a skyrim tale by bigtimeawesomeness

by bigtimeawsomeness

many years after the rage of the dragons, the son of the dragonborn is risen, and along with him, the grandson of the dragonborn, Joe'hon. p.s. I do not own the skyrim or elderscrols series, and this is my first fanfiction that I have been working on for the past two years so I could really use the feed back, and I will respond to any comments you guy leave. enjoy

"A Skyrim tale" by Peter Blanton

Chapter 1

IT WAS A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER. I remember we had all just woken up, and were all sitting at our table having breakfast. I remember my parents talking about the giants just down the road outside the city. They were worried that our small farm might be attacked by them, and kill the animals. I was just sitting in my chair without a care in the world, eating my soup, humming a happy little tune I hear the friendly priests down the road sing every day when the sun is highest in the sky.

That was the happiest moment of my life, and it was ruined moments later. All of a sudden, a loud explosion sounded from the front gate, people were screaming, yelling words that I couldn't understand. My father looked out the window, later on I understood the look on his face, pure horror. He ran to me and my mother and hustled us into the back of the house and ran to his weapons on the wall. Just as he grabbed his sword the door was broken down, and busted into splinters. My father charged the beings that entered the house, and started to cut them down, but there were too many. I saw the ends of blades coming out of his back. He fell to the floor, and my mother grabbed a shield and a knife, and charged at the beings who killed my father. Moments later, she lay motionless on the ground. Then the beings looked at me. I will never forget their eyes, they were lifeless, glowing bright blue, menacing and evil. They were thin, bone like, their skin was gray and pulled tight against their bones and muscles. Most were bare accept for loincloths, and some armor. Their teeth clattered like a stick against a moving wagon wheel, and a door squeaking open. They were all armed, with bows, swords, axes, and hammers. I was frozen, I couldn't move, I was cowering in the farthest corner. Then then they started closing in, coming closer to me, rising their swords to kill me, but I couldn't move. I was frozen, staring in to their bright blue eyes.

Then, suddenly, fire blasted thru my doorway, blanketing them burning them. They turned around and…..HE appeared. It was a boy. Not a man, but a boy, facing the beings, with a glowing sword in his right hand and a glowing smaller version of the same sword, a knife. He wore no armor, just a plain shirt and pants, he had leather shoes, and a necklace around his throat. And then I saw his eyes. They were pure black, yet seemed to glow somehow, like he had a candle in his head, blocked by the black.

He just stood there for a moment, daring them to attack him. And they did. They all screamed war cries, or I think they were war cries, and charged the boy. And he didn't move, he took a deep breath, and screamed a word. I didn't know this word, it sounded strange, another language, but not any I have been taught. And then the most amazing, yet terrifying, thing happened. FIRE, shot from his mouth and covered them, but missed her entirely. Some were struck down, others disintegrated entirely, and some were still standing and charging at him. Then, he attacked, and when he attacked, he was a blur, his movements were agile and swift and powerful, yet composed and expertly dealt. He struck and cut them down one by one, and one of them exploded in a wave of strange blue fire, covering the rest, the closest ones were incinerated and the rest started to flee, all of them burning in a blue flame. But they had barely enough time to take two steps before the all fell to the boys weapons. He stood among their remains, tall and powerful. I felt thankful, but I couldn't talk, I was still frozen sitting, cowering in the corner.

He seemed to slouch slightly as if a weight had been put on top of him. He looked around with a lost look on his face, when he saw the remains his face took on a look of anger, pride, and sorrow, and remembrance. And that was when he saw me, an 11 year old girl, staring at him with a look of horror and fear and shock. He stared back at her, a look of shock on his face. Then he blinked, and then started to approach her, slowly with his hands raised as if she had a bow draw on him. When he reached her, he kneeled down in front of her, and just stayed there for a few moments, looking into her terrified eyes. She looked in to his eyes and she saw something. There was a ring of silver in his pure black eyes, pure glowing silver in the place where his irises should be. I know they weren't there before, they just appeared. Then he did something surprising, he reached out with one hand and wiped away a tear that was sliding down my cheek, and I saw a silver tear sliding down his cheek as well. Then he did something that was both unexpected and surprising. He reached out and gently pulled me to his chest into an embrace. Then I started to cry. I cried over everything that had happened, I cried for my parents, I cried for my home, I cried out of pure terror that had frozen me. And I embraced him back, I pressed my face into his chest and cried into his shirt. He was warm, and strong, and comforting, and somehow familiar. He held me while I cried, gently stroking my hair, and humming a warm, comforting, and gently relaxing tone. I didn't know this boy, I didn't know who he was, where he came from, how he did what he did, I didn't even know his name, and yet he held me like he knew me, like I was the most precise thing in the world to him and it pained him greatly to see me in pain.

I cried and I cried and I cried. I don't know how long we sat there, how long he held me. I passed out after what seemed like forever, and my last memory of that day was that boy carrying me somewhere out of my house, to a building that seemed familiar to me, but I was too tired to think about where I was. He took me inside and I heard voices, they sounded surprised but he just walked past them without saying a word. He took me to a room and laid me on the bed, he knelt by the head of the bed, he took my hand and brushed my hair out of my face and behind my ear, he did that for a while until I couldn't hold on any longer. And I drifted in to unconsciousness.

Chapter 2

I WOKE IN THE MORNING in a very soft bed. I didn't open my eyes right away, I simply just lied there, reliving all the things that happened yesterday. I could feel the tears starting to form in my eyes, but I couldn't just lay here all day, I had to wake up and get moving. Before I opened my eyes I smelled something both unfamiliar and familiar, it smelled strong, like wood and grass, mixed with something sweet, it wasn't overpowering but comforting. When I opened my eyes I was facing the boy from yesterday, he was asleep and holding my hand, he looked so peaceful I didn't want to move. I studied his face for the first time, and I realized he was actually quite handsome. His skin looked soft and smooth, his hair was dark brown but so dark it looked black, his jaw looked strong, and while he was asleep he looked like an angel.

No matter what I tried I couldn't take my eyes off of him. His hand felt strong, yet soft and gentle. Then I realized where I was. I was in the temple down the road from my house, I didn't know where in the temple, but the priest type things were everywhere. Suddenly I realized where I've seen him before, he was always here, around the temple, helping the priests with whatever they needed, I saw him when my family went to worship, and in the market buying supplies for the temple. But I have never talked to him, I am very shy and don't like to talk to new people. But this boy, he brought me to the temple, laid me in what appeared to be his bed, and slept beside me holding my hand, with his legs on the ground and his head on the side of the bed. I want to ask him why he brought me here, and why he helped me. I didn't want to wake him, and I didn't need to because he suddenly opened his eyes and stared at me. For a moment his eyes were pure black, then his irises turned pure silver again, just like they did the day before. We just sat there. We stared at each other, for what seemed like forever, as thou time was frozen in this moment. Then he blinked, and we both broke out of our daze. He lifted his head up, and sat on his legs, then he shook his head. He realized he was still holding my hand and gently let go, and after a few awkward moments of tension, he gave me a sad smile. "How are you feeling?" That was the first words he said to me, and I was stunned again by his voice. His voice was deep yet soft, and gentle, not loud and booming like most boys. Then I focused, and realized that I was just looking at him like an idiot, and cleared my throat. "Tired." I said. His eyes sparkled in amusement, as if he had been waiting for years to hear my voice and found what I said to be extremely funny. "You should be after what happened." Then his eyes filled with sorrow, "I'm so sorry, for your loss. I would tell you that they were good people but I didn't know them, so I won't lie." His eyes dropped to the floor, "I know it won't seem real at first, but you should know that we have buried your parent's ashes, and we collected all that we could from your house before it burned down." He then knelt next to me again and took my hand. "I will help you in any way I can, whatever you need, I will be there." And I believed him. I spoke finally, "thank you." He looked shocked, he said "for what?" I said. "For saving me. For bringing me here, away from the fire. And for…" I could tell I was blushing. He realized what I meant and started blushing too.

He said, "I know that it was probably strange for you, but I know what I feels like. My parents were murdered in cold blood right in front of me by the same kind of beings that attacked you. The Drauger. Ancient dead bodies resurrected, for the purpose of killing everything in their path. Sometimes, necromancers raise the Drauger to attack places, or they protect the burial places." He looked me right in the eyes and said, "The only thing I wanted when they were killed, was a shoulder to cry on, someone to comfort me, but there was no one around so I cried, I screamed in to the sky, cursing the Drauger to the worst places I could think of. Then something clicked in side of me. And when I screamed into the sky again, I said words in a language I didn't even know, and power came from me, I caused fire to shoot out, a storm with lightning, a force of powerful wind, waves of ice. I passed out, and when I woke up I was I the middle of a crater half mile wide. I climbed out scared and afraid and ran to the closest city I could find, Whiterun, and I stayed here, I joined the priests here, praying every day to understand my power." he looked at me apologetically, and I realized I was crying, I felt so bad for him it felt like it was killing me. "I've never told anyone that story. No one knows of my powers, you are the first and only one. I know I have no right to ask you this, but can you keep that story between us?" he pleaded me with his eyes, and I couldn't bear to resist him. I said, "Of course I will. I owe you my life." He seemed to relax completely. "Thank you." Then he smiled, "do you feel well enough to get out of bed?" I said, "I think so."

He stood up and backed up so I could get up, when I stood I stumbled forward, he reached out and caught me. "Wow. Take it easy." He said. "Sorry." I said. My hand landed on his bicep and I couldn't help but notice that it was very much defined. "Sorry" I said again. He just smiled and said, "Its fine if you're a little weak or dizzy. I wouldn't blame you." His kindness touched me deeply. He steadied me and walked me to the door and before he opened it, he looked at me again, "What's your name?" I remembered that I never told him. "Clara" I said with a smile. He smiled back and I asked, "What's yours?" he looked me in the eyes and told me softly, "I am Joe'hon, and it is very nice to meet you Clara." He said with a smile.

Chapter 3

WHAT AM I DOING? I asked myself. First you intercept a group of Drauger as they are braking in to a house murdering a family and what do you do? You charge in like a fool and use a gift that you barely know how to control and use two of four of the only weapons dad left for you, to kill them. Then once they are all dead, you snap out of it. And then you found….HER…I just couldn't leave her there, I felt like something was pulling me toward her. I couldn't let her feel what I felt, I had to help her. So what do you do? You bring her into your arms and comfort her, singing her the song that mother used to sing me when I had nightmares or was scared, I let her cry all night, just sitting there like a fool. Then what do you do? You bring her to the temple so that she won't go to orphanage, and you held her hand and brushed her hair back, looking into her eyes I realized, she was beautiful, her eyes were bright green, her skin was a beautiful shade, white but tinted with a slight pink and very little red/brown, her face was graceful like an elf's but less pointed, slightly rounded at the cheek bones, and no pointy ears, her hair was golden, and her lips were perfectly balanced, she was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. And she had stolen his heart without even trying, and even thou he had just met her, he felt like he had known her his entire life. She was warm, and her skin was so soft, her cheeks still wet with tears. While I held her hand I felt alive, and strangely complete. And I knew I could never let anyone hurt her, I knew I would do anything for her, anything she asked of me I would not hesitate to do. And when she woke, I told her about her parents and her house, and I told her my story and pledged myself to her. Her name is Clara, and she is the girl who stole my heart.

As we walked out of my bedroom, I led her down the hall to the kitchen. "What would you like for breakfast?" I asked her. She looked at the food and said, "Anything I guess. I'm starving." Hmm. I thought. "How about some bread and toast with some eggs and milk?" I said. She smiled. "How did you know that was my favorite breakfast?" she said. "I didn't" I told her. "I just suggested my favorite." She just laughed and sat down as I made her breakfast. When I was done, I noticed some movement in the door way. "I'll be right back" I told her. She looked stunned and terrified, and he knew that he shouldn't leave her alone, but he had to check it out. He took her hand in his, "I promise, I won't go far, I will be right back." She seemed to relax a little bit. He smiled and went to the door and stepped outside. Once he closed the door behind him, the high priest grabbed him and took him out of hearing range of the kitchen. The high priest was an old man, he was 87 years old, but he was strong as an ox and as powerful as the high mage, he had gray hair and beard, and friendly old man eyes, but when it came to the rules of the temple he was quite strict, he forgave and let you go with a warning if you did something minor, but something major, he would punish you with anything from kitchen duty to graveyard preparations. He started, "What do you think you are doing?! You would bring someone in to this temple without permission from me? And you let them spend the night in the ancient chambers, no one but priests and volunteer priests in training may enter that area, much less sleep there! And you interrupted a ceremony! And on top of all that most of us including me were away taking care of that fire down the road! Where were you?! We raised you better than this, there is no excuses that you can make that will let you out of the trouble you are in! What do you have to say for yourself?!"

His look of absolute rage was enough to send most people running, especially whenever he is mad he starts to shoot off magic off his skin, sparks of lightning, licks of flames, and flaxes of snow. During his rant he shot off all three, which meant he was absolutely raging. And so I told him the story, "I am not sorry for my actions high priest, no matter how greave and horrible they may seem. If doing the most terrible wrongs is what I have to do to save a life then by the nine divines I will do so." The high priest looked absolutely stunned, he was confused by my wording and he was trying to understand but he didn't know enough so he asked, "Who was that person that you have brought in to this temple, and where were you before and after the fire?" I told him "HER name is Clara. Her parents are the ones whose ashes you buried last night. I was walking along the road when the Drauger attacked, they stormed into the house that burned last night, and I charged after them into the house, the parents were already dead, and they were advancing on their daughter, I uh did a few things to defeat them but apparently I missed one that hid, I went to the girl, she was terrified and had just watched her parents die, if you remember that's the same thing that happened to me but I was alone. I couldn't leave her. I comforted her and let her cry, then when she was too tired to cry anymore, I lifted her up and took her here to rest, after we left the Drauger lit everything on fire killing itself in the process, when we got here I took her to my room and held her hand till she fell asleep. When she woke up I brought her to the kitchen to get something to eat when you signaled me. And here we are now. Is that good enough for you? Because I take full responsibility for my actions and anything that you try to punish her for WILL be put on me, I also take full responsibility for the girl, she is now under my protection, and I pledged myself to her shortly after she woke. I would do anything for her, protect her from any force. Plus, I promised her that I would not leave her side, so if you try to get rid of her I will be forced to leave as well."

He was quiet for some time before the priest spook again. "You saved that young girl, against at least 50 Drauger and you are alive. You swore yourself to her, and you take full responsibility for all violations." He was quiet again. "Alright." He finally said. "She may stay. And no punishment will be leveled at either of you. But if she must stay, she will have to help around the temple, and she is to be taught by you how we do things here, teach her the rules, and her responsibilities, and expectations. She is yours to help and yours alone. We will work out a schedule for the both of you. But for now, you are dismissed, show her around and keep her in your sight until we can work out the schedule." I was stunned, even thou I knew I had a good excuse, it was still surprising that he is letting stay here at the temple. I bowed, "thank you high priest." He bowed back, and walked away. I was still a little stunned, but I walked back to the kitchen, to the girl who was now mine to care for.

Chapter 4

I TOOK A DEEP BREATH before I entered the kitchen, I was still a tiny bit stunned of the news that I was going to give her. I walked in the door, and when she saw me, her eyes and face seemed to relax drastically, and she smiled. I was stunned by her acceptance, most people are a little unsettled by my pure black eyes, but not her. I found myself smiling as well, "sorry about that." I said. Her smile lessened slightly, "it's alright. I probably caused a little bit of trouble for you, being here." She said. She blushed slightly and looked down. I sat down, "don't worry about it, I talked to the high priest of the temple and –""is he going to kick me out?" I looked at her horrified expression, and felt a pinch in my gut, I said quickly, "no, no," I took her hand to calm her down, "I would never let them kick you on to the streets." I forged a promise in my words, and she calmed down immediately. "Oh. Ok." Her voice was a little shaky, and she took a deep breath, "what did he say?" I smiled a little, "the high priest has forgiven both of us for the violations, and that's not even the best part." She looked at me expectantly, "what's the best part?" I gave it a few seconds, "he is allowing you to stay here." Her face lit up with the most beautiful smile that it took my breath away, she threw herself at me and hugged me, "thank you! Thank you so much!" I could hear that she was so relieved and so happy that she had tears of joy running down her cheeks. I hugged her back and waited for her to calm down, but I felt her happiness and it felt so good that I smiled just as brightly. She let go and laughed wiping away her tears, "sorry about that, but really, thank you." I smiled and said, "It's ok, I don't blame you for being happy about this. But there is a small catch." She looked at me again, I couldn't read her expression, "What is it?" I felt guilty for ruining her happy mood, but she has to know. "While you are here, I will have complete responsibility for you and your actions, it will be my job to help you, to teach you, train you. I will help you any way I can, and I will do it happily, but if something happens to you, it will be my fault, and I will take responsibility for it, I have to heal you, and help you." Then I smiled, "I will keep you safe, and comfortable, just do me a favor and don't blow anything up, or interrupt ceremonies. Ok?" she looked stunned, but then she smiled and said, "Deal."

Now the temple. How do I describe it? It's big, it's old, and it's beautiful. We walked around the temple, and I told her and showed her the absolutely amazing things that the temple has to offer. I showed her the gardens, the stables, the fields, the flower gardens, the worship huts, the guard tower, the spire, the ancient tree, and all the magic items that were around everywhere. She seemed very interested in everything, asking questions every so often about this and that. The temple was beautiful, but to me, it paled in comparison to her. In the sun light, her hair seemed to glow with beautiful golden light, her eyes shined like gems, and her skin seemed to glow. She is, without a doubt the most beautiful being in the world. By the time we were done, and I showed her how we do things in the temple, including the curfew, we went back to the kitchen for dinner. We found the priests and priestesses there too. I introduced her to everyone, and everyone seemed to like her, but they were uneasy around her, and they all offered her their condolences for her parent's death. That seemed to make her sad, and I couldn't blame her. I wouldn't want to be reminded of what happened to my parents at any time, and they might well, but still it stung to see her in pain.

We talked for hours with everyone, sharing stories about our adventures as travelers as priests, and there were some great stories, most of which people wouldn't believe. And then the high priest pulled us aside. "I wanted to formally welcome you to the temple, we have not had a long term guest in quite some time, and we all may take some time to get used to it, but we all welcome you, Clara, to the temple of the nine divines." He shook her hand. "I wanted to thank you as well, for giving me permission to stay, it means the world to me." She said. "You're very welcome." He said.

Chapter 5

THE TEMPLE IS BEAUTIFUL and all the people are very welcoming. But I want them to stop mentioning my parents. I want to forget them, I don't want the memory. The only person here who understands is Joe'hon. Joe'hon, he is absolutely amazing. He vouched for me, and convinced the high priest to let me stay, and he saved my life. Plus, it's nice to have someone to watch over me, I know I'm a mess, and he doesn't seem to mind, it seems that only makes him care and help more. I've been meaning to ask him about his eyes, about how his silver irises only seem to be there when he looks at me, but I haven't had a chance yet. Plus, he seems relaxed but carful around me, and I found that out when we turned in for the night, I found that the room had been split in half by some sort of sheet. Not that I don't appreciate the privacy, but it's just that I don't know what will happen if he takes his eyes off me. And what happened, neither of us was prepared for. But I think he might have known, I know he knew, because he told me.

It was late. So we turned in for the night, he let me have his large bed, which was big enough for two people, and he had a smaller one person bed. He went to his side of the sheet and his light shut off. I put my nightgown on, and climbed into the bed. I shut off the light and went to sleep. But I wasn't prepared for what happened next. It was the dreams, the dreams, they were horrible and so real. I dreamed that I was in my house, and the Drauger attacked again, but this time they had swords of fire, covered in blue flames. They attacked and I was so scared I couldn't move, the cut down my parents, worse than they did the first time. They charged me and started cutting me, and stabbing me, biting my arms, and I wouldn't die. No matter what they did, I wouldn't die, but the pain, the pain was so horrible I couldn't stand it. I scram. I scram louder and stronger than I ever have in my whole life, but the pain didn't stop.

