Dogs of War Episode 5 (2 page)

Sidney tried to concentrate. She tried to see the apple in her mind, the red and green dappled skin, the yellowish flesh it contained, the core with its dark seeds, the delicious juice that should be causing the apple to explode at any moment… at any moment now the apple was going to explode. Any moment now that delicious juicy apple is just going to burst.

She let out her breath and slumped, “It’s no use,” her stomach rumbled. “See, I don’t want the apple to explode, I want to eat the stupid thing.”

They sunny orchard was serene, the big leaves creating a melody as she and Cord sat, knees touching, on the ground between two heavily burdened apple trees.

“You’re not concentrating. You forget that I can see what you’re thinking.”

How could she be expected to concentrate when she felt like lying down, closing her eyes and not talking to a single person until her soul felt whole again, instead of like it had been broken into a thousand little pieces. Her insides felt hollow and empty and she just wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere else other than in this cheerful clearing with this gorgeous man. Sidney fingered the grass beside her and wished for the thousandth time that she were at home in bed wallowing in self pity instead of sitting here trying to learn how to explode apples with Cord.

“And what good would that do you?” Cord cocked an eyebrow at her, his beautiful eyes sympathetic, but he still wasn’t giving her any slack.

“I don’t feel like doing this, wouldn’t it be better if I tried this stuff when I didn’t feel like drinking a bottle of wine and watching something depressing enough to make me feel better about my life? Maybe I could read Ethan Frome and thank God I’m not at staged sledding accident levels of hopelessness yet.”

“Do you only treat sick gerbils when you feel like it?”

“No, but that’s work.”

He nodded, “And so is this. Look, nothing is ever easy. You don’t wake up one day and suddenly you’re the best painter in the world, you have to work at it.”

“Yeah, but some people have talent, which I clearly do not have at apple explosions.”

Cord made a pshawing sound, “If talent was all you needed there wouldn’t be a single witch alive, or artist for that matter, who ever amounted to anything. You can have a talent for something and if you don’t practice it, the best you’ll ever be is mediocre. But on the other hand, you can find something really hard to learn, and work on it day and night and still be better than anyone else. That’s how hard work, practice, and learning works.”

Sidney nodded, she agreed, in theory. But today she just needed a little space. She needed to breathe and see how it felt. She needed to accept that Red had left her because of his own issues and it had nothing to do with her.

She knew it, mentally, but she needed to really accept it and try to move on. And that process included wine, tears, and sappy made for TV movies. Not sitting in a field with ants crawling on her while she tried, unsuccessfully, to do some hocus pocus on an apple.

“Here, we’re going to try something else. Fuck this apple,” Cord picked up the apple and threw it hard, making it fly far out of sight.

“You should have played baseball,” she said, looking the direction the apple had traveled.

“I did, but that was before I learned how to do that and I sucked, I got to pick daisies out in left field every game,” he grinned at her.

“I thought I had to go in order.” She’d began working with water because that was what she’d been told to do, and after reading multiple books, taking copious notes, and listening to Fran go on and on and on about water ad nauseam, she was finally getting to try her hand at it. She should really be more excited but all she felt was a deep numbness. And she really should be working with Fran, who it seemed, was exceptional at water magic, but she’d had something else to do that morning so Cord had been assigned to help Sidney. Not that she was complaining. Even with the mind reading, she’d take Cord over Fran any day of the week. It was amazing what a little personality could do for a person. Not that she could fully appreciate it in the mood she was in. Maybe Fran would have been a better match for her mood, come to think of it.

They’d started with water droplets on a plastic cutting mat. Cord had sprinkled the droplets and then instructed Sidney to move them to the edge of the mat one at a time. Sidney had tried so hard her brain felt sore and finally a few of the droplets had moved, but she wasn’t entirely sure that wasn’t because of gravity or some other completely explainable event. Such as Cord tipping the board to make her feel better.

Then they’d moved on to trying to make a glass of milk tip itself over. Sidney had completely failed at that. All she’d gotten the milk to do is ripple a bit as it sat in the glass. Then they’d gone to the orchard to play with apples. So far all she’d made the apple do was sweat, a little of the juice leaking out through the skin.

“Oh we’ll still be working with water, we’re just going to try a different approach,” he jumped up, wiping the grass of his pants, the kind Sidney was now mentally referring to as Zen pants, before he held a hand out to help Sidney up. “Come with me,” he said, walking back toward the path they’d come on.

She watched the sun play across the muscles in his back as he walked. It really was a shame he was gay. Such a beautiful man.

“My boyfriend doesn’t think it’s a shame,” he turned back and grinned at her, his bright white smile slashing against the dusky olive of his skin. It was a shame, no matter what his boyfriend thought.

“Do you own shirts? I have yet to see you wear one. I may not be rich but if you need a couple of teeshirts I’m sure I could grab you a few from Wal-Mart.”

“I just like feeling closer to nature, I wouldn’t wear pants if I could get away with it.”

“Those things you call pants are almost skirts, except with a giant slit up each side,” she actually thought they were really cute and considered asking him where he got them. They’d be wonderful on yoga day.

“I’ll have you know that I make these pants myself, and they are all the rage in Mysteria,” he made a sharp turn, taking them off the path that would lead back to Bree’s house.

