Page 8 of Magic Blooms
I stepped carefully, the oversized footwear I wore making everything more difficult that it should have been. When I finally reached Joshua, my heart sunk.
Momma Bess had been able to scramble away from the larger detritus, but Joshua hadn’t been quite so lucky. A beam as big as I was had fallen right over his midsection, pinning him beneath the wreckage. I bent down and tried to lift it, but my efforts proved futile. The thing was much too heavy for me to lift on my own.
I gave it one more useless push before I fell back on my rear and sucked in a deep, shaky breath. This was ridiculous. I’d caused this entire storm, and I couldn’t manage to lift this one piece of wood? No. I refused to be defeated, especially since it wasn’t my life and limb at stake here.
Joshua groaned, tried to lift himself, failed, and fell back in an exhausted heap. “Go get Lorraine. She’ll call someone.”
At least he was awake and speaking. That had to be a good sign.
But any of those good feelings were quickly dashed as a bolt of lightning hit the earth so close to me that I could feel the quaking. I sucked in a breath even as the wind picked up and more branches started to come down.
Oh no.
The storm knew I was upset, and that was it causing it to build.
That’s when an even worse realization hit me. If it weren’t for me and my out of control emotions, this storm would have never happened. And Joshua would never be stuck in this situation.
No, I couldn’t leave him. Even if it was to find help.
I needed to fix this and fix it now.
At least I wasn’t on my own. The very storm raging around me was a sign of how much power I had inside me. And I would use that power to save Joshua if it was the last thing I did.
Even if I was merely saving him from my own misguided magic…
Instead of pushing against the beam like before, I pressed my hands down into it. I pressed as hard as I could, and soon the earth rose up to meet me. I closed my eyes and visualized what I wanted to happen. I could feel the vines climbing up my arms, some tendrils curling beneath my clothes and others over the top as they surrounded me.
But I wasn’t frightened. It felt familiar.
Like a hug from an old friend.
I opened my eyes and watched the vines take over, doing what I couldn’t. They gently lifted the beam up, then slowly, carefully dragged it to the side, freeing Joshua in the process.
I let out a breath of exhaustion as the vines retreated back into the earth.
Joshua didn’t seem aware of what had just happened. His head had lolled back; his eyes had closed.
Oh no, he didn’t.
He’d really need to wake up. I couldn't carry him the whole way back. For that matter, I didn’t know if I could make it back on my own without him to guide me.
But then his eyes opened, and he muttered a curse as he pushed himself up on an elbow.
“You’re alive!” I cheered, fighting the urge to hug him, seeing how little we knew of each other.
He looked just as irritable as ever, but also confused. “What happened? Where is the help?”
I didn’t have any energy left to life, so I told him part of the truth. “There is no help. I got the beam off of you.”
“All by yourself?”
“There’s no one else here,” I pointed out.
He groaned as he pushed himself up and motioned toward the giant mother animal who stood outside nudging the bag of her babies with her snout. “Momma Bess?”
The pig let out a little oink as though to prove her presence.
Yes, that was as good an excuse as any I could hope to find. I grinned wide. “You’re right. Momma Bess was the one who saved you. I’m sorry for trying to take credit for myself.”