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I woke up screaming, I couldn't open my eyes I was crying to hard, and I just couldn't bare the pain. Then out of the darkness, out of my worst nightmares, out of the greatest pain I have ever felt before in my life, a voice. A voice so smooth and comforting, yet filled with panic, and worry. And the voice was saying something, as the hand shook me lightly, "Clara! Clara! Clara, wake up! It's ok, you're safe!" and when I heard that, I believed it. I forced my eyes open, and in the darkness, I saw glowing silver eyes. At first, I was panicking, then I heard the voice again, "Clara, it's just me!" and at that moment, I felt a wave of comfort so strong that I couldn't help myself, I threw my arms around him, wanting to be closer to the comfort. I could tell he was surprised, but he wrapped his arms around me, and the feeling of his warm skin against mine was surprisingly comforting, stronger then the hugs my mother used to give to me. I was crying hard, and whimpering, but he didn't seem to mind, he just held me, stroking my hair and rocked me slightly and saying that it was alright, and that I was safe. And I felt so safe, and comforted, I don't know how this boy had such a big effect on me, and I didn't care. Then he started to sing. And the words were in another language, I knew that, but they felt….warm, and full of love and emotion. I started to calm down then, slowly but surely. And the feeling of his hand on my hair, the rocking of our bodies, the sounds of the song, and his heart against my head, steady and strong, was overwhelming, I didn't ever want to move again. But once the song ended, I couldn't help but to look up at him. He looked down at me, and his eyes irises shined with that magical silver.

I took a deep breath and let go of him. I sniffed and whipped my tears. "Thank you." I said. My voice was shaky and full of tears, but it was grateful, and slightly awed. His eyes were a little sad, full of worry. "Are you ok?" I knew he was worried, and a little panicked still, but I tried to give him a sad smile. "Yes, I ok now." I was still terrified but I had to reassure him that I was ok. "You scared me, I thought you were being attacked, and I rushed over, you were thrashing and screaming so loud, it was painful." I said, "I'm fine. Just a bad dream." He looked at me with so much emotion, "I'm sorry. When I sleep I still have nightmares about what happened to my parents, and they are worse then what actually happened. I should have warned you, but it completely slipped my mind. I am so eternally sorry." He was beating himself up, and I couldn't help it, "It's not your fault, I would have had them anyway. Nothing could have prepared me for that." He seemed to know then to argue. "Do you think you could sleep?" he asked. I felt a feeling of sear terror, I wouldn't sleep again, not when I know what I will see. "No, I tired but I couldn't go to sleep again knowing what is waiting for me when I close my eyes again." He could hear the terror in my voice, and then he looked away and started to think. While his head was turned, I realized something, he didn't have any clothes on except for a loincloth, and I couldn't help but look and his chest, it was strong and defined, and then I realized I didn't have anything on but my short nightgown. I felt a flush of embarrassment, and I could tell that I was blushing incredibly hard and I folded my arms over my chest. He looked at my expression, and I could tell that even in the dark, he could see my blush. "What is it?" he asked. "Um…." I said. And I looked down at his chest, and then back up to his eyes, trying to convey my meaning. He looked confused, then he looked down and seemed to realize that he was scarcely dressed, and then looked at me in my nightgown, and I felt a slight thrill run thru my body as he looked at my body, and then he realized what I might, and started to blush too. "Oh. That." We sat there awkwardly, staring into each other's eyes. Then the awkwardness broke and we both seemed to relax and laughed at the same time. He had an amazing laugh, deep yet gentle, like the wind over a meadow. When we stopped laughing, we waited for a few moments tell we could speak again.

"So do you think you could sleep again or not?" he said. I shook my head. And his expression softened. "Well try to sleep, I will be right over there if you need me." He started to walk away, but the terror started to come back at me, so I grabbed his hand and said, "Wait." He looked at me with some confusion. "What is it?" he said. "I can't sleep alone again, I can't bare it." And my voice had tears and panic woven in to it. And he heard it. "What would you like me to do?" he asked. I couldn't ask him the question, I just couldn't get the words to sound right in my mind. I got up out of the bed, still holding his hand, and brought him over to the other side of my bed, I made him lay down, and then walked over to the other side. I laid back down, but scooted back so my body was touching his. I could only imagine the look on his face, but I waited, I waited to see what he would do. And it surprised me when he put his arm under my head, and his other arm around my body and pulled me gently against him. Well I had my answer, so I flipped around in his arms so my back was facing away from him, and snuggled closer into his chest, my hands by my head, feeling his chest, feeling his heart beat against my hand, I put my head against my hands and listened to the steady beat of his heart. He wrapped his arms around me and we stayed there, and it wasn't awkward, it was comfortable. He started stroking my hair, and gently started singing that song again. I was so relaxed and comfortable that I before I slipped into a peaceful sleep, I said, "thank you Joe'hon. For everything."

Chapter 6

IN MY DREAM, I was still in my house, and the Drauger attacked just like my other dream and my parents were killed again and they charged me. But right then, they stopped, they looked at something behind me in rage and a hint of fear. I spun around and was face to face with a person in white glowing battle armor, and holding a glowing white sword and a staff made of the same material, but the staff had a kind of container cage at the end, inside was a glowing red symbol that I didn't recognize. But out of all that, the two spaces where the eyeholes for the helmet, which was a horrific design, a kind of beasts scull, with four horns, two on either side, the large one on top and the small one below it, were eyes of pure black. But when they looked at me, the irises turned pure silver. "Joe'hon." The only word I could say. And then the Drauger attacked, and when I turned around Joe'hon was already standing in front of me, guarding me from the Drauger. He shouted a word at the Drauger and they all were covered in flames, and then he attacked almost faster than my eyes could follow, he was a blur as he attacked, cutting them down with ease, and then he shot a wave of pure power from his staff and incinerated the rest of them. He then turned to me and his armor then melted away, turning into smoke and dissipating into the air. He walked towered me, and took me into his arms. Once he did that the entire dream shifted, I was in a meadow, with a stream right in front of us, and the sky was a beautiful blue, bright and clear. We were laying on a blanket next to the stream, we were holding hands, and he was brushing my hair out of my face, singing that soothing song he sung to me. My hand was on his cheek, and we were so close our foreheads were almost touching, but not quite. His eyes were soft, and black with silver irises. He looked at me like I was the most preaches thing in the world, and my heart just about melted on the spot. I wanted to move, to talk to him but I couldn't, I was frozen, but in a good way, my stomach was full of butterflies, my head was full fluff, and my heart was melting like ice-cream. I felt like I had a choice, I could move closer or I could move away. I couldn't think about what to do, and that was frustrating, but my focus was on Joe'hon, and Joe'hon alone. And then I realized something, something that felt like a bell that rang throughout my entire body. "I love him." I thought. And it felt so powerfully true that my entire being rang with truth. But then there was then, one thought, one occurrence that felt like it would free me or kill me. "But does he love you?" I thought. And my mind froze, but I pushed the thought aside. I decided I would enjoy my dream, enjoy Joe'hon and the peacefulness between us, but I was not going to let this take me over. But I still felt the urge that I had to make a choice right here. Move closer or move away. And as much as I wanted to move closer, I didn't want to complicate things between us, so I did what felt like the impossible. I moved away.

I woke up feeling more peaceful and rested and happy then I have all my life. I still felt the truth ringing inside me, and it felt so good, I had to see his face, and that feeling felt like the strongest thing in the world to me right now. But I didn't feel his arms around me anymore, and suddenly I felt cold, where is he? Then it hit me. He left me. And the feeling was so horrible I thought it would destroy me. I felt on the edge of tears, and the hurt almost crushed me. I opened my eyes and heard the only voice I wanted to hear. "Morning sleepy head." I looked up and walking into the room was the person I wanted more than anything to see. Joe'hon. He was dressed and his hair looked wet, his clothes were fresh and clean, and he was carrying a tray of food. My heart fluttered like a butterfly, when I saw him, and when he smiled at me, I just about melted inside. He set the tray on the table next to the bed and sat down on the side of the bed next to me. He took my hand, and my heart fluttered like a humming bird wings, and my skin felt electric where he touched me. "How are you feeling?" he asked. And for a moment I couldn't answer. He looked at me strangely then smirked and said, "Hello? Clara? Are you in there?" I blinked and said, "W-what did you say?" he smirked again. "I asked you how are you feeling?" I thought about it for a few seconds, "I feel better. In fact, I feel great, I feel better rested then I have in my entire life." I didn't mention that I felt like a hundred hummingbirds were buzzing around inside my chest and a million butterflies in my stomach. He smiled, "Me too. For some reason my nightmares didn't bother me tonight. How about you? Any nightmares?" I blushed slightly and said, at first it was the same dream as before, then when the charged me, they stopped, and you were standing right behind me, in some kind of glowing white armor with a sword and staff made of the same material, the staff had an oval sphere on the end with a glowing symbol inside of it. And then you killed them all. And then the armor went away and we ended up in a meadow and…." And I had to stop there, the rest was too embarrassing to say, and I was blushing like crazy, and I know he knew it. He smiled but it was a little guarded. "Are you sure you saw the armor? And the staff and sword?" I was stunned. "Y-yes I'm sure. Why? Do you know them?" He looked shaken. He released my hand and went over to his side of the room where the sheet had been taken down. He closed the door and locked it. Then walked over to the wall by the side of his bed, and pressed a panel on the wall that wasn't there a moment ago. The wall slid away, and inside was the armor, the sword and staff, plus the two weapons I saw him use to save me on the day the Drauger attacked. My mouth fell open when I saw what they really looked like, they were made of a strange material that looked like bone, and the symbol in the staff was glowing brighter than in my dream, the sword was sharper and fiercer looking, and on all of them was small words and symbols that were etched into them. I was shocked that they actually existed, and even more shocked that they actually belonged to him. I was beyond words, but I managed, "W-what are they made of? And where did you get them?" his look turned even sadder. "They are the only things that my dad left me before he died. And what they are made of? I haven't the slightest clue." Whoa, I thought. I sat there still stunned. And then he closed the door-wall, and came back over to me. He took my head again and the hummingbirds and butterflies were back again, even thou they never left. "So." He said as he was smirking at my expression, "What else did you dream about? You said we ended up in a meadow and then what?" I couldn't tell him that, I didn't want to complicate things between us. I gave him a sideways smirk, "nothing. Absolutely nothing."

Chapter 7

I KNEW SHE WAS LIEING. But I didn't want to push her too far. Honestly I didn't even want to show her the armor, but since I accidently was pulled into her dream, I still don't know how that happened, I had to defend us, but I drew the wrong dream weapons and the armor just seemed to appear, anyway I was going to ask her what was going on, but I wasn't in control of my dream body, I was just a spectator, like I was me, but I was stuck to a chair inside my scull and could only watch as my dream body did what it did in her dream. And then when I embraced her, we were pulled to the meadow, I knew that exact meadow, I knew the stream, I knew the hills and the birds and the grass. It was the meadow I went to as a small child and sat by the stream, listening to the water and the birds. But this was different, we were on the blanket, inches from touching foreheads, holding hands, and I was brushing her hair out of her face, and singing the song that was both a love song and a lullaby and a tiny bit of a spell. The spell is of calm, peace, comfort, and love. And her hand was on my cheek. But I don't know why we were here or why we were laying like this, but I couldn't take my eyes off her eyes, and I saw some kind of change in her eyes, I could feel the trembling but it was very subtle, she wouldn't know that I could feel it. She didn't even know I could see and feel everything and I couldn't even move. I saw a lot in her eyes, and the thing that hit me the most, the only thing that I was sure of, was that this was an ancient test dream. The priests of the temple who sleep here, when they begin the path and sleep their first night, they receive a dream, it is simple, you are given two options, something that is at the core of yourself, something that you need or want but don't know it, and the choice is made, every night that you sleep here, you are pretended with the two options. Option one: move forward, option two: move back. It's very straight forward, but it's the problem, it's what you want but also it's the thing you most don't want to admit, and this dream, she has her option, one: move away from me. But two, I don't even want to think about what number two is. But I have to; option two has something to do with me but I won't keep my hopes up. But what will she chose? I knew that she was about to chose, because she is showing signs of the truth, the real truth that she didn't even know. It was shining from every fiber of her being. And I had to know, will she or will she not choose to move forward. Just as I thought she was about to decide, I woke up. It wasn't like I had a choice, the dream is sacred and personal, it won't allow anyone but her know what her choice is. But as long as she struggles with the truth, or resists the thing that is her truth, she will continue to have the dream over and over again. I faced mine before she woke up the first time screaming. It was simple, but hard. And I still don't even know what the truth was, but it was difficult, I had a choice, join arms with a man in my father's armor, and he seemed familiar somehow but I couldn't put my finger on it, or I could go back, and join arms with myself. But the most difficult part was that the man spoke to me, "This is your birthright, but if you are ready, you may go, but know that every night you will be given the choice. There is no dishonor in waiting, but know that in years to come, you will be needed, and this right is the answer. You may be strong now, but there is more you can learn, I gave you what I knew, put I gave you power and skill, not the knowledge." He took off his helmet, and underneath was an elderly man, but there was something familiar, his hair was white with streaks of black, his face was rugged but aged. Then it hit me, his skin was the same color as mine, and the most important part, was his eyes. They were Black, pure black as night. He said one more thing before I woke up, "If you want the right, it is yours, your father didn't deserve the right, but you do. Just….be happy Joe'hon, that is all I want for you. Until next time, my grandson." And I woke up.

Now when I woke up, from her dream, I was stunned about it. Then I realized that I was still holding her. I wasn't sure about sleeping in the same bed with her, and it was a little strange for her to snuggle up to me while we were both in our night clothes, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to put my arms around her, so I stayed with her, holding her while she slept. It was comforting and comfortable for both of us and there was no talk about the holding at all when we woke up. I decided that I would go and wash in the fountain chamber. That's what I call my invention, since we didn't have much money in the temple for personal hygiene; I made the fountain chamber for cleaning myself without sitting in my own filth water. I heat the water with a little bit of magic, then I move it thru a pipe into a fountain head so that the weight of the water will come out with more pressure to wash away the filth, and down the hole in the bottom to the river to the ocean. It's a good place to think; the hot water sharpens my mind, and calms my nerves. I washed quickly, then got dressed in some new clothes and went to the kitchen to get Clara breakfast; I just got her the same as yesterday, put it on a tray and picked up some new clothes for her too. And when I got back, when I looked at her face and the absolute hurt in it, I had to do something, so I thought maybe a joke would cheer her up a little bit. And it worked a lot better than I thought it would, when she looked up at me, her face lit up with relief, comfort, and surprisingly, absolute joy. Over the next few minutes, I watch her carefully, I saw that she was very much distracted, but it might have been me, her dream, or some girl thing. She blushed a lot when she mentioned the meadow, and that made me a little blush worthy too, but I had to pretend that I didn't know what had happened, so I showed he the armor, and then asked her one more time what happened in the meadow, just to see what she if she would lie or make something up. But she said, "Nothing, absolutely nothing." With a sly little smile. "Ok then." I thought. Then she said, "Why is your hair wet?" And I almost burst out laughing. "First, eat, you will need your energy for later today, and once your done I will show you how I get clean around her." I said that last part with a wink. She covered her mouth and let out a little giggle, and blushed a little. I didn't get why she giggled or blushed, but it made me blush a little bit too. "Come on come on we don't have all day! We have to start the day soon or else the high priest will start to get impatient!" I went to my chest and collected my things for today and took extra ones for her. When she was done I took her down my privet hallway to the hidden fountain chamber. She looked at the thing with a look of curiosity and slight uneasiness, "How is this supposed to get any one clean? I don't see any water?" I laughed loud now, because it was funny and because back here was protected by magic like my room so no one could hear me no matter how loud I am. I could blow a hole in the wall and no one would be able to hear it. Plus both rooms were protected from people as well, so no one without permission from me can enter. "I'll show you how it works, first you have to use a little magic to start the fire to heat the water," I crawled under the tank and lit the fire, then crawled back out, "Next, you have to open the pipe way," I switched the pipe switch, "Then you use this lever here to control the hot or coldness of the water, and this lever releases the water from the fountain head above the chamber. The soap is here, and the soap for your hair is here, and that should be it." She looked in awe at the machine, "Did you make this?" I laughed at her expression, "Yes I did. It took a while to perfect but I got it working." Then she looked at the chamber and then at me, I looked at her curiously, "What?" She blushed slightly, "Are you going to stand there while I wash?" Then I got what she was saying, and blushed a lot, "No no no, I was just waiting for any other questions. But if there aren't any more, I will be leavening now. Just call out into the hall when you are done." I handed her the clothes I got for her, and walked out. I heard the water running for 10 minutes before she called me in. I walked in and honestly, she took my breath away. Her golden hair was wet, and she looked beautiful with the flush from the hot water, and her clothes were simple but beautiful. She is just amazing. She looked at me funny. "What?" I blinked. "What?" "Why are you looking at me like that?" I realized what she meant, and blushed and said, "Nothing." She blushed to and then asked a very strange question. "Why do your eyes turn silver?" I was shocked, what was she talking about? My eyes don't turn silver, they have been black me whole life, as far as I knew. I asked her, "What do you mean?" She looked confused, "your irises turn pure silver and the rest is black, but it seems like they only do that when you are looking at me." I was shocked, I didn't know that, how could I? "I-I don't know what you are talking about." I was starting to feel a little bit strange, but I didn't know why. "Ok then. Let me show you." She said. She walked over to me and took my hand, I felt a small electric current, running up my arm to my heart and head. She dragged me to the looking glass on the wall. She turned to me, "look." I hesitantly looked at my reflection, I looked the same as always, my eyes were the same, I was confused. I looked at her reflection and started to ask what she meant, but when I looked at her I saw something change in the glass, and when I looked at my eyes again, it was shocking. My eyes. What is that? I saw the same black filling my whole eyes as always, but right where my irises should be, was a ring of perfect pure silver, it was stunning how much it changed my appearance, I looked gentler, softer, and slightly longing. I stared at my eyes, but then the silver faded seconds after I looked away from her. "W-What was that?" I asked her. She looked a little bit curios just like I was. "I don't know. Maybe we could ask the high priest?" she said. "Hmmm…. I don't know, maybe the answer will reveal it's self in time." Then I shook out of my daze. "We are going to be late, I have to start my chores." I said. She looked a little disappointed, but she agreed with me. We ran out of the room and headed towered the stable, just another day in my life, but her being with me made all the difference.

Chapter 8

I LOVE WORKING AT THE TEMPLE. Most kids would hate working hard every day, but me? I love it. If I had to sit around all day and do almost nothing, it would drive me crazy. I liked to keep moving, all day every day, and I had no problem with any of the chores that the temple had me do. Since Clara didn't have any chores to do yet, I let her follow me around as I did my chores and duty's for the day. If I had to be honest with myself, I was showing off just a little bit for her, I don't know why, but I just felt the urge to impress her. I might have looked silly at times, doing things like collecting eggs, milking the cows, and accidentally dropping the bucket in to the well. But I didn't worry about it, every time I did something funny, it made her laugh, and that was worth it, she has the most beautiful laugh in the world, every time she laughed I felt like the sound melted my heart and muddled my brain, it sounded like sunlight itself was laughing and it gave it's laughter to her.

