The Queen of Ash and Flame

Chapter Five ✓

 We stood in a clearing, tall trees forming a wall around the empty space. A rushing river sat next to the patch of grass. The water crystal clear and sparkling. The clearing was large, larger than all of Morhella.

The scent of nature and rotting leaves mixed together to form a peaceful scent. The notes of birds swelled together putting together a beautiful song, full of melodies.

"You ready to test out your new powers?" Lilith asked.

"Yeah I think so," I said, letting out a breath.

"So I think first we should just test out the regular fae abilities first then move onto your special powers," Lilith said. "I'm going to get you to just move that log over there, and bring it to us," she said, pointing over to a stack of huge thick logs.

I turned back to the group, wide eyes. "You think I can move that?" I asked, surprised.

Annista smiled, "You can pick that up with not even half a thought."

I raised my eyebrows.I walked over to the stack, on my new strong legs, fast and nimble. I moved without a sound. I got to the bundle and looked at the top log. It was long, looked like seven feet long and one and a half feet thick.

I pushed the fallen log off the pile to pick it up, imagining it to be impossible. But I picked up the log and almost stumbled back when it was light. Like picking up a medium size rock rock.

The bark was ruff and damp against my hands, I held it over my head and turned towards the group. They all were smiling. I walked towards them and dropped the log infront of them.

I wasn't even out of breath, not a bead of sweat on my forehead.

"How was that?" Lilith asked.

"Surprisingly easy," I laughed.

"Feel up to a race?" Annista asked, smirking.

"Uh, okay," I agreed. We walked over to the edge of the tree line, facing towards the river.

"So what we're going to do is run to the river and jump over it," she said, like it was a normal Tuesday exercise. If I were human it would take me at least ten minutes to run over to the river. But with my new found strength I was more up to the challenge.

"Three, two, one!" Dimitri yelled from the sidelines, Lilith standing by his side.

I bolted, my feet slapping the ground. The trees were a blur, the wind whipped at my fiery red hair. My hair had always been red, even when I was human. But now fae, the red was intensified, almost glowing. I quickly approached the water, the liquid shining like the sun. I reached the edge of the water and leapt over the large stream. It was a thick river. Not a measly little trickle of water.

I half expected to drown in the water, for me not to make it all the way across. But to my surprise again, my feet hit the soft grass running. I almost toppled over, but managed to catch myself before my face ended up in the ground.

I turned around to see Annista leaping over the water, my mouth fell open. Did I look that majestic when I jumped? She landed on the ground turning to me smiling. Her hair was tousled by the wind.

"Oh my gods you are so freaking powerful!" she gawked at me.

"Same with you!" I said, amazed.

"You are way more powerful than me," she said, brushing off the compliment.

"Girls stop chatting and head on back here! We have more things to do before we send Natallia into Mortem," Lilith said.

I dug the ball of my foot into the damp grass, and sprung into the air. The cool freshly spring air caressing my face. I landed on the ground with a jarring force. My bones felt like they were rattling against each other.