True Feelings

The next morning, Zain goes to Baron's office looking after Alana.

Baron walks to his window and looks outside. He smiles when he sees Alana taking care of her garden, which day by day is getting prettier.

- There she is. - Baron points.

Zain walks to the window and before he looks down he's already feeling her presence.

- She takes care of the garden? - Zain asks.

- She loves plants. I gave the garden to her and now it's not a blank garden as before. - Baron speaks.

- I see. As I read about, a Phoenix is always very connected to nature. - Zain says, watching her with a smile too.

- You say she's powerful, but the powerful reference I have is you. Are you saying she can be like you? - Baron asks.

- No.. She will be way more powerful than me. Nothing can be compared to her besides nature itself. - Zain answers.

Baron watches in silence Alana taking care of the garden. Trying to imagine.

- For you to have a better understanding, think that she will be an army in one person. You're an army, but without magical powers. I can say you're the most powerful couple that could ever exist. - Zain says.

- I see.. That's a lot. But she's still one person. I don't want to risk her safety even if she's powerful. -

- I completely agree with you. Even after she learns how to use her powers, she will need to keep protected. Maybe it would be smart to keep her identity hidden. People knowing she's a witch is one thing, but a Phoenix is another. -

- True. -

- I'll start teaching her. I sent a message to two of my students, they will be coming live here too and keep her protected. They're the best students I had and also the ones I trust the most. -

Baron nods. He can't risk losing the only thing that makes him happy, so he's up to create an army just for her protection.

- Zain? - Baron calls, before Zain leaves the office.

- Yes, my king? -

- Is it possible that she really tamed me with her powers? Without even knowing? -

Zain smiles at his question.

- No, my king. She loves you because of you. And you love her because of her, but also because of her energy. But she envelops you with her energy because she loves you, she doesn't do it with anyone. - Zain answers.

His answer made Baron smile, happy and feeling more in love with her than before.

- You don't actually see it, but I do. When she's near you, her energy surrounds you like a cocoon. She doesn't know she does this, but she does this because of her feelings for you. -

Baron nods and looks at Alana again, even more decided to give her the best live she could ever have.

—

Zain meets with Alana, then walks around the castle with her explaining how magic works.

- Every living being has their own energies. We, wizards and witches, know how to transform our energy into magic through making our energy act. For example, when we heal a wound we're sharing our energy that wishes to heal that wound. There are some kinds of magic that we can't do on our own because there are many steps to do it, like protection magic. When the magic needed a lot of steps the wizards created processes for them that we now call it spells. - He explains.

She listens carefully, like she had paper, ink and feather to write down in her mind.

- Protection magic takes a lot of energy and we need to trigger parts of our energy that might put us in disadvantage. So we created the magic tools and amulets. -

He keeps telling her the basic stories of magic, witches and wizards.

- In your case, I can't teach you the way I taught my other pupils. You drink of Nature's energy and transform it into your own. I can't create fire, I can control it through spells or a specific magical tool. I'll teach you to understand what these energies are first. And then how to control it. -

Taking her to an empty training field, he teaches her to meditate and feel her own energy and the energy of others. And also Nature's energy within her.

—---

Baron is walking through the castle and hears some maids talking about Alana in the training fields and that everyone is there watching her.

Wondering why everyone went there to watch her, he decides to go see what's happening.

Alana was trying to concentrate and keep a fire running in her hands as long as she could.

She moves her hands like trying to not let it spread. Everyone is watching amazed, they didn't know their future Queen was a Witch.

Baron at the same time is feeling proud of her, he's jealous of all men eyeing her. She's wearing pants, a long sleeve shirt and a corset. The way he thinks it's so sexy and beautiful, and he knows other men think the same.

- Why are all of you staring at her here? Don't you have things to do? - Baron asks everyone.

They get startled to see their King behind them and they spread away quickly.

- Jealous again? - Dante laughs while walking to Baron.

- Those men were almost drooling at my woman. - Baron says.

- You have a beautiful powerful woman, Baron. Men will always stare. Get used to it. -

Baron growls and resumes watching her, making Dante laugh again.

- Possessive Dragon. -

- Any news about Veridia? Did they invade or take any beast again? - Baron asks, but is still watching Alana.