We were in the back of the temple, where the stables and horses are, and she sat on a stump, watching me as I shoveled the hay into the stables pens, to feed the horses. I had taken off my shirt because it was very hot and humid, and my muscles were flexing while I shoveled the hay over the gates. I could feel her eyes watching me, and it wasn't unconvertible but a little strange, I don't know why I found it strange, but it was. I snuck a peek at her, and caught her staring at my abs and chest, and I felt her staring at my back. I felt like staring right back at her, but that would make it unconvertible. So instead I asked her a question over my shoulder, "Have you ever chopped wood before?" I stopped for a moment as if to rest, and looked over at her while she was shaking her head to snap herself out of her gaze. She said, "I'm sorry. What was your question again?" I almost laughed, "I asked you if you have ever chopped wood before?" "Um. No, I can't say I have." She said. "Well." I said with a smile. "Would you like to learn how?" I got the satisfaction of her looking a little shocked. "Umm. Ok I guess?" She said. I smiled at her, then walked over to the stump she was sitting on and grabbed the axe that was next to her. I took her hand and helped her up. "OK, so the goal is to split the wood right in half with one hit." I handed her the axe. "Now, go ahead and try to split this piece here in one hit." I said. She looked at the axe and the wood with doubt, but she gripped the axe and tried a swing and missed the wood and almost took off her own leg, but I lunged forward and caught the axe before it did any damage. I smiled, "That was a good try, but you need to plant your feet, and hold the handle with one hand under the blade and one hand need the bend at the bottom." I went behind her and reached my arms around her, I gently guided her hands with my hands to where they should be, and helped get in to her stance, I helped her guide the axe over her shoulder and swung, guiding her top hand to the bottom of the handle and split the wood perfectly in half. I smiled at her, "See? Not so hard." She seemed a little flustered, and blushing slightly, and she seemed to lean in to me more than needed. I felt her heart beating faster than normal, and she was breathing slightly faster than normal. I seemed to be making her nerves, and I felt a small blush on my face at her reaction. "Um. Anyway, that's how you chop wood. You got it?" I asked, shaking out of my daze. She seemed to snap out of her daze as well, "Y-yeah, I got it, thank you." I blushed slightly, "Your welcome." And I let her go, and went back to shoveling the hay into the stables, with a grin on my face.

Chapter 9

I REALLY HOPE HE DIDN'T NOTICE. When he wrapped his arms around me, and gripped my hands, my heart started beating faster, I started blushing, and I felt a little dizzy and was leaning into him. Hopefully he didn't notice, please don't have noticed.

Anyway, the day went by too slow for me, for some reason I wanted it to be night already so I could have his arms around me again, and hold me close to his body again, and sing that beautiful song to me until I fall asleep. And then there was that other thing. The dream. It was the only time I got to be so close to him and have him all to myself without complicating things between us. I felt jumpy, I couldn't wait any longer, but I had to. At the end of the day, we both went to his bedroom and talked about our childhoods, for him, before and after, and me only before. It was so nice to listen to his voice, and to get to know him better, without making things strange. When it was time for bed, we put on our nightclothes for the night. I felt jittery when I saw him in only his loin cloth, exposing his chest and muscles, and I felt like running my hands over his body, tracing his muscles and feeling the strength and power in them. And I didn't mind undressing a little around him, not fully but still satisfying. I crawled into the bed and he came in from the other side, he scooted closer and my heart began to beat faster again, and when he put his arms around me and pulled me gently to him, I just about exploded in relief, it felt so good to be in his arms. We cuddled up to keep warm and pulled the blanket over us, and he stroked my hair and started to sing. I would never get tired of hearing his sing, but I did want to know where he learned it, so I said, "Can I ask one more question? Just one more for the night?" He chuckled a little bit, and it felt strange against my skin, but good. "Alright." He said. "Last one for the night." I felt nerves, I wanted to know but I didn't want him to think me getting too personal. "Um. What is that song you are singing? You have sung it to me many times, yet I don't know what it mean or where it's from?" I said. He looked a little surprised, and carful with his answer, "I learned the song from my parents, my mom really, she told me that my father taught it to her, and he learned it from my grandfather before he died. She told me that the song was powerful in many ways, it's ancient, and said to have been a song sung by a god. She told me that it the song that was both a love song and a lullaby and had a tiny bit of a spell woven into it. The spell is simple. It is of calm, of peace, of comfort, and Um, love." I could tell he was blushing a little when he told me that it was part love song, and love spell. And it sent a charge of electricity running up my spine when I heard it. "He has been singing me a love song?" I thought. But then I remembered the rest of the spell and song. A lullaby, and the spell also did calm, peace, and comfort. That dumbed my down a little bit, but it still felt great. I needed to say something, "Hmm… That's interesting. Who was your grandfather?" I asked sleepily. "Oh, um." He seemed relieved that that was what I wanted to know, not about the spell or the love song parts. "I never knew him. I heard he died a few months after I was born, and he chose my name. I was told he was a great warrior, he fought many battles and recovered a lot of ancient artifacts and weapons that were lost in time. I am told I have his eyes, my father never had his eyes for some reason. My father told me that the armor and weapons belonged to my grandfather, and that they were only meant for me. I never asked why." He sounded a little sad about his grandfather, I said "I'm sorry you never got to know him." He chuckled again, "its fine. I've wondered about him for forever, but I never knew any of his titles, so they couldn't tell me about him." He twisted a piece of my hair around his finger and twirled it around absentmindedly. It felt good, and I was too tired to pull away from him, or tell him to stop. So I laid there, comfortably in his embrace, and grew more tired as the minuets passed. Then he put his mouth close to my ear, his breath made me shiver, but not because it was cold, and he started to sing our song again, softly into my ear. And I felt so blissful I never wanted this moment to end, but it was so peaceful that I slowly drifted to sleep.

It was just as great, and romantic as the first time. We lay in the meadow on the blanket, holding hands, him brushing my hair out of my face, my hand efficiently placed against his cheek, staring into his absolutely amazing eyes, irises of silver, our foreheads so close yet not quite touching, he was singing our song, that absolutely beautiful song, sung with his amazing voice. I felt the same as last time, butterflies in my stomach, my head full of fluff, and my heart melting like ice-cream. But that was nothing to what I felt. I felt absolutely, unconditionally, in love with him, it felt like it was being sung from every corner of my soul, and it made me feel like I could fly away if he wasn't holding my hand right now. But I knew I couldn't love him. I couldn't complicate things between us. And on top of that, I don't even know if he loves ME! But I just can't help looking into his eyes and knowing that I love him, and not knowing if he loves me back. I felt the choices again, forward or back, be with him, or not. And I still couldn't move forward, this uncertainty, this feeling that he might not love me held me back. So it's time to look at the things he has done that might indicate that he has feeling for me. He walks with me everywhere, he holds my hands sometimes and doesn't seem too uncomfortable, and he has told me secrets that no one alive knows, and he holds me when I sleep to keep me safe from nightmares, and he looks at me in a way that no one else has, he seems to get nerves when we get close and he notices that I blush or notice something that he was doing while he wasn't thinking about it, and I think he loves to make me laugh and keep me happy. And on top of all of that, he sings me a song that is a lullaby and love song, mixed with a spell of calm and peace and comfort, but the spell also has love, and that shouts out to me the loudest. But I'm just making conclusions, out of coincidences. That's not proof that he loves me, he just protects me, and is kind towered me, and helps me, and….and…. and I don't know. I just did what I did last time and laid there staring into his eyes and thinking about what to do, at the same time as enjoying this dream as much as possible. I love him, that much I am certain about; the problem is that possibility that he doesn't love me. And that is what hurts me the most. So I move away.

When I woke up that morning I was still in the same spot and position as before and I thought that he had probably gotten up and gotten ready for the day and was waiting away from me again. It still hurts to think of him leaving me alone, even for a few moments, even if I am asleep and he is trying to help it still hurt. But the biggest surprise I got that moment when I opened my eyes was that I didn't see the wall, something was blocking my vision, and I realized that Joe'hon was still in the bed with me, holding me just as he had last night, and that is what shocked me, he had stayed. I looked up at his face, still relaxed with sleep, and then I put my ear to his chest and listened to the steady beat of his heart and breathing. It was so soothing and relaxing it felt almost as good as our song, but not quite. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tight, I wasn't sure why I was doing this, but it just felt right. And I stayed like that for few minutes, and then his arms wrapped around me as well, and that stunned me, but the feeling felt repressed, and the feeling of joy that he put his arms around me was bigger than it should have been. I felt him put his cheek on my head, and that was surprising. We stayed like that for a few minutes, but it felt like it should last for hours. Then he sighed, and looked down and I had to look up at his face as well, and it looked like it stunned both of us when we realized that our faces were so close that another 2 inches and we would be touching noses. We just stayed there and looked into each other's eyes for a long time. And then we snapped out of it at the same time and slowly released each other. And then he cleared his throat and said, "Morning." I replied, "Morning."

He turned away from me and slid out of bed and stretched his arms over his head, and I couldn't help but stare at his back, at his perfect flexing muscles. And then he walked around the bed and helped me out of the bed. He smiled, "We are going to be late if we don't hurry." I asked, "What time is it?" He said, "Just before sunrise. We have to hurry." We both rushed to get our clothes and went to the fountain chamber, to get clean. And I didn't know if we had time for both of us to get clean. He lit the heating, and turned the lever, he looked at me and then the chamber, "Hmm." He said rubbing his chin. "What?" I said. He looked a little embarrassed to have to suggest what he was thinking, but he managed to get it out, "We don't have time for both of us to wash. So, would you mind if I joined you?" I must have had a shocked expression on my face, because he quickly said putting his hands up, "Not like the way you think, I promise. I will use magic to make it so that we can't see each other. Is that all right with you?" I thought about it for a moment, "Ok, fine. We have to hurry up. So cast your spell so that we can get in already." He seemed hesitant, but then waved his hand in front of me and he disappeared, I was stunned, "J-Joe'hon?" I said weakly. He answered, "I'm here." And I felt my panic wash away. "Come on, get in." he said. And the water turned on by itself, that was a little spooky but it was just Joe'hon. I got in and grabbed one of the soaps. Before we were done, while I was washing my hair, I felt something touch my shoulder and I almost panicked until I realized that Joe'hon was still here, and I calmed down. When I was done I said, "OK. I'm done, how about you?" he replied, "Same here. Go ahead and get dressed so I can dispel us." "OK." I said. I got dressed and dried my hair as best I could, and then told him I was dressed. And then he appeared before me like a ghost, I was surprised where he was, a foot in front of me. "Hi." He said. I replied, "Hi." The next few hours were a little awkward, but after that we both just let it go and enjoyed each other's company.

Chapter 10

THE DAY WAS NICE, and we had to go shopping for the temple, so we went to the market together, and bought the supplies we needed. I walked past a stand that was selling jewelry, and something caught my eye. It was a simple silver ring, with a black diamond, with a small circle of silver in the middle, with a circle of black inside the silver circle. I stared at it for a long time, trying to connect it to why it seemed so familiar, and then Joe'hon walked over and when I looked at his eyes I realized what the ring and diamond reminded me of. It reminded me of his eyes when he looked at me. I looked at the diamond again, and Joe'hon seemed to notice it as well, and the shop keeper said, "Can I get anything for you, miss?" I looked at him, "No, I'm just looking." But then Joe'hon did something that shocked me. He said, "Actually sir, she would like that silver ring with the black diamond." The shop keeper looked at the boy as if he had just noticed he was there, and when the man looked into his eyes he looked stunned shocked and terrified all in the same second, and then the next second he looked calm again, like putting on a mask but the mask itched. "Yes young sir that will be 120 gold pieces." I was stunned at the amount, but Joe'hon looked unworried, he said, "That ring was 80 gold pieces when a woman asked you what it cost 4 days ago. I think the worth of that ring wouldn't go up in 4 days, much less 4 years." The shop keeper looked angry, "120 pieces. No less." Joe'hon looked at the man but the man wouldn't meet his eyes, I don't know why he was doing this, the temple gave us 40 pieces for the supplies, and we spent all of it on the supplies. Plus, why is he buying me a ring? Joe'hon stared at the man for a long time, them he reached into his boot and took out a small diamond, and it was very, very small, but it seemed to glow and sparkle white even in the shadow of the shop. "How about I sell this to you, and use the money you give me to pay for the ring? The diamond is rare, and is charged with a rare white deer soul, which increases its value tenfold, but I will make a deal with you for it. 860 gold pieces for the diamond, no less, no more. Deal?" He said all that with such authority that even I was having a hard time keeping my mouth from hanging open in surprise. He didn't look threatening to me, but with his intense black eyes and clenched jaw, he must have intimidated the shop keeper. The man looked at the diamond, and was so shocked his mouth hung open, he held out his hand and Joe'hon placed the diamond into the man's hand. The man then took it to a series of interments and seemed to be testing the diamonds worth, and the soul inside of it. While he did that, I was staring at Joe'hon in absolute awe and surprise, but he just watched the shop keeper with an unconcerned look. Then the shop keeper came back over with it and said, "This diamond is worth 1368 gold pieces. Something this valuable, most people would never separate with something this rare and valuable. So I will tell you what. I will pay full price for this diamond and throw in the ring for free, how about that?" Joe'hon seemed to think about that for a moment, rubbing his chin and closing his eyes, deep in thought. Then he opened his eyes and grinned, "Done deal." And shook the man's hand. The shop keeper looked relieved and very happy about getting to keep the diamond, and not at all worried about the money he was losing even when he was handing the money bag and ring into Joe'hon's hand. The boy just smiled and wished the man a day blessed by the nine divines. And we walked back out of the shop, and I looked at the boy next to me in shock and awe.

I didn't even think about the ring until that night, after our chores and dinner, and we walked into his bedroom. I turned to him and demanded, "How in the nine divines did you do that?" he looked stunned, "Um, I saw that you were admiring the ring, and I know that you don't have much left that belongs to, so Um. I didn't even think about it, it just sort of slipped out, and then I had to do something, I didn't want to look stupid, so I-"I interrupted him by throwing my arms around his neck and hugged him, "Thank you! Thank you so much!" I practically screamed it at him. He seemed so surprised that he didn't even move for a few seconds then wrapped his arms around me and said, "Your welcome." Then after a few minutes he said, "We better see if it fits, I don't want to have to return to him complaining about the size." He looked at me, with a smirk on his face, and took the beautiful ring out of his pocket and held my hand while he put it on my third finger of my right hand. He held it up into the light and I watched as the ring suddenly started to glow faintly, just like his eyes. I said, "It's beautiful. Thank you so much." He slid his fingers between mine and looked deeply into my eyes, "There is one more thing you should thank me for." I smiled, "And what would that be?" he grinned and turned the ring around, and on the bottom was a series of markings, they glowed faintly. I was confused, until he explained it to me, "The words mean, may the angles lead you to where your heart desires, I enchanted it to lead you to whatever you wish or whatever your heart desires. So if we get separated you can always find me, and where ever you are, as long as you are wearing this ring, I will be able to find you no matter where you are." He looked at me with a look in his eyes that I didn't even recognize, but they were soft and gentle, and for some reason I almost melted on the spot, and my heart just soared. He was still holding my hand, his fingers laced with mine. And in that moment, I was in love with him right now more than anything in my entire life put together.

Chapter 10

DAY AFTER DAY. Night after night, week after week, month after month. I have been at the temple with Joe'hon for a total of 6 years, and they have been the greatest years of my life. I turn 16 today, Joe'hon turned 16 three months ago. We have barely been away from each other at all during the past few years; we spent 3 hours apart every day in the morning when we are doing different chores in different parts of the temple then meet up for lunch, then 4 hours apart until we go for our daily run into the city for supplies, then 2 hours until we meet for dinner. Then comes my favorite part of everyday, we meet in his bedroom, and talk for an hour, then cuddle together in the same bed and he sings me to sleep, we have done this every day for 6 years and neither of us have ever gotten tired of it. I have grown to love Joe'hon so intensely that I have to use every effort I have not to ask him if he loves me too. I still haven't asked him after all these years, and I regret it. He has been there for me every day since we met, and has done some very amazing things, and he has grown larger and muscular, and very handsome, he has kind of messy hair, short yet not to short, he grew into his nose and ears, his jaw was stronger, but his eyes were still the same, but the silver glowed brighter than they did when we met. I guess I've grown too, but I've gained less muscle, I grew but I was still only up to his nose in height, and the girls around the temple have told me that I've grown very beautiful since I got here. My hair was golden, braided down my back to my hips, my nose and ears were no longer slightly too big, and my cheekbones are now more defined and my features were more elfish in beauty, but I didn't have the angular face and ears. My skin was only slightly hinted of golden tan, mixed with my complexion from when we met, and my body had grown into its curves.

Today started like any other day, when I woke up from my usual amazing dream, which had changed as the years went by, our dream self's aged right along with us and the ring that Joe'hon got me 6 years ago was there, but something was different about my dream last night, before I woke up, dream Joe'hon spoke the first real words out side of our song since the first night 6 years ago. He stopped singing and stopped moving my hair, his hand moved down my face to my chin and he said with a smile, "Happy birthday, Clara." And that's when I woke up, perfectly happy, and I felt absolutely perfect today, nothing could ruin this day for me. I opened my eyes to look at Joe'hon and I suddenly I realized, he wasn't there. I sat up quickly and my head rushed and I got so dizzy I fell out of the bed. But I didn't hit the floor; strong hands caught me and steadied me. And the first and only voice I wanted to hear came to me from heaven, "Whoa slow down there birthday girl, you're going to hurt yourself." I looked up at him, and I felt my heart, body, and mind just melt. Standing next to me, looking like a god in human form, was Joe'hon himself. His smile made me dizzy with relief and affection, and having his hands on me almost drove me crazy. I smiled and said, "You'd never let anything hurt me, even myself." "True." He said with a smile. He helped me up, and then let go, leaving me with that feeling of emptiness I always got whenever he touched me but let go. He smiled, "Well I have a surprise for you. We have the whole day to ourselves in the town, just you and me all day." I felt like exploding with happiness. "The whole day, with Joe'hon all to myself." I thought. I said, "That sounds great! Just give me a few minutes to get ready and then we can go. I can't wait!" I practically skipped to the fountain chamber, washed and dried and dressed, then skipped out to Joe'hon and he took my hand and we ran out of the temple. Today was going to be great.

We decided to just take a walk thru the market first, since it was such a nice day; most of the market shops and stands were open early and everyone was out early this morning as well. We walked thru the shops and looked at the inventory on the stands, pointing out things that reminded us of things, and laughed at some of the funny things that we had no clue what they were for. We talked about this and that, and sometimes he would take my hand to guide me thru the crowed and take me into shops, and that just made my day even better. But after a little while, I actually started to notice some of the girls and surprisingly some of the older women, looking at Joe'hon with a hunger in their eyes, and all the females in the town and market looked at him the same way, like they wanted him all to themselves to do what they wanted with him. That made me jealous, I knew Joe'hon was attractive, but it seemed like he was more attractive to them then I thought. And I noticed some of the boys and men looking at me the same way, hungry with desire. And the women looking at Joe'hon and the men looking at me, made me incredibly uncomfortable, and I didn't want them looking at me or Joe'hon. I noticed that Joe'hon was blissfully ignorant about all the females looking at him, but he seemed to notice the men looking at me. I tried to look like I was only commenting on something in the shop, and hooked his arm thru mine and pulled him down slightly and whispered into his ear, "They are staring at us. What should we do?" He smiled slightly and said in my ear, "Just ignore them, and follow me." With his arm still hooked thru mine, he gently guided me past the crowed, and onto a road that only had a few people in small groups wandering around their street. I was relieved until I noticed a group of girls about our age, look over at us, and started whispering, and I could tell they were talking about Joe'hon, so I did a little magic, a simple enhanced hearing spell, to listen what they were saying. One said, "Oh my thorn, who is that? He's gorgeous." She said like she was short of breath, another said, "I don't know, but I've seen him around town for the past few years, but he moves like a shadow, I barely caught a glimpse of him those few times." She said like he was a mystery she needed to solve, another said, "I don't know about that, but I've heard rumors about him, no one seems to know his name or where he came from, people say his eyes are pure black, like the black of night, and they say that he killed 50 Drauger in that attack about 6 years ago single handedly, and saved a young girl before they got her." She said that like she was trying to piece something together, another said, "I heard that too. About the attack, and the house that burned down, and that someone killed them after they had killed 16 guards, and single handedly defeated them, and saved a young girl whose parents had just been killed in front of her and was surrounded by the Drauger." She sounded like she was starting to notice something as well, another said, "Who is that girl next to him? I don't think I've seen her before, but she does kind of look like someone I knew when I was little, my mother and her mother made us play together all the time, but then around the time of that attack, I never saw her mother again, but I think I saw her daughter walking around the market, and out getting water from the town well and taking it somewhere." She said this with a slight revelation, like she had put a piece of the puzzle together, another said, "Wait. I think I know who that girl is." She said that excitingly, and all the others were looking at her waiting for her solution to the mystery, one said, "Well? Who is she?" The girl said, "I think she IS that girl. The one who survived the attack." The others looked at me, and connected the pieces. One said, "Where do you think they live? If her house burned down, and he just appeared?" The others seemed to contemplate that question, one said, "How about we follow them and see where they go? Maybe we can find out if they are together or not, and that means that he is single. But we can't be seen, or they will suspect someone is following them." The others all nodded in agreement, looking giddy and excited. And then I ended the spell. We walked past them, and turned the corner, but I could hear them following us because I knew they were. After a few streets and corners I started to get annoyed, and then I got an idea, of how to make them stop following after Joe'hon. I told Joe'hon, "Oh. I forgot something, you go ahead, and I'll catch up with you." He looked surprised, and even a little hurt, but he said, "Alright, I'll meet you at the guard tower down the street's left corner. Hurry back." He gave my hand a little squeeze, and then let go and walked around the corner.

