by A E M
23
The Girl Learns Her Lessons
“Vincent!” David yelled out the door. He slammed it behind him.
“I don’t have time for this today!”
He found the boy throwing rocks into the creek.
David yanked him up, threw him over his shoulder, and stomped back to the cabin.
He deposited the boy on his bed and put a spell up around the room.
“I hate you!” Vincent yelled through the door.
“I’m not so fond of you right now, either!” David yelled back. “You inconsiderate, lazy, ill tempered, pain in the butt!”
Vincent stared up at the starry ceiling when he woke. He knew it must be morning, but there was no telling whether it was six or ten. The dwarf dens were magnificent, but he missed natural sunlight and the sounds of nature. Here under the mountain they were insulated from both the gentle breeze and the harsh wind. He stretched a little and looked at the sleeping child draped across his chest. How did she get there? She breathed slowly, but her face looked haunted. He stroked her forehead and hoped she would wake. She sleepily opened her eyes for a second, then yawned and closed them again. He shifted her slightly. “C’mon. I don’t know about you, but I need to stretch my bones.”
“I’m still sleepy, Maven.” She yawned and stretched.
“Hmmm. Five minutes.” He rolled her onto her sleeping bag.
“Fifteen?” She opened her eyes a little and giggled. “Please?”
“Ten.” He said firmly and stretched toward a nearby pile of books and snatched the top one. Dwarven Parenting. He sighed and dropped it. Portal Physics. Not right now. Didn’t the dwarves have any light literature? Finally he found a book of art from all of the dens across the United States. He turned on his side and flipped through it during the half an hour before Charlotte finally opened her eyes and stretched.
She scooted next to him. “Which den is this?”
“Rocky.”
“Haven’t you seen all of it?”
He propped his head in his hand. “I miss it. I spent some of my early days with David there.” He turned the page. “After things settled and I was behaving better anyway.”
She looked back down at the page quickly.
He ruffled her hair.
“Where will we live?”
“At the cabin. It’s mine now.” He flipped to the next page. “I’ll build a room and bathroom for you and Beau. It can be my wedding present.”
She sighed and put her head on her hands on the floor. “So now I really do have to invite you.” She mumbled to the ground.
Vincent laughed and mussed her hair again. “You don’t have to. I’ll build you the room anyway, you know.”
She looked at him then. “I really want us to be friends.”
“I know.”
“Why can’t we be when I get bigger again? Will you at least think about it?”
“I’ve already thought about it, and the answer is no.”
She flipped the page in the book and pouted.
He patted her back. “We’ll be friends later. Right now you need a teacher.”
“Promise?” She whispered.
“Promise.”
She sat up. “What am I supposed to wear today?”
He pushed down the urge to say what he really wanted to say. So far the morning had been going well. Were they really going to cross lines again over clothing? “I doubt your clothes from yesterday are dirty, but I can adjust your clothing down for you. I’m not the best at it, though.” Her relaxed facial features were replaced now with the ready for battle features he had seen so many times lately.
“I’ll wear this.” She shook her head at him and went into the bathroom. Vincent pulled his Quire out to check the news. Was he allowed to contact David at all? He needed advice. He flipped the screen off and settled back into the chair. They needed to stay hidden for two weeks. It was the perfect time to her to learn basic magic and more about the dwarves. And hopefully they could work the foundation of their relationship as master and apprentice out in that time. He folded his hands behind his head and leaned further back into the chair. He hadn’t said what he had wanted to say earlier, but his tone and the bond must have betrayed him. He cursed the fact that she had discovered the bond so early. Charlotte exited the bathroom and sat with a huff in the recliner across the room.
The words came out without thought. “I’d tell you that your face will get stuck like that if you keep it like that too long, but we both know you retain the look in later years.” He snapped at her.
She stuck her tongue out at him, and he snapped his fingers to freeze her face like that for a moment. He undid it quickly. “I won’t have you acting like this when we leave this room. You want to hate me tonight, go for it. But when we leave here you need to cut that out. Do you understand?”
She nodded.
He waved her over. “Let’s straighten your hair.” He sat her on the desk and took her braids out.
“Do you know what you are doing?”
“I’m going to try.” He started to brush her hair out. “I’ve braided dwarf hair before, so I know a few things.” She relaxed as he brushed her hair.
“I’m not use to taking care of somebody.” He admitted. He wasn’t sure if he was talking to her or himself.
“I know.” She said simply.
He tried to think of what he could say to her to help, but his mind was blank. Why wouldn’t the right words come? “I’m sorry.” He finally said when he had finished with her hair.
“About my hair?” She asked quietly as she stood to look in a mirror on the wall. “It looks good.”
“About the clothes.” He said.
“Why do you get so worked up about it?” She looked back at him. “You always dress well.”
“I don’t know. I react without thinking sometimes.” He confessed. “I wonder sometimes how many times David erased my memory and what else is there I don’t know about.”
“Obviously clothing issues.” She quipped.
