Chapter 2
Chapter Two
*Him*
He watched her grow from a child to an awkward adolescent.
While he’d seen many humans in his long life, she was the first who seemed to care for nature as much as he did.
Sure, she made mistakes along the way, but time and time again, he observed her talking to his trees as though they were hers.
When she blossomed into womanhood, he felt a new and unexpected stirring.
That stirring had grown to a fervent need, and he found himself practicing how he would reveal himself to her. An entire season passed as he tried, backing out at the last moment every time, choosing to just watch her interact with his forest instead.
His was a solitary life. He didn’t know if he remembered how to relate to others. He had the scars on his heart to prove what happened when you tried to share yourself with another. He knew there were repercussions, but with her, he couldn’t help but hope it might be worth the risk.
A day came when she took longer than usual at specific trees; those he knew held meaning for her.
As she turned to leave, he finally got the nerve to appear.
He went corporeal, the heat of summer air warring with his frigid skin.
He rehearsed what he wanted to say for months and felt reasonably sure he’d get it right.
He took one physical step out of the shadows, but the urgent call of a tree in need stopped him. The human would have to wait. He locked gazes with her for just one moment, stunned by the warmth radiating from her bright, hazel eyes. Being the object of her focus was spellbinding.
The pull of the tree in need tugged harder, and reluctantly, he vanished.
For the first time in his long life, he wanted to ignore his duty and selfishly bask in her radiance.
But his magic rose, answering the call almost without his consent.
He submitted, though, knowing it would be easier to greet her when she returned the next day.
He worked with the frightened tree to push an invasive beetle colony to the fallen trunk of a different fir, one which had already lived its cycle through.
The whole while, his heart felt lighter, and he daydreamed about the young woman the entire time.
He practiced what he would say for the hundredth time and smiled, knowing he would meet her soon.
But she didn't return the next day or the day after that.
Days turned into weeks, and he finally understood the human need for a way to measure the passage of time.
As her absence stretched out, despair found a home within him once again.
In an act of whimsy, or maybe defiance, he strung a small toy of hers he found onto a thin leather cord and hung it around his neck.
Many elementals were known for their personal adornments, but it had never been his style.
Until, she left.
Sixteen seasons cycled without her return, and he resigned himself to the fact that she was lost to him. He waited too long. He often fingered the trinket and thought of her.
He retreated from even his brief interactions with his people and settled into a self-imposed life on the peripheral, the forest his only companion. Though he still tended his trees, he shied away from where she liked to wander.
Knowing she wasn’t there sliced into his heart, creating new scars.
It angered him. It wasn’t the human’s fault, and he turned his anger inward.
This time, he could only blame his cowardice for missing out, and his isolation became more complete.
He no longer rejoiced in the solitude, but felt it a fitting punishment for his own indecisiveness. Solitary confinement.
Until today.
His trees whispered of her return. Their excitement bubbled through his consciousness, and he carefully listened, following her trek through the woods.
He knew the weather was angry; he sensed the storm coming.
The coldest ones always called to his magic, and he let his heart open a small bit to rejoice.
For the first time in the life of many of his plants, snow would fall.
He didn't expect it would be a problem for the human; they had their technology to help them.
When the tree song changed from celebration to panic, he looked closer.
When he found her cowering in the embrace of a sturdy oak, he became frantic.
Her life force drained away before his eyes, her lively face turning ashen as death stalked her in the guise of winter.
He couldn’t lose her!
In desperation, he appeared once again before her. Even as the storm stole the life-sustaining heat from her body, her eyes lit up in recognition. Her lips quirked up in a breathtaking smile. Goddess, how he’d missed her.
He stepped closer, noting the strain on her face, and panicked when her hazel eyes glazed over.
Dropping to his knees, he pulled her tightly into his arms. The warm earthen color of her skin lost its vibrancy, and he could only just barely detect her blood flow.
Her heart slowed sluggishly in the cold.
His heart stuttered, matching her erratic beat, and afraid he was once again too late, he whispered a plea to the goddess of life. “Please don’t let her go.”
He lowered his mouth to hers, intent on doing whatever it took to sustain her.
As her eyelashes fluttered closed, he exhaled deeply, inflating her chest for another moment.
If it took forever, he would spend his remaining days breathing for her.
