Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' Read online

  The surprised look turned into a glare. “No. I can’t.”

  There was a pause. “I don’t know why.” He shrugged.

  I noticed that his shoulder was bleeding. “You should put some pressure on your shoulder,” I mumbled.

  Jasper turned to look at me then back down at his shoulder. “I’m fine.” He looked back towards Dodge and nodded. “Why don’t you get on Dodge and I’ll take you back to the main trail.” His voice saddened a little.

  “But... I... You...” The confusion hit me like a ton of bricks. I sat on the ground and closed my eyes.

  “Wake up,” I whispered to myself. “Wake up, wake up.”

  I heard him sit in front of me. “What part of this seems like a dream?” he asked softly and took my hands in his.

  “All of it.”

  He moved both of my hands to one of his and used the other one to brush some stray hairs back behind my ear.

  I slowly opened my eyes.

  “Ask away,” he said, keeping his eyes locked on mine. He frowned. “Wait.” He turned to Dodge. “No. She needs to know. She’s about to have a meltdown.”

  I started to object to that comment and stopped. He was right. I was having a meltdown. Here I was, imagining that this most beautiful man was sitting across from me, arguing with my horse about my sanity. I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry, so I did both. It came out as a snort.

  Jasper seemed about to say something so I held up a finger to stop him. I started with the obvious.

  “Am I awake?”

  He smiled. “Yes.”

  “Is my watch broken?”

  “No. Things from there don’t work here.”

  “Where is here?”

  “Quelondain.”

  I paused and took a deep breath. “Did you turn into a tiger?”

  “Yes.”

  I looked into his eyes, trying to find any indication that he was lying, joking. “How?”

  “I am one of the Namael. We are able to change our shape.”

  “You can turn into anything?” This was ridiculous.

  He shook his head. “No. I turn into a tiger. That’s it.”

  “You talk to Dodge.”

  “And he talks to me. I can hear his thoughts. But I can’t do that with all animals.”

  “What is he thinking now?”

  “He is not pleased. It is not my place to explain things to you. My job is to find you and get you to Queen Melana.”

  “How does he know all of this?”

  “He is one of your guardians. He is from here.”

  “Does he change into a human?”

  Jasper laughed. “No. He is just a horse.”

  Dodge stomped his foot. Jasper laughed even harder and looked at him. “Oh, don’t be so sensitive! I didn’t mean it like that.” He turned back to me. “Anything else?”

  I looked into his eyes for a moment, my train of thought starting to slip away.

  Dodge and Jasper’s heads snapped up to look at the other side of the clearing.

  “A pack!” Jasper growled. In a flash he was on his feet. He picked me up and threw me into the saddle. “Go!” he yelled at Dodge. “I’ll meet you in the blue woods!”

  Dodge spun and galloped off past the waterfall and deeper into the forest.

  I couldn’t think. Only years of riding was keeping me in the saddle. I held the reins but didn’t used them. Dodge seemed to know where he was going.

  Behind us, I heard a deep growl and some excited barks.

  Dodge ran for all he was worth and soon the sounds of the fight faded away.

  I let Dodge have his head and he continued at a speed I had never thought possible of him.

  After a while he slowed to an easy lope but kept heading deeper into the woods. We made it up a hill and I caught my breath at the sight.

  Jasper hadn’t been kidding. On the other side of the hill was a field, and on the other side of that field was forest made up of blue tinged trees.

  A flash of orange and black streaked through the trees to our left.

  “Jasper!” Was it normal to feel this happy at the sight of a tiger? I wasn’t sure, but I thought that in these circumstances, maybe. One tiger seemed a lot safer than a whole pack of whatever was behind us.

  Dodge slowed to a jog and we entered the field.

  Jasper was ahead of us. He slipped behind the cover of the blue trees and reappeared as himself.

  “Are you ok?” His eyes searched my face for an answer.

  I nodded weakly.

