Riverside City Chronicles | Book 1 | Riverside City [Capes & Cowls]

by VanDerHeyden, Paul C.

  “My advice is this, find something you both like doing and run with it. If you both like hunting down Cowls? Make an evening of it, go to dinner after and laugh about the dumb stuff you did as kids, that’s how Shui and I got closer when we started dating.”

  Cinder’s eyes cloud as she remembers her lost loves, “Theo will be back in less than five minutes, why don’t you think about what you’re going to tell him when he gets back.” Cinder’s cushion drifts about 30 feet away and she sits stoically, doing her best to keep her face and mind blank to the empath sitting 30 feet away.

  Kat looks over at Cinder, but when she sees Cinder’s hardened emotional walls, she wisely looks away and starts to collect her thoughts.

  She didn’t answer my questions about the Darkswarn, I’ll get that out of her later. She deserves some time to grieve privately. I hope to never experience the loss she’s reliving now, it would tear me to pieces. Now, what to do when Theo gets back? It has to be big, this is important to him, and now it’s important to me. I need to be his strength, he’s already mine.

  Kat feels an intense longing to be wrapped up in Theo’s arms, to hold him tight and never let him go again. She anxiously waits for his return after failing to remember exactly how long he’s been gone.

  I know what I want, hopefully Cinder will be okay with it.

  ___

  Theo arrives exactly 30 minutes after leaving the central chamber to begin his laps. He goes to land next to Kat on her cushion, but Cinder pops a golden cushion into existence next to it. She points at the golden cushion. Theo lands gently on the golden cushion and holds out his hand for Kat to grab. She does so with surprising speed, her grip like iron. He looks at her and sees that she’s shaking a bit.

  “So, what did you two talk about while I was training?” Theo asks nervously, glancing at Kat to gauge her reaction to his question.

  Cinder answers without missing a beat, “Mostly things I can’t tell you directly, but there’s no rule about her telling you so you’ve got that going for you. The rest was girl stuff, I haven’t had anyone for that in ages, so it was cathartic for me.”

  “Yep, that’s it, nothing crazy,” Kat stammers.

  “Way to keep it cool sister,” Cinder jokes. “We also talked about relationship stuff, which has her panting like a dog in heat, you’re a lucky man.” She laughs a bit, then wipes her eyes. “So, when is she going back?”

  Theo looks at Kat, her eyes pleading with him.

  ‘What do you want to do?’ Theo sends to Kat.

  ‘Be with you as much and for as long as possible,’ Kat’s inner voice sounds pained.

  ‘All right, I’ll do what I can, I want that too.’ Theo squeezes her hand as he starts to reply to Cinder.

  “Can she stay for the duration of my training?” Theo asks, his eyes glowing with hope.

  Cinder barks out a laugh. “Well, I can’t say I didn’t see it coming with you two. You understand that your training will be dramatically shortened due to this, yes?”

  “I understand,” Theo replies at the same time that Kat says, “What?”

  “Why will his training be shortened? I thought it was a set length of time? His last one was,” Kat asks pointedly to both Theo and Cinder.

  Theo and Cinder explain how the bottle of Tears of the Dragon interacts with the trial. Kat’s face goes from surprised, to angry, then finally to sad at the end of the explanation.

  “So, you’re saying that if I stay, I’ll need some of the Tears every day to stay here?” Kat says solemnly.

  “Ding, ding, ding. Your girlfriend is a smart one, she got the issue in one try,” Cinder jokes.

  “Theo only needs one drop, how many would I need?” Kat’s face screwed up in pain.

  “I’ve been doing the math, you’ll need ten per day. Though if you make it toward the end of the bottle, it’ll be more like seven or so,” Cinder retorts.

  Kat’s face falls and she looks at Theo. “I can’t do that to you. I’ll be cutting your training time down so much. It’s too selfish, I’ll just go back now, it won’t be so bad for me, just a few hours until you wake up.”

  Theo laughs. “Done, ten for her, one for me, per day. If my math is right, we get a bit less than three years to be together, without interruptions from Capes, Cowls, or school. How lucky can we be?”

  Kat goes to argue, then decides better of it and just stays quiet.

