The Dragoness

Chapter 2

Cnorth

Disclaimer: The Wheel of Time and all related concepts belong to Robert Jordan.

Lori Taylor had been interested in fate and destiny her entire life. Chelli thought it was all just so much rubbish no matter what she said though, so of course Lori had been ignored when she tried to tell Chelli that she was destined to be possibly the most powerful woman in the entire world.

Chelli had what could only be called a normal upbringing…her mother worked for a major department store chain in a white-collar position, her father ran a business over the internet. For a kid in the '90's, Chelli was the epitome of normal. She had a younger brother, with whom she was close, but no more so than usual with a loving sibling relationship. She shared an uncanny bond with her mother, however, to the point where the two were never separated without some form of contact every day. If anything, the only unusual circumstance in Chelli's past was her birth itself…

It was a warm day for November, in the year 1986 when Chelli's parents had gone camping, not expecting to have a child on the top of Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina, since the woman was only 6 months pregnant. Unable to reach a hospital in time, they had settled for having an older man who was half American Indian deliver the child on the slopes of the mountain. This had been Lori's grandfather, who had done this not knowing that his own granddaughter was going to be inexplicably interwoven with the fate of these unusual people.

Lori's family on both sides had a history of gifts which tended to be associated with shaman magic, including precognition, and elemental control. Usually, the thinner the blood was in a person, the less gifts they had, but in this particular family, they somehow always bred true. Lori herself was extremely powerful, but her mother was a skeptic, and though she might very well have had the power, she refused to believe in it, and certainly wouldn't use it. Therefore, the girl had found a great deal of problems staring her in the face about the practice of her own magic…if her mother so much as smelled a candle, she was doomed. So, with traditional magic out of her reach, she was limited to just those few family gifts…which weren't very conclusive when you had a friend looking for proof that you really were magical. Especially since Chelli was a firm believer in coincidence.

Lori was startled out of her revery by her cell phone ringing. She swore, digging through her black hole of a purse for the small gadget, and hurriedly answering the call when she saw it was Hollie.

"Hey, Holls. What's up?"

"Jenny's been shot, Chelli's tracking down the marksman, and I'm freaking the hell out!" the blonde said in a panicked tone. While she was usually fairly okay, temper wise, a scared Hollie was a very bad thing. Lori arched an eyebrow, her head busy trying to take in the first two parts of the statement, and not worrying to much about the third part. Not that she wasn't worried about Hollie, of course… the girl was one of her best friends. But freaking out was a step down the worry scale from being in mortal danger or going Lara Croft on some guy's ass. And she wouldn't put it past Chelli to do just that…the girl had quite a temper, and while she usually kept it under control quite well, when her friends were hurt it tended to come out with a vengeance.

"Where are you? I'm on my way!" she said, bolting towards her car, keys jangling loudly as she struggled to get the door open. The fact that the others were more than likely a state away made no difference to her…an emergency was an emergency, and she sped even in the best of situations.

"We were shopping in Knoxville…" Hollie murmured, her breathing easily heard as she struggled to keep from having a panic attack. Lori cursed loudly; of course they were in one of the few places she didn't know like the back of her hand in Tennessee (what could she say, she loved shopping!!). Scribbling directions with her left hand, steering with her right, and holding the phone between her head and her shoulder she was quickly on the highway headed in their direction.

Chelli scrambled up the fire escape, trying to be as quiet and fast as possible as she crept up to the roof that the shooter had first fired from. If she could track him down before the cops got to him, maybe she could keep him distracted long enough to get the gun away from him so no one else could get hurt. The fact that he had hurt Jenny and obviously scared Holls half to death was bad enough…and Chelli was damn pissed. No one hurt her friends, it just didn't happen. At least no one who had any sense of self preservation.

With a grin, she launched herself over the edge of the roof, ducking in case the shooter noticed her movement. Hearing no gunfire, she looked up and was shocked to see the roof was empty. However, a tiny fragment of cloth was stuck on the far side of the building, next to the fire escape over there. She grabbed it, careful not to touch anything and leave fingerprints. She didn't want the cops to think SHE was responsible for this, after all. Glancing over the edge, she caught a brief glimpse of a man in black pants and a white shirt, a blue jacket and black shoes dodging into the crowded street below. This street was on the opposite side from the road she had been on earlier, so the gunfire hadn't scared any shoppers away from here. She tried to fix the man's image in her mind, then slowly continued down the other side of the fire escape to go back to her friends, her muscles complaining as the adrenaline rush quickly died down. She might be in shape, but even she wasn't really up for all the acrobatics she had done in the last ten minutes or so.

"You what?" Chelli yelled, unable to keep her calm when Hollie guiltily admitted that in addition to calling the cops, she had called Lori. The girl was ultimately an alarmist, and sure enough, Hollie then proceeded to admit that she was on her way here, now. Lori barely knew Jenny, but of course, even a little was enough when it came to someone being shot. A soft groan came from Jenny.

"Can't you guys keep it down a little? I'm kinda tired from being SHOT!" the blonde muttered, clearly irritated at the other two.

Glaring at Hollie's cell phone, since she was unable to stay mad at Hollie herself for long, she echoed Jenny's groan, and crossed her arms in a huff, just waiting for the lecture she was going to get when Lori got there about going after someone who could probably have killed her.

What a lousy day this was turning out to be. Really, what could go worse?