He smiled. “Are we good again?”
She surprised him by hugging his neck and kissing his cheek.
“Hey, there, you.” He said as he set her down on the floor. “Don’t make me get used to you being a sweet, ornery kid. I may keep you this way.”
“You wouldn’t!” She stomped her foot. “I’m getting married soon!”
He laughed and held out his hand. “There’s the girl I know. You ready to go see what time it is?”
Charlotte froze. “I don’t want to go back out there.”
Vincent held his tongue. He grabbed a bag out of his briefcase and sat down on the floor. “Want some breakfast?” He held out an apple. She sat down by him and took a bite. They ate without words, but he probed the bond gently. Would she be up to learning today? Maybe the next two weeks they should just focus on being together and learning the dwarven culture by living it.
“I know this is hard, but we really don’t have a choice but to push through.” He said between bites of his own apple.
“I know, but I don’t want to.” She replied.
“I understand.” He tossed his apple core across the room. It landed in the trashcan. Charlotte tried the same, but hers missed.
“My arms are too short.” She grumbled. She picked the core up and tossed it into the trashcan.
“Or you throw like a girl.” Vincent said.
Charlotte smiled. She sat down next to him and picked up his hand. She looked down at the new ring on his finger. “Have you used this much yet?”
“I use it all the time, you just don’t notice.” He answered. “Actually, you do notice the not being able to speak part.” He teased.
Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Did you ever use one of these before?”
“Of course. I have another one I trained with. I’ll let you train with it when it’s your time.” He twirled the ring. “This one was a gift from David to symbolize the completion of my training.”
“If I stick around long enough to throw you through a window, will I get a new one at the end?” She teased back.
“You may like wands better.” He said after he finished laughing. “You’ll train with a wand first.”
“When will that be?” She asked.
“Once I can trust you with one.” He answered. “Once you can control yourself consistently.”
“You mean once I stop arguing with you all the time.”
“There is that.” He agreed. She still had hold of his hand. “I wish David and Beau were here.” She said. “I wish I were part of the fight.”
“Let’s go learn some magic so we can get you back out there, okay?”
She looked hesitant.
Vincent shuffled through his bag. “Wait, I have something for you that will help.” He pulled out a string of leather and tied it around her neck.
“Hmm.” She said. “Manly. Thanks.”
“It’s magic.” He whispered.
“I have magic. Why would I need a trinket?”
“Magic is. It’s not always what we create with our words.”
Charlotte ran her fingers over the leather necklace.
“It was your father’s. He gave it to your brother and your brother gave it to me. Now it’s yours.”
She gripped the necklace. “Thank you.”
“Mhmm.” He squeezed her hand.
“Ebby says that I can discover the fairy part of me alone. That it just is and that I need to trust myself with it. She said that fairies learn or die. Sounds great, doesn’t’ it?”
“We will have to work on that, then. Thanks for giving me the heads up.” He leaned closer and whispered. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“Point to you.” She looked over at the door. “So what’s our next step?”
He sat back up. “Well, I thought we’d do some sightseeing and some lessons until things settle down and we change back.”
“Do you think our doubles are going to stick around?” She asked.
“I don’t know.” He said. “It’s driving me crazy not knowing.”
“Me, too.”
“Let’s go learn some magic, then, eh?”
They left the den and walked along an old, narrow road toward a nearby town. It was a little colder here, and the humidity was different. Vincent watched as Charlotte skipped and ran along the side of the road. He wanted to call out to her to come walk with him, but he let it go. No, David had never let him skip to the side of him, but he could never recall wanting to. They found a small park off the road that looked like it wasn’t frequented much. At the back of the park was a fire pit near a stream. Perfect. At least this time if she burned something, she would have water nearby to put it out with.
“I want you to burn something.”
“You want me to lose control?”
“No, I want you to do it with control.” He corrected her. “I also want to see what you can do now that you don’t have that suit. We’re going to start this all brand new, like you just found out yesterday that you have magical powers because you accidently burned a piece of paper. Right now is our first lesson.”
“We can’t start over.” Charlotte crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“Of course we can. You and I can do whatever we put your mind to. So lets start small. Hold your hands out.”
He placed several dry leaves in her hands. “Burn them.”
“I can’t.” She stared at the leaves.
“Of course you can.” He got down on his knees in front of her and looked her in the eyes. “Pretend they are burning.”
“That’s it?” She asked. “Just pretend and it will happen?”
“Yes. And no.” He said. “It’s similar to what you do when you work on the mental exercises. Try saying ‘burn’ or ‘fire’.”
She stared down at the leaves and said burn. Nothing happened.
“Let’s try this a different way first.” He said. “Close your eyes. Now imagine them burning.”
She did and the leaves caught fire. She laughed and tossed the leaves onto the ground. Vincent held his tongue and waved his hand over them. The fire went out.
“I did it!” She yelled.
He put more leaves in her hands. “Do it again.”
She closed her eyes and did it again.
