Changing Prudence (EDITING - ON HOLD)

Chapter 9

Since her last training session, Rue had rarely practiced using her abilities. She had been too busy with her preparations for university. There were only three days before she and her brother took up residence on campus on Friday. She had the days she had left in Cedarbrook completely booked up with things like her leaving party (that her mum had forced her in to), packing, and a last meeting with her granddad. He had promised he would call her at least every week to see how she was getting on managing her powers and to check she was still practicing.

The days went by in a blur with the rushing and the preparations.

Tuesday was filled with shopping for the necessities and getting hold of some last minute items for her dorm room and lessons. Her last meeting with her granddad was scheduled for that evening and she didn’t arrive at the forest until it had started going dark and it was the longest meeting she had had with her granddad. She demonstrated all of her abilities that she had mastered so far and tried them out on a bigger scale. She still didn’t know what other two special abilities she had, she didn’t even know for sure if she was going to have six areas of expertise.

Ben had brought a large flask of tomato soup and a small loaf of bread for them to eat since it would be too late to go back to his house to eat a hot meal. He drilled it into her that she must continue to practice when she found the time, though he knew she would use her powers to her advantage whenever it was possible, even just to get a drink of water when she was working. They had to make their own way home since they had missed the last bus by over an hour. They got to the edge of the clearing before Rue suggested that they fly home.

‘Even if you manage to grow me a pair of wings, I doubt I am fit enough to fly all the way home. I may still seem like the young granddad you had many years ago who would play football with you in the field, but I doubt very much that I would be able to make it all the way home flying, without collapsing.’ Though he knew he would love to fly, it would be impossible to do so without getting a serious injury.

Rue thought about that for a few minutes, going through the options. They couldn’t walk home; it was too far they wouldn’t get home until early morning, until she finally decided what she was going to do. ‘I will fly and you will ride on my back. That way we can get home faster, you will have the experience of flying and you don’t have to do any work that could damage your health. It’s a win-win situation.’

He didn’t reply for a few moments as he thought this through. ‘Okay, we will do that then’ he said with a sigh. ‘On one condition.’

‘Go on then, what is your condition?’

‘Don’t go too fast.’ He added sternly.

She laughed at this and nodded ‘You can hold my jacket so I don’t ruin it.’ She took her jacket off leaving her skin shivering with the cold. She grew a pair of bats wings, and since it was so cold she went for a whole body transformation into a large bat so she no longer felt the cold wind against her bare skin of her arms and chest.

‘Get on then, and keep tight hold do you don’t fall off.’

He did as she said and they set off getting higher and higher in the sky until Rue thought they were high enough to be thought of as an ordinary bat. He crouched down lower so the force of the wind on his face was greatly reduced and shouted as loud as he could to slow down a little bit. The thrumming of the wind in his ears would make him completely deaf if she didn’t slow down the pace a bit.

She heard his request and slowed down so they were now gliding along and she was glad she had. She thought the feeling of flying couldn’t get any better, but gliding along letting the wind carry her, she knew she was previously mistaken. She held her head high and stretched out her thorax and the wind just slid underneath her like silk.

She flew right past the field without realising. Until she heard her granddad shout something along the lines of ‘missed the stop.’ Walking her from her day-dreaming, bringing her right back to reality. She doubled back, checked to make sure the coast was clear and landed as gently as she could.

Her granddad climbed off her back and she changed back to her normal self. She turned to face her granddad with a huge grin on her face and had to hold back a laugh, his hair was sticking up in all directions and his expression was one of shock and joy. He handed her jacket back to her, lost for words, and they set off back to their houses.

                                            

Finally Ben found his voice, ‘Wow. That was quick. No wonder you wanted to fly home.’

She laughed, ‘you might want to flatten your hair a bit, you look like you’ve just been sky diving. And that certainly wouldn’t raise questions.’ She added sarcastically.

He grinned. ‘Not far from it.’

They reached Rue’s house first, and Ben stopped her on the top step to her house by grabbing her arm unfolding her hand with his frail and wrinkled hand, he placed a small box wrapped neatly in a piece of parchment in her hand. ‘Don’t open it until you get to Aurburn. And don’t lose it.’ He added sternly, then added a smile at the end.

‘Won’t you be coming to the leaving party mum has planned tomorrow?’ She asked, confused by his words. It sounded as if he wasn’t going to see her again.

‘No, I will not be able to make it.’ His eyes started to glisten with a layer of tears as he brought her in for a hug. ‘Take care of yourself while you’re away. I will look forward to see the change in you when you get back.’ And with that, he pulled away and left.

That night Rue sat lying on her bed rolling the box in her hands in confusion. She contemplated opening it a few times, but decided against it and put it to the bottom of her empty suitcase that she would pack in the morning.