A Healer's Destiny

by Katherine J. Sinclair

  Chapter 21

  Elah awoke feeling elated. She laid in bed smiling at the memory of the night before. She couldn't believe she had finally visited the city, flew much further than she ever had and all with Leif. The memory of his touch caused a wave of pleasure spread through her body and the feel of his lips against hers made her feel like she was going to burst, she couldn’t believe she finally kissed him. The whole experience felt better then she had ever imagined and couldn’t wait to see him again. 

  Elah was grinning from ear to ear when River walked in. "I think I'm going to have to start locking that door" Elah said, watching him sit down. No one seemed to knock and she knew it was only a matter of time before someone walked in on her at the wrong moment.

  "Sorry, you've never said anything, so I didn't think you minded" River said, putting his feet up. 

  "So, tell me about Iris" Elah said, rolling out if bed and walking into the bathroom. 

  "Well, I really like her and hope she likes me as much as I like her" he explained. 

  "I don't think you have to worry about that, the way she looked at you was very telling. You should ask her to marry you, before she gets to know you better” she called. “Come here I have something to show you.”

  River walked in to see Elah standing in front of the flowing shower. "Haha, very funny, I think you should stick to the healing and leave the comedy to those who are actually funny. What is it" he said, relieved she was still fully clothed. 

  "Watch this" she said, running her hand around the water making different patterns with the air and ignoring his wise crack. 

  River looked at her surprised. “How are you doing that?” he asked.

  “I don’t know, it just started happening yesterday” Elah answered worried, yet completely fascinated by it.

  “You know it’s not normal to have more then one gift” River said smartly.

  “Thanks for the support” Elah said sarcastically.

  River explained to her how he was able to manipulate water and got her to copy him. She was able to influence the air around them, causing small gusts of wind to blow through the bathroom.

  They played around with their gifts and even tried combining them to cause waterspouts and it even started raining in the bathroom. “Nissa is going to be so mad when she sees this mess” River said laughing.

  “Well since I’m already wet, I should get in the shower and you should go and get dry” Elah said, kicking him out of the bathroom.

  After showering and partially cleaning up their mess, she stepped into her bedroom with just a towel wrapped around her, not caring if River saw her like that because he had seen her in a towel many times before but she wasn't impressed to came out to find River talking to Leif. She paused and looked at him, her heart started to pump faster as she looked him over. He was wearing a black shirt and light brown pants but that’s not what started her heart racing, it was the look on his face. If River was not there, he may not have even tried to control himself and neither would she.

  “I really do have to start locking that door” she whispered to herself.

  River could see the affectionate looks they were giving each other and decided to remind them that he was still present. He cleared his throat before saying “Elah you need to get dressed, now.”

  Elah looked at River surprised and quickly rushed off to dress. She felt embarrassed and just wanted to jump into a pile of clothes and hide for the rest of her life but decided she wanted to see Leif more and found a light blue dress to wear.

  Her eyes went from River to Leif when she came out, Leif still had the same expression on his face, which caused Elah to blush but she couldn’t help but stare into his beautiful eyes and not try to hide her reddened face.

  “Okay you two, what is going on?” River asked, looking between the two as they smiled at each other.

  “Oh, umm, I guess you can say we both know how we feel about each other” Elah said, feeling obligated to say something.

  “I guess I should ask” Leif started to say and took Elah’s hand in his. “Elah, will you allow me to court you?”

  Elah smiled broadly and looked deeply in his eyes. “Yes, Leif” she breathed and reached up to kiss him on the cheek but really wanted to kiss his soft lips.

  “Okay, I’ll come back later” River said leaving, he couldn’t handle watching them any longer.

  The second River closed the door, Leif took a step closer to Elah and placed both hands on her hips and pulled her in. She breathed in and reached up to wrap her arms around his neck. He rested his forehead on hers and looked into her eyes. He knew what she wanted, he wanted the same, to feel her lips on his.

  He breathed out and pressed his lips on hers. He could tell she enjoyed the contact by the way she gave into him and let him take control. With their lips alight from the energy passing between them, Leif held her tight and close, not willing to share with even the air around them.

  He pulled back breathless and watched her as she tried to gain her breath as well. He wanted more, he could feel it in every fibre of his body but knew he wouldn’t dare. She rested her head on his chest, with her arms wrapped around his waist and looked up at him with a smile on her face.

  Sighing with satisfaction, he kissed her on the head and let her go. She looked beautiful and all he wanted to do was take her in his arms and never let her go but for now he knew she wasn’t going anywhere. He looked into her eyes and smiled, satisfied that he was finally able to tell her how he felt.

  “Let me take you to lunch” he said, kissing the back of her hand.

  She nodded and went to grab her shoes. He waited by the door and opened it as she walked toward him. He took her hand in his and led her out of the castle gates and into the city.

  The city looked different in the daylight and Elah found herself looking at all the different buildings and down ally ways. She even noticed how much greenery the city had, there were vines climbing most of the buildings and gardens everywhere she looked. They stopped under a large banksia tree, Leif kissed her on the forehead and put his arm around her and led her into a small bakery hidden behind the banksia tree. 

