Mulan and Shang did train together, but it was not Shang teaching Mulan by herself.
"How queer everything is to-day! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I've been changed in the night? Let me think: *was* I the same when I got up this morning?" - From Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland
The magic slammed into his chest and landed him hard on his back. Klaus wheezed as the world rolled before his very eyes. Something rushed towards him and Klaus rolled on the ground. He jumped to his feet just to be slammed to the ground once again.
His mouth filled with dirt and rocks and Klaus spat it out and jumped to his feet again. "You need to stop using that same move," Klaus said as he wiped at his mouth.
"I am not going to stop using it until it becomes useless, which means you need to become better at dodging it," Caroline said standing on a rock high up. She was looking down her nose at him and though Klaus usually hated when people did that it made him want to prove her wrong. "You better get better at dodging!"
Klaus held the shield in his hands. Caroline had insisted that he trained in full battle armor. It was something that Klaus did not see the benefit in, but since they started at sunrise Caroline had not held back.
He watched Caroline as she muttered the spell to herself underneath her breath. Klaus watched, willing himself to see something that he did not see before. The sword that he was holding was blunted but it was still a weapon and he held it out in front of him.
Klaus dodged and then rolled against the ground. The air where he was before shuddered as it slammed into a tree. Caroline whooped with joy and Klaus turned to see her smiling big and bright.
There was something about her face, the light emanated from it. Her smile lit up her face and when she clapped her hands in glee something warmed his heart. He had the same feeling when he was watching Henrik do something amazing for the first time or when he was playing with Rebekah, though she was too big to play with now according to her.
Klaus smiled and Caroline calmed down from her excitement. Caroline readied another spell, the same one from before, and waited for Klaus to get into position. He lifted his shield and raised his sword arm.
The air before her seemed to shimmer for a moment and then the sight disappeared. Klaus rolled away from the hit and the concussive force of the air slammed into the tree that was behind him. Caroline laughed and clapped her hands once more.
Caroline nodded her head. "See! You're getting better. I knew you could do it."
I knew you could do it. Who knew that hearing such words would warm him so much. Who knew that all he needed was someone, anyone, really to believe in him. Elijah believed in him but it was in the pitying sort of way. This was true belief in him and his abilities. Klaus smiled and slammed his sword against his shield.
"Again," he said.
They trained well into the afternoon. Klaus had gotten better at seeing when and and how the magic was going to work. They sat down to eat the food that Caroline had prepared for them. It was a simple lunch but Klaus devoured it as though it was the last meal that he was ever going to get.
"How does the magic look to you, before it comes to you?" Caroline asked as she ate.
Klaus swallowed down his food and tilted his head. "It looks like the air is twitching and jumping. As though something was put inside of it and is causing it to act out of character. And then it disappears."
"And then?"
"The force is shoved outward and though I cannot see it, I can hear it."
"You can hear it?"
"Yes. It is like the air is sucked out from the space in front of me and then I hear this roaring as the air is shoved toward me." Klaus stopped and munched on an apple. Caroline tilted her head and peered at him as though there was something on his face. Klaus wiped a hand against his cheek, trying to swipe some of the juices from his face.
"I have never heard of someone hearing magic before," Caroline said slowly as though she was trying to get him to understand something. The pieces were lost to him though. He did not know what he was supposed to be putting together. He shrugged his shoulders and went back to his apple. Caroline gave a huff and laid down on the ground. "Have you spoken to your father?"
The words doused his mood. He had thought they were going to be speaking more about his training and what else Carolient thought that he should do in order to prepare for his first raid, but now she wanted to sit here and speak about his father?
Mikael was a man that considered everything to be beneath him. He hated how much more effort it took for Klaus to do things that Elijah and Finn could do. The man held a special sort of hatred for Klaus and everything that he did. And for the life of him, Klaus could not understand where the hatred stemmed from.
