The Winds of Change

Blessings and Shackles

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When Monday rolled around, I couldn’t wait to meet with Uncle Eli again. I never realized how long it took for five minutes to pass. I was staring down the clock in my biology class; counting down the seconds till the hour hand struck the third hour. I was glaring at the clock willing it to move so the bell would sound, setting me free. I swear, move you dang piece of crap! YES, YES, Five more seconds! Four, Three, Two.

“Are you freaking kidding me? The clock just stopped!” I screeched. I clamped my hand over my mouth as my eyes got the size of saucers. All eyes turned to stare at me. Hearing snickering from behind me I turned to see Ash red faced, holding his breath. I scowled, mouthed ‘I HATE YOU’, then turned around and shrunk in my seat so hopefully Mrs. Smith wouldn’t see me.

“Lexi? Do you have a problem?” my cannibalistic Biology instructor questioned.

I gulped all I could think was, please don’t eat me, please don’t eat me! I shook my head quickly.

“Okay well make sure it doesn’t happen again, okay?” She smiled walking away, her heels click-clacking on the cold tile floor. By the time she reached the board the bell went off and I was out the door, pushing some chick in stilettos over in the process.

When I got home, Uncle Eli was sitting at the kitchen table eating my Tim-Tams!

“Yo! Dude! Hands off my Tim-Tams! Those things cost a butt load for shipping!” I dropped my stuff and grabbed my now almost empty box of personal Australian/New Zealand slice of heaven. I saw he had one in his hand and took it too.

“Lexi? What’s going on down there?” my mom called from upstairs.

“She doesn’t know you’re here?” I hissed, and my eyes just about bulged out of my head as he shook his head no. “She’s gonna freak out!” I heard her walking down the stairs. My head was screaming at me to take cover.

“Lexi . . . honey? Holy Goirtean! Eli what are you doing here?” My mom stopped in her tracks, her eyes the size of dinner plates

“Well Elaine, Lexi seems to have inherited the family legacy.” Uncle Eli was smiling hesitantly, awaiting my mother’s reaction.

“I should have known, it was inevitable.” she murmured. “Eli, how much does she know?” her eyes had turned hard.

“Everything, but well she doesn’t only have an affinity for water . . . she also has control over earth, fire, and well um spirit.” Elaine’s eyes snapped to those of her brothers and he flinched away.

“What did you say?” the tone in Mom’s voiced proved how angry she was, which acted as my cue to get away. So I was slowly making my way to the living room so I could escape into the woods.

“Spirit,” My uncle spoke, his voice becoming stronger.

“Goirtean curse it, Eli! What am I going to do now? I don’t know anything about shifters!” She took a shuddering breath before she went on. “Zane, I need you, why did you have to disappear?” what I saw next scared me to death. My mother, my center of strength, collapsed onto the floor tears falling freely from her eyes as her body racked with sobs. Uncle Eli rushed to her side, lifted her into his arms with no trouble at all, and carried her to the living room where he laid her on the couch.

“There you go lil’ sis’,” Eli then turned to me, “Go ahead and go to the woods, I’ll find you when your mom is better.” Without question, I ran up the steps to my room, grabbing my backpack that I kept for when I went hiking. I grabbed a pair of black Sophie’s and proceeded to jump out of my window.

I must have walked for about thirty minutes before I came up on the creak that Ash and I were at the other day. Walking up to the bank, I took off my sneakers, dropped my bag onto the damp sand, and grabbed my Sophies from the top of my bag. Looking around, making sure the coast was clear I quickly changed, ignoring the cold air that met my once protected legs. I walked into the water, planning to get about knee deep but I jumped out before I could get the chance, “Crap, that’s cold,” I shrieked as I jumped backwards out of the cold creek and its ice cold water. I quickly dug through my pack, searching for a towel to dry my feet with as they were beginning to burn. With no luck I sat down on my feet trying to warm them to no avail. If only I had a lighter I thought o myself. Momma refused to let me even close to one because of my sheer fascination of the small, destructive, dancing, orange form. She always assumed that if I got my hands on a lighter, I would somehow manage to burn down the house, the same sadly goes for matches.

After that dream from Uncle Eli, I understood my obsessive fascination with the element- my personal element, or so he claims. I’m still pretty skeptical with the concept of controlling an element. After I changed forms for the first time, I lost some of my skepticism.

“Maybe, I could try to use my affinities while I have extra time. I could try out my theories.” I thought out loud. I stood up, ignoring my numb feet and walked to the edge of the water. “Okay, maybe it’s just like shifting, I just have to visualize it.”

Closing my eyes, I imagined a ball of water separating from the creek and moving to my hands as I threw the ball back and forth.

“Okay, now what?” I moaned as I saw that nothing had happened.

“You’re doing it wrong.” I spun around as I heard a male voice behind me, already thinking of the best animal to change into at the first sign of a threat. I decided on a lion. When I saw the tantalizing form before me, I sighed in relief. Knowing that if threatened it wouldn’t come from him.

“What are you doing here?” I hissed. “What if my uncle shows up, and gets the wrong idea?”

“He will know that I’m no threat! All he has to do is look at our hands.” Ash said in a duh tone of voice.

“He doesn’t know, no one does- not even my mom.” I explained as I held up my gloved hand that had hid the vines from any Aaraballeician eyes.

“Oh, why are you hiding it?” he asked, sounding dejected.

“Ash, don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t want any part in this thing you and me supposedly have. I like making my own decisions. I have never wanted a boyfriend- much less a mate.” Explaining gently, choosing my words carefully, trying to avoid causing him pain.

“Do you still not understand? We are supposed to be together, the elders choose you to be mine, and me to be yours. If not, those marks wouldn’t have appeared when we came into close proximity. Not only that, you can’t go without me, and I can’t without you, our bodies begin to shut down to the point where we lose our abilities and we become emotionally unstable; we break down at the mention of the other’s name. If one never finds the other, they go through their life lost, searching for love that they won’t find. Finding one’s other half is a blessing.” his voice shook as it rose in volume.

“NO! It’s a curse! Binding one individual to another isn’t a blessing; it’s a pair of shackles.” Horror filled me, this is what happened to my mom and dad. She lost him, that’s why she never talks about him, why she has never shown any evidence for an affinity to water. This is why I don’t know my heritage. I turned away from my “blessing”, running from what most people long for, love, but I don’t want it. Not until, my mom finds hers, and we all know that will never happen.