A Tale of Two Torrents

By Dixxy

Chapter Twelve: The Chosen Mate

(Sara)

Anubis and Ria brought us straight to Mike's mansion. There, we found our fellow Ronins all pacing back and fourth, Mike and Cara looking very stressed out as well. Once they all saw us, Cye and I were pretty much swamped by our comrades. Keisha, Sam, and Rona were all throwing dozens of questions at me at once, Kento and Sage were checking Cye for every disease known to mankind and Sue Lee was being smothered by Mike.

Ria cleared her throat. "I believe that we need to know exactly what happened to these two before we proceed, ne?" she said. Seeing that she was right (and for once, serious about something), the others sat down and gave Cye, Sue Lee, and I a chance to breathe. The Gruff went over to my chair and rested his head in my lap getting several shocked stares.

"Don't worry, he's all right," Cye reassured everyone.

"What IS he?" asked Rona.

"A Gruff, from the looks of it, maybe two to three years old," said Anubis.

"Two to three years? How long do Gruffs lives?" asked Sue Lee.

"They have roughly the same life span as humans, so assuming he takes care of himself, he should be fine. Does he had a name?" asked Cara. Cye and I shook our heads. "How about if we worry about his name, later. He seems to like you guys a lot. So do tell us what happened."

Cye and I relayed the story to the others. Several responses included, "Ooo", "Ahh", "Ow! He'll be feeling that one in the morning!" "Bastard!", low lying snickers, snorts of laughter, and other minute comments people uses when other people are telling them a story. You've heard them all before.

"There's still a few things that puzzled, us," said Cye. "The Ancient One AND Termini called Sara a. . . Chosen Mate. And that thing that happened when that man went after Sara and he couldn't touch her. None of it makes any sense!" He threw his hands into the air and sighed heavily. "Now that we've gotten our heads back on straight, I'm worried about her."

"I wouldn't be," Cara said darkly. "Those two events walk hand in hand."

Kento raised an eyebrow. "What exactly IS a Chosen Mate, anyways?"

"A Chosen Mate is someone who is 'promised' to someone else- similar to being betrothed. Who they've been promised too becomes the only person that they can touch intimately, and in most cases, the reverse is also true," said Anubis. He cleared his throat. "The Age of Legends, what we're in now, is powerful not only because the Ronins all have an extra attribute to them that makes them all the more dangerous and the fact that the Child of Destiny was born, but because partners in arms have related, if not identical, attributes."

"Right. Just like how I'm a Flitteree and Sam's half-Amazon. Those two races were the controlling people of the Nether Realm, so that's the connection between those two," said Sage. "Then that means Keisha is some kind of a psychic and Ria and Rona will have similar or identical powers to the powers Ryo and Rowen weld."

"Precisely," said Anubis. "Now, what would be similar to the Child of Destiny?"

Not surprisingly, no one answer. Anubis nodded. The room remained eerily quiet as we all exchanged looks, wondering what our teacher was getting at. Eventually most eyes settled on Kento. Kento shrugged and pointed at Anubis. We all turned to him to see he was waiting to give us his answer.

"The only similar thing to the Child of Destiny would be someone else who had a Warlord for a father or a Warlady for a mother. We would've figured out if Mr. Lewis wasn't Sara's real father by now, and it's difficult to camouflage a pregnant Warlady. That means that something had to be invented."

I lowered my head. "I was promised to Cye to give me a connection to him for the Age of Legends, wasn't I?" I said quietly. Anubis lowered his head, not seeming to have much of an answer. Cye gave me an odd look, a mixture of emotions in his eyes that I couldn't read. I stood up and walked out of the room.

"Sara, where are you-" Keisha tried to ask.

"I need to be alone."

I went out onto Mike's roof to watch the stars. Even though they're Rona's element and not mine, I like them. They're so pretty and bright, like a small child's dream. I relished in their light. I'm sure they were reflected in the frustrated rivulets of tears that were steadily flowing down my cheeks as I silently wept.

It was one thing to be given a destiny as an armor bearer. I could deal with that. The armor helped me deal with everything I came across- all the blood and battles and angst that comes with being a Ronin. I didn't mind that. Heck, if it weren't for the armors, I wouldn't have met some of the best friends I've ever had.

