A Healthy Rivalry: The Lion vs The Warrior

VI

I Don't Like Mondays

Karter

I'm so very beyond happy that I had my date on Friday, because the weekend afterwards was absolute shit.

It took me all of Friday night, and some of Saturday morning, to calm down the fucking Boltons. It seems that the newest generation of lightning users are mostly Manipulators, so they need lightning to manipulate. The parents, and eldest of the new generation, happen to be Conjurers. So when your spoiled, Manipulator, child needs lightning; what do you do? You conjure up some storm clouds. This however, pissed off many locals who were expecting clear skies all weekend.

You would think the Royals care about the population, but you'd be wrong. So who do the angry people turn to: The Royals, who are notorious assholes; or The Nobles, who are notorious nurturers? Yep, and when the Nobles obviously cannot handle an angry mob that damn near turned into a riot; who gets called? Me. The easiest solution was to get the Bolton's to clear the skies, but for once, they were in the right. Their permit to practice was valid, so they blamed the Nobles for not warning the citizens of their arrival.

The issue here is: The European Nobles live in Switzerland. They were in Italy for a vacation. It was the fault of no one in particular, but hell broke loose because of it. I assured the Boltons I would bring up a "Fair Warning Clause" at the next meeting of Continentals, which was due in June. I calmed the people and essentially told them they had to deal with it, while also profusely apologizing to the Nobles. It was a mess. Mikhel made sure the Nobles were taken care of for the remainder of their visit and I stayed in Italy just to assure the peace was kept, until Saturday evening.

'44 fucking countries in my Continent and no matter where the Boltons go, they cause problems. Lion, if I had known I'd have this much headache, I would've told your ass no.' I groaned internally.

'You should've asked.' Lion chuckled in response.

'I was FIVE! A giant Lion pops into my head and asks me if I want to protect my Continent.You only warned me everyone would know who I was and I'd have no privacy! Who's gonna say no to that?!'

'The girl I asked before I asked you.' He deadpans.

I gasped, completely offended. 'I WASN'T YOUR FIRST CHOICE? WHAT AM I SLOPPY SECONDS?!'

He growled in annoyance. 'Please stop yelling internally, it bounces off your skull. The Others had been telling me for years that I needed to try another female, it had been decades. I saw you first, but I kept them in mind, so I went to the second-brightest first. She denied me and here we are.'

I thought over his words and realized, I had no idea what he was talking about. 'Lion how do the Beasts pick their Host?  What do you mean second-brightest? Does the sex of the Host matter? Like do you guys pick who matches-'

'No.' He interrupted my rant by chuckling. 'It does not matter the sex. I can't remember my life before needing Hosts, or if that time ever existed. However, I know every time I close my eyes at the end of my Host's life, the next time I open them I'm surrounded by tiny lights. Like fireflies, only some are huge orbs of light. I'm never with any of the Others but they tell me it's similar for them as well. We all feel compelled to pick the biggest light because we can see it best- well... most of us. Anyway, we can't tell the sex of the person until we actually select the light and then we ask them to host us by stepping into it. A couple cycles back I actually picked the dimmest light... it didn't go well, but that wasn't the fault of my Host.'