“That sounds wonderful.”
“All that time I told you about depends on whether we are able to stop that venom snake.”
“How do we do that?”
“Simple. You learn to use the talent to freeze.”
“As in make things cold?”
“As in stop things in their tracks, like this.” He threw a pillow up in the air, it hung over their heads while he got up and walked around the room.
“Now the trick is not freezing it, but keeping it frozen no matter where you go.”
He went over to the passage in the wall and left the room. She sat watching the pillow, eventually there was a knock on the door. She answered to find Cal standing there. She let him in and followed him back to the bedroom where the pillow was still floating in the air.
“When you freeze the snake in your heart you will have to keep it frozen even while you’re sleeping.”
“How am I supposed to learn that in two days?”
“You will. You also have to learn to teleport with your eyes open.”
“I have to concentrate in order to teleport.”
“Paige, you have to learn to do it like breathing, something you don’t think about. This talent is inside of you. You were born with it, but it’s locked up. Much like learning to walk, you take one step at a time. The more you do it the more natural it will become until you’re running.
She nodded her head humming the tune to put one foot in front of the other. She made the choice to live and now Cal’s life was joined with hers. The more she watched him, the clearer the black strands flowing from her to him became. They scared her more than anything she’d ever experienced. She would trade her life to the Sudir to keep him safe and that scared her the most. That she could care about someone this much in a day, but she did.
“Cal, how long were we out? Is it the same day?”
“No, we were out for almost twenty four hours. You still have enough time to learn what is needed.”
“Exactly how do you expect to teach me all of this in a day?”
“You’ll see. Get your cold weather gear on and meet me at the front door.”
Men, human, alien or Voyager. It didn’t matter who they were, they never made any sense. She grabbed her coat, lamenting on the male species as she got dressed and trudged down the stairs.
Paige, it’s alright. You can do it. Who saved him from the blades? She did, that’s who. Who saved him from the huge bird with the poison? Yep, she saved him again. Why must she trudge in the snow? She liked trudging in the snow, but not while she had some hideous snake wrapped around her heart. Paige, you have to go outside to learn how to stay alive. Why couldn’t he simply say here’s the formula, do this?
“Paige, why are you glaring at me?”
“Why Cal, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Uh huh, I get the feeling I’m in hot water and I have no idea why.”
She gave him a sweet smile. “I’m ready to go outside. What are we going to do?”
“Throw snowballs, of course.”
“What!”
He threw her a look and raced out of the house with her on his heels. When she reached the yard, a snowball smacked her in the chest. She picked up snow, packing it tight and threw it. It hung in the air never reaching Cal.
“That’s no fair.”
“That’s how this game is played. The one who can stop the snowballs doesn’t get hit.” He pelted her with another and yet another in her legs.
“It’s faster if you just command the snow to you instead of stopping to make the snowball,” he said helpfully.
There were at least ten snowballs hanging in the air taunting her. His snowballs were beginning to sting. Then she saw it. He was sending a huge ball of snow her way and it would soak her. There was no way he was going to hit her with that thing.
Suddenly she as looking at his back that’s when she made her first hit.
“Congratulations, Paige, you teleported without closing your eyes.”
“I did it.” She hopped up and down whooping. “I’m not sure how I did. All I knew was there was no way you were hitting me with that ball of snow.”
“Now find me, Paige.”
He disappeared leaving her staring at the spot where he stood just a moment ago. Where was he? The minute she began looking she could feel him. It felt like the pull of a magnet. Without thought she transported landing at his side.
“That was great. I could feel you. I knew exactly where you were.”
“Did you feel anything else?”
“I felt like I wasn’t alone. It’s such a different feeling. Loneliness is a feeling I have come to embrace, now it feels far away.”