Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One' by Mireille Chester Page B

my fingers silently hoping
the green would leave. It didn’t.
    Once at the stump, I took a deep
breath, closed my eyes, and put my hands on it.
    Dodge swished his tail and I heard
Jasper’s mouth fall open.
    I was scared to open my eyes. “What
happened?”
    Jasper recovered and laughed. “Well
that worked out well!”
    I slowly opened one eye. “Oh!” The dead
stump was still there, but coming out of it were new, live shoots.
It was growing!
    I suddenly felt very tired. I sat on
the ground. Jasper knelt in front of me, worried.
    “Are you alright?”
    I nodded. “Just really tired. Why do
you think that is?”
    He brushed some loose hairs back behind
my ears. “I don’t know. The only magic I use is to shift back and
forth.”
    “So green is healing,” I
said.
    “Is it gone?” he asked. When I nodded,
he took my hands in his. “I want you to promise me you won’t play
with this until we’ve seen Marilynn.”
    I nodded.
    Dodge snorted. I looked at Jasper for
the translation.
    “He is wondering how we are able to
function at the moment. When a couple who is fated finally bond,
there is a period of time where...well...” He blushed. “We should
be holed up in a cave...”
    I realized what he was saying and
turned scarlet. “Do you want to?” I asked.
    His eyes widened. “Well, yes. I can’t
deny it’s on my mind. However, there is more at stake here than my
personal wants and needs.” He looked at me closely. “And
you?”
    I wouldn’t have thought it possible,
but there was a deeper shade of red than the one I already was. I
nodded. I had to admit that for a girl who wouldn’t have looked
twice at a man three days ago, the thoughts I was having about this
one were shocking. “But like you said. Things to do.”
    We stared at each other to the point
where I thought any self-control we had was going to fly out the
window. He exhaled slowly. “Alright, then. We better get going,
Shlova.”
    Dodge shook his head in
amazement.
    “Well, I don’t know!” Jasper sounded
annoyed. “We aren’t your typical fated, now, are we? This has never
happened before. How am I supposed to know why it did?” He almost
seemed angry as he looked at my horse.
    “Are you upset this happened?” I
asked.
    He wouldn’t look at me. “No. I’m not
upset it happened. That’s not it at all.”
    I wasn’t reassured. I swung onto Dodge
and gave him a kick. He flattened his ears back at me.
    “Sorry,” I muttered to him.
    We took off at a trot along the base of
the mountain. Jasper’s tiger stride matched the horse’s.
    We stopped for a quick break around
lunch time and then started up again. It seemed to me like the
further along we went, the moodier Jasper got.
    “Ok. That’s it. Dodge, stop!” I swung
off as he halted. Jasper shifted and walked up behind me. I spun
around to face him.
    “What’s going on? Last night, what
happened, was unbelievable. At least it was for me. And I thought
for you too. But now you don’t seem happy at all.”
    He was looking at the ground, quiet,
his eyes narrowed.
    I looked at Dodge. “Can you give us a
minute, please?”
    Dodge looked irritated and walked
away.
    I took Jasper’s hands and pulled him to
the ground so that we knelt facing each other. “I need you to
explain to me what is wrong,” I pleaded softly. “This, us, is
right. I’m not going to pretend to know or understand how things
are around here, but I am willing to leave everything and everybody
I know and love to follow you on this quest, or mission, or
whatever you want to call it. I don’t even understand how I could
feel this strongly for you after knowing you for only three days,
but I do.”
    He was still looking down. My voice was
just a whisper as I continued. “But if this isn’t what you want, or
expected...” I tried to keep the quiver out of my voice, but he
looked at me then, just as a tear slid down my cheek.
    “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “That’s not
it at all.” He cupped my