Chapter 6
It was winter holidays for the kids and teens at Middle Spring and there was a think layer of snow on the group and the lake had a thick layer of ice over it.
Zimed was ice skating and was rather good at it. Claira had sat down on the ground and watched him, mumbling, "I can't ice skate..."
Zimed noticed that Claira was sitting down watching him instead of ice skating herself. He skated up to her and held out his hand to her.
She looked up to him with wipe eyes. Zimed smiled at her and said, "It's fine. I won't let you fall. I'll catch you if you fall."
She paused for a moment, then stood up, and grabbed Zimed's hand. He pulled her on to the ice. Claira looked scared and Zimed tightened his grip on her hand, to insure she didn't fall. He pulled her around on the ice so that she could get the feel of the ice and how to skate. Then he stopped and let her hand go. Claira looked at Zimed, scared and confused.
He skated away from Claira a few feet, turned around to her, and said, "Try to skate to me."
Claira paused and looked down to the ice. Nervously, she started to go forward towards Zimed. But then she started to lose her balance and she slipped. Zimed quickly skated to her and grabbed her hand before she fell. He pulled her up and she hugged onto Zimed's shoulders.
He looked down at her, blushed, smiled, and said, "You're fine. I caught you."
Claira looked up at Zimed, her eyes widened and her face began to flush with bright red, as she noticed that she was hugging onto Zimed's shoulders. She quickly pulled her arms away from shoulders and pulled her arms away from his shoulders and pulled away from Zimed a little. He laughed a little and skated back close to her again. He put Claira's arms back around his shoulders, so that she was hugging him again, and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"It's fine. I don't mind," he whispered in her ear softly. Claira's hair began to change to aqua.
Zimed smiled and asked, "What does aqua mean?"
Claira looked at him, with a really embarrassed look, and nervously said, "It means... I mean... Aqua means... In... Love..."
Zimed smiled at Claira, whose face was reddening a bit, eyes changing to lavender, and without saying anything, started to ice skate backwards with Claira still hugging onto him. Claira hugged on tighter for fear of falling. He skated to the side of the lake and, letting Claira get safely on the ground first, he got off the ice.
"Sit down. It'll help you keep warm," Zimed said.
When Claira did sit down, Zimed sat behind her and wrapped his arms around her. She looked at him, smiled, but quickly looked away.
"Oh no. Can he feel my heart pounding against my chest? My stomach feels like it's going in knots. This is bad... My hair is changing color... Next is... No... That's not going to happen... I won't let it..." Claira thought.
He smiled at her and said, "You can lean back. I don't mind. It'll keep you warm."
"I can't," she mumbled. She wished she could tell him why she couldn't lean against him, but she couldn't.
He made Claira look at him then asked, "You're hiding something."
Claira sat there staring at Zimed and then got up, backed away, and said, "Promise you won't tell anyone."
"Promise," he said.
All of sudden Claira was not there and a Snow Leopard was standing in her place. Zimed stared at what was now Claira in a different form.
"That would explain why your hair changes color," Zimed said, after a moment of shock.
"Yeah," Claira said, looking away.
Zimed laughed a little and said, "At least I'm not the only one who can change into animals." He smiled at Claira.
"Could you... Turn around. I need to change back... And you know what happens," Claira said, still looking away.
Zimed turned around and Claira changed back to normal. She hurriedly put her clothes back on.
"Ok. You can turn back around now," Claira said.
Zimed did and smiled at Claira. She smiled back and then sat down next to Zimed . She glanced at Zimed and then looked away, a bit of color formed on her face. Then she leaned in close to him and kissed him.
Zimed's eyes went wide and his face flushed when Claira kissed him. It was a surprised to Zimed. Claira was always too embarrassed to do anything. But he was happy her self confidence had increased.