I stood with my arms crossed inside the shadow of a doorway, waiting for them to catch up. I heard them coming maybe 10 feet from me, when I stepped out of the shadow and faced them head on with my arms crossed and a pissed look on my face. When they saw me they froze, probably in shock that I caught on to them. The leading one was gaping like a fish and said, "Uh." I held up my hand for her to shut up, and said, "Listen up! First things first, I know that you are following us, so don't bother denying it. Second, I know you are actually following him. Third…" I paused for a moment looking into their eyes, and then broke into a grin and said in a voice like one of the gossiping, "I don't blame you. He is gorgeous!" they looked stunned for a second, but then realized that I was just like them and broke into grins of their own. The crowded around me asking questions and gossiping about him and asking me if we were together. I said with a little squeal, "I don't know! But I'm totally head over heels for him, and I can't imagine not being with him today of all days! (And I said this next thing with and realized that it was true.) But I'm hoping that today I will finally get him to confess that he loves me the same way! Maybe he might kiss me?" Then they all calmed down in a second, and looked serious, one said, "What do you mean, "Finally get him to confess."?" I looked at them and made myself blush, and said, "Well I've known him for 6 years now, ever since he saved my life. We haven't spent one day without seeing each other for the past 6 years too. I fell for him the second night I spent at the temple and-"They interrupted me, "You both live at the temple?" I said, "Well yes. That's where he has lived for a long time before I got there, he brought me there and vouched for me to stay at the temple with him, and vouched that he would always be there for me and help me with anything I needed and protect me from any danger. But to make things even more complicated we um…" I started blushing terribly, no fakeness needed. They all said, "What did you two do?" I took a deep breath and spilled the beans, "Well, ever since the attack, I've been having nightmares about it, and it hurts so bad that I wake up screaming every time. And he makes me feel safe and calm, so we have slept in the same bed since the second night." They looked at me in shock, "Um. That is a little strange, but you guys sleep on opposite sides of the bed right?" I blushed again, and they said, "You do sleep on opposite side's right?" I blushed deeper and said, "No, we don't. He wraps his arms around me, and strokes my hair and sings a beautiful song. And no, we are both dressed in only our nightclothes, my short nightgown and he only has on his loincloth. And if that's not enough, he told me our song he sings me, it's a lullaby, a love song, and a spell of peace, calm, and comfort, and love. And he told me that it was passed down from a god to his grandfather to his father to him. Plus, every night, I have a dream about me and him in a meadow on a blanket, holding hands, he brushes my hair out of my face and sings our song, staring into my eyes, and I have a hand on his cheek, and our foreheads are almost touching, and I feel a choice. Move forward, toward him, or back, away from him. I can't complicate things between us, so I move back, but if he loves me to, I will move forward and be with him." They seemed shocked into silence. Finally they said, "Whoa." I sighed and said, "I know right?" Then one says, "Why do you think he will confess to you today? What's so special about today?" I looked at her sadly and said, "Today is my 16th birthday." And then they all gave their congratulations, and then said, "Well? What are you waiting for? Go get him! We won't follow you today, but you have to promise to give us all the details tomorrow! Promise!" I smiled and said, "I promise." And then they pushed me along and I ran toward Joe'hon. Hopefully I will get him to confess today, if not, then maybe tonight.

Chapter 11

TODAY WENT WELL. I got to spend the entire day with Clara, and it took every bit of effort I had not to get too close to her and whisper in her ear that I love her. I talked to her in her dream, for the first time I could actually control my dream self and put my had under her chin and said, "Happy birthday, Clara" And then woke up and started our day in the town, and then the townspeople started to stare at us, the men at her, and every woman at me. I wanted to punch the men right in the face just for looking at her that way. Then after we moved away from the market place, a group of girls started to follow us, and then Clara told me to go ahead of her, and I felt hurt that she even suggested separating, but I let her go, I knew she was going to ward off those girls but I let her think I didn't even notice they were there. I waited at the guard tower for 15 minutes, and during that time a female guard took notice of me, I knew that noticed me because when she looked down from the tower window, she gasped and hid, she then proceeded to sneak peeks at me, and called over some of the other female guards in the tower and they all started to talk about me, and my looks and body. I know that I've grown muscular and handsome, but getting all this attention from girls was starting to piss me off. And then Clara came around the corner and she took my breath away, the sun was shining on her long braided golden hair, making it shine beautifully, and her face had a smile with perfect teeth, beautiful full lips, defined cheek bones, and her skin was so beautiful in the sunlight, my head spun. She was perfect, and apparently every man and boy in the town has noticed, including the male guards that started to check her out on top of the wall. She walked up and said, "Hey! Sorry I took so long." I smiled, "its fine. By the way, if you look up the tower to the second window on the left you will see 6 female guards gaping at me like fish, and if you look farther up to the top of the wall on the left side of the tower you will see 8 male guards checking you out." She froze where she was and looked at the female guards and then the male guards, she smiled at me and said, "We never do anything, and yet the crowds can't seem to leave us alone." I laughed, and I could tell the female guards just about melted and fainted on the ground when they heard it, "True. What do you say we get out of here and do something fun." Her face lit up, "Just what I was thinking." She agreed.

We spent the entire day outside exploring the town and having a blast. And then the day ended, and we went back to the temple, we walked in the back entrance laughing at jokes we were telling. Today was amazing, and I couldn't imagine anyone else I'd rather have spent the day with then Clara. We went to the fountain chamber and washed and changed into our night clothes. Then walked back to my bedroom and she started toward our bed, but I caught her hand and turned her to face me, she looked surprised, "What is it?" I said, "There is one thing I need to give you." I pulled her closer to me and reached one hand to her eye lids and shut them. "No peeking." I said. She smiled and laughed, but kept her eyes closed. I silently moved to the secret wall closet, and removed one object from my chest under the armor. I walked back to her and stood behind her, I put the gift around her neck and clipped it into place. And put her in front of our looking glass, and said, "Ok. Open your eyes." She opened her eyes and I saw the absolute pleasure on her face when she saw the necklace. It had a silver chain, with a silver outlining holding the black diamond larger but identical to the one that I gave her 6 years ago. She looked like she was crying with joy. She reached up to touch the necklace, and said, "Oh. Thank you Joe'hon! It's beautiful, I love it!" then she spun around and threw her arms around my neck. "You're welcome." I said, with a huge smile. She looked at the necklace, and asked, "How much did you spend to buy this? It looks priceless." I smiled, "Don't worry about the cost, I would give everything I have in the world to make you happy." She smiled and blushed, and I heard a small giggle escape her, and that made my day. I smiled again, "One more thing, the necklace is enchanted just like your ring. But with one difference. All you have to do is touch the diamond to the palm of your hand and say my name as loud or as soft as you want, and I will be there, no matter where you are, no matter where I am, I will be there. And that is a promise." She looked like she was going to explode with tears of joy if she said anything, so when she opened her mouth, I put my fingers to her mouth and stopped her from saying anything and pulled her in to an embrace.

Chapter 12

WHEN SHE CALMED DOWN, we went to bed. And just like every night since we met, she pulled me into her dream. And I knew what to expect but she still stunned me with her closeness and beauty. And something was different about it this time, I couldn't tell what it was at first, but I realized that she was so radiant with some emotion that it practically glowed off of her. And this time I saw her choice and it stunned me so much, that I couldn't help but move with her, and meet her in the middle which seemed to stun her as well. She moved forward, she finally made her choice and I tried to figure out what it was she was choosing but I couldn't figure it out. She touched her forehead to mine, and the sound of a gong rang so loud and clear that it blew the grass and water back slightly away from us. And we woke up, when I opened my eyes I was almost glowing with my powers, but I didn't care. I looked down at her and she looked up at me, and in that moment, when I looked into those beautiful bright green eyes, every portion of my will power crumbled completely, and I did what I have wanted to do for years. I kissed her, I kissed her and I didn't care about how she felt about me, I didn't care at all about anything in the world except for her right in this moment. And the moment my lips touched hers, my powers released all at once, contained by the spells I placed around the room so they did no damage, but the lights and power flowed so freely that they charged the entire room. And at the same time, her powers shot off just like mine, but they were less powerful, and softening to my powers, combining in such a way that it looked like the northern lights, beautiful lights all around us. And the feeling that surged thru me, from my lips to my brain to my heart to everywhere, I felt charged with so much love and emotions that I couldn't care less if the world ended right now and completely ignored us. All I could feel or think was her, and she was kissing me back, and that released so much tension that I loosened like strings had been cut away after controlling me for my whole life. I felt free.

We kissed, and we kissed and we kissed. We kissed for so long that by the time we could even think about pulling away, it was morning and we had to get up soon. We pulled away from each other, feeling like we were floating on air, we opened our eyes and there were no words for what just happened. I managed out one word, "Wow." She said in a small said, "Wow." She agreed. Our powers started to fade, and I realized that my Magica was drained, I felt empty of power for a moment and then I felt my Magica coming back, but I didn't feel tired at all, in fact I felt energized, ready for the day. But I couldn't make my-self move, except for my arm, which I moved to put my hand on her face and brushed her hair back. I felt my magic alarm in my head that I casted to wake me up in the morning went off, and I sighed. She looked disappointed, "Time to get up?" She asked in a saddened tone. I nodded my head, and she let out a sad sigh of her own. Then she said, "Well I guess it's unavoidable that we have to get up." Then she put her hand on my face and said, "But we have duty's to the temple, and besides," She smiled mischievously, "We have all night." I laughed, and said, "That is true. And speaking of our duty, we need to get up now, or we are going to be late." She smiled a little sadly, but got up with me and we went to wash.

Chapter 13

I CAN'T BELEAVE IT. It started out as my dream as normal, but I felt different about Joe'hon now, I knew that I was going to make my choice tonight. When the dream started, we were on the blanket like usual, in the same position as usual. It was time, and I did what I knew was right and I moved forward, touched my forehead to his and then a sound like a gong blasted out from us, pushing the grass and water back. And then I woke up. I looked up at Joe'hon and I couldn't stand it, but before I could move, he kissed me. He kissed me and it was amazing, better than I could ever have imagined, my mind could only think about him, and the rest was mush. I felt currents of emotion running all thru my body, and my magic was shooting off of me, as was Joe'hon's magic shooting off of him, but his was far more powerful, and it intertwined with mine, making the most beautiful lights I have ever seen. This kiss was much more than anything I have ever experienced or felt. This kiss, sealed the rift between us, all the tension was thrown like cut strings. I felt free.

In the morning we were silent for a small time, and everywhere he touched me, sent currents threw my body. I indicated to him that we would have time tonight, and that we had to go. I was sad to have to get up, to be any distance from him, but we had duties and chores to do. We went to wash. Once we were in the fountain chamber, I felt so energized, that I couldn't wait for tonight. He went first, then I got in, and realized everything at once. He loved me. He loved me, and I felt so happy and free I couldn't stand not so smile, we had finally kissed and it was better than anything. When I got out, and dried off and got dressed, he came in looking like a god in human form, and I couldn't stand it. I walked up to him with a smile on my face and hugged him and he hugged me. I looked up and stood on my tipi-toes and kissed him, and something similar happened like last night, but different to. I felt the intense charge, and feelings, but the water in the tank started to bubble and the looking glass began to glow red hot. That just made me smile when I looked at it, and started to giggle like a little school girl in love. He smiled, and said, "Gods. You don't know how long I've waited to kiss you like this." That made me feel as giddy as a school girl, and giggled, "Then why haven't you done it sooner? I've been waiting for you to do that since I met you." He looked a little stunned, "I didn't do it sooner because I didn't know if you loved me too or not. I've been waiting for you to tell me or give me a sign." I laughed, "I didn't do anything because I was waiting for you to tell me or give me a sign. I guess we both wanted each other but held each other apart." He smiled, "I guess we did." And he kissed me again, and the looking glass exploded this time. We both started to laugh at that, we knew that was going to be our thing that we would have to deal with, every time we kissed, our magic would go wild and do something around us.

We left the room hand in hand, swinging our hands between us, happy as can be. And the priests and priestesses looked at us a little strangely, but they were used to us holding hands every once in a while, and it didn't bother them, what bothered them was why we were so happy. We reached our destination after breakfast, and sobered when we said good bye. "Don't miss me too much, we will see each other soon." He said with a sad smile. I smiled sadly too, "I won't be able to miss you enough, no matter how far we are from each other." He looked so sad about leaving me, sadder than usual, and that drove me. I looked around me to see if anyone was watching, I saw the girls around the corner peeking at us but that was unimportant, and kissed him. I'm sure they noticed the well next to us glowing gold for a few seconds, and I didn't care. When I pulled away I was light headed, and let out a small sigh. We went our separate ways, and I didn't care where I was going, I was just walking in a trance. When I turned the corner, the girls surrounded me and started squealing and jumping up and down and clapping, then the questions started. They asked for every detail and I told them everything, including what it felt like and the powers that swirled around us and the powers that go haywire every time we kiss. They absorbed every detail like it was water, and they kept asking questions, including the necklace he gave me last night. But I realized that, when one girl asked what his name was after keeping silent for a while, that I had never told them his name. I kept walking and ignored her, but she went ahead of me and stopped me. She said very sternly, demanding an answer, "What is his name again? I don't believe you every told us." The others seemed to realize that, and turned on me for the answer. But I just said, "I won't tell you that, if you want to know his name you will have to ask him yourself. And that's final." They were quiet for a while, then said, "A-ask him? Y-you want us to actually go up to him and ask him what his name is." I just nodded and kept walking. They just looked stunned, staring in disbelief, and one asked, "I don't think any of us could actually talk to him, he is just too…. Much." She said that like it explained everything, but I didn't get what see meant. Then I thought about what I would do if I was in their place, and then I think I got it. He was tall, handsome, strong, but he was also intimidating with being so big and strong and his eyes the color of the night, and he could wield a blade like no one's business, plus his magic was so strong that it radiated quietly off of him, and his aura of "no matter how bad you think you are, I can still kill you" was intimidating. Then I said, "Oh." And they all nodded. Then I thought about it and I was still uncomfortable telling anyone about him, even if it was only his name. But I just shook my head, "I'm sorry. But that information must come from him." They looked frustrated, but they let it go for now. We talked while I did my chores, and it helped distract me from thinking about Joe'hon too much. And then I noticed the men in the town, how they were looking at us, but most looked at me, with greed and longing and hunger in their eyes. I nudged the girl next to me, "They are looking at us. Why do they have that look in their eyes, like they are starving." The girls looked around and realized that I was right, "I don't know. But it's making me nervous." Another said, "They mostly seem to be looking at you. But why they are looking at us at all is nerve-rackingly a I don't know." That made me even more nervous, they noticed that they were looking at me too, and that wasn't good.

Chapter 14

We were going down the short cut down the alley way to the block but the biggest thing was that we were being followed. It was a man that was very tall and dressed in all black, I couldn't tell his age from where I was standing and I tried to ignore him and kept talking to my friends. But he was gaining on us and we all noticed him, but we just walked faster and went deeper into town. But when we thought we lost him, we hit a dead end. I turned around but there he was, standing in the alley way entrance. He came forward and I could read the look in his eyes, hunger and need, and they were trained on me. The girls noticed him too, and they all put themselves in front of me, the tallest on was at the front, she said, "Can we help you with something sir?" He just looked at her, looked up and down her body in a way that made all of our stomachs drop. He said in a voice that was deep and raspy, "Not from you girl, from her." And his eyes indicated the girl he meant, me. The tall girl was maybe three years older than me, about 19, and she seemed to know what he meant, even thou all the rest of us didn't. She said in a stern voice, "You can't have her. We won't let you." He just smiled and said, "You can't stop me." And he charged forward, knocking her down with his fists, and plowed through the rest of the girls, and grabbed my arm. I fought him, but he was just too strong, and the girls started to fight him to, hitting him with their fists and kicking him, but their blows didn't seem to affect him at all. He swung his arm around and hit them all down by blows to the face. Then he turned his attention back to me, and smiled and started to pull me closer to him, I fought him but I was hopelessly too weak, and he was to strong. Then I remembered what Joe'hon told me, "One more thing, the necklace is enchanted just like your ring. But with one difference. All you have to do is touch the diamond to the palm of your hand and say my name as loud or as soft as you want, and I will be there, no matter where you are, no matter where I am, I will be there. And that is a promise." I thought, "please Joe'hon." Then I threw my hand to my necklace and shouted, "JOE'HON!" and all of a sudden there was a flash of light and standing at the alley entrance, looking stunned, was Joe'hon. I shouted, "Joe'hon help!" and then he realized what was going on, he shouted, "HEY!" and the man turned toward the sound. When the man saw Joe'hon he seemed to grin, "Don't embarrass yourself boy! Turn around and walk away and forget you ever saw anything." He threw my down against the wall, and I felt the bone, muscle, and skin all break at the same time, and in the next second I was on the ground screaming in pain. The man drew two swords, both orcish blades, and put on full orcish armor, and grinned and said, "You want to be a hero? Come and get me!" the man obviously thought he could win, and thought Joe'hon as no threat to him. But when I looked at Joe'hon, the look of rage pure he wore and with a glowing red aura, I knew the man was going to find out the meaning of pain. The man didn't seem to see the aura, just the look of rage, and that was why he was taunting him. Then Joe'hon did something that I had no doubt would forever be burned into the man's mind. Joe'hon dawned on the armor from his secret wall closet, along with the white sword, and glowing gold sword from the first time we met. The man looked a little stunned at the weapons and armor but didn't back down, he just said, "Nice try boy! But I doubt you even know how to use those." Then the man attacked, and then Joe'hon was a blur, he charged forward and slashed his sword and the man barely had time to block the attack. The man was no longer smiling, he attacked Joe'hon with ferocity but every bit of ferocity that he attacked with, Joe'hon attacked with three times the force and ferocity, they danced in battle, terrible but graceful and I knew that Joe'hon was just taunting the man, he could have killed him in the first second of the battle. Then Joe'hon met the man's swords and stayed him there, the man grunted with the effort and said, "Who do you think you are boy?" and Joe'hon said with rage, "I am the grandson of the welder of Dawnbreaker!" And the man seemed to recognize the name, and something seemed too dawned on him. But then Joe'hon moved in a blur and cut off the man's arms in two clean cuts, and held his sword at his throat and said, "You should never have crossed me!" and with that, he cut the man's head clean off.

