Jude Stephens (9 page)

“
Time to get moving,” Cheve said
as he stood and offered me his hand. I ignored his hand and pushed
myself up.

Cheve sighed but didn’t say anything. He turned and
began jogging once more. I may be stuck with him as my trainer but
that didn’t mean we had to be friends. I still think he’s kind of
rough around the edges.

We got back to the village 15 minutes later and
Cheve said, “Go take a quick shower and meet me back here. We’ll go
have breakfast with Onatah.” With that command he strode away.

“
Yes sir, right away sir.” I
mumbled.

Mark took that moment to stride around the corner.
“Did you up and enlist this morning? Because if you have then I’ve
got to tell you that I hope it wasn’t in the Navy. Not with your
lack of swimming ability.”

I stared at him with my mouth open. “Did you just
make a joke Mark?”

A small smile tugged at his mouth before he got all
serious again. “Cheve and I talked this morning. He is a decent
sort, Olivia. He asked me to help with your self defense training.
He only wants to train you so you can survive the threat that being
a Sensay carries.”

We both were silent for a moment, thinking about the
arrow that narrowly missed me only the day before.

“
Your right, Mark. I will be more
receptive. It’s just that Cheve annoys me for some reason. But then
again, all the men I’ve recently met are assholes.” I quickly
added, “Present company excluded.”

Mark nodded at me. He was back to his usual non
talkative self. When he left I went in to shower and change before
Cheve took it upon him self to come get me. When I was finished
dressing in jeans and a t-shirt, I made my way to Onatah’s
longhouse. Cheve was already there but stood when I entered.

“
Good morning,” I greeted Onatah.
I ignored Cheve.

“
Good morning, Orenda. Did you
sleep well?”

“
Yes, up until Cheve woke me up at
an ungodly hour.”

Onatah laughed. “You will get used to that, Orenda,
and you will get used to the rigorous schedule we set for you. I
know its difficult now but you will see the benefits soon.”

I sighed. I really didn’t want to be difficult. I
know everything they were doing was for my own good. “I truly
understand, Onatah, and I apologize if it sounded like I was
complaining.”

Onatah smiled at me and Cheve just made a rude
noise. That man was an ass. I decided I would work hard and show
him that I could do this. With no complaining!

After breakfast we met Mark and began my self
defense training. It was more advanced than the previous training
Mark and Andy gave me. Not only did we practice martial arts but I
was given self defense manuals to study. They looked to be military
but I didn’t question how they were acquired.

Then my strength training began. This consisted
mostly of upper body workouts. I thought he would have me lifting
weights, but instead I found myself moving large rocks.

I was actually happy to do this instead as I learned
that this area was going to be cultivated to grow some crops next
spring. After a few hours of the grueling work, Cheve came over to
tell me it was lunch time. I thought we would be heading back to
the village, but Cheve produced a sack lunch for the both of us. We
ate in silence. When we were done Cheve stood and said “Let’s go
walk by the water.”

“
Okay, maybe I can wash a bit of
this grime off of me.”

Cheve looked at me and said, “You are a bit dirty. I
apologize. I should have allowed you to wash up a bit before we
ate.”

I accepted his apology with a nod since I felt
awkward.

We walked to the edge of the river and I knelt down,
scooped up the cool water and splashed it on my face. It felt like
heaven and I let out a long sigh.

“
That is the perfect place to
start with your next set of lessons.” Cheve said as he knelt beside
me.

“
Excuse me?”

“
With your delight in the touch of
the cool water. I want you to do it again, though this time;
picture each and every cell in your body as the water touches it.
As you picture the cells, picture those cells reacting differently.
Not being pleasured by the cool water. Picture those cells being
burned by the water.”

