The group has been taking classes twice a day now for about a week with Ande and I dancing around the topic of getting to know each other better. Jonah tells me to get my act together and ask her to do something with me. After breakfast on the way to our first lessons of the day, I pull Ande aside and ask her if she wants to take a walk with me during our midday break. She just smiles, nods, and heads off with the rest of the ones learning witchcraft.

Happy I'm coming closer to knowing Ande better, I head out of the cabin and see Jonah waiting on me to walk to where our lessons are being held this morning. Jonah smirks knowing what I've done.

"From that look I'm guessing it went well," Jonah says.

"We are going on a walk during the midday break."

"Just a walk?" Jonah asks while wiggling his eyebrows.

"Grow up." I growl playfully and hit his arm. "What do you expect me to do? I've known the girl for a week, and I don't plan on this being a casual hookup."

A wide smile lights up Jonah's face. "So you don't plan..."

I roll my eyes. "I've not thought that far yet."

"Sure. Now, I believe that." He pauses. "Not."

Luckily, EJ interrupts this line of questioning. "Are you guys coming or you going to stand around and cackle like hens all day?"

We jog up to join him on the trail.

While Miriam and Mia are teaching the others more about spells and healing, Estel must be waiting on EJ, Jonah, Hunter and I at the clearing for target practice. Once we clear the treeline, Estel can be seen walking back and forth between targets singing a song I'll probably never understand, unless I learn Spanish.

When she turns and sees us approaching, her face beams.

"I'm glad you're finally here," she says as she bounces over to some sort of table at the edge of the clearing.

She waits for us to settle before she begins. "We've been working the last week on self-defense and basic weapons handling. Today, we are going to talk about different weapons and let you each handle them to see if there is one you'd like to work with. We'd like to see if any of you have a hidden talent with one of them."

I try to see what is laid out, but it is impossible from this viewpoint. "What are the different weapons?" I ask.

EJ goes to a table set up along the side near where we aim at targets. He motions us over.to the table where various weapons are laid out. There is a wide selection of weapons including throwing knives, axes, staffs, bows and arrows and even a few whips. EJ and Estel take turns explaining a little about each weapon, what it can do, and the best way to use it.

When they're finished, Jonah steps forward first and goes down the line, picking up each weapon. Eventually he goes back to the axes and picks up each a second time. He nods to EJ.

EJ's lips twitch. "Let's see what you can do with that. I'm actually not going to teach you how to use this weapon. What I will caution you on is always being aware where the axe is when you are holding it and only throw it at a person if you want to seriously injure or kill them. Go ahead now, see what you can do?"

Jonah walks to the line closest to the targets.

Estel walks by us. "I'd suggest you follow me to the tree line furthest from the targets. We don't want to become unexpected victims." Estel winks.

All of us walk off to the side, and EJ tells Jonah to start.

Jonah keeps testing the weight of the axe in his hand and seeming to concentrate only on it.

"What's he doing?" Hunter asks.

My eyes go wide. Is he bored or does he truly want to understand?

EJ replies, "My guess would be that he is trying to connect with the axe. Get a sense of it. See where it feels best in his hands before he attempts to throw it."

Jonah throws the first couple of times and doesn't hit the target, but EJ compliments him on his form. Jonah sighs after a few more times, but EJ encourages him to keep working with the axe at that distance before going to any other distances. They let Jonah practice a little more before moving on to the next person.

Hunter walks up next, and I'm glad to see he's taking some initiative.

Like Jonah, he picks up each weapon and settles on a staff.

Estel chimes in from my right. "Nice choice. First, you are going to connect with the staff. Take time to practice some fighting techniques with the staff in hand. This will also help you connect with the weapon and make you more effective in using it in a fight. Later, you can move on to using these same techniques to practice on a dummy."

"She means you." Jonah whispers from my left, and Estel just glares at him.

He gives her his best attempt at an innocent look and Estel has to cover her mouth to keep from laughing at the poor effort.

As soon as Hunter is finished, I walk over to the table and EJ moves up next to me on my left.

"Did anything catch your attention?" he asks.

When I take a second look, my eyes go back to the whips.

He observes me. "Interesting choice."

I pick up each of the whips and feel it's weight. I try to imagine how it could be controlled during a fight and how effective it would be. One in particular affects me more than the rest, so I choose that one.

A voice comes from my left, and I jump slightly. I wasn't paying attention to where everyone is at. I'll have to work on that more.

