She stood there for a few moments, then started walking. She walked the entire property that extended into the curve of the bayou, then started back toward the back of the property. Eventually, she came back toward Boon. “You want to keep it with the trees and undergrowth over there?” she asked, pointing behind herself.
“Yes. Privacy.”
Tempest nodded slowly as she walked back to stand beside Boon. She closed her eyes as her mists began to gather.
“What are you thinking?” Boon whispered, needing to know, but not wanting to interrupt her.
“That if you don’t stop talking I won’t get this right.”
“Hmpf! There’s not anything that could keep you from getting anything right that you want right.”
Tempest smothered a smirk, as she shushed him. The more power she gathered, the greater the swirl of green that surrounded them. She lifted her hands and moved them ever so slightly here and there as she directed her magics to do her bidding. The volume of her mists grew exponentially as they crept across the ground that Boon loved so much, carrying out the changes that Tempest envisioned.
Boon looked down at his feet, then half-turned and glanced behind himself at the bank of the bayou as even more mists swirled there. He opened his mouth to speak, but Tempest raised her hand, one finger extended as she uttered just one word. “No!”
Boon snapped his mouth closed, and crossed his arms over his chest as he questioned his decision to go to Tempest for help. His gaze took in the pale green mists as far in the distance as he could see, encroaching on every inch of property that he’d claimed, and was given by Enthrall.
Eventually the mists began to dissipate. But they were fading so slowly Boon wasn’t sure that they were actually fading, or if he just wished they would.
Tempest opened her eyes and looked around, surveying all around herself and Boon. “Nice,” she said.
“I thought your mists were purple like your mother’s,” Boon said.
“They were. And sometimes I still see a purple tendril or two. But for the most part, they’re green now.”
“Why?” Boon asked.
“I’m not sure. But I think it has to do with the fact that I healed several people and have been leaning more into that part of my gifts. Dad has those abilities and his beast is green. So,maybe that has something to do with it,” Tempest said. “So, what do you think?”
“I don’t know. Makes sense to me,” Boon said.
“No, the house. What do you think of your house?”
Boon hadn’t even noticed that the mists were gone. He gave Tempest a bit of side-eye. “You distracted me on purpose.”
She smiled slyly. “Had to. You were working my nerves.”
“You made your mists green just to distract me?”
“No, that part is true. As long as it works I don’t care what color it is. Except black. If they go black, we’ve got a problem. But the house, Boon. Look at the house.”
Boon was already moving toward it. His gaze took in everything from the thick, green grass that now filled his yard instead of the wispy reeds and grasses that spotted the wetlands, to the raised home that suddenly stood thirty feet back from where his hut used to be. The home was built on a raised platform, lifted some fifteen feet into the air. A staircase came right down from the middle of the black picket fence-like railing that framed what seemed to be a back porch. He looked back at Tempest.
“Go on, check it out. If you don’t like it I can change it, or completely remove it. But see what you think,” she said.
Boon started to go up the steps, but stopped when he saw the area under the house was contained with a similar black picket fence. He changed direction and walked over to see what was inside. Right in the middle of the space was a structure much like his hut, but painted to match the same dark green as the house itself. “What’s in there?”
“Go see.”
He walked up to the waist high gate and flipped the latch up, then walked over to the ‘hut’ on the ground level beneath the house. He opened the door, and stepped inside. It was actually the same size his hut had been. He poked around inside for aminute or two, then looked up at where the top of the walls of the hut fit flush against the floor of the house above it. He grinned as he stepped outside and looked back at Tempest again. “It’s my stuff.”
“It’s your hut. I made it a storage area. Everything from inside your hut that I didn’t think needed to be inside the house is in your hut, still intact. The fence around it keeps it semi-secure, and definitely indicates that this is private property, stay the hell off it.”
“We don’t have that problem here,” Boon said. “But I still like the sentiment.”
“I thought you might.”
He closed the door of his hut turned storage area and ran his hand over the outside wall.