After the man was dead and Joe'hon banished his remains to oblivion, as was custom of the priests of the temple for the bodies of the wicked, his armor vanished and his swords vanished. He then ran to my side and knelt next to me, all the girls stood around him in awe, and when they looked at me, with concern. One knelt next to me and said, "Will she be alright?" and I noticed that Joe'hon's eyes were tearing silver tears down his cheeks, and I was crying from the pain, I was bleeding horribly. Joe'hon said, "She has four broken ribs, her shoulder is dislocated, her wrist is broken, her head is cut and bleeding badly, her right leg is broken in two places, and she is bleeding badly." I felt fear and panic and started hyperventilating, I was so scared, and in so much pain, I couldn't think straight. Then I felt a hand on my wrist, and a voice broke thru the pain, "Clara! Don't sleep, stay with me!" I said, "J-Joe'hon?" He said, "I'm here. Don't move." He gripped my head and put it against his chest, and cradled my body. And then he started sing. When he started to sing, all my fears started to fade away, the panic started to fade, and my breathing started to slow. My pain seemed to lessen, and I could only focus on his voice, his beautiful voice that has been my safe haven for 6 years, now it helped my again in my time of need to help me relax. I started to sing along with him, focusing on the words and not the pain, and I couldn't believe the sound of our voices singing together. I had never had time for singing, I hummed tones but that was it, and when I heard my own voice, it sounded alien to me and when I head us singing in unison, it sounded like an angel singing with the god of music, beautiful and rich, and light with the sound of our hearts singing to each other. We sang, and when our song ended I realized that I didn't feel any pain at all. I felt whole, untouched. When I looked up at his face, I found him looking down at me, with a smile and love in every fetcher of his face. I smiled at him, and I was about to kiss him, but then I remembered that we had an audience. I looked up at the rest of the girls that were staring at us open mouthed, and I cleared my throat and said, "Um. What are you guys staring at?" They seemed to snap out of it. One said in a breathless voice, "That was beautiful." Another said, "Is that the song you told us about?" I nodded, and they all became hyperaware that Joe'hon was still holding me, and that they were standing within inches of him, and that he had just saved all of their lives. One looked at him but couldn't seem to speak, she just said, "Um Uh." With her mouth hanging open. I squeezed Joe'hon's hand and looked pointing at them with my eyes. He snapped out of it and said, "Is everyone alright? Nobody is hurt?" he asked politely. Then one of the girls looked around her and she pointed and screamed in fear. Joe'hon was to his feet in an instant, and it was so fast that the girls all backed up into each other, I stood up and followed him. There were three girls on the ground, two were about my age, passed out, one had a cut on her head, and the other had an arm twisted in an odd angle. Bu the third was the oldest girl who tried to protect us, her neck was twisted at an odd angle, and her arm was broken, and her head was bleeding. Joe'hon rushed to the two girls first, and his hands glowed with golden light. Their wounds healed and arms went back into place and woke up, looking shocked that an absolutely gorgeous guy was kneeling over them asking if they were alright.

Chapter 15

WHEN HE WENT TO the third girl, and his hands glowed and her wounds healed, but she didn't wake up, Joe'hon looked panicked, and he put his hand on the skin on her chest right above her dress line, and his hand glowed blue with lightning, and the lightning lurched into her, and her body lurched up with the shock of the lightning, then she opened her eyes and must have felt his hand on her chest and panicked. Her hands flow up, and ice incased her fist but when before it hit him, he pulled back and lurched to his feet, she lurched to her feet as well, and charged him swinging her fists and kicking at him, but he ether blocked each attack or dodged them completely, then she summoned ice swords and slashed at him, he twirled with the grace of a wind spirit, dodging each attack. We stood back and watched the battle, both amused and worried. The girls started handing out bets, on who would win; I had some coins on me so I bet on Joe'hon. We started cheering for the people we bet on, and they could do that now because they all knew his name except for the girl he was fighting. Joe'hon then summoned swords of fire, and started sparing with her, crossing blades, blocking and slashing and stabbing, well, Joe'hon blocked and crossed blades, she slashed and stabbed, and then Joe'hon moved in a move so fast it stunned everyone, including the girl he was fighting, he disarmed her with two powerful strokes and ended up behind her, with his fire sword pressed against her neck. She froze in shock, the sword inches from her throat, waiting for Joe'hon to kill her. But Joe'hon just laughed in her ear and said, "That was good, but you should have kept your guard up on your left side, and watched your footing. And you should have made gloves so that you could keep your hold on your weapons. Plus you launched into your attack with an aim to my face instead of my chest. Try that next time." And then we just lost it, we burst out laughing and handed out our winnings. Joe'hon released his weapons, and they disappeared. She was still confused and she looked a little embarrassed, but then she turned around, and when she saw Joe'hon, I saw her eyes widened and she took him in, looking at him from top to bottom, and then blushed so deeply she looked like a tomato. She started stuttering, it was so funny to watch but I realized that she was stuttering because of Joe'hon and his obvious handsome gorgeousness, and I started to feel threatened that she might try to take him from me. Joe'hon just laughed at her expression and that just made her flush more, he said, "I'm sorry for doing that, but your heart had stopped beating, and I had to jump start it." She looked at the spot she had been laying on minutes before, and saw the blood, and then she looked at him and managed a stuttering, "Y-Y-you healed me?" He smiled and said, "I saved you. Oh, I'm being rude." He held out his hand to her and said, "I'm Joe'hon, I suspect Clara has told you a lot about me?" She seemed to realize who he was and looked stunned, she had joined our group on the way here, she had never seen Joe'hon before and only heard stories from me. She took his hand and shook it, "Thank you for saving our lives, we are all grateful." She seemed to tremble a little when she touched his hand, and that was crossing the line. I walked over to Joe'hon's side and took his arm in mine, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Joe'hon did I pull you out of doing your chores?" Joe'hon's eyes grew in fear, "Oh no. I'm so sorry but I've got to go, I will see you later." He leaned in and kissed me, and the glass window two stories up shattered and glass rained down on us. We laughed and he smiled at me as he ran toward the temple, faster than I've ever seen him run before. Then when the lightheaded feeling faded, I realized that all the girls were staring at me, including the girl in front of me, all wide mouthed with wide eyes. I look at them in confusion, "What?" I said. Then the girl in front of me asked me a question that was so obvious, she said, "That was him?" And I just laughed, "What do you think? Yes, that's him. Isn't he absolutely the best guy ever!?" She looked a little in awe, and said, "Not too bad looking ether, and with skills like that…." She seemed at a loss for words. I just looked at everyone else and said, "His name is Joe'hon, and if it wasn't obvious enough for you," I look at the 19 year old girl in front of me, ", he's mine." She looked a little disappointed at that, that he was taken, but she smiled as did the other girls and they all gave thanks to me to give to Joe'hon, then we parted ways and I started running to finish my chores. And I couldn't wait to get back to him. No matter how small of time that might be.

Chapter 16

THAT WAS STRANGE. My rounds started like they did every day, I went to the stables to feed the horse, then I started to head to the wood chopping stump when I sensed a pull of magic at my being and the word, "Joe'hon!" and I knew that Clara was summoning me to her, but I didn't know why. So when I appeared at the entrance I was trying to get my Barings. Then I heard Clara yell at me, "Joe'hon help!" and I saw what the problem was, she was being attached by a large man in black, so I shouted, "HEY!" to get the man's attention and the man turned toward the sound. When the man saw me he grinned, "Don't embarrass yourself boy! Turn around and walk away and forget you ever saw anything." When I didn't move He threw Clara down against the wall, and I heard some of her bones break, and in the next second she was on the ground screaming in pain. Then the man drew two swords, both orcish blades, and put on full orcish armor, and grinned and said, "You want to be a hero? Come and get me!" the man obviously thought he could win, and thought I was no threat to him. But when I looked at Clara, broken and bleeding on the ground crying out in pain, the feeling of rage pure I felt made me know that the man who had hurt her was going to find out the meaning of pain. Then dawned on the armor from my secret wall closet, along with my white sword, and my glowing gold sword from the first time me and Clara met. The man looked a little stunned at my weapons and armor but he didn't back down, he just said, "Nice try boy! But I doubt you even know how to use those." Then I charged him and fought with him letting him think that he had a chance to beat me, but I got tired of that and when I met the man's swords and stayed him there, the man grunted with the effort and said, "Who do you think you are boy?" my rage spoke out of nowhere, "I am the grandson of the welder of Dawnbreaker!" And the man seemed to recognize the name, and something seemed too dawned on him. But I moved in a blur and cut off the man's arms in two clean cuts, and held my sword at his throat and said, "You should never have crossed me!" and with that, I cut the man's head clean off. I banished the body to oblivion, and then ran to Clara's side, kneeling beside her. One of the girls she was with asked me, "Is she going to be alright?" and I checked her injuries with magic, and the result almost killed me, her tears made me tear as well, "She has four broken ribs, her shoulder is dislocated, her wrist is broken, her head is cut and bleeding badly, her right leg is broken in two places, and she is bleeding badly." I struggled to say all of that, she started to shutter, and I yelled, "Clara! Don't sleep, stay with me!" She said, "J-Joe'hon?" I said, "I'm here. Don't move." I gripped her head and put it against my chest, and cradled her body. And then I started sing our song, to dull her pain and calm her down, but also to keep me from collapsing and bursting into tears. And after a few seconds in to the song, she started to sing it along with me, and the effect I felt was amazing. I instantly felt calmer, my panic disappearing, and her singing voice was surprising, she sounded like an angel of the gods. It sounded beautiful, our voices singing our song together. By the end of our song, my powers had taken effect and she was fully healed. I looked down at her face and she looked up at me with a smile that just about melted my heart, I wanted to kiss her but we had an audience, she said, "Um. What are you guys staring at?" One said in a breathless voice, "That was beautiful." Another said, "Is that the song you told us about?" She nodded, (I will have to ask her about that later) and it seemed that they all became hyperaware that I was still holding Clara, and that they were standing within inches of me, and that I had just saved all of their lives. One looked at me but couldn't seem to speak, she just said, "Um Uh." With her mouth hanging open. She squeezed my hand and looked pointing at them with her eyes. I snapped out of it and said, "Is everyone alright? Nobody is hurt?" I asked politely, even thou I didn't care. Then one of the girls looked around her and she pointed and screamed in fear at something I couldn't see. I jumped up and ran to the first girls I saw, her head was bleeding, I healed her in seconds, and asked her if she was alright, and her answer was funny, she just stared at me, and gasped for breath. I moved on to the next one, and healed her arm; I asked her the same thing and got the same response.

The third girls response was more….deadly. I healed her wounds, but her heart wasn't beating, so I charged my hand with lightning and touched the spot of skin above her dress line, and shot the lightning into her heart to jump start it. It worked but then she felt my hand on her chest and tried to punch my with an ice encased fist. I jumped out of the way and she attacked me, I dodged and blocked her attacks, and then had to summon a fire sword to defend against her two ice swords, it was hard not to swing at her when she was attacking me, but her eyes seemed wild and I guess that she couldn't see me clearly and thought I was the man that attacked them. But after sparing for a bit, I learned that she had some fatal flaws in her technique, and after I disarmed her, I told her, "That was good, but you should have kept your guard up on your left side, and watched your footing. And you should have made gloves so that you could keep your hold on your weapons. Plus you launched into your attack with an aim to my face instead of my chest. Try that next time." I could tell that she was maybe 19, and she seemed a little more than vaguely interested in me. I just laughed at her expression and introduced myself, and then Clara reminded me that I was in the middle of doing my chores when she pulled me. And I had to run, so I kissed her, and a window shattered. We laughed at that then I had to run as fast as I could back to the temple. Hoping that no one noticed that I was gone.

I got back to the temple, and finished my chores early, then left to meet up with Clara at our usual spot for shopping in the market. I waited for a few minutes before she finally showed up. She looked amazing, even with the blood stains on her clothes and in her hair, the red in her hair made her look like a warrior, more dangerous. And when she came up to me I smiled, "Would you like me to get rid of that blood in your clothes and hair?" she looked stunned, then looked down and then looked at some of her hair and seemed to realize that she was covered in drying blood and got self-conscious about it. She said, "Sure, that would be amazing." I waved my hand and the blood fell off of her, and evaporated from her clothes. She let out a sigh of relief, and said, "Thanks, I didn't want to walk around the town in blood stains." I smiled at that, then we started off into the market and the same thing as usual happened. The people started to stare at us again, and this time I wasn't going to put up with it. I went to the middle of the market and shouted, "Hey everybody! Listen up!" and surprisingly everyone in the market stopped and looked at me. I continued, "Today a man tried to assault this girl and a group of her friends, he badly injured her and three of her friends, and caused minor injuries to the rest. I want to make one thing very clear to all of you. This girl is under MY protection, and anyone foolish enough to try to bring any kind of harm to her will end up like the man who tried to assault them. Dead. Anyone who tries to harm any of the rest of the young women in this town against their wills or wishes will met the business end of my sword in their hearts. And one more thing! I am starting self-defense lessons for all young women who wish to defend themselves. The first lesson starts tomorrow morning around sunrise. Bring your own weapons, or if you don't have any, I will provide them for you. That is all." Everybody looked stunned, like they have never seen me before, and I could feel that all of them thought I was too young to be making threats like that, and too young to teach self-defense. But I didn't care. I took Clara's hand, not caring if anyone saw, and moved on to the shops for our supplies.

When we got back to the temple, and after dinner, we washed and went back to our room. Once inside, Clara went and lay on the bed face down, and looked up at me, swinging her legs behind her like a little kid listening to a story. She said, "Ok, now that we are alone I have some things to talk with you about." That surprised me, but I guess not that bad. I said, "Ok, go ahead, ask away." I walked around the room picking up things that we had left on the floor, and tidying the space up. She started, "Ok. First, thank you so much for the necklace; it saved me and my friends lives today. Second, you healed me and my friends from the brink of death, and brought one back from the dead with nothing but lightning. Third, you are starting self-defense lessons for young girls, all of who look at you with a hunger and craving that I don't even understand." Then she looked very serious at me, "And forth, what did you think about that girl you saved last?" I almost laughed at her for even asking that, but I answered, "Ok, first, you're welcome. Second, I learned that if you shock the heart it starts beating again. Third, I don't want you or any other girls in this town to be without some form of skill in battle in case something like today happens again. And forth," I walked over to her and knelt so that I was eye level with her, and cuffed her chin with my hand, "I don't know what you are worried about, but I feel nothing towered any of those girls that were there today except you. And that will never change." Then I brought her lips a half an inch away from my mouth, teasing her a little bit, making her wait in suspense. Then pulled away, leaving her there with a fiery look in her eyes that almost drove me crazy. But I resisted with every bit of my will, and walked away and started to tidy up the room again, she said, "Uhhhh. What was I talking about again?" I smiled, "Hmm. I think you were going to try to get me to tell you how I feel about that 19 year old that I saved today, the one with obvious crush on me." She started to look a little angry, and said, "Oh, come on. She is older than me, she is taller than me, she is prettier than me, and she is more talented than me. And you don't think I would have any doubts that you were attracted to her or any of those other girls—" I stopped her right there by pushing myself forward with a little wind spirit spell, and was in front on her before she could even finish her sentence, and kissed her to shut her up. The feeling was just as it was the first time, the sensations launch from my mouth up my spine and to the rest of my body, and the lights from our powers poured out of our bodies and lit up the room with beautiful light. I pulled away and looked into her eyes and said, "No one is more amazing and beautiful as you." I could see the fire in her eyes as she said, "Come back here. I wasn't finished kissing you yet." I was more than happy to oblige, I kissed her again and this time was different, because we started to throw ourselves in to the kiss, she sat up and laid back on to the bed, making me chase after her, she then moved me on to my back and laid on top of me, kissing me wildly, intensely, we felt like we couldn't get close enough to each other, we stopped and laughed and just made out until we were too exhausted to keep going, and fell asleep, with her in my arms, after exchanging kisses for an hour longer. And the strangest part of the day happened in a dream.

We were in the meadow. That much was the same, as was the blanket and the stream and the river. But we could move, and I looked at her, and she looked at me with a confused look in her eyes. I smiled at her and said, "Welcome to my meadow, Clara. I would be happy to show you around if you would like." She looked stunned. Then I said, "I have been here since day one. I have seen everything, every night, but I couldn't move until your birthday morning. So here I am, so forget about it and we can enjoy the time we have together." I stood up and brushed myself off, then reached a hand down to her to help her up; she looked at my hand then took it and stood up. I smiled, "Come on, I will show you my childhood meadow, and you can tell me about what you think about it." We started walking. And I told her about every memory that I had of this place, I told her about the birds I named, the groundhog that would let me pet him when I came here, the deer that let me pet and ride them when I had carrots, the bear that had saved my life from wolfs that tried to attack me, and last but not least, the berry bushes that I named "cookie berries" because they tasted like the cookies that my mom used to make me. I shared a few of the berries with her, and she seemed to like them. We sat down on the hill of the meadow and watched the sunset, holding hands. When the sun hit the ridge, I turned to her and kissed her deeply, then sighed and said, "I love you." And she said, "I love you." And then we woke up.

Chapter 17

NOW I'M NOT GOING BACK ON MY WORD. It's just that I really didn't want to wake up this morning, I would rather stay in our bed with Clara in my arms, warm and safe. But I had a duty to do, so I had to wake her up. I brushed the tips of my fingers lightly up her spine, I noticed her shudder slightly from the feeling, and I kept going all the way up her neck, under her jaw, up to her cheek. She opened her eyes and looked up to my face, with a warm smile. I hated to wake her up, but I had to. I said with a smile, "Morning sleepyhead. Unfortunately, it is time to get up." I said with a moan, she moaned with me, "Do we have to? I'm too comfortable, I just want to stay here with you." She said. I loved that she felt the same way as me, but I offered her a solution, I said, "How about you join my lessons? I could teach you how to defend yourself and keep you close to me at the same time." She smiled, "And to keep all those girls off of you. I think most of them are going to show up just to watch you, or have too have a chance to ask you out while you can't go anywhere." I just laughed at that, but in the back of my mind I knew that was true. So I smiled and said, "How about we have some fun with them?" She seemed confused, she said, "How are we going to do that?" I smiled and suggested my plan. She seemed to find it funny. Then we washed, and I let her borrow one of my swords, Dawnbreaker, and we headed out the back to see who we would be working with.

