Chapter 17: Step One into a New World

"Come on Willow, you can do this I know you can," trying to imagine the instructions Yvette keeps telling me is proving to be more complicated than it sounds to try and get this power to work. It's something that I am hell bent on completing. If I don' control what's inside of me, then it will control me and worse than that Jayden will be able to get a hold of it and who knows what will happen then. "Yvette it's not working, for Thor's sake it's not working," at the moment I could feel the anger boiling through me from the frustration I was feeling and it didn't feel good. As I flung my hands up in the air illustrating this emotion the sudden light come firing out from my palm igniting the tree above me into flames. Immediately I felt my body stumble backwards away from it as some of the branches started to fall down in my front of me. "Well that ended well didn't it?" I looked round slowly at Yvette as I made my statement; as I looked upon her, she had her arms crossed over her chest with an analysing expression written across her face but it wasn't at me instead it was at the tree behind me. "How did you do that?" She didn't sound concerned but more intrigued as we've been at this for hours with no result whatsoever. All I could let myself do was shrug my shoulders as I looked back at the tree which was no engulfed in the flames completely. It showed clearly I contained the fire element and that it was already working its magic nicely.

"Willow, how did you use the power the other two times, before now I mean. You used it on that man in the village and you almost used it on Jayden. What do you think started it off?" I started to ignore the tree as it slowly made its way to ash and let my attention pay back on Yvette by twisting my body the whole three sixty degree. I had to think for a while; I needed to cast my mind back to those two moments so that I could piece everything together so I would end up with a suitable answer. "I'm not sure, I was angry if that counts as anything," Yvette cocked her head to the side slightly as she began thinking even deeper than she was before and usually that means she is onto something, the only question was what was it? "How did you feel just then? At that moment I knew where she was going, I understood where she was going with it, so instead of answering her question I went straight for the answer "You think that this power relates to my emotions or makes a connection with it," and she nodded ay me. I guess that made sense, but if I am to get this to work and use it whenever I need it then I can't have it relying on my anger emotions all the time, I need to make sure it's controlled on all my emotions. "Willow it isn't just that, I've been thinking as well it only came out when you were in danger of some sort. You know how I told you that after Alesandro did what he did, you created that explosion and your power seemed to be extremely dangerous?"

It was unclear to me where she was going with this, so all my head could do was nod slowly as I kept my gaze focused on her waiting for the final statement which cleared the thickening air between us of curiosity. "I don't think it's trying to hurt you, but in fact quite the opposite. I think it's trying to protect you." I looked over at my Yvette making sure that I had a questioning look to my eyes because I didn't see how that was possible. I couldn't see that what she was proposing could have any relevance to the matter at hand even though she knew more about this stuff than I do, it just didn't make any sense to me. Not most of it at least. "What do you think it has a mind of its own like a human mind for example?" Yvette moved close towards me nodding her head just before opening her lips to answer me "That's exactly what I think. If it wanted to cause harm it would have so already just like it did the first time it was made. It's been active now for quite some time, so if it wanted to do damage it would have done so. Though it hasn't so instead I think it's protecting you and it only decides to come out when it thinks you're in danger."

Now it was my turn to nod at my aunt, though it was moving quite slowly as my intake of all this information was sliding in my brain at a gradual pace especially as I am trying to make sense of it all. "If that is the case, what do I have to do?" Yvette took hold of my hands and looked down at them; in a way her next words with either at me or at the gift inside of me but either way I understood what she was saying "Trust it. Listen to it. Clear your mind and make that connection with it and trust that it doesn't want to hurt you," then she stepped back away from me and let me clear my mind in the space alone. I took a deep breath and shoot my hands slightly before letting them fall down to my side followed by letting my eyes close. And that's where I stood waiting to clear my mind to darkness. I needed to get rid of the events from the past few days, I need to rid the images from my brain, I need to rid all the questions in my head and keep a single focus on what I needed right now and that was the power inside me. I had to make that connection between it and me and once it's made I can control it and it can protect me just like Yvette believes its already doing.

Darkness; I finally saw darkness in front of me with the images wiped from my brain and my soul focus was on the magic inside of me. Just as I thought these thoughts and these thoughts alone I started to feel the power evaporate around my hands; the reason I knew was because it's warm feeling and the tickling effect it had around my hand as it swirled. With all this I decided to open my eyes and as I lifted up my hands there I could see it in front of me with my own eyes and when I looked at it, I didn't seem afraid of it anymore not when I saw its beauty right here in front of me. "What does it do?" I asked Yvette as I looked from the glowing substance within my hands over to her but she couldn't give a direct answer just a few summaries "As far as I know, you can manipulate reality and has traces of neoshamanism." All I could so was raise an eyebrow at her as I'd never heard of such a thing before so she carried on for me "What I mean is, the power has new forms of shamanism so it causes visions and helps to heal. Other than that I think it just has normal magical properties especially with all the influences from each of the elements." I nodded just as the power subsided from my hands and they went back to normal leaving a wide smile on my face. Just as Yvette went to head back inside the cottage, I headed behind towards the stables to meet with the dragons. Now that I've stepped further into more knowledge about the world I used to know, I find myself having the urge to spend time with it more in case it all goes away again.

