Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' (11 page)

“Hmm.” I sighed a bit in disappointment
when the kiss ended.

“We better get going. The others aren’t
waiting for us.”

I looked up and found that he was
right. I grinned at him. “I wouldn’t mind a bit of privacy right
now.” I reached up and brushed a couple of stray curls away from
his eyes.

Jasper closed his eyes and I traced the
lines of his cheekbones and jaw with my finger.

“Ow!” Jasper jumped back and grabbed
the hand he had been resting on my arm. “You are evil!” He glared
at Tiny.

“Bad, Tiny. Bad!” I tried to discipline
my protector without laughing. She cocked her head to one side, the
proceeded to crawl the rest of the way up my arm to rest on my
shoulder, her tail wrapped loosely around my neck.

“Are you ok?” I took Jasper’s hand and
inspected the four little drops of blood emerging on the end of his
thumb.

“No worries, Shlova. I’ve had much
worse.” He scowled at the tairat.

“Ok. Let me put her down again and we’d
better leave so she stays.” I proceeded to break another piece of
cheese off and put it under the bush with Tiny.

I jogged away and made my way toward
Dodge, who had come to see what was taking us so long. I put my
foot in the stirrup and swung on. Jasper shifted.

“Let’s catch up to them, Buddy.” I
patted Dodge on the neck and he moved into a slow
canter.

*****

By day number three in the Wedelven
woods, the assortment of flora and fauna was even more diversified.
Along with the silver trees and evergreens there were quite a few
more bushes, all of them covered in beautiful flowers. There were
also some smaller versions of the silver trees, but these had pink
tinged leaves.

I had also seen a snake with two tails,
some florescent pink birds that looked like owls, and a little
family of raccoon looking animals that Tara warned me to stay away
from because they were venomous.

We had just finished eating supper and
were getting ready to make camp for the night when I heard a noise
in the bushes behind me. I turned slowly, not sure who or what to
expect.

“You’re kidding,” I muttered to myself.
A little tairat made its way toward me, its eyes wide.

“Tiny, is that you?”

“Tiny?” Jasper came to stand beside me,
shirtless after getting cleaned up at the creek. “I suppose there’s
an easy way to test if it’s her or not.” He turned and pulled me
against him, his lips only partly on mine as he eyed the little
creature wearily.

The tairat bared her teeth and ran
toward us, a stream of chattering directed at Jasper, whose eyes
widened before he jumped away from me.

Tiny ran up my leg and settled on my
shoulder.

Jasper glared at her. “Evil. That’s
what we should name her. Evil.”

I laughed. “That’s not very
nice.”

“Well, neither is she.”

“I wonder if it’s because you’re a cat.
Do you hunt these?”

He laughed. “Why bother. It would take
ten of them to fill a person up.”

I snorted. He was right. “Go and get
some cheese from the bag and you can hold her while I go get
cleaned up at the creek.”

I handed her over to him; both of them
looking displeased at the notion, and went down to the creek to
wash as best as I could.

“I’ll tell you one thing I’m really
missing about home,” I mumbled to myself. “A shower and
soap.”

By the time I had gotten back to camp
Jasper and Tiny had come to the agreement that Jasper was not going
to eat Tiny so long as she didn’t bite him.

Jasper smiled at me. “I think we’re
done with the biting, but now I think she is trying to choke
me.”

I laughed and leaned in for a kiss.
Jasper tensed, waiting for the attack he thought was coming, then
relaxed when he realized it wasn’t going to happen. He wrapped his
arms around me and kissed me deeply.

“Hmmmm. Much better,” he whispered
before kissing me again.

Tiny took advantage of the moment to
walk from his shoulder to mine.

It was starting to get dark and
everyone was pulling out their blankets.

“Let’s go to bed, Shlova,” whispered
Jasper in my ear.

*****

The following morning I woke to the
noise of Tara and Ben making bets.

“I don’t know why you bother, sweets.
You know you’re going to lose.” Tara grinned at him.

“You just wait. Goop has been getting
much quicker on his turns.” Ben patted his deer between the
eyes.

Tara shrugged. “It’s your new
bow.”

He laughed. “It’s going to stay my new
bow. But can you bear to part with your emerald dagger?”

She snorted and made sure her saddle
was on tightly.

“You’re going to want to see this,
Shlova,” Jasper said as he took my hand and stood me up.

We followed behind the two of them as
they led their deer a little way down the trail.

“I don’t know why they bother making
bets. They never do exchange prizes,” he laughed.

“So you know Tara and Ben from
before?”

He nodded. “I was doing some scouting
along the Wedelven border when I came upon a lone Wedelve high in a
tree. She was surrounded by dogs and was casually taking them out,
one by one, every time one would try to come up after
her.”

Tara looked back and grinned. “Jasper
was nice enough to lend me a hand. When we were done getting rid of
them all, I brought him home so I could feed him a decent meal as a
thank you.

I had just come back for a few days,
then, and when we got to talking, Jasper told me about being on the
lookout for you, that the queen thought you might be coming back
soon. I had brought some pictures back, so I showed him the one of
you. I wasn’t sure if we were both talking about the same
person.”

Jasper started to laugh. “I fell off of
my chair.”

“Literally. He took the picture in his
hand, his eyes got big and he stood up real fast, tripped on the
chair and fell over.”

“I had been dreaming about you for two
years prior to that day, but had always assumed you were probably
at the castle and I hadn’t seen you yet. When she gave me the
picture and I realized that you were the one I was dreaming of, I
have to admit, I was completely baffled.”

