Vendetta (A Lapidot Fanfiction)

Chapter 2: Faith

I watched Peridot carefully step across a log that was bridging a creek. She jumped off of it and landed safely in the grass. Then she looked at me.

"Alright," she said, turning around. "Your turn. Cross carefully. One foot ahead of the other."

Cautiously, I stepped onto the log. I reached to the side to maintain my balance. All of a sudden, the creek was farther down than it once looked to be.

"You're fine," Peridot said. "Just don't look down and keep walking."

I looked back at her and continued to tiptoe towards her. When I got closer, she held her arms out towards me. She grabbed me under my arms and pulled me off of the log. Then she gently placed me on the grass.

"There," she said. "It's not that bad, right?"

"Yeah, I guess," I replied.

"You just need to trust yourself," Peridot said, wrapping her arm around my waist. "If you believe you can cross that log, you'll cross it."

"But what if I lose my balance?" I asked.

"Then you're not believing in yourself," Peridot answered me.

I nodded. "Alright."

Peridot sighed. "Faith is key," she said. "You need to have faith in yourself. You also need to use that and remain faithful to others. Not being faithful to others just makes you pretty much seem like a total jerk."

"Have you seen that?" I asked.

"I know it wasn't her fault, but Bismuth is a decent example," Peridot replied. "She couldn't remain faithful because of the imprint. She has been doing much better ever since Rhodonite..." Peridot trailed off and stared into the distance.

"She died," I whispered.

"Right," Peridot said. "Bismuth had a hard time with that, but Smoky helped her to recover. It really showed me that imprints don't have to govern werewolves' lives."

I found myself staring at her, searching for a hidden meaning. She saw me staring and flashed a smile.

"Okay," she said. "So I kinda make my entire existance revolve around you, but you're fine with that, and I'm fine with that."

"You really should do more for yourself though," I replied. "You're a separate person. You should go on your own sometimes."

"Maybe sometime." Peridot nodded in consideration and rubbed her chin. "I'd have to plan when."

"You can do it whenever you want," I said. "It would probably be healthy for you."

"Yeah."

She took my hand, and we began to walk through the forest. Every now and then, Peridot would glance somewhere in the distance and always seemed to be on guard. I knew that she wasn't going to let go of Jasper and her army. She didn't want to risk it happening again.

"Peridot," I said. "I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Something goes wrong every single time we walk into this forest," Peridot replied. "We can't be sure."

"Are you sure you're not being a little protective?" I asked.

"Before you even knew about this, a vampire came after you," Peridot said. "And you think I'm not gonna be on guard."

"Okay." I looked at her. "You can at least cool down a little bit."

The creek had started to wrap around to where it was following our path and trickling through rocks. Peridot looked at where it was leading. It appeared to start to move in front of us.