See part one for explanation
and disclaimers. Hallmark still owns
the characters and I’m still not profiting from this. Hope you’re enjoying
this. Still recommended for teens and
up for action/violence and mild language, plus this chapter has mild sexual
content. Very mild, but I couldn’t
resist. ;-)
Le Sage stood, crossing her
arms. Her anger was directed at her
pack members rather than the new arrivals.
“Just to clarify---again---the
purpose of having guards is to keep unwanted guests out of the castle, not to
escort them into my bedroom!”
“Trust me, it’s no thrill
for us either,” Karl said.
The younger woman still
gaped at Le Sage and David. “You---I
don’t believe you would--”
“Oh don’t give me that. You
had your chance,” Le Sage countered.
Karl raised an eyebrow at
Marion. “You what?”
Marion snapped out of her
stupor when she saw the glint of the blue crystal on the bedcovers. Clearly, the outsiders had been trying to
use the Tohma Faiere before she and Karl interrupted. She made a noise of exasperation and, fixated on the ancient
pendant, marched across the room to retrieve it. “Of all the irresponsible…I’m taking the faith stone back to the
sanctuary---”
She stopped short of
grabbing the faith stone only when she became aware of two things
simultaneously: One, the faith stone lay on the disheveled sheets, and, two, at
the moment said bed sheets were wrapped---none too securely---around Barrett’s
hips. Marion froze, mid-reach, and
glanced up to see him watching her with amusement.
“Don’t let me stop you,” he
told her.
Marion willed herself not to
blush again. Judging by Barrett’s
smirk, she wasn’t succeeding. David
stood, nearly dislodging the precariously wrapped sheets with the sudden
movement, the grasping the pendant’s cord. He stared right into her eyes, his
face inches from hers, and held out the faith stone for her to take if she
wanted. He could have cared less if she
took the damn meteorite, but her awkward embarrassment was entertaining. He saw a momentary flash of panic in her
eyes, but Marion didn’t back down. “You
have no idea how much damage you’ve caused using the Toh---”
David shut her up: With one swift move, he leaned in and kissed
her quite thoroughly. There was a
muffled yelp of surprise from the future matriarch---and, behind her, a growl
of extreme irritation from Scott.
“Am I still in the room?” Le
Sage complained.
David pulled away from
Marion and raised an eyebrow at the pack leader. “Oh, please.”
Le Sage shrugged. “Yeah, you’re right. Faking the whole ‘jealous girlfriend’ routine
just gives me indigestion…”
Karl advanced on Barrett and
grabbed him by the arm to pull him back.
As he did so, the skybax rider’s hand brushed the Tohma Faiere. He felt the light from the faith stone inside
his head. It drowned out all his senses. The world around him went blue and new
images filled his mind, playing out like a movie…no, he was living these
visions…
It was definitely a romantic setting.
He was sitting on a riverbank, not far from the base of the largest of
the falls in Waterfall City. Moonlight
sparkled off the water; the combination of its glow and the light from the
distant sunstone tower bathed the forest around him. The night sounds from the
less-dangerous nocturnal creatures was almost musical. The mist from the falls hung
in the air like a light bank of fog, adding to the feeling of seclusion. The
city was no farther away than the top of the falls, but it felt distant, almost
like another world. There were no ‘topians, no outsiders, and (thank God) no
brothers to horn in here. Karl’s world
was only here and now, this little spot by the river.
The night---by contrast to the
days on the island---was crisp and cool, and Karl could feel the breeze through
the thin shirt he wore...
…which was not his skybax rider’s uniform, Karl noticed. It was the loose-fitting style of garment
preferred by the ‘topian civilians. He
stared at the tan sleeves covering his arm in fascination…and discovered a
graceful, feminine, and familiar hand was clasping his own. He would have known her hand blind or in a
blackout by touch alone.
Sure enough, Marion sat beside him on the shore, her hand warm in his
own. The moonlight made her light skin
luminous and her already radiant smile even more luminous.
‘Sheesh, I’m turning into a sap,’ Karl thought.
He wanted to play it cool. Karl
had rehearsed this conversation in his mind for days, but, staring at Marion
now, the words went right out of his head.
In fact, he felt like his brain had abandoned him altogether. He didn’t want to talk, he wanted to be
kissing her. Instead, he sat silently
for a long while in fear that any attempt to speak might reveal him for the
blithering idiot he felt like at the moment.
Something in her smile made him think she knew how tongue-tied he was.
‘Come on, Karl, be cool here…oh, crap, she’s saying something and I’m
being a space case…’
“---lovely. How did you find
it?” Marion was asking him.
‘Lovely…lovely place. This
place.’ Karl forced his brain back into action. “It reminded me of Tehema Falls back home…well, not exactly at
home, it was at Camp Tehema. Dad used
to send us there every summer. It was a
great place up in the mountains. Tehema
Falls was---” Karl managed to catch
himself before finishing with ‘the make-out spot’. Some things about his past didn’t need to be
shared with his present girlfriend.
“---er, everyone snuck up there when the counselors weren’t around. ‘Course it was a lot easier to sneak away when
I became a counselor myself…”
“Every summer? You must have
liked it very much. But why did you
need a counselor?” Marion asked innocently.
“Oh, no, not that kind of counselor. They were supervisors, teachers I
guess. It was a recreational camp. You go there to---well, mostly to swim and play
tug-of-war and make wallets and lanyards and dress in politically incorrect
Indian and pirate costumes. Jeez, that
sounds lame even to me. You’ll have to
take my word for it that it’s more fun than it sounds.” This conversation wasn’t going as well as
he’d hoped. You just couldn’t build a
romantic mood talking about summer camp…
“I would have liked to have seen it---especially the pirate
outfit. I’ll bet it was very sexy,” she
grinned.