He put the fire out and put more leaves in her hand. “Again.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but Vincent stopped her with a look. “Today is about doing what I ask, when I ask. Remember, tonight you can talk to me all you want. Right now do your job.”
She lit them up again. He made her do it several more times.
“Now, do it with your eyes open.” He added.
“Again.” He said. She did it with her eyes open several times before he paused.
“Good, you’re doing great.” He said and looked around. He knelt at the fire pit and placed a pile of leaves in it. “Light this up.”
He had her make a fire of leaves in the pit a few more times, and then several times with twigs, and then with logs. It took her a dozen times to even get the logs going, and then she had to repeat it several more times.
“Can’t I take a break?” Charlotte sat down on the ground.
Vincent looked up. The sun was directly overhead. “Feel like a meal?” He asked as he looked back down at her. She looked exhausted.
“Yes.” She slumped over on the ground.
“You’re probably half starved by now.” He laughed at her pitiful fall. “C’mon. I’m in the mood for some dane food and we passed a small diner earlier.”
He fed her and listened to her chatter at the diner. On the way back to the park she walked beside him.
“Can I ask you some questions?”
“As long as they aren’t snarky ones while we are training.”
“You’re so mean.” She said as she tossed a stick into the trees.
“I’ve heard.” He nodded at her. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Why do I burn like I do?”
He looked around. Only the occasional car drove by. “Why can you do it just with your skin?”
“Right.” She said.
“I have a partial theory, but it’s just a theory. I am certain that the fairies gave you those clothes in order to kill you when you transformed, because they knew a lot of energy would be present. Why they meant to do Beau harm, too, I don’t know.” He stared up into the sky as if he expected to see Beau nearby. “We don’t know the full story, but my guess is that when they tried to kill you, they created inside you whatever it is that makes you burn.”
They walked silently for several minutes. Vincent let her mull over the idea he had presented until they reached the fire pit. “Alright, you ready for more?”
“What are we going to work on next?” She asked.
“Your weaver skills. This morning you were working through the fairy part of you.” He said. He filled the fire pit with leaves. “Now I want you to hold your hands out like I’ve shown you before. Let’s do this the long way.”
She held her hands out, palms facing up.
“I want you to relax, but focus. Feel the energy that’s inside you, and let it collect between your hands.”
The magic pooled out between her hands. Her arms shook. The magic was swirling around, darting out everywhere.
“Imagine a ball. Try to sooth it into a ball.” He instructed.
She tried, but it fought her and exploded out.
Vincent immediately released his own ball of magic that spread over hers like a blanket and held it together in the middle. He walked over to her. “Call it back. Open your palms.”
She did, and he pulled his magic off of hers and back to his hands. Her magic now looked like a ball. He waved his hands towards her. The ball floated over to her hands and floated above them.
“Pull it back in now.” He instructed.
“In, is that okay?” She stared at the ball of light.
“Of course it
is.” He said. “Trust me, remember? Just listen and do.”
She focused on the ball of magic. She gently tugged it toward her, but it bounced up in the air instead.
“Be firmer. It’s a part of you. Be confident.”
She pulled at it firmly, and it knocked her down when it went back into her hands.
Vincent helped her up. “Okay, now I want you to do it again. Make a ball of magic between your hands. Control it between your hands, and then pull it back in.”
It took her several times, but finally she was able to control it into a ball between her hands.
“Okay, good. Now I want that to happen several times in a row.”
She sighed and tried again. It didn’t work that time. She tried it again. It worked. Again and again she tried. Vincent kept her on task until she had done it successfully several times in a row.
“Good, let’s take a break.” He took a few steps around and stretched.
“Can I try things on my own during a break?” She asked, bouncing up and down in place. She wanted some space to do things on her own.
“No. It’s called a break.” He leaned against a tree and ran his hands through his hair. He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead.
“But I’d be the one doing it.” She argued.
Vincent shot her a warning glance. “But I would have to be alert in case something happens, so it’s not a break for me.” He waved her over. “C’mon. You look like you are about to leap out of your skin. Let’s go for a walk.”
“Race you!” She laughed and ran off into the trees.
“Wait, stop!” He yelled after her.
Charlotte ran through the trees, ducking and running in different directions. After all day of standing still and working on repetitive activities, her body was screaming for activity. And part of her was done with his constant demands. Sure, she was learning. She was glad they were working together well today, but when would it stop? Would this be how it was every day? Would it be this constant? Would he ever give her time to herself?
She heard him yell something, but she was too caught up in the moment to listen. She raced faster. She could use a few minutes of not having him around to constantly ask things of her. Don’t argue. Do this. Do that. She was ready to be an adult again. She raced downhill, jumping over logs and gaining more distance. She felt a tug on the bond and she pushed her frustration back toward him. She felt another, sharper tug on the bond. The force of it tipped her over enough that she lost her balance and she fell and rolled down the hillside. She threw her hands up to her face and continued to roll.