  The bakery was full of baked goods Elah had never seen before. Leif could see she hadn’t seen many of the different colourful items on offer and ordered some food from the elderly lady standing behind the counter and they sat at one of the small garden tables. While they waited for their food Elah watched some children play under the banksia tree but took particular interest in a young girl playing by herself. 

  The girl had long black curly hair with dark skin and dark green eyes. Her features were very beautiful and she looked very content playing on her own. Elah wondered what game she was playing, as she happily played, animately but the arrival of the food drew her attention back to Leif, who was watching her.

  He smiled at her, “perhaps you will have some of your own one day” he said, referring to the children but not wanting to include himself, as he didn’t want to offend her.

  “Oh, I was just thinking how it would have been nice to have friends to grow up with” Elah said, thinking about how different life would have been and wondered if the little girl had many friends, if any.

  “Well, it’s not too late” Leif said, taking her hand in his.

  “I’ve tried making friends with some of the girls here and they seem nice enough but I don’t think I’ve gotten use to the city lifestyle yet” Elah said, not will to tell him the truth, that none of the girls liked her.

  “Oh Elah, I’m so sorry you’ve had troubles making friends, if there is anything I can do to help…” he offered, feeling terrible.

  “Please don’t, I want to make my own friends” Elah said, interrupting him.

  He looked at her sad, he wanted to help, as he knew she had never had any real girl friends. She had her brothers and they kept each other company but she never really had friends of her own.  

  “Okay” he said, nodding his head, underst
anding this was one thing he couldn’t help with.  

  She smiled at him sweetly, “oh Leif, don’t worry, I have you and that is more than I could ever hope for” she said, looking into his eyes.

  He lifted her hand and gently kissed it. As she watched him, she felt the warmth of his lips race through her veins causing her to bite her lower lip. She slowly released her lip as he placed her hand back on the table.  

  She looked up from her hand to see that he hadn’t taken his eyes off her, she felt her cheeks flush at the thought he had seen her reaction. She knew he could make her melt with the slightest touch but she didn’t want him to know how much he affected her.

  He smiled at her and gave her some food he thought she might like to try. She sampled a couple of the items and after seeing a look of approval, he then started eating himself. He was happy to see she was not embarrassed to try some of the other items on the plate in the middle of the table, most girls would not have even finished what was on their own plate to begin with.

  Once they finished Elah got up and walked over to the little girl, who was still playing by herself. Elah asked her what game she was playing and the girl only looked at her surprised. As Elah looked closer at the girl she noticed her skin was slightly more pale than one of the other children that looked like her brother. She wanted to know if the girl was sick and if so she could help her but didn’t want to scare her.

  Elah kneeled down beside her and noticed she was playing with some sticks. "They are some very nice sticks" Elah said, trying to make friends. 

  "Oh, thank you" the girl said smiling. 

  Elah watched for a moment longer and noticed she was using them as dolls. "Do they have names?" Elah asked. 

  "Yes, this is Rose and this one is Adam" she said, pointing them out. 

  "Wow, they are beautiful names" Elah said, slowly putting her hand on her back. 

  She smiled up at Elah and introduced herself as Kaylee and Elah introduced herself as well. "Is that your boyfriend?" Kaylee asked pointing to Leif, who was leaning against the tree trunk. 

  Elah nodded and smiled up at Leif. "Wow, he is very handsome" Kaylee said, looking at Leif. 

  "I think so too" Elah whispered, with a smile.

  Elah saw this as an opportunity to search her body and was shocked when she found a spinal deformity but as Elah tried to heal it, Kaylee moved back and looked at Elah confused. “I know you don’t know me but I can fix your back” Elah said softly.

  Kaylee looked at her surprised. “How did you know that?” she asked.

  “I have a special gift and it can help you” Elah whispered.

  “Wow, how does it work?”

  “Well, I can send energy through your body, like you just felt, and it can make you better. So would you like me to fix your back?”

  “Will it hurt?”

  “No, all you need to do is relax”

  Kaylee nodded and relaxed but held her breath as Elah’s hands lit up. She watched every little move Elah made and was surprised when Elah lifted her hands and told her she was all better. Elah helped her up and watched the joy start to fill her face as she slowly walked around.

  “Wow, thank you” Kaylee said, hugging Elah than race off as fast as she could to show her brother. Elah could see Kaylee knew she could run around but had never been able to and found it difficult to even walk at first. Elah knew it would take time but Kaylee would be able to do everything the other children could do and smiled at the thought.

  Leif walked over and stood next to Elah. “That was a very nice thing you did there” he said, taking her hand in his.

  “I think I might have some competition, she thought you were quite handsome” Elah said giggling.

  “Oh, well perhaps I should see if she is available for a dinner date some time” Leif teased.

  Elah playfully elbowed him and laughed, she knew that one day he would make a great father and wondered what type of parent she would be as well. She smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek.

  He led her back through the city and through the castle gates, stopping outside the door that led to her room. “I have some work to do but I’ll come and see you as soon as I can” Leif said.

  He took a couple of steps and stopped. Elah waited to see what he was going to do and was caught by surprise when he turned around, walked up to her, slid his hand behind her neck and pulled her in, kissing her lightly on the lips. He didn’t care if anyone saw, in fact, in that moment she was the only one that existed in his world.

  He left her standing in the front courtyard breathless, as he disappeared through the front entrance. She caught her breath and walked back to her room to practice her new gift.