“Morgan!” He yelled across the room and Mom dropped her glass.
Everything grew quiet as all eyes were on us. I was shaking so hard, I found it hard to stand. The feelings in me were almost uncontrollable and I felt glued to the spot. Things started moving in slow motion.
I watched Tammer running toward me, Mom seconds behind him. It was as if I were watching a movie on slow tracking. Tammer was graceful in the way he moved. Mom’s dress flew behind her, the material rippling as if caught in a current.
Before they reached me, I felt hands grabbing my waist and lifting me into the air. I wanted to stop whoever it was that was touching me, but my body started to convulse. My head felt like it was on fire. I could feel that golden orb Mom told me about begin to quickly and uncontrollably grow in my mind. All I could see was that beautiful golden light. It was comforting to be surrounded in it. I could have stayed wrapped in the cocoon forever. It was soothing, yet so powerful. The energy encased me in its power and I gave in to it.
I was thrown into cold water. The second the water covered my head, the golden energy around me exploded and threw my body into an arch - my arms behind me, my head thrown backwards. I felt my legs phase into a tail and I sank to the bottom.
Opening my eyes, I stared up at the water’s surface several feet above me. If it had been pitch dark, I would have been terrified, but the sun hadn’t gone down yet, and the evening light shone through, lighting the water all around me. To my left were the wooden legs of the pier I’d obviously been thrown from. Seaweed grew around their bases and barnacles had attached themselves up the side of the trunks.
I thought it odd there were no fish around. I sat up and looked out to the depths of the ocean. There they were. They all seemed to be in a line and were staring at me from several yards away. It was incredibly odd and made me feel nervous. A shark loomed behind them, suspended in the water, staring at me as well. Nothing happened and not a thing moved. It was eerie.
Then there was a splash and Tammer’s form flashed above me. He swam down to where I sat on the sandy bottom and knelt in front of me. He looked shocked and upset.
“Are you all right?” He asked.
Physically, I was fine. Emotionally, I was drained but I felt very peaceful.
“Yes, I think so,” I said.
“Do you know what just happened?”
“No.”
“We’ve not ever seen this before, Morgan. We’ve all heard about it. We’ve read about it in our histories, but we’ve never actually seen this happen before.”
“What happened?” I asked and pushed my floating hair out of my face. Wait a moment! I screamed.
“No!” Tammer’s voice rose above mine. The fish darted away, followed by the clumsy shark. “Morgan! Calm down, let me explain!”
“Explain?” I shrieked. “Why do I suddenly have long hair?” It was impossible, all of this. I had to be in a coma somewhere, dreaming all of this. That was the only explanation.
“Morgan, you are incredibly powerful. This is a very rare gift you have. Something happened up there in the restaurant that set off very deep emotions within you. Normally we’d just deal with it, but your body released what we call The Fire and you were not able to control it. If not for Vitahl, you would have released the energy above water and set everything around you on fire. It’s an incredible gift you have, but when you don’t know how to control it, you can devastate everything around you.”
A dead fish floated past us and Tammer took it into his hand. Mom dove into the water, phasing on her way down to us. She put her arms around me and held me for a moment.
“Honey, we didn’t expect this. Now you see why we keep saying that there’s so much to tell you. Half of it you’re going to experience before we can tell you.”
Tammer handed her the fish and she held it between her hands. A tiny sliver of light escaped through her fingers and when she opened her hands, the little fish quickly wriggled out and darted behind the pier.
“Why do I have long hair?” I asked, near tears.
“It happens to all of us when we first experience our gifts. It alters how we look.”
Alters how we look? Was I suddenly a troll?
Tammer shook his head. “Not at all. One of my powers is the ability to read minds, but I can only do it when the person is with me. So no, you don’t look like a troll. In fact, you’re quite beautiful.”
“You’ve always been beautiful Morgandy,” Mom interrupted, “and you’ll always be beautiful.”
This was too much. What had happened? What started this in me? Why was I so angry? Then the memory of what Akin did to me in the hallway returned and I started to shake again. As this happened, Tammer looked livid.