Artemis and Caspian: The Awakening

Chapter Sixteen

Artemis sat there dumbfounded as Kilder once again explained to her what would happen.

"Young witch, I've taught you all I can. Your training must be passed along to another creature of the moon. The mermaids will continue your lessons."

"But Kilder.." she stammered, still rattled by his sudden proclamation. "I mean we're not even a quarter of the way through my spellbook. It feels like I can only control my powers fifty percent of the time and I'm not ready to save the world in any way." She was surprised and slightly offended when Kilder snorted in amusement and shook his head.

When he looked up and saw Artemis's confused and angry expression, Kilder cleared his throat and tried to reassure her. "I believe your cunning and your courageousness will be all you need to master the rest of the spells in your book. I have ignited the magic already burning inside you, now its your turn to harness that power and use it for the good of the world," he said in a warm tone hoping to calm the witch's nerves. It worked to a degree and Artemis began to calm down, inhaling deep breaths to steady herself again. She shrugged her shoulders.

"If you're done teaching me spells in the spellbook, then what are the mermaids going to teach me?" she wondered aloud.

"They'll teach you how to use your power of past sight."

"Well at least that seems less dangerous than the things I'm doing now," she thought ruefully to herself, trying to find the optimism in having to leave Kilder and the world she was just starting to get used to behind. She was also trying not to think about the mermaids as teachers. The last one she met after the storm that had thrown her into this mess in the first place, seemed more interested in eating her than having anything to do with her training.

She stole a glance at Caspian and Aedus across the clearing. Caspian looked just as uncomfortable as she did with the news. Before she could stop staring, Caspian caught her eye. They shared brief eye contact before he quickly looked away. Artemis, snapping out of small trance, lowered her eyes to the ground. It'd been about a fortnight since the disaster that ended with him on top of her. Since then they'd been avoiding each other with forced "Hello"s or "How have you been?"s filling uncomfortable silences. Even though she would never admit it, his behavior hurt. He was once the only person who understood her and the reason she didn't quit weeks ago. Despite his sometimes stupid humor and his annoying tendency to keep an extreme sense of optimism, she felt good when she was with him. She felt safe. It was a feeling she'd never really had before and a feeling she missed now. Artemis looked at him again.

He was mindlessly tending to a scrape on his shoulder with his powers and Artemis couldn't help a longing sensation from taking over her. All she wanted him to do was look up and give her that mischievous crooked smile of his that she'd grown fond of and plop down next to her, recounting some odd story about his day. When she instead got nothing, she turned back and stood up, brushing herself off, disappointed. She'd been a loner for most of her life and it looked like it would be that way once again.

...

Of course Caspian was surprised by Aedus's news, it was completely out of the blue. It unnerved him a bit, but he was trying to hide it under a cool, nonchalant demeanor even though he knew the phoenix could probably see right through him.

"Caspian, what's going through your mind?" Aedus asked worried, sitting beside him. Cas tried to give him a winning smile and spit out the words,

"Nothing!" He laughed uncomfortably. "Well, nothing important." Aedus gave him an unimpressive stare and Caspian heaved a sigh.

"Ok fine maybe I don't think I'm ready.." he trailed off. Frustrated, he ran his hands through his hair. "I feel like I don't know everything." Aedus gave Cas a small shove with his beak.

"Young warlock, I have taught you all you need to know about the healing arts, its your turn to take your powers and learn the rest of this spell book on your own. In time I'm sure you'll become the greatest warlock the world will ever know." Caspian couldn't help but beam at the phoenix's kind words and shoved him back with his body.

"Thanks Aedus," he said.

Just then he looked up and caught Artemis's stare. He only allowed himself to lock eyes with her for a moment, looking away when he felt his cheeks flush with color. Ever since that accident at the river, there had been a thick barrier between them he didn't know how to crack.

"Just when I was finally beginning to like her, she puts another wall up," he thought bitterly, pretending to be interested in a blade of grass. He tried so hard every day to be nice to her, to try and get to know the woman he would one day save the world with but she made it so hard. He'd never met someone as secretive or as dark as she was and it was proving hard to try and reach her.

Snapping out of it, he winced a little. The scrape he'd gotten farming earlier that day was bugging him. Figuring there was no time like the present to practice, he methodically began to heal the wound, letting the golden light from his fingertips erase the cuts in his skin. Slowly his thoughts drifted back to Artemis. As much as he wanted to let go of her, he couldn't. That day, that moment was locked forever in his memory. The image of her eyes, strikingly, dangerously beautiful haunted his every thought, his every dream. His small train of thought came to an abrupt stop when he heard rustling from the bushes.

Cas heard Artemis gasp when a flash from the scales of a mermaid's tail came from the surface of the water. Turning towards the noise in the bushes, he recognized the unicorn that revealed itself to him, bowing slowly as it entered the clearing. Plastering a smile on his face, he went over to greet it. It was time to train and he tried to push thoughts of Artemis far from his mind. It was nothing more than a stupid selfish dream, existing in a reality that could never be his.