SQ: Thanks for the comments on my last chapter! The new favorites and follows make my day.
[Chapter 18: The Snatched Bear]
Hoarfrost lifted her gaze. "Orion, perfect timing. Sit," she whispered.
The gang shifted to make room for Orion. Orion nodded, then shoved Raven onto the chair beside her bed. Raven landed with a thump, twisting her arm underneath her. She cried out. The others laughed. Even Orion joined in. But of course she would.
"Did you have your fun?" Hoarfrost asked, tilting her head towards Raven. Raven frowned.
Orion smiled and slipped in between Meji and Hoarfrost, sitting cross-legged. "Enough," she replied.
Orion held out her hands, palms up, and the others did the same. They twined their fingers together. Formed a linked circle.
Raven narrowed her eyes. She pushed herself higher in the seat. Their knees also touched, two forms of contact, creating two separate circles one atop the other. The linked circle. The one to begin and end the soul snatch.
The Soul Snatched bear roared into Raven's memory. The great brown bear Bal had grappled with, forcing it down. The testament of his true strength. He locked the bear in a fire cage.
They had been in the woods that day, preparing for the ritual. Their first try, jitters where high. Antsy. But they were far away from civilization, far enough away to think nothing bad would happen. That nothing bad could happen. Great spruce trees towered over them, their scent filled the air. Raven distinctly remembered the needles poking her legs when she sat down.
They formed the linked circle. Chanted. Meji's sun dragon hovered in the center. Orion's moon magic, dim but included. Bal's red and Hoarfrost's white magic combining in the center, forming a pool underneath the dragon. Raven's darkness convalescing into a claw. It seemed perfect, their magic combined, a perfect balance. They tried to snatch the bear's soul. Raven's darkness clawing at the beast, rushing through it and grabbing its being.
Failed.
The bear roared. The fire cage flickered, whispered smoke. Whispered weakness.
Raven wanted to stop. She even started to disconnect, to will her magic back to her. But Hoarfrost pushed past that failure and tried again, going against Raven's cries. Hoarfrost forced them to try again. This time they succeeded, if only partially. A large part of its soul came to them. Hovered over them, pure power flowing into them. The bear's great strength and sheer power.
But a small portion remained with the bear.
The creature couldn't survive with that little soul left. Raven didn't know how but the beast seemed to take new energy from the attempt. Seemed to turn into a deadlier force, a wicked force. Bal's fire cage couldn't hold it. The beast charged at them.
Raven could still feel the spittle from the creature's foaming blackened mouth splash onto her cheek. She could still see the great clumps of fur falling from the bear. The burned skin underneath. The blood-red agony in the bear's eyes.
The others had frozen, they didn't know what to do. So Raven tried to stop the creature, but the bear acquired magic of its own from the failed ritual. Raven's darkness didn't even slow it down.
Hoarfrost attacked, sliced with her powers without looking. Raven couldn't believe that her old lover fired her powers with her eyes closed, screaming the entire time. The white magic speared toward the battle. Missed. Hit Raven instead. Cut her thigh open in once icy blast. Blood poured out from injury.
Raven's tortured yell must've awaked the others. If Orion hadn't been there to staunch the wound, Raven would have died that day. She almost bled out.
In the end, Bal forced the bear down and Meji finished burning the creature to death with his sun-power. Luckily it worked. But the bear managed to get one last bite into Bal's arm. Orion fixed it. Days later Meji created a tattoo over it, but Raven could still see the four distinct puckering areas beneath the black ink. A scar of their failed attempt.
Raven's thigh ached. She carried her own scar. One that reminded her too much of the ritual, and too much of her old lover's almost fatal mistake. Raven had fallen out of love with Hoarfrost. Fallen out of love with her old gang and their rituals. Fallen out of love with her old life, even, and had come to Titan's Tower.
She blinked away her memories and rubbed her hand over her leg. The wound still hurt her, years after the fact.
And these idiots were trying it again. And not with one soul, but with thousands. With her friends, too. With Starfire. The group chanted, murmuring their spells, combining their power. Even now, Meji's dragon flickered in and out of life. Glaring at the group, Raven stood. Swayed. The white thread connecting her to Hoarfrost glowed. Pulsed even. It sucked power from her. But Raven didn't care anymore.
Yes, Starfire and Orion had formed a plan. Yes, they seemed to have everything under control. Yes, Raven probably should listen to them. To Starfire. But they had already started the soul snatch ritual. Starfire and the others were nowhere to be seen. And anger burned in Raven's chest, spreading down her shoulders, all the way to her fingertips. She seethed with it.
Raven couldn't want to wait any longer.
She was powerless, maybe. But Raven didn't need her power for what she wanted to do. Lifting the lamp from her bedside table, Raven threw it at the circle. Threw it at the magic growing there. Threw the damn lamp straight at Hoarfrost.
SQ: I wrote this in half an hour, at work, in the spell of writing madness. It was fun! Plus, I did want to show the first soul snatch in its entirety, and how Raven got that throbbing wound.
So, how do you think Hoarfrost is going to react? 1) Will she slap Raven? 2) Ignore Raven? or 3) Lip-lock Raven into submission?