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#4

Aurora POV

The next morning, I tucked my things away after waking with a gasp. I had sat up disoriented. Taking deep breaths, I stood shakily, supporting myself on the rock. I leaned on it; my hands shook. I knew my eyes must be flickering a glowing jade. The side effects of the omen's dreams were unnerving. At least they didn’t make me sick. I had seen through the eyes of evil before anonymously becoming the karma that would put the degenerates away. I would do what good I could with my gift, but right now, as my mind whirled and my stomach churned, I didn’t feel like any superhero. Sliding down the rock absorbed in the past and a judgment that ate at my consciousness. I couldn’t be out here reliving the past. I needed to let that shit go and find my future.

I packed up and headed out, skipping food due to my unnerved stomach, and shaking off the involvement I expected The Mother had over my resolving those issues. But allowing someone to victimize innocents, even ones who whispered about me, wasn’t who I was. I wondered if she considered me an instrument of karma in that case.

I was trudging along and letting my senses drift in and out. I felt the rabbits, deer, and birds nearby. All the things I had encountered before. Suddenly, my senses brushed against another’s. It was an intensity I’d never felt before, like something stalking me as it became aware it latched on to me internally. My breathing hitched, and the force disbursed, leaving behind a presence that was somehow rooted inside me. I felt an overwhelming rush of relief. Feeling the void within me filled a portion and I had no idea why. I was no longer alone. The presence was not only apart from me, but linked within. The feeling did not frighten my instincts. It left an imprint of warmth, like sunshine seeping into the cold, shadowy depths within me. The tether slackened a little, which I thought was odd. I didn’t feel threatened, so I continued at a relaxed pace. Nature was odd sometimes.

My hike slowed as the terrain I covered became craggier, with large boulders huddled within the masses of trees. A sound suddenly pulled my attention from the background of the forest’s symphony. Rushing water and the urge to feel clean had me dashing toward it. It was beautiful! A small waterfall filled a mountain pool with little creeks running off from it. Moss and lichen-covered rock and cottontails framed the back sides of the water's edge against the rocky hill the waterfall cascaded down into, leaving a large opening which it was approaching as I took in the little slice of paradise.

Giddy to be clean, I stripped, immediately placing my clothes on a tall rock. I glanced at the henna tattoo, which was slowly fading. It rested around my ankle in an intricate Celtic knot. This was something my aunt had devised to help keep me grounded. It dampened the conduit of energy I was capable of pulling in. like narrowing a tube into a funnel, hampering the flow of not just the energy but my full sense of it. I reapplied the henna each full moon. I could have gotten a permanent tattoo, but I wanted to be able to access my full potential if needed. At least, this way I’d be able to adjust the spell or remove it if I felt I could fully maintain and control it. It was merely a band-aide but there was no way of controlling everything. It kept me off the priest and priestess's radar and made daily life amongst people and the coven bearable, not to mention living in the suburbs away from nature, which seemed to draw me like a bug to light.

When I wandered off once at the age of 5 and they found me in a meadow thicket curled up with a fawn, my family went looking for a way to dull the call. My aunt had found it in an old text, but after its application, I subconsciously took control of a prophetic dream. I was able to force more information out of the vision, but its consequences on my young mind had been too much in her opinion. Unless there was a “needing situation” for my aunt, she “prohibited” the practice. Little did she know I kept it up and, with the help of the conduit dampener, she wasn’t the wiser. Well, after the way she reacted when I left her, I guess she was proud of my deception and even respected that I could pull that one on her. At that point, I found out that though my aunt loved me, she was trying to decide when the use of my power was appropriate. And honestly, I didn’t trust that. I don’t think there was a living soul besides my brother that had my best interest at heart and I sometimes began to doubt even that, as he’d seemingly abandoned me. I also felt the dreams were a consequence of halting my natural draw.

Gathering my clothing, I made my way into the water. I would get in and wash them first, then start a small fire while they dried. I would take a wild bath and swim. Shifting through my pack, finding my natural herbal soap and a washcloth. I wet my clothes and scrubbed them clean in the chilly mountain water. The sun was high noon in the sky. So, I'd have plenty of time for them to dry. Staying here for the night seemed meant to be. The pull was not urging me forward at the moment. I’d listen to the ebb in intensity and give myself some time to absorb this little hideaway in the middle of nature. I made a little drying rack out of some sticks and began the fire by gently pulling the energy needed from around me to light it. Being sure it was downwind so the smoke wouldn't blow into my clothes.

