Visions (Forest Secrets Book 1)

Chapter 16

It was June twenty-first, almost a month in to summer, and at eight o’ clock that night we got out my car, Christine and I, and realized just how much our lives had changed. Right now we were dressed in calf-length tan cotton tunics that were baggy everywhere but where we tied them with green and gold sashes. We had our hair down, no make-up or shoes, like Emily had asked, and jingling ankle bracelets.

            “Doesn’t it kind of feel like we’re Timon and Pumbaa in that scene where they’re about to go into war? You know, like this whole summer?” Christine asked.

            Yeah, it kind of did. “You can be Pumba.” We walked up the steps and knocked on the door. A girl with black hair and gray eyes answered the door and smiled at us, taking in our outfits and saying, “You two must be Christine and Jenna. I’m Robin.” She let us in and we introduced ourselves with who was who. She nodded while she listened, and when we were done, offered us each a lemon cookie. It was really good. She pointed to another room where she said everyone would be.

            We walked into a living room decorated in streamers of blue, tan, gold, and green. There were tables set around that were filled with fruit arrangements and other kinds of food. As we walked around, I saw punch, zucchini casserole, and pasta salad with tomatoes, more lemon cookies and other cookies that looked like they had cranberries in them. Most of all were the different kinds of fruit placed at random, but concentrated next to an assortment of containers holding different loose leaf teas and tea balls. Those were near the stove that had a tea kettle that was slightly steaming from recent use.

            Christine and I were reading the different tea names when Emily found us. “There you guys are.” She smiled and I noticed how she had drawn moons and stars around the corners of her eyes on the high point of her cheeks, like everyone else. She also had flowers in her hair.

            Now that I looked around, everyone had flowers going on.

            “Do you want some…?” She asked, pointing to the drawings and the flowers.

            “Yeah, I’ll do it. Christine, you want some too?” I asked. She shrugged and said OK.

            Emily smiled again and led us into a bathroom. There were all kinds of flower clips organized into colors in a plastic container. She picked up blue ones for us and put them in, them looked around for a face paint pen. When it was done we walked back out and joined the party again.

            A lot went on, and it was pretty fun. We danced with Celtic music thrumming in the background, and we ate a lot, because the food was so damn good. Sometimes we just sat and relaxed, but most of the time we were on our feet, moving to another rhythm. After a while everyone calmed down and began to meditate. I asked Emily why and she pointed to the clock. It was about twenty minutes to midnight and apparently that was the best time of night to do spell stuff. She said they were all meditating to clear their minds in preparation for magick working, or something.

            “You two don’t have to meditate if you don’t want to, since you won’t be participating. You’re welcome to sit with us, but since we’re doing a spell for Carter, we thought it’d be better if you guys sat that out just because we want to keep focus and we’re not familiar with your aura patterns in magick… But you can of course pray with us when we’re done.” She smiled apologetic, but we hadn’t taken offense and told her so.

            While they meditated and prepared, Christine and I just lay on our backs and rested after the nights activities. I hadn’t realized that I’d fallen asleep, but was woken up a little later by the low sounds of voices and people shuffling around.