He remembered moments from his childhood and his father was not any much different in those moments. Klaus thought back. His father was busy with making sure that their family had everything that was needed to survive. Maybe, his father grated against the thought that he was the lone provider for all the children. But other than that Klaus could not think of another reason why his father would be so agitated at the thought of him.
But there was no use in thinking about his father. There was nothing that they could do about their relationship. It was the way that it was and there was nothing that was going to change the situation. Klaus shook his head and Caroline tilted her head.
"Mikael does not treat you the way that a father should. My father -"
She stopped herself, her mouth clicking shut with how fast she closed it. There were moments like these. Caroline always seemed on the brink of sharing something, deepening the relationship between them, but then she would close her mouth as though she was scared to voice anything about her past.
It was something that Klaus was terribly curious about. But there was a truce between the two of them. Klaus would not pry about her past and Caroline would not pry into his family life. The truce was something that they did not have to speak about, it was simply something that was understood between the both of them.
But there were times like this when they were so close to broaching something, but alas, nothing ever came from these moments. It was as though there was a wide gulf before them, secrets and talk separating them and a shaky bridge of conversation was the only thing linking them.
Finishing off the last of his apple, Klaus rose from the ground and patted off his clothing. He offered a hand to Caroline, helping her up from the ground. The two of them made their way back toward the cottage. They had a lot of work ahead of them.
Caroline sighed as she looked down at the snakes. They pooled around her legs and were twining up her arms. They hissed out at one another, but Caroline could hardly think. She was busy thinking about the dream that she had the night before. There was something that happened after she saw Yngvar's daughter dead on the ground.
Something had slithered into her. It had stirred in her mind and she could hear the voice of Yngvar's daughter whispering in her ear as though it was the voice of one of the snakes that she had made friends with.
"She had hair the color of corn and eyes like jade. Her anger ripped through my flesh. Avenge me harbinger! Avenge me!"
The voice was nagging and insistent. And now when she closed her eyes, she could feel the power leaking out of her, the anger that radiated through her… It was a living beast now with more power that she could have ever fathomed. Something inside of her was hungry and angry at the way that Yngvar's daughter had died and it demanded blood.
But Caroline was scared. She had never felt such righteous anger before. It threatened to consume her. It wanted nothing more than to rip and tear. It was demonic in nature. But the more that she ignored it the stronger that it became.
The days had passed and each day, the angry hunger nagged at it. At first it was irritability. Everything and everyone pissed her off somehow and in some way. Then she was ravenous, nothing could satiate her hunger and no water could slake her thirst. And now she was angry once again.
The only thin that was helping her deal with all these emotions whirling inside of her was the morning tainings that she was doing with Klaus, but even that was slowly becoming something that could not take the edge off.
Caroline was standing on the precipice of something. What she did not know, but she knew that she had to do something or else, her magic would turn against someone that she cared about. Not even for a moment had she forgotten what she had done to Klaus. That broken arm of his was something that she kept close to her heart always.
Her magic was something volatile. It was made to attack; it was made to harm others. That is what she was meant to do and Caroline rejected that with everything that she was. She was no monster made to deal damage and kill. She was just a girl and she was going to stay a simple village girl for the rest of her life.
How long she could maintain that facade was something that she did not know.
Walking to the glade where she and Klaus trained, she was happy to see that Kol was there waiting for her. She smiled and ran toward him, hopping onto his back when she was close enough.
Kol gave a jovial hoot, hooked his arms around her legs, and shot off into the trees. They were heading to the falls. Caroline gave a happy shriek as the two of them made their way to their training spot. It seemed that all Caroline was doing was either training with one Mikaelson brother or another. A part of her wondered what Ayana would think of her, doing this. Ayana was not here though, leaving her as the only protector of the village.
Kol lowered her down when they reached the falls. The waterfall was loud, the water crashing down into the pool below. Caroline knew that the falls would get even more beauty farther into the future.
The thought that Emmy, that weird ass witch, had sent in hundreds of years into the past, was something that Caroline sometimes had trouble grappling with. But it was the truth of the matter. Why else were there no phones? Caroline shook her head and settled on her feet.
