Abigail Fredrickson

Terry

“Airwalking?” I look up at Kelly from the spell book.

Her eyes brighten, “Oh, I’ve seen a couple people use that spell.  I’ve always thought it looked fun.”

“What level is it?”

“It’s pretty close to mine actually.  It just requires maintained focus.”

“Should we give it a try?”

Kelly hesitates, “We could…”

“Come on, it sounds fun.”  A small smile shows on her face.  “Aha!  You know you want to.”

“Okay, okay, fine.”  She peers at the spell, “It would be a good spell to help me practice keeping focus for extended lengths of time…”

The page depicts a man running on air, his magic materializing beneath his feet.  It also shows what must be the beginnings of the spell, the way he moves his arms.  In the page’s center itself is the spell itself, a brief description, and brief instructions.  Other than that, the whole page is filled with swirls, designs, and scribbled notes in multiple different hands, much like every other page we’ve come across.

I’m not usually one for books, but even I have to admit that the old spell book is captivating just to look at.

Kelly mumbles the spell under her breath a few times, “Aer deambulatio…Aer deambulatio…”

“Deambulatio aer,” I pretend to make a great show of moving my hands around.

Kelly snorts and swats my arm, “Ay, cut that out, idiota.”  I laugh.  Grinning, she turns back to the spell book, a noticeable absence of tension in her shoulders.  Mission accomplished.  While she commits the spell and to memory, I read through the instructions, using it and the pictures to formulate a mental image of how it should look while she’s casting the spell.

After a moment, she runs a hand over the page, muttering, “Animari.”  Then she stands up and starts going through the motions.  A purple mist hovers over the page, then is absorbed into it, and the depiction of the man casting the spell comes to life.  Over and over he repeats the spell.  I hold the spell book up a bit, comparing it to her.

“Arms a little lower-  Not that low, you’re not picking up a cat.”

“Why a cat?”

“I don’t know, it was the first thing that came to mind,” I shrug.

She rolls her eyes and raises her hands a bit more, repeating the motion,  “How’s that?”

“Well on a scale of one to ten, if you were trying to turn into a tree, I’d say you were a…..twelve.”

Kelly chokes on her laughter this time, “I’m sorry what?”  I just grin as she pulls herself together and continues.  “You know, if I looked too stiff, you could’ve just said so.”

“But where’s the fun in that?  Besides, it worked, didn’t it?”

She pauses briefly, “…I guess it did.”  She goes through the motions two more times before stopping and taking a deep breath, “Okay.  Sorry in advance if I fall on your head at any point.”

“Advance apology accepted.”

“Aer deambulatio,” she says, making sure each syllable is spoken as clearly as possible, and moves her hands around.  Then she walks forward.  With each step, lavender mist collects under her feet, lifting her higher.  She brightens, then moves faster, faster, till she’s running in circles over the garden.

I put the spell book to the side and cheer, “Whoo-hoo!  Looking good!”

“Haha!”

“Hey, how are things-”  Kelly’s concentration breaks as she turns her head to see who just invaded our corner of the garden, then she tumbles through the air.

Dylan catches her without a second thought, “My bad.”

She waves a hand, slightly breathless, “It’s okay-“

I run over, “Dylan,you’reback!Kelly,areyouokay?”

Both of them laugh at my haste, but Kelly nods as Dylan sets her on her feet, “I’m alright.  You were right.  That was fun.”

“How’d the mission go?” I ask Dylan.

“Went as well as it could,” he shrugs.  “Had to evacuate a nearby village on short notice though.  Spies heard the samurai thinking they were giving us aid.  It was too dangerous for them to stay.”

Kelly frowns slightly, “Is there room for them?”

“Hey, this fortress is so huge, it may as well be a city,” Dylan shrugs.  “They can fit in somewhere.  Do either of you know where Ari is?”

“She left with a scouting party this morning,” I tell him.  “Something…crazy kind of happened while you were gone.”

His eyebrows raise, “Oh?”

“Tigress is back,” Kelly frowns.  “But she can’t remember anything, and she’s…well, she’s fighting under Saber Demien’s command.”

“What?”

“You should probably ask Rowan about that one,” I wince.  “I just know what Ari was able to tell me briefly before an emergency council meeting, and what I could see from a distance.  But it’s not good.”

“I’ll do that,” Dylan ruffles my hair.  “It’s good to see you again, Ter.  You too, Kelly.”

As he leaves, Kelly wipes her forehead, “I think that’s enough practice for now…”

“You sure?” I frown.  “Usually you can go for longer.”

“We got in a lot before the new spell, and new spells can sap more energy…especially if they require maintained focus,” she goes to the bench and closes the book.  “And I can still feel some leftovers of that spell yesterday.  Nothing big, but I don’t have quite as much energy.”

“Okay then…You’re sure that’s all?” I sit on the bench, looking at her guarded expression, and wait.

“Just…this whole thing with Tigress,” she shrugs.  “It feels wrong.”  Ohh.

“Yeah, I think we all feel that,” I kick my feet a bit.  “She was never the friendliest, but…yeah, it’s still weird being on the other side of her anger.  It’s like when I don’t do my chores and Ari gets onto me, but twice as bad.”

Kelly visibly represses a smile, “I’m sure.”

