked over the bush standing still; she was small, but possibly very dangerous. She wasn’t huge, maybe a foot tall, but I wasn’t getting closer to verify that.

  She didn’t seem to notice me, and if she did she didn’t care that I was there. I stood watching her for a fair amount of time. My breathing still slightly chaotic, and then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a mountain lion perched on a tree. It was eyeing us, its tail swishing back and forth. “Of course there is a mountain lion, why not? I’ll just add it to the list of insanity.” I thought to myself.

  I had only a moment to decide what I would do. I could cast a protection spell but unless I got closer to the dragon, I couldn’t protect us both given the distance between us. The dragon seemed young, oblivious to the dangers nearby. For the life of me I couldn’t remember anything about young dragons. Would she be fine? Could she take on a fully grown mountain lion and survive? I didn’t know.

  I saw the mountain lion’s muscles coil; it was coming. I leaped towards the dragon, muttering my protection spell as I went. I landed a foot away from it. My breathing was now haywire as I locked eyes with the dragon. Its golden irises dilated and I couldn’t tell if the look on its face was one of, ‘I will eat you’ or fear. An instant later the mountain lion ricocheted off the orb of the spell I had just cast.

  He shook himself off and growled at us. Pacing back and forth in front of my protective orb, I could see the irritation coming through. Swiping at the orb, he only became more and more frustrated. I could feel my energy depleting. How much longer can I hold this spell? My head pounded and I could feel my magic rushing off of me in waves. The cat took a few steps back, and then launched once again towards us. He bounced off the orb and then ran into the woods. I waited a few minutes, both the dragon and I watching where the enormous cat had run off. I dropped the spell and scooted away from the dragon.

  It looked towards me, it’s features now softer. It opened its mouth and made a slight cooing noise and inched towards me. I sat still, not knowing how to react. The dragon reached me and placed its nose on to my hand.

  “Thank you for saving me.” I heard a voice in my head say.

  My eyes were as wide as saucers. “You can talk?” I murmured.

  It pressed its head to me again. “Mind-speak is very common.” It said as though I should know this.

  The dragon left her nose on me, “My name is Zeeda.”

  “Bea,” I said, still trying to wrap my head around the situation at hand.

  “Are there others of my kind here? I’ve been looking, but I have found none.” Zeeda asked. I could sense her pain, and I knew what it felt like to lose an enormous part of you.

  “Oh, Zeeda. My kind hasn’t seen a Dragon in over one hundred years.”

  Zeeda looked confused, I could feel her emotions. Loneliness and sadness surrounded her.

  “I only hatched six moons ago, and here I am the only one of my kind.”

  “Six moons?” I thought for a moment and realized she meant six months. “You’re only a baby,” I said. She nodded, and I saw tears well in her eyes. “You aren’t alone, I will be here for you,” I told her. I knew it was an enormous commitment, but I didn’t care. She needed someone. I knew there wasn’t a way that I could physically take her home with me, but I would come here and see her. As often as I could.

  A spark of happiness came over Zeeda. She came closer to me and laid her head gently in my lap.

  I sat with Zeeda for several hours just comforting her, telling her about the world that we were in, before she decided it was time to stretch out. She stood, I could see the muscles in her body stretching and moving. She stretched her wings out, the purple, and black colors in her wings were beautiful. I could even see bits of blue as she maneuvered them. I reached out, drawn to them, but held back as I didn’t want to make Zeeda uncomfortable. She stretched her wing towards me and nodded. I placed my hand on them; they were leathery and smooth. Light refracted off of them in beautiful patterns. I withdrew my hand, expecting to find shimmer and glitter on them from her wings, but I didn’t.

  She pushed off the ground and rose to hover above me; she smiled down at me, and then took flight. She raced upwards, turning aerials and twisting and turning in the trees. She broke through the treetops and I could see that her scales were even shinier and more sparkly than before.

  I watched as she played and enjoyed her time in the sky. I felt the wind blow, and I soaked in the glorious sight before me. When Zeeda touched back down, we hiked together through the woods. It was peaceful and felt right to be walking with her.

  We came across a natural spring and Zeeda surprised me by diving in; I laughed as flecks of water showered over me. She played in the water for a while, swimming around and chasing water bugs.

  Taking a seat on the water's edge, I took off my boots and socks and dangled my feet into the icy water. I couldn’t keep my feet in for longer than five minutes before I had to take them out due to how cold it was. Rubbing my feet, I tried to get the circulation going again to warm them up.

  “Zeeda aren’t you cold?” I called out to her. She made her way back over to me, I reached towards her and she pressed her nose to my hand.

