Rapture The Final Battle By: LadyDawn
2014 Copyright © All Right Reserved
Chapter 8 Care to Go for a Swim?
Yesterday while relaxing at our beach, the sun was shining brightly, the day was hot and sunny with a temperature that soothed the sole. We really enjoyed our time swimming as a family unit; even Wilda and Stela joined us swimming.
Today there is two feet of snow covering the ground and the wind is blowing with an Arctic blast like non other. The world as we know it is really screwed up where the climate is concerned—between the exceedingly thin ozone layer and all the smog these days from the industries—the humans have succeeded to almost kill off their own world themselves. Time and again we have tried to tell the heads of state that they are killing themselves off by their excessive emissions, but did they listen? The answer is? No! So here we all sit inside our manor while the outside weather rages down into the single digits and me sitting here with a one day sunburn from just the day before. I know it sounds funny, a vampire with a sunburn, but what can I say it happens when I spend the whole day out in the sun without first beefing up on my normal extra glasses of blood before going out for a day in the sun. Hey you should see Icka over there by the fireplace bundled under three thick blankets she is just as red as I am if not redder.
We are all snuggled up under blankets on the floor in front of a nice roaring fire Bavo keeps going for us; it is a natural fire with no emissions. It is nice having him around sometimes like this when we are all shivering from sun poising which for us should last less than a few more hours once we all get enough Royal blood in us. The Lady Gaia made a special trip over to Germany to pick some up for us, but had to wait for the King, Queen and Lady Xandria to get it ready first. She should be here any second now. *Poof* Right on time look what the witch dragged in, Lady Gaia just popped into the sitting room with a large container in her arms.
“About time you got back with that stuff. I am freezing to death over here girl.” Icka told her
“Yeah what took so long? Hurry up and serve that before I shake this place to the ground I am so c-co... cold.” Burr.
“Hold your feathers I will get the glasses and be right back.” she laid down the container on the table furthest away from us then flashed to the kitchen then back with two crystal goblets in hand and began to poor two full glasses of the brightest red blood I have ever seen. “Here you two drink up there is more where that came from.” I threw back my glass full in three big gulps then handed her my glass for a refill. I could feel the energizing rich Royal blood surging throughout my system repairing all the damage I had done the entire day out in the sun yesterday. Slowly my insides started to warm up. The second glass I gulped down two thirds before I had recovered enough to start sipping the rest down. I had finally found my equilibrium not too cold, not too hot, just right. Sighing. To my right I heard Icka let out a sigh of her own, I guess she met her perfect temperature as well. I shed mt blankets and stretched out before the fire.
“Bavo, you can cut down the fire now it feel good in here, finally.” It really did feel good finally. I looked over to see Icka curled up like a kitten by the fireplace purring. Yup purring just like a house cat fast asleep. Contented. It was so precious. “Would you get a look at Icka” I whispered to Bavo and Lady Gaia so as not to wake my sister Icka.
“She must be really tired and very comfortable there by the fire to be purring like that.” Lady Gaia commented.
“Really,” Bavo stated.
“Let's leave her to sleep.” I suggested. I stood up stretched again then made my way to my couch and reclined in it for a nice long nap. There isn't much you can do with a blizzard raging outside the window now is there. Four hours later I woke to a quiet house; everyone else was still asleep in their chairs enjoying dreams I assume. I stretched and rose up, and headed to the kitchen to seek out Maria for a snack. She was making dinner when I found her hard at work in the kitchen it smelled awesome. Garlic potatoes, a huge summer salad with the works thrown in, rare steaks dripping in blood just the way Bavo and I like them, and mushy peas like we had over in the UK office that I have grown to love. Yum. “Hi Maria how soon till we eat I am starving?” I tried to sneak a potato out of the salad bowl. “Ouch!”
'Slap' She snapped me with her trusty spoon on the back of the hand. “Wait till dinner girl. Dinner will be in about fifteen minutes go wake the others and get ready for dinner please.” She got me again with that spoon. Goddess she is quick, I have yet to sneak a tidbit of food behind her back. Then again no-one ever has from the Queen on down so I have been told; so I have made it my challenge to one day beat her at her game.
