Chapter 11
"Come on, Kylie, you can do better than that?" Rota complained as she stood above me. Only seconds before she’d easily blocked my strike and taken my legs out from underneath me. "If I'd been a Slasher, you would be a shriveling mess right about now." She nudged my side with her boot.
Sighing, I slammed my fists against the ground. "I don't know what's up with me. I can't seem to get it together today."
She sat down on the ground beside me. "When was the last time you energized?"
"Huh?"
"Energized; as in fed your body so it has energy to burn?" I stared up at her dumbfounded. "Kylie, just because you aren't eating regular food like your brother does anymore, that doesn't mean you can go without energizing yourself. Think back, when was the last time."
"Well," I thought, "I suppose it was when I met with the Goddess."
"No wonder. I can’t believe you survived this long so early after the awakening." She gaped at me as if I'd lost my mind.
Defending myself, I cried, "I figured that with all the lightning rods," I waved toward Valhalla, "I didn’t need to worry about it anymore."
She shook her head. "Rune is doing a poor job at conveying how we Valkyrie live. The lighting that is drawn down into Valhalla isn't enough to sustain you. Think about it kind of like an afternoon snack and compound that with all the extra exertion we've been putting your body through. You’re lucky you have the energy to walk."
I felt really foolish. Of all the things that I had been researching about this new realm, I had neglected one of the most important aspects, survival. Yes, I'd ensured that Mason had what he needed by way of nourishment, but I had never even considered myself. I never felt hungry anymore. A little weak now and then, definitely, however never hungry.
"Come with me." She pulled me to my feet by my arm and then we began walking farther back into the woods of the property. "I bet even Freyja neglected to show you how to care for yourself." She snorted. "She's always so self-centered." My astonishment at her statement was more than obvious by my body language. "What? Like you don't have ‘mommy issues’? Ha, I can tell you this much, if you’d been raised by Svava, you'd have some seriously high therapy bills." Before I could open my mouth to ask the nagging question about my birth mom that was still at the forefront of my mind, she stopped us. "Here; this is it."
Glancing around where she'd brought me, I tried to figure out where it was. It appeared to be just another part of the woods to me. "Okay, now what?"
"I'm sharing something with you, Kylie, pay attention." I thought I was. "When we teach our young to begin energizing from a power source, like lightning, we bring them to a place where they can attract it, like we do with the rods on the roof. They must learn to energize often so when they are older and in battle they won’t have any issues. Not every Valkyrie can summon lightning at will." She wagged her eyebrows at me. "But I can." Now she had my attention.
She spread her arms out wide, eyes intensely green as she curled her claws toward the sky. At first nothing happened, then out of nowhere, bolts of lightning rained down to land in her palms. Her eyes rolled back into her head as she took the energy deep inside her body. A second later, she closed her fists and it was gone. Poof, like it had never happened. The trees were untouched by the electricity; the only evidence was the singed grass where she was standing. Unbelievable.
"Your turn." She stepped aside, motioning me to take her place in the center of the singed blades of grass.
"I don't know how to do that."
"Yes, you do. Freyja wouldn't have allowed the pairing of her precious bow to you if you didn’t have the ability of the five."
"The five? I'm unfamiliar with that term."
"Think for a moment. The most powerful of the Valkyrie are those of us who run Valhalla. We're the ones who wage war on those who dare to threaten Freyja and our realm."
"Okay, that would be you, Rune, Bryn and Giera. That's four." Then it hit me, "Svava, my mother was the fifth."
"Correct, Svava was the keeper of the bow and now you are." Rota looked on me with pride and it made me want to prove to be worthy of this placement, although I feared they were all going to be sorely disappointed. They had far too many years on my mere sixteen. How was I ever going to manage to catch up?
When the questions began mounting once more, I pushed them aside as she spoke. "Now channel it. The lightning is part of you; it is the essence of who you are."
Nodding my head, I attempted to imitate the exact same thing she’d done a moment ago as I called out to the lightning. Feeling foolish when nothing happened, I began to wonder if a terrible mistake had been made. Perhaps I wasn't supposed to be one of the five after all. A smack to the back of my head snapped me out of my denial.
"Ouch!" My claws curled as I glared at Rota.
She glared back at me. "Good, your anger will help you! Now channel it."
Gritting my teeth, I did, holding my arms out wide while opening my palms and staring straight up into the sky. I visualized it; the power, the energy. I beckoned it to fill me and then, it did.
Electricity with the intensity I'd yet to experience flowed down from the sky and into my body. It was magnificent. I quaked and quivered, but held on, wanting more. I would never get enough. It made me feel strong, alive and invincible. Feeling a buzzing in my right ear, I shook my head to shoo away the bee, fly or whatever it was that was becoming a nuisance. Yet, it didn't go away, it kept getting louder and louder until I finally realized it wasn't an insect. It was Rota, screeching at the top of her lungs.
"Shut! It! Off! Kylie, enough!"
Closing my fist, I reluctantly let the energy go, staggering slightly. "Wow! That was freakin’ incredible!"
"Did you enjoy your little trip to Freyja land?" Rota scowled at me.
"What are you talking about? I didn't go anywhere."
"No, but if you don't exercise some restraint during the energizing process, you'll be on a one-way trip to The Fade."
Still enjoying the invincible feeling, I punched her in the arm, hard. "You didn't explain that to me before I began, and I have no intention of ever taking a life ending trip to The Fade!"
She rubbed her arm. "I didn't think I had to. It’s instinctual to know when to stop. I've been trying to teach you to follow through with your punches for days now, and all you needed to do was energize. Unbelievable!" She rolled her eyes before stalking off.
"Hey! How is any of this my fault?" I hurried to catch up with her. "You guys are the experts here, being Freyja's kids and all, so don't go putting your failures on me!"
She held her hand in my face as she continued walking. "Talk to the hand."
"I swear you guys are nothing except a bunch of overgrown teenagers. No wonder I fit in so well here."
"Get on the clue bus, Kylie. Valkyrie aren't babysitters; we're a survival of the fittest kind of group. Have to be."
As we approached the hall, a sleek, red convertible Ferrari came whipping around Valhalla, stirring up a lot of dust and attracting tons of attention. As it came to a stop a few feet from us, Rota called out, "Catch you later!" Hopping into the passenger seat as the driver that I couldn't quite get a good look at took off, leaving me covered in dirt.
Coughing, I lifted the hem of my tee shirt to wipe my face clean.
"I'm going to have a car like that when I turn sixteen."
I turned to see one of my thirteen-year-old groupies coming out on the lawn to meet me. Like the others with blonde hair, she'd copied my hair style; a Celtic knot that I'd found a tutorial for online. I'd forgotten her name once again, was it Etta, Ella or Emma? I couldn’t remember, so I decided on E. "Hiya, E! How's it going?" The young girl brightened when I spoke to her, making me feel a little crummy about the way I'd brushed her off so many times. Survival of the fittest, Rota's words rang in my ears.
"Good! Great! Rota's working with a bunch of us on archery tomorrow. You gonna be there?"
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I shrugged in response as my mind wandered back to Rota and the unidentifiable guy she’d left with, racking my brain to come up with what supernatural being was able to blur his image. Nothing. Time to shower and do more research.
"Oh, well, it'll be rockin' if you can come." She toed the ground with her shoe.
I patted her on the shoulder, "I've got some things to do. See you around, E!" She brightened again and I took off running toward the building.