  “Let’s stop here for a bit. Dodge looks like he needs to cool down.” He laughed and gave my horse a playful punch to the shoulder, though he was breathing just as hard as him. That sounded good to me. I needed a drink and some time to think before anything else happened.

  I grabbed a bottle of water and poured it into Dodge’s collapsible bucket.

  I looked at Jasper. “Um. Is that ok?”

  Dodge answered by coming to have a drink.

  “How did Dodge know where he was going? I got him as a weanling and he’s never been anywhere without me.”

  “It is in his memory. Passed on from his sire and his sire before him.”

  I grabbed two more bottles and handed one to Jasper.

  I noticed some blood soaking the side of his shirt. My eyes widened. “Are you ok?”

  He shrugged. “I’m fine. Just a scratch.”

  “Let me see.”

  “No. Really. It’s fine.”

  I ignored him and pulled his shirt up so I could have a look.

  He flinched a bit when I wiped the blood away to see the damage better.

  The cut was a clean one, about five inches long, and not too deep. I grabbed my sweater and put pressure on it.

  “Stupid dog,” Jasper muttered to himself.

  “That doesn’t look like a scratch.” I looked at him.

  “Trust me. Compared to what it could have been, it’s a scratch.”

  “So a dog scratched you?”

  He laughed. “No. He sliced me with his dagger.”

  My mouth fell open. How could he be laughing?

  “He thought he could surprise me by dropping out of a tree while I was fighting his two friends.”

  My eyes almost popped out of my head. There were so many things wrong with this statement. “A dog was in a tree and managed to cut you with a dagger...”

  He laughed. “He wasn’t a dog at the time. He wasn’t shifted.”

  “Oh. How many were there?”

  “Just the three.” He sucked in his breath as I shifted from one foot to the other and the pressure I was putting on his side increased a bit.

  “Sorry.”

  He rest his arm on my shoulder to keep it out of the way.

  “You fought a three on one fight and this is all you came out of it with?” I looked up at him. “What happened to them?”

  He grinned. “The two that were on the ground got away with a few scratches of their own.” His eyes narrowed. “The one in the tree got to feel what his dagger felt like from the receiving end.”

  “Oh.” I pulled the sweater away to see if the bleeding had stopped. I was suddenly very aware of his arm on my shoulder and the fact that he was so close. “There. I think you’ll live.”

  He laughed. “I should hope so.”

  I sat on the ground and drank my water. Jasper sat beside me.

  I noticed some bluebirds sitting in the trees.

  Jasper whistled a few notes and a dozen of the birds landed around us.

  One of them settled on my leg and looked at me, its head cocked to the side.

  “That’s right.” Jasper was talking to the bird. “Really? No, she is exactly how I pictured her.” I looked away from the bird and glanced at him. He was staring intently at me.

  “I don’t know how I knew.” He looked sharply at the bird. “You know that doesn’t happen!” The bird seemed to shrug.

  Jasper looked uncomfortable and stood abruptly. “Well, you know
what you have to do.”

  With that, the little blue birds scattered and flew away.

  I must have had quite a look on my face. Jasper’s eyes softened and he took my hand to help me up.

  “You have more questions.” It wasn’t a question. He let go of my hand long enough to take Dodge’s bridle off and hook it on the saddle horn. “Ask away.”

  And with my hand in his, we started walking towards one of the most beautiful mountains I had ever seen.

  “You talk to the birds, too.”

  “Yes. But just blue birds.”

  “Why does it seem like I was expected?”

  Dodge blew loudly out of his nose.

  “Well I can tell her a little bit about it. This isn’t exactly going as planned, now is it?”

  Dodge shook out his mane.

  “Fine.” Jasper looked extremely annoyed with my horse. He glanced down at me. “There are things that I am not at liberty to tell you.”

  I didn’t like not knowing what was going on. “But...”

  Jasper placed his hand over my mouth, cutting off my protest. “Please. Even though you have no reason to, I am asking you to trust me. Can you do that?” His eyes pleaded with mine. I nodded. Dodge seemed to think he was trustworthy.

