TGoF Chapter 9

I was sitting in Calder's room while I thought everyone was eating when Clader walked in.

"You tend not to eat when you're upset," he told me, placing a bowl of food in front of me. It reminded me of that day he did the same thing when him and his friends brought Damia to the castle.

"I'm not hungry," I insisted, pushing the bowl away. It felt warm against my hand.

He pushed the bowl back towards me, "You need to eat."

"I'm fine."

We fought like this for a few minutes until Calder gave up, calling me stubborn amongst other things.

He ate his food and we sat there quietly. I didn't feel like talking.

"So I heard you talked to Gwyn," he started. I looked at him, he was peering up at me.

I shrugged so he simply continued, "Why'd you wanna know? You knew it'd only make you more upset."

"Why'd you lie?" I countered.

He set his bowl down and looked at me directly, "I was trying to protect you. In the heat of the moment it seemed right."

"Look, I know we're a couple and that's what couples do but if you haven't noticed we're nothing like a normal couple so you don't need to lie," I ranted off. Calder nodded and bit his lip.

When he saw I was staring at him, waiting for him to do something, he shrugged. I looked at the bowl of soup Calder had brought me. It did look good.

"Eat," he persuaded when he saw me debating. I shook my head again. I wasn't really hungry. Was I?

He rolled his eyes as he shoved the soup towards me. I debated before finally slowly eating a little of the soup at a time. Calder smiled victoriously to himself.

When I was done he said he was taking the bowls to the kitchen. I locked the door and changed into the clothes Id sleep in, unlocking it just when Calder showed up.

"I'm going to bed early. Do you want to take the bed and I'll take the closet?" I asked. He shook his head and I shrugged as I crawled into the bed.

Calder said something but I was already falling asleep.

When I woke up, Brogan was standing there. He held a knife at my throat.

"Such a shame to see you go," he leered as he slowly pressed the blade into my throat. I started screaming and thrashing, only making things worse.

"Cassie!" Someone shouted, growing louder and louder. I opened my eyes for real, the last time it was just a dream.

I sat up. Calder was standing over me, the blankets were a mess and so was my hair from all the thrashing around.

"Let me guess, I was screaming?" I asked, slightly sarcastically.

Calder nodded somberly, "Happen often?"

"No," I shook my head, "hardly ever."

"Then how do you know?"

"Because I hardly ever get nightmares but always end up the same way," I explained.

"Move over," he demanded.

I looked at him, "What?"

"I'm gonna wait until you fall asleep like a good boyfriend," he said proudly.

I rolled my eyes but on the inside I felt all warm and fuzzy. I moved over and he sat on the edge of the bed.

I don't know if he realized it but he was singing softly, and I could hear him. It lulled me to sleep even though I couldn't make out the words.

When I woke up I rolled over and snuggled into the pillow wanting to sleep a little more. I felt someone poke me on the arm but I ignored them.

"Cassie..." The person who poked me said quietly. I tried to ignore them but they were persistent.

"What?" I finally moaned, burying my face into the pillow.

"Are you still tired?" They sighed. I nodded, now knowing it was Calder. "Fine. Then go back to sleep."

"Thanks," i murmured. He put his arm around my shoulders and have me a hug but let his arm stay there.

I fell back asleep and woke up a little while later. I groggily opened my eyes to see where Calder was, his arm was still around me.

I looked around and noticed I wasn't laying on my pillow, I was laying on his stomach. This was awkward.

"Good morning," he greeted.

"Good morning," I replied. I realized he was also reading a book. "Whatcha reading?"

He showed me the cover, I didn't recognize it but I nodded.

"I'm going to go get breakfast," I told him. I grabbed some clothes and got changed in the bathroom. I headed downstairs.

In the kitchen Rory and Gwyn were eating together. When she noticed me she pulled me off to the side.

"Why were you screaming?" She asked. I sensed slight concern in her voice.

"Nightmares." She understood completely. Had she export emcee the same thing?

I sat down and ate cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast. We didn't talk much, or rather I didn't talk. I just didn't feel like talking.

As I was putting my bowl in the sink Calder walked down and began to eat his breakfast. I excused myself and brushed past Terra who'd also come down.

I headed to the beach and sat at the waters edge, just thinking. I messed with the sand and thankfully nobody messed with me.

Eventually I felt read to go inside. When I did I snuck up to Calder's room, surprised that he was in there.

"Hey," he greeted. I nodded and went to slip out but he stopped me. "Whatcha doing?"

"I think I came up with an idea to take Brogan down but we'd all have to go back to TGoF HQ and kinda have a surprise attack," I rushed out.

Calder stood up and grinned, "That's a great idea! Brogan will be out of his element and we'll all be together! I'll tell the others!"

He rushed out of the room before I could stop him. Too late now.

He returned with news. It would be going down tomorrow night. It was all happening too fast but I felt like I couldn't complain.

