The Dream Weaver

Twenty One (Part Two)-He Loves Her not

"Jax..."

"Okay, you contemplate," he smirked, "I'm celebrating my first yes victory. Besides, Robin and Sage will probably be back in the rec room by now." He spun me out of his arms still holding my hand, then scooped me up and carried me through the archway down the three wooden steps. He kept hiking like he was going to carry me all the way back to the house.

I poked him. "I can walk, you know." Then I crossed my arms and gave him a stern look.

"What? I thought this was the custom here. You know the guy carrying his girl through the threshold of their house?"

"Only if you newly wed and not the mile before getting to the house."

"Oh, I guess you better walk then. You're heavy," he teased.

"I am not." I swatted him lightly, as he placed me gently on the ground.

"Well, I guess it depends on how long I was carrying you for then. You were pretty light when I picked you up a half mile back."

"Try a quarter of a mile, He-Man. Can't you just use your superhero strength or something."

He stopped dead in tracks, "I belong to the Fire Circle. I'm not from some Marvel comic strip. You don't entirely understand what that means do you?" He stripped off his shirt and walked up to me, so we were only a foot apart with me facing him staring at his bare, muscular chest. My inner-self was doing a small dance of joy just to stand here and gawk at him without his shirt on.

He had an intricate series of flames that were etched on the left side his chests. They wrapped over his shoulder and around the upper part of his arm ending just above his elbow. Below the Fire Circle markings was a large hand print that looked like it was a very recently acquired sparring injury. It was red and just starting to heal.

Without breaking his stare, he raised his right hand in the air. Then the lights from each of the tiny lanterns went out one by one to join and form a larger flame heading right at us. Just when the fire looked like it was about to engulf us completely, he shot the flames directly into the air above us, and they burst into a dazzling show of fireworks. A moment later, the ground beneath us started to shake and rumble deep within the earth's core. Before I even knew what was happening, he had poured hot molten lava over the path in front of us.

"Very cute," I said, looking at the glowing lava heart on the ground. The drawing was quickly cooling off turning a dark charcoal color in a few spots. "I've heard of carving your initials into a tree before, but this drawing takes that practice to a whole new level." I rubbed my hands together to trying to warm them, then held them out toward the heart hoping to pick up some its extra warmth. "Anything else I should know you can do?" I flirted.

"Well, I can keep your hands warm, but I don't think that's what you meant." He chuckled and took my hand in his. "Here, hold your hand upright, like this," he said, turning over my hand. "Okay, now close your eyes and think warm thoughts."

I laughed, "You're kidding, right?"

"No, no, for real. Just give it a try, will you?"

"Warm thoughts, like in hot chocolate or like sitting by a campfire or that I'm standing next to a lava drawn heart?" I asked.

"I don't know. You tell me. Open your eyes."

"Now?"

"Uh-huh."

When I looked down, I could see cradled in the palm of my hand a tiny flickering flame. He lit me on fire! My first instinct was to do the stop, drop, and roll thing they taught us in first aid class last summer, but oddly my hand didn't hurt. No sooner than that thought had entered my head, I jerked my arm out of his grasp in a physical reaction to what I was looking at, causing the little light to go out. "Are you crazy?"