I waded in slowly to the chilly pool, acclimating myself. I cut my losses and ducked under and began to scrub top to bottom, starting with my hair. The lavender and lemongrass soap was my favorite to make. I helped Aunt Bess with her herbal shop a lot, making soap saves and creams. There were not many plants I didn’t know how to use in one form or another. I rinsed clean and left the soap on the rock. Floating on my back, and swimming gracefully around.

Out of habit, I looked around. I wanted to play and be truly free with my magic, but being raised to stay hidden. I stood up in the water just below my navel. The water sluiced down my body at the action. The cool liquid had my heavy breasts pert and pebbled. Hair clinging to me like a vice. The natural waves of my brown hair and sunny highlights had lengthened it to my hips with the weight of the water.

Unknown

Something had brushed my consciousness as I was perusing through the outskirts of my property. Spectral tendrils, warm and earthy, flicked and caressed as they washed over me. They surprised my instincts with the unfamiliar intrusion, however; It took me aback at the lack of alarm I felt over someone unfamiliar coming into contact with me, as well as the fact they were in my territory. There was a pulsing warmth that remained, lingering out of reach of my senses, that I had to reach. I let my feet carry me with little thought until I came across the scent that felt like a lure. Lavender and lemongrass assaulted my senses. My eyes darted along the forest floor searching for a trace. Following the heady aroma, I finally began to notice, after hours of tracking, a nearly unreadable pattern in the woodland leaf fall and soil. The faintest bootprints grazed the soft, moist soil. A woman’s. The fragrance of the female called to me as I began picking up pace, as she was surprisingly moving steadily through even the thicker parts of the trees and undergrowth with ease. Like a phantom, she disturbed almost nothing, simply leaving the essence of herself behind. Passing a berry bush I paused to inhale. The scent of her mingled there with the sweet tartness of the berries, and I found myself moving once again. The primal part of me must be eager to find its prey.

I bound forward before my senses caught hold of me to proceed with more caution. She was there, just beyond the thicket and trees. And I could feel a soft hum of energy washing over me. It was a feeling a deeper part of me sought out and reached for. It was so soft and natural I hadn’t noticed it fully until now, but it had been there faintly before the presence had come to me, I was sure. I crouched

Peering out from the bushes I finally caught sight of the woman. She was young, barely out of girlhood. Not short by normal human standards, nor was she anything I could call tall. She was petite. However, the width of her lush curves were ample at the hips, which swayed as she trudged forward. Goddess, save me from that perfect ass! She paused, a hand barely touching a tree, looking around her. I shrunk back feeling the brushing of my senses once more. I locked down against my instincts' wishes. Sometimes logic was needed to control the baser's will.

I followed her watching her every otherworldly movement, and how she reacted to the sounds of birds like her soul eased. How she hummed to the beat of the earth as she moved through the trees with nymph-like ease, and how my heart was willing to bear in her presence. She was something more, something special. Was she mine? I allowed myself to stretch out, brushing the consciousness of the girl testing boundaries I shouldn’t be able to reach when something within me lurched forward, pasts a place where resistance should be, searching for something. My mind’s eye rested on a fortified wall where bright lassos of light glimmered around the edges of the impenetrable gate. My claws sunk into this place within her that called to me strangely and I wanted to meet, to mingle with the light beyond the fortress, the thing calling my soul. As my mind retreated, a piece of me lingered there with her without my will for it to do so. It was just simply was what my baser self did, and I wasn’t questioning it.

As she came to the waterfall pool, one of my favorite places was in this sanctuary. I inhaled sharply. Her footsteps picked up before she stood in what could only be a stunned appraisal. It was as beautiful as she was. I caught her profile While I snuck forward, my eyes never left her form. Her heavy breasts heaved as she let out an audible breath before chucking her bag to the ground.

I watched her as she put her things down and began undressing. I felt like I was watching something forbidden, but I couldn’t look away. The exquisite angles and curves of her form became exposed, suddenly faced with the softness of her tanned skin and the strength of the sinew of the muscles beneath her ample curves. She undid her braid, allowing the thick waves of her honey-brown hair to fall between the base of her shoulder blades and the small of her back. I found myself yearning to see the details of her face, to meet her gaze and find out if this was the person I refused to seek, handed over to me like a fruit basket of golden apples from the fates. As she moved, the heart-shaped rear swayed in time with her hips. She flicked the length of her hair over her shoulder exposing the graceful line of her neck; the breeze fluttering just then wafting her sultry scent in my direction. I found myself sinking into the hideaway of berry bushes to wait to see what more I could find out about this natural beauty, and in the back of my mind, I wondered if that decision would be the catalyst for the destiny I yearned to avoid. As she dipped her toes in, shivering slightly at the chill of the water, curiosity got the better of me and I found myself committed.

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