After the dramatic realisation that the friend I had known for a decade and a half was actually a Vampire/Shifter hybrid I needed some time amongst nature. Willow and I found a bench in the food forest and made ourselves right at home. I sat and watched the bee's as they busied themselves between the flowers before setting back off to their hive. A bee landed on the arm of the bench, clearly exhausted from its work. I tipped a small amount of water from my bottle into the cap and placed it in front of the bee. "There you go girl," I smiled. The bee edged forward and settled herself against the cap, extending her straw-like tongue to drink up the water. She was thirsty.
"So how was your lesson yesterday?" Asked Willow, sipping on her own water.
"Really good actually." I hadn't had the chance to tell Willow anything about yesterday and now that I came to think about it there was quite a lot to tell. I started with everything Sage had taught me. When I mentioned Seer crystals her ears perked up.
"She showed you them?" I nodded. "Did you touch them?"
"No. I didn't like their vibe, something felt off." I remembered pulling my hand back.
"That's good. Being a Seer is an important position, but I wouldn't wish the side effects on anyone." Willow looked a little sad and I wasn't sure what I was missing there. I looked at her puzzled. She sighed. "My mum was a Seer." I noticed the 'was' in that statement so didn't push. I just placed my hand on her arm and squeezed gently. She shook off whatever was passing through her thoughts. "So how come you were alone in the forest yesterday? I thought Miss Sage was supposed to escort you back to our room after your lesson."
"She walked me to the restaurant," I explained. "Left me with Belladonna." I grimaced. Actually I needed to tell Willow about that conversation too. I turned on the bench to face her so she knew just how important this was and told her about my suspicions. She didn't look overly convinced. When I asked her about the possibility of my grandmother relinquishing our family's power, she became thoughtful.
"Now that..." She hesitated. "That is interesting."
"Why? She wouldn't actually do it, would she?" I asked, a sudden panic rising within me.
"Technically she couldn't alone; it would take all three of you. But if she were the only one alive then she would have to. The power of the Triple Goddess must live on so she would be forced to do a ritual where the power is transferred to another bloodline. It's always been your line that has carried the Goddess as far as I know so it's obviously never been done before. But..." She trailed off in thought.
The words 'if she were the only one alive' got stuck in my head, going around and around. "But she's not the only one alive. I'm here, and my mum is just missing, not dead. That doesn't apply then does it?" Something wasn't adding up.
"But they think they have you and your mum." Said Willow. My insides chilled. Were they going to kill Mum and Wynne? I took a deep breath. My magic was rising to the surface and I tried pushing it back down deep within my well. Last thing I wanted was to accidentally fry the food forest.
"But if they were going to kill them, wouldn't they have done that already?" That thought gave me hope. "And what about the other Witches going missing? What would that have to do with it?"
"I don't know." Willow seemed as frustrated as I did. "What am I missing?" She echoed my own thoughts.
I puffed out air in frustration. "Tell me about Ansuradon." I needed a distraction.
I topped up the water in the cap. I thought the bee was done as she looked like she was just resting now, but I gave her more anyway just in case.
"Years ago," Willow started, "Ansuradon set on a path to become more powerful. He wasn't happy with his lot in life; he decided he wanted the powers of all the species to become some kind of God."
"So your basic 'I want to rule the world' bad guy then?" I sneered.
"Yeah but this bad guy started experimenting on people. He started messing with genetics, trying to find the perfect combination of power. He created abominations. Needless to say, the experiment subjects didn't last long."
"What happened to him?" I asked. Surely someone had stopped him.
"This was all before my time obviously. But rumours are that was when The Agency was born. Three Vampires contacted the various ruling bodies and put together a team that included the most powerful people from all the species in an effort to fight him and stop the experiments. It was also ruled then that no more crossing of the species would be allowed. But one of the Agency Founders disagreed since he was in love with a Shifter. There was a whole scandal. Some say he was banished to the Earth Realm and he cursed the Vamps - that's why all the females died." She shrugged. "Others say there was a prophecy that one of the Ancient female Vamps was the one who would bring about the destruction of Ansuradon. It was prophesied that she would kill one of his top minions, some Shifter." She shrugged again. "This Shifter obviously didn't like that and decided to kill all of the female Ancient Vamps so there was never the possibility of that ever happening. I don't know which is true. It might be neither, who knows? But that's when the Vamps set about creating the Pured. A little hypocritical in my opinion, since they had initiated the decree of no genetic experimenting."