  “No, the water doesn’t make me cold.”

  I smiled down at her as the cool blue liquid lapped into her scales. She looked even deeper purple next to the water.

  As Zeeda swam around I practiced my magic, I felt stronger, more powerful with Zeeda nearby. Was it a coincidence or was there more to it?

  I worked on my shape-shifting a little more. Usually, Ana, our clan’s seer, would choose a field of study for each of us. That field was meant for us to master, we couldn’t usually master another field or even do much in the other fields.

  I, however, was different. They chose me to learn protective spells and enchantments. I shouldn’t be able to do things like shape-shifting, defensive spells, healing spells or anything of the sort, and yet I could. I hadn’t told the clan about this; I didn’t know what they would say, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

  With Zeeda
there, I felt even more capable of doing all of them. I focused my energy and performed the shape-shifting spell. I expected to bit hit with the early side effects of a migraine but I wasn’t.

  I felt my whiskers stretch out and could feel my paws. I had once again successfully shifted into a cat. I looked down at my paws. The grass and bugs next to them looked tiny. I cocked my head to the side and approached the water’s edge.

  Peering in, I saw a massive black jaguar looking back at me. I jumped, shocked, and tumbled into the water. I couldn’t feel the cold of the water through all the thick fur.

  Zeeda swam next to me and pressed her nose against mine. “Bea, is that you?” She asked in my mind. I could sense some worry in her words.

  Thinking back to how much magic I exerted protecting us from the mountain lion, I realized that I should have had an excruciating migraine at this point. I shouldn’t be able to even the simplest of spells. “Yes,” I said back. “I don’t know how, but I think you strengthen my magic.”

  Zeeda cocked her head to the side, her eyes wide with wonder. “Is that possible?” She asked.

  I shrugged my furry shoulders and then dove under the surface.

  We swam together for a while, splashing and diving. It was so much easier swimming and diving as the massive cat. Finally, we pulled ourselves out of the spring. I peered over the edge again to take in everything I could see.

  I was black as night, I could see muscles I knew belonged solely to this new cat form bulge and ripple under my wet fur. My eyes were perfect gold saucers, I couldn’t believe this was me. I opened my mouth and saw a row of sharp pointy teeth and a pink tongue.

  I never imagined that I could shape-shift like this, I was thinking more like a dog at the biggest. The bigger animal, the harder it was to focus your energy and keep yourself transformed.

  A butterfly darted next to me, transfixing me momentarily. I crouched down preparing myself to pounce, I could feel my tail twitch back and forth. I pounced lightly, coving the butterfly with my paws, careful not to crush it.

  Carefully, I peered into the space between my paws. The butterfly fluttered around for a moment and then fluttered out the opening.

  I thought about it for a moment; it had been over an hour and I wasn’t feeling tired at all. I felt light-headed, which was the first sign of a pending headache. I smiled at Zeeda, and then closed my eyes, shifting back.

  When it was time for me to leave the woods, I promised Zeeda I would be back tomorrow. Knowing it would be impossible for me to be away from her for too long. I promised her I would never leave her for long, Zeeda like more than a friend, she was family now.

  Zeeda became that thing I always needed but never knew it. With her by my side, I felt as though I could conquer anything, including the impossible task of finding my father.

  As the days passed, I was getting better and better at keeping my thoughts away from Zeeda while I was around the clan. I didn’t know how they would react to her. I didn’t want them to be too hasty with deciding about her future. I didn’t know if the clan would attempt to train her and use her as a weapon.

  I knew I would need to tell them at some point, but a dragon back in the valley was a tremendous deal.

  Three

  Mitch found me as soon as I made it back to town.

  “Hey Bea, I need you to come with me and Jake to find the pendant.”

  With all the chaos of finding Zeeda, I had completely forgotten about the pendant. My stomach churned as my mind flashed back to the woods with Salem laying there helpless. My palms started to sweat, and I forced myself to take a deep breath to relax myself.

  “Oh, right,” I said, shifting my thoughts. Jake was waiting for us in the town square. His black hair flopped over his eyes and even though it was summer, he wore a black hoodie, black long pants, and boots. His jawline was strong. He had a menacing look on his face; it was the one that he usually wore, I had only seen him smile a handful of times. Each time as unexpected as the next, each one sending butterflies into my stomach.

  We knew very little of his past, only that he came to us at random. Most of our group were descendants of those who were experienced in the ways of magical arts. We went back generations. Jake was different. He had moved to the valley a few years ago, as far as he knew no one in his family had magical abilities.

  We were hesitant to let him join us at first; he was quiet and different. Soon, though, he proved himself when he used his magic to help save Cassidy from the old gypsy on the mountain.

