Chapter 19

Taru had gone back to her room and dropped off the diary, and then headed to the training area to see Hawk and Loyalty. Some people might say that it wasn’t healthy that her only friends were a Cheveyo and a horse. Taru just saw it as picking her friends very judiciously. They all worked out for an hour and then headed to dinner. It wasn’t until they both were getting ready for bed that Hawk noticed the journal.

“What’s this?” He nosed the book, and flipped it open.

Helena gave it to me. She said she had taught me all she could, but now this would help me. Hawk looked a little confused by that, but he flipped the pages of the diary, skimming.

“Doesn’t seem very helpful to me, and I can’t see how she could possibly be finished teaching you. Something doesn’t smell right here.”

Always thinking with your nose, maybe you could show me what other talents it has. She knew that Hawk would spend the whole night sniffing over the book and ignoring her. She wasn’t going to let that happen. She stripped off her top and flopped onto her bed. Hawk’s eyes followed her movements and she could see him forcibly holding his tails still.

Come on Hawk, the book will be there in the morning. Let’s play tonight. She wiggled her eyebrows at him, and that time his tails did wag. He stalked over to the bed, and placed his front paws on either side of her legs. He brought his muzzle right up to her face. She shivered with each warm breath that puffed onto her face. He didn’t say anything more, just kept pushing forward until he was hunched over her. She ran her hands all over his sleek coat and down his four legs. He thrust his lower half into her legs, and licked at her face. He knew that this position wouldn’t work for any real intercourse, but he wanted to see her tonight. He scratched at her pants and she got the hint. She quickly pulled the fabric to her feet and kicked them off. She pushed herself fully onto the bed and he followed her. He continued to lick at her face, and then slowly started moving his way down her body.

She shivered as his rough tongue traced patterns across her breasts, and down towards her naval. He looked deep into her sky blue eyes before he went any lower. She smiled at him, and nodded. His expressive face showed just how much he cared for her. She couldn’t point to one thing that showed this, but she could see it clearly. When his tongue touched the sensitive skin of her vagina she almost jumped off the bed. She had never felt anything like that before. Even last night with the intense sensations of penetration she hadn’t felt like this. He kept up a gentle lapping movement with his very talented tongue. Stopping at times to plunge his tongue deep into her. The first time he did it, she almost came. She managed to keep herself from orgasm my biting down hard on her lip. She didn’t want this to be over that quickly.

Sensing that she was too close to the edge, Hawk shifted to her breasts again. He gently nipped at the tips, causing them to perk up and flush with blood. His warm tongue flicking at them, sent electrifying sensations to zip right to her groin. The alternating sensations of nips and licks drove her insane. She thrust her hips up against him, trying desperately to create any type of friction. He huffed in laugher and slid his freezing cold nose down towards her naval again. She gripped his fur and forced his face back to where it should be. He huffed again and the feeling just made her ache even more. He slid the full length of his tongue over her one more time, and she came, shuddering, eyes clenched, and screaming silently into the fur of his shoulder.

Oh Hawk. Words failed her, and she collapsed back onto the bed panting slightly. She wrapped her arms around Hawk and pulled him down on top of her. She loved the feel of fur and heat against bare skin. She traced random patterns on his coat, and dug into the smooth skin with her nails. She could tell that he was enjoying himself and continued to massage him. She wanted to return the favor to him, but wasn’t sure how to do it. With a man it was a little more obvious, but with Hawk it was a little more complicated.

“It’s ok Taru, for me it’s a little different. You remember last night I had to be inside you before I was fully hard. For Cheveyos we are built a lot like wolves, and they only have sex to procreate, not for fun. But we can still have fun in other ways.” He smiled and licked her gently. She returned the smile and hugged him close. They both were tired, and even though she wanted to have him inside of her again, they both fell asleep before that happened.

She woke the next morning to Hawk sitting by the bed, nosing through the diary that Helena had given her. She sat up, and looked at him shaking her head.

