The Half Dwarf Prince (11 page)

Rundo didn’t even remember falling asleep, but the next morning he woke up underwater. No, the water was just around his head. Instantly he linked with air and pushed the water away from his face. The small amount of water that Evelyn had spinning around his head splashed on the ground as he caught his breath.

Evelyn took him down to the
river where she had him link with the water. After spending all day yesterday linking with air and fire it wasn’t hard to link with the water. It was hard to control, though. It wouldn’t do anything he wanted.

“You can’t control the whole river. You have to focus your link on a specific area, a specific amount of water,” she told him.

He reached into the link and single pillar of water rose out of the river. He didn’t have anything specific in mind other then to get it out of the flow of the river where he could control it. Now that he was linked to only this specific amount of water it seemed as easy to manipulate as the air. Fire had been harder than this. With the fire he had to constantly feed it. The water and the air were just there. Just like his earth golems. Then he realized it. This was exactly what he had done. He had thought the staff was doing it for him, but it was just the conduit making it easier for him. He had seen Navaeh make an earth golem; that was why he had been able to. Before he even registered what he was doing, more water was lifting out of the water into his column. He looked at the column of water as he pushed his will through the link. Seconds later the water was in the shape of a pony and running across the surface of the water toward them. Before it made it to land though, it collapsed into the water. Rundo looked back at Evelyn.

“
Remember, if someone else can establish a stronger link with your golem, they can control it. If you can establish a stronger link with theirs you can take it. Sometimes it’s best to destroy your own creation so that it doesn’t get used against you, or keep you distracted while you’re fighting over control. Don’t forget about air, either. Air and earth are the two things that you can always tap into. We started with air so let’s finish with earth. You have already made an earth golem before so it shouldn’t be hard for you to establish the link. Take a few minutes to get familiar with it. The aura will be slightly different depending on what the substance is. Iron is going to seem different than stone, which will feel different than soil. It will all be similar, and it can all be intertwined. It is a rarely used or studied skill, but there were and still are a few druids who could mold and meld metal ores without a furnace. Your link to the earth is strong, and because you were able to create an earth golem without any training I waited to work on earth until the end. Your link with the earth is likely your greatest link. Go ahead and study the link. Walk around and feel the difference between dirt and stone and whatever else you find. Don’t try to manipulate anything, just take a while to explore the link.”

He walked around the woods. Plants he was used to. The earth itself he had drowned out the way he had with air. He knew Evelyn’s assessment was correct. His link with the earth was stronger then everything else. He could feel every change. Once he opened himself up to his link with the earth he could tell
which dirt was harder packed, which dirt had more sand in it. He could feel the places where there were different minerals. He walked around for hours just feeling. When Evelyn came to him the sun was already setting. He had been so engrossed in what he was doing he hadn’t even realized he had lost half the day.

“I’m sorry
. I didn’t mean to wander so far. I just got caught up, I guess. It’s fascinating.”

Evelyn just smiled at him. “It
’s fine. We can sleep here tonight. I will go find us some food if you start a fire.”

Rundo gathered up some stones to surround the fire. He realized that he could easily snuff out the fire now using his abilities, but it was still better to be safe. The last thing he wanted to do was catch these woods on fire. He had a responsibility to protect them
, after all. Waiting for Evelyn to get back, he decided to work with his links. First he opened himself to his link with the earth. He pictured two chairs on opposite sides of the small fire. Joining his will with the link he watched as the two chairs essentially grew up out of the ground. He sat down and stared into the fire. He opened himself to the link and felt the fire’s hunger. He pictured a very small golem no bigger than his hand jump out of the fire onto the rocks. A second later he had a humanoid-looking fire golem dancing on the stones for him. Then another golem jumped out of the fire and joined hands with it. He turned and looked at Evelyn standing behind him with a huge smile on her face. The two little fire golems danced around the fire for a few minutes,, merging their wills.

“You really are good with elements,” Evelyn said sitting across the fire from him on the other chair. “I have never seen anyone become so comfortable with their abilities so quickly. I was only hoping to introduce you to the elements in the few days that you were here
, but you have already far exceeding anything I had hoped to achieve. There is still a lot you could learn, but you will have to figure it out on your own or find someone with the ability. I am not extremely gifted in the area. Tomorrow, if you like, I can work with you on shifting. I won’t be able to teach you to shift completely, but I can show you the basics. We might be able to accomplish something in two days. Your affinity for animals might make shifting somewhat easier,” she told him as she lay on the ground, rolling up her vest under her head. Her fox came over and rested her head on Evelyn’s leg.

Messah was perched on a branch overhead. He reached out to Bumbo
, who still seemed content, and in the same direction and distance as last night. Grundel must still be waiting on Frau and the rest of the dwarves. He was happy everyone was still okay, he was excited about everything he was learning, and he was exhausted. He linked with the earth, the chairs shrank back down into the ground, and he lay down and went to sleep.

The next morning Rundo woke up to a fox nudging him. He immediately sensed that the aura of the fox was actually that of Evelyn. “Do you never sleep?” he asked, climbing to his feet. Evelyn shifted back into herself. There she was again, standing in front of him naked.

She saw him look away. “When you shift your clo
thes will almost always fall off or tear. It is best to be naked. If you ever go to a druid community you will need to get used to nudity. In a community of druids many don’t wear clothes at all.”

“I will try to remember that
,” he said, but she was already walking over behind a tree and slipping back into her clothes. His head was turned but he couldn’t stop his eyes from trying to see. He hadn’t really gotten to know Evelyn that well. He knew she was a good person and her aura was genuine, but he hadn’t talked to her much about her. The fact that he didn’t know her didn’t take away from the fact he found her attractive and had seen her naked. He thought that at his age he would be past adolescent feelings like this, but apparently he wasn’t.