When I look over at him, smugness is written on his face.

"Not a word," I warn.

He wipes the expression off his face before he says anything to me. "You first want to practice handling the whip. My suggestion is to start with the whip behind you holding it in a six o'clock position. Move the hand up to a 12 o'clock position and then back down. Keep doing this over and over again until you get a feel of it. Don't worry about cracking the whip yet, it is simply a sound. An intimidating sound, but what you can do with said whip will become more intimidating. Don't try and rush yourself to get to being able to hit an actual target, work on getting the feel of it and how you move the whip. Make the whip an extension of your arm."

I head for an open space to practice. I want to jump into really wielding the whip, but for now, I'm going to follow EJ's advice. He certainly has had more training than I have.

It doesn't seem like I've been working with it long before we're called for lunch. My pulse races at the thought of what's going to happen after lunch during our break.

I quickly finish the soup and sandwich Mia has prepared for lunch and walk outside to wait for Ande to join me. It doesn't take long for the bright eyes and even brighter smile of Ande to come around the corner of the cabin and join me at the start of one of the trails.

Her voice is light when she tells me about something stupid Tanner did. I would think I'd be jealous, but they seem to be friends and not attracted to each other. All I can do is grin at the multitude of words flying out of her mouth. Maybe I won't have to talk much on this excursion.

As the trail narrows slightly, I shift so Ande can walk in front of me. As she moves past me, I notice she's carrying something with her.

"What do you have there?" I ask.

She looks down at it as if she forgot she was carrying it. "Oh this. My art portfolio."

Words fail me. "That's interesting," I manage to say. Real smooth.

"I'll show it to you when we get to where we are going to walk to."

I can only nod—like an idiot.

It takes us about five minutes to get to the place I found a few days ago. I search until I find a place clear enough for us to sit down.

No sooner than my butt hit the ground, Ande is speaking. "Now, what I am about to show you is a little creepy," she warns, and I'm not sure what to make of this statement.

I become still when I get a glimpse of the first piece of paper she pulls out. It's a drawing of the cabin we're staying in.

"Did you draw this here?"

"No, actually. Look at the date on the back," she says, motioning with her head for me to turn the drawing over.

I look on the back, and the drawing is dated six months before. She pulls out the next drawing and hesitantly hands it to me. My mouth drops at what I see. There in pencil or charcoal or whatever she's drawn it in, is an exact drawing of me, right down to the scar above my right eye. My body tenses when I look at the back and see it was drawn three months before.

"Are you saying you've seen me and this cabin before?"

"Not exactly." She mumbles.

My stomach drops, and my eyes narrow at her. When sadness flashes across her face, I make my body relax so I don't alarm her.

"What do you mean by that?" I ask before resting my head in my left palm so I can look at Ande while she talks.

"I've always had nights growing up where I've had vivid dreams. I never knew if they meant something or not, but on one weekend trip with my dad, I mentioned it to him. He suggested I start drawing or painting some of my most vivid or frequent ones. Some in my portfolio mean nothing, but some really freaked me out once I arrived at the cabin."

I sit up straighter now. "Are you saying there are more pictures?"

"A few." She whispers but starts handing me drawings, one by one.

One is of a beach, beach house and bonfire with several people surrounding it. One is a drawing with remarkable likeness to me, Jonah and Carleigh. Several others were various sketches of scenes like the forest and clearings with people who look more like shadows or bodies without faces.

"Are there more like these?" I question, almost afraid to know the answer.

"Yeah," she mumbles and hides her face.

My hand moves to take her hands away.

When she looks up, I ask, "Why are you mumbling about this?"

She looks down and starts picking at something on her skirt. "I was afraid to show the drawings to anybody here at the cabin. Maybe they wouldn't believe I've been having dreams of everyone off and on for almost a year. Maybe they will think I am crazy or a freak."

Her hands twitch so I move mine to cover hers. "Okay, first off more than half the people in the cabin are witches, and all of the people in that cabin have some type of magic in their blood. I think we all would be a little misunderstood by normal society. If you are having these experiences, I'm sure someone else has too."

Her face lights up. "You think so?"

"I know so." I smile and try to reassure her. "I'm not sure why you have been dreaming about us, but don't look at it as a bad thing, look at it as a potential gift. You were born to be a flipping Protector for heaven's sake. You're very special."

We look through the rest of her portfolio, and she has talent. Soon enough, I hear Jonah yelling for me, and I figure my break time with Ande is over—for today, at least.