"That was a bit of a one eighty." I agreed. My little bee friend wiggled its bum at me which I took to mean thank you. I watched it take flight towards home.
Something in the distance caught my attention. The wings looked too long to be a bird and they flapped differently as if having a joint in the middle of their wing. My brain couldn't work out what I was seeing. "What's that?" I pointed up at the sky.
"Looks like a dragon." Willow sounded confused. "There are no dragons here."
"Tell that to him." I chuckled. I stared up at the dragon. I'd never seen one before. "I can't believe they're real. What am I saying? Of course they're real. BigFoot will probably walk through the forest in a minute." I laughed.
"Something's wrong with it." Willow stood up, staring hard into the sky.
"What do you mean? What's wrong with it?" I stood up trying to see what she saw, but I didn't exactly have a reference for what a dragon was supposed to look like; unless you counted story books.
"Stay here!" Willow shouted as she set off running at top speed.
"What?!" But she'd gone. My eyes followed the dragon as it got closer. It was getting really big now. I knew dragons weren't exactly kitten sized but this thing was huge. The closer it got the more detail I could see and I stared in fascination. Its wings looked slightly crooked and torn, like it had been in a fight. It was missing some scales and had some kind of growth on its back, its spikes bending at awkward angles. Its snout looked damaged. One of its eyes was orange, the other fully black with something seeping. My stomach turned. This poor creature looked awful. Maybe it was coming here for help. A second later it opened its mouth and a long, hot flame came out burning across the Foundation grounds, scorching the earth. My hands flew to my mouth to muffle the scream.
Pandemonium erupted as I stood on the outskirts of the food forest trying to work out what was happening. Why would a dragon be attacking The Foundation? Willow had said there wasn't supposed to be dragons here, so how did it get here? And what was wrong with it?
Students that had been gathered outside scrambled for cover as the dragon turned around heading back for another pass. Some of the Elementals were trying to protect other students. The Fire Elementals tried to push the flames away. Apparently a dragon's fire was no ordinary flame as it made its way through, Elementals throwing themselves aside. Water Elementals created arcs of water in an attempt to dowse the flaming earth but they weren't strong enough alone. Air Elementals sucked the oxygen away from the flames, whilst Earth Elementals lifted small particles of earth and dropped them onto the fire at the same time. Eventually the flames subsided. Teachers came running around the corner to usher students inside. I hesitated. Willow had told me to stay here and there was a lot of space between me and the closest door. I wasn't sure I was that quick. I eyed the sky again. The dragon was coming back for a third pass.
Suddenly an off road vehicle with an open back came skidding around the corner. A tall girl with long flowing red hair stood at the back, her arms outstretched towards the sky. The dragon released its flame once more, but the girl seemed to suck the flame into herself and then shoot it back out at the dragon. An awful shriek echoed around the Foundation and I covered my ears. The dragon circled around; it wasn't done yet. The girl jumped down from the car just as two people came rushing out through the doors. A flash of purple hair caught my attention: Raven. She was being hurried into the back of the vehicle. "Raven!" I shouted.
She turned. "Rose! Look out!" I looked up to see where the dragon was. Something hit me hard in the head, pain lanced through me, and everything went dark.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE If you find any spelling or grammatical errors, I would much appreciate you commenting on them. I would love my book to be as polished as possible, and I'm sure there will be one or two mistakes along the way. I appreciate your feedback.
Thank you for your kindness.
QUESTIONS FOR THE COMMENTS: WHICH TYPE OF ELEMENTAL DO YOU THINK IS BEST ADAPTED FOR PUTTING OUT FIRE? (BUT YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO PICK FIRE LOL)