Magic

124 12 5
                                    

*Not edited or proof read*

I only moved when I was pulled off, and even then I fought against the solid arms that had encircled me, desperate to hang on. My movements were weak; all the strength had been sucked out of me, so it didn't take long for them to pry me off a shocked Chiron.

"No!" I screamed, reaching out to grab Chiron again, but the hold around me only tightened.

"Ari. Stop. What's gotten into you?" Said a voice I quickly recognised as Ura's.

"No, you don't understand. You don't. Its Chiron," I explained to him, looking over my shoulder. The blank look I received told me that he didn't understand the significance of the name so I tried again.

"Its Chiron," I said, putting emphasis on the name. Didn't he understand? Didn't he get it? This was Chiron. Warm, and alive, and in the flesh, and not a day younger that I had last seen him.

But it was a Chiron who did not know me. Who had not met me yet. Who didn't know how much he meant to me. The thought cut through my mind like a serrated knife, and I slackened in Ura's hold.

Oh god. I had made such a fool of myself. Here I was kicking and crying and making a scene in front of someone who didn't even know who I was.

Suddenly, I was being picked up and slung over Ura's shoulder like a sack, and we were moving. His derrière was right in front of my face, and I would have admired it, but the shock, and then embarrassment caught up with me and, coupled with how weak I felt, resulted in me losing consciousness.

The first words I heard when I awoke were Chiron's, and they were angry.

"I told you, I have no idea who the girl is! In fact it seems that she knows quite a bit about me, as I do not go by the name Chiron at all. How she would know that is beyond me," he said, and I felt myself wince at the harshness of his voice. My Chiron had never used that tone with me. Then again, my Chiron would not be around for a couple more millennia.

"Explain why she was crying then! Why she was latched onto your shirt, and had to be forcefully removed. If you don't know her, why did you not push her away? Better yet, why did you not move away?" Thundered a protective sounding Ura.

Although I was now awake, I kept my breathing even and my eyes closed. I wanted to know the answer to that question too.

"I-I don't know," admitted Chiron. "I just looked into her eyes, and couldn't push her away. I have no idea why. She bears my mark, and wears the same charm-the exact same- and knows my true name. A name that died with my parents. Nobody could have told her. All who knew it are dead."

I hadn't known about his parents. Hadn't known about the 'mark' he kept speaking off-I had assumed he meant the pouch, but clearly I was wrong.

"I know it because you told me it yourself. I have the pouch because you gave it to me, and as for the mark your talking about, well I have no idea what that is," I stated whilst getting up. We were back in the room I had been given sleep in before, lying on the bed. From the strong light beating in through the window, I knew I had not been asleep for long-at the most a couple hours.

Chiron just looked at me, and so did Ura. As we were the only ones in the room, the silence quickly became unsettling, so I rushed to fill it.

"So what did you mean by the mark? What is it anyway? I never knew I had it," the words rushed out in a jumble, but I knew he understood.

"The mark is...It's like an imprint. I can magically imprint objects or people with my aura, which creates a sort of 'hands off' sign to others of my kind, and those of us that know magic. It allows me to know where the object or person is, and I have never used it on anyone."

"Why not?"

"Because it is extremely hard to do. It serves as a protective mark, and thus far, I have not found anyone I have wished to protect so much." That was said with a pointed look in my direction. "That said, how do you have it? How do you have my pouch and why do you know my name?"

I could have said many things, could have explained how I was from his future, but I didn't. There was a nagging feeling at the back of my brain that told me that I should not tell him. That if I did, the consequences would not be pretty. I followed that voice.

"I can't explain to you why, but all I ask is that you trust me, and let the matter rest"

"Why should I trust you?"

"Quod genus sunt," I replied, and watched him freeze up. I had expected as much. The line meant 'because we are family' in Latin, and he had taught me it.

After staring at me for a full minute in complete and utter shock, he jerked his head down once in a nod. Immediately I relaxed, glad that the line had worked.

"What the hell do you mean by magically imprint?" said Ura, his cold tone biting through the relaxed haze my mind was in.

"What?" I replied, then looked to Chiron as we both shared a moment of horror. Whilst we were speaking, we had both forgotten that Ura was standing there. Obviously He did not know much of magic, and our conversation had shocked him.

"You're a witch?" The words were spat out, and his tone was sharp. Gone was the warmness from his face, and his eyes had turned to hard pebbles as he stared at me in disgust.

"No!" I exclaimed. What was I to do now? He was not meant to know about any of this stuff.

"No? If not a witch, then what manner of creature are you to talk of magic?" He demanded, livid. I had no idea why he was reacting so badly to the idea of magic, and was at a loss for what to say.

"I-" I began, then abruptly shut my mouth. What could I say to him anyway? Hey! Yeah, sorry I didn't tell you earlier, but I'm a werewolf. Yes, that would go down nicely with him.

Instead of speaking, I stood up from the bed and made a move towards him. His reaction was to reach for the sword laying in its holder on his hip. His hand clenched on the handle, then flexed. His eyes narrowed at me, as if daring me to step closer.

I stopped moving, shocked. What had happened? Why did he hate magical creatures? I was pretty sure the people of this time knew of magic. All the religions of old believed in it, in us.

It was the advent of Christianity, which abhorred the preternatural and things like the Salem witch trials that had forced the Supernatural to withdraw into hiding. Since then we only remained part of the human world as myths and legends and fairy tales, and in misguided books like Bram Stokers Dracula.

I wanted to ask, but he brought his left hand-his right still on the sword-and let out a high whistle. In a matter of seconds, the entire crew was in the room with us, staring with morbid curiosity at the offensive stance their leader had taken against me.

"Return her gold, boys, we are leaving. Without her," he commanded, not moving his eyes from mine.

"Hey there boss. You sure? What did she do?" The voice was Rafa's and his tone was placating.

Ura turned, rounding on him and the others, who were watching the correspondence in semi-fear and amusement.

"She uses magic. The two of them were speaking about it," he informed them.

At the word 'magic' all their eyes rounded on me at once. Betrayal shone in Rafa's eyes, and as for the rest, well, hate was putting it mildly.

I opened my mouth to speak, but their glares caused my throat to close. One by one, they rummaged their clothing and removed the slabs of gold I had given them before, crudely throwing them on the bed. Then, without a moment's hesitation or a word, they all disappeared through the door. Ura, who was last to go, turned at the door to shoot me one last hostile glare before leaving me alone with a silent Chiron, an obnoxiously pink pocket fan, and a bed full of gold that thieves had rejected.

What was LostWhere stories live. Discover now