Inferno : Elements Series Book One

Derek

Damn. I was hoping for a free afternoon with Gwen, but Garret just had to walk around that corner. As we walk behind Garret I listen to his and Gwen’s conversation. She is chatting more excitedly with him than anyone else she’s spoken to, probably in her whole life. She’s over the moon to be getting to do some work with him and my annoyance, and a little jealousy (I’ll admit it), fades with every word she says. It’s nice to see her so happy.

“…And I’ll get to work with the animals? How does that work? What can you do with them?”

She’s throwing questions at Garret with gusto and to his credit he’s managing to keep up. He answers each question just in time for the next volley. I’m almost grateful when we finally reach the valley. It’s an amazing sight that knocks me off my feet every time. It was just a large fissure in the cliffs until Garret got here. He turned it into a secret oasis. He bought the place to life with plants and animals of all shapes and colours. It’s a huge area and Gwen comes to a complete stop, trying to take everything in. I think she’s in shock.

“So,” says Garret. He sounds a little nervous. “What do you think?”

“It’s beautiful,” replies Gwen. I’ve never seen this expression on her face before. I try to see what she’s thinking but I can’t get into her mind, there is just this incredible cacophony of noise that’s taking her away. There are so many voices, so much energy. Garret senses it too, I think, and he steps aside. He motions for Gwen to go on ahead and we watch and wait to see what she does. This place is full of more magic than anywhere she’s been so far. Garret has dedicated his magic to this oasis, he lives here and has put his heart and soul into giving every living organism here its own space and all the TLC they can handle. Gwen is walking for mere seconds when a Blue Macaw flies down and lands gracefully on her shoulder, nuzzling her ear when it does. Soon there are butterflies, more birds, squirrels, deer and a whole host of other animals and Gwen is giggling, pure joy taking over her expression. The plants are responding to her too, flowers blooming and vines creeping toward her.

“And here I was thinking I was actually going to teach her something,” Garret quietly says to me.

“It’s the theme of the day, I guess,” I respond. “She doesn’t do any of this on purpose. I think life in general just responds to her, no matter where she goes or what she’s doing.”

“I think you’re right. During our training I might just choose different plants and animals and just teach her about them. Control and communication seems to come incredibly easy to her.”

“You think Garret?” says Oliver. “She’s speaking bird better than the birds are.”

He’s not wrong. I peek at her mind once more. She has sorted through the noise and now I can see that each little light and sound in her mind belongs to a plant or animal that she’s communicating with. There are thousands of lives contained within her mind right now and she has a complete understanding of each one. I don’t know how she hasn’t completely lost it with that amount of energy flowing through her brain.

“So how are you going to train her?” asks Anya.

If I didn’t know her any better I’d say she looked a little envious.

“I’m not going to. It appears that there is nothing left for me to teach her. I will give her training with herbs and the growing and maintenance of plants as well as caring for the animals that she will come across in her life, but I think that’s all the knowledge I have left to give her. It is a lot of information though, so maybe I will see her each afternoon, only for an hour or so, when she finishes her other training sessions. Fridays, during my training day, I will set up practical exercises that incorporate the knowledge I imparted upon her during the week.”

“Sounds good to me!” says Gwen as she comes back to us. “Garret this place is amazing, I might not leave. Ever.”

She is holding a faun in her arms and both the tiny deer and Gwen appear to me absolutely ecstatic about that arrangement.

“You appear even more at home here than I do,” says Garret. “It’s a joy to see.”

Gwen is beaming.

“I have other training sessions to get to but, if you like, you can stay here as long you want,” Garret offers.

Gwen actually squeals in delight, bouncing on her heels like a toddler. Her excitement is infectious and I find myself grinning along with her. Oliver and Anya gave in a long time ago and are sitting cross legged on the ground as squirrels run up and down their arms, across their shoulders and sit on their heads.

“I think we’ll do just that,” I say to Garret and he leaves us all to get better acquainted with all the furry critters that live here.

We all fall into a pattern pretty soon after our time in Garret’s oasis.

Monday- Fire training with Hank

Tuesday- Water training with Rhea

Wednesday- Air training with Erin

Thursday- Earth training with Elijah

Friday- Healing with Mags

Saturday- Full day of combat with Jasper

Sunday Morning- Mentalism with Jillian

Sunday Afternoon- Plants and Animals with Garret

Plus an hour or two with Garret or Mags in the afternoons Monday-Friday for some extra training.

Gwen is excelling in every category, teaching her instructors a few tricks during her sessions, and all of us are having fun learning from each other. The only problem, for me at least, is that Gwen has been kept so busy that she doesn’t actually have anytime to herself. We all spend most nights in her apartment. Eating, playing games (she introduced us to Magic: The Gathering, I still don’t fully understand it) and just hanging out with each other in general, but that also means that Gwen and I haven’t had a chance to finish our discussion from Wednesday morning. Before we headed off to air training with Erin we participated in quite an electric exchange and I, for one, would really like to get her alone long enough to see if lightning strikes twice. I suppose we can’t always get what we want.