The Definer

Chapter 17

It was only once I reached the portal back to the meadow, that I realised that I still didn't know the spell to get through. I was now, completely unsure of what to do. That's when I remembered the badge in my pocket. I pulled it carefully out of my pocket. Mine was a lot more new than Dean's. It had a glass screen and a gold outline around the edges. It also had rubies and sapphires lining the sides. Ariana had helped me personalise it to match all of my other weapons and gadgets. She also entered some people into my badge. I touched the screen with the tip of my finger and a list of names appeared. Ariana, Aleric, Emane, Mark, Dean and a few others I didn't recognise. I chose Dean's name and then thought up a message for him. That's all it takes to make a message- a thought. It then runs through the badge and sends a message to them. It only took seconds for him to answer so he must've just been relaxing.
"I'll come get you." The badge said in his voice.
A minute later, he appeared through the portal. He jumped straight for me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I went to wrap mine around his neck when the stinging pain returned to my shoulder. I gasped slightly at the sudden sting and Dean instantly released me.
"What's wrong? What happened? Did I hurt you? I'm so-"
"It's alright, I'm fine." I said, catching his face in my cupped hands. He pulled my hands down into his and kissed my forehead.
"Come on." He whispered in my ear. He stepped back through the portal and mumbled the words, making sure that I could here them. "Proholis naturale"

We appeared in the meadow a second later.
"Please don't use that to come into the Human Realm if I'm not there to protect you." He said.
"Race you to the pond!" I called, breaking the serious moment.
I ran quickly forward before he could move. I knew for a fact that he could easily beat me with his speed but I didn't care. I still loved the thrill of trying. He laughed and then began running. Once he got close enough behind me, he picked me up and held me over his shoulder as he ran. I laughed and laughed as we ran towards the pond. Once we got there, he threw me in before jumping in after me. I found it hard to keep my head above the water when my clothes were pulling me down. Dean's head appeared above the water in front of me and his hands tightened around my waist as he lifted me out of the water so that I was dangling above him with my legs still dragging along in the water. He kissed my nose and placed me back in the water, holding me tightly in his embrace as we sat there.
"You won." He whispered in my ear. "You were in the pond first."
"I don't think it counts when you pick me up and throw me in." I laughed.
I looked down at his chest and couldn't help but notice his white shirt. Now that it was wet, it was see-through and clung tightly to his chest. I could perfectly see the outline of his strong abs beneath his shirt. He must have noticed where my gaze was pointed because he looked back up at me with a wide smile.
"Do you want me to take my shirt off?" He asked.
I laughed and looked back up at his face. He kissed my nose and laughed with me. He said a quick spell to keep me above the water before sliding his shirt up and over his head. He swam back to me and pulled me gently forward until we reached the small waterfall. He pulled me through to a small cave on the other side that was shallow enough to sit on and still have my neck sticking out of the water.
"What happened to you? Your shoulder. And your neck looks really bad as well." Dean asked suddenly.
"I'd rather not tell you." I replied. I knew he wouldn't be happy if he found out.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't want you to murder the... thing that did it."
He sat up and looked at me worriedly. "Something or someone did this to you?"
"Someone."
"Who? Was it Daniel? A tevit? One of your friends?"
"I don't know who or what it was but it wasn't any of them."
"What did it look like?"
"I said I'd rather not talk about it."
"I want to know so I can protect you." He said, taking both of my hands in his.
"Ugh. He had no nose, his eyes were black and his skin was kind of orange." I knew I had to tell him. He probably wouldn't let go of me until I told him.
"Porosane. That's what the creature was."
"He seemed to hate humans." I said.
"They usually do. Let's just say, them and humans have a bad history together."
"What happened?"

He sighed and began his story. "It was hundreds of years ago. Porosanes went to a small human village. All they had ever wanted was peace between humans and fey. They entered the Human Realm and removed all spells that prevented humans from seeing them. They offered peace to everyone that lived there. The humans didn't take it too well though. They claimed they were aliens, coming to take over their world. I have no idea where that theory came from. Anyway, it ended up as war. Hundreds, if not thousands of porosanes died and the rest fled back to the Fey Realm. Humans returned to their normal business and acted like it had never happened. As time went by, the topic sometimes came up but they passed it up as just being a silly myth. Porosanes believed that the humans had no souls as they barely grieved the loss of lives in the battle. All the porosane survivors began a deep hatred that spread and never faded."
"That's terrible... Was it only porosanes that fought?"
"No. There were others too. Marfolk included. I believe Ariana already told you about them and their weapons. The other fey that fought were a little more forgiving. They understood the humans' motives and decided to do the same... Just forget it ever happened." He explained.
I looked down at the crystal water, rippling peacefully around us. I felt alone for some reason... Like I never should have brought myself or my friends into this mess. In a way, I wanted everything to go back to the way it was but in a way, I also felt like I was meant to be there. Like I was meant to be fighting... Protecting... Learning.

I felt like this was my destiny.