She followed, the trail getting narrower with tree branches beginning to inhibit their progress, “Mysteria?”

“Yeah, it’s a temporary town that pops up at Transformus every year.”

“Transformus, of course, how silly of me.”

“Oh my God Sidney, do you live under a rock? It’s a free expression art festival slash burn that happens every year.”

Whatever that was, “Ok,” she’d just take his word for it. “So where are we going?”

“You’ll see, it’s not much further.”

They walked in silence, Sidney trying to turn her mind away each time it landed on Red. But it wasn’t much use, all she could think about was how cold he’d looked when she’d told him what she was. Cold and unfeeling. It was hard to believe the man who had been so caring with his daughter, with her, could turn into stone at the mention of a single word. Witch.

“You really shouldn’t have told him, but I understand why you did.”

Sidney blew a piece of hair out of her face, “How does your boyfriend deal with you reading his mind all the time.”

“He doesn’t because I don’t. That’s no way to have a relationship.”

“Well can you do me the same courtesy?”

“Nope,” he said quickly and unapologetically. “I have to keep myself open to you to help you learn how to think while you’re practicing.”

“Well can’t you just turn it off while we’re not practicing?”

He sighed, “It’s obvious you don’t know how hard it is to turn this off and on so I’m going to go with the short answer. No.”

“Whatever,” she said, annoyed that he had the ability to give her privacy but refused to do so.

“But you really can’t blame him for his reaction,” Cord steered them back to the subject.

“I sure can, I can’t help that I’m a witch, any more than he can help that he’s a shifter. It’s not like I asked for this.”

“That’s true, but his kind has a taboo against even dealing with witches at all. They have like this big book that dictates how shifters should behave. It’s like a religion, with no God.”

“And his book says he can’t be with a witch.”

“His book says he can’t even associate with certain kinds of creatures. I mean we aren’t supposed to have children with them, for obvious reasons, but we can associate with whoever we want. All living beings are part of a whole? Why would we be prejudiced against one group?”

Sidney didn’t know what those obvious reasons were, but she had other questions. “Bree called them ‘nasty shifters’ when I first met her. That seems a little prejudiced to me.”

“Bree has had some bad blood with shifters in the past, mostly because they were so intent on hating us. Sometimes that rubs off on others. Fran, for example, doesn’t care much for shifters either. But don’t worry, it’s not like a rule that you can only live with, date, or even marry other witches or humans. We’re an open welcoming bunch. Hell my boyfriend is a Faery.”

Sidney stopped in her tracks, “You’re dating a Tinkerbell?”

Cord rolled his eyes, “Your parents really suck. Someone should have told you at least a little bit about how the world works.”

She agreed that her parents sucked, however that didn’t get him out of answering the millions of questions that were flying through her head.

“But really, a fairy? Like with fairy dust and everything?” Sidney was going to have to get someone to sit down and tell her exactly which mythical creatures were real and which one weren’t, so that if she came face to face with a centaur in the forest she wouldn’t shame them all by passing out or accidentally looking at his junk.

“Oh Great Brigid save me from this noob,” Cord put his hands out in a mock plea. “We’re here anyway. The lesson on creatures, myth and fact, will have to wait.”

Sidney was blocked in on either side by trees and Cord was standing directly in front of her, so she didn’t see where ‘here’ was immediately. But when he moved and she saw what was before her she felt like she’d stepped into a tale of Irish lore.

A lake, the deepest blue she’d ever seen stood before her, stretching across the distance. She could barely see the other shore. But the one she was walking up to was breathtaking. Grass greener than should be possible lined the lake, with huge grey rocks that seemed to sparkle in the sun randomly piled in artistic formations. She could imagine that all of the legends could come true. Selkies shedding their skin to turn into beautiful women, brownies darting between rocks and causing mischief, waterhorses luring men to their graves, even strange women distributing  swords to young men could possibly live in those depths. This was a place anything was possible.

“I felt that way the first time I came here too, there’s something special about this place. It feels… old. Like the spirits of all the witches who came before us are gathered on these shores, ready to share their ancient knowledge,” he looked at Sidney as she took it all in. “Ok, now strip.”

“What?” she jumped, startled out of the reverie his words had created. She could well imagine those women, and men too, spending their afterlife in a place like this. And now he wanted her to strip in front of all of them.

“If dead people are roaming around I’m pretty sure they’ve seen you in the shower,” he was already kicking off his sandals and untying the string that held his pants up. “And I’ve already seen you buck naked at the dedication ceremony the other night. Remember?”

She remembered, but it hadn’t been just him and her. Getting naked here with him alone just felt too intimate.

“Oh honey, you wish, now take it off or I’m throwing you in fully clothed,” he didn’t even wait and let her decide, he just began tugging her shirt off for her.

She gave in and threw all of her clothes onto a rock, even her panties and bra. She didn’t plan on putting them back on wet and letting them chafe her for the rest of the day, so buck naked it was.

Cord took a running start and dove in with a whoop, letting her know that there was a steep drop off somewhere near the edge. There would be no slowly wading in, as was her habit. She stuck one foot in and pulled it back out quickly.

“Holy cow, that’s cold as ice!”

“It’s invigorating, come on in!”

She started shivering just thinking about it.