Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One'

by Chester, Mireille

  “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.

  “Well, it really wasn’t my grandmother’s.” She grinned at me.

  Ben pulled his out of his pocket to show me. It was the same as Tara’s.

  “I wonder why I can go back and forth without one.” I waited to see if they would explain it to me but the three of them shrugged.

  “It obviously has something to do with why you’re so special.” Tara smiled.

  I laughed. “I still think this might be a dream, you know.”

  Jasper put his arm around me. “I truly hope it isn’t.”

  Tara’s eyes widened as did her smile. “Leave it to Hayden to barely look at a man for twenty three years, then spend four days here and become fated to one of the most sought after bachelors on the guard.”

  I laughed at Jasper’s blush. “Most sought after, are you?”

  He shrugged.

  My heart did a flip in my chest. “Did you...I mean, do you have someone else?”

  His eyes widened. “Not for six years I haven’t. Not since I started dreaming of you.”

  “Beings here are a lot like the ones from where you came from,” explained Ben. “We get into relationships and such. But once you start to see the one you are fated to, the urge goes away until you find that one.”

  “Hmm. Interesting.” I leaned my head on Jasper’s shoulder. “And comforting. I don’t think I would win a fight against a big cat to win you.”

  He chuckled. “Now wouldn’t that be something to see.”

  The rest of the group slowly started coming back to camp and everyone was introduced.

  “So?” inquired Zane. “What’s the verdict?”

  I was a little shocked to find they were all looking at me. “You guys will go wherever I go? How did that happen?”

  Jasper took my hand. “Like Shanus said yesterday, it seems you have a way of drawing people to you. And after what happened last night, no one will doubt your judgment.”

  “Ok, then.” I was a little nervous. “I still think we need to go see the Wedelves. I’m sure there’s something or someone there I’m supposed to see or find.

  They all nodded.

  “What happened last night?” asked Ben.

  I saddled Dodge while Jasper gathered the blankets. “I’ll start at the beginning when we get moving,” he said.

  “Sounds good.”

  “So where’s the bridge?” asked Phlann.

  I laughed. “Like you can’t see the bridge!” Then I stopped. “Oh, now what?” I was getting a little tired of people looking at me like I had three heads.

  “Where do you see the bridge?” asked Jasper.

  I pointed a little way up the river to a beautiful wooden bridge.

  Zane’s eyes were wide. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

  Ben clarified the situation for me. “Only Wedelves can see the bridge. It keeps us from having to worry too much about intruders. We move it every so often so the location stays secret. There are a few out there, like Jasper, who know the location because we trust them. But for the most part, people try to brave the river to cross onto our land.”

  The way he said ‘try to’ made me shiver. I didn’t think many succeeded.

  I hopped onto Dodge and we started back on our journey, Tara and Ben leading the way. Dodge followed with Jasper at his head. He was catching them up on the events of the past four days.

  The forest on this side of the river was amazing. There were still some of the blue trees but the farther we got away from the river, there were less of them. In their stead were tall, slender trees with faded brown, almost white trunks. Their leaves were large, maybe the size of two of my hands, shaped almost like an aspen leaf and were a mesmerizing greenish silver in color. Every now and then I would catch a glimpse of what looked like big spruce trees, only these had red drooping flowers hanging from their branches instead of cones.

  I fought off the urge to sleep and my head snapped up as I started to slip out of the saddle.

  “Close your eyes, Shlova,” whispered Jasper in my ear. How he had got on behind me without my knowing was beyond me. He put his arms around me and I leaned back against him. It wasn’t long before I was asleep.

  *****

  “Hayden. We’re stopping for lunch.” Jasper gave me a squeeze and kissed the back of my neck.

  A shiver ran through me and I smiled. I reached back and ran my fingers through his hair.

  “Hello.” He murmured in my ear. “Did you have a good sleep?”

  I nodded and opened my eyes. “Whoa! What are those?”

  Standing not too far away from us were a couple of animals that resembled white tailed deer. The only difference was their size, they were taller, and the fact that their antlers curled back, more like mountain goat’s horns, the tines pointing out at dangerous angl
es.

  Tara laughed. “They’re deer.”

  I shook my head and blushed. “Yeah, ok. I can see that. What I mean is, do they talk, are they like Dodge?”

  She shook her head. “No. We ride these. Mine’s Peena and Ben’s is Goop.”