"Did you practice the spell that I taught you last time?" Caroline asked. "It should be simple considering it's you."
Kol nodded his head. "Yeah. I finished perfecting it the night before and even showed Bekah and Hen what I could do."
Caroline neared him, slapping him on his arm. "You showed Rebekah and Henrik? You know that you aren't supposed to do that. We are training in secret!"
But the warlock rolled his eyes as though there was nothing more interesting than showing off his powers. "Bekah and Hen won't tell Father. They know how to keep a secret."
"That isn't the point," Caroline said with a sag of her shoulders. Caroline would be the first to admit that she was afraid of Mikael. The way that his family was deplorable. He treated his wife as nothing more than a baby making machine and treated his children as punching bags.
She never understood the odd attachment that Mikael seemed to have to her. He treated her as though she was glass. Esther hated her, but Mikael seemed desperate to keep her close and that resulted in her being his ward and the weekly dinners that Caroline had with the family. It was also at these weekly dinners that Caroline saw the open displays of disdain that Mikael had for his family.
If he treated his own family like that then how would he treat her when she lost his favor.
"Teach me another spell," Kol demanded, pulling Caroline from her thoughts. She turned toward him and nodded her head.
"This next spell has to do with setting fire to water," Caroline said. She explained the mechanics of the spell to Kol, the words and the level of focus and then she set him on his own to try and discover how to make it work for him.
Caroline water. On his fifth try he was beginning to get the hang of it. Something in Caroline rumbled.
Everything came so easy for Kol. All the magic that Kol was being taught seemed to soak into him as though he was a sponge. Spells that took Caroline days to master, Kol could understand in the matter of hours. Caroline was slowly running out of things that she could teach him. Without Ayana there to teach her something new, she was on her own.
"Got it!"
Caroline's eyes narrowed on to Kol and she watched as he reached out a hand. There on the pool of water, fire danced. Kol smiled, throwing the full strength of his smile to Caroline. Something in her blood boiled.
Everything came so easy to him. He never had to worry about hurting people. Not the way that Caroline had to worry about hurting people. The unnamed hunger and anger surged through her. She blinked and Kol was on the ground, a snake wrapped around him, constricting.
Kol wheezed as the snake tightened. Caroline's eyes widened. With just a hiss, the snake pulled away from Kol and Caroline rushed forward. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry," the apologies just tumbled out of her. She had no clue what she was thinking. She didn't know how that happened.
Where the hell had the snake come from? There were no snakes in the area as she controlled them all and they hunted only when Caroline demanded they do so. Kol gasped and coughed.
"Caroline…" Kol looked up at her with those wide eyes and something broke inside of her. No, Kol could not be like everyone in this town. He was her one and only friend. He could not leave her. Tears gathered in her eyes.
Magic was something that Ayana, Kol, and Esther used so easily. Caroline was also a witch, but she could only use her magic to hurt people. Her magic only hurt others. The tears poured out of her. She had almost hurt Kol.
Kol patted her back as he began to ask her what was wrong. The words tumbled out of her. She told him of what had been happening since she found Yngvar's daughter and the emotions that she had experienced since then. When she was done crying she was hollow. All the emotions that had been bottled up inside of her were out and she was left with nothing but the emptiness.
The emptiness was preferable to the anger.
Kol nodded his head for a moment. "I think you need to ask her," was all that he said. Caroline froze.
She knew what he meant. Caroline who her was but it was something that she was hoping to avoid. The witch that had sent her here. She haunted her dreams with messages and dreams. There were moments when Caroline thought she saw the witch in her peripheral. The witch that had sent her here, probably knew what was wrong with her, but Caroline felt something cold slither down her spine.
The fire, the abandoned building in the middle of the woods. Caroline could remember everything about the witch and the ritual she did to send Caroline to the past. The last image before she found herself in the past was of the witch's acid green eyes, alive and bright on her face. They jumped out of her face like the watching eyes of God and Caroline could feel them on her like they were a finger, pressing down and trailing over her body.
