Week 13 - Fire 1

Even though it was the third week in November now, the air was always warm on school grounds. That was because the school existed inside its own private magical climate, so the temperature always felt like a warm spring day. Ro thought this was excessive and unnecessary but Momo informed her that a lot of the higher level, long term magics were so delicate that the changing seasons would affect them. Ro wondered what kind of magics they would be but Momo didn't choose to elaborate any further. Ro let it go, figuring that she'd know when she got there.

This week marked the start of fire magic again. Alexi took the number one slot. Blaze was once again in second, but Ro was close on his heels at third place. She was working hard and making progress. Angelique was following a little way behind Ro. Brawn, Aerie, and Momo were all behind her but in front of the rest of the class. Ro was disappointed when the bell rang but she headed for combat training anyway.

Ro met Laine and the ever-present Zephyr outside the gate to Laine's garden forest. Laine let Ro in then very grudgingly Zephyr as well. They proceeded to the training clearing in silence. Laine seemed more testy than usual and Zephyr was busy whistling happily as he floated along. Once they reached the clearing, Ro immediately headed for the dummy to begin her accuracy practice. Zephyr started to stretch out as he floated, looking very much like he was going to take a nap.

"Wait." Laine ordered and both Ro and Zephyr looked at him in confusion. "It's time that we begin to teach you how to attack." He said with a small smile. Ro leaped in the air out of joy and ran at him to hug him again. Laine stopped her with a head shake and a significant look. Ro realized immediately that he didn't want her to touch him. She wrongly assumed this was because he found contact with a human distasteful.

The real reason Laine didn't want her to hug him was that Zephyr was watching this exchange with sharp eyes and too much interest. This only reminded Laine of how much of a nuisance Zephyr was being. Of course, he wanted to touch Ro, he planned on marking her as soon as Zephyr would leave them alone. Laine hoped if nothing happened at training Zephyr would lose interest and stop coming. However, Laine's patience was wearing thin and if Zephyr didn't voluntarily stop coming soon, he had every intention of forcing him to stop.

Zephyr flew down.

"Will there be sparring?" He asked eagerly, he was getting bored of just watching the Nug. He hadn't given up on learning her secret yet, though. Instead, he thought if he could touch her, he might find out why he sometimes saw two images when she moved. Hitting her with a sword would count as just that.

"No." Laine told him as if he were stupid. "We will start with chain attacks. Think of the simplest one you know."

"What are chain attacks?" Ro asked wondering how they would help her attack. Laine looked at her kindly, as if she too were slow.

"They are individual attacks that are linked together in a chain to form a continuous movement, like a dance." He answered.

"I've got one!" Zephyr said brightly, snatching the daggers from her hands.

"I've got another question." Ro announced. When she saw both males looking at her expectantly, she went on. "Why is Zephyr picking the chain attacks instead of my tutor?" Zephyr frowned.

"What? You don't want me to?" He looked a little hurt. His shoulders and ears drooped.

"No, it's not that! I was just curious." Ro said looking uncertain. Zephyr burst out laughing.

"I got you good. You should have seen your face. You make the best faces." He chortled out as he flounced to the dummy.

"Zephyr, spent years fighting with two daggers like you do." Laine stated simply.

"Why did he stop?" Ro asked suddenly wondering if there was something wrong with fighting with daggers.

"As his magic progressed, he found it less compatible with his magic style."

"I'm ready to demonstrate!" Zephyr called. Ro and Laine walked over to him. Faster than Ro could breath, the demonstration was over. She had gotten the impression of his body dropping lower and then turning, but that was it.

"Hey Zephyr, maybe do it a little slower, the Nug is only a human." Laine told him.

"Oh right." Zephyr said and repeated his movement. This time Ro saw him slice through the dummy's left brachial artery with his right hand, his left hand was in the guard position. Then his right hand went into the guard position while his left hand slashed the right femoral artery as he dropped to a crouch. After that he stepped out to the left and spun while rising and stabbed the abdominal aorta with his right dagger. Ro thought it looked complicated.

"That looks easy enough." Laine said with approval. "Now you try." Ro took the daggers with shaky hands and wondered how to do this. She stepped up to the dummy and attempted to mimic what Zephyr had done. She fell over instead of stepping out.

"That was good for a first attempt." Zephyr told her. "Try again." Laine looked at him sourly before wandering off to his spot in the shade and laying down to watch.

It took forty-five minutes before Ro was able to do it successfully. After she did it once Zephyr made her do it ten more times correctly. It took a half hour to do it ten times consecutively and then an hour to do it right once on her left side. She was only able to do it consecutively five times in a row on her left side before Laine made her move on to the combination of dodging, charging and blocking.