His mind reeled with confusion as his heart and magic willed her to live.
Another breath. And another. Tears froze on his lashes, and he felt his destiny twine with hers.
If she died, so would he.
The giant oak, steady as the mountainside holding it, lent strength to the couple.
Small shoots of new forest growth sacrificed their lives from beneath the snow to aid him in sustaining her.
All around them, the forest joined in keeping her alive.
As was their right, the plants laid their claim on the two.
These beings who spent their lives caring for nature would be held up by it.
A ring of melted snow encompassed them, and the essence of his magic permeated the air.
The falling snowflakes slowed, suspended aloft by the sheer power radiating through him.
As he prepared to breathe for her once more, Halo’s lips puckered.
She exhaled, almost as if sighing with satisfaction, and what started as resuscitation quickly turned to something much more.
Time stopped.
Her tender lips, blue with cold, roused his magic.
He willed it to pull the frost from her body.
Never before had he used his gifts in such a way, but his heart screamed out in terror.
If he couldn’t do this one thing, save this one girl, then he didn’t deserve the gifts afforded to him by the goddess.
As the ice slithered out of her and into his veins, he shuddered. His skin crawled as tiny, arctic icicles sprouted along his arms, but he trusted his magic. Whatever it might try to do to him, he knew he could handle the chill. He was an elemental, after all.
Her skin warmed ever so slightly, and she trembled.
His power drew more of the rime from her veins, and her entire body began to wake.
The sense of impending death fled and was replaced with the rejuvenation of earth and magic.
Their lips remained locked upon one another, the dull glaze over her eyes cleared, and recognition sparked within them.
“It's you,” she whispered against his lips, making no move to break away. Adding the slightest amount of pressure, the moment of resuscitation turned the corner into one of passion. A kiss of life shifted, becoming one of emotion, and his power delighted in the change.
His eyes fluttered closed for the first time, finally relaxing in the knowledge that she would live. Warmth, comfort, and joy filled him. All around them, the woods rejoiced in her revival, but their celebration was nothing in comparison to the bliss emanating from his long-hollow heart.
She wiggled in his embrace, poking her arms through the sleeves of her Forestry uniform shirt.
Tentatively, she reached out a hand and traced the lines of his shoulders and collarbones.
Wrapping her arms around his back, she combed her fingers through his wild, unbound hair.
Halo tilted her head, closing her own eyes and deepening the kiss.
She wound his hair tightly around her fingers, holding onto him as though he were her lifeline.
In a way, he was.
His power coursed through her, chasing away the last lingering effects of the storm.
Magic surged. Every place they connected became a conduit, and invisible energy danced between them.
Snowflakes swirled around their embrace, raising goosebumps on both of their arms. In a swell of power he recognized intimately, it transported them away from the cold and to a place he swore he'd never visit again.
The warm cavern, deep beneath the earth, was everything an elemental couple could hope for in a home.
The bed he’d never shared stood ready, as though constructed for this very moment all along.
A small cascade of freshwater rolled down one wall and into a pool which constantly flowed back out through a crevasse in the bottom, and vines of moonflowers sustained by magic trailed across the ceiling, perfuming the abandoned cave with subtle scents of vanilla and sandalwood.
It was a joke.
Being deep within the earth, not even a speck of dust marred the perfection of this home he created for the water sprite he thought he’d loved.
The chamber stood as a mockery of his heartache.
He spent a decade coaxing vines to grow into the magnificent four-post bed standing in the center of the room.
He communed with Mother Earth for two seasons, asking her to shape this hollow within her heated rocks.
All of his preparation had been for naught. His betrothed left him at the bonding altar for another.
The panic he experienced upon finding Halo dying warred with his anger at returning to this place.
His shoulders sagged, finally overcome with relief.
She responded to his magic and participated in their kiss.
All other things were meaningless in that moment.
She was alive, and his magic had brought them to a warm and safe place.
Her tentative tongue stroked his bottom lip, and with each small movement, wiped all thoughts of heartbreak from his mind.
She grew more daring as her life force strengthened, and when she grazed his lip with her teeth, everything except her disappeared.
His heartache. His grief. His name. His entire being wrapped up in her, and he carried her over to the soft, fur-covered bed, lowering them to the mattress without breaking the kiss.