Now the sparing field was large, with targets and dummies on the edges, and a big sparing circle in the center. The circle had one purpose, when sparing, the first person out of the circle losses, simple. But for now the only thing in it right now was 38 different young women, some with swords and some with none. Clara walked behind the group on the opposite side of the field and shouted, "Welcome!" all of them faced her, but looked disappointed. Now the fun can begin. She said, "I thank you all for coming here today, it is an honor to learn with you." They looked surprised that she would be learning with them, not teaching since she was the first one speaking. She continued, "Now before we begin, a few rules, 1. You must listen to your instructor's instructions and follow them, 2. You may maim but not kill when fighting, 3. You may only fight when instructed, 4. All weapons that are given to you must be returned before you leave, no exceptions. Follow these rules and we should have a great time and get along fabulously. Now I don't know where our instructor is but he said he would be along any second – there he is!" She pointed at the temple roof, and all eyes looked where she was pointing. I thought, "Show time!" and started running toward the edge of the roof, and jumped off the roof, the ground was 30 feet below me, and I twisted and spun, and did a flip all in midair. I landed at the edge of the group about 7 feet from where they were standing, feet first and stood, shirtless in shorts and fighting shoes. I knew my skin glowed in the sun and the sunlight just came over the ridge and landed on me. The look on their faces was priceless, their mouths were hanging open and they were staring wide eyed, and I noticed most of them couldn't stop staring at my chest and abs. That was funny but I had a job to do, so I shouted, "Alright! My name is Joe'hon, and I will be your instructor for these lessons!" They seemed to snap out of it somewhat, and clapped. I smiled and said, "For our first lesson, I will need a volunteer." And I saw 37 hands go up at the same time, and I almost laughed, but I kept my face straight, I chose the only girl who wasn't raising her hand, she was small, about a little higher than the bottom of my rib cage, and she was skinny and weak looking, she looked about somewhere between 9 - 11, smaller than most of the girls here. I walked up to her and she seemed stunned that I was looking at her, I knelt in front of her so that I could look into her eyes, I smiled and said, "Hello." As softly as I could, she seemed unable to speak, I said, "What is your name sweetheart?" She blushed a little and giggled, she sounded and looked so innocent and fragile that I didn't even know why she would even want to fight. She said in a voice that was small and gentle and shy, "Ingrid." I smiled at her warmly, "Hi Ingrid, It's nice to meet you." I held out my hand and said, "Do you want to see a trick?" She smiled and nodded. I held out my hand in front of her and made a fist, my thumb facing up, and the inside of my hand started to glow, and between my pointer finger and thumb a flower started to grow. It grow into a fully grown daisy, and her eyes were full of wonder, I put the flower behind her ear in her hair, and smiled at her and said, "Pretty." She smiled and giggled. I smiled at her, and said, "Would you like to help me?" She still seemed shy, but willing to help; I took her hand and led her to the center of the circle. I then looked at the other girls, who looked shocked that I chose one of the weakest and youngest as my partner for my first lesson, and said, "Everyone out of the sparing circle please." They snapped out of their daze, and with looks of resentment and hate at Ingrid, walked out of the circle, but Ingrid didn't even notice their looks of harshness, she only looked at me as if I was some amazing fascination. I said, "Now this lesson is fairly simple, the objective is to get one person out of the circle, the last one in the circle is the winner." I looked at Clara then at Ingrid, I took a long dagger out of my supplies and held it out to her, she looked at the dagger in horror, as if she couldn't imagine holding it with her own small hands. I smiled and said, "Don't worry about hurting me." Then I took the dagger and slashed my own wrist, the girls around the circle gasped in fear and averted their eyes, and Ingrid closed her eyes before the dagger struck as well. I laughed and said, "Open your eyes Ingrid." She peeked thru her hands. And when she saw no blood she seemed relieved and then curious, then the other girls looked and had the same expression, especially relief. I walked over to her and taped the dagger blade to my hand, showing her that it wouldn't harm me, I knelt down to her level and said, "I enchanted the daggers blade so that it can't cut thru peoples skin, see." I took her hand and slid the dagger along her arm, and she giggled and said, "That tickles." I smiled and gave her the dagger; I walked back to my side and drew my own dagger. While she was playing with the dagger, I said to the girls watching, "Now since she is smaller and younger then I am, and knows almost nothing about fighting, I will take it easy on her." Then I turned towered her. "Ok. Now Ingrid, I want you to try and get me to back out of the ring, are you ready?" She looked up, a little startled that I interrupted her little game, and then looked at me in fear as if I was impossible to even think about attacking. I smiled, "Go on. Take a swing." She looked hesitantly at me then charged slowly at me, when she was in range she slashed and I blocked easily. It threw her off balance, I said, "Make sure in a fight to keep your feet planted and steady, so that when you swing or block it won't throw you off." Then she charged again, and I blocked, keeping one hand behind my back to make it easier for her. She attacked repeatedly but only got me to back up two steps, and then she stopped, with her shoulders slumped with exhaustion. I smiled and said, "That was good for your first time, next time try to twirl and swing so that it puts more power in to the swing." I reached out my hand for the dagger and she handed it to me, I ruffled her hair as she walked past and she giggled again. I looked at the rest of the girls, "Alright, who's the next volunteer?"

Chapter 18

THEY ALL PUT UP THEIR HANDS and I looked at them carefully, when I was about to chose; someone in the back of the group whispered to the girl next to her, "I heard he was supposed to be a great fighter, but this is pathetic." I looked straight thru them to that girl, I said, "You in the back! Yes you. You doubt that I have skill, who are you to judge?" The girls in front of her backed away to clear a path for her, she walked up to me all proud and acting like she was strong. She said, "I am Marina. Daughter of the caption of the guard, trained in combat since I could hold a blade." She said that with so much smugness that I had to put her in her place. I smiled and said, "All of you can take bets if you want. Because you are my next opponent." She seemed stunned that I was actual calling her bluff, but she had too much pride to back down. She said, "I except." I smiled as I walked to the ring, she drew a wicked looking sword, orcish with a small blade under the hilt, and it was glowing with a fire damage enchantment. I smiled and said, "Nice sword. Your fathers no doubt?" She looked smug again, and said, "Actually yes it is. He pried it from the hands of the orc chief in the battle of Whiterun while his guards watched the orc filth die." I smiled, and accessed my birthright to find out more about my sword, and I was surprised at the answer. I drew my white sword, and she looked unimpressed, I said, "You call that a sword? This is a sword. This sword was personally enchanted and hand carved by the greatest sword master of all time, carved from the skull of the most powerful dragon of all time, and honed to its perfect point and edge with the stone from the staff of power. It has killed this lands and many other lands worst horrors, such as hundreds of dragons, and a few gods, the undead, vampires, ware-wolfs, ware-bears, saber cats, ash spawn, and hundreds of other different beings." She and everyone in the field were shocked into silence, and I said, "So if we are done with the taunts and bragging, let's do this thing." She stood still for a moment, then shook herself out of her daze and then attacked with a ferocity that was dangerous, and I already knew that she didn't protect her sword, so that would do real damage, so I didn't bother protecting mine. She started with a downward slash to my head, which I easily side stepped, and slashed upward to catch her sword. She was knocked off her balance and stumbled to catch herself and regain her balance, I didn't bother attacking I just put my sword behind my back and circled slowly around the circles edge, and said, "Well that was sloppy. You never start with an attack like that; it is too obvious and flashy. And your footing is horrible, and your grip on your sword is sloppy and uneven." This seemed to make her angrier, she charged me again with a volley of slashes that I easily parried and blocked and dodged. I was disappointed; I thought she might have actually had some talent at all. I said, "What you are trying to do is out of anger, and you are unbalancing yourself. Calm your breathing." But she didn't listen, she kept on attacking with rage and some speed but no grace. I decided I've had enough of her; I disarmed her with only a flick of my wrist and held the tip of my sword to her throat. She was stunned, and everyone who bet on me cheered, the ones who lost moaned. I smiled, and said, "A good try. But that was weak." I turned my back and started to walk back to the group when I felt the air behind me move. I reacted without thinking; I spun and slashed four times, each one finding its mark. When I realized what happened I was furious, marina had attacked me while my back was turned like a weakling coward. Then I realized that She was on her knees, her right arm was bleeding, her face had a long cut running from her cheek to her forehead, she had a cut on her shoulder and her leg had her own dagger imbedded in it, she was crying out in pain, and everyone was stunned and I realized that I had done on of my almost faster than the eyes can follow moves again. I stood over her with my sword on her neck and my face two inches from her face, and said, "Rule number 5. Only coward attack someone when their backs are turned." I pulled the dagger from her leg, and she muffled a cry, then I hovered my hands above her wounds with my hands glowing with healing power, healing all of her wounds. I reached out my hand and she took it and I helped her up, and she walked into the group with her head down in shame. And I just sheathed my sword and put my hands behind my back and smiled and said, "Alright who's next?" None of the girls seemed stunned or even bothered about what just happened, so they all raised their hands. And I figured it would be fun to change things up, I picked the girl I fought just two days ago, I said, "You." And pointed at her, and she looked stunned but pleased that she was picked instead of any of the others, and I saw some dirty jealous looks pointed at her as she walked over into the circle. I smiled when she took her place and said, "It's good to see you again. Ready for another round?" She blushed and giggled a little, which seemed a little childish for a girl at 19, but all the girls seemed to do the same thing so I won't judge. She said, "How are we going to fight this time? Magic or weapons?" I smirked a little, and said, "Use whatever you are best at." She smiled and summoned two ice swords, I followed suit and summoned two fire swords. We bowed to each other, and took our stances, then we charged and the match began.

Chapter 19

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THIS. I thought to myself, Joe'hon started out fine, the introduction was fun and they all seemed stunned. I mean seeing Joe'hon without a shirt is stunning enough, but seeing him jump off of a roof and land right in front of them, they expressions were so funny I had to force myself not to laugh. But there were a few things that confused me at first, first he picks the weakest and youngest girl in the group to start, but the way he looked at her and talked to her, so soft and gentle, was heartbreakingly sweet, and he gave her a flower, grown from magic from his own hand, and put it in her hair and told her it was pretty. I felt so proud that I was with a guy so gentle and sweet, and he didn't even fight back when she attacked him, I knew it was because he didn't want to hurt her, and when she tried until she couldn't fight anymore, he dismissed her, and ruffled her hair as she walked passed.

But then that other girl decided to insult Joe'hon and then he fought her. He was not gentle nor sweet to her, and when she lost and he dismissed her and turned his back, she tried to attack him, and he struck her down and stabbed her with her own sword. I have never seen him do that, but he healed her and she walked off in shame. And now he called on the 19 year old he saved a few days ago, I asked her what her name was later and she said it was Tory, I thought that was a little bit of a guy name but I didn't say anything. Now they were fighting again and it was like a flash back, but faster and more deadly for her.

It was amazing the way Joe'hon moved, he was graceful in battle and more strategic. They charged at each other and clashed swords, pulled back and she struck at his head, but he caught the attack and diverted it to the right. He swung away and retook his stance, she gained her balance and attacked again, more carful this time, and the whole match lasted about 4 minutes until he knocked her off balance and she went out of the circle. He laughed and said, "You practiced since we last met, I saw less mistakes but you're protecting only your head and body, you are leaving your legs exposed to a swing." She only laughed and said, "I see your still as good as ever, I hoped you had softened up some." He laughed and said, "Nope. Your dismissed." He turned to us again and said, "Whose next?" Everyone's hand shot up, it's funny how he does this, entrance all these girls with nothing but a smile. He looked over them, and stopped on me, he smiled and said, "Clara, how about you?" I was stunned, but I blushed and walked forward, when we were in the ring he drew his sword and protected it, I took out mine and protected it, a few of the girls were a little stunned at the magic sword I was holding, Dawnbreaker, which glowed brightly. I copied his movements and took his stance, since I had never fought before, he started around the circle slowly and I did the same. He smiled and moved in and I moved in to, a little scared that he would move to fast, but the strangest thing happened, I felt a feeling to put my sword up to the right and did it, right at the moment that his sword went in to that path and met my sword. He smiled and reversed and tried the other side, but the feeling moved my arm and I met it. He was going very slow, for him that is, and I tried an attack, he blocked it of Course, and moved in and ended up behind me, he wrapped his arm around me and kissed my cheek, which sent sensations all thru me, and dazed me. He swung around again and swung the flat of his sword at my legs and tripped me, but he caught me before I hit the ground and I grabbed his arm for balance. Fighting with Joe'hon felt like flirting, and I was too busy loving it too take it seriously. I pulled him closer and swung so that I flipped him under me instead of over me, and brought my sword to his neck, and he laughed, but then pushed me up by the shoulders and I ended up standing, stumbling backwards and over the line. I felt so light with the feeling of the energy coursing thru me that I didn't even mind that I had lost, he flipped up and bowed to me and I bowed back and joined the rest of the group. And they were all staring at me, some in astonishment that he had kissed me, some in murderous rage that he seemed to like me more than them, and some seemed stunned that I actually had skill, I mean I was stunned that I had skill so I couldn't blame them. Everyone looked at Joe'hon again when he asked for another sparring partner and all raised their hands, some a little angrily. For the next 3 hours, he sparred with everyone, and I could tell that most of them were now trying to flirt and make moves on him, trying to make him flirt in them, or at least look like he was interested in one of them, but they had no luck. At the end, a lot of them were sore, some bruises, and all of them were tired and worn out. I felt alive and ready for the rest of the day. I walked around them and said good bye, and when I looked for Joe'hon I found him with that first girl he fought, the adorable little girl that seemed to idolize Joe'hon, and I could tell that Joe'hon had a new kind of follower. She was talking with him, looking up at him with pure awe with those big brown doe eyes, and he seemed to be enjoying himself in whatever she was saying. I walked over so that I could hear what they were saying to each other and I was surprised by what it was about, he said, "—And when you have and enemy that is taller then you, you need to attack low, cut their knees and calves, and aim for the middle body at the gut, one stab there can bring down many different kinds of enemies. Also, in two day we will begin fighting with magic, so talk to the temple or your parents about how to use your magic, everybody has some form of magic that they are good at, and for those with weak magic they use swords and bows to fight. Anyway, it's getting late, you need to get home before your parents start to worry." She looked sad that she had to leave, but then looked up at him again and said in an adorable little voice, "Can you walk me home? I don't like to walk alone in town." He looked at me, like he sensed that I was there, and asked a question with his eyes, "Will you be ok on your own for a little while?" I just said, "Let's all go. I need to go that direction anyway." He smiled at that, and the girl (Ingrid she told me) seemed pleased that he agreed.

We walked into town, Ingrid was holding Joe'hon's hand and leading him thru the streets. I didn't mind Ingrid holding Joe'hon's hand, it had a purpose of leading not affection. She led us to a part of town that was obviously very poor, the houses were damaged and ageing, and the street lamps weren't lit, I didn't know why she was leading us here, until I saw a lamp lit at the end of the street. She led us down the street and both I and Joe'hon didn't want to leave her here, but I stayed at the edge of the light, as Joe'hon took her to the door, he knelt down to her and took her hand, and he placed something shiny into her small hand. She looked down at it with wonder, then lunged forward and hugged Joe'hon around the neck, he hugged her back, then I walked over and she turned and hugged me too and thanked us for walking with her. Then she turned and walked up to the door and knocked, a women and man answered, they looked happy and relieved, and when they looked at us standing in the lamp light, Joe'hon stood up and waved at them. The mother looked stunned at Joe'hon, while the father looked hungrily at me. But then Ingrid showed them what Joe'hon gave her, and they looked stunned, like they couldn't believe what they were seeing. They looked at us with grateful looks, then took Ingrid inside. I said, "What a lovely little family. They look like nice folks." Joe'hon nodded, "That they did. But then again, they did look at us like everyone else does. And that worries me." I knew what he meant, I didn't want to leave her and her family living like this, in this condition couldn't be healthy. And her parents seemed taken in by us just like most people do, and that could be dangerous for her and for us. I felt uneasy in this area, the dark was unsettling, and I felt the urge to run out of here as fast as possible. Joe'hon must have felt it to, because he took my hand gently and pulled me back the way we came. Now that I was paying attention I could see people hiding in the shadows, dark elves, lizard folk, cat-people, and a few red guards, and people in rags.

Some came forward and started begging us for coins, some followed us in shadow, and some were on the roofs leaping from building to building on either side, and some followed us in the street not even bothering to hide. The many eyes that were looking at us made me very uneasy, and I could see Joe'hon tensing his entire body, ready for anything they were going to do. And I felt something pulling slightly at my rucksack, I looked and I saw one of the cat-people trying to pickpocket my bag, I said, "Hey! Stop that!" And I tugged my bag away from the pickpocket's hand. Just then, the people realized that we weren't going to give them anything, so they tried a more, forceful approach. A lizard man put a dagger to my neck while the others did the same to Joe'hon, the lizard man said in a hiss, "Don't move, and no harm will befall you or your friend." I stood still, and glanced at Joe'hon, who looked so angry at the lizard man with the dagger at my neck, that I knew that all of these people were going to die right there if they didn't let us go. Joe'hon said quietly and persuasively, "You can do whatever you want to me, but let her go." They just laughed, and a red guard said, "You are in no position to bargain with us." But Joe'hon remained calm and said, "Then how about something valuable to all of you in trade?" some looked confused, "And what would that be?" One cat-person asked. Joe'hon gave the lizard mad a haunting look, and said, "Your lives. You can let us go now or end up in the oblivion. Your choice." They looked stunned, but then laughed, and said, "You and what army?" Joe'hon said, "Only me." The lizard man dug the dagger deeper into my neck and I felt the dagger just slightly cut me, Then Joe'hon exploded in rage, his ancient armor appeared around him, and his staff and sword appeared as well in his hands. All of a sudden, all Hel broke loose, Joe'hon's sword was in the lizard man's neck, and then after that about 4 seconds later, and we were surrounded by dead bodies, than they disappeared into oblivion. My head was spinning with the effort of trying to keep up with his movements, and then I saw Joe'hon, without his armor and weapons, standing in front of me, healing my neck.

Chapter 20

WE CAUGHT UP ON OUR CHORES and turned in for the night at sundown. I sat on the bed, after washing and changing, into my nightgown. I sat there, lost in my thoughts, thinking about those people and how they were living in those rotten homes, desperate enough to kill for a little money. I decided what I was going to do before I even washed, I gave a description for the priests about that area, and how they were suffering hardships, he told me that they would send food water and clothes to that area, and I felt like 7 pounds were lifted off my chest, knowing that I had just helped them. I was shocked out of my daze by the feeling of hands on my shoulders and the back of my neck, rubbing all the sore muscles and tension out of my body, I moaned lightly, and heard the voice that I love, "How you feeling?" He asked me gently, but the feeling of his fingers rubbing all the weight off my shoulders felt too good to respond. He stopped suddenly, and I felt cold where his hands used to be before he took his hands off, I didn't want him to stop, so I said, "Hmmm?" and leaned back onto his chest sleepily, and he wrapped his arms around me. He said, "I'm sorry I keep on doing that." Now that caught my attention, I said still in a soft sleepy relaxed voice, "Keep doing what?" He said, "Keep on killing people right in front of you. Even if it is to save your life." I just laughed, and said, "I don't mind that you kill people if they are evil or are trying to do something evil. Besides, I love watching you fight, it's terrifying of course, but the way you move with such grace and speed is just mesmerizing." He seemed to like that response, because he started to stroke my hair and singing our song. I was so comfortable that I never wanted to move again, except for my mouth, because I started to sing along with him to our song, and my voice still stunned me with how it sounded, like an angel, but him, he sounded like a god.

I lifted my head up, and he looked down at me, I stretched a little and kissed him, and our magic glowed bright as the sun, reaching out like the northern lights, just like the first time I kissed him. I turned myself around to that I was facing him, and laid down next to him, then I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him again. We kissed for what felt like hours, before falling into blissful sleep.

We appeared in the meadow again, like last night, and he showed me around and I petted the animals that he said he knew a long time ago, and ate berries that tasted like fresh cookies. I loved that we got to have this time alone together, it was so romantic and being alone with him watching his eyes turn that circle of silver I loved so much was intoxicating. When we went to the hill to talk and watch the sunset, I couldn't help myself, I lunged foreword and kissed him deeply, and I accidently knocked us both down so that he was on his back and I was on top of his chest, we laughed and he slowly took my face in his hands and kissed me so sweetly that my head spun from the rush of emotions. When he pulled away he stroked my cheek and said in his lovely voice, "I will never leave you, you know that right?" I just leaned and kissed him again and said in a breathless voice, "Of course I know that, I could never be without you, and you would never hurt me like that." We kissed for a long time before we woke up, and when we did we didn't even bother to hid from the priests and priestesses our holding hands and adoring gazes after we had washed and headed for breakfast, they all stared at us in confusion, except for the priestesses, they understood immediately.