  Cinder claps her hands happily, “Finally, a Child with a spine. Plus his mate is cute and I finally have someone to chat with while you do flight training. I accept your proposal. I also have a bonus in mind for you. I usually wait at least six months before offering this to Children, but I enjoy your passion.”

  Cinder stands up on her cushion and does a circular motion with her hands and feet, like someone doing Tai Chi.

  “This is some advanced shit, so don’t try it until I tell you to, otherwise you could burn out your Draconic Soul, trust me.” As Cinder finishes her ritual she shakes her hands out and a small white half ball flies behind Theo and Kat. It explodes with a whooshing sound, revealing a white dome with a door set into the front of it. Windows are spaced evenly around the dome, five in total, with the door in the place of the sixth.

  “Well? Go take a look, we’ll get back to training tomorrow. Enjoy yourselves you crazy kids. Remember, the only things that go back to the material plane are physical improvements and memories. Go nuts,” Cinder shoos the couple toward the dome with both hands, then with a wave of her wrist, a small golden ball appears near her head. She waves that ball up and it grows to about the same size as the white dome, but as a sphere.

  Cinder floats up to the door in her golden sphere of a home, “I’ll see you in exactly 12 hours. Don’t you keep him up too late, you hear me girlie?” She grins.

  “I thought you didn’t have to sleep in here?” Kat asks, obviously confused.

  “Who said anything about sleeping?” Cinder cackles and goes into the golden sphere, slamming the door. Music drifts out from the ball, Marvin Gaye from the sound of it.

  “Let’s take a look inside,” Theo helps Kat up to her feet off of the cushion and then flies them over to the dome.

  Chapter 38: Home Away from Home

  The dome is about 40 feet in diameter. The walls look to be made of solid stone, of a type that even Theo can’t identify, which is surprising after his time with Richter. The old man spent hours telling Theo all about different kinds of rock that he might encounter while gliding through the earth.

  Kat opens the door with her psychokinesis and gasps. Inside is the most luxurious home that Theo has ever seen, Kat looks a bit uncomfortable until she sees the smile on Theo’s face.

  “Jolly’s place has nothing on this,” he breathes.

  The dome is split into two equally sized areas, separated by a wall with another door across from them. The area nearest the entrance is decked out in gold: gold tables, gold lighting fixtures, etc. The couch is red and massive, with tons of throw pillows in red and gold tones. There is a large red bean bag, at least eight feet in diameter, placed in front of a massive movie screen that sits against the left side of the dividing wall.

  To the right is a collection of books, when they eventually investigate them, they find that almost all of them are in Ancient Chinese. Theo tells Kat that they are all about mental powers, nothing like what he has access to. Cinder asks if Kat liked her housewarming gift, which explains the book’s presence.

  Theo walks into the room and over toward the door opposite them. He opens the door and gasps, “Well, I guess that explains her cackling.” Theo smiles, then snorts and drags Kat into the room, closing the door behind them.

  The bed chamber has three main features. First is the bed, it is over ten feet across, and covered in the most luxurious red silk sheets imaginable. It takes up the right side of the chamber. To the left is a large golden tub, at least eight feet across with dragon shaped fillers. Behind the tub is a massive stone shower with a golden rainfall
showerhead covering the whole shower. There are steam jets hidden all over the stone wall, as they discover later.

  A wave of passion sweeps over Kat, she looks at Theo and sees his chiseled physique, the white and golden gi doing nothing to hide his physical perfection.

  “I love you Theodore Long,” Kat purrs as she shrugs off her gi and grabs a hold of Theo’s shoulders to pull him in for a long and deep kiss. “Now lift me up, fly us over to that bed, and make me yours: mind, body, and soul.”

  “Are you sure, I thought we were going to wait until it was the right time?” Theo asks through clenched teeth, obviously fighting the urge to pin her to the ground right there and making her his.

  “What better time? You can’t get me pregnant here, so we can make love until training tomorrow, go to training, then come back and see what happens.”

  Theo and Kat make love for hours, his draconic endurance proving to make him a particularly attentive lover. After a few hours Kat asks for a break and they go to take a shower, which devolves into more sex, which is okay by them.