I looked at him with skepticism but decided to
follow his instruction. I closed my eyes and instinctively began a
slow in and out pattern of deep breaths. I went inside myself and
saw cells moving along my blood stream alive and vital. I followed
the cells that were moving towards my face. There they caused my
face to flush with signs of good health. I reached into the cool
water, still concentrating on the millions of cells traveling
through my body. As I brought my cupped hands full of the cool
water slowly to my face, I began to feel the heat from the water
and could actually feel the steam rising from it. I knew that if I
splashed the water on my face it would scald me. I let out a small
yelp and dumped the water out of my hands.

“
Why did you do that? It was going
to scald me!”

“
No, it wasn’t. The water is cool.
I knew you would stop before you actually let it go too
far.”

I was shaking a little bit “What would have happened
if I didn’t stop?”

He looked me in the eye, “You would have felt the
pain of being burned.” I was beginning to get angry at him. He
quickly added, “Think about what you just did Orenda, the awesome
power of it.”

My anger subsided somewhat when his words sank in. I
had actually changed my thought patterns. I hade made the cold
water into scalding water.

“
Ooh, cool”

Cheve laughed “Yeah, cool indeed. And that is just
the beginning of your abilities. You will learn to make pain turn
into pleasure and pleasure turn into bliss. It is all in your
control”

We worked for a while longer on fine tuning my
thought patterns and then we began to work on controlling some of
my other abilities. Sight is pretty easy to control. Cheve showed
me some techniques to use when focusing in on an object that is far
away, so I wouldn’t get a headache. That was the worst side effect
from having vision that could see seven times sharper than that of
a normal human being.

After practicing for a half hour, Cheve walked about
50 yards and held up a piece of paper and yelled for me to read it.
I closed my eyes and slowly opened them to let my focus adjust and
started to read loud enough for him to hear. “Cheve is the sexiest
man I’ve ever met. Oh! You’re an ass!” I yelled back at him. I
could hear his laughter loud and clear. The man was infuriating at
times; however, when he jogged back towards me, I couldn’t help but
give him a small smile when I saw the boyish grin on his face.

“
Okay, I will give you that one
Cheve, but I won’t fall for that again.”

“
Oh, we shall see, Sensay…we shall
see.”

I knew then and there that a challenge was thrown
down and I admitted to myself that it was rather fun.

The rest of the afternoon was spent working on my
other senses. I was afraid of trying the hearing as my one true
attempt at it was a disaster.

“
I’d rather not try the hearing
thing, Cheve. Roberto was working with me one day a few months ago,
and I lost all sense of hearing. It freaked me out.”

“
Orenda, you have to fine tune
your hearing. It’s an important tool for you to use. It probably
saved your life the other day when someone shot an arrow at
you.”

With a gasp I said, “How did you know about that?
Oh, let me guess, Mark. I never thought he would be a
blabbermouth.”

“
Mark only told us because he was
worried. He’s afraid that The Guardians might have tracked you from
the fucking vampires’ house.”

“
Us? He told my moth…Onatah too?”
Crap. I didn’t want her worried about this and I didn’t like it
that Mark went and told them without consulting me.

“
Yes, and he did the right thing.
This is not just about you. There is a whole village of people here
that Onatah is responsible for. She has the right to know of any
dangers.”

Of course he was right. I had to somehow get out of
the mind set that the world revolved around me. I’m not even sure
how I came to be like that, but I didn’t like it.

Cheve must have seen the look of self recrimination
on my face because he said, “Look, you’re too hard on yourself.

This is new territory. So it should go without
saying that you will need to make adjustments. Maybe even become a
new person.”

A new person? Did I want to become a new person?

Maybe I would. Being the old me was never that
great. My marriage ended in divorce. My second relationship ended
with my man choosing another woman. Yeah, a new person sounded damn
good right now. Strong. That’s what I wanted to be. Strong and
independent.

We headed back to the village to shower and change
for dinner. When I got back to my cabin, there were some clothes on
my bed. I picked up the buttery soft suede pants. There was also an
overdress with intricate beadwork in a beautiful floral design. The
clothes were beautiful but something inside me felt uncomfortable
wearing them. I didn’t feel enough a part of this world yet.