We ate in a rush then went outside for our next lesson with the women of the town. They were all there, and they were all excited and anxious to see Joe'hon again. It made me a little annoyed that after already showing them that Joe'hon and I were a couple that they still all fell head over heels for him, even thou I knew that Joe'hon was unswervingly in love with me and I to him, I still didn't like all their eyes following his every move. He started strong again, "Morning all! Today we will be fighting with only magic, and I will teach you how to deflect spells that could harm you! Now who wants to go first?" The girls all raised their hands again, probably because they thought they were better with magic then blades, and Joe'hon picked someone who didn't have her hand raised. She was a small girl, bigger than the youngest, Ingrid, but smaller than most of the group, she was pretty and seemed nice but shy and the others seemed to not want anything to do with her because she was standing away from the group in the shadow of one of the practice dummies. Joe'hon smiled and walked over to her where she hid, and said with a warm smile that could melt an icecap, "What is your name?" She looked up at him, and her eyes widened with fear, then turned to amazement, then shy and flustered, and said in a very small and quiet voice that no one else but Joe'hon could hear, "Beth." He smiled and offered his hand to her slowly so not to scare her, and held it there and waited. She looked at his hand like she didn't know what it meant, then looked at his face and then looking back at his hand and, very slowly, reached her hand into the light to touch it. I saw that her hand was covered with a thin glove, as was the rest of her body was covered from head to toe except for her face, but her face was shielded from the sun by a hood. She touched his hand and he slowly wrapped his fingers around her hand, smiling encouragingly at her, then slowly and gently pulled her into the light and into the center of the circle, never looking away from her eyes, and she couldn't seem to tare her eyes away from his gaze and neither could I. He then said slowly and as quiet as he could, "Well Beth, why don't you tell me what you're most powerful type of magic is?" She then looked around at all of the eyes that were staring at her at that time, and shrank back away from Joe'hon but he just pulled her back gently and said, "Just look at me." She locked her gaze with him again, and then decided to tell him, she leaned in and whispered what her strongest magic was, and when she told him, realization dawned on his face but he didn't seem to judge her at all, in fact he seemed to except her and looked at her a little protectively. He said, "I understand why you are scared of the truth coming out, but having that kind of magic and being unable to control it is worse than what could happen if you told anyone." He took both of her hands and said with authority, "You are now under my protection by magic, if any who find out the truth try to tell anyone else or try to harm you, you can make them forget it in an instant." She seemed to relax at that, then he smiled and let go of her hands, which I found a little relief in, and said, "How about you try and hit that target, and don't worry about everyone else, leave them to me." She looked at the group with fear but removed her gloves, and when she did, a bow that seemed to be made of pure sunlight appeared into her hands, and a quiver full of elfish arrows that glowed with sunlight appeared on her back. Everyone but I and Joe'hon gasped loudly, but Joe'hon held up a hand and they promptly shut up, he looked at Beth and said, "Go on." She took an arrow from her quiver, and notched it and took a deep breath and drew the bow back. When she let the arrow fly it missed it's mark entirely, but then turned around and headed straight at Joe'hon, I screamed but he caught the arrow an inch from his face, the surface of his hands glowing with pure light, and Beth looked stunned and shocked at the same time, looking at the arrow and his hand, and said louder than her whisper, "How did you catch that? And how are you even holding it?" He smiled at her then spun around sweeping his leg and coming up kneeling with a drawn bow of pure sunlight like hers, and loosed the arrow and it struck the target in the center but then exploded into a burst of sunlight and blow up the target completely.

We all stared at Joe'hon with amazement but the girl, Beth, gasped so loud and it sounded choked off because, as I realized, she was crying, with tears streaming down her cheeks and bursts of cries and ran to Joe'hon and wrapped her arms around his neck, crying into his neck and shoulder. I was so stunned that I couldn't move, but when he wrapped his arms around the girl hugging her back and whispered to her that everything was alright and other words of comfort, I snapped out of it and walked up slowly to Joe'hon and Beth and said, "Umm, could someone explain to me what is going on here?" Beth didn't seem to hear her at all, and the girl released Joe'hon's neck but didn't release him from her grip on his face, she was still crying but was smiling widely, she laughed with pure delight and said to him, "Oh I could just burst with happiness right now!" I said, "Joe'hon? Who is this?" He seemed to realize that everyone in the clearing, the group, and me, were all staring at him for an explanation, some of them were staring daggers at the girl, because Joe'hon was actually letting this girl touch him and they never have. He cleared his throat and said, "I'm sorry, I quite forgot that you were all here. I've decided that because you worked so hard yesterday that you can all go home. Dismissed!" They all looked stunned at this, but some looked glad that they could rest but the rest seemed suspicious of the girl, still staring daggers at her as she was still holding Joe'hon's face between her hands. It was very strange even for me to see Joe'hon act like this towered anyone besides me, but I waited till everyone had left us alone till I asked, "Ok, I don't mean to be rude to either of you, but please, someone explain to me what-" I was interrupted by the girl, Beth, when she said, "We must talk! Please!? I can't wait any longer!" I decided that the girl didn't even know I was there, and only Joe'hon even acknowledged me, but he didn't take his eyes off of this girl, he said, "I would love to talk, but we cannot speak here about this, come inside, then we can talk." He started towered the temple and we followed him. Once we were inside, safely in our bedroom where none can hear or come inside without mine or Joe'hon's will, I sat down cross legged on our bed and looked expectantly at Joe'hon for his explanation, mostly it was because was worried about him. He sat Beth in one of the chairs in the room after she took off her cloak and gloves and such, and I realized that she was extremely bright skinned, and that her hair was familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it, in fact, a lot about this girl seemed vaguely familiar. Then Joe'hon sat next to me on the bed, and looked at me and said, "Sorry about all of this, I have been ignoring you, I am so sorry." I just smiled and said, "Its fine, but I want an explanation." He looked at the girl then looked back at me and said, "Look at us, and see if you can figure it out." He smiled mischievously, and I knew he was teasing me, so I looked at them both and tried to figure it out.

I started with the facts, I have known Joe'hon for years, but I have never heard him mention or see this girl anywhere around here until today, then I thought about the magic that they had, and they seemed to have the same sunlight bright bow spell thing, and then I started to compare them. I realized, they have the same hair color and texture, and she was shorter but her face shape looked like Joe'hon's but smaller and more feminine, but the same. Her eyes were different from his, golden like sunlight, and her skin was lighter that his. I decided to guess, "Hmm, I don't know. Are you two childhood friends?" Beth just laughed, and I realized that her laugh sounded almost exactly like Joe'hon's, and Joe'hon said with a smile, "We have never met before. But we both know someone who we both care about greatly." I thought about it, but nothing came to me so I gave up, "Ok, I don't know. Just tell me already." He looked and Beth again, and took her hand, staring into her eyes, and said very softly, and with a lot of what I thought sounded like love, said, "You have mom's eyes." And in that moment, I was completely stunned.

Chapter 21

THE LOOK ON CLARA'S FACE was priceless. She just looked at me with the strangest expression on her face, with her mouth dropped wide open, and then Beth said, "I do?" I just smiled and nodded, saying, "Yes you do, along with mom's hair and light skin." Beth just looked at me in amazement, then she said, "You actually MET mom? Like in person?" I nodded, and she looked absolutely amazed. Just then Clara said, "Wait. What do you mean she has 'MOM's eyes'? Who is she?" I smiled and started to explain, "Beth is my sister. Well, half-sister. We have the same mom but different dads. I know you can see the resemblance between us, and that is due to our mother. And I'm sorry to have to tell you this only now, having kept it a secret my whole life, but my mother was a goddess, the goddess of sunlight, Adriel. As was Beth's mother." I stopped for a moment and looked at Beth with an apologetic look and said, "I don't know if you have heard, but mom's host body was killed some years ago before I came to the temple." And I saw the shock on Beth's face, then grief so strong that I stood up and pulled her to me as she started to cry, and continued, "After I came to the temple, I discovered that mom was a goddess, due to the power that me and you share, the power to bend sunlight into mom weapon, Adriel's bow, or at least an imitation of it. The real weapon was found by my grandfather, and he became a warrior in her name, slaying many with the power of the bow, then before he died he hid the bow where only one of his decadence could find it. I found it, and brought it here to hide its magic from robbers. But the problem with being Adriel's children is that Auriel was only worshiped by the snow elves, who are now the Falmer. So she was casted out of the 9 divines as a lost goddess, and any who have the ability of the sunlight bow were only the children of the goddess and the goddess herself. Any who discover her children cast them out, and shame them like our mother, which is why we have had to hide our powers for so long. And only we, the children of Auriel, can touch the bow, or the arrows without having our bodies exploding into pure sunlight." Both of them looked shocked that I knew all of this, but Beth seemed particularly shocked, she reached over to me and said, "You have m-mom's bow?" She seemed terrified yet excited about this, I just shook my head yes. She said, "Can I see it?" I don't know if I should do this, but this is my sister, (well half-sister, but I won't hold that against her. I walked over to the hidden closet and opened it, meeting the familiar armor of my grandfather and his staff and sword, but I reached under the floor and opened the chest I hid underneath, and brought Auriel's bow out from under its blanket. I turned around and held it out, flat on my palms toward Beth, she walked forward in a daze, staring at the bow with wonder and awe.

I handed her the bow as gently as I could, even thou the bow wouldn't break no matter how hard you tried, and left it in her hands. She studied it for a long time, then plucked the string and the light in the room increased times two, and it made a sound more beautiful than the greatest harp in the land. She fell to her knees and hugged the bow and cried softly, and I knelt down on one knee and gently took the bow from her hands and set it behind me, she looked up at me and started crying harder and threw her arms around my neck, crying into my shoulder. She started saying, "I've been alone for so long." Then whispered, "So long…." I felt Clara watching us with amazement, then I felt something behind me, the sound of something moving and turned around. I couldn't move. Clara was standing behind me, holding the bow, and studying it. I watched for a moment in shock until I realized that she isn't dead yet, nothing was happening. I said softly, "Clara? Why are you not bursting into sunlight?" Clara just looked at me curiously, then realized what I was saying, and stared in amazement at the bow, then hesitantly reached out and plucked the bow string. The sound was even greater than before, like angles stringing a million harps in harmony at the same time, and Clara seemed to glow at the sound. Now I don't mean literally glow, but she smiled brightly and all of her body relaxed as she sat down and started plucking a tune, our song. I stood up and started singing to the music, walking towered her slowly, and she joined me in song a moment after, singing together like the gods themselves were listening. I knelt before her, eyes level with hers, and touched her cheek, and sang together until the song came to its last note. We stared at each other, I felt so much emotion coming from both me and her at that moment that I couldn't help but lean forward and kiss her. When we separated, we were both smiling brightly at each other, knowing everything in the world would be alright as long as we were together, until I heard Beth clear her throat and turned around to find her staring wide eyed at both of us, like we just suddenly burst into flames. Both Clara and I blushed, and before I opened my mouth to say anything, Beth beat me to the punch saying, "Oh. My. Gods. Are you two….together?" we both blushed deeper, and she took that as an answer. She laughed hard, laughing so hard that she hugged her stomach and fell to the floor, then she pulled herself together enough to say, "How long as that been going on? Is this YOUR bedroom? Why is there only one bed? Oh my gods, you guys SHARE a bed!?" She was staring wide eyed with a wide open mouth in a smile, and still was laughing, and asked the question that I knew that she wanted to know, "How in the world did you guys met?"

And I felt Clara pale at the memory of the meeting, but I think she felt the gladness of the memory at the same time. I went forward and covered her mouth with my hand, which shut her up almost instantly, and I said, "Calm down, your making my head hurt. (Thou that wasn't true, I just wanted her to shut up.) If you can calm down I will answer your questions, just please sit down and listen." I removed my hand and she sat down, still giggling and shaking with silent laughter. I took a deep breath and started with her first question, "Ok, to start, yes we are together. (She opened her mouth but I held up my hand for her to wait.) Next, we have been together for about a week, but have known each other for about 6 years. Next, yes this is OUR bedroom, and yes we share a bed. We share a bed because whenever she sleeps without me with her, then she has nightmares, and the nightmares are about the day that we met." I reached over and took Clara's hand in mine to comfort her as I told this story, then looked at Beth straight in the eyes and said, "6 years ago, Clara lived in a house by the gate with her parents. Then one day, Drauger attacked the city, they killed the guards at the gate and stormed in. They attacked her house first, all of them broke down her door and rushed in, they killed her parents' right in front of her. And then they were going to kill her. That day, I was on my way to the gate to deliver lunch to the guardsmen from the temple when I caught sight of the Drauger entering into her house." I paused to look at Clara's eyes, and held her gaze as I said, "I didn't hesitate. I didn't want any of them to live, and I felt that there was something important in that house, something that was reaching out and pulling at my entire being, begging me to help. I drew my grandfather's sword and knife, both enchanted to kill the dead with unimaginable power, and killed them all. There were at least 50, and yet I killed them all. When they were all dead, I found Clara, huddled against the far wall, and the look of her just sitting there staring at me, with tears in her eyes, almost shattered me. I took her in my arms and she cried for a long time, and I sang to her the song that mother sang to me when I was younger, the same song that we just sang moments ago. When she fell asleep from all the crying, I carried her to the temple, and laid her in my bed and held her hand, watching over her until I fell asleep. In the morning, I had to talk to the high priest, and convinced him to let her stay under my protection." I looked back at Beth's wide eyes and told her my beginning as well, "I couldn't leave her, not there nor anywhere. Nowhere but with me. And I knew that she needed my help, because the same thing happened to me. When I was young, Drauger attacked my home, and killed my mother and father in front of me. I destroyed them. I ran away from that place as fast as I could go, and ended up here at the temple. I served at the temple and helped them and the city. And I still do today." I challenge Beth with my eyes, "That is our story. Does it answer all of your questions now?" she just stared at us for a few minutes, mouth open, and we waited till she closed her mouth, swallowed and said, "Wow."

Later on, Beth moved into a house near the temple so that she could be close to us in case she needed us, and we had no objections to this. We all talked about our lives and found that Beth had only just moved into the city from a small camp, and had only been here for about two weeks, and had been living in the same area that Ingrid lives in. We told her almost everything about us, except about my inherited weapons and armor and about my strange shout power and all of our secrets. It's nice to have a small piece of family, no matter how small, around to talk to and have around. After she was settled into her new house, me and Clara went back to the temple to turn in for the night. When we finished washing and went back to our room, she sat on our bed in that way that I knew meant that she was expecting answers, she sat cross-legged on the bed and looked at me with those beautiful green eyes, she said, "Ok, you have some explaining to do. How could you not tell me that you were half god?" I sat down next to her and she curled up and put her head on my lap, and I started to brush her hair behind her ear with my fingers gently, I said, "Actually I'm a little more than half-god, my father was the host of a god as well, but the difference was that he didn't know it. I never figured out which god he was, but I'm gifted in every magic known to the world so I'm guessing me might be a god of magic but that's just a guess." She turned her head to look up at me, looking stern and said, "Any other secrets I should know about?" I shook my head but said, "Now you. Did you know that you are the daughter of the goddess of music and health?" Her eyes opened wide, she shook her head, and I just laughed and said, "Did your mom sing all the time?" She nodded, I just nodded and said, "Alright then. We are both half-gods," I leaned closer to her, "but I will never stop loving you, even if the gods themselves tried to break us apart." She leaned up and met my lip, and waves of magic and emotion swirled around us. We changed and climbed under the covers, and I held her close and started to sing our song, and she started to sing a moment after, mixing our voices in a symphony of sound and music. I woke up in our meadow with her by my side again, but we were on the hill that we left last night when we woke up, I looked around, I felt something pulling at me, dragging me towards the source. I stood up and took her hand, I said, "Do you feel that?" She nodded, looking toward the woods at the bottom of the hill, and I realized something. I started towards it, pulling Clara behind me, going as fast as we could go without her tripping, and we plunged into the woods.

Chapter 22

WE DODGED TREES AND ROOTS, running towards the source when Clara pulled my hand and stopped me, I asked her, "Why are we stopping?" She hushed me, and put her ears to the air, she said, "Do you hear that?" And I did. It sounded like a harp and a women, singing. We continued toward the sound and pull until we broke out of the wood into a small clearing. I stopped dead in my tracks, and Clara asked, "Why are we stopping now?" I said quietly, "That's my home." She looked ahead of us and saw what I saw. My home was small and made of wood, more of a shack then a house, but it could fit three people to live in it so my parents never moved, next to the house was the stone well that my mother always told me to stay away from, warning me not to fall in, the wood pile was on the other side of the house. From the house we heard the music and voice singing a song that we both knew, our song. I walked forward across my yard and knocked on the door, and the music stopped, I heard footsteps coming toward the door and a hand on the door knob. When the door opened I couldn't breathe or move or even think, all I could do was stare at the women who stood in my doorway, and I felt like I was 7 years old again, like nothing ever happened at all. Next to me, Clara gasped suddenly at this stunning women, and I couldn't blame her. The women smiled so brightly that I almost burst into tears, and said in a voice that had been my comfort for as long as I can remember, "Joe'hon!" And she lunged forward and hugged me, when I felt her touch I wanted to break down in her arms and cry, she said, "My little boy!" And I couldn't help it any more, I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her for the first time since I was 7, "Mom!" Was the only word I could get out before I burst into tears and collapsed into her arms. Her cheeks were covered with tears of joy, and she was smiling at me like I was the greatest gift in the world to her, she said, "It's alright. Shh, it's alright, I'm here. I'm here." I was aware of Clara staring at me like I had just burst into flames, and she was probably stunned, but I couldn't look away from the one face I have wanted to see since I could remember. After a while I calmed down enough to say, "I've missed you so much." She smiled and stroked my face lovingly and said, "As I have you, my little warrior." Once I calmed down enough, I stood up and helped my mom off the floor and whipped tears from my eyes and laughed, then my mother notice Clara for the first time with a stunned look on her face, then smiled and said, "Joe'hon…. Who is this?" I realized I was being rude, so I cleared me throat and straightened up and said, "Mom, this is Clara. Clara, I would like you to meet my mother, Adriel, goddess of sunlight." My mother looked nothing like a goddess, except that she was glowing with health and beauty, her skin was the same as mine only lighter, her eyes were like golden sunlight like Beth's, her hair was the same dark brown almost black color as mine, she had the same shape face like Beth's and mine only more feminine then mine, her smile was the same as mine and Beth's, she is up to the near top of my chest in height with a sturdy yet gentle figure, her hands are small and gentle, she wears soft, comfortable motherly clothes with a cooking apron on, the last outfit I saw her in since I was 7. She feels warm and welcoming like a mother, and that is all I see her as, my mother, not a goddess, but my mom.