  Hours later, they lie exhausted in bed, drenched in sweat. “Do you still love me?” Theo asks worriedly.

  Kat turns to Theo with eyes wide, “I always have and always will.” She curls up in Theo’s arms contentedly and sighs.

  Chapter 39: Afterglow

  The next morning, Theo and Kat stand in front of Cinder. Cinder is on her red cushion, while they are on their respective cushions about 10 feet away from her. They are both in new gi from the dresser in their bedroom. Kat stands proud, if a bit sore, while Theo is having trouble meeting Cinder’s eyes. Cinder sees Theo’s reaction and laughs heartily. Theo reacts sharply at that, but contains his surprise. Kat just smirks at Cinder, winking at her once while Theo isn’t looking.

  “Good, you got the first rut out of your system, now you’ll be able to focus.” Cinder chortles, then claps her hands. “All right, now before training, each of you need to replenish your energy. I’ve provided a pipette to pull up exactly one drop at a time. This should help Kat contain herself with the Tears. I’ve never met a non Child who could resist their power, she may surprise me, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.” She holds out the bottle and the pipette for them to grab.

  Kat reaches out with her psychokinesis and pulls the objects toward her and Theo. Theo grabs the bottle and pipette. He then opens the bottle and tilts it toward his mouth, he lets one drop fall onto his tongue and shudders at the wave of energy entering his body.

  “Do you want me to get the drops for you?” Theo waves the pipette toward the bottle.

  Kat smiles, “I’m a big girl, I can handle making my own meals, especially one as easy as this.”

  “I remember you almost burned down RAINBOW yesterday, weren’t you just making toast to go with dinner?” Theo jokes, bumping Kat with his hip.

  Kat’s face goes beet red, she glances at a smiling Cinder and retorts, “What does that have to do with anything? This is just measuring out of a bottle, I should be able to handle that.” With an angry wave of her hand she yanks the bottle and pipette out of Theo’s hands.

  “Careful with that, it’s older than either of you can imagine, it’s irreplaceable,” Cinder cautions, though she smiles the whole time.

  “I’ll be careful,” Kat dips the pipette into the bottle and extracts a drop. She carefully puts the end of it in her mouth and releases the drop. Her body shudders with the force of the energy, she almost drops the bottle, but Theo grabs it at super speed.

  “Are you okay?” he asks, grabbing her around the shoulders with his free arm as she shudders with his free hand.

  After a moment Kat’s shuddering slows and then stops. “Maybe you should give me the drops, I was not anticipating that, it’s like drinking lightning, if that was a thing. Will Theo be able to do that eventually?” Kat asks Cinder.

  “Potentially, if he awakens Wood and his powers align that way, not all Wood Children get lightning, some get wind or actual plant powers. Theo’s a bit special, so he may end up with all of the above. He might not, but I’d put money on him to get lightning control eventually.” Cinder shakes her head and shrugs her shoulders.

  Theo guides Kat to a seat on his cushion, she complies meekly, her spirit broken for the moment. He guides drop after drop onto her tongue, after five drops Cinder stops him.

  “Slow down with those, her spirit is processing the energy better than I thought it would. Now, I have an honest question, how long did you two mate last night? No judgement, I just need an amount of time.” Cinder asks, her voice dead serious.

  Theo replies instinctively to Cinder’s tone, “About six hours or so of penetration, three more of foreplay.”

  Welp, I just answered that… not that she couldn’t figure it out if she wanted to, this is her domain.

  ‘Narc,’ Kat sends him snarkily, her voice stronger than usual.

  Cinder laughs, “That explains it, she’s already taken in so much draconic essence that she’s going through a partial Draconic Awakening of her own. Give her seven drops, no more. They would just be wasted. Congrats! Your training just got extended.”

  Theo gives her two more drops and then lays her down gently on the cushion. Kat closes her eyes and meekly complies, laying down with her hair covering her face, “Not fair, it doesn’t do that to you.”

  Cinder floats over and sits next to Theo and Kat, her feet and legs dangling off of her cushion. She strokes Kat’s luxurious back-length brunette hair, her face shows a love not unlike that of an older sister for a much younger sibling. “Just rest a bit, little one, welcome to the family,” Cinder mutters under her breath, which Kat doesn’t hear but Theo does.

