Free The Return by Sean M. Campbell Page B

fires died, and the cold fog dissipated. I turned my pack upside down, and poured the contents out.
    On the top of the stack fell a simple, leather bound jewelry case. I opened it to find the copper pendant, still on its gold chain from so many years ago. I pulled the chain out, and put it around my neck. Just as soon as the pendant touched my skin, it all flooded back. Every one of my memories were mine once again. My eyes rolled back in my head as I fell, face first, into the dirt.
    I awoke in the dark. I was in my tent, and there was a warm body curled against me. I did not think before I turned in my half doze, and pulled her up against me to begin kissing her neck, as she was spooned into me.
    “Rhys?”, Laina said as I kissed her neck.
    “Yes.”
    “You scared me last night, more than once.”
    “You should never need to fear me.”
    “I know that now. Mom spoke to Beth and I about what had happened to you. She said you had gone into what you call Mage Rage. It is when your magic boils to the surface, demanding release. But it was when my mother slapped you that scared me the most. I thought for sure you would rip her apart, but you just stood, and accepted her actions and words.  When you fainted, I thought you were dead, and all of us were lost. I cried like a child, until mom told me you were alive and breathing. Likka told us you were asleep, that you had fainted from something that happened when you put that necklace on. She didn’t know what happened.”
    “I will tell that tale, when I only have to tell it once.”
    “Rhys?”
    “Yes, Laina.”
    “I am yours, if you will have me.”
    “Come to me again when we reach Feck. Your first time should be in a comfortable bed, not on the hard ground.”
    “You promise me at least one night there?”
    “I promise you it will be a night we will both remember. Laina, in a way you will be my first as well.”
    She rolled in the darkness and looked at me. “What do you mean;  your first?”
    “No one has ever given me the gift you offer. I have never bedded a virgin.” I could feel her smile in the darkness. I gently rolled her back and pulled her up against me. As she lay there, I began to caress and kiss her bare skin, until she drifted off to sleep. I sorted through my memories, as if each one was new to me. I lay there in the dark, waiting for dawn to break.
    I had an odd feeling at this point. Usually, when my magic was used, I would be left in raging need that only iron will could control. But I had used my magic a few times since I arrived, and not once had that need come upon me. Did that need derive from the memories in me? I had used the magic before the memories returned, before I even remembered the effect. Did the need come from the fact that I remembered it?
    A couple of hours before first light, Taina slipped into the tent to check on her daughter, and me. She smiled when she saw my eyes open. “Good morning, Rhys.” She whispered in the darkness.
    “Lie down and get some sleep. I am awake nothing will get through me again.”
    She no sooner had gotten undressed, and curled up behind me, when Beth and Likka crawled into the tent. Beth whispered, “You need a bigger tent”, and giggled softly as she curled up to go to sleep.
    I lay there among the pile of beautiful women, with an enticing body part in my face no matter where I looked, and tried to concentrate on how to do what I had planned.
    I slipped out of the tent at first light, and stirred the fire back to life. I started making coffee and breakfast. It was only a few minutes after the coffee finished when Beth came out, followed within seconds by the others. Likka sat down next to me in human form. “Time for you to do some talking Rhys. You scared the hell out of a few of us last night, and it is time to know if it was worth it.”
    “Life Ward Taina, I need some answers first.”
    Taina looked up at me in shock. “I will leave, Rhys, our failure is too much.”
    “I have not