  I burst out laughing. “Goop?”

  Ben grinned. “Don’t make fun of Goop. You’ll hurt his feelings.” He patted the bigger of the two deer on the head. “Goop is Wedelven for strong.”

  I was still laughing. “I’m sure he his.”

  I walked over to Goop and Peena and let them sniff my hand.

  Goop blew out of his nose.

  “Do you use bridles?”

  Tara nodded and showed hers to me. “They’re like hackamores. No bits. And we use saddles. Deer don’t move anything like horses! You just can’t stay on without the stirrups.”

  “Hmm.” I was looking over Tara’s saddle. It was small, like a racing saddle. Just big enough to have something to attach the stirrups to.

  I turned to the sound of trotting coming towards us to my left.

  Shanus and Phlann were both carrying three rabbits each.

  Phlann stopped in front of me and bowed gracefully. “Dinner, my lady.” His eyes twinkled with amusement as he straightened.

  I held the edge of my imaginary dress and curtsied. “Thank you, my lord.”

  Shanus burst out laughing. “My lord, indeed.” He reached over and tussled his son’s hair. “Come along, my lord. You can help skin these.”

  Phlann flashed me a smile and followed his dad.

  I started to walk towards Zane and Jasper who were deep in conversation. Jasper looked up at his friend, his eyes wide and started to laugh, the sound floating over to me on the breeze. I smiled.

  I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. “Now what’s this?” I mumbled to myself and bent down. The this in question was hiding in a bush, only its bright green eyes visible. I sat on the ground in front of the bush, not quite facing it, and waited for curiosity to bring out whatever was in it.

  I looked over as a tiny pink nose sniffed at me. “Are you hungry?”

  I reached into my pocket and pulled out a bit of cheese I had put there after breakfast. “Here you go.”

  A tiny paw reached out of the bush for the cheese. I pulled the cheese away just a bit so that whatever it was would have to leave the bush to get it.

  “Oh! You’re beautiful,” I whispered to it. “You look just like a lemur. But tiny.”

  The little lemur look alike was all white with almost florescent green eyes. It couldn’t have been any bigger than a rat. It paused at the sound of my voice and looked up at me. Having decided I wasn’t much of a danger, it took a few more steps closer to me and reached for the cheese.

  “Here you go.” I gave it the cheese and smiled when it decided to stay beside me to eat it.

  I looked up and smiled at Jasper who was watching me. He made his way toward me, stopping when he was close enough to talk to me without scaring the tiny monkey.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “It’s called a tairat.”

  “A tairat. Is it a baby?”

  He shook his head. “No. That’s as big as they get.” He shifted his weight to his other foot and a branch snapped under him.

  The tairat jumped, ran up my arm, and burrowed itself in my hair, its long tail wrapping itself around my neck.

  Jasper came closer and laughed at the warning being chattered at him. “I think she’s decided your hers.”

  I smiled. “How can you tell she’s a girl.”

  “She’s all white. The males are white but have a dark brown stripe that runs from their nose to the end of their tail.”

  “What do they eat?”

  “Besides cheese?” He smiled. “Bugs and fruit, mostly.”

  The tairat relaxed its hold on my neck and peeked out from under my hair to sniff toward Jasper. He accommodated her by sitting beside me where she could reach over to smell him.

  I looked towards camp and leaned my head on his shoulder. Zane was standing by the fire, chatting with Shanus and Phlann while they all watched the rabbits cook. Tara and Ben were sitting on a rock talking about something that must have been humorous. Dodge had taken this rest time to find a patch of grass where he was busy enjoying his own lunch.

  “What are you thinking?” asked Jasper. He leaned his head against mine then pulled it away with a laugh when the tairat chittered at him.

  “I’m thinking that this is the best dream I’ve ever had.” I looked at him and smiled, reached back to remove the tairat from my hair so I could hold her away from Jasper, and closed my eyes as his lips met mine.

  The tairat chattered from her position on my arm. Jasper looked down at her. “She was mine first, you know.” He reached over and tried to pet the tiny head. He jerked his arm back as little teeth tried to sink into his finger. “You’re just going to have to learn how to share.”

  I laughed at the tiny growl. “Does she understand you?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “Now, Tiny, you’re going to have to get used to him. I have a feeling he plans on being around for a while.”

  Jasper smiled. “Tiny?”

