Time had never gone so slowly like after the ominous meeting with Morpheus.
Thanks to my sense to time, I dried up my tears just in time for the redness to vanish from my face.
Still, I got a couple of suspicious looks from Lucienne, who was recording everything interesting to a new book which wore the title 'A unique bond between a god and a mortal'.
Yeah. Straight to the point.
Not like Morpheus. Puzzlement could be clearly discovered in his icy orbs. He was trying to keep up eye contact what I tried with my very best to avoid.
Not to mention how tense his arms were as he stood behind me, directing my arms with his ones. It felt like two long slabs of concrete wanted to show my arms the right way of moving my hand. Once or twice his chest couldn't avoid touching my back, making him apologize and turn his gaze away from me.
"Okay, now try with opened eyes" he told me standing next to me, his arms crossed in front of his chest.
I gulped nervously. It went perfectly fine with closed eyes, Morpheus moving my hands so they do the spell in the correct rhythm.
Now doing it by myself, with opened eyes was a whole different story.
"You can do this, Addie!!" Matthew cheered me, bouncing happily next to Lucienne.
The woman nodded with a smile, telling me the same.
My eyes wandered nilly-willy toward Dream. To my surprise, an encouraging smile sneaked onto his thin lips, his voice more tender than usually. "You'll do fine, Addie. Remember what we learned. Remember that I'm here if anything goes wrong – no matter what happens. Remember the bond"
The bond.
Two simple words. Two words that enlightened the rest of the training, unlocking the good old times, as if the ominous scene hadn't even happened. It may sound weird, but he knew exactly how to cheer me up: reminding me of our friendship. What had happened had already happened, you cannot change the past. But we shouldn't let something so special like the bond of a god and a human go wasted.
Nor I wanted to loose my best friend because of some misunderstanding.
"Alright" I replied finally, a low-key smile forming on my lips. Turning my head and attention back to the task, I began casting the spell.
It was a simple teleportation magic. Not the most difficult, perfect for the very first spell – according to Morpheus, at least. He told me he had got ahead of me when meeting and speaking for the first time with the this spell, sparing the magical sand. It's supposed to be a spell only the god of dreams can use – but, since I pretty much had the same kind of magic and skills in a lower quantity, I was able to use it, too.
With more effort of course.
All I had to do is repeat a spell in an unknown, ancient language and concentrate on where to arrive. Which, to be honest with you, wasn't the easiest thing to do when you gotta concentrate on peonouncing the words right beside aiming at a location as well.
It didn't even go well for the first time, just as I expected.
My hair signaled me of chanting the spell correctly, glowing up with golden light. However, I concentrated too much on the perfect spelling, having no exact destination in mind.
"God damn it!" I sweared furiously, stamping the dirt below my feet.
"I'd rather give you a second chance before punishing the spell itself" Dream stated calmly.
I didn't understand why he had said that first.
However, after understanding the inside joke, I shook my head, chuckling. He had a weird sense of humour, but in a funny way if you understood it.
"I just can't concentrate on the spell and the location at the same time" I sighed gloomily. "I feel my mind exploding"
"You use our mind for the spell and your heart for the location" Matthew cawed in the background, bouncing happily as always.
"So I just say the spell and let my heart choose the location?" I asked back, unsure if my always silly heart could choose a non-random location. "Because I don't want to end up at for example the USA president's office, thanks to a random thought coordinating my heart"
I heard Lucienne holding back a laughter, releasing only a tiny snort. Not like Matthew, who didn't even try to hold it back.
Morpheus simply shook his head, hiding a smile under his nose. "You won't. And if you somehow successfuly end up there, I'll bring you back"
Suddenly, he vanished into thin air, appearing in front of me, approximately 2-3 metres ahead. He stretched his hands toward me, his cheek motivating and kind. "Try teleporting here. I'll grab you if you spawn in an unstable position... trust me"
I nodded, still anxious, maybe a tiny bit more relaxed. Deep breath, focus and let your heart aim the location. I kept my eyes on Morpheus, my tongue silently repeating the combination of strange words. Soon enough, I felt the familiar buzzing of my golden magic, my hair glowing up even brighter than before. Even though it was incredibly difficult, I tried to stay calm and let my heart work instead of my mind – bringing me right into the arms of the god.
