Dragon Twins (Pending rewrite)

Chapter 13

Aldi

MAGIC. MAGIC was possible. In a country where magic should be impossible, The proof was at Aden's fingertips, and it should be at mine, too.

When with Rebecca, I had thought the 'wall trick' was just an illusion, but I guess all that I've seen so far was real.

I looked at my hand for the fifth time since I've left the Garden. I couldn't feel any magic, nor could I sense it. I was shocked when I saw the flowers that had bloomed beneath my feet. I didn't know I could do that. I concentrated on making fire, but nothing came of it, and I just ended up with watery eyes from being cross-eyed.

Now I remember the trail of flowers I had apparently left in my wake in the Garden. I check my surroundings to make sure no one is watching, and then I walk up to a potted plant, which seemed to be dying. My hand reached out and my fingers brushed up against the dying leaves. Nothing happened. I sighed, and continued on my way.

~~~

I finished running my laps and waited for Marcus to catch up. After being cooped up in the castle, running outside felt wonderful.

Finally, I saw Marcus jogging around the bend, his shirt drenched in sweat. I had always loved to run, so it was natural for me to lap him. Five times.

"I see you're just as fast as Aden," he said, peeling off his soaking shirt. His muscles gleamed in the early afternoon.

"And I see you're not as good as people make you out to be." I grinned.

He grinned back, "Aden has lapped me seven times." My smile fell. "So you're almost as fast as him."

Amused by my expression, he continued, "With you being 'The twins of the Prophecy', you should have better stamina than most all human beings."

How have I never noticed these things about me? I've never run faster than Calvin, never was stronger than him. I don't even remember having an affinity towards plants. Everyone says I had always had these things, and they were always a part of me, but I don't ever remember having these special abilities.

A thought came to mind, but I had other things to be worried about than not remembering things. Like the thought that I had no idea where Calvin was, but his half brother was standing right in front of me, waiting for some witty reply that I couldn't think of.

"What are we doing next?" I asked.

"We're going to do some workouts that involve using your magic. I assume you and Aden talked earlier?" I wasn't even going to ask how he knew. Like Rebecca had said, there're ears in these walls. Nothing is kept secret for long.

"How are we going to do that, when I can't even summon an ounce of anything?" I was embarrassed to say it, but it was the truth.

"We're going to coax it out if we have to." He picked a unbloomed flower up from the ground and handed it to me. "Make this bloom."

"Gee, I didn't know I had two magic trainers."

He ignored what I said and repeated, "Make it bloom."

I sighed and sat criss-cross on the cement sidewalk. I held the flower in front of me, closed my eyes, and concentrated. I pictured the many different colors it could be. On the green stem and leaves that support the bud. On the thorns that pressed into the palms of my hands.

...Thorns?

I opened my eyes and stared in shock. I hadn't just made the flower bloom, but I changed the flower itself. What had just been a normal daisy, had become a blood-red rose. The color that was all over my hands from the prickling thorns that had appeared.

I dropped the flower, and watched as it slowly shifted back into an unbloomed daisy. The extra petals of the rose just disintegrated into dust, as if they had been burned off. The thorns shrunk back into the stem, leaving it unembellished. And the color looked as if it just dripped off the flower, but leaving no trace on the cement underneath it.

"I said to make it bloom, not change it." Marcus said after a moment of complete silence. I'd say he were just as surprised as I.

"I-I-I don't know how I just did that," I stuttered.

He leaned down and patted my shoulder, "It's all in your blood." I grabbed the hand he offered and lifted myself up. "You're going to have to get used to it, Miss. Ghost of Mordar."

Later that day, I passed the potted plant. A single beautiful rose stood in it's place.