  “Well, she is, isn’t she? It’s fitting.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe we can come up with something else after lunch.”

  I laughed. “Speaking of lunch, Tara is waving us over. Come on, Tiny. Let’s go find you a bit more cheese.”

  Jasper stood and took my hand. “To be replaced so soon, and by a tairat.” He grinned down at me.

  “I definitely won’t be replacing you any time soon.” I squeezed his hand. I tilted my head up to give him a kiss and pulled back at Tiny’s warning to him. “Maybe you should give her the next piece of cheese. This could get more than a little annoying if she decides to hate you forever.”

  He laughed. “Tara, is there any cheese left in the bag?”

  “Hmm hmm. How big of a piece do you want?”

  “Just a small one. It’s for Hayden’s new friend, here. I’m hoping this puts me in her good books.” He grinned.

  Tara handed him the cheese and peered around my shoulder to look at Tiny. The little tairat looked back at her with wide eyes but didn’t make a sound.

  Tara shook her head and smiled. “Only you, Hayden.”

  “What?” I laughed.

  “Leave it to you to find any creature that is willing to follow you home.”

  “Here you go, Tiny.” Jasper reached out the piece of cheese so that she had to stretch to take it from him.

  Her nose wiggled and her little tongue flicked toward it.

  “Come on, now. Take it nicely.”

  Tiny reached out and took the cheese with her hands.

  “There you go.” Jasper experimented by putting a hand on my shoulder and smiled when Tiny didn’t chatter at him.

  “Well, that’s a good start.” I grinned at him. “Let’s eat. I’m starving.”

  We all sat around the fire, eager to eat and get going again.

  When we were done, I saddled Dodge and watched as Tara and Ben saddled their deer.

  I put my hand on my shoulder and Tiny walked onto it. “Well, my girl. I think it’s probably best if you stay here. I have no idea where we are going or how long it will be. You should be in your natural habitat.” I grabbed a piece of cheese from the bag and walked back over to the bush where I had found her. I placed the cheese under the bush and gave the little tairat one last pet on the head before setting her down. She stood on her hind legs and looked at me with wide eyes. She chattered at me once, then turned her attention to my parting gift.

  I smiled at Jasper as I walked by him to get to Dodge. He glanced over to the bush and jogged to catch up to me.

  “Hang on a bit,” he said, his arm snaking around my waist. “There’s something I was wanting to do before you acquired your little guardian there.” He smiled and leaned down to kiss me softly, his tongue gently
finding mine. My head started to spin.

  “Hmm.” I sighed a bit in disappointment when the kiss ended.

  “We better get going. The others aren’t waiting for us.”

  I looked up and found that he was right. I grinned at him. “I wouldn’t mind a bit of privacy right now.” I reached up and brushed a couple of stray curls away from his eyes.

  Jasper closed his eyes and I traced the lines of his cheekbones and jaw with my finger.

  “Ow!” Jasper jumped back and grabbed the hand he had been resting on my arm. “You are evil!” He glared at Tiny.

  “Bad, Tiny. Bad!” I tried to discipline my protector without laughing. She cocked her head to one side, the proceeded to crawl the rest of the way up my arm to rest on my shoulder, her tail wrapped loosely around my neck.

  “Are you ok?” I took Jasper’s hand and inspected the four little drops of blood emerging on the end of his thumb.

  “No worries, Shlova. I’ve had much worse.” He scowled at the tairat.

  “Ok. Let me put her down again and we’d better leave so she stays.” I proceeded to break another piece of cheese off and put it under the bush with Tiny.

  I jogged away and made my way toward Dodge, who had come to see what was taking us so long. I put my foot in the stirrup and swung on. Jasper shifted.

  “Let’s catch up to them, Buddy.” I patted Dodge on the neck and he moved into a slow canter.

  *****

  By day number three in the Wedelven woods, the assortment of flora and fauna was even more diversified. Along with the silver trees and evergreens there were quite a few more bushes, all of them covered in beautiful flowers. There were also some smaller versions of the silver trees, but these had pink tinged leaves.

  I had also seen a snake with two tails, some florescent pink birds that looked like owls, and a little family of raccoon looking animals that Tara warned me to stay away from because they were venomous.

  We had just finished eating supper and were getting ready to make camp for the night when I heard a noise in the bushes behind me. I turned slowly, not sure who or what to expect.