"All that's left is to warn The Force. I can't go, Damia will ask too many questions. Worse case scenario we keep her in the dark," I explained. He agreed and said he and Gwyn would go do that, the girls would cover.

I wished him and Gwyn good luck, even though I was still annoyed at Gwyn.

When they were gone I turned to re girls, "Now what?"

"What do you mean?" Terra asked.

I shrugged, "You've obviously done this before. I haven't. What do we do?"

"You? Nothing. Terra and I will handle this," Rory deadpanned.

I wanted to comment on her being rude but decided against it.

I nodded and headed inside. I didn't know what to do, I did spend most of my time with Calder.

I decided to head to the training center to see what I could do. I headed out the back door. As I was finding my way down the dead oath I heard a noise, like somebody following me.

I brushed it off, ignoring the feeling I was being watched. When it got more persistent I finally turned around, looking full on instead of over my shoulder. There, among the dead leaves and petals stood a snarling wolf.

I backed away slowly. Calder had never mentioned what to do in the case of a wolf attack.

It began to charge me and without thinking I thrust my hand, fingers splayed out, at it. I closed my eyes and heard a yelp.

When I opened my eyes I saw the wolf struck through the heart with an icicle. I'd killed it.

I backed away from the creature. I was about to break down when Brogsn appeared.

"My, my. Cassie, who knew you'd be one of the ones with Darkness?" He smiled.

"What do you mean?" I asked tentatively.

"It's said that one person from each element would have the Darkness in them. That they'd take me down. I never expected one to be you. Just wait until I find the others!" He grinned again before walking off.

I stood there in shock before I ran as fast as I could. We'd have to take Brogan down, now.

"What's going on?" Terra asked.

"No time to explain. Get Rory and meet me at the boats!" I panted frantically. She nodded before running to get her.

I ran to the beach. The boys were there.

Calder walked over to me, "What's wrong?"

"We have to leave. Brogan... Brogan said something. The girls are coming. We have to go warn the others. Doesn't matter if he knows, whatever is happening is going down tonight."

Gwyn groaned and started up the boat again. Calder dragged me over and made me sit in the back of the boat with him.

He made me look at him, "What did Brogan say?"

I shook my head, "I don't wanna talk about it."

"If you want us to be able to take Brogan down you have to tell me," he pleaded.

"One person from each of the elements has a Darkness in them. Those four will take him down, and he wants to stop it. I'm one of them."

He leant closer to me, resting his forehead on mine.

"You are not evil. I'm supposed to be the evil one, but look how I turned out," he explained. I looked down at my lap and nodded.

"What if we don't win?" I whispered.

Then, I felt Calder's lips on mine.

My first kiss.

I leant forward and into the kiss before we both pulled back moments later.

"Then I won't regret that."

I smiled and nodded. The girls came running down the beach and into the boat, and we started moving.

Once we got the boat moving Calder went to help Gwyn. The girls immediately moved to pounce on me.

"What happened?"

I sighed and told them everything.

"That a-!" Rory began. She was drowned out over the sound of the waves.

"Yeah. We have to take him down tonight," I argued.

"How?" Terra asked.

I shrugged, "We fight and see what happens?"

"Great idea," Gwyn snorted, rolling his eyes.

"Better idea?" I asked. He was quiet.

We all were the majority of the ride. It was a very morbid mood. Nobody said a word.

When we got to the island we sprang into action. We were all going to warn everybody. Calder and I headed to Damia.

"Cassie! You're back!" She said, wrapping me in a hug. "I know everything. I'm proud of you."

"Brogan's coming. It's all coming down... Tonight," Calder said.

Damia set her lips in a straight line before calling Vlad and telling us to go get ready.

I ran up to my room to find Calder there. He was sitting at my desk but stood up when he saw me.

"Listen, I don't know how things are going to go down tonight so I want to do this," he said as he walked towards me.

Before I could get the words out to ask what he was doing he kissed me.

I was shocked for a moment but relaxed and kissed him back before we both pulled back.

"You know, that was my first kiss. I can't think of a more fitting situation than being about to go into a battle where we could all die," I said with a smile. Calder laughed but his arm was still around my waist.

"We all get it, you guys are a great couple, but we have an issue," somebody said from the door.

Kyden was the one that had spoken and everyone was standing there. I rushed and hugged everyone before i could start to blush from being caught kissing Calder.

Once Id hugged my old friends I asked, "What's the issue?"

"He's already on his way," Ana said.

I shook my head, "No, we should have more time."

"Well, we don't. He's headed with his pack of mutts," Rory added.

Calder finally spoke, "Does Damia know?"

Everybody fell silent so we ran off to warn her. When we found her she said she knew and that he was getting closer. We all assembled on the beach.

"If anybody wants to sit this out that's fine," Damia said. I doubted anybody would, but I wasn't exactly surprised when Ana stepped back.

When we all looked at her she said, "Hopefully you won't, but you might, need a medic."