But being promised to Cye was another thing all together. I didn't get to choose who I got to marry anymore. If I ever wanted children, they'd have to be Cye's children. I couldn't get the kind of affection everyone wants and needs from anyone but him. No. My right to choose was gone.

Don't get me wrong, Cye's a nice guy and all, but. . . what if he wasn't? What if I was the partner in arms of some abusive jerk who called me names and beat me or something? What if he didn't have a good work ethic and I was on welfare with a household of seven kids or more to add the income? You REALLY lucked out that Cye's such a sweetheart most of the time, Sara. If he wasn't, you could be in trouble.

I heard footsteps behind me and felt someone sit down. A pair of arms lazily draped themselves around my neck and a head with warm breath rested itself on my shoulder and against my head. I knew who it was. I sniffled a few times. "Please. . . Cye. . . just give me some time alone."

"I'm worried about you," he said softly. He gently took my hands and put them in my lap. I turned my head to look at him. "Mike told everyone to go home after you walked out. My father told me to go find you. He said that we needed to have a long talk about. . . this." He raised a hand and gently wiped some of my tears away. "It's all right, Sara. Just let it flow."

"I don't like loosing my freedom," I said.

"Your freedom?" asked Cye.

"Don't you get it?" I said. "If I ever want to have kids or get married or-"

"Oh," he said. "I get it." He sighed heavily. "You know, my freedom's gone, too."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Anubis said that-"

"He found some scrolls on the Child of Destiny and found out that if he or she is indeed partnered with a Chosen Mate, then yes, they're promised to them, too," he said. "But you know what? I guess it's not so bad. It could be a lot worse when you think about it, right?"

"Right," I said. "You're not really abusive or anything."

"Yeah, I guess so," he said. "And you know, we don't HAVE to get married or anything- there's no law that says you must be married sometime during your lifetime, right? Right. And this is what prevented you from getting raped. This whole thing will guarantee to you that I couldn't cheat on you. So don't worry about it, Sara- you're not in this alone."

I smiled at him and wiped some more of my tears away. "Thank you, Cye," I said.

Cye kissed my cheek. "Not a problem," he said. "Can I help you up?"

"Sure," I said. Cye brought us both to our feet and walked me back to the window we used to get onto the roof. He led me inside, where Anubis stood waiting. The Gruff was behind him, whimpering about something. It bounced over to me and sniffed my hand. I patted it in response.

"Anubis?" Cye asked.

"There's one thing I found out after you left. Sara has a power, too, but we need to figure out what that power is," he said. Cye shook his head. Anubis raised an eyebrow. "What? Aren't you two at least a little interested in knowing what tricks Sara has up her sleeve that we don't know about?"

"I think Sara's had enough thrown at her for one weekend, don't you agree?" said Cye. "What she needs is some much deserved rest and relaxation. Good thing we don't have school tomorrow or else she'd be a bloody mess if anything happened there. Give it a few days."

"I'm all right," I said.

"Yes, and I'm King Henry VIII. Let's get you home so you can get a good night's rest, all right?" said Cye. I narrowed my eyes at him. He snorted. "Oh, c'mon, Sara, just humor me here for a little bit. Let me mother hen you for a while and I'll be happy as a clam. Please?"

"Oh, fine," I said, resting my head on his shoulder. Satisfied with my answer, Cye put an arm around my shoulder and started to walk me out to the front door. Down the hall, down the stairs, and through the living room he took me until we were once again outside in the brisk night air. Kento was outside, Mike's car keys in hand. Cye nodded, and got us both into the back seat. Before long, I was headed home.

I woke up the next morning to a very chilly breeze. I wrapped the blanket more tightly around me, but it didn't help much. I grumbled. I knew what had happened. My mother must have come into my room and opened the window or something- she'd been doing that since I was a baby, back when we lived in Hawaii and an open window meant a refreshing Hawaiian breeze, not a cold Boston wind. God, didn't she realize I wasn't a little kid anymore and if I wanted the stupid window open I could open it myself? No, of course not. I may be fifteen years old and I may be a Ronin Senshi, but NO, I was NOT capable of opening a window by myself.

I stuck my head out from under the covers and suddenly became very scared.