Chapter 14: A Bear, A Nymph, and A Goal

Café Aegeus was buzzing with students, but it was tolerable, for the most part. I had my coffee, and the humming of conversations helped to drown out my own thoughts about Coop.

He had me all twisted up for the past week, and now he wouldn't even let my mind have a moment of peace. Even in his absence, I couldn't catch a break. It was infuriating to say the least, but I was thankful that Hannah had snapped me out of my daze.

"Did you hear anything I said Oaktree? I met a guy!" I shook any thoughts of Cooper away and smiled brightly at Hannah. Oaktree was a safe nickname, one that took hannah a full year to be able to obtain.

"That's awesome Han, what's their name?" I asked her the main question and prepared my list of deeper questions for her in my head.

"Oh, his name is Alex Montgomery. He hangs out with Trey and Coop a lot. He's a bit of a goof, but he's got a golden heart."

I held in my shock and plastered on a small smile. She was absolutely swooning over a man that was slurring drunk words about me to his best friend. That couldn't end well. Hannah didn't deserve that.

"Oh, really? That's wonderful, but doesn't Alex do more...casual relationships?"

I was going to lean into a neutral stance for now, but I would still give her a gentle warning to be careful around him by the end of the conversation.

"Yeah, and I know that this thing with Alex is going to be totally casual, so it's no big deal. He promised while we had this going on that he'd steer clear of other girls, and that's alright by me. No emotion besides lust, his specialty. I need to focus on my studies, and anything serious could get in the way of that."

Hannah was all for the modern transformation of nymph talents, and she was doing everything in her power to succeed in it. She was the epitome of a new age student. I wouldn't judge someone who wanted to live a different lifestyle, and she would do good in those areas, especially when it came to herbal healing. Her potions were always perfect, it was incredible to see her work.

"Oh of course Han, I just want you to be careful. Trust me when I say casual is probably best." I kept my tone sincere, and gave her shoulder a little nudge.

I was proud of Hannah, she had her priorities straight, and right now I couldn't even think straight.

We sat at one of the tables in the far corner, away from most of the conversation, and it also gave us a view of the front door. I noticed that Hannah had been checking in its direction far too often in such a short amount of time, and I gave her a confused look.

"Alex is meeting me here with his friends. I wanted to see him before my next class." She gave me an apologetic smile, and before I could respond, the front bell chimed, and all the chatter amongst students lulled.

My head snapped in its direction, and a deep sigh emerged from my chest. Alex and Trey appeared in all of their glory, waving at a few people, winking at others.

I gave a heavy sigh, knowing that Cooper was trailing close behind. You hardly ever saw one without the other, and it was times like that when I wondered if they even went to the bathroom together.

I saw Hannah's face immediately brighten at the sight of her man, and I ushered her to go to him.

"Thank you," she whispered as she got up, and skipped over to the boys.

I sat back, and observed as the couple exchanged a few words, and embraced in a warm hug. Alex kissed the top of her head, and gave me a surprised look.

"Oakley? What are you doing here?" He gave me an awkward smile, and I cowered back a little bit.

"Oh, I came here with Hannah. I was just about to leave though, I'll see you guys later." I forced my own smile to remain, and grabbed my backpack off the back of my seat.

Trey gave me a confused look as I got up. I only shook my head, and snuck a glance at Cooper's bored face. Fuck, did I regret it! He was showing no emotion, and my heart throbbed in my chest. I knew it was for the better. He pried too much, and I didn't have the time for that. Like Hannah, I had a goal. Get to the Northern Regions by the next winter solstice.

It was painful, but I passed the three boys with my head down, pushed the door open, and made a swift exit. I didn't want to wait around for him to be cold to me for how I acted.

I deserved it, but at the end of the day, he was the one that wanted to follow me around. He stuck his nose where it didn't belong, and I warned him. He didn't listen to me. I didn't look back as I made my way through the courtyard and to the hiking trails.

The closest one would have been the garden's, but I wasn't feeling up for a trip down that lane just yet, and I didn't mind a bit of a walk either. The safe bubble I felt in the caves began to feel more like a suffocating trap. There was a higher chance that I could get caught now, and I couldn't sleep in my dorm.

Eventually, I found myself on the furthest path from the café, and was wandering down it aimlessly. My emotions clouding any real sense of direction. Coop had sprung into my mind again, and I needed further distraction. Much further.

There wasn't a creek down this path, but it had something better, it led to a massive cliff's edge, and the lake below had waves that crashed against it with such force, that you could hear nature's spirit begging to be let free.

It was completely liberating to stand on its edge, and the wind blew my curls in all kinds of directions. I felt my powers the most over here, and sometimes I swear I was drunk on the adrenaline it gave me.

Birds flew above the water, with hopes to catch their next meal, and I could hear their squawks as if they were right next to me. I let my feet swing over the edge after I sat down. It was the most peace I had gotten in a while, and I was going to hold on to it for as long as I could, even if that meant I skipped my classes for the day. I wanted as much space as I could get from Cooper, and at the end of the campus' territory, this was the most space I could think of getting.

The sun was beginning to set when I heard a low growl from behind me. I scooted myself from the edge of the cliff and stood carefully. Fear flooded my veins as I turned to see a large bear standing at the tree line of the forest.

My body began shaking furiously as I got a better look at its eyes. They were blood red, and foam was bubbling out of its mouth. Its fur was matted, and there was a black collar placed on its neck. I lifted my right hand as slowly as I could, and commanded vines to emerge out of the ground around the feral bear. It caught on to what I was doing and swatted at the vines in outrage.

Luckily, a few vines managed to weave their way around its leg, and that gave me enough time to sprint into the cover of the forest. There wouldn't be much time until the bear broke free, and I would use as much as I could to get the most distance possible.

I leapt onto one of the higher branches, and forced my legs to continue hopping, swinging, anything, through the trees. After almost falling, I threw my hands out aimlessly and commanded vines to appear in my hands and attach themselves to the branches in front of me. The bear was on my tail, and judging by its angry, strangled growls, it didn't happy.

It wasn't long before I reached a clearing, and branches weren't going to be there to help. I stopped at the last branch before the clearing and searched desperately for something to help me. My eyes landed on a small pond, and I thought on my feet.

I wove my hands in the air and almost half of the water emerged out of the pond, and formed a small hurricane in the air. My energy was wavering, and I had to do something before I wouldn't be able to command this much water any longer.

The bear roared and stampeded into the clearing. I flung the tornado of water at it, and it let out a yelp. The collar was electric, and the bear began spazzing on the forest floor. I watched as it writhed in pain for a good ten minutes before it stilled, and died.

I covered my mouth with my hand as tears sprung in my eyes. The adrenaline had fled my body, and I felt my blood go cold.

There was no way that this was normal. Bears were never aggressive towards nymphs, unless they'd been beaten or starved, and a collar was nowhere near normal, especially an electric one.

My energy was completely drained, and I found myself falling against the trunk of the tree I was perched on. I laid my hands on its bark, and steadied myself. When I found my balance again, I slowly laid down on the branch. There was no way I could hop down, and using my abilities to conjure a staircase was off the table. The branch was large enough to sleep on, well pass out on. With no more energy left in my body, I began to welcome the darkness, my last hope, that the bear was really dead.