…or maybe you could, Karl changed his mind. He took his cue to kiss her, and there went all the coherent
thoughts from his mind again. “If you
want, I’ll make a pirate outfit and wear it right now,” he offered when they
finally parted.
She laughed at that. “So, what
was the ‘big question’ you wanted to ask me?”
That was Marion---always to the point.
He wasn’t nervous. He was sure
that he already knew what her answer would be, but he’d had a whole speech
prepared to sweep her off her feet.
Since she had him on the spot, however, he’d just have to skip to the speech
and go for broke.
“Well…” She was waiting,
looking only curious. If she knew what
he was going to ask, she didn’t show it.
Why was he at a loss for words again?
‘You are not nervous, here, Karl,’ he
reminded himself. “…it’s just, the Dawn
Festival is coming up. I
wondered---would you like to go with me?”
Marion’s smile was instantly gone, replaced with a stunned
expression. She stared into his eyes
with a look on her face that he couldn’t interpret to save his life. Shock? Surprise? If so, he hoped it was good shock. Was this awkward silence instead of good silence? The longer she stared, the more nervous he
got.
“Well?” he prompted. A moment
of doubt dampened his spirits. Had she already said ‘yes’ to---
Marion snapped out of her trance.
“It’s nothing. I just…I wasn’t
expecting to be asked. Not now,
anyway.”
He didn’t know what to make of that answer. Really, she should know by
know that if there was a dance on the island, Karl would ask her to go with
him. Shouldn’t she? He tried to keep the mood light to hide his
nervousness. “Well, should I ask after the festival? I mean, that’s
kind of crossing over from ‘fashionably late’ to ‘absent’ , isn’t it?” he joked.
“Why? You didn’t think I’d want
to be at the party with the prettiest girl on the island?”
“’The party’?” Marion parroted softly.
Karl shrugged. “You don’t say
‘party’? How about ‘dance’? ‘Hoopla’? ‘Shindig’? What word do you prefer?” His good mood was fading fast. He knew the look she was giving him
now. She used it on her students when
they answered questions wrong even after she’d explained a concept over and
over. It was…disappointment. He panicked a bit, wondering what he’d done
wrong.
“Karl, do you have any idea what the Dawn Festival is?” Marion asked
with sudden, frosty calm.
Yep, he definitely felt like his was back in her classroom now. “I figure it’s like our Harvest Dances back
home. Lots of food, lots of music, lots
of dancing. You don’t know this about
me, but I was the best dancer at---”
“Back home,” Marion repeated.
Okay, he really wished she’d stop giving him that look. “---what?
That’s wrong?”
Marion stood up…that couldn’t be good.
“I won’t go to the Dawn Festival with you, Karl. I’m sorry.”
She said no more. She only turned
and walked away, leaving him sitting dumbly on the riverbank
Stunned, heartbroke, seconds passed before he belatedly realized he
should follow. He jumped to his feet and chased after her. “Wait!
Marion!”
“Karl! Are you all right?”
The images ceased
abruptly. Marion stood before him
again, clasping something in her hand. Pendant.
Tohman Faiere. It took a
long time to remember that he was in Le Sage’s chamber. Marion was watching him in concern. Standing beside her and Karl, David Barrett
had a knowing look on his face.
“That---what the---” Karl
stammered, staring at the now-dormant stone in Marion’s hand.
Barrett nodded, sympathetic
to Karl’s disorientation “Yeah, I know
the feeling.”
Marion glanced from Karl to
the faith stone. “Karl…the Tohma Faiere
glowed for you,” she told him.
“Oh, and by the way, I’ve
changed my mind. You can keep the space
rock,” David offered. “Thing gives me
the creeps.”
The pack leader was fed up
with the intrusion. Le Sage stamped a
foot at her guards. “You wanna think
about showing these two the door? And I don’t mean my bedroom door.”
At her bark, Le Sage’s
guards finally snapped into action.
They lunged for Karl and Marion.
Marion had the presence of mind to shove the faith stone into her vest pocket. When Bertram the guard lifted his hand to
retrieve it, she socked him in the jaw.
“Don’t even think about it.”
In the skirmish, another
guard circled behind her and caught her roughly by the shoulders.
“Hey!” Karl tried to help, but
more guards arrived, drawn by the shouts, and intercepted him. They were, unfortunately, as strong as the
stink pouring off them. He couldn’t
break free.
“You don’t understand!”
Marion pleaded with David even as the guards dragged her and Karl into the
hallway. It was taking three of the
guards to make her move, as she had dug her heels into the ground to slow them
down. “The faith stone created a
different----get your hands off me!” Marion stomped on the foot of the nearest
of her captors. He howled and hopped
backwards a few steps on his good foot.
Karl was still struggling against the men who half-carried him back
towards the courtyard.
Marion was still appealing
to Barrett. “David, we need your help
to----”
David saw only sincerity,
even concern, in her eyes. Without
being aware of the action, he started to take a step after her as she and Karl
were pushed out the bedroom door.
Le Sage got to the door
first. Having heard enough, she slammed
the door shut and locked it. The
muffled sounds of the struggle and arguing from the other side eventually
faded.
“They drop in often?” David
asked her.
“You have no idea…” Le Sage
rolled her eyes just mentally counting the times. She seated herself on the edge of the bed once more. “You do know that the dino-scout is going to
be camped on our door step watching for you to fly out of here on that scalie
of yours.”
David grinned. “Know it?
I’m counting on it.”
*