  “Ask another question.”

  I thought for a bit. “What exactly was the plan?”

  “Oh. Well, I suppose there wasn’t really a thought out one. I was hoping just to keep meeting with you until you trusted me enough to follow me.”

  “I see.”

  “I would think that the best plan would have been to tie you up and get you to Melana as quickly as possible.” He laughed at the look on my face. “I’m kidding.”

  “Oh.”

  “What were you and the bird arguing about? You said something along the lines of ‘you know that doesn’t happen’.” I looked up at him when he didn’t answer. I was surprised to see he looked embarrassed.

  He looked at Dodge. “Well, you see, everyone knew you were coming back. But you’ve been gone for twenty-three years. You were just a baby. So no one knew what you would look like.” He paused, unsure if he should go on. When he did, it was like he was talking to himself. His voice was so soft I could barely hear it. “But I knew. It doesn’t make sense.” He stopped again.

  “The bird?” I pushed.

  “She said we must have been fated.”

  I was lost. I was looking at him so hard I tripped over a stump. Before I could fall he managed to pull me up. I stumbled again and fell into him. When I looked up, embarrassed, I was shocked by the look on his face. It was almost like he was in pain. He had both my hands in his, his voice barely a whisper.

  “It’s never happened. Not that I’ve heard of. Everyone is fated to their own kind. And yet I saw you. Have been seeing you for years...” His voice trailed off.

  I couldn’t look away from his eyes. The confusion was still there, but the pain had dimmed a bit. He seemed to make up his mind about something.

  “There is one way to be sure,” he whispered. He tilted my chin up with his fingers, his thumb lightly running along my bottom lip. I felt like an electric current was coursing through my body. He lowered his head down, his lips pausing less than an inch from mine.

  I hadn’t realized I had closed my eyes until I felt his forehead touch mine.

  He exhaled slowly.

  “You’re right. That would be selfish.” He kept his head against mine.

  It was my turn to be annoyed with my horse. I wanted to say, “who cares what the horse thinks!” Instead, I asked, “why?” It was barely a whisper.

  He didn’t move, his head on mine, my face still in his hands. “If two people are fated, they know of each other through dreams. Every night,” he pulled away and looked at me with eyes that burned, “I dream of you.”

  I felt like jello in his arms. He put his forehead back on mine. “Once you find the one you are fated with, a kiss seals the bond. From that day on, you live for each other. At first it is very hard to do anything other than be with that person. But as time goes by, you get back to life, but never alone again.”

  That didn’t sound so bad. Spending every minute like this with him. To feel what I saw

  in Tara and Shaynna’s eyes. I sighed. I was pretty sure I could handle that. But I was also a bit disappointed, though it was a stupid feeling to have. I had just met the man. I was glad we were still connected at the forehead so he couldn’t see my face. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer, but I asked anyway.

  “And you don’t want to kiss me in case that happens?”

  I must have done a terrible job of keeping how I felt out of my voice. He pulled away, his eyes wide with shock.

  “More than anything! Do you know how hard it was for me not to run down that hill the first time I saw you? Or again in the meadow? Or now?” His voice was husky as he continued. “This is supposed to be the best moment of a being’s life and yet I must deny it for the well-being of everyone else. I have finally found you and I can’t do a bloody thing about it!”

  It was getting harder and harder not to wrap my arms around his neck and pull him down to me.

  His voice was just a whisper. “You are meant for greater things. You are the one we’ve all been waiting for. If we are fated and I were to kiss you, your life would gravitate towards me and everything else would be lost.”

  He paused, his eyes narrowing. “But you are one annoying beast!” he snapped. He walked over to Dodge and took my saddle off his back. “Go then. We are making camp here tonight.” He glared at my horse.

  ‘If looks could kill’ popped into my head.

  “Of course I won’t do anything stupid!”

  Dodge came to nuzzle my face, seemed to hesitate, then trotted off.