“Wake up you lazy cods time for dinner get upstairs and change your clothes.” I went around the room kicking under each lifted footrest to wake each one up. I had snuck upstairs quickly to change first before waking them up. Now that, that is done all I have to do is walk over to the dining room and sit down and wait for them with an extra cup of Royal blood in hand sipping it's rich texture and aroma. Yum. There is one more glass that I poured for my sister Icka and placed at her spot on the table.
Once dinner was over we all ended back into the sitting room to watch the evening NEWS on the TV again. The area had received more that three feet of snow with still more to come throughout the night. By morning there were over four feet on the ground with drifts up to the second level of the manor out back. We were essential snowed in for a second day. We spent the who day downstairs in the training room working on new and more efficient way to use our powers. Lady Gaia and I tried to work with some of the snow outside by working with the earth behind the fountain to see if we could melt some of it off of the manor or from around it. It didn't seem to work when we went up stairs to check, so we gave up.
That night we went to bed after watching the NEWS that stated the snow was winding down, and the sun would come out with several nice days that would follow for the rest of the week. We woke up the following morning with the bright sun shining through the windows like the weather man said. I took a quick shower—so not like me ever—then dressed in a pretty blue/green dress with matching flats then flashed down to the sitting room to turn on the TV to check out the NEWS for a quick weather report. 'The blizzard is over. It dropped three feet in the lower levels and over four and a quarter inches in the mountainous elevations. The skiing up there should be great if you can get to it in the next few day that is. Now on to the report' 'click' I turned off the TV and headed into the dining room to wait for my breakfast, skidding to a stop in the hallway looking to my right I catch a look see out the window to see how high the snow was out the window by the sides of the front door.
I almost did a face plant stumbling forward passing the big double front doors with the two side glass windows in the hallway. The side windows look out over the front of the manor to the driveway show little to now snow on the ground—I know our guards are quick at snow removal, but not that quick—I walked up the front door and yanked it open to see better. Scattered patches of snow here and there is all that is left of the four and a quarter that is supposed to be there. Hum. I closed the door and went into the dining room to sit and wait for everyone else to show up.
First in was Icka, then Bavo, then Wilda and Stela, and finally Lady Gaia popped into the dining room into her usual chair. “Um... Lady Gaia. Have you um... looked... out your window this morning.” I stuttered out.
“Why no I can't say I that have... why?” she looked up from the book she was reading from that she had brought down with her. You never find that girl without a book in her hands. Well me either, but mine at the present in laying on the table.
“I think our little incarnation yesterday kind of worked a little to well. You might want to go take a look see for yourself.” I imitated the front window of the dining room. She rose up out of her chair walked over to the window and threw back the heavy curtains and stared out the window jaw dropped. All of a sudden everyone else got up and followed suit, everyone was standing by the window looking out. “Where did all the snow go?” Icka asked.
“See that is the question I was wondering seeing as we are supposed to have four and one quarter feet of snow on the ground around here the weather man said not just twenty minutes ago on the TV.” Everyone at the window turned and looked at me where I still sat at the table waiting on Maria to bring in the morning breakfast. “I think it has something to do with the spell we preformed yesterday in the training room Lady Gaia, and I did,” I commented to them.
“What spell did you both do?” Bavo asked.
“It was nothing big,” Lady Gaia replied. “Just a simple incarnation to move the snow away from the manor is all,” she replied.
“So nothing too big,” Bavo had his trade mark smirk on his face. “So you two decided to try to move four and a half feet of snow off the side of the manor and put it where?” he asked.
“Um... No where in particular just move it away.” Lady Gaia came back with.
“So,” Bavo started looking between Lady Gaia and myself. “You two must have known where you wanted it to go because it is gone.”
“No... Just moved that was all we were trying to do. Get it away from the base of the manor so we all could get outside.” She started looking nervous which was a first for our witch.
