Gold Dust

Chapter 26

"Breathe." Grace said, inhaling loudly. "Focus on your magic." Her magic was bouncing everywhere in her body, that's what was happening. The boundaries that Grace had set up a long time ago had fallen during the four hundred years that she had been away from her wand, and now it was wrecking havoc on her body. Her hair wasn't brown anymore, that much was sure. It was a golden blond, not very flattering on her, to be honest. Some of her jewelry, the nice stuff she had like her wooden necklaces she carved out herself, had been turned to gold whenever she slept. It was a pain to reverse it all.

"I'm trying!" Rose sounded frustrated, and Grace gently placed her magic in a temporary bubble inside of her as she opened her eyes. Another thing was that Rose wanted to learn more about her magic. Something that her fellow sisters had apparently lacked in. Training Rose was bringing back all of Grace's memories of the past together, and those are the ones she tried to forget as much as possible. "Why isn't it working!?"

"Rose, think the fire is a friend. It's alive. It dances all the time, devouring the logs for its energy to dance. They just want to dance. The flames are your friends, and won't harm you if you dance with them."

"I want to dance with them! They just don't want me to." Rose opened her eyes, staring at the fire in front of them.

"Here," Grace held out her hand, over the fire. Hesitantly, Rose took it.

"It's too hot here." Rose leaned her arm as high as she can, the fire licking upwards to reach her.

"Just close your eyes. Just try and follow what I'm doing, okay?" Grace said, before gripping Rose's hand tightly and then moving it into the flames.

Rose gasped, her eyes opening in shock. The flames curled around her arm, and she gasped again before she tried to wrestle her arm back from Grace's grip. "What are you doing?!" She squawked, "let me go!"

"It's not burning you." Grace said, her eyes glinting in the now golden flames of the fire. "It's dancing with you. Close your eyes. Feel how it moves with your skin, the brushes of heat."

Rose closed her eyes, this time hesitantly. She took in a few deep breathes and the fire gained a pink tinge to it. "I feel it." She said, a smile appearing on her face. "They want me to dance too."

Grace held the fire in her magic only for a few more seconds, before letting go. At the same time, she pulled her hand back from the fire. Now it was purely pink, and Rose laughing in joy.

"I want to dance." Rose laughed, opening her eyes. She looked down at the pink fire before gasping again and recoiling. In a split second it went back to it's red and yellow color and Rose yelped. "Why did you let go!" She asked Grace loudly, "I couldn't do it without you!"

"Yes you can. You did for all of..." Grace looked at her watch, "eight seconds. Then you realised that I wasn't there, and you let the fire go out."

"I burned myself." Rose whimpered, her arm clutched tightly to her chest.

"Then go to the pond and heal yourself." Grace shrugged, pointing in the direction of the lake. They were in the mountains between Switzerland and Austria, a secluded area that Grace herself had once hidden away after a bad day. Or three. Or month. Okay, so it was during the black plague, and witches were getting accused every other day. Nobody could see them here, they were completely surrounded by wildlife and trees.

"But I've never tried water before." Rose whined, and Grace only sighed. She really needed to build up her magic walls again. Tucking her wand back into her hair, Grace stood up.

"Now is the perfect time to learn." She got up from her log, and looked over at Rose who only sighed and got up herself

"Why are you being so mean?" Rose whined, as they left the fire behind. Grace waved back with her hand, and the flames died down to reduce exposure to the wind.

"You should have learned this a long time ago. Your magic is going through your body and leaking out. If you become too emotional, then your magic will latch onto your subconscious and terrible things happen. Your subconscious is almost never your friend, Rose. Remember that."

"Whyy." Rose whined, once again. "I don't even like magic. I like boys. And pretty dresses. And carpets. And a house. And a roof. Why do we even have to live out here in the first place? Why can't we go rent a cabin or something?"

"How about this?" Grace relented. It wasn't easy to change her mind, but after four days of continuous streams of complaint she was near to the end of her rope. "If you find can use an element to the most basic maneuvers, I'll get us a cabin. Okay?"

"Really?" Rose asked, excited. "All I need to do is like, make water float or something and you'll get us a place to sleep?!"

"Absolutely." Grace agreed stopping at the edge of a small pond, "but for now, you are going to learn how to heal. Stick your arm in the water."

"Okay... like so?" Rose bent over the water, dunking her water into the shallow end. It left her shoulder and upper torso out.

"No." Grace said, as her foot came up and gently nudged Rose's butt. Rose cried out, already off balance and tumbled into the water. She came up spluttering. "You need your full entire arm in the water. Like so."

"A little warning would be nice." Rose snapped, pursing her lips. "Besides there can be..." She paled, "snakes in the water. And fish that can eat me."

"No there isn't." Grace said, "don't' get yourself worked up. Now close your eyes."

"Close your eyes." Rose repeated in a higher pitched voice. She did so anyways.

"Water isn't about dancing. It doesn't feed off of anything to keep it going. It just is. Imagine water is a force, pushing around in knots and moving around in itself. It's always moving, flowing, every ripple part of it's force."

The water started to glow pink, and Grace was slightly taken it back. Rose was already drawing on water's powers, and she didn't need her help at all. "Good. Good." Grace mused, "now ask the water. Do not take. Never take. Ask the water for its force in order to heal your burn."

The pink glow grew, and Grace felt proud of herself and of Rose. She was doing so well. Plus, Grace kinda figured, Rose was a water based witch. It's only once in a witches lifetime does she figure out her element, and Grace was honored to be here when Rose found hers.

Rose looked lost in her magic. Something perfectly acceptable at the moment. Her face was slack, and the pink glow from the water casting shadows over her pretty face. She took in deep breaths, looking focused. The water churned around her, making visible ripples on top of the surface. Rose left her head hang back as she laughed, and then the pool of water slowly dimmed and finally all of the pink glow faded away.

"That was incredible." Rose beamed up at Grace. "I feel so natural at this now."

"That's good." Grace nodded, and held out her hand for Rose to climb out. "I think you might be a water-" Rose grasped Grace's hand and pulled her in. Grace only had a millisecond before she too was in the freezing cold water.

When she resurfaced, Rose was laughing so hard she was almost crying. "Oh my gosh, your face!" Rose gasped, and then took one look at the calm expression that Grace had and then sobered up. "I should go-"

With a flick of her hand, Grace sent half of the water in the pond in a wave crashing over Rose. She let out a tiny shriek as she was pushed out of the pond and onto the now soggy ground.

"No fair!" Rose said, and Grace held out her hands.

"You know, this means war." Grace gave her friend a carnivorous smile as a ball of moving water appeared in her hand. "Try and block it!"

Rose shrieked again.

Words: 44,429 so close omg