After showering I once more looked at the clothes on
my bed. I would compromise. I would find my own style. I slid the
tan suede pants on and they fit me like a glove. Instead of the
Native American overdress, I chose a plain white shirt. Then I
spotted the dark brown leather boots on the floor by the bed. They
were the softest leather I’d ever felt and I was practically
drooling as I pulled them on. I smiled a little as I thought how
jealous Janel will be when she sees them.

I brushed out my long dark hair and let it air dry.
When I left my cabin, a sense of wholeness surrounded me. For the
first time in my life I felt secure and confident. I entered
Onatah’s longhouse; Cheve was there along with Mark and Bullet. I
realized that I hadn’t seen Bullet all day.

The men rose and Onatah said, “You look lovely,
Orenda.”

“
Thank you, Onatah.”

Cheve didn’t say anything and as usual Mark grunted
his greeting.

I bent down to pet Bullet. “Where have you been all
day Boy? I missed you.” Bullet responded by nuzzling my hand.

Onatah answered for Bullet. “I’m sure he was off in
the woods with some of the other wolves that roam this island.”

“
Are there a lot of wolves on this
island?” I asked. The thought that there were wild wolves roaming
around here made me a tad nervous.

Onatah patted my arm. “Do not worry. The wolves and
the inhabitants of this island have a sort of understanding. Each
does not interfere with the other.”

Cheve piped in with, “An intruder…now that would be
a different story.”

While we ate dinner we discussed some of my training
and I learned Mark was helping with clearing some of the fields for
next year’s crops. After dinner Cheve and Mark excused themselves
and left me alone with Onatah for my metaphysical training.

“
I hate to have to ask but what
exactly is metaphysical training?”

Onatah smiled at me. “It is many things but mostly
what we will talk about is the nature of existence, and how you can
train and strengthen your mind. The mind after all is a mostly
untapped source of power. It has the ability to send out potent
positive or negative vibrations that you can learn to harness.”

We started the training by doing some meditation
exercises. I actually found out that I was pretty good at clearing
my mind and going inside myself. The hours passed quickly and
before I knew it Cheve was back.

“
How did the training go?” he
asked Onatah.

“
Very well, she is advanced beyond
what we thought.”

Cheve nodded and turned towards me and said, “Good.
I think tonight we will skip the astral projection training and
work on your seduction.”

Chapter 10

“
My what?” I could have sworn that
Cheve said my seduction, but of course he couldn’t have because
Onatah was nodding her head in agreement.

Onatah said, “Your seduction Orenda. It is important
for you to practice the art of seduction and your reactions to
passion. Because of its powerful nature it is the most difficult
thing for someone to control. Case in point that weak former
husband of yours.”

“
You know about Brian?” I asked
with embarrassment. “Yes. He was all wrong for you. Your parents
came to see me when you decided to marry him, but as I told them,
we could not interfere.”

I got angry. “Why? If you knew I was making a
mistake why couldn’t you help me?”

“
It wasn’t your time yet. We
couldn’t step in and take the chance that you find out about you
being a Sensay. Without your abilities there was no way to protect
you.”

I was still angry when I said, “So instead you let a
young woman walk into years of heartache. Not what I would call
very motherly actions.”

With that I walked away. As soon as I stepped
outside, I was grabbed and pulled around.

Cheve was glaring at me. “That was the reaction of a
spoiled child. You have no idea what Onatah has been through. How
hard it has been for her.”

The red glow of anger was racing through my veins.
“I am getting sick of you and everyone else telling me how I should
feel. You say I am wrong to express my feelings, how I am this
great Sensay with a destiny, and then you all treat me as a
child.”

I felt the power growing inside of me and it felt so
good, so right. I instinctively knew this was my destiny, that
which was going to make me great. My instinct. My sixth sense or
whatever you wanted to call it. As it continued to grow, something
inside me forever changed. It was the key to everything, and as I
stood there letting it fill my every cell, I also knew this was my
secret to keep. From everyone.