  He mouths, “Thank you,” to her and then starts stretching for training. After 30 minutes of stretching Theo plops down next to Kat and Cinder. “Can we do the informational part of the training today so I can sit with her?”

  Theo strokes Kat’s head, she shifts her head until it rests on his thigh rather than the pillow. She sighs contentedly, “I’m not asleep, just having issues processing so much energy, I think we should do one every few hours instead, that way I’m not down for so long.”

  Cinder smiles, “It’s not like this has ever happened before. The only other hitchhikers on Awakening Quests I’ve ever seen were enemies. Not much to do but kill them and go back to training. We’re setting new precedents with you darling. We’ll try doling it out like that tomorrow. I’m thinking two in the morning, three in the afternoon, and two more at night. That way it’s like breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

  On a completely unrelated note, can I braid your hair? You’ll find it much easier to train with it braided like mine. I’ve had years of practice, but only myself to try this special braid on.”

  “What’s so special about it?” Kat blows a bit of hair out from in front of her left eye so she can look at Cinder.

  “It has some protective enchantments woven into it, things to make it easier to run around with. Unless you’ve shaved your head before, you won’t know how good it is to have no weight hanging off of the back of your head. The enchantments make your hair almost weightless. I can show you how they work if you like it.” Cinder pulls her braid around for Kat to see, there are small odd patterns in there that look very complicated.

  “That looks tough, maybe I shouldn’t get used to that freedom if I won’t be able to do it for myself when I get out of here, I’m not good with braids,” Kat sighs and lowers her head, her hair covering her eye again.

  “I’m pretty sure I could do that, I’ve been braiding hair since I was four. You used to have me do it for you Kat, don’t you remember?”

  Kat’s voice shakes as she replies from behind her hair, “Oh yeah, I had you stop after… nevermind, please help me with the special braid.” Kat refuses to answer any more questions about what she was going to say.

  Cinder brings a huge projection style TV, the kind you leave behind when you move because it’s too big and heavy to actually get
it out of your basement, out of her sphere.

  “Wow, I thought we were the only one with one of those left,” Theo whistles and Kat shakes her head.

  “That’s rude, maybe she can’t get new tech in here?” Kat retorts smartly.

  “Did you forget the spread in our hut? She chooses to use that behemoth, let’s ask her why.” Theo plops down on his cushion, dragging Kat down beside him. He drapes his arm over her shoulders, she subconsciously snuggles in closer as time goes by.

  Cinder sits on top of the projection TV, “I did indeed decide to bring this beautiful piece of technology out, for a few reasons. One, how many TV’s or projectors can you sit on? Just this one that I know of. Two, I think this kind of TV gets a bad rap, the sound is so much better than the flat screens from a few years ago. Whoever designed those forgot that TV is an AUDIO/visual medium when they left the audio behind for better visuals, they lost the heart of the medium,” she slaps the top of the TV.

  Theo laughs, “I can’t argue with that, we had to get a soundbar for the TV in my room, it cost almost as much as the little TV I saved up for. Good thing this one got it for me,” he indicates Kat.

  “One can only sit through so many singing competition shows with crappy audio, it was well worth the cost,” Kat replies huffily.

  “Now, on to class, I’m going to show you a few little videos in a moment, but let’s go over the basics of the element of Fire. Danger sense, super speed, flight, and dragon breath are all part and parcel of the element, though not all Children get all of those. Most get either flight or super speed, you got both, good for you.”

  She shows videos of her using each of the powers, though danger sense is just her avoiding a blast of fire from off camera. She runs fast around the ring of the temple, flies faster around the same ring, and torches a target with her breath.

  “Dragon breath can come from your hands, but it is meant to be expelled with the full force of your breath. Your range and power will increase if you use it as it is intended, though using it through your hands and feet can have its uses. When your hands glowed red during your fight with Titan, that was you channeling your dragon breath through your fists. You also channeled it through your feet when escaping from Ebony, that was the extra push you gave at the end to escape.”