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I hastened into the thick grasses that cloaked the tents and buildings in which the army lived and learned, heading toward the combat clearing.
From behind me, Clawdia exclaimed, "Baelen, where have you gone? We can’t see you. It's so dark here."
I stopped and turned to see Clawdia squinting into the darkness, holding Zaide's hand like it was a lifeline. They hadn’t followed me into the grass. Instead, they stood at the edges, clumsy feeling at the long strands.
The dim moonlight darkened her hair, but the bright violet of her eyes shone conjointly with the purple glow of Zaide's scars. The one under his eye illuminated his high cheekbones and broad nose. His skin turned bronze in the dark, but his white hair glinted like polished metal under the moonlight. He looked like a statue. Strong and muscular.
I saw them perfectly, as my eyes were used to the dim of this realm, so I took a moment to admire them both while they couldn’t see me, enjoying how they mirrored each other in the strangest of ways.
A soul pair. My soul mates.It was still so unbelievable.
"Your eyes will adapt soon," I promised her and took her hand. Our connection sprang to life, pushing me to be closer. Heat swept through me, urgent and desperate.
Gritting my teeth and taking a quick breath, I tried to ignore the urge to kiss her, and him, strip them both … taste them.
Darkness, grant me focus …
I tried to distract myself with their training plans. While it was a necessary task for them, it also eased the mounting anxiety in me that my soul mates would be killed because they couldn't use their gifts. With them currently facing so many dangers, without me able to help, it was a real possibility.
No one wanted to spend forever alone.
They will need to learn. Fast.
While Clawdia had used her gift to heal me, I wanted to see it with my own eyes. I wanted to help them expand it, see more, and use it the way titans used to—manipulating the fabric of the universe to achieve greatness.
A gift such as healing, a less chaotic and rewarding gift, is the perfect start to remind the rest of the realms of the good titans did when they had their power. It wouldn’t remind them of the powerful and cruel ones who had caused their fall.
I pulled them to a stop after we entered the fenced clearing used by the soldiers to practice their hand-to-hand fighting as well as to learn to use their weapon of choice. Surrounded by lanterns lighting the area, my soul mates no longer peered into the blackness and instead could look around.
Zaide walked toward the swords lining the fences and inspected them. “This is where they train? The freed titans?” I nodded. “Will you teach us to fight?”
“You already know how to fight.” He’d been a fighter slave and endured in illegal fights for a long time.
“I know how to survive, but I was never truly taught.” He sighed. “Clawdia doesn’t know how to fight either.”
I looked down at the small, delicate female holding my hand. She smiled up at me, and I struggled to imagine how she would be able to defend herself. But I also knew the consequences if she didn’t.
“Would you like that, Sunlight?” I asked.
“I don’t think I’d enjoy the process,” she admitted sheepishly, “but I’d like to join you both as you free titans and protect you when we are eventually able to be together.”
I nodded once. “I will teach you. But not tonight. Tonight, we’ll focus on dreamscapes and healing.”
Zaide came back toward us and placed his hands on her Clawdia’s shoulders. “We are ready.” She nodded, a fierce look on her face that only made her more adorable.
"Lesson one, learning how to manipulate the dreamscape."
Concentrating on my arm, I imagined the broad sword I usually carried and willed it into being. Zaide and Clawdia gasped as it shimmered into existence, the gleam of the silver shining under the lantern lights.
"You can create anything you want in the dreamscape. It is yours to create and build if you have the power. Although unnatural at first, you'll soon get the hang of it." I squeezed Clawdia's hand and asked, "What is your favorite flower?" She opened her mouth to tell me, but I pressed a gentle finger against her lips and whispered, "Show me."
Her brow raised in understanding, and as my fingers fell from her face, her tongue ran across her lips nervously and she closed her eyes, holding out her hand. Furrowed in concentration, her brow lines twitched, and in her palm, a flower appeared.
It was purple petaled and tall, reaching for the sky, with a long yellow middle and a green stem. Then right next to it appeared a small, flat, blue-petaled flower with yellow around a black dot in the middle.
Her eyes popped open, and she looked down at the flowers in her hand with a triumphant grin.
Zaide whooped and hugged her from behind. "Well done, Little Cat!"