My mom gave me a stern motherly look and said, "Joe'hon, you know it's rude to ignore people, I taught you that didn't I?" I just laughed and her face softened and I said, "Yes, I know you did mom. It's just so good to see you again after so long that I forgot that Clara was here." She just rolled her eyes and reached a hand out to Clara warmly, and said, "It is very nice to meet you Clara." Clara closed her mouth and said, "Like wise." And shook her hand. Mom smiled and said, "I bet you are wondering what I am doing in your dream." Clara said, "I-I-I guess so?" Mom brought us inside and sat us down on my family couch, then sat in her knitting chair and started, "Well, as much as this dream is yours, it is in a place of my son's memory, and since I am a goddess I take the phrase, 'live on in loving memory' literally. I'm able to enter this dream because in this memory I am still alive and well, and because Joe'hon is my son. Also, I wanted to talk to Joe'hon, so I tried to get to him yesterday but he woke up before I could talk to him, so once he fell asleep again I pulled him back to where he was so we could talk. I didn't even know that he was here with someone else until I saw you at the door, I am so sorry for pulling you into his dream from….where ever you were, actually where are you right now? In the real world I mean." I know that I am blushing, and I can see Clara blushing as well, but my mom didn't seem to notice this, so she just looked at us expectantly, waiting for her answer. I cleared my throat and said, "Umm. She was with me." Mom looked at me with confusion, as if she didn't quite get it but did at the same time. She looked at Clara then back to me, as if trying to grasp some kind of understanding, she than said, "What do you mean by, 'she was with me.'?" We blushed deeper, and then I think she got it, but her reaction was more violent then should have been necessary, she stood up and looked enraged, and said, "Joe'hon. What do you mean by, 'she was with me.'? Was she just in the room, sleeping in her bed?" I was stunned, she want from enraged to slightly panicked, I mean I know that a girl sleeping in the same room with a boy is supposed to be some sort of bad thing, and that made it awkward enough between me and Clara, but having someone else know about this sort of thing only made it more awkward, even if that someone was only my sister and my mother. I guess having Clara in the same bed as me is something worse, and I couldn't bring myself to say anything, then I remembered what I told Beth, and I knew what I had to say, but when I opened my mouth to speak Clara spoke first, she said, "Umm. Ms. Adriel. I was in his room sleeping, but not in my bed." Mom looked sternly at her and said, "Then whose bed were you in Clara?" I decided to speak this time, I said, "She was in mine." Mom looked at me sternly and said, "And were you on a different bed? Or mat, perhaps?" I shook my head and said, "We were sleeping in the same bed mom, at the same time." And I think mom just might have come to a conclusion that I didn't even know about, because she said, "And what were you two doing in that bed, at the same time?" I decided to stop her there, where ever she was going and said, "Mom calm down, it's not that big of a deal. She sleeps in my bed with me because-" She seemed to explode she shouted, "Not that big of a deal!" And everything became a blur.

She started shaking, and the whole house started shaking with her, she was glowing with power and magic. Then a chair across the room flew towards Clara at blinding speed, but not fast enough. I swung myself in front on Clara, grabbed her and shielded her with my body, and the chair slammed into my back, propelling both myself and Clara off the couch and towards the wall, I twisted my body so that the wall hit me and not her. The force of the impact was hard, and we broke through the wall and landed in the yard, I shielded her as best I could and landed with my back against the ground, tearing in up the ground sending grass and dirt flying everywhere, leaving a path of fresh exposed dirt in my wake. We slammed into a tree and it cracks under the force of the impact, swaying and dropping leaves on us. I can feel the pain, but it feels numb and distant, I feel mine and Clara's heavy breathing, she is still in covered by my arms and I know that I need to move so I unfurl my arms and lift her shoulders to help her look at me, she looks shaken but not injured, I feel a release of pressure in my chest as I let out my breath, she looks at me in horror and says, "Joe'hon, your bleeding!" She gets up unsteadily, and puts her hands to my head, and I feel the pain spike intensely, she said, "Don't move, you have a cut on your head, and your back is all torn up." She came down to my face, and I saw that her hands were covered in blood, my blood. She had tears in her eyes, and was crying, I saw my mother fly out of my house and land 18 feet behind Clara, a look of rage on her face, until she saw me. Her eyes widened, and then she covered her mouth and stifled a sob and fell to her knees. She looked at me and the look of sorrow and regret was plastered on her face, and I forgave her immediately, but I couldn't move. Clara griped my face, and kissed me deeply, and I could feel her magic surge stronger then I have ever felt it before, and I started to feel tired, she pulled away and but her hand on my heart and whispered into my ear, "You promised." And my magic started to work, but just then I heard a terrible cracking sound and Clara looked up and fell backwards, I looked up and the tree that I crashed into started to fall towards her. Before I knew it I lunged forward and put my hands above our heads, and caught the tree. She looked up at me in fascination and my magic surged as my body healed completely, and I flung the tree as far from us as possible, I crouched down and asked her, "Are you alright?" she nodded, then wrapped her arms around me and cried into my shoulder, and said, "I thought I almost lost you." I hugged her and said, "Never."

She laughed and kissed me, and I didn't care that my mom was standing 10 feet away, staring at us, I just enjoyed the fact that we were both together. Our magic swirled around us and the light of the sunset turned brighter and more beautiful than I have ever seen before, when we pulled away, I gently touched her cheek and said, "I love you. And I will always be there for you." She smiled and said, "I love you, and will always love you. Forever and always." I wanted to kiss her again, but I heard the sound of footsteps against the grass, and had to look at my mother again. She looked unsteady, but said, "I am so sorry. I never meant to do that, my magic got away from me and lashed out at you two." I smiled and laughed and said, "Mom stop beating yourself up. We're fine, nothing broken and the house and tree and grass will fix it's self when we leave." She relaxed, then looked at Clara and me and said carefully, "Can you explain why she was in your bed with you?" I laughed and said, "Do you want the short version or the long one?" She smiled and said, "The short one for now." I gripped Clara's hand and said, "She sleeps in my bed because she has nightmares about her parent's death when she is alone, and I ward them off, we really haven't thought too much about it. Over the years, we have slept in the same bed, I have sung her to sleep with that song you always sang to me when I was little, and she was given the choice of the temple the first night she slept in my bed. And it turned out that, she was in love with me, and I with her, so we have been together only about a week, but have known each other since we were ten, I saved her life." I looked at mom again, "So mom, what did you have to talk to me about?"

Chapter 23

THIS IS THE STRAGEST DAY EVER. First I found out that Joe'hon had a sister, or Half-sister, then I find out that he is half-god, which I guess I should have known to begin with, then I find out that I am half-god as well. Lastly, I meet Joe'hon's mother, who is a goddess and a very nice women, but she tries to kill me! Well it was an accident but still, not cool. And she would have killed me, if Joe'hon hadn't saved my life, again. Now that everything is in order, Joe'hon has asked what she is here to talk about. Adriel said, "Joe'hon it is vitally important that I tell you that you must keep your sister safe at all times, being your mother and hers but you two never knowing each other has been hard, and now you must protect her because you are now a big brother. You are going to have to take my job and steer her on the right path and one more thing." She leans in close to Joe'hon's ear and whispers something, but I can hear it, "Keep the boys off of her please? I can't give her advice on boys so keep the bad ones away from her, ok?" Joe'hon nods, and smiles slightly. Then Adriel turns her attention to me, and says, "Who exactly are you to my son? What do you want from him?" I'm stunned, I don't know what she means or why she needs to know that, but I guess since she is Joe'hon's mother it's a good question to ask. I say, "Umm, I don't know exactly. But I don't want anything from Joe'hon, except to be with him." She nods and I feel relief, she looks to Joe'hon again and says, "I must leave you now, and I don't expect I will be able to talk to you again for some time. So good bye my son, and give my best wishes to your sister." She hugs Joe'hon then turns and disappears. Then we wake up.

When I wake up, I'm still in Joe'hon's arms, I sit up and he lets go of me, looking at my with something that looks like shyness, I laugh and say, "What? Let's just forget about it and enjoy the rest of our day." He looks at me doubtfully, and I say, "Please? Let's just forget about who our parents are, and get ready. We have to be in the field by sunrise." He finally relaxes and sits up, he smiles and said, "We better hurry, I don't think Beth will want to wait anymore." We get up and hurry to the fountain chamber, and he lets me go first like he always does, and while I'm under the hot water I need to think. What just happened? Wait, I don't care, all that matters now is that Joe'hon and me are together. I finish and dress quickly and call him in, after he is dressed I can't help but walk up to him and kiss him. I feel so alive and free whenever I kiss him, and that just makes me love him more, and when the tank of water starts bubbling we laugh. I look up at Joe'hon's loving eyes and think about what will we do in the future? I don't care as long as I'm with him. We run outside and find Beth leaning against the temple door way, tapping her foot impatiently, her face looks like she is about to laugh, and when we reach her, I said in a singsong voice, "Morning Beth! Beautiful day isn't it?" I feel so light and happy today I feel ridiculous, but I can't help it. Her eyes widen and she says, "My aren't you in a good mood today. What took you guys so long? Were you guys making out so long that you forgot that you have a class to teach today?" I felt the Blush and I saw that Joe'hon was blushing as well, I hissed at her, "Beth, we have been over this, we aren't like that." Then Joe'hon cleared his throat and said, "We're late, let's go." Joe'hon took both mine and Beth's hand and we ran to the field and found the usual crowed all talking in their groups. When we ran to the middle of the field, the girls all looked at us with wide eyes, and I guess it's because Joe'hon wasn't wearing his shirt again and he had two girls hand in hand with him. We let go of his hand and stood by Ingrid, she looked up at me and smiled adorably and said, "Your hair looks pretty today." I smiled at her and said, "So does yours." Joe'hon started speaking, "Today we will continue with yesterday's lesson, magic in battle. Who wants to go first?" All the girls hand went up, and he walked around until he pointed to a girl and said, "You can be first today." The girl smiled smugly at the rest of the girls behind her and walked to Joe'hon. They took their sides and Joe'hon said, "Begin!"

While Joe'hon was teaching with all the girls, I sat to the side and talked with a small group of girls on some barrels. We were talking about something, but I wasn't paying attention, I was too busy watching Joe'hon, gleaming in the sunlight, moving like the wind, and as powerful as a god. Then I saw something. It was a gleam off of some shiny material, I looked closer and squinted my eyes, and it was a helmet, of a guard. I didn't know why the guard was there, but soon I noticed many more helmets around the field, surrounding us. I decided that it was my turn now, and went to Joe'hon and summoned some swords, he smiled at me, but I wasn't looking at him, we rushed forward and clashed swords and I whispered to him without moving my lips, "We are being watched. There are guards everywhere." Then I noticed Joe'hon starting to circle me, looking over my shoulder while we spared, then he suddenly stopped, and stood up straight and yelled in a booming voice, "If you are trying to hid from me, you're going to have to do better than that!" The guards abandoned their hiding places and marched over to Joe'hon, hands on their swords, the caption stepped forward and gave a slight bow, he said, "You have been drafted into the guard of Skyrim, a ground soldier, so you will have to come with us. And that was not a request." Joe'hon drew his white sword and stepped in front of me, and the guards drew their swords in response. Joe'hon said in a voice like steel, "If you want me to leave my home, then you will have to do it by force. I haven't killed a guard before, but if you try to separate my from those under my care, then all of you standing before me shall die!" Both sides stood staring at each other, waiting for one side to make a move, then one guard stepped forward and stabbed his sward into the ground, everyone looked at him as he took his helmet off. He was a middle aged man, short hair with a scar running down his face, he bowed deeply to Joe'hon and said, "You must be Joe'hon, I have heard a lot about you. I just wanted to say that I am grateful for you saving my daughter from that beast of a man who attacked her in that ally. She said that you fought with great skill, and that you banished his remains to oblivion, and he deserved it. I want to say that I would be honored it you would join myself and my allies and fight beside me in the fight for Skyrim, and the protection of its people." Joe'hon studied the man for a long time, then looked at me with a look that I will never forget. A look of absolute painful agony. He then sheathed his sword and bowed to the man and said, "I would be honored to join you. But I request that you give me a day to put all of my affaires in order, and to say my good byes." The caption bowed and said, "Meet us at the front gate at sundown, if you fail to appear then you will be hunted down and taken by force. Good day." And with that, they all left. We stood there, in absolute shock. Then Ingrid walked up to Joe'hon and hugged him, and said, "You won't leave us, will you?" He knelt down and kissed her fore head and said, "I'm afraid I must. You be a good girl for your mama ok?" She said with tears in her eyes, "I promise." He smiled and said, "We are done for today, you can go home now." She turned and ran, whipping tears from her eyes as she left. I could see the look of pain of Joe'hon's face as he turned to the rest of the girls and said, "It was an honor to teach you, all of you. Just remember what I taught you, and you should be alright." Then they all left, most with tears in their eyes, until it was just me and Beth and Joe'hon left standing in that field.

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"…..No…" That was all I could think. I couldn't move, I couldn't think, all I could do was stare at the love of my life, trying to process what was just said. "…He's leaving.." that was what I heard in my head, whispering in the silence, I thought back, "..No, he can't leave." It whispered back, "He has to." I didn't want to believe it. Joe'hon looked at me for the first time since the guard had left, and I saw the flash of the first time I saw him, shorter, less built, brave as a lion, standing among the remains of the Drauger he had killed, looking at me, with that silver ring of light in his eyes, the same as the ones I see now. I saw every moment that we were together, every day, every walk, every chore, every night... Every dream. My body walked forward by its self, and I wrapped my arms around him and shut my eyes and begged all the gods that this wasn't happening, that he would push this away like my nightmares. I felt Beth wrap her arms around Joe'hon as well, and he embraced us both. We cried for a long time, I don't know how long, until he pulled away from us and looked at us both with tears in his eyes. Then we went back to the temple, and there were a lot of tearful goodbyes and good wishes, along with numerous blessings from the divines wishing good travels, he hugged Beth and she left crying, running as fast as she could to her house before she started embarrassing herself. We walked around the town and he said his goodbyes to everyone who knew him, and then packed his bags, taking everything with him except for his magic dagger, which he left for me, and walked out of the temple and though the town to the front gate. When we arrived at the gate, the guards were standing by a large wagon, the caption was standing in front of the back of the wagon holding his helmet under his arm, and there was a crowd of people standing around the wagon to bid the new guards farewell. I walked behind Joe'hon until the crowd ended, and I stood at the center of the crowd, as Joe'hon, dressed in his new guard armor with his helmet under his arm and his knapsack over his shoulder, walked calmly towered the caption.

As I watched him walk away from me, knowing that saying goodbye was too painful to bare for both of us, I couldn't help myself. I shouted, "JOE'HON!" and ran forward, he turned around just as I launched myself up, and wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. He dropped all of his things, and held me as he returned my kiss, and I didn't care that everyone was watching, that everyone now knew that we were together, I just didn't care. I couldn't say goodbye, so this was my goodbye. When he set me down he held my hands, and he put them together and placed an object into my hands and gently closed them around it. He put his forehead to mine and whispered, "I will never be far away from you. This will let you contact me every 5th day. Only read the imprint on the back, and you will see me, no matter where I am, you will see me." He kissed my forehead, and picked up his helmet and knapsack and walked to his caption. The caption clapped him on the shoulder, and climbed into the wagon with him, the others piled in, and Joe'hon got in last. As the wagon pulled away, he looked at me, eyes shining with the silver that has been my safe hold for years, and put on his helmet and disappeared into the distance.

part two coming soon.

Sneak peak at my next book: A SKYRIM TALE; part two

Chapter secret

"WELL THIS DIDN'T GO AS PLANED." I thought this to myself as I walked among the rest of the guards and guard initiates. "First," I thought to myself, "I had to leave Clara, which was defiantly the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Second, our wagon broke down on the third day of our voyage. Forth, my armor is soaked, my boots are full of mud, I'm tired and hungry, and I have been walking all day without break. Well I guess it could be worse, we could be attacked by a storm Atronach, wolfs could attack us, robbers could try to steal from us, oh maybe a giant camp or two, that would be just peachy." I was thinking all of this as I walked through the pouring rain along with the others, all who were probably just as miserable as I was, as we headed toward our destination, Riften. We have been walking about 14 hours, and it is just now becoming dark out, we are almost to the river where it separates us from the mountain, and none of us want to go over the mountain, especially not at night. I don't care what we do, I just want to rest, and my luck seemed to be with me when the caption announced, "Alright, lets break camp here. Get the fire going and set up the camp." I have never felt so relieved in my life. We set up the tents and while I was fastening mine to the ground, the two guards starting the fire started arguing, one said, "The bow string and stick is the best way to start the fire." The other argued, "No, the rock on rock works better." I just rolled my eyes, and walked over to them. I said, "How about this?" I stepped over to the fire pit wood pile and summoned flames and shot into the wood, and the fire roared to life with gusto. The guards looked at me like I was absolutely repulsive, but it was hard to tell because we all wore our helmets, all the time, I could only tell because of the grumbles coming from their helmets. As I was walking back to my tent I heard one of them say, "—should have thought of that. Dumb punk-." I just smiled under my helmet, feeling a little smug, until the caption appeared in front of me, then my smile suddenly disappeared. The caption was the only one in our group who didn't have to wear his helmet, so the look on his face was clear to me, he said, "Since you seem to have some spunk left, you can take first watch." I had to try very hard not to snap back a snide comment, and said, "Yes sir."

"Agh, why does it still have to be raining?" I couldn't believe this, it's raining and I'm not allowed to go into my tent because I'm on watch. The rain doesn't bother me, the cold doesn't bother me, it is only the uncomfortableness of being surrounded by trees and having almost no visibility. But the only good thing about being alone was that I could think, and the only thing I wanted to think about and the only thing I could thing about was Clara. It's been three days since the last time I saw her, and tomorrow her mirror that I gave her will let us see each other and talk for the first time since I left. "I miss her. So much." I didn't know what I would do without her, I was miserable beyond comparison, but then again, I felt that no matter how hard this is for me, it must be even worse for her. Her nightmares will come back with a vengeance without me there, and that thought almost destroyed me. I thought about the short nap I had on the wagon before it broke down, and my grandfather was back, arm out stretched, waiting for me to 'except my birthright', whatever that means. I felt that I would need the power he told me about soon enough, but I didn't want it, and he told me that once I excepted I could never go back, and that didn't feel right with me. But I just sat there in the rain, thinking about Clara, Her bright yellow blonde hair, her perfect bright green eyes, her soft skin, her voice so lovely I wanted to melt, everything about her was perfect to me, and I would never let her go. But what bothered me the most was that she was now alone, without me there to protect her, and the thought terrified me. "I won't let anything hurt her, no matter what the cost, no matter how powerful the foe, I will protect her even at the cost of my own life." But I could never so that to her, if I died it would destroy her.

While I was lost in thought I didn't notice the skeletons surrounding the camp, armed with bows and swords, silently stalking in toward the camp. I heard a sound, like a bow string being drawn, and snapped out of my thoughts, and became aware of the enemies, I shouted as loud as I could, "TO ARMS! PROTECT YOURSELFS!" The skeletons fired at me first, multiple arrows coming at me from all sides, I drew my sword, Dawnbreaker, and deflected the arrow as fast as I could then ran at the skeletons with my sword raised and shouted, "FOR THE EMPIRE!" mostly because that was what the men wanted us to say when we attacked, if I could I would threaten them to the underworld. I noticed the soldiers coming out of their tents, with swords drawn but stumbling around in confusion, I charged the enemies and slashed with the speed and swiftness of light, cutting down one after another, some exploded from the effect of my sword, causing the ones around them to catch fire and flee but I wouldn't relent, I want into a daze as I cut them down and when I stopped, there was no skeletons left surrounding the camp. When I stopped and took a deep breath to calm myself, I listened for any other threats but heard none. I looked at the guards to check that all of them were alive and unharmed, and found them staring at me with their mouths open. Or I assumed that their mouths were open, because I could hear their gasps and stutters, then I realized that some of them hadn't even drawn their swords yet. The captain walked up to me looking at me like I was from another land, he said, "How did you do that?" when I tried to answer he stopped me and said, "You didn't even look like you were trying and yet you moved like the wind, we almost couldn't keep up with our eyes, and our minds are still trying to understand what we just saw right now." He was so close that I could smell his breath, and I could smell whisky and drought, I thought, "He was drinking. Maybe he should be the one on view right now." But the captain continued, "I will ask one time and I expect a straight answer or I swear I will arrest you for sleeping on watch, and yes I know that because they got closer than they should have been able to with someone on watch." I didn't know what to say, maybe that I was just a good swordsmen? I looked him in the eye and told him, "I am a part of the legion now, and I am self-taught in combat, I have trained for years and I used magic to propel my-self faster so that I could save you all."

The captain couldn't argue with that. He looked around and told the rest of the troops to get some sleep before we move out, he told me to keep watch again, but I felt some hidden respect coming off of him, along with suspicion. I sat down again after casting a detection spell around the camp so that I could get some sleep without any surprises. As I slept I could only think of Clara, how she must be destroyed by the dreams by now, and I drifted off with the image of her face in my mind. The last time I saw her.