I finished the book which Yvette gave me in the end considering I'd never finished it and since she is letting me keep the Picrra I figured it's probably best that I know more about the dragon before I do anything with it. As soon as I pushed the stables doors open and brushed all the snow out from inside I looked up to see the dragon running towards me with Kzidazz running after her. Let me tell you, if you could see them like I am right now you'd be able to see the smile on each of their faces and body language highlighting their excitement. I laughed at each of them especially as the Picrra circled me, nuzzling its nose against me followed by wrapping its tail round my body. I ran my hand down them slowly and tickled lightly underneath its neck just as it cooed slightly for a response. Kzidazz interrupted the moment as she nudged the dragon so they could start playing again. I watched them for a while and laughed at some of the actions they pulled, I really believe they were trying to show off in front of me. Eventually they decided to calm down and I went over to my own dragon and started to take on board the advice from the book I read and put them into play. I scanned the Picrra up and down and once I took a closer look underneath its neck I noticed a small carving of some sort which identified its gender and I found it to be a girl.

Due to her amazing colour and personality I decided to call her Crystal and by the looks of it she seemed to like the name because she wouldn't stop licking my face afterwards. I knew that the best way to get to know your dragon is to make sure that you create an unbreakable bond with it and one of the ways to do this was by training with it; that was what I decided to do, I didn't need to explain to Crystal what I wanted her to do because as I immediately walked out of the stables she followed my lead and we both made our way back into a clear space in the woods and started training together. I found that her fire ignited just like a magnesium blast almost which has this amazing twilight and silver lighting to it which also gave off small little sparks. Her tail was able to fire numerous shards of blade which almost looked like arrows and each one was made up of all shapes and sizes and she was able to do this all at once or individually. I was mesmerized by the talent which she had and I couldn't forget the knowledge of heightened senses which was also part of her and this was why her breed was known to be the relentless hunter of men. I still couldn't see though how these dragons were known to be the most dangerous because Crystal doesn't seem like that to me.

I was able to teach some hand signals with her so we know what each one meant and we showed that we are able work together effectively. For our first session together I think that we bonded very well with each other not that we didn't before but now I just feel that it has got stronger and I'm happy about it. It only occurred to me later that we'd both been out her for quite some time and the sun was beginning to set and switch its beach sunset warmth with the cold twilight night. "Come on Crystal, we better start heading back before Yvette gets worried about the pair," she nudged me slightly with her nose as an understanding before letting me sit up on her back before walking back towards the college. The walk back was extremely peaceful because all you could hear was the wind moving in and out of the trees and rustles of the bushes being barged through with the rush of voices running after someone. Wait, what? I sat up from my led down position on Crystal and looked around for the sound which was coming from around me and it was clear to me that Crystal could hear it as well because her head perked up and mirrored the actions I was pulling. Something was wrong.

The sound of rustling became clearer around us the yells became clear to be men hunting down someone by the sounds of it. With my head and body spinning in numerous directions to find the cause of this commotion, the power of the collision to my body felt like a weight to me as I started tumbling down the hill in the woods followed with something else tangled with me. I could hear the cry of Crystal come from above but that was blocked out as I found my body unravel itself from the tangle and fly across the ground and hit one of the closet trees. I grabbed hold of my head as the pressure of the hit was immeasurable just before I looked over to see what hit me. As I lifted my head I found across from me another figure. They too lifted their head and looked over at me, with their immediate azure eyes clashed onto mine and the shag of their auburn hair but their head was shaking at me with words coming out from their mouth "No...No it can't be." The sound of their voice suddenly hit me like a wave, just did their features all colliding at me in one flash and suddenly the magic evaporated within my hands once more and everything started to flood back in. So many images passed through my head.

There in each of them I was with someone; starting from a young age all the way up until everything happened. I was with this boy and I recognised him all too well from a few of my other dreams. The way he had the strange blue streaks through the front of his hair, the azure colour in his eyes and the way we always smiled and hung out with each other. The times I spent with him and his sister and all the times we spent with each other; everything, it was everything that we did together that just started to rampage through my brain making me remember who this person is. With the warmth of my power disappear from my hands and my mind brought me back into reality, both of our eyes clashed with one another once more, with the boy in front of me still shaking his head slightly at me, trying to take everything in. Everything about him now was clear to me, but I was surprised out of my mind just like he was and the only word I could escape my lips were "Hayden?"