Heather's Adventures: The Search for Maxamus

Chapter 44. Heather

Yes, then Max did wake me up in the middle of the night.

"I want to explore the caverns more." He stated, "you're strong, you'll protect us."

I nodded, "yeah but your mother took both my bag and bow, and she has your sword. We're not exactly that strong without them, or you're not anyway. I on the other hand can do this..." I played with a ball of fire in my hands, "it's warmer than usual, guess I have more passion now."

Max looked at me funny, "passion?"

"My strength of my fire is fueled partially by my passion, anger, energy, you know. Hatred works best too. Love kinda works but only when I'm saving Sheria, there's no one really else I save out of love." I then looked up at him, "like my eyes, see, they're normally lavender, like this." I made sure he was watching my eyes, "but when I want to strengthen myself I have to change them to fiery orange. Then I can do more damage. But they can also change to orange if I'm mad or scared or stuff." I rambled on like the twelve year old I was. I changed my eyes to the orange and laughed, "don't be scared of my eyes. They scare a lot of people, but honestly it's harmless unless I'm attacking you."

"Yeah, but you're so strong."

I shrugged, "I've been training for years. I also fought on the front lines in the war...although I was the only one fighting."

"Wait, you were the one who destroyed the army?"

"I thought you already knew, wasn't my name in the UWT news or something?"

Max shook his head, "no, they didn't put your name in there for your protection or something."

"Well if they wanted to protect me they shouldn't have put me there in the first place. Honestly, what were they thinking? They had me fight. That's why I ran away." Together we snuck out the back door and we headed down the street to the caverns, "I didn't want to fight anymore, but now I know that I have to fight to save everyone. If I don't take on Jen then she'll just hurt more people and I can't let that happen. I won't let that happen. I'm the reason this all happened and I'll take care of it before anyone gets hurt. I won't let others suffer at my expense when this is all my fault."

"Well what do you plan to do after the fight is over?"

I shrugged, "just roam around free I guess. I'll apply to join the academy at the UWT for higher training to become one of the elite members perhaps. I was going to go there in a few years anyway. I'm crazy strong and powerful but I don't apply myself enough in Issola. I was going to finish all the training the academy could give me there in a year or two. I want to be a freelancing mage. I'd go help people. I was thinking of using the name Heather: The Mistress of Flames. Sounds cool, right?"

"Sounds scary and powerful."

"Good, because then people will think I'm as powerful and strong as I am. Say, what are you going to do once this is all over?"

Max shrugged, "I guess I'll have to follow you around since after all we are still bonded. I don't really know what else to do."

"So we're a team then, right?" I asked with my hands in my pockets, "we'll fight together and help people, together!"

He nodded, "yeah, perhaps that's why I'm being watched over by Puggy and you're being watched over by Thalia."

I weighed out the possibility, "perhaps, but only time will tell. Until then we'll just keep fighting together to stop Jen."

"It's just funny. Everywhere you go there's a bunch of fighting and trouble."

"Wherever I go trouble likes to follow me. It's normal." I laughed, "Besides, a lot more people would be out for my head if they knew that I was the one who single-handedly won that battle. The word is starting to spread."

"Soon Heather Mellissa will be a household name, won't it?"

I nodded, "uh-huh, won't that be cool? Then people will believe I'm strong. They'll believe I can save them."

Max laughed back at me, brushing aside his messy hair, "you sure like to save and help people, don't you?"

"Hey, it gives me something to do. I don't want to fight anyone for no reason, I want to help the world and protect people. I will defend that until the end. Those who oppose that will have to take me, and if I'm going down, I'll go down screaming, fighting, and whatever else it takes to prove my point that you need to protect those you love."

"You're very determined," Max laughed at my rather large plans.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who believes it."

"But you believe it," Max stated, "so that means there's hope for it. As long as there's one person that believes, there is still hope."

I nodded, "yeah, you're right. So do you want to be on my team? If I had a team we'd be unstoppable. Nothing could get in our way, we'd be so strong. We could help everyone and never let the bad guys try to destroy anyone else's homes ever again. I can't forgive them for what they did to my home, nor forget it. But I can do whatever it takes to make sure it never happens to another young girl who was just like me. No one deserves to have to deal with all of this."

"Then I will be on your team. You'll have a Merrywell allying with you so you'll be even stronger."

I nodded, "then you are the first member of my team. Since you're the first you get to be the co-leader. Your job is to protect me and deal with all the people I don't want to deal with. And get me whatever I need."

"Works for me," Max smiled to me, "as long as you stay true to your mission."

"I will as long as you don't prove your disloyalty to me."

"Deal."

"Then welcome to the team, Max." I stated as we arrived at the entrance of the caverns, "now let's go on our first adventure as an official team."