“OK. Everyone split up and check the manor for any damages from the snow just in case.” Wilda suggested. We all flashed to a different location to look around. I told them I would go down to the training room to check it out down there while we each took a different room, or location. I flashed directly to the center by my fountain right into a nice big swimming pool that should have been our training room which was filled to the brim with millions of gallons of ice cold snow melt water. I flashed right back soaking wet into the dining room.
“Where did you get off to girl your soaking wet! Get up to your shower room and dry off.” Wilda shooed me off before I could even say a word I was dripping water all over the carpet in the dining room. I flashed to my shower stripped off all my wet clothes, showered in the hottest water I could handle, then dried off and changed into a dry dress, then flashed back down to the dining room. “That's better girl now why were you soaking wet?” everyone else was seated waiting on me to get back to the dining room to start breakfast.
“Well,” I started I looked at everyone else seated around the table ready to eat. “I flashed down to my fountain in the training room.” I started.
“Let me guess you landed right in the fountain.” Bavo, pipped up. Ass hole!
“No, I did not land in my fountain!” I shot back at him with a shut-the-hell-up face. “I landed in our new in ground swimming pool.” I came back with.”
“What new in ground swimming pool?” Wilda asked stunned by my comeback at Bavo
“Well, the whole training room is filled with water, snow melt to be exact, up to about chin high. When I flashed down to check the room I ended up flashing directly into the middle of our new indoor ice water pool. It was cold for sure. Burr.” I laughed out for effects. Sitting down to stares from everyone else.
“So, the whole training room is flooded you are telling us, is that right?” Wilda asked.
“Correct,” Came my reply with a nod of my head. Right about then I turned to see Maria walk in with the cart full of food to begin filling the table with food. Goddess I am so hungry all of a sudden.
“OK. After breakfast you two figure out how to get rid of all that water you brought into the training room.” Wilda instructed. We both nodded out heads in reply I guess we have our work cut out for us today.
Down in the training room at the top of the stairs we—Lady Gaia and I—sit pondering a way to move millions of gallons of water from the training room out to the rear acreage of our manor. We have a very low area where our lake is located at just for times of the year like this—snow melt run off. The excess runs down the mountain to a stream, to the river, etc. You get the picture. We just have to get the water from the training room out to the lake area to flood it over its banks so it will flow down to the river below.
“I guess this calls for some kind of a water magick spell which is your specialty here Valia,” Lady Gaia suggested. 'Hum water magick I can do that. Let me see what would it take to move that much water from one place to another?' I think about the problem.
“Do you have any suggestions I know I can move it from hand to hand, but that would take forever. Possible a combined effort with a water element and earth element together should help you think?” I quarried.
“That should do it just fine. We will need to elevate the water, and you will need to cause the flow to move it in the right direction and speed, gradual at first from here gaining just enough speed to keep the flow going out to the lake, but not beyond.” I think about that for a few moments to come up with a plan. “It has to fill the lake gradually till it overflows its banks then flows down to the river below.” We have a plan now to just put it into action. First we went outside and had one guard remove one of the low windows from the training room. There are many of them around to let in the light right at ground level, then we went back inside and slowly lifted the earth below the floor with earth magic to raise the water level to just below the level of the open window. Then I used my element of water to pull the water through the window and guide it down a trench Lady Gaia made earlier, it started to follow the trench to the lake.
From there all I had to do was keep the flow steady and constant while Lady Gaia kept raising the floor slowly. Once the rate was established we sat back and watched for any problems and relaxed. It took two days to empty out then we had to put the floor back down to where it all belonged and flatten out the ground from the manor to the lake. It took me a day to dry out the whole room from there using my water element, but it is all back to normal thanks to a fresh coat of paint by our guards. It looks like a brand new room if I do say so myself. Beyond our outer walls there is still a good three feet of snow piled up which can stay there for all I care. I have had enough messing around with the elements for now.
We did learn one thing by all this, and that is that it is possible for us to work the elements around us. The Earth below our feet, the Air around and above us, the Water we drink and take for granted, and the Fire that shines down and heats us and keeps us warm. All the elements that we take for granted we have learned a very valuable lesson this week.
Work wisely with them because they are very delicate and very easily unbalanced. Valia