You’re like a dog with a bone. She teased, and he growled playfully at her.

“I’ve read most of the diary, and there is hardly anything in here about mage training or anything like that. I don’t know how she expected you to learn anything important from this. It mostly talks about her journey, and her daughter.”

I didn’t know she had a daughter; she never talked about her. Taru moved over to look over Hawk’s shoulder at the small neat writing on the page. She read the first few entries with Hawk, and she had to admit that there was nothing in there about magic or using it. She had been hoping for some detailed lessons, but instead she was given Helena’s personal life. She went to her closet and gathered some clothing. She had to admit that sitting naked with Hawk was distracting her.

They both read through the diary, and realized that Helena wasn’t trying to teach her about being a mage; she was trying to tell her something else. Just what that was, they were trying to figure out. Obviously Helena wanted to keep this quiet so they decided that a small meeting of just them and the four other leaders would be a good idea. It was not unusual for them to have small meetings, and they knew that no one would think twice about them meeting in Taru’s room.

Alye and Dayn didn’t know what to say about the diary. They were both surprised that Helena had given it to Taru when there was nothing in it other then personal information. It was Dayn that noticed there were three months missing, and in that time the daughter disappeared from the story. The only thing they could think of was that someone had taken her daughter, and was holding her hostage so that Helena either did or didn’t do something while in the camp.

“She must be working for Demerita. There’s no other explanation. He must have the daughter.” Fire Wind said. “We can’t trust anything she has told us, she obviously doesn’t want to work for the bastard, but she’s doing it for her daughter.”

They agreed that they would continue to include her in everything, to make sure that whoever was keeping tabs on her was not suspicious. They understood family, even if they did have any themselves. All those gathered in the small room were orphans, and homeless other then the camp. They had all lost family to Malaquent however, and they would do whatever they could to keep others from experiencing the pain they all had. They would have to meet in secret now as well, and keep all the real details of their operations secret, but Helena letting them know had saved them a great deal of trouble in the future. The only problem they could see was that Taru and the other gifted people in the camp would not be getting the training they needed. They were going to try and talk to Helena about that so that hopefully they could work something out. If they were all trained and the enemy didn’t know about it then it would be a wonderful advantage. Also if they could manage to save Helena’s daughter they would have another very powerful ally on their side.

All the plotting had run through lunch, and they decided to not all leave at once to avoid any suspicions. Hawk and Taru were soon alone again in her room, and even though she would have loved to continue what they started the night before, but they both knew they had more important things to do. Hawk had lessons to teach, and Taru was going to try and talk to Helena. She was a bit nervous about it, as she didn’t know how whoever was keeping tabs on her, was well, keeping tabs on her.  She found some clean clothing, and changed into it, she had just thrown on the first things she could find that morning, and it was dirty. Ever since she had adopted the style of clothing from Buenasha she had become used to the clean clothing and wonderful feeling of loose cloth swaying around her. She was the only one in the camp that preferred this style of clothing, and because they were in Buenasha it was easy to procure the clothing, and Taru ended up with most of it.

She trudged up the stairs to the second floor of the main building. Helena was living in one of the small rooms above the dining hall, where most of those gifted with any type of ability took up residence. She knocked gently on the door, and waited for Helena to answer. When she did, she seemed relieved to see her. Taru took this as a sign that Helena really did want to help them. Taru smiled and followed the mage into the small room.

Helena, I read the diary last night and I had a few questions. There was not much in there about being a mage, but there was a lot about your family. I lost my parents because they didn’t turn me into the Compound when they were supposed to. I was three years too old according to their rules. They didn’t make me watch, but I did learn later that they were hung. They were fishers, they did nothing wrong other then love their daughter. It was nice to read about a family. Taru had been reluctant to share her story with Helena, but Hawk had convinced her that it would be the best way to connect with the woman. It would let Helena know that they understood the message without stating it out loud.

