Page 25 of Tino

We opened the door and faced the mages. They stood with their hands outstretched and I felt guilty over how long we’d been at it. I hadn’t thought about how tiring their positions would be.

“We bonded. What do you need us to do next?” Tino asked Nujik who was closest to our door.

“Congratulations!” he exclaimed, then turned serious. “You need to raise your hands and feel the ward surrounding the whole camp. Do you feel it? Good. Then you need to think of the wardprotecting you and your magic, add your magic to it, offer it your power too. Do you feel it taking?”

“Yes, almost like it’s pulling my magic, letting it recharge and fill the whole thing with my magic too,” I explained, the feeling aknowingsort of thing.

“Good, then it’s working. Is the ward visible to you now?” he asked kindly.

“Yes, it looks pink to me. But I thought wards were blue?” I asked.

“Blue wards are weaker, more usual, but weaker. The strongest wards are pink and often with a shimmering effect to them,” he explained.

“It does shimmer,” Tino agreed.

“Perfect,” Nujik sighed with relief. “Everyone! It’s safe to stop now!”

The other mages came over and congratulated us on our magic, but we were soon interrupted by a huge fucking snake and what looked like a cheetah, running straight towards us.

I already knew the cheetah was mine, something about our bond told me that. I felt a rush of affection as he flew towards me, leavingthe huge snake behind. I was pushed to the ground as he jumped me, but I didn’t care. This was perfect.

“Kitty!” Tino gleefully greeted my cheetah.

“Kitty?!” I gasped indignantly on my familiar’s behalf. “He’s certainly not akitty!”

“Oh, but he so is!” Tino defended. “You always said our first cat should be called Kitty, and therefore, he’s Kitty.”

Damn, I’d forgotten about that. Remembering that conversation had me smirking. “Fine, I guess we need to honor that old promise.” Tino eyed me skeptically as I rose up on my feet, still petting my lovely Kitty.

His face paled. “No.”

I grinned triumphantly. “Oh, yes.” I turned towards the huge snake, or I guess a serpent would be more fitting. It had blue scales that turned green in the reflection from the sunlight. “Hi, Gilbert.”

I was lounging with Kitty after having stuffed myself with way too much food, but according to Xari, we would need lots of food these next few days to fuel our magic.

Tino had taken Gilbert for a walk, opting for walking the feeling of being stuffed full off, whereas I’d chosen lazing about and taking a nap. Kitty seemed pleased with my decision, so I petted him as I let our bond grow.

We must have dozed off on the couch, because when I came to it was dark outside. Had I slept the day away? Kitty wasn’t next to me anymore and the cabin was silent. Where was Tino? It was bad enough he took a walk without me, but being apart for hours was terrifying. I knew it wasn’t healthy being so codependent. But after believing I would never see him again, having him with me only made me fear losing him so much more.

I stretched my aching body and went to search the bedroom. Relief flooded my system as I found him asleep with both our familiars on the bed. Why I hadn’t been invited was a mystery, however.

I smiled, unable to stop myself as I looked over my family. Discarding my clothes sans boxers, I slid in next to Tino, pushing Kitty further to the end of the bed so I could lay down comfortably. I letout a sigh when Tino pulled me against his chest, showing me he needed my touch as much as I needed his.

I hadn’t thought about the fact I forgot to pee before I got into bed with them, and now I was locked in place by Tino’s arms and Kitty, who was now on top of my feet. I sighed, praying my bladder would survive a few more hours. I really didn’t want to leave anyway.

An hour later and I was close to bursting. After having a really long nap, my body wasn’t tired and then thinking about how I wasn’t able to pee, made me want to pee even more. Now, I was so close to peeing my pants that just the slightest touch to my belly would make me pee the bed.

I reluctantly untangled myself from Tino’s warm embrace, then tugged my feet free of Kitty and padded silently across the cold wooden floor to the bathroom.

Tears filled my eyes as I relieved myself, it was glorious finally getting my bladder empty. Now I could return to our warm bed and snuggle with my Tino. But my feet stopped just inside the bedroom as I saw Kitty had taken over my spot.

Groaning, I left the bedroom and sat on the couch instead. I couldn’t sleep anyway, so maybe I could do some reading. We’dgotten a few books from the other mages, each one filled with knowledge about our powers and how to use our elemental magic in combination, something others couldn’t do as they only had one of the four elements.

I opened the book and got comfortable. The first ten pages were eye opening. We could do so much more than I ever thought possible. My fingers itched with the need to try my powers out, but I refrained. We’d promised the others we would train tomorrow and reign in our desire to play around with our magic until then. And it had been an easy decision to agree to since I thought Tino and I would have many other fun things to do. I hadn’t expected to fall asleep for hours and then spend time alone on the couch.

Whatever, I could use the time for something useful, and if I was reading correctly, the page I’d just reached had different ways our familiars could help us during battle. It even seemed as though the old versions of us had the same familiars. I quickly scanned the page to reach my cheetah and there I saw a list of things he’d be able to do once fully trained. I would need to ask Willow and Nujik where they’d gotten these books! The detail and true knowledge must’vemeant we’d decided to share every detail of our powers with the other mages, or at least with someone we trusted.

After reading through twenty more pages, I decided to return to bed. I had so much to think about now that I knew what Kitty and Gilbert were able to do, and even myself. If the books were to be trusted, Tino and I could do amazing things together as well. I couldn’t wait to see what my elements were, not that I cared much, it was mostly to know if the books had been correct. In the books the one with the cheetah,me, had water and earth as their elemental magic. I wanted to believe the books, believing them meant we had a true guide we could use, and we were desperately in need of some guidance.