  “There is a herd of horses a couple of miles from here. He will go spend the night with them and come back in the morning.”

  That’s when I noticed that daylight was fading. I walked over to my saddlebags and untied the two blankets I had brought for our picnic. That seemed like ages ago. I lay one of them on the ground and sat on it. Was I really going along with this? Did I really believe everything Jasper was telling me? It seemed I was, and I did. Or maybe I was just waiting until I woke up to laugh at myself.

  Jasper was hunting for fire wood. I watched him move around the campsite. He was beautiful. The way he moved, flawless. I smiled. He moved like a cat.

  He had the fire going and looked up then. Our eyes met. Jasper took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I tried to remember to breath. I had one question I wanted to ask before I went to sleep. I laughed a bit to myself. As if I was actually going to be able to get some sleep. Was it even possible to sleep in your dreams?

  Jasper was still unmoving by the fire. Flames danced in his eyes.

  “What did you mean by ‘their own kind’?”

  He stayed where he was. “Namaels with Namaels, Wedelves with Wedelves, and so on.”

  “And you’re a Namael.”

  He nodded.

  “So what am I?”

  He hesitated.

  My temper flared. “Look. I’m going to find out anyway. And this is about me! I think I have a right to know. I’m more than just a little freaked out about all of this and I think I might feel better about it if I heard it from you.”

  “I’m actually not sure...”

  “That’s it. If anyone around here figures I should stay to save the world, or whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing, someone had better explain things to me now!”

  “But...”

  One of the things I hated about myself was the fact that if I got mad, I started to cry. I looked away from Jasper and into the trees as I felt the tears start to come,

  “I want to go back! This is ridiculous! Tigers and Wedelves and wolves and talking horses! That just doesn’t exist! Why the hell can’t I just wake up?”

  My tirade was accented as a tree burst into flames. My eyes widened in surprise but I c
ouldn’t move. Was someone attacking? Where were they coming from?

  Jasper was on the ground, hands covering his head. I ran to him.

  “Jasper! Are you ok? What happened?” My jaw dropped. “What are you laughing at?” I started to get mad again. “I don’t find any of this very amusing!”

  He looked at me. “No... I’m sorry...don’t get mad. I’m not laughing, just relieved.” He took a few deep breaths and led me back to the blanket as he got himself under control. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t think it could happen. I’m just glad you weren’t looking at me!”

  I continued to glare at him. “What are you talking about?”

  “You did that. You set the tree on fire. It’s impossible, really. You’ve had no training. There’s no way you should be able to manifest any kind of magic at all. But you did.” He looked at my face. “Are you ok?”

  “No.” I put my head on my knees and wrapped my arms around them. The tears were about to start again.

  “I almost set you on fire!” A sob overtook my control. Then another. Once they started, it was impossible to stop.

  “Shush, now.” Jasper slid closer to me and pulled me to his chest. He chuckled a bit. “I wasn’t lying, you know. I don’t know. The stories never said what you are.” His strong arms held me until I was done crying. He gently stroked my hair. “Better?”

  I didn’t answer. The events of the day had finally caught up to me and exhaustion had won. I fell asleep feeling safe in his arms.

  Chapter 2

  “No,” a beautiful voice whispered. There was a pause. “Yes, I was going to tell her.” Another pause. “I already explained to you. I didn’t get the chance.”

  I lay with my eyes closed, listening to my dream.

  “It was amazing. She was so mad. Her eyes flashed this brilliant green and the next thing I knew, the tree was on fire!” The voice laughed quietly. “She can be stubborn, I think. Was she over there?” He chuckled at the answer.

  “Yes, I realize that might have been me.” The arms around me shifted a little. “Well you’re the one who insisted on keeping her in the dark.”

  I was so comfortable I didn’t want to move. My face was pressed against his chest and I thought there was only one man alive who could smell this good after sweating and bleeding. Very....manly, I thought to myself. My head wasn’t the only part of me to think so.