“I’m sorry to hear that Taru. It’s not easy growing up without a mother. I had to do that myself. I promised my daughter she would never have to experience that.” Helena had done a great job of confirming their suspicions without really saying anything. Taru smiled at her, and gently squeezed her shoulder. Helena returned the smile, and nodded towards the bowl sitting on her table. Taru realized that whatever it was that was how Demerita was keeping in touch with her. She didn’t move towards it, but she did nod. She also indicated that Taru should go over to the bookcase. Taru wandered over there, acting as if she was interested in the books. She traced her fingers over the spines until Helena nodded. She pulled the book off the shelf, and turned.

Mind if I borrow this one? There is a chapter in it that might help with something I’ve been struggling with. Taru asked innocently, flipping through the old and crinkled pages.

“Certainly anything to help you become more proficient in your mage ability.” Taru nodded and left.

Helena immediately turned towards the bowl on the table. He had wanted to know what Taru wanted, and she hoped that nothing had been given away in their conversation.

“What book did she want to borrow?” Helena thought about how she should answer that, and decided, as close to the truth as possible was the best idea.

“A book on controlling the elements, she still doesn’t realize that being a mage is more then playing with the four elements. I made sure of that for you. Now let me see Gwenna.”

“Sorry Helena, that is not going to happen and you know it. We have a very nice arrangement right now, do not go playing with my patience.” He disappeared with a ripple of water, and Helena let out a breath she had been holding. She sank to the floor by the table and buried her head in her hands. She couldn’t take much more of this.

Taru had sat just outside the door and had heard everything that had been said. She felt bad for Helena, but there wasn’t anything she could do now. She looked at the book in her hands and realized it was one that she had never seen before. She flipped through the first few pages, but realized quickly that this would be one she had to read carefully or she wouldn’t understand any of it. She wandered back to her room, and made sure the book was well hidden before she went to go find Hawk.

She decided to ride Loyalty through the woods near the training area. She needed to think and there was no better place to do that then on the back of a horse. They loped gently through the green foliage, and she let her mind wander to the heavy topics that were making her life difficult. She truly felt bad for Helena, and was very glad that she wasn’t working against them. She really like the mage, and would have been sad to see her killed. She also thought about her relationship with Hawk, and how much she enjoyed being with him. For some reason none of her previous issues played a role in her feelings for him, and for some reason that bothered her. Nothing was resolved, but she felt a lot better after her long ride.

Nothing was resolved that night, or for a long time after that. Taru worked her way though the book and realized that within it, she could learn everything she needed to know to become a fully skilled mage. She continued to work with Shet, and the others in the camp with similar abilities began to come to her with their questions. Helena seemed to be happy with her progress, even if she couldn’t say anything about it. She had also worked out a way to let the rebels know what she was passing on to her contact. She told them that he was a mage with great skill in long distance communication. He was Demerita’s go to guy when it came to distance surveillance. She had to keep feeding him some good information, and it had taken a while for them to work out what they could pass on without hurting their troops too badly.

Taru had been back in action a few times now, and she had greatly enjoyed the adrenaline rush that came with real fighting. Practice just didn’t have the same effect. Hawk was worried about her, but she didn’t let him get away with anything. He fought in most of the battles, and if he was going to do that, she was going to do the same. She was far safer on a horse then he was on his paws. He had agreed with that assessment, but it didn’t make him happy that she willingly threw herself into danger. It was on the battlefield that everything fell into place. She would attribute it to the absolute clarity of mind that fighting for your life gave you. As a sword was swung at her head, she finally realized that she didn’t have to duck, she just pushed out from herself, and the other warrior found himself on the ground with Loyalty’s hooves smashing into his face. She didn’t even realize she had used magic until a moment later when she managed to do it again. After the fight, and the clean up, she found Hawk.

Hawk, I used magic on the field. I managed to throw people from their horses with only a thought. I don’t know how I did it, but I know I could do it again. She smiled at him and he wagged both his tails this was something to celebrate. They did just that well hidden behind some bushes about a mile from camp.