Rewinding Time (Narry)

Chapter Forty-Four

I have to get up for school in about 4.5 hours but I wanted to update this one last time before school started! Just a fair warning: I'm going to be buried knees deep into my studies once school begins and I'm honestly afraid just thinking about how intense the coursework is going to be this semester. I'm hoping that I can still spend time writing here and there because I really do enjoy it a lot! I hope you all had a lovely summer and thank you, as always, for reading and supporting me!

PS. I started another story recently that may or may not be a guilty pleasure of mine to write. I hope I'm forgiven if I choose to work on that one more often.

⌛ ⌛ ⌛

"NIALL"

All of the blood began to drain from my face as a tree zipped past me; I glanced back at the tree in horror, panicking and flailing my arms about as a strong gust of wind broke my concentration. The Timekeeper shouted something completely inaudible over the loud rustling wind, waving his arms frantically as he tried to catch my attention.

"What?" I screeched, turning my head back in hopes of heightening sense of hearing.

"Watch out!"

It took me a second to register his words, and as I did so, I quickly snapped my head back around, letting out a blood curling scream at the rapidly approaching tree. I fought against the wind and straightened out my arms, holding tightly onto my cloak in hopes that it would somehow catch wind. At the very last second, the cloak puffed up and carried me over the ragged tree. It was just my luck, however, that my foot caught onto a tree branch, sending my body propelling down towards the forest below.

A shrill shriek escaped my lips as I curled inwardly, hugging my body tightly and awaiting the impact to come.

"Niall! What are you doing?!"

My eyes snapped open as I heard the Timekeeper's frantic shouts; the particular way the words were carried hit a cord in my heart. It felt almost as if mum was the one calling after me, worried about my well-being and fearing the future that would inevitably come.

The thought of mum gave me a shot of adrenaline, just enough will to extend my arms out once again and try to save myself from battering up my body. My heart began to beat erratically against my chest and my eyes began to water from the debris in the air as I tried desperately to catch the wind underneath my cloak. But alas, fate was not on my side.

Just as I was about to hit the ground, I tightly squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that the Timekeeper could get to my body quickly enough after landing and heal me before the pain became unbearable.

The bone-shattering impact, however, never came.

A loud curse ripped through the air like a knife as a strong breeze swooped underneath me, breaking my fall. Instead of the excruciating pain that I had expected to receive upon landing, I surprisingly only scrapped a knee and maybe dislocated a shoulder.

After the month or so spent learning how to control and utilize the energy given by the crystal if harnessed properly, I had received such a beating through my apprenticing lessons that a simple dislocation of the shoulder was something I could easily shrug off. After all, the Timekeeper usually healed it for me after a few minutes, depending on whether I succeeded or failed; if I failed an exercise, he would leave my tattered body in its pained condition for up to ten minutes until I "learned my lesson".

I glanced over my shoulder to smile sheepishly at the Timekeeper, ready to express my relief in surviving the lesson successfully. Much to my dismay, he was nowhere to be found. I tilted my head back and shielded my eyes, trying to gaze through the dense roof of the forest, hoping that I could somehow spot him. A faint groan caught my attention; I quickly snapped my head towards my right, in the suspected direction of the source of the sound.