It took me a moment to realise I did it. I looked around just in case, checking if I really was standing between Morpheus's arms and not between like Donald Trump's. Joy errupting from me like a volcano, I began bouncing, Matthew joining me, cawing happily.
"I did it! I did it!!" I exclaimed with overflowing excitement, a wide smile on my cheek.
Dream's lips curled upwards, being just as glad or even more than me. His icy orbs were then sparkling with pride, pride like a teacher seeing his student's successes. "I told you to give this spell a second chance"
"Alright, you can tell me: I told you" I stuck out my tongue in a duck face, poking him in the belly.
In response, he closed his arms around me from behind, since I was showing my back at him for a moment. As his chest leaned against my back, my heart stopped for a moment, as if giving my brain time to decide how to react: same as last time or try to stay calm since he was acting way better than before, much more calm and gentle. He barely dared to touch me, probably fearing how I would react.
Well, this time, I didn't ran away. What's more, I stepped a bit back, pressing my back against his chest, my arms lying on his long ones – my heart pounding fast. I was happy as a lark.
I leaned my head backwards, looking up at him. The icy orbs looked down at me, wonderingly and gladly at the same time. As the thin, pale lips curled into a smile, my heart skipped a couple of beats, unsurpassed delight spreading all over my body. An entire hill of worries fell down into the void of forgetting forever from my heart in that moment, his pine scent lifting up my spirit even more.
~•~
"Well, here we are" I declared after all of our atomic pieces had reconnected, looking up at Morpheus.
"Yeah. It's been a long day" the man nodded, gently patting my arm before releasing me from the hug he had closed me in for safety reasons. He didn't take his eyes off of me, though, worry shining through them. "I'm sorry for my way too violent behaviour. I didn't want to scare you or anything, I just..."
I put my right index finger onto his thin, pale lips, making him lose the faculty of speech right away. All he could do was listening to me with wide eyes, as if I had put a spell on him.
"I have to tell you, I wanted you as well" I blurted out, much easier than I had expected before. This easiness surprised both of us. Unlike at the next sentence. I sighed, turning my gaze away before talking, relaxing my gaze on the huge, black buttons of his coat. "I'm just... gosh it will sound so awkward to say out loud... I'm still a virgin. I'm damn scared of the pain. I got way too scared"
I was afraid of how he will react. I dunno why, maybe because of the fact that he is as old as time, had many occasions with women. I was afraid I'll scare him away I guess.
Nevertheless, he stayed silent, listening to me with such peace I didn't even believe first. He just carefully pulled my hand away, breathing a tender kiss on its back. The icy orbs were following my gaze all along, making my heart beat in changing rhythms. "You shouldn't be sorry about this. It's absolutely normal not giving your treasure to everyone"
"Thank you for understanding me" I smiled at him. It was weird to talk about this, not even a tiny bit. Still, it somehow put a seal onto a problem I had been dying to somehow tell him. "I promise you, once I am ready, I'll let you know... somehow"
"I'll wait for you. After all, we have infinite time" Morpheus chuckled, walking beside me as we made our way to my house. We stopped a few metres from the door, turning toward the other. He stepped closer, holding me between his arms, his face approaching mine, step by step. "Have you kissed before?"
I shook my head, careful not to bump my head against his. Wonder shone in his eyes, the good, truly marvelled type. "I know, I'm really a-"
"...a miracle" Morpheus finished my line with the exact opposite of what I had wanted to say. His eyes wandered down to my slightly opened mouth, then back to my eyes. Incredible peace spread from them, calming my way too fast beating heart, as well.
...but not noticing a shadow disappearing into the darkness.