Caroline knew that the witch would know what was wrong with her, but to ask… The woman spoke in riddles. Only she understood what she was speaking about. If Caroline went to her all she would get is more confused about what was going on. But then again what other options did she have? Either she continued the way that she was or she asked for help.
She nodded her head. "I'll ask her."
Kol seemed to sigh in relief at her words. Then he jumped up from where he was. "You should have seen the way that the snake slithered out of grass. It was so fast you would have thought it was a dragon!"
He began his rendition of events and Caroline listened with half a mind. The other half of her was roiling at the thought of what she was about to do tonight.
Klaus was standing by the house waiting for Caroline when she saw him coming from the woods. She parted ways with Kol and something inside of him twisted at the thought of the two of them becoming friends.
Caroline was helping him and allowing him to stay in the cottage with him, but something twisted in his chest at the thought that there was something between Kol and Caroline. The two of them had always been close, but something about that closeness bothered him now. But Klaus had never been the type for deep introspection and so he settled with that uneasiness in his chest.
Caroline came to the cottage and the two of them began to get the evening meal ready. It was quiet with the only sound being Caroline singing a song to herself. Klaus could feel that uneasiness, that knot in his chest, get worse and worse with every moment that the two of them shared.
"What were you doing with Kol in the forest?" Klaus asked. Caroline paused in her singing. She considered her words. And the knot in Klaus's chest tightened more and more.
"I am teaching Kol magic," Caroline said after a moment. That did nothing to relieve the feeling in his chest. He thought of the smile that she had graced him with this morning. The light that had shone out from her face. She was showing that to someone else. And his own brother no less.
"Father has forbidden him from learning magic." The fact that he was leaning on his father of all people was not lost on him, but he needed to do something, anything. Caroline furrowed her brow and turned to look at him. "That is woman's work."
Caroline looked affronted. "There are several magic users who are men. Magic is something that comes to us all in some form or another. That is what Ayana says at least. And Kol is a natural mage. He could very well surpass us all one day."
There was a quiet pride in her voice. The more she spoke about Kol and his prowess the bigger her smile got. Something prowled around in his chest. He could hear Father in his ears telling him how worthless he was, how useless he was. Elijah was better; Finn was better.
Kol was better.
"You should stop teaching him before he reveals something to Father and you bring down his wrath," Klaus said, his voice rough. "Besides, what use is magic when we have swords?"
"What do you think swords are superior to magic?" Caroline asked.
"It is better at getting the job done. Spells take too long and all it brings about is more problems. I mean you yourself told me that magic always has a drawback. I rather be a warrior than deal with the finicky nature of magic."
Something about his words seemed to hit Caroline in her chest. She shriveled and some of the light that always seemed to shine out of her face seemed to dim. Caroline just nodded her head.
"Yeah, you're right," and then she turned back to cooking. Klaus stared at her. That was not what he wanted. That was not the reaction he was hoping for. His mouth opened and closed. He did not want to dim her light, he just wanted her to stop sneaking around with Kol.
Klaus picked up the knife and went back to chopping. They were silent the rest of the night.
"You have finally decided to seek him out."
The area was frozen. They were back in the abandoned building. The ring of fire was alight. The darkness stark against the light of the flames. Emmie sat down from the other side of the ring of fire and Caroline stood there in the center of the flames.
"What is happening to me?" Caroline asked.
"You are blossoming into a young woman. You are coming into your power," Emmie said with a clap of her hands. "You are becoming what you have been destined to become."
Caroline shook her head. "But the anger and the rage -"
"All natural my dear. It comes with the territory. You will feel this until you do what you have been tasked to do."
"And what is my task then?" Caroline had to asked despite the fear that was gripping her stomach.
"To avenge the fallen."
Author's Note: Been a minute since I updated this thing… Is this thing on? Trying to be updating more consistently from this point forward. Would love to hear some thoughts and feelings about the chapter. Cannot wait to continue this story.