  I thought back to that night Cassidy had been taken from town square. It was the fourth of July, and the entire town, those with magic and those without, were all gathered together to watch the fireworks show. It was Cassidy’s brother John who noticed she was missing and told Mitch. The clan spread out looking for her; she was the daughter of a man in the House of Elders, so finding her was of the utmost importance.

  Step by step we were led to the old gypsy’s home in the woods far up Sharron Canyon. Jake was with the group that found her. He was also the one that jumped in front of a spell, a spell that knocked him down for months. Had that spell hit little Cassidy, it could have killed her. After that he was regaled a hero in the House of the Elders, even so the young ones hadn’t accepted him.

  The bell ringing in the town square brought my thoughts back to the present. I nodded to Jake as we approached; he was still quiet and distant, but he was more open than he had been before. He nodded back and then we all piled into Mitch’s SUV to drive as close as we could to the pendant.

  The ride was quiet. Mitch stared out the windshield, a strange ambiance about him. Jake had his headphones in blaring his music in the back seat. I could hear him tapping his fingers on the leather interior of the SUV. Crossing my arms over my chest, I tried to control my breathing as we got closer and closer to the pendant.

  I sighed, looking out the passenger side window thinking about nothing in particular, guarding my thoughts more than usual. I watched as the green blurred passed the window, keeping an eye out for anything strange that shouldn’t be there.

  The road began twisting and turning as we made our way further into the mountainous territory. The trees were thick, and the mountains steep.

  Just as the winding started making my stomach turn we pulled off onto a side road; it was dirt and gravel so it forced us to travel at a slower speed.

  We drove for about twenty minutes up the gravel road. Hitting a few potholes here and there as the road this far up wasn’t well maintained.

  Finally, we pulled off the dirt road into a camp spot. “From here, we go on foot.” Mitch said, I could hear the focus in his tone as he killed the engine.

  We got out of the vehicle and went around to the back. Mitch had backpacks packed and ready for us to take up just in case it took longer than expected.

  I pulled mine over my shoulders and felt the warm sensation ripple through me as someone placed a protection spell over me. I resisted a shudder as the spell covered me from head to toe. I assumed it was Mitch taking care of his people, but when I turned around to acknowledge him I noticed he was a few yards away not paying attention to us.

  I glanced at Jake, his facial expression didn’t change but I nodded at him all the same. He averted my eyes awkwardly and hiked his backpack over his shoulder.

  “All right. You two ready?” Mitch asked.

  I gave a brief nod, and Jake moved closer to Mitch.

  “Ok, let’s move out.” Mitch said taking the lead and walking towards the cave where I had sent the pendant.

  We still had about four miles to walk. It was much further than I had expected it to be. Or at least it felt further, I muttered a stamina spell under my breath and felt it take effect as my muscles loosened.

  “Let me know if you need anything,” Jake mumbled to me. It was the most he had said all day.

  “I will, thanks,” I replied. It was strange, the relationship he and I had. The other girls in the clan were convinced that he liked m
e. I, however, didn’t think so. I had never had someone like me that way before, and I didn’t think it would start now.

  He was always looking after me, but that was his job. He was a knight they were supposed to look after the others in the clan. The other girls claimed that he showed special attention and care with me, that he didn’t anywhere else. I didn’t believe that either.

  We continued on our way. I was behind Mitch who was at least six yards ahead of me and Jake was a few feet behind me. I couldn’t hear him, he was quiet and stealthy. Once in a while I would turn to make sure he was still there. It was out of habit at this point. With my dad disappearing, I was always looking out to make sure those around me stayed around me.

  “Let’s take a break here,” Mitch said after we had walked around a mile. “We don’t need to be worn out by the time we get there. You never know what you will find in the woods.” He said, eyeing the surrounding trees suspiciously. “Make sure you drink plenty of water while we break, we will continue in fifteen minutes.”

  I nodded, understanding that he wanted us to save our magic in case we ran into something. I felt a pang of guilt for using the stamina spell earlier.

  I nodded and pulled a granola bar and some water out of my pack. I broke it in half and placed the other half back in my bag. I drank a few gulps of water and then sat on a fallen log until Mitch started us up again.

  We continued on our way through the woods. This was the part of the woods where the wildest animals were. There were several wild animals that lived up here, wolves, bears, wildcats, and plenty of elk and deer. We knew we could protect ourselves, but most people couldn’t, not without a gun.

  We continued our trip through the woods and finally, after ten miles, we made it to the mouth of the cave. The cave was gigantic; it was large enough that I could drive my truck in with plenty of clearance on all sides.