Chapter 4

Potential

As I fell, I laughed. I couldn't believe I was falling off a cliff because I was so careless of where as I was running. I looked down to see where I was falling.

"A river," I thought. "That's just nice. At least I'll die drowning instead of smashing my face into the ground."

Suddenly, I felt that I was floating down instead of falling. Slowly, I drifted down to the water of the river and was set upon it as if it were land. I stood alone and looked around. Eventually I looked up to the steep cliffs above me and saw Jonathin waving down at me.

"Jon!" I yelled up, happily waving back. "What are you doing here?"

"I was killing some of the deranged explorers nearby when I heard laughing, and looked to the way of where I heard it coming from and saw you falling," he called back.

I grinned, but forgot that whatever he had used on me probably wasn't meant to last very long. I ran to the cliffs and started to climb up to where Jon was. I was grateful that he had been there. I hadn't really taken swimming lessons.

When I reached him, I hugged him tightly. "Thank you Jon. You saved my life." Jon patted my back awkwardly as I pulled away from him.

"All in a day's work for the Amazing Jonathin," he flexed and I giggled.

"So what were you doing anyway? How'd you fall?" he asked after a few moments of silence.

I decided to tell him everything that happened after Celeste came back: The present she gave me, where it came from, that she and Jason were in the infiltration of Icecrown Citadel, me freaking out and storming off, not looking where I was going, and running off a cliff, BY ACCIDENT.

Jonathin gave me a bewildered look. "Cool!"

"Not cool! I almost died! But oh well. I need to get back to the inn and apologize. I'll see you later Jon." I summoned my snowy white gryphon to me and mounted it. "Come back to the inn sometime," I said patting Jon's head.

"I will. Now I better get going too. Promised I'd meet Anthony for a raid."

"Good luck," I wished him, flying off on my gryphon, back towards Westguard Keep. I braced myself for a thorough scolding from Syla as soon as I walked in the door.

I had my gryphon land and dismounted it. I checked my pockets and found a treat and fed one to him as I sent him off.

Anxiously, I inched towards the inn. I stepped inside and looked around to see Syla and Eva taking orders, Celeste at her counter with people signing in, Jason at the drink bar, and Snow sitting beside Celeste reading a magazine with Demon, her pet as she was a Hunter, on the floor beside her.

I walked over to Eva. "Did she tell you what I did?" I asked.

Eva only nodded, "She was a little hurt though; guilty and regretful." I felt bad now. I had run off in anger at her for such a stupid reason. She was contributing to a great cause and I still got mad just because she wanted to keep it a secret. How could I have done something like that?

Eva spoke again. "She's thinking of- uh, actually never mind. I never said that."

"What Eva? What is she thinking of?" I asked worriedly.

Eva did not answer me as she headed to the kitchen to announce her orders to the chef. I decided not to bother her more about it and went to the counter where Celeste was. Fortunately she was not taking any sign-ins for the time being. "Celeste, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Celeste looked up at me then glanced at Snow who nodded and took her place at the counter. She led me upstairs but closed the balcony doors before sitting on my bed warily. "River, trust me when I say I really don't want to do this to you, but I have to. It's best for you."

Immediately I knew it had to be something bad; something that would get me so frustrated that I'd run off again, but I'm sure that was the main reason that she closed the balcony doors. Probably so I would listen to reason before deciding that whatever judgment she had made was totally out of line.

Celeste inhaled deeply then exhaled softly before saying, "I'm firing and kicking you out. I really don't want to do this and it's not because you ran away. After giving you that necklace, I need you to see your full potential alone, and without anyone you can be dependent on. I gave the necklace to you specifically because I trust you. You'll see why. The dagger is specifically for that reason. I don't want to explain where I got it, though."

I stood quietly shaking my head in dismay. Celeste didn't say anything, like trying to let me soak it in. I didn't realize that a tear had escaped from my now watery eyes until it ran down my cheek and I felt its warmth.

"Where will I go?" I whispered, more tears coming down.

Celeste sighed. "I'm not sure."

"Syla, Eva and Snow?" I managed to choke out through the tears.

"They will be staying. As I said when I explained, this is specifically for you and you only." Celeste got up and hugged me close. "You are special; especially to me. That's why I'm doing this. So you can learn more about yourself. You have more potential than being here at the inn."

I nodded unable to speak any more and began packing my stuff slowly. When I was done I took everything, including the box with the necklace in one of my bags, downstairs. Snow gave me an arrow and told me to break off a very small piece and tape it to a letter whenever I wrote to her. She had seemed the most against me leaving. She almost seemed ready to follow after me. Syla gave me one of her favorite books and told me to read it no matter how boring to me it may have seemed. Eva didn't really have anything to give me so she just hugged me and spun me around a couple of times. She was really strong.

Jason gave me a free beer bottle which I didn't think I was necessarily going to drink but I took it anyway. Chef Kettleblack gave me some hot Shoveltusk Soup. It smelled really nice but she said only use it in the next few days on a cold night.

I bid all of them farewell and took and deep breath as I left the inn. I went to the sky docks where the zeppelin was. I wasn't boarding it, for it was only used to bomb pirate ships offshore and doesn't necessarily go anywhere. I stared off the docks into the big, orange sun setting upon the horizon.

This was only the beginning.