Chapter 13: The Storm

He dashed downstairs for a quick shower while Mary got ready. He predicted that they would get wet and put on a t-shirt and a clean pair of stubbies rather than jeans.

When he returned upstairs, he checked to see if Mary was still in her room. He heard a noise from the kitchen and was about to go to her when he spied the ring sitting on the bedside table. On impulse, he grabbed it and stuffed it in his shorts pocket.

He found Mary making two large travel mugs of coffee for them. She had dressed similarly to him in a black T-shirt, her shorts were pale green, and they were a lot tighter than his shorts. They clung to her sexy arse and cut high on her thighs. He watched as she grabbed a box of Muesli Bars and a packet of chocolate-coated biscuits.

She explained that she often required the sugar boost after she used magic and it wouldn’t hurt to fuel up first to have the amount of energy she would probably require. Marty collected the keys and the coffees off the bench.

Mary dug a couple of poncho-type raincoats from a hall cupboard for them. She grabbed some spare towels, as they were sure to get wet. She checked on the puppy, fed him and told him to stay. He whined at her that he wanted to come, but she was firm. He watched them with sad eyes as they dashed to the garage.

Marty drove so that Mary could eat. He munched on a muesli bar too, between sips of sweet coffee. He could feel the ring in his pocket and got a weird sensation that it was happy to be with him even if not on his finger.

He wasn’t sure what Mary was going to do. He glanced at her when she opened the packet of her third Muesli Bar and shoved it into her mouth. She wasn’t eating for enjoyment. He decided that she knew what was required.

He had noticed that Mary ate as much as he did. He assumed that she burned the calories off, as she was still slim. He then got a strange impression that he felt came from the ring in his pocket that it could help him stay healthy and young like Mary’s ring did if he put it on. He found it a little creepy but refrained from mentioning anything to Mary.

He parked the ute at the top of the rise that led down to the causeway. They looked at the torrent of water now crossing the road. The water was roiling down the riverbed. It was ripping at the rocks and vegetation on the banks pulling anything it could into the muddy mess it now was.

“Wow! How deep do reckon that is Mary?” Marty asked.

Mary looked at the churning muddy water as it carried chunks of trees, bushes and uprooted tussocks of grass down to the sea. It had covered a width of about 20m when they drove home over it the night before. The river had spread to at least 50m wide, and it was now a reasonable way up the banks of the deep creek bed.

“To be that high up the banks, the water would be at least 3m deep over the causeway. You would be in the sea in less than thirty minutes if you were riding on it or in it. We are about 40m above the high tide mark here, and the river drops down fast just past that bend,” she told him.

Mary started removing her shoes and socks. “What are you doing?” asked Marty.

“I’m a Nature Mage with some control over liquids and the air. I need to feel the wet grass under my feet as it helps me connect with my type of magic,” she explained.

“What type of mage wears the other ring?” he asked with interest.

Mary smiled at him and told him, “An Earth Mage. With your background as a geologist, I’m not surprised it wants to go to you. It also gives you a connection to energy fields, and you’re supposed to be able to manipulate materials to form new ones.”

Marty looked at her with raised eyebrows. ‘That is a lot of power,’ he thought. “Hey, would I be able to do the glamour thing?”

She frowned. “I suppose so. Both rings have the diamonds, so it makes it easy for the wearer to learn faster and retain knowledge. Both ring bearers should be able to perform the simple spells, why?”

He grinned at her. “Well, I could pretend to be your eighty-year-old lover when we went to town or got visitors,” he said.

Mary giggled, “I don’t know too many eighty-year-old men with six-pack abs.”

Marty looked down at his flat stomach. He looked at her and grinned, “That would give those fat-gutted old bastards something to think about.”

“Silly blood man,” she laughed. They were so long ago in her past that, she barely remembered what it had been like to be with either of them. She was surprised by Marty’s obvious jealousy of them and couldn’t believe he considered them a threat.