I grin at her, “Are you hungry?  I’m hungry.”

She rolls her eyes, “Let’s go.”

I jump up to follow her towards our living quarters, but when she’s not looking, my grin slips a bit.  “Keep your weight centered, kid, don’t keep shifting.”  “Not bad, kid.”  “What are you looking at, squirt?”  “Right now, your size and speed are what would work best in your favor.  Fighting a larger opponent, you want to approach from the defense.  Tire them out, be everywhere at once, then strike.  Trying to best them by force alone will just end up with you in bed with several broken ribs to keep you company.”  “That’s it, just like that.”  “You know, kid.  You’re not half bad.  At this.”

Tigress wasn’t the friendly sort.  But she was…nice at the same time.  It was weird, but I liked it.  I liked her.  She didn’t go easy on me just cause I’m young.  She didn’t sugarcoat things.  But she didn’t purposefully make me try to do more than she knew I was capable of either.  She just treated me the same as she does everyone else.  She was honest.

And even though she didn’t want to train me at first, I don’t think it was because she doubted me.  It’s just that she hadn’t wanted to.

And when I’d struggled and wanted to give up…  “Hey.”  I look up, only to see Tigress squat down in front of me, so she’s at my eye level.  “You wanna know something?”

“What?”

“Warriors?  We don’t quit.  When things get tough, we get tougher.  If everyone gave up just as things started to get even a little bit difficult, where would this world be, huh?  In shambles at best.”  Her amber eye burns into me with her next words, “Now, if you want to learn this stuff, you’re going to have to learn to not give up so easily.  Sure, take a break if you need it, but don’t.  Give.  Up.”

She’d returned to her own work then.  I’d stayed where I was, sitting against the fence and watching for a while, thinking about what she said.  Where would this world be if everyone gave up when things got hard?  Ari and I would probably be dead.  The Rebellion would never exist.  Dylan would be stuck with a job he didn’t enjoy.  Tewa would be wasting away from mourning.

It was easy to realize she was right.  When I got back up to keep trying, I could’ve sworn she’d even sent me a proud nod.

Everything about her being on the other side of this war just feels…wrong.  Wrong because I know who she was before, wrong because I know how much she hated Saber, wrong because…well…there’s nothing right about the situation.  And it hurts.  It hurts because I don’t know how it happened or what I can do to try to fix it.  But I want to because…because she didn’t let me give up.  She didn’t give up on me.

And I sure don’t want to give up on her.

Ariel

Our scouting party returns to Yōsai with considerably less numbers than we’d set out with.  That’s what happens when you run into another scouting party from the opposite side, I suppose.

I order the four remaining warriors to go wash up and get their injuries attended to.  Pressing hard to the slash on my arm, I head to the council chamber.  Even if there’s only one person there, at least I can get in a report that they can spread to the rest of the present council before going to get this wound treated myself.

When I enter the chamber, I start, seeing Dylan and Rowan speaking together in low tones.  Rowan pauses, looking at me, “Ari?  You’re back already?”

“Ran into some trouble,” I say, walking over to join them.

Dylan pulls me into a gentle side hug in greeting, but eyes my arm, “You should get that fixed up.”

“I know, I will.”  I smile at him, “But only after report.  We ran into another scouting party.  We couldn’t find out much, but the prince and Tigress seem to be heading into the forest.  I believe they’re making frontal attempts to take back lost ground.  The force they have is certainly large enough to be influential in that area, even if they’re not very mobile in the woods.”

Rowan nods, “I’ll make sure to alert the rest of the council.  When you’re done seeing to that, we can discuss our next move.”

“Sounds good.”  The blond boy quickly moves out of the large room.

Dylan motions to my arm, “Need any help with that?”

I hesitate.  I am capable of cleaning it and bandaging it myself, however it wouldn’t be as good of a job with only one hand.  “…Alright.  Just this once.”

“Sure,” he smirks, “that’s what you said last time too.”

I huff, “If you’re gonna act like that-“

He holds up his hands, “Okay, okay, I’ll stop.”

“Thank you.”

Retreating to our living quarters, I sit down as Dylan retrieves the medical supplies needed.  It’s a clean cut, and should heal without much scarring, which is nice.

As my friend carefully washes the wound, I look at his face.  His brows are drawn together slightly, and his lips are pressed firmly together.  He’s thinking, and worried about something.

“How did your mission go?  Better than mine, I hope?”

He glances up, “Relatively.  We lost some ground, but were able to evacuate a village before the samurai could start plundering or massacring or whatever they decided was appropriate.”

I hum appreciatively, “That’s good.”

“I heard about Tigress.”

I look down as he starts to bandage the cut.  “Yeah.  That’s…that’s something.  We’re not quite sure what to do with that turn of events.  I don’t believe anyone here wants to fight her.  And I doubt that’s just because of her skill set either.”

He chuckles slightly, but looks up at me, “Whatever happens, I’m sure her memories will eventually come back.  Maybe even sooner than we think.  And if they do, I’m fairly certain Saber will wish he hadn’t thought of using her lack of memories against her like that.”

I smile in spite of myself.  Furious would be an understatement.  She’d rip him to shreds, more like.  “Maybe you’re right.”

He finishes off the bandage, “Let’s see if Rowan’s got the council together.”

“Right.”