- No, at least not yet. We need to keep watching, but they can't risk a war so near the winter. They will be at a disadvantage. - Dante answers.

- They will always be at a disadvantage. -

Baron watches Alana for some moments.

- Do me a favor. Find the best workers, builders and constructors. - Baron asks.

- For what? -

- Just find them. You will know during the way, eventually. -

- All right. Keep your secrets. -

From nowhere an explosion happens and Alana goes flying away and hits a wooden pillar.

They didn't even see what happened. Something simply exploded. Baron, Zain and Dante run to her. Zain arrives first and checks her.

She has some serious burns in her hands and arms, her head is bleeding. She gives a contained cry as she tries to stand up.

- Gods.. Heal her, Zain! - Baron says so worried he felt like her pain was inflicted in his mind.

Before Zain does anything, her body shines and they watch her wounds and burned skin being healed. She breathes more relieved little by little as she heals herself.

- What happened? Simply exploded. - Dante asks.

- You couldn't control your energy because you were getting frustrated. If you concentrate and tries to force your energy an accident might happen. - Zain explains to her.

- You should have said that before this happened. - Baron speaks.

- I apologize. -

- It's not your fault. I noticed that depending on my feelings it's harder to contain it. I remembered… bad things and my powers wanted to hide like usual and I forced it out. - She explains what happened as she's healing herself.

Baron sighs watching the ugly wounds being healed. When she's done she stands up and looks ready to try again.

- Let's rest for today. Will be nice for you to meditate and learn to not let your past traumas affect your energies. I know it's not something easy, but in order for your growth and control of magic it will be necessary. - Zain speaks.

She nods and sighs leaning herself on the pillar.

- Don't think too much. For your first day, you went farther than anyone I know. - Zain speaks.

She nods again smiling.

- Thank you. I just didn't notice I was getting tired. I think I'll go clean myself. I'm a mess now. - She says.

They nod and Baron decides to go with her. Worried about her. She told him that many times she had to do everything she could to suppress her powers, but mostly in hard times like being whipped.

He's not good with talking about feelings, but he doesn't like to know what she might be feeling and what might happen to her in the future if she doesn't learn how to control her powers.

He walks to her bedroom, both in silence, he doesn't know how to bring the topic up and let her feel comfortable to talk about her feelings.

- Are you all right? You feel a bit on edge. Did something happen? - She asks, with worried eyes.

She was the one that had half of her body burned just moments ago, and she still worries more about him than her own feelings. He smiles, with a mixed feeling of sadness and happiness to know his woman worries about him but forgetting her own feelings.

He opens the door and asks her to go inside.

- I'm fine. Just worried about you. Are you all right? You got very hurt in your training today. - He speaks after they are inside.

- Yes. It's not hurting anymore. I'm just a bit tired. -

- I mean… About your feelings. I know what you went through to conceal your powers… And.. You know, how are you feeling now? - He tries to talk.

She smiles at him, watching him trying to talk and show how much he's worried about her feelings. She hugs him, laying her head on his chest, wrapping her arms around him. He hugs her back, smelling her unique sweet scent.

- I'm going to be fine. Thank you for worrying. - She answers.

- Do you want to talk about this? -

- It's no use talking about what happened. It won't change the fact it happened. I just need to change its meaning inside of me. It's already changing slowly. -

What she said had hit deeply inside of him. He also needs to change the way he feels about his past, it's up to him to change the meaning of how it will affect his life. Unconsciously he still is holding himself to the past. He asked Zain if Alana could have tamed him, and deep inside it was his mind still not trusting her entirely.

- Thank you. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't start changing. - She says, holding his face tenderly and kissing his lips softly.

- Thank you too. I'm also changing with your help. And learning about feelings I never imagined I would feel. You're perfect the way you are. -

- You're perfect the way you are, too. -

They kiss again, but Baron deepens the kiss and presses her against him. She feels his length pressing on her and she melts. He faintly smells her arousal growing and he purrs, as he holds her face to kiss her more deeply, sucking out all of her breath.

- I'm dirty… I need to bathe. - She softly says.

- Let me help you relax. -