Tara laughed. “He thanked me for his
meal and left like his ass was on fire. That was about four years
ago.”

I smiled. “You poor thing. You must
have thought it was a lost cause.”

He nodded. “I did. Not only was I fated
to the one being who could save or destroy us all, she wasn’t even
in this world!”

I took his hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Sorry I took so long.”

He grinned at me. “It’s quite alright.
You’re here now.”

“Oh, cool!” We crested a hill and found
ourselves looking at what looked like an obstacle course. There
were fallen trees over the trail which snaked in and out of itself
multiple times before ending where it started. The creek was also a
part of this course.

“This is where they hold the races for
Wellfore. It’s the week that marks the end of summer. It’s a great
time. Well, I can do without the ball the first night, but the rest
of the week is a blast,” explained Jasper as the other two walked
down to the course. We sat on the hill to watch. “So many beings
come to celebrate. You’ll love it.”

“When is it?”

“In another two months I think. I’ll
have to ask. I haven’t been in civilization for a couple of months
now.”

I glanced at him. “You told me you had
been camping for a week.”

“I had been. In that spot. I wasn’t
sure where you were going to come from, so I had been watching a
few of the gate trails.”

“Do you have a cross stone?”

He nodded.

“Have you used it?”

“Just once. About four years ago. Right
after Tara showed me your picture, actually.” His eyes narrowed a
bit. “I had thought to go there to find you instead of waiting for
you to come back here.”

“So what happened? Obviously you didn’t
find me.”

He shook his head. “No. I didn’t stay
there long enough. I crossed over and thought I was
dying.”

I frowned. “Why?”

“There’s no magic there. In order for
me to shift, I have to have a source of magic. In this world, it’s
just here. It’s in the air, the trees, the ground. Everything here
works on magic. The tiger part of me lives on magic. When I cross
over, that part of me gets lost. It was like half of me died. I
tried to ignore it, some of us can. But I couldn’t.”

I put my head against his shoulder.
“Well, either way, you managed to find me.”

He leaned his cheek on my head. “I
think it’s more like you found me.”

Tara and Ben were at the start of the
obstacle course and had gotten on their deer. Both of them looked
up to where we were sitting and I waved to them. Tiny grunted in
annoyance as her perch moved suddenly.

Tara and Ben stood the deer at the
starting line facing backward. One of them must have counted down
and the two of them pivoted their deer in opposite directions so
they wouldn’t run into each other.

Peena was faster coming out of the spin
and bound away from Goop.

“Ooh. She’s quick!” I
admired.

“Just wait. Goop is faster on the flat.
Also, he’s stronger.”

We watched as the two of them bound
along at an unbelievable speed. I had seen deer in the woods at
home, but to see them with riders was amazing.

Ben and Tara were standing in their
stirrups, their knees bending with the force of each
landing.

Tara was still in the lead as they
reached the first jump. Peena gathered herself and leapt into the
air. Goop heard Tara’s holler to Peena to jump and gathered himself
as well. He left the ground a whole deer length behind Peena and
sailed through the air.

“Whoa! Did you see that?” Goop had
managed to power jump himself into the lead, landing ahead of Peena
on the other side.

It was a neck and neck race. Goop would
pull ahead over the jumps and Peena would outrun him through the
curves.

Both Tara and Ben were urging the deer
on as they came out of the final turn and headed toward the finish
line.

“I’ll bet you a back rub Tara and Peena
take it.”

Jasper chuckled. “You’re
on.”

Tara had come out of the last turn a
whole deer length ahead of Ben, who had managed to close the
distance so that Goop was only a head behind Peena.

Both deer were bounding as fast as they
could. The lead changed from one to the other as one deer landed
and the other left the ground.

Tara held her arm up in victory as
Peena leapt a half a stride ahead of Goop and flew across the
finish line.

I laughed. “Wow. That was great!” I
looked at Jasper and grinned.

“You’re just itching to get on one,
aren’t you?”

My grin widened and he laughed. “Maybe
we can find you one once we get everything done and over with. You
have to get them as babies to form a bond. Once that imprinting is
done, only that person can ride that deer.”

I looked down at the course where Tara
and Ben had gotten off of the deer and were leading them around to
cool down. They were making their way back toward us.

Tara laughed and Ben hooked his arm
around her waist.

“Of course I let you win,” he was
saying as they got nearer.

She grinned at him. “Of course you
did.”

He laughed as she stuck her tongue out
at him and he pulled her in for a kiss. His arms held her tightly
against him, his mouth claiming hers. She melted against
him.

“It doesn’t matter,” I heard him say
softly. “Either way, I’m always the winner.”

Tara smiled and kissed him
again.

Jasper took my hand and led me away. “I
think we best leave them alone,” he whispered to me.

My eyes widened. “What? Here? In the
bush?”

He laughed. “They’ve only been fated
for four or five months I think. It’s hard to resist.”

I grunted in agreement. “Tell me about
it.”

Jasper was frowning a bit. “To have
this business done and over with.” He seemed to be talking to
himself.

I gave his hand a squeeze.

He glanced at me quickly and smiled
back. “Let’s get back to camp. Maybe if my stomach isn’t hungry,
the rest of me won’t be as well.”

I blushed. “It’s worth a
try.”

I hadn’t realized how long of a walk it
had been until we made it back to camp in time to have
lunch.

By the time everyone had eaten and
everything had been packed up, it was well into the
afternoon.