Evelyn walked back over to him. “Are you ready to get started?”

“As ready as I am going to be,” he answered.

“Ok
ay, I’ll start by explaining what shifting is. Shifting is like linking with the earth and making an earth golem, except you are tapping into your own aura and manipulating it. The more you shift the easier it becomes, but it takes time and practice to learn something new. I can shift into something I am not really familiar with, but there will be things I don’t manipulate properly. Since the thing I think you are most familiar with would be Messah, I suggest you attempt to shift using her. Don’t try to turn into her. For right now, just work on the hand. Study her talons. When you are ready look into yourself, find your own aura, isolate your hand, and attempt to change it.”

Rundo called to Messah through the link. She came and landed on his shoulder. He was pretty familiar with her. He could picture everything about her in his mind without seeing her
, but he looked at her talons anyway. When he was confortable he focused on himself. He was able to find his own aura easily enough, but isolating his hand was harder. He spent hours trying to isolate just his hand from the rest of his aura, but it was all merged. Evelyn gave him tips and encouragement from the side. When he finally did it he looked at Evelyn. By the smile she gave him, the look on his face must have given away that he had finally done it.

He started trying to shift his hand, but his mind wouldn’t let him. He knew what his hand felt like. It was like he was trying to trick his own mind. That gave him an idea. He reached into his link with Messah. He could see and feel her body the way she did. His hand began to shift. He looked at his other
hand. Then he had an idea. He almost went for it, but Evelyn’s warning rang out in his mind. He shifted his hands back to normal. Evelyn began to congratulate him, but he held up a finger. She was staring at him, obviously intrigued, when he began stripping off his clothes right there, his excitement and pure stubbornness overruling his discomfort. He was standing there naked next to his clothes with Evelyn watching him, but he wasn’t thinking about that. He found his own aura again and then reached through the link again. He watched as his arms became wings. He looked down and his toes were changing into talons. His whole body shifted. The shift was almost complete, but he knew what was missing. He closed his eyes and when he opened them he saw through the eyes of a hawk. He had looked through Messah’s eyes quite a bit over the last couple of months so it wasn’t awkward any longer. He felt Messah through their bond. She was excited. She wanted to fly. He was huge. There wasn’t a bird around that was going to mess with him. He had been linked with Messah enough to understand how she flew, but he had never actually flown—he had never actually controlled her body.

He watched Messah take off and imitated her. He flapped his wings hard
, lifting himself off the ground. He followed her into the air. It was difficult at first to control the wings, but after a few minutes he got used to it. The takeoff was the hard part. Once he was in the air he just used his wings to change his elevation. He didn’t have to work nearly as hard to keep flying as he did to start. A couple of flaps would lift him up, and then he could just stretch his wings and glide. Messah felt his excitement through the bond, and he felt hers. This was a bonding experience for them, something they could share in. He sensed her and looked down through his bird eyes. He could see a mile with these eyes. Evelyn was a hawk, too. She was flying toward them. He turned his body, lowering his right wing, and banked hard. He began flapping his wings and rising higher into the sky. He looked back again to see her trying to catch him. Messah had no trouble. Even with his much longer wings she had much more experience. Evelyn was gaining on him, but slowly. He tucked his wings back some and dove forward away from her. For at least an hour the three of them flew. They chased each other for a while and then eventually they just soared, gliding back toward where they had taken off from. Rundo wasn’t quite sure where exactly that was. Evelyn got in front and got them close, but she, too, wasn’t exactly sure. Messah felt his confusion through the bond. She had no trouble finding her way back, so the two huge hawks followed the smaller one. Rundo thought that taking off had been the hardest part, but landing proved to be much harder. He flapped his wings hard, trying not to land too abruptly, but he would just lift back away from the ground. Finally on his third try he managed to land. He kicked up all kinds of dirt in the process, though.

Rundo manipulated his aura again
, and then he was standing there, naked and laughing. Evelyn was laughing as well.

“That was the most fun I have had in a long time,” she told him.

“Me, too. It has been too long since I had fun. Messah enjoyed it, too,” he told her.

“She helped you somehow
, didn’t she? When you were shifting. After you figured out the talons you figured the rest out too quickly on your own.”

Rundo nodded. “Y
es, I was having trouble trying to figure out what it would feel like. I felt like I was trying to trick myself, then I linked with her to see how she felt, and I could feel it all.”

“That was good. You won
’t always be able to do that, but it was a clever way of figuring it out. Now that you have shifted it will be easier to convince yourself you can do it. Let’s take a break for now. You can work on it more tomorrow.”

The spent the rest of the day talking, getting to know each other better.
She talked to him more about her experiences as a druid. She had grown up in a druid community. Her parents had both been druids. Her father hadn’t been very skilled, but he was dedicated. Her mother was more skilled but cared more about her father then being a druid. It had all balanced out.

That night when he reached out to Bumbo he realized that he was fa
rther away, quite a bit farther. The dwarves must have started towards Shinestone this morning. He had been so caught up in everything today that he hadn’t even been paying attention to his link with Bumbo.

He and Evelyn were lying on the ground
, staring up into the trees. “Tomorrow will be my last day. The dwarves started toward Shinestone this morning. I can stay tomorrow, but the next morning I will have to go, so I can catch up with them before they reach Shinestone.”

“Wait
, isn’t Shinestone that mountain where the dwarves used to live?” she asked as she sat up and looked over at him.