Guardian

act 2: vi. new skills

four months later

"I just don't see why I have to train if I don't have any abilities," Aurora frowns as she watches her sister throw an energy ball at Ally while she levitated from the ground. "I can't do that!"

Austin glares at his oldest and his wife, turning around to call, "Hey, you're pregnant, Ally! Be careful!"

It was the middle of October now. It was getting colder, so Austin and Ally were trying to be on their best with juggling their kids, the village, and Ally's raging hormones.

She'd be four months pregnant in two weeks and Ally's already bursting.

"I know what I'm doing! Mind yours!" His wife calls back, leaving him dumbfounded.

He turns back to his middle child and helps her tighten her jacket. "Well, I don't know what else you can do, honey. You need to know how to protect yourself."

Aurora continues to frown, tears building up in her eyes. "I'm not anything like mom or Amelia," she sniffs, wiping her eyes as tears fell. "Even Aria can do more stuff than me."

They look over to see the youngest of their family, crowded by a few other kids as she made the dead leaves come back to life. Ally wasn't sure what kind of abilities Aria had because they always just sort of popped up. One day they were sure she didn't have any powers, the next she was climbing on walls, creating ice, and making plants grow.

Austin sighs. He knew how his daughter felt. He always felt out of place in the village since he was like the 12th person in the village with no powers. All he ever had to his name was a bow and arrow—

Then it hits him.

Austin grins at Aurora, nudging. "Okay, you might not fit in training here, but... what if I taught out how to use a bow and arrow?"

Aurora's eyes brighten and her mouth gapes wide with excitement. "Really?! Yeah!"

Austin grins. No one hadn't been that excited to learn about bows and arrows since him. He looks back at his wife and daughter sparring and calls, "Aurora and I are gonna go train somewhere else!"

"Okay! Good luck!"

They go back to the empire to grab some bows and some safe arrows before Austin takes Aurora to the opening of the forest. He takes in the air as they reach the destination. He hadn't been here in a while, since he was mostly watching over the girls and getting things ready for the winter.

He looks back at his daughter with a smirk. "Okay, first things first, you gotta get strong enough to pull back a bowstring."

Austin helps her position her arm to pull back the bow. Aurora's face scrunched up as she tries to pull it back, but struggles. "Why is it so hard?"

"You just gotta get stronger," Austin says with a shrug as he grabs his own bow. Austin demonstrates as he pulls back the bowstring with no effort. "You're a Miracle Warlock, so you heal fast. You can try pushing yourself to pull the string back, but stop if it hurts too much."

Aurora nods and she positions the bow once more. She pulls it back a little further but hisses as her fingers burn. The pre-teen pulls her finger back and watches it heal almost completely. She grins. "Cool!"

They stay there until it's nearly night. Austin hears a wolf's howl and decides it's time to go back before things get dangerous. "C'mon, 'Rora. It's almost dark out and we gotta wash up before dinner."

Aurora hadn't gotten to pull the string all the way back, but she